The Valiant (Star Trek The Next Generation)

 (25 customer reviews)

The Valiant tells the story of Picard taking command of the Stargazer. The story begins with the crew of the Valiant from the original series Star Trek episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and fills in information on what happened to that crew. Jump 300 years ahead to the Trek era just preceeding The Next Generation. Decendants of survivors of the Valiant appear to warn the Federation of a potential enemy on the other side of the galatic barrier. The Stargazer and crew are dispatched to see if the threat is real. The ship is attacked and the captain is killed and first officer incapacitated and Picard has to take over. Picard has to deal with a mutiny, a damaged ship, gain trust of the crew he now commands, deal with a Kelvin, and the new threat to the Federation. If you like space battles and action there is plenty in this book. We see characters that first appeared in Friedmans Star Trek book Reunion and their character development in this book helps...Read more

Good book all round, the story of how Picard took command of the Stargazer when the Captain was killed, and the first officer was incapacitated. This is not the standard TNG book, the only character we know is Picard, everyone else is fiction. The crew of the Stargazer were protrayed well, as were the crew on the Valiant. The plot is good, but, like another reviewer, the enemy troubled me slightly. They were not gone into in any detail, they were simply the Nuyyad, we never even saw a member of the species, only a slight physical description from one of the characters. Another thing is the planet Magnia. It is located outside the Galactic Barrier, I thought that was impossible? Wasn't there a great void between galaxies containing absolutely nothing, how can there be a planet? But, there's very little else to complain about. The story was solid, as were the characters. A good read.

...This tale has its moments, and maybe a certain Horatio Hornblower quality of which Roddenberry would approve -- the story of a young officer thrust into a command situation and having to prove his mettle. But the execution is poor. The writing is flat and totally passionless. The scene where Picard's captain and mentor is killed before his eyes contains no trace of emotion.The story also lacks imagination -- particularly the early part, recounting the Valiant's doomed mission. This ship was supposedly launched just four years after Cochrane's warp prototype. But Friedman depicts it exactly like a 23rd- or 24th-century Starfleet vessel, with a crew of eighty, at least seven decks, lifts, deflectors, ops officers, an electroplasma system, the works. The only concessions to the earlier era are the weapons. There's no way such an early ship could be that big, elaborate and modern. Friedman didn't even try to imagine a credible early-warp expedition or a more primitive...Read more