Product Description

THE LAST STAND

In the middle of a routine mapping mission, Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise ™ encounter a culture just on the edge of developing warp drive technology. When they survey the planet, they are startled by the sudden approach of thousands of spacecraft from an aggressive alien race bent on destroying this emerging culture. Now Picard has only days to resolve a conflict that has been going on for millennia. If he fails, billions will die, yet if he succeeds, he will unleash a powerful new threat to the Federation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Good Star Trek TNG entertainment
"The Last Stand" reads just like a Star Trek TNG episode, and that is praise, not criticism, because I truly liked Star Trek, The Next Generation.

This is the story whereby the Enterprise stumbles upon two pre-warp civilizations that are about to engage in interplanetary war.Most of the basic premises of the plot were reasonable with (in my opinion) one glaring exception -- I just couldn't quite buy the Krann and their whole multi-billion person space fleet concept.Also, it seemed unlikely that the Krann would develop a cloaking device of the sophistication set forth in the story.But once one suspends one's critical facilities on these points the novel becomes a real pleasure, because it is well-written and an enjoyable read.

Star Trek TNG fans will enjoy this novel.I did.

a 5 but for one eensy teensy thing...
aw hell a 5!

a really enjoyable read! I read it in a day and it was pretty consistent almost to the end and then , you know, that discrepancy that just gets you .. just a little continuity error...


***spoiler alert****
"...all of our people have been brought up believing we'd destroyed the world of the Karnn...." (when K. swoons upon hearing that the virus that destroyed the entire Karnn planet was natural not created.)
except it was earlier established that it was a *surprise* that the Karnn world had been found destroyed, "... No one was there? No one at all? Was their world destroyed like ours?"
They had been taught for ages that they had 'sinned' and enslaved the Karnn, and the Karnn had retaliated and the Lethanta had escaped, but not that they had 'destroyed' the Karnn world. I suppose you could argue they'd destroyed it metaphorically, but that'd be mighty weak to me. One presumed K. swooned because they'd presumed themselves responsible for the virus- upon finding out it existed with Picard's reply that the world had been destroyed by a virus. Not that they'd been bought up that way.

Excellent story if a bit lacking in action.
Well-thought out, well-written, well-paced story for those who like a plot with high drama but not too much action; there's a lot of diplomatic manuevering and political chess-games here, and the stakes are the lives of roughly 5 billion or so people, so the drama is certainly not lacking. Also, the situation is set up quite well, with the aggressors having every reason for being hostile and even the "victims" admitting it, so it avoids falling into the stereotypical "aggressors are evil, aggressees innocent" pattern, and the ending was much more believable than it might have been, as well. On the other hand, I'm fairly thoroughly convinced that the Enterprise's actions here CLEARLY disobey the prime directive, which Picard has always been much stricter about obeying than certain other Captains of the Enterprise were, so I'm more than a bit dubious that he'd have behaved that way, even to stop a bloody and completely unnecessary war, and certainly not without a lot more soul-searching than we saw.

One of the best Star Trek: TNG novels
This is without question one of the better Star Trek: TNG novels. The Enterprise is on a routine survey mission when they discover a planet where thousands of years ago the surface was utterly destroyed by nuclear weapons. Only now have primitive forms of life begun to make a comeback. Another planet is teeming with life and there is evidence that a large albeit primitive civilization has once existed there. However, there is no intelligent life and it appears that it was wiped out by some form of biological weapon. They detect a transient warp signature emanating from a distant star so they proceed to investigate.
When they arrive, they encounter the Lethanta, a civilization that has been awaiting the arrival of their enemies the Krann. Thousands of years before, the Lethanta had conquered and enslaved the Krann, until they finally revolted and the war unleashed the cycle of devastation that the Enterprise encountered. The rulers of Lethanta have prepared for the attack by the Krann, who travel in large world-like ships, taking decades to go from star system to star system. The Krann are now only a few days away, so the Lethanta welcome the assistance of Picard and the Enterprise.
When Picard makes it clear that the Prime Directive prevents him from taking sides, the leader of the Krann tries to manipulate the Enterprise crew. He invites them to his ship and even allows Ryker and Troi to explore it in Krann disguise. This is all to hide his attempt to kill the people on the Enterprise by infecting them with a deadly virus. That plan fails and when the war begins, the Lethanta launch Blue Ultimate, where they will cause their sun to go nova and destroy both sides in the conflict. Picard takes advantage of a loophole in the Prime Directive and prevents the total destruction. At the end, he manages to bring a shaky peace to the area, although both sides hedge their bets.
What makes the book interesting is the interplay between the Enterprise crew and the leadership of the Krann. Picard knows that the Krann are spying and allowing the Enterprise crew to see things and the Krann know that he knows. In many ways it is a spy thriller subplot and both know that the other sides knows what they know, yet has to determine why they don't care that they know it

STNG #37 The Last Stand - A great numbered novel!
Of the three Star Trek titles that this outstanding author has written, unfortunately "The Last Stand" is the only of his I've read so far and something that I should correct soon.I found his writing style to be very fast paced and his characterizations to be quite accurate.Where so many Star Trek authors have attempted to go and failed, Brad Ferguson deftly ingrained a healthy amount of mystery, suspense, intrigue and humor into this novel which begs the question as to why this was his last novel in the Star Trek universe.

Although the cover art is quite the standard bland imagery that was normal for the time in which this novel was published, the caricatures are accurate.

The premise:

While on a routine mapping mission, Captain Picard and crew discover a culture that is just on the verge of developing warp technology, which piques everybody's interest.Just as they begin to survey the planet and its culture, an armada approaches the planet, bent on destroying this burgeoning race.With limited time, Captain Picard must resolve this conflict which has gone on for a millennia or face the loss of billions on the planet, yet at the same time, should he succeed he may unleash a new threat upon the Federation.

I highly recommend this numbered Star Trek The Next Generation novel as it is extraordinarily well written and a true pleasure to read.{ssintrepid} ... Read more

Product Description
Cadet Geordi La Forge is seeing things--at least that's what his crew thinks until another cadet sees the same ghostly image. The ghost is the former captain of their spaceship, and he has an important message. But time is running out as the haunted spaceship nears an asteroid belt. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A dissapointing book full of stereotypical characters
All in all I enjoy reading these novellas set in the characters' past.

They have some problems, still. First of all, they are way too short.

Secondly: the characters are teenagers. I am 15 myself and that's probably the biggest reason I don't like young characters (in anything).

Why?

Because they act about 3 to 5 years younger than they should (in Wesley Crusher's case: about 10).

The starfleet academy books, in general, have been fairly believable in this field, although the characters still sometimes feel a bit immature.

This particular book uses characters that behave, in my opinion, like people behave when they are about 12 years old. Plus they are complete stereotypes.

For example the teamleader is a young male human who has joined starfleet because of his father. (Has anyone ever joined becase of his/her mother, brother, sister cousin...?)

I bought this book in hopes of a view to the character of Geordi LaForge, but to my dissapointment he was characterized poorly, and didn't even feel like the main character.

The plot was weak, the storytelling predictable... It's barely readable, but dont waist your money on it.

the haunted spaceship
I thought is was a little bit dissapointing considering what the plot was in general but for the most part it was good and I really enjoyed thetwists that it took in a few places.

oh, ICK!
Maybe I'm just too old for this series, but this one seemed worse than normal.The whole ghost idea was pretty dumb in the first place.Don't buy unless you're trying to get all the books like I am. ... Read more

Product Description

A Flag Full Of Stars

It has been eighteen months since the Starship Enterprise completed her historic five-year mission and her legendary crew has seperated, taking new assignments that span the galaxy.

On Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk has married and started a new life as the Chief of Starfleet operations where he is overseeing the refit of his beloved ship, now commanded by a new Captain -- Willard Decker. Kirk's only tie to his former crewmates is his Chief of Staff, a young Lieutenant Commander named Kevin Riley.

But Kirk's new, quiet life changes when he meets a scientist named G'dath who is on the brink of perhaps the greatest scientific discovery in a century. G'dath's invention could mean tremendous strides in Federation technology, or -- in the wrong hands -- the subjugation of countless worlds.

When Klingon agents capture this new technology, Admiral Kirk and Lt. Commander Riley are all that stands between peace and devastation for the entire Federation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A lot of fun but the ending disappoints
This is a fun novel dealing with Captain Kirk and others after the Five Year Mission is completed.The Enterprise is in spacedock being refitted, Kirk is now an Admiral, in charge of the Enterprise refit.But that is not what the story is really about.

The most memorable character in this novel is a Klingon scientist, working in the Federation on an exchange program, a chap by the name of G'Dath.G'Dath has invented something with great military potential, the Klingons are suspicious of Dr. G'Dath, and G'Dath himself has somewhat divided loyalties--he is a Klingon, but he likes living on Earth in a free society, even if Earthmen, not without reason (given the Klingon Empire's nature at this point in time) are prejudiced against Dr. G'Dath.

The conflict in the story is interesting, as is Dr. G'Dath.This novel gives us an interesting look at 23d Century society on Earth in the Star Trek universe.The ending was a cop-out in my opinion. (VERY MINOR SPOILER--CAUTION)) because science, once discovered, cannot be suppressed.More would be telling.

Second book of the Lost Years saga
Eighteen months after the end of the Enterprise's five year mission, and following the events of THE LOST YEARS this novel finds Kirk still at his temporary assignment in the Admiralty, a position that he is beginning to suspect is not so temporary after all.Kirk has married Lori Ciana (see THE LOST YEARS and STAR TREK:TMP) who is also coming to realize that she has been manipulated by Admiral Nogura.The couple's dissatisfaction with their professional lives has taken a toll on their personal lives as well.Kevin Riley is still working as Kirk's assistant but is also having his own problems, both professional and personal.Across the continent a Klingon scientist is dealing with his own problems.G'Dath is held in suspicion by Klingon society, he is not a member of the warrior caste and is interested in scientific research for the sake of knowledge itself, not as a means to wage war more efficiently.He has come to Earth in order to pursue his work only to discover that human society is also suspicious of a peaceful Klingon.The only position he could find was teaching an advanced course for high school students.The novel switches between these different storylines until they all merge for an exciting climax.

For serious Star Trek fans, paticularly those of the original series, this is a must read.The LOST YEARS Saga answers the questions raised by the first motion picture, A FLAG FULL OF STARS focuses on Kirk's activities during this period to the near exclusion of the rest of the crew.It is a well written novel that moves the saga forward.For Kirk fans it is a treat but Spock, McCoy and other fans will be disappointed.Those who are only casual fans of the series should probaby just give this one a miss.

Mixed emotions.
This book is well-written, with characters handled well and a plot that moves well, with a writing style that is very enjoyable to read and few sloppy errors.

Unfortuantely, there are two major problems with it: one is that I find the basic concept to the "Lost Years" stories somewhat dubious; if, during the time between the end of the five-year mission and the first movie, there continued to be major, exciting things going on involving Kirk, it seems doubtful that he would have become the bored and boring paper-pusher who was so desperate to get out of his admiral's office and back into a captain's chair. It seems far more likely that nothing of note happened during those years, which is WHY he became so dissatisfied. So for that reason, among others, I find that I have difficulty accepting the story here (and in its predecessor, "The Lost Years") to be canonical.

Secondly, there is a related issue: it may satisfy the curious to read stories told about the "Lost Years", and it has some of the same morbid fascination as watching a train wreck, but it really isn't my idea of entertainment to read stories about the years during which Kirk became a boring and bored pencil-pusher. It is enough to know that this HAPPENED, and that that explains why he would actively pursue a demotion in order to regain command of a ship later. This was an effective cautionary tale about the dangers of the Peter Principle, accepting promotions to your level of incompetence, but it seems to me it worked better as an off-screen, behind-the-scenes story. It loses some of its effect when examined closely.

This book is interesting
Far above your typical Star Trek novel.In this book Kirk is an admiral and as usual has to solve an intergalactic conspricy with nothing(except the resources of an entire galaxy).I remember reading this book and the reasonwhy I rmember it is because of the unique inovation of putting impluse engines on the (by then) old space shuttles.A must for any Star Trek fan.

The kitten rocked, the children didn't
This book is a part of The Lost Years-saga, and although puplished as the third of the four books, chronologically it takes place after the thirdly puplished "Traitor Winds".

"A Flag Full of Stars" doesn't live up to the expectations of "Traitor Winds", wich is, without a doubt, the best of the four.

"A Flag Full of Stars" comes second, though, due to the boringness and not-beliavability of "The Lost Years", and the simple meaninglessness of "Recovery".

The Biggest strenght of "A Flagg Full of Stars" is that it's an unconventional Trek novel.

Taking place mostly on Earth, the novel centeres around original, and more-or-less succesfully constructed characters. We have a story of a Klingon scientist, living on Earth, teaching, and a tale of one of his students.

As so often, the youngsters act at least five years younger than expected, are shallow and underestimated as characters.

The Klingon scientist on the other hand is written extremely well, but even he can't measure up to his pet kitten, who is clearly the best character of the entire spectrum of the characters introduced in this novel.

The setting is exellent, the writing good, characterization decent, but the plot leaves something to be desired for.

It's bases are ridiculously devoid of credibility, introducing a machine that can create energy out of nothing. And most ludicrous is the fact that it's created not in some top secret research lab, but at the inventors home, vithout the inventor even knowing what's being created. Whatever happened to the laws of physics and common sence?

All in all the kitten, the writing, and the use of good characters elevate this book into a decent one, that might have been exellent, if it had had at least a slightly intelligent plot. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Light-hearted and fun, for an apocalyptic book...
I read this book in grade school and decided to pick it up again from Amazon. It's a fun read, but doesn't develop any of the characters much beyond 2 dimensions (unless you count their alternate universe doppelgangers).

The story itself is about an Upstate New York town in the decades following a nuclear war - a war that broke out in the 60's. The townspeople begin having dreams in which they appear to be living in a future world (one with computers, fast food and everything else we're familiar with here in reality) that is on the brink of their own nuclear war. Slowly, one reality begins to merge into the other...

Fun concept, but it doesn't really get moving until you're in the last 20 pages of the book. The rest of the book tries to draw out the characters, of which there are too many to do any one character well. The result is a lot of useless information - not to mention several HUGE dead-ends. The author builds up about 3 very interesting story lines, follows them for a few chapters, and then never mentions them again.

I might recommend this book to an adolescent boy growing up in the Cold War. But I don't think there's much to be gained from this book unless you're just trying to compare apocalyptic books. In that case, the alternate-reality storyline is mildly fascinating.

Great Alternate Universe Story
I really enjoyed reading this story of the adventures of the inhabitants of a small mountain town in New York State after World War III was fought in 1962. One of the best Alternate Universe/History stories around. ... Read more

Product Description
Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Games Most Wanted is the latest title in the popular 'Most Wanted' series from friends of ED. This book presents the definitive selection of game design techniques using the latest version of Macromedia Flash - now the industry standard for creating multimedia applications, used by over one million professionals.

Each chapter covers a distinct area of online gaming, describing the design and development of a finished Flash game. The book delivers as many complete example games as possible and is packed full of the most wanted tips, tricks, and techniques to demonstrate exactly how to produce exciting and interactive games. This is an inspiring sample of all the very best techniques that professional Flash game designers are using today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Very disappointing!
Honestly this book is a steer clear. Sure it has some examples that are usefull but the explanation of the code is horrible. For someone like myself who has experience in Java, C++, PHP, VB.NET, HTML and more i found this book very difficult to follow and understand.

I have since got FlashMX game design Demystified by Jobe Makar and would have to say 5 stars for that book. That explains everything properly and even teaches you the basics in mathematics and physics which was a good brush up for myself. I also like his use of OO programming so that code is resuable and he also goes lightly into using xml for building objects such as levels.

Nice physical effects
As a physicist, I immediately turned to the parts that incorporate physics. Like the friction of a billiard ball on a pool table. I grew up on Pong, and the rich texturing here is so amazingly removed from that! The discussions on how to collide two balls may not be fully correct to someone who had to deal with impact parameters in classical and quantum mechanics. But it suffices well in the book's simulations.

Another chapter deals with using gravity, and will be useful to some of you. Takes the mystery out of incorporating at least a simple gravity in your games. Maybe it is nothing profound, but the results are very slick. And achieved with relatively little source code, which is thoroughly explained in the narrative.

The level of detail of the physical simulations here does not approach that of some games by Activision and Electronic Arts, of course. But those are games developed with multimillion dollar budgets and teams of programmers. This book is suitable for you to develop a game by yourself. ... Read more

Product Description
The authors introduce transition programs for students with moderate and severe disabilities from school to community life. Taking the position that the most effective transition programs are those that cumulatively build on the capacity of students for employment, community living, and citizenship, the authors address the full range of curricular and instructional issues that face professionals working in middle school, high school, and post-high school programs. ... Read more

Product Description
Massive computer malfunctions are plaguing the Enterprise™ when Kirk suddenly receives a shocking message from Star Fleet Command: Centaurus has been bombed and annihilated; thousands are dead. Give whatever help you can. Centaurus is a beautiful, peaceful planet, home to many humans -- including McCoy's daughter Joanna.

The crew risks beaming down to investigate. But Kirk is thrown into a deadly struggle between violent enemy terrorists and vengeful Centaurians. Now Lt. Uhura, left alone in command, must jeopardize the cripple Enterprise™ to save Centaurus, Kirk -- and Joanna McCoy! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

I really wanted to like this one...
Reading this was like watching ST V for the first time: so much potential wasted by a gung-ho author who doesn't treat serious subjects seriously. As a veteran disaster worker, I was hoping he would treat it realistically, but it fell short. I liked M'Benga's distress at the scope of the damage, and the informal leadership that springs up among the citizens. I disliked Kirk's silly singleminded focus on the dithering government, when he should have stepped up to lead the response effort. I was shocked by the lack of reaction by ANY character to the wanton destruction of medical ships.

It has its moments. The author takes a stab at the first meeting of Kirk and McCoy, but compared to the characters from the episodes, these men were too . . . manly? Not friendly or warm, not personable. Paper cutouts, like another reviewer said. I can't put my finger on it, but it just felt "off". And if Kirk had a private retreat cabin on Centaurus, I think it would have come up before in the show. Give me a break.

Worst of all, Ferguson contrives that bit of personal history and completely misses his chance to develop the canon, but unexplored, role of Joanna McCoy. After a lot of buildup about her being in danger, we never see into McCoy's head or hers at all. She's been hinted at in a lot of novels, almost portrayed in the series a couple of times, but never explored. Instead, we follow Kirk on the trail of a laughable villain, causing me to skim the last thirty pages.

End of rant. I really wanted this one to be good. Oh, well.

A pleasant enough read but at times it was just 'off'
The premise of the book is that the colony Centaurus is bombed by a terrorist group and approximately 1 million victims die. The planetary government is in a shambles and the Enterprise is dispatched to aid in whatever way possible. However, Enterprise is having a series of computer failures and is not up to full capacity so things get tricky for Kirk and the crew.

Ferguson has written an adequate Star Trek novel - his main characters are written very solidly, but his supporting characters are rather like cardboard cutouts. The women weep and the men clench their teeth and pound their fists in anger at the news of the terrorist attack.

Having the benefit of hindsight in regards to the 9/11 attacks, I found the behavior of many of the characters to have been inplausible at best, including doctors taking time away from the thousands of refugee patients to tour the Enterprise and especially the Mardi Gras-type partying that was going on in the new capitol city just a few days after a million people were killed in the planet's old capitol city. Remembering the somber mood of the country after 9/11 that went on for weeks with only a few thousand deaths, I found it to have been a jarring, hard to believe part of the story.

The first half of the story was really much, much better than the contrived second half. It is the first half that pulls it up to the third star and makes this a book that I recommend, albeit weakly.

Mediocre.
This is neither an especially bad Star Trek novel, nor an especially good one. The characters were handled, for the most part, with a deft touch, and the main plot was interesting enough, if not spectacular. But unfortunately, the author set up a situation that would have been too easily solved if the Enterprise were working properly, so he felt the need to fall back on the trite old standby "the Enterprise is malfunctioning, but needs to complete a difficult and dangerous mission anyway" routine, a badly overused plot device. Further, his eventual explanation of what caused the malfunction was so comletely implausible as to challenge the abilities of even the most forgiving fans of the unlikely to suspend disbelief. Further, he flubs rather badly in one of his attempts to reference original television episodes as history for the story; at one point, Kirk is reminiscing about the events in the episode "The Galileo Seven", and "remembers" that only some of Scotty's best transporter work saved the crew of the shuttle. Only problem is, Scotty was one of those on the shuttle being beamed to safety. A trivial point, I know, but if you're going to refer back to the show in the first place, you should be careful to do it ACCURATELY.

Code: Wildfire
The crew of the enterprise is really challenged in this adventure.First they get up only to find that the Enterprise is got something wrong, then they get a message that something really bad has happened.

How bad, really bad.This is another book that shows what humans can really do when push comes to shove.Even Spock is impressed.All the while try to help save more then one life.If not, many more will die without knowing what happened.

Even the Enterprise comes to the rescue when the Captian needs here the most.

Kirk & McCoy save McCoy's daughter.
One of the early "Kirk must save the planet" novels, with Mccaoy's daughter thrown in for good measure.

Medium quality Star Trek novel.
"A Science Fiction Book Club Alternate Selection" ... Read more

Product Description
Word count: 927. ... Read more