Rating: 
Summary: It could have been so much better...
Review: This covers the first two parts of Mr. Vornholt's Genesis Wave trilogy. I'm not going to talk about the implausibility of waves moving at greater than lightspeed. I'm not going to talk about the number of decks on the Defiant or the location of its bridge or its crew complement. But am I the only one who noticed that Maltz's nightmarish experiences with the Genesis Wave could NEVER have happened?? According to "The Wrath of Khan", Khan detonated the only Genesis device in existence, creating the Genesis planet but leaving no working models behind. So Maltz, who didn't come along until "The Search for Spock", could not possibly have had personal experience of the Genesis Effect--he saw only the report the Klingon spy Valkris transmitted to Kruge (and which showed the Effect as red, not green, by the way), and the Genesis planet's self-destruction, which involved nothing like the original wave.This, of course, makes Maltz's blood quest to destroy the creator of the Genesis Device, Dr. Carol Marcus, a plot contrivance of global proportions. That massive quibble out of the way, I found much of both books dragged--and considering how fast the Wave was moving through space, that was an unpleasant surprise. Also, the events at which Book One ended, the "To be continued" point chosen, seemed more awkward than suspensful. It truly felt like a single good story padded to make two books. And while most of the non-TNG characters were believable and well-rounded, Picard and Co. came off much less so. (For example, unlucky-at-love Geordi is getting a little old....) I've enjoyed most of Mr. Vornholt's other TNG novels...I wish these two could have earned the same comment. If I decide to buy Book Three, it'll be the $7 paperback off a used-book rack, not the triple-that-price hardcover.
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