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The Romulan Prize (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 26)

Average customer rating:

Excellent action, serious logical flaw in the plot
The Romulan Prize: Tessie's review
Excellent, excellent story.
Great potential to be memorable, but...
A solid action story and a mental chess game

The Romulan Prize (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 26)
Simon Hawke
Manufacturer: Star Trek
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0671797468

Book Description

Hermeticus 2 -- a planet so shrouded in secrecy that few in the Federation even know of its existence. When a Romulan spy learns of the world, it becomes the centerpiece of a far-reaching Romulan plan.

On routine patrol neat the border of the Neutral Zone, the Starship Enterprise™ discovers an advanced Romulan Warbird prototype drifing lifeless in space. Investigating the vessel, Captain Picard isa dreawn into a plaot that threatens the very foundation of the Federation. Now, with time running out, Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise must stop the Romulans before the deadly secret of Hermeticus 2 overwhelms them all.

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Hermeticus 2--a planet so shrouded in secrecy that few in the Federation even know of its existence. When a Romulan spy learns of the world, a Romulan plan is hatched to claim the planet as their own. On patrol near the Neutral Zone, the U.S.S. Enterprise discovers an advanced Romulan warbird prototype adrift. Soon Captain Picard is drawn into a plot that threatens the very foundation of the Federation.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent action, serious logical flaw in the plot.......2006-11-19

In this tale, the Romulans have developed a plan to seize the Enterprise and engage in actions that would lead to a war against the Federation. Valak is a Romulan commander who is also a scholar, where his specialty is human behavior. The Romulans have created a new class of warship, far more powerful than anything they have had before. The Praetor has selected Valak to command the first of the new class of warships in a mission to not only capture the Enterprise but also investigate a planet in the neutral zone. According to Federation records, the planet is under strict quarantine; no Federation ship is to visit it.
For reasons unknown to both the Romulans and Picard, a long-lost Federation ship is in orbit about the planet. The Romulans succeed in their daring plan to capture the Enterprise and both ships go to the planet. The situation does not conform to the initial appearance, as the planet is in fact a hollow sphere with living quarters inside. A very advanced civilization constructed it as a space ark, but there seems to be no one living on it. That turns out to be false, the original tenants and survivors from the Federation ship live in the ark.
The Enterprise crew plot to retake their vessel while simultaneously trying to learn all they can about the ark. Since there are landing parties in the ark and Federation people on both ships, the action moves from location to location. The story ends with the original inhabitants of the ark, who are shape shifters, restoring control of the Enterprise to Picard, keeping the Romulans prisoners, moving the ark out of the neutral zone and embarking on a plan to infiltrate the Romulan Empire. The infiltrators will try to influence it away from their warlike ways. It is a somewhat unsatisfying ending, because there is one severe logical flaw.
When the original Federation ship arrived at the ark, the inhabitants would have learned all about the Federation and the fact that the ark is in the neutral zone. A quarantine imposed by the Federation would keep Federation ships away, but it would be only a matter of time before the Romulans investigated. Once they realized that a Federation ship was in orbit about the planet, the Romulans would consider it an act of war and react accordingly. Since the ark is capable of moving at warp drive, it would have been a simple matter for them to move it out of the neutral zone to a more remote location and prevent the possible outbreak of an interstellar war. Therefore, while I enjoyed the action, the ending was unsatisfactory.

The Romulan Prize: Tessie's review.......2006-03-24

The Romulan Prize in my opinion was a very good novel, One that I will certainly read again and again, because each time you are given new details that you didn't know before.

I bought the book 2 yrs ago, and have been enjoying it ever since. I have to agree that the way he (Simon Hawke) portrays the Romulans, is how we know them in the series, but he does it without creating unnecessary conflict.

Excellent, excellent story........2004-09-23

This is one of the best-written Star Trek stories I've read, and I've read a lot. It is tightly plotted, with excellent characterizations both of the established characters and those unique to the story, superb pacing, and none of the sloppy proofreading so common to mass-market paperbacks in general and science fiction in particular. As near as I can tell, this is the first Star Trek story written by this author; I hope he's written (and/or will write) many more.

Great potential to be memorable, but..........2004-07-07

I just finished reading this book today, and I must say that the potential was great, but very minor problems has kept it away from the shining light of epic greatness. The flaws were a major time line flaw (Ro Laren left the Enterprise before Worf was promoted to Lt. Cmdr., this cost the book 1 star in my rating, ignore the past and expect to repeat the mistakes from it.), and the fact that certain (not many, minimal at worst) parts wore on to simple boredom hampered the books interesting story (which cost the book another star). The overall story is amazing by itself, the sequence of events were executed perfectly, and the story writing was actually above average. I enjoyed the entire concept of the story as well as an interesting look on how the Romulans chose their top ranking officers for missions. The ending was also amazing (which I am not going to spoil, ethics people, ethics) that it has actually prevented the book from earning a 2 star. Overall, I recommend approaching this book like fans of the current Enterprise (which I don't like) show which is to ignore the timeline just a bit and enjoying for what it is.

A solid action story and a mental chess game.......2004-02-02

The premise for this book is very interesting: the Romulans capture the Enterprise and take it to explore what they believe is a secret Federation outpost in the Neutral Zone. Picard and his crew must outwit their captors and deal with a first contact in the Neutral Zone. The overall writing quality is rather mixed. The descriptions are excellent. The fight between Riker and the Romulan first officer was very clear, very vivid, and had lots of interesting commentary on various martial arts styles. The non-main characters tend to be rather generic but vividly described. The two balance each other out for a generally good result. The Romulan captain, on the other hand, has more background and more distinctiveness. He and Picard make a good pair of protagonists. Finally, the book also gives us a good look at how the Romulan military and aristocracy behave and interact with each other. Overall this is a solid action story, with a lot of interesting subplots and details. I enjoy reading it.

Star Trek the Next Generation, the Romulan Prize (#26)

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Star Trek the Next Generation, the Romulan Prize (#26)
Simon. Hawke
Manufacturer: Pocket Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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