From: ira2p@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Iain Robert Asplin)
Subject: Review of "Imzadi" by Peter David - numerous spoilers!
Organization: University of Virginia
Distribution: rec.arts.startrek.current,. University of Betazed
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 22:51:58 GMT



First, let me recommend to everyone that Peter David's book definitely
is worth reading, in fact it is the only TNG hardback I own to date....

That's for anyone who hasn't read it, who should stop right now.
Anyone else who has (including Peter himself), feel free to venture past
the spoiler protects.....
SPOILERS!


Increasing computer "Traction"......



I think I'll divide this review into sections, like so:

Plot, Characterizations, Style and Dialog, Originality, Continuity


PLOT:

Mr. David takes a nice approach to a fairly straightforward temporal
puzzle; he drops us in on the altered timeline rather than the "proper"
one, and moves us backward and forward along the line very neatly
and, to me anyway, very clearly. 
Layered within the temporal puzzle, and where a reader feels he/she has
spent the most time (or I did anyway), is the background detail of
the realtionship between Riker and Troi back when he was stationed
for a short time on Betazed while she was studying psychology there.
This is the most straightforward section and goes along nice and smoothly.
grade: A

CHARACTERIZATIONS:
By far, the most time spent on any one character is Riker, and perhaps
this is a fault.  Whilst Riker's character is one I feel definitely
needs some fleshing out, I feel the same way of Troi, and I think she
should have been given a little more time and attention than she was
given, more of a chance to see Troi through Troi's eyes rather than
through the lustful gaze of Riker all the time.  Thus when Deanna
eventually explodes at her mother all the pent-up frustrations she's
had over the years, the explosion seems to come from too little fuel
in the form of set-up beforehand.
On the other hand, the Riker scenes are done *very* nicely.  
His frustration/confusion over Troi's non-succumbing to him and her
"lifting" him up to a higher intellectual plane are done with just the
right touches.  The scene of the two of them hanging on the branch
after their muscles have worn out (or the one of them anyway) is
particularly memorable, especially with the images Riker used to banish
thoughts of cramps :).  That may sound a bit hypocritical of me right
there, so let me clarify that I am not saying it was wrong to have
Riker have scenes like that, it's just I wish a little time could have
been taken from all that and given to Deanna.
grade: B

STYLE AND DIALOG:
Peter David's style is by far the most interesting to read of any of the
regular TNG Pocket Book writers.  "Traction" is the quote everyone seems
to be quoting, so let me try and find a few others:
"The sun set the rest of the way without them."
(You know, it is extremely difficult to refind quotes you loved earlier
when you stupidly forgot you were going to review this thing for the Net?)
Well, anyway, there are some other extremely nice lines.
grade: A

ORIGINALITY
Here's where the shoe drops.
Riker coming to Troi's rescue, and then they fall in love.
A villain who doesn't ever want to be captured.
A despondent old man remembering the glory days of his youth.
All these things struck chords of cliche within me, and thus lessened
my enjoyment.  Another irker: pulling a Chameloid out of a pocket
seems too easy a plot device.
Still, despite some of the non-original situations (also the use of
the Guardian), the knotting together of them is sufficiently engaging
enough to compensate a little, and of course fresh dialog will always
help.  But those are graded seperately aren't they?
grade: C-  (that's for the time puzzle, and even that wasn't the freshest
	thing ever)

CONTINUITY
It must be maddening to try and tie together little ravels from who-
knows-how-many seperate episodes scattered over five years of a series.
Considering the task at hand, I think Peter's done very well, but there
still are a couple of mistakes:
For instance, according to the Technical Manual, Enterprise-D is
supposed to have a lifespan of 100 years.  It's replacement twice over
seems too fast for me.  (Unless Peter thinks both were destroyed of
course, he doesn't say, and of course, the Tech Manual isn't *completely*
canon)
Another little forgotten bit, the flower Troi and Riker try and find
in "Menage a Troi."  No mention of its original planting by them.
Another little thing, if Data could me rendered inoperative by the cutting
of one link between his brain and body in "The Game," then how could
Data's head operate his body by remote control from a distance?
The Data one is the one that bothers me most, but it wasn't essential
to the plot other than for mostly a joke, so I can overlook it.
grade: B
Just because I've been pointing these out doesn't mean I think they matter
all that much.

Overall grade: 
B

Or in other words,  a good read.
I place this about in the middle of the David pack, and even being on the
botom of that sets it high above the other authors.

What do you lot think?