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On stardate 500146.3, the USS
Enterprise is still being hunted by the
Calamarain (see Q-Space and Q-Zone)
and has hidden inside the galactic barrier. Lem Faal and his son, both
full Betazoid, are found unconscious and brought to sickbay. When Lem
Fall awakens, he finds that he has part of the barrier inside of him,
which was created by the Q, and therefore, has great powers. But what he
doesn't know is that he also contains a small piece of 0. Meanwhile, Q
concludes the history lesson of himself and 0, and transports Picard back
to the Enterprise. Picard soon orders the ship out of the
barrier. Lem Faal escapes sickbay, travels to engineering and creates a
vortex which enables 0 to reenter the galaxy. Lem Faal is also
captivated by q, the infant son of Q and his wife, Q, and decides that
it is time to run some tests to be performed on the infant. Meanwhile,
0, who is now quite insane, pursues Q all over the ship with the
intention of killing him and Q can't seem to do anything about it. And
to make matters worse, the
Calamarain return and start attacking the ship again with the intention
of destroying all onboard.
This is a Star Trek: The Next Generation
book. It is number 49. It is also the third book in a three part series
entitles "The Q Continuum".
This story resides on a new Enterprise-E, and takes
place a couple of months after the movie, First Contact, since that is when the new
ship is introduced. The story focuses on multiple storylines: 1) Q
showing Picard bits and pieces of Q's own past with 0, 2) Lem Faal and
his new powers, 3) 0's pursuit of Q, and 4) Picard and the
Calamarains.
The third and final book in this
trilogy moves along quite quickly and I found it a pleasure to read. In
fact, I found it quite hard to put down. Finally, the great galactic
barrier is explained and the purpose of Q's history lesson is also
revealed. Now the disjointed puzzle pieces fit together and it all made sense
to me. I was quite relieved. I really enjoyed Q-Strike and found
it to be a perfect ending for "The Q Continuum" trilogy. Greg
Cox created a perfectly evil character in 0 (pronounced
"Nil"). He is quite the match for Q. And I really enjoyed the
fact that Q is married and has a two-year old son, q. Overall, even
though the trilogy started slow, it ended with a bang. A lot of
mysteries about the Q and the Star Trek universe are answered in the
trilogy, and especially this book. That alone makes Q-Strike
worth reading fro any Star Trek fan.
I rated this book an 8½ out of 10. |
