Publication Date:October 1, 2003 Availability:Usually ships in 1-2 business days Shipping:Expedited shipping available Shipping:International shipping available Condition:With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, best prices.
Product Description Captain Mackenzie Calhoun has often been accused of playing God, but he has never faced off against real gods -- until now. As Captain Kirk did before him, Calhoun has encountered beings of unnatural power and abilities verging on godhood, and who claim to be the very individuals who inspired the Greek, Roman, Norse, and, other pantheons from Earth culture.
These beings say that all they want is our worship, and in return for it will provide us with a peaceful galaxy-wide paradise of perfect health and endless pleasure. When the Federation, in the person of Captain Calhoun and the crew of the U.S.S. Excalibur, refused their offer, the resulting battle left Morgan Primus dead and Lieutenant Mark McHenry, whose own powers over time and space had proved to be substantial, in a limbo beyond death.
Now, with a wounded ship and an injured crew, Captain Calhoun, along with Captain Shelby and the crew of the Trident, must face these god-like beings once again, with the fate of galactic civilization at stake.
tedious; author shouldn't have hedged his betsApril 24, 2008 Reading Reader(Arkansas) I found it very wearisome for non-humans to constantly use human colloquialisms. To single out the most egregious example: "The S Squad"? Would the letter S even EXIST in Thallonian or Vulcan languages? On the TV shows most aliens sort of have to come across as weirdly made-up humans because that's what they are, but prose shouldn't have that problem. However, smarmy anachronistic humor is unavoidable in even the best Peter David novels, so that's not a big deal by itself.
However, the deal with Captain Calhoun and his crew refusing to act in anything like a professional manner got old pretty quick. "Cowboy diplomacy" gets boring after a while. The Federation lets these goofballs represent its interests with alien civilizations? Why didn't they just defrost the Three Stooges' cryogenically preserved heads while they were at it?
The Starfleet officers did at least as much hostility provoking in this novel (and the preceding one) as did the Beings, who IMHO didn't act too much differently than Si Cwan would've and has acted in their place, but apparently we weren't supposed to think about that.
What the author declined to think about is what it would've been like if, instead of the silly drug dealer analogies and so on, worshippers had come to the Beings the way worshippers generally come to "gods" in the real world: willingly and sincerely. The characters might've actually had to THINK or something. THAT could've been interesting. THIS...was not. The deck was stacked against taking the Beings' approach seriously; it had to be all mind alteration and pettiness.
Plus, and this is back to minor-level, why would Xenexians, Thallonians, etc. regard a jackal-headed god as inherently menacing? The Federation has member/ally races with the heads of fish, snakes, cats, etc. A jackal-headed being should be just another life-form to them. Anubis's appearance should've been a total non-issue, but it was singled out time and again. I'm presuming the series has mostly non-human main characters on purpose, but sometimes it's like the author isn't even aware of it himself.
No Peter David novel is a total waste of time, but this is one of his lesser efforts. IMHO.
This is the worst Star Trek book I've ever read.September 6, 2006 LynneElf 2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Yes. This is the worst Star Trek book I've ever read.
The plot was interesting because I'd never heard of this new series before...but that was perhaps one of the few saving graces. Even the presence of Spock in the story could not entice me to actually read the entire book.
I'm rather astonished that the editors let this book through. Each paragraph flowed awkwardly, with jarring syntax. The author kept using some kind of "punch line" writing style. He would give just a few facts, enough to make the reader wonder what had just happened. Then in the last sentence he'd throw in a final clarifying fact so the reader can say "Ah, that's what happened."
A good example would be from one of the earlier scenes. One of the characters was being choaked to death and was saved when his sister chopped off his attacker's arm. Instead of letting the action flow, the author chose to first show that the man wasn't choaking anymore, then to show that the hand wasn't attached to the attacker's body, and then to show that the blood flowing from the severed stump matched the color of the blood on the "cutting instrument".
Even so, with the backwards flowing facts, I read on, wanting to at least know what was going to happen. Up until page 26.
On page 26 of the paperback version, the captain actually SAID "Why isn't s/he up here?"
Ok, so the character he was referring to (Burgyone) is apparently some multi-gender person. That's fine - heck it worked for Le Guin in the "Left Hand of Darkness"... but... Really, how can ANY person actually pronounce "s/he"? Is the slash prounced as the word "slash" or is it more of "she-he"?
If the author had been using proper English, he would have realized several things. First, it's physically impossible to say "S/he" out loud, and in a 'crunch-time' situation the Captain is not going to bother stumbling over phrases like "he-she" anyway, he'd just say "he" and move on. Second, it would actually be appropriate to refer to the character as "he", and then spend maybe a paragraph or two to explain that this Burgyone was both male and female and then continue with the story.
At that point I just skimmed the book, skipping over most of the text just to see how it ended.
Then I turned and picked up a nice Ray Bradbury book to read... because although Bradbury's plot was extremly confusing, it at least had been written with better grammer and flowing text.
I am just thankful that my copy of "Gods Above" was a public copy and not one I actually spent money on.
Good follow up to Being HumanJanuary 21, 2006 Michael Longstreet(Sacramento, CA USA) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a pretty good follow up in the series, and the continuation of the events in Being Human, in which Mark McHenry was found to be a member of The Beings (like Apollo in the TOS episode "Who Mourns for Adonis?") and tells Captain Mackenzie Calhoun that Artemis is not to be trusted, resulting in the attack upon the Excalibur by the Beings. In this one, Mark McHenry is thought to be dead, and Morgan Primus is now integrated into the Excalibur's computer system because of an energy surge during the attack. Calhoun must work with Ambassador Spock and Ambassador Si Cwan to convince the Danteri people that The Beings, who have now ushered the Danteri people into hero worship, that The Beings are not gods and should be worshipped. Eventually Calhoun angers them and forces their hand, but he soon discovers who to destroy them. All the while, McHenry is stuck in a dimension between reality and death, while Zeus helps him `survive' a little longer. Also, we discover the true origin of Moke, Calhoun's adopted son.
Excellent story.February 25, 2005 James Yanni(Bellefontaine Neighbors, Mo. USA) Like all the books in this series, it won't stand alone; if you haven't read what went before it, the beginning will seem rather confusing. But at least it (mostly) actually has an ending, which is rare for books in this series. (There is a teaser for the beginning of the next book's plot, but no major plotline left unsettled.) I suppose if I must choose between a book with no beginning and a book with no ending, I'll settle for one with no beginning, and this book is the finale to one of the best stories in this admittedly very good series.
The only "addition" that is actually healthy!June 16, 2004 Eric(New York) 3 out of 4 found this review helpful
And that would be reading as many "Star Trek" related books as possible as well as other sci-fi works! Even though I grew up with the Original Series Star Trek, I also came to love TNG as well and, later, VOYAGER and ENTERPRISE. Being an avid fan of sci-fi in general, however, it would be an injustice on my part not to mention the many other old and new sci-fi works that both led me to Star Trek and which have forever forged my love for all sci-fi works: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "Foundation", "2001", "2010", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Ringworld", all the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" books, as well as books as new to the genre as "Advent of the Corps" and others.
