Review: Before Dishonor

The TNG post-Nemesis series continues with Peter David's Before Dishonor. Admiral Janeway is captured by the Borg when investigating their apparently-dead Cube (Resistance), and becomes part of a newly-evolved Borg threat against Earth. It's up to the crew of the Enterprise, aided by Seven of Nine and Ambassador Spock, to save the day - but how easy will that be when Picard's newest crewmembers rebel against him?

It's genuinely hard to know where to begin when discussing this novel. I mean, Pluto gets absorbed by a Borg cube - is that gloriously mad, or ridiculously lacking in credibility?

Let's start with characters: The regular cast of the TNG Relaunch don't put in an appearance for the first seventy pages or so, which is bewildering given that this is only the fourth book in a series featuring several new characters. The reliance on faces from Voyager and The Original Series - and the annoyingly unnecessary appearance of Peter David's own Mackenzie Calhoun - is highly frustrating in what's supposed to be a Next Generation novel.

The mutiny plot is merely expanding on plot points covered in previous books - the "Will the newbies blindly follow Picard?" question has already been addressed in Resistance - and the characters of Zelik Leybenzon and Miranda Kadohata are depicted in an unrecognisably different way than they were in Q&A.

In fact, David seems only to put in effort with the characterisations when they're characters he cares about. With Kadohata and Leybenzon - new characters whose introduction in Q&A was presumably written at the same time as this novel - there is at least some excuse for the inconsistencies. But Janeway and Seven of Nine come across as generic and uninteresting, with little resemblence to their television personalities; even Picard and Worf have some "off" moments, and it comes across as if little effort has been put in to nailing the cast properly.

The storyline itself is bizarre, and a huge suspension of disbelief is required to swallow some of the major points of the plot. The author appears to be aiming for something epic, but has instead produced something vaguely bewildering. The short chapters and quick scene-changes as the book reach its climax failed to grab my attention or create any excitement, because by the end of the book I found I just didn't care any more.

But I'll say one thing for Before Dishonor - the Borg are scary again. They're completely unpredictable, out-of-character, and often downright bizarre - but that's not necessarily bad. Even as recently as Resistance, assimilation has been reduced to "Let's dress up as the Borg!", and their potential as a threat has been gradually weakening; but Peter David's development of the race here renews them as a legitimate threat, which can only be commended.

Before Dishonor is, on the whole, a disappointment. Perhaps, with tighter editorial direction, this book could have been one of the best yet; sadly, as it stands, it's an abysmal effort.