Ghost Ship

Elmore Leonard's third rule on writing is “Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.” This book is an almost perfect example of why that's such a good rule.

This rule, “Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose,” was also violated so much I don't know why the book didn't call the cops.

I hate to say it but “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip” would have resulted in this book not being written.

It's not entirely the author's fault. No one knew who Picard, Riker, and Troi were really going to be when this book was written.

There’s a lot going on and also not much happens… Many of the characters (especially these three doofuses) are very different than their tv counterparts. Data shows too much emotion, I especially hated the moments where he seemingly got his feelings hurt. I LOATHED the part where Carey says he actually pouts like a child. Riker’s an unprofessional lunatic. Geordi was just a tad bit too insubordinate. (Although I must say, his protectiveness over Data definitely fed my inner Data/Geordi ship demon.) 😅

The plot was meh. I still don’t understand how this entity swooped through Earth in the 1990’s, plucked one ship out of the ocean, then apparently left our solar system and didn’t come into human contact again until the Enterprise stumbled across it randomly out in the galaxy… 🤷‍♀️

I don’t know that I can blame Carey for not having a better grasp on the characters mannerisms. The show premiered in late September ‘87 and this novel was published in July ‘88. She had to have been writing it either before it premiered or just as it was airing. So I don’t know how much, if any, of the actors depictions she was able to see before writing this. Wesley especially seems like she wrote a completely different person in the role, down to his physical looks.