🚀 go-pugleaf

Baerbel Haddrell
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"Glass Empires" ist der erste Band mit drei Romanen, die im
Spiegeluniversum angesiedelt sind. 

"Worst of Both Worlds" von Greg Cox ist die Picard Story in dem Band.
Meine Besprechungen von "The Sorrows of Empire" (eine Spock Story von
David Mack) und "Age of the Empress" (eine Enterprise Story von Mike
Sussman mit Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore) folgen spaeter. 





S P O I L E R

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Although "The Worst of both Worlds" is the third story in "Glass
Empires", this is the first story I read. The Mirror Universe story in
Enterprise is interesting but I also had to wonder why I should care for
these characters? The same applies to the MU story in TOS. With very few
exceptions people are power hungry, busy betraying, murdering and
manipulating others. Women use sex appeal and poison as weapons while
men are primitive enough to become willing victims and quick to solve
everything with brute force. 

There are darker Star Trek stories I enjoyed very much. Therefore in
general I have no problem with it that the Mirror Universe is a darker
place. I used to be a fan of the new Battlestar Galactica until I more
and more lost interest because people simply became too unappealing to
me.

Therefore I felt that the Picard story would be the most interesting to
me. It exceeded my expectations: Not only was the tricky balance between
darkness and having characters I could care about just right, I am now
also more curious about the other two stories, not to mention the second
book that will hopefully be out soon.

The Picard we know and the Picard of the MU are pretty much the same.
This is Picard at his best. Although he never got the chance to fulfil
his potential it was obvious to me that he is a natural leader, very
intelligent, brave and caring with a strong sense of responsibility. I
quickly liked this Picard a lot and was very curious what will happen
next.

The story constantly surprised me. Some of it is because of the
interesting parallels with known TNG stories and ironic twists like
Picard working for Madred and his alias as Galen. I especially loved the
end. Also in the MU universe Picard is saving humanity (and not only
humanity) from the Borg, at least for now, and that nearly single
handed. I liked the story in "our" TNG in which Picard used his
knowledge as an archaeologist and the idea of using this knowledge
against the Borg is a very interesting idea. 

This MU story also had the side effect to make me even more curious
about the coming Borg books later this year. 

There were also other remarkable characters in this story. I always had
a weakness for good stories in which a man and a woman work together in
a team. It was nice to read a story in which Vash and Picard were
together again, even if it was brief. Vash was definitely on the same
level as Picard and no less a hero. Her death touched me a lot. The same
applies to the fate of the rest of the team. 

I also welcomed the brief appearance of Wesley. Surviving as an orphan
on the street can`t be easy but nevertheless, Wesley appeared to be a
youngster who hasn`t lost his innocence. I think that he tried to defend
Picard`s Stargazer at such high cost says a lot about him, too. Also
this Wesley is a remarkable young man and, like Picard, I am hoping that
the lasting damage won`t be too serious. 

What I also liked about this story is that these are the chilling,
dangerous Borg we know from early TNG. The end of that ship and this
version of Locutus was definitely not what I expected. Great story - I
really hope we will meet the Mirror Universe Picard again and find out
what he will do next.

Baerbel Haddrell