Do Comets Dream?

Star Trek: The Next Generation

by S.P. Somtow

Every five thousand years, so the people of the planet Thanet believe, the world ends in fire and a new cycle of creation begins. Now the Last Days are once again upon them, and a fiery star draws near. This is the Death-Bringer, the Eater of the World, whose coming heralds the end of all things....

But to Captain Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise™; the Death-Bringer appears to be nothing but a rogue comet, easily destroyed. Picard faces a difficult dilemma: how can he save the Thanetians' rich and intricate civilization without destroying the very beliefs upon which their culture is based?

This quandary is challenge enough, yet the captain's position becomes even more complicated when Deanna Troi discovers that, incredibly, the comet is alive!

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Star Trek The Next Generation, Fiction, Media Tie In, Ebooks

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

Called by the Bangkok Post "the Thai person known by name to most people in the world," S.P. Somtow is an author, composer, filmmaker, and international media personality whose dazzling talents and acerbic wit have entertained and enlightened fans the world over.

He was Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul in Bangkok. His grandfather's sister was a Queen of Siam, his father is a well known international lawyer and vice-president of the International Academy of Human Rights. Somtow was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and his first career was in music. In the 1970s (while he was still in college) his works were being performed on four continents and he was named representative of Thailand to the Asian Composer's League and to the International Music Commission of UNESCO. His avant-garde compositions caused controversy and scandal in his native country, and a severe case of musical burnout in the late 1970s precipitated his entry into a second career - that of author.

He began writing science fiction, but soon started to invade other fields of writing, with some 40 books out now, including the clasic horror novel Vampire Junction, which defined the "rock and roll vampire" concept for the 80s, the Riverrun Trilogy ("the finest new series of the 90's" - Locus) and the semi-autobiographical memoir Jasmine Nights. He has won or been nominated for dozens of major awards including the Bram Stoker Award, the John W. Campbell Award, the Hugo Award, and the World Fantasy Award.

Somtow has also made some incursions into filmmaking, directing the cult classic The Laughing Dead and the award winning art film Ill Met by Moonlight.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Different than usual for this series...but that isn't always a good thing.

[Rosemarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I would, more accurately, give this one something in between 3 and 4 stars.

In this Star Trek: The Next Generation novel a planet named Thanet believes their world is about to end. Their culture and religion has taught them to celebrate this fact, and they do. However, the Enterprise crew knows that the comet on a collision course with Thanet can be easily destroyed and the planet saved. This news is received by the Thanetian Ambassador as if it is heresy in the highest degree.

There are some echoes of TNG episode, "The Masterpiece Society" in this book. I also thought for a time it was going be be like "Tin Man" with the comet being a living creature, but it's not as simple as that. The comet actually houses a child from a rival planet that was sent on a journey years ago to destroy Thanet. To be honest, the plot gets a little complicated. The time frame that we are dealing with is crazy long - 5 thousand years - and that was a little distracting for me.

But overall it's not a bad story. It brings back a minor character that I do remember from TNG -the part Romulan ensign Simon Tarses who was accused of being a traitor in one episode. And, overall, there was a nice range of characters used in this one. I try to avoid books that focus solely on one or two characters - usually Data, Worf or Picard. I like when the whole crew is involved and that was pretty much the case here.

The ending was good, but not the one that I saw coming. What happened not only saved the Thanetian world physically but also their worldview. That seemed a bit corny to me. Why couldn't these people know the truth about what was going on? I guess, the older I get the more I question if the Almighty Prime Directive is as necessary as they say it is. If it was me, I would want to know the truth about my world, but that's just my humble opinion.

This is my favorite ST crew - long live ST:TNG! :)

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imaginative and romantic story--I read it in one sitting! Wanted to find out what happened to Simon Tarses after "The Drumhead."

I would say it was most similar to the TNG episode, "The Inner Light."

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, it was quite interesting to read about the weird culture of Thanet, with the fatalistic mindset that I could never in a million years bring myself to grasp. Interesting linguistic and mythological references. Yarut, the god of love? That's music to my wannabe Slavic Polytheist self.

However, I can't help but be puzzled about the Thanet-Tanith situation. In the pre-speed of light travel, how did they even know about each other, let alone become enemies? And how can one planet believe that there are no other planets in the Universe but the enemy planet 5000 light years away? Weird.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do Comets Dream? was an interesting read, but ultimately in my mind, a little unmemorable. The problem and the eventual solution were interesting, but at the same time the plot ended up feeling a little bit "paint-by-numbers." I can't exactly explain the reason why I came away from this book feeling this sort of ambivalence. I can recommend the book if you're interested in eating up an afternoon reading about some classic TNG era exploits, but Do Comets Dream? is far outside the realm of "must-reads" in my opinion.

Full review: treklit.blogspot.com/2012/08/do-comet...

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only things in the Star Trek universe that I were the same in this book as the show is that a red short died. Oh, and Dianna Troi was all emotional while not doing much, if any, good. It wasn't written very convincingly of the Star Trek NG, but it has been a while since I've seen the show. Still and all, not my favorite STTNG book.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Enterprise is sent to save a planet from a comet collision. Only problem is that the planets religion states that they are all going to die anyway. The plot is quite straightforward, what makes this an interesting read is the society on the planet. It has castes, rules and a real sense of fatality. A good read.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a great book. I like that it included a character from one of the star trek episodes.

[Greg Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was more impressed with the story idea than the story it's self.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This felt like an early Star Trek book where the author had an idea for a planet or race so he built that ane then tried to slap Star Trek on it (the cover actually makes the TNG part seem small). Anyway, I don't think it works here at all. A third to a half of the book spends it time in a simulation and the rest with minor characters from the show and under-utilizes the main characters other than Troi, Data and Picard reading a journal. The characterizations were all wrong for the main crew as well and Guinan came off as a jerk.

I didn't hate the book but I don't think I got what it was trying to do either. Two civilizations 5000 years apart are trying kill each other...because...they can hear each other...what?

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very different from most Trek novels: it's high romanticism mashed together with an SF-edged fantasy premise. I'm not a big fan of straight-up fantasy, but this does make for unique storytelling...and I'm always happy to experience something new. It doesn't press all my buttons -- I found the crew characterization to be occasionally off, to say nothing of feeling peripheral to most of the action, compared to the guest cast -- but it intrigued me enough to keep going. I can definitely see a segment of fandom that will eat this up, even though I'm not personally part of that company.

[SnowGator · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only character I liked was Artas, the little boy who was turned into a sentient comet. It was nice that one of the main characters was Simon Tarses, from The Drumhead, but he wasn't interesting and his instaromance was annoying. Prostitution is mentioned multiple times and Artas's mom is called a whore because she was born into "the pleasure caste". Overall a strangely dark read by Star Trek standards.

[Phillip Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a ST:TNG book, there was far less participation from the regular cast than in other books. Yes, Data, Picard, and Dianna played significant roles, but even they were limited, with Riker, Geordi, Worf and Crusher taking firm seating in the background.

The story was quite captivating and intriguing, and kept my attention, though there were parts that I would have preferred been left out.

Still, it was worth the read and a great find from HPB.

[Judith Paterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good solid Star trek read. Interesting plot.

[SFReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.a...

[Nadine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nicht überall, wo Star Trek draufsteht, ist auch Star Trek drin...

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent book - it read more like an episode of the show than it did one of the books. However, it was engrossing and it was tied up in a neat bow.

[Ryan Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This surely would be a good Star Trek film. There are parts of unpredictability that outweigh some of the predictability. It was a good story overall. The author has a phenomenal vocabulary.

[Jarrod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent enough story. Strange for Simon Tarses to be as involved as he was.

[Eggith · Rating 1 out of 5]

A serviceable read. Not great.