Title: Too Much in Love with the Framing Story
Product review: The tale told by Captain Picard in this second "Captain's Table" novel is, in and of itself, amusing but not engrossing. Almost all of the pleasure one could get from it is sapped by the ever-increasing interruptions that return us to the far-too hokey Captain's Table bar. The interruptions do not, as one reviewer suggested, lend a sense of realism. Rather, they continually remind us how contrived the whole set up is. As with War Dragons, the tale itself is *not* written in the way one would expect a story to be told at a bar, and Picard's voice is not always captured. My advice to those who are about to read this one: read only the chapters captioned "Tale." Skip all of the others.Michael Jan Friedman is ordinarily among the best of the Trek writers; it is unfortunate that he allowed himself to get roped into the Captain's Table idea. A fine talent, an interesting challenge (a first-person Picard tale), but a wasted effort.
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