Review: The Best and the Brightest (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

The Best and the Brightest

By Susan Wright

Pocket Books/Star Trek |  304 pages | ISBN 9780743420693 | September 2000

Excerpt:

Every year, Starfleet Academy in San Francisco attracts many of the most talented
and ambitious young people in the Federation. They come from all over the Alpha
Quadrant, from hundreds of worlds and species, to prepare themselves for the
challenges of the final frontier.

Meet a new generation of cadets: a newly joined Trill just beginning the first of
many lives; a Bajoran Vedek who finds himself torn between his vows and an unspoken
love; a reckless young man fond of pushing the limits; a feline alien raised among
humans; a brilliant but immature young woman with a lot to learn; and a native-born
Earth woman with a talent for engineering.

Together they will learn about courage, life, teamwork, and themselves. Their future
is just beginning — but one of them will not survive!

Review:

I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of one of my favorite TNG episodes
Lower Decks in that it gave a better look at more normal lives of the people
behind the space disaster of the week.

The only thing that took away from it though was the shoehorning of major TNG
characters and events into the story lines, they felt forced to me and could have
done with less of it and more about the characters on their own.

(Yes I realize this is part of the TNG series of books and it was probably a
forced stipulation that the TNG content be included but my personal preference
would be to not have it included)