Poor Riker gets caught up in quite an adventure while trying to help his old buddy out of a jam. Meanwhile Data somehow cannot just download all the rules and play by play history of baseball and instead has to feel his way through learning the game, and Troi discovers she has a particular fondness for Riker, when he is nearly killed. The romantic bits in this one were a bit too sappy for my tastes, even assuming I was in favor of the romance Riker and Troi were stuffed into in the course of the series (along with the further drama when Warf gets involved with Troi too... bleh). But that thread didn't overtake the plot in this book, and the planet-side adventure was pretty good. I found it a bit hard to suspend disbelief about Data's lack of information on baseball- he's a computer and ought to be able to download at least encyclopedia articles, player stats, and all the various books written on baseball, yet he spent many pages stumbling through just the basic rules of play.
I liked that Crusher got the be the only additional away-team member on the planet, though I wish she had not been sidelined so quickly once she was on the planet. We all know she can handle a phaser, after all. ( )

After a run of unusually good books, this one was just OK. It may be just that I have little sympatico with Riker, who stars. The B plot, in which Data plays baseball in the holodeck, was diverting but didn't have a lot of emotional depth to me. I guess it just seemed like there were some obligatory elements in it, instead of everything working completely together.

This was a fairly typical Star Trek Novel. There were two main stories. Riker gets called to a planet because years ago he and his friend and colleague Teller helped make an agreement between the planet and the Federation (who the planet picked to trade with over the Ferengi). But then Teller stayed as the liaison and now Riker has been called back because Teller has disappeared with a rare item called Fortune's Light. Riker and a retainer from the planet set about trying to retrieve Teller and the item.

There was also the story of Data playing a part in a Baseball game that Riker created on the holodeck but didn't get to participate in. Data is trying to change the outcome. It was sorta interesting, but I always wonder why Baseball is constantly used in Star Trek. Soccer has more people playing, Football is more popular and the sports that Star Trek has invented are more interesting to hear about. If I want to hear about Baseball I can turn on many channels on the TV. But, seeing Baseball through Data's eyes was definitely different. Still, tell me more about Velocity and Parisses Squares Star Trek, I already know about Baseball.

It was a typical Star Trek Novel. Well written because it was by Michael Jan Friedman, but nothing surprising happened in it. ( )

This novel features Cmd. Riker, and less of the rest of the crew. I thought it was enjoyable. ( )