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>> I, Q
        John DeLancie & Peter David

Summary from Backcover:

The enigmatic entity known as Q remains one of the great mysteries in the universe. Now actor John de Lancie, who has played Q on television for more than a decade, joins Peter David, the bestselling author of such acclaimed novels as Q-in-Law and Q-Squared, to send Q on an unforgettable cosmic odyssey told from the mischievous trickster's unique point of view.

The Maelstrom, a metaphysical whirlpool of apocalyptic proportions, is pulling all of reality into its maw, devouring time and space while bringing together people and places from throughout the universe. The Q Continuum pronounces that the End of Everything has come, but Q refuses to meekly accept the end of all he has known. Defying the judgment of the Continuum, he sets out to derail doomsday - whatever the cost.

Q has been everywhere and done everything, but now he's in for a cosmic thrill ride beyond even his own astonishingly unlimited imagination. Reluctantly assisted by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, can even Q prevent the Universe As We Know It from going literally down the drain?

I, Q is a wild and witty voyage through the secret soul of creation - as only Q can tell it!



Series: The Next Generation

German Title: Ich, Q

ISBN:

# 0-671-02444-2 (USA)
# 3-453-17937-4 (Dt.)

Copyright: 1999 by Paramount Pictures

Printing History:

Pocket Books/December 2000/Originally published in hardcover in 1999

Pages: 249

About the Authors:

Peter David has written many Star Trek books, including two others that center around Q: Q-Squared & Q-in-Law.

John DeLancie plays Q in Star Trek: TNG, Voyager and one episode of DS9.

Personal Review:

Nobody could have described Q, his feelings, motivations and character traits better than this. The book is well written and held my attention until I had read the last word and then some.

Regular Characters:

Q
Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
Lt.-Cmdr. Data

Guest Characters:

Melony
some more members of the Q-Continuum
M

Guest Characters who also appeared in ST television episodes:

Lady Q (Voyager: The Q and the gray)
q (Voyager: The Q and the Gray; Q2)
blond Q (TNG: Déjà Q)
Locutus (TNG: The Best of Both Worlds, pt. I, II)
Jazia Dax (DS9)
Nagus Zack (DS9)



Set Time of Story:

After Voyager: The Q and the Gray and Star Trek 7: Generations
Before Voyager: Q2

Miscellaneous Trivia:

Dr. Kübler-Ross - 5 stages of coping with the prospect of death:

(1) disbelieve or denial
(2) anger
(3) bargaining
(4) despair
(5) acceptance
Detailed Summary:

Q is literally deep-see fishing with his family when an abyss opens and threatens to swallow them. Q is able to save himself, but his wife and son vanish inside of the ravine. He is able, though, to save Jean-Luc Picard and Data, who are threatened to be drowned as well - in a ship in which they had been fishing on the holodeck.

Together, though Q isn't entirely sure why he bothers to take them along, they go to the Q-Continuum to find out what is happening, only to discover that the End of Everything (with a big E!) is about to occur.

The Q are utterly happy about the occurrence because it will finally put an end to the boredom that has settled upon the continuum and are celebrating profusely.

Q, though, along with Picard and Data, is unwilling to go down without a fight. They escape the continuum, who wants to hinder Q from interfering, and go down the abyss to find out what's happening and to find Q's family.

They end up going trough five different plains of existence, which Data identifies as the five stages of coping with the prospect of death according to the Kübler-Ross principle: denial, anger, bargaining, despair and acceptance.

Quotable Quotes:

Never assume because it makes an 'ass' of 'u' and 'me'.

Humans. Don't get me started. Damn ... too late.

I suppose you have heard of the literary technique of the omniscient narrator. Well, who is more entitled to assume that title than one who is genuinely omniscient?

Picard: "Will you stop finishing my sentences, Q?"
Q: "Then talk faster."

"What part of 'omniscient' is unclear to you?"

... but I have long ago learned that trying to discern coherent or rational thinking in humans is an utter waste of time.

Debauchery by an individual is deplorable. Debauchery en masse is a party.

It kind of makes you pause when one moment you're having a friendly conversation with someone and the next moment he's a pile of ashes.

He was right, of course. I knew he was right. And worse than that, he knew he was right, and he knew I knew it.

I hated to admit it, but it was nice to have someone along who had no trouble boldly going where no one in his right mind had gone before.

Manners: can't live with them, can't live without them!

... but no one on either side seemed really upset. It just wasn't working! The reasons weren't pointless enough. Then, very much as an afterthought, one of the M blurted out, "Your mother!"
Well, that did it! That was all that was required. An insult like that was beyond the pale, and so we went to war!

Picard: "Phantom pains."
Q: "Very good, Jean-Luc. It's like those times when you're found with an occasional urge to brush your hair."

Rule of Acquisition Number Ninety-seven: 'If you can't take it with you, don't go.'

There may be things more frustrating than circling a tent looking for an opening, but at that point in time, I couldn't think of one.

"... and if you think you can stop me just by ending the universe, then I'm here to tell you that you're going to have to do better than that!"

Excerpt:

I, Q ... My instinct is to start with me.

It's a natural instinct, I suppose, since I was there at the beginning. I have been around for as long as I can remember, as long as anyone can remember. And until this day - presuming one could call this a day - I had always assumed I would be here forever. Forever, after all, is a very, very long time. One doesn't tend to dwell on the end, because such an event is naturally unthinkable to one such as me.

And if the end ever did come, if we ever did stand on the brink, on the precipice, on the edge (in short) of oblivion, I had always assumed that I and my equally powerful fellows would be able to mount a defense against it. Each of my fellows, even as a lone individual, can do anything. So when you have an entire Continuum of indefinitely powerful fellows, it would seem only logical to assume (there's that word again) that there is nothing in the entirety of reality that could possibly stand against our collective will - except a two-year-old who's teething, but that is a nightmare all its own.

Humans, those ever annoying creatures, have a saying. Actually, they have many sayings. As a race, they're chockablock with homilies and aphorisms that cover just about every circumstance that mortal minds can conceive (which, granted, is not saying much). One of those jolly sayings happens to be, "Never 'assume' because it makes an 'ass' of 'u' and 'me.'" It's a fairly tortured dissection of a word simply to make a point, but nonetheless the point is well taken. I assumed, and therefore found myself in deep...