Finally finished "A Rock and a Hard Place"

(Context: this is a TNG novel written by Peter David, and back in October, when I got into TNG books, this was recommended to me over and over as THEEEE best Riker-centric novel. It has a great painted cover with Riker and Deanna on the cover, with Riker squaring off against some sort of hideous bear-dog in combat)

I've been reading this on/off since October! Not because it's bad; just something clicked off in my brain, and when I COULD read Star Trek novels, I couldn't read this one. But I could read other, worse novels just fine XD Gradually, over a course of months, I worked myself up to the halfway point, and then last night I read the whole second half in one sitting.

Two main storylines, both fun:

1) Riker is sent off the Enterprise to help terraform a cold, icy planet called Paradise. He's selected because of his childhood in Alaska, and because one of the lead terraformers is actually his childhood friend, Carter!

2) Quintin Stone, one of Starfleet's problem children, is sent to the Enterprise as Riker's replacement, with the fleet desperately hoping that Picard can straighten him out. Stone never really disobeys orders or violates the Prime Directive, but he goes about his missions in an unsettling, callous, manipulative way that concerns everyone who meets him.

( I ramble for way too long )