FanFic Book 1 and beginning of Book 2: Interesting Ideas offset by Canon Defilement
Chuck is a better reviewer than he is a writer.
(note, I read it a while back so some details may be off)
There is a great deal of potential here. We see Picard react to 7 of 9 and face his prejudice to the Borg. The battles are epic and we see a huge cultural clash as both universes react to this massive change in the status qou.
However this is off set by the canon defilement, poor characterization, and killing off characters in ways that seem mean spirited. All three can be summed up in one word: Data. Data is turned to the dark side (deleting his ethical program or not, it's quite a stretch). Data unceremoniously kills Troi. And most damning of all, Data calls 7 of 9 a "Borg bitch". Profanity is fine, in this case it's completely out of tone with both the Star Trek and Star Wars universes. I may be wrong, but I can't recall hearing the word "bitch" in any works of either franchise. Not only that, but the shear hatred that Data, of people, says it feels just wrong.
Also Endor and the Ewoks were destroyed (along with DS 9, though it somehow gets better in book 2), but at least he stopped short of having Jar Jar and Neelix put in an Agony Booth by Wedge Antilles, who has been driven insane by PTSD and constantly yells "Fuck!"
FanFic Books 1 and 2: An Epic Story, as told by pro wrestling bookers.
All right, let's get one thing straight: This isn't a bad story. It holds the attention well and you want to read it to find out what's going on.
But it's got some serious flaws.
The author has a tendency to toss out some gratuitous Take Thats; see what happens to Corran Horn, or the portrayal of the Voyager crew as in general semidisciplined and semicompetent as a team (after five years on the line their teamwork should be superb even if their skills aren't) in comparison to that of the Enterprise, or killing Troi. He also tends to drop some bellwhistles for certain groups of fans (on both sides) that just clutter up the story for everyone else.
Other flaws manifest in the use of shock deaths that lack either buildup or even much in the way of appropriate treatment. We've lost several members of the DS9 cast, pretty much the entire leadership of the New Republic excepting the Solos, Troi, and Tom Paris. The only one who got much of a sendoff was Mon Mothma, valiant to the end. The author tried to give one to Tom Paris but left too much to implications that can't actually be drawn unless he'd stated some basic facts first.
Other aspects have been overcome by the progressing canon, such as when Mara Jade entered Imperial service and what she was like then, or her relationship with Vader.
Finally there is the unsatisfying treatment of Seven of Nine's progress towards normality, which isn't so much a gradual process as a series of jumps, and even when it's over, it's really not over. Her and Luke's relationship is also poorly managed; excuses can be made for Seven but not for a Luke who's had the maturity to face Vader and the Emperor.
FanFic The Unity Saga – ambitious, witty and clever, yet oddly dispiriting
It isn't often you come across a work of fanfiction like the Unity Saga, which takes a standard premise – "What if Universe X met Universe Y?" – and not only gives it a truly epic scope, but stamps it with its own identity. However, this should be no surprise when the author is Chuck Sonnenburg, veteran Internet reviewer and connoisseur of Star Wars and Star Trek.
On that note, readers who come into the story off SF Debris should know what to expect. From the incisive look at the respective 'verses, acerbic wit and in-depth nerd trivia, all the more impressive given how in the late 90s, one couldn't simply check a wiki... You've got the works.
With this in mind, it's a shame to say I admire this story more than I like it.
Had I to name what the Unity Saga's writing puts me in mind of, I'd point to one thing. Joss Whedon, at his most excessive. (Please note, this isn't a judgement on Whedon as a person, which is its own can of worms; merely his iconic style.) As mentioned earlier, the Unity Saga is fanfiction with strong personal identity. Problem is, said identity feels less like Wars or Trek than it does Chuck Sonnenburg borrowing these franchises' iconography to tell his version of Dune. In the snarky, angsty style of Whedon.
If this sounds like a recipe of conflicting ingredients, that's because it is. While to the story’s credit, the merging of the two settings winds up surprisingly organic, less can be said for its handle on tone or characterisation.
Simply put, characters in the Unity Saga all speak in the same voice. At one point, Emperor Palpatine refers to the Borg as "cybernetic lemmings". There’s no witticism the writer thought up which he didn’t feel like putting into a character's mouth, regardless of how well it fit.
Still more problematic is the portrayal of female characters. I get this was written in the less gender-political days of the 90s-00s, but I’ve a hard time tracking that Chuck could know Mara Jade or Seven of Nine and reduce them to overly-emotive rival love interests for Luke Skywalker.
And, spoilers for the first trilogy; while it is kind of impressive that the author's got the guts to depict the Federation's deception and eventual subjugation by the Galactic Empire, there is a discomforting similarity in the Unity Saga with the path canon itself would take. Star Trek, a future built on self-improvement and moral contemplation, turned bleak and dog-eat-dog; Star Wars, a fairy-tale about hope and friendship, stuck in a cycle of eternal recurrence; both now featuring a disproportionate focus on Chosen Ones.
One wonders if Chuck, a famed snarker, ever looks backs on his own story and sees this ultimate irony. At least canon never went "Your parents were selfish, but you don't get to be". Gee, thanks, that's the message I want out of Star Wars or Star Trek, let alone the spawn of both.
Worth reading, yet mainly as a companion piece to Chuck's other work.