Q-Squared

Q-Squared is a Star Trek novel by Peter David. Non-canonical (which is a shame), it overtly identifies Trelane, the Squire of Gothos, as part of the Q Continuum. The book spent two weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. No one would ever mistake this for high prose, and no one but the Star Trek fan of both the original series and The Next Generation will care about any of this convoluted plot. But once I saw Q in the Next Generation Trek I knew Trelane was part of them, and it's nice to see the view was so widely shared.

from the back of the book:

In all of his travels Catain Jean-Luc Picard has never faced an opponent more powerful than Q, a being from another continuum that Picard encountered on his very first mission as Captain of the Starship Enterprise. In the years since, Q has returned again and again to harass Picard and hos crew. Sometimes dangerous, sometimes merely obnoxious, Q has always been mysterious and seemingly all-powerful.

But this time, when Q appears, he comes to Picard for help. Apparently another member of the Q continuum has tapped into an awesome power source that makes this being more powerful than the combined might of the entire Q continuum. This renegade Q is named Trelane -also known as the Squire of Gothos, who captain Kirk and his crew first encountered over one hundred years ago. Q explains that, armed with this incredible power, Trelane has become unspeakable dangerous.

Now Picard must get involved in an awesome struggle between super beings. And this time the stakes are not just Picard's ship, or the galaxy, or even the universe -this time the stakes are all of creation....

Kirkus Reviews says, "The material is recycled and the prose stolid, but the confusing story is the biggest crime." Publishers Weekly says, "The novel is fast-paced and the prose sloppy" and "While the pulpy action makes this is a Trek-lovers paradise, anyone else will wonder what all the fuss is about."