Hotel Royale
The Hotel Royale was a novel written by Todd Matthews sometime in the early 21st century. A copy of the novel was carried by Colonel Stephen G. Richey of NASA on board his ship the Charybdis in 2037.
It proved to be an unfortunate choice as the novel was filled with cliched characters and bad writing. When Richey's ship crashed on the planet Theta VIII in 2044 an unknown alien force created a physical representation of the novel, including the hotel and all its characters, in an artificial environment meant to provide a simulation of normal life for Richey.
Unknowingly, though, the aliens had sentenced Richey to a sort of hell, dooming him to live the remainder of his life in the world of the novel with its poorly written characters and no real human interaction.
The opening line of the novel was "It was a dark and stormy night." Jean-Luc Picard was less than enthusiastic about its literary merits. (TNG: "The Royale")
- The title of the novel may be a reference to Casino Royale, the very first James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming in 1953.