To put it succinctly, I'll give the former a "woo-hoo!" and the latter an "ehhhh."
To be more slightly more thorough, I enjoyed Kiln People quite a bit. Many of the ideas DB throws into the mix are thought-provoking and original. There are a few points where he gets bogged down in his own verbiage, but it's definitely a fun read. The metaphysical stuff not entirely my bag, but I found myself getting very engrossed in it, even as the plot barreled to its conclusion. I'm looking forward to discussing it with everyon. I'd say more, but I'd hate to put out any spoilers, thus unleashing the Brin-L Death Squad on myself. ;-)
Forgiveness has some good ideas in it, but it suffers from a few problems. Because it's Star Trek, I think the characters do some pretty puzzling things, things that seem plausible in a TV format, but that don't hold up as well under the scrutiny of reading. Also, I dislike Scott Hampton's art. On the plus side, DB has a good grasp of the TNG characters, which made it fun in spots, and there's of couple of good chuckles in it that grow out of the characters and their quirks. Also, one of the new characters has a chimp. A chimp named Harry. Coincidence? I think not. :-)
Jim
