One of the most violent books is Trek history

One of the common things about the books in Star Trek's A Time to... series is that the two books by the same author are just one continuing story. There's a cliffhanger at the end of the first book and then the second one goes on from there. While David Mack's A Time to Heal is the same in this respect, it is much different in tone and substance from it's predecessor, A Time to Kill. The first book had very short chapters and moved at a frenetic pace. The political intrigue was there, but it was mixed in with six separate special operations missions that filled the book with the tension of one thing going wrong making the whole thing fall to pieces. A Time to Heal, instead, is much more introspective. There is still a lot of violence (and the infamous David Mack body count), but the passages are much longer, the violence much more personal, and the deaths a lot more meaningful. This is another outstanding book.

The planet Tezwa is under Federation occupation, as it was the only way to keep the secret that the Federation government had given advanced weapons to its despotic leader, Kinchawn, hidden. Kinchawn and his government escaped, however, and captured Commander Riker in the process. They head an insurgency of terror that kills many Starfleet officers as well as natives of the planet in bombings and other terror attacks. Captain Picard and the Enterprise head a fleet of Starfleet vessels to help the new Tezwan government maintain control, as well as to hunt Kinchawn down. Unbeknownst to them, many of their clean-up orders are designed to remove all evidence of the government's secrets. As things begin to spiral out of control on Tezwa, more and more Starfleet officers are killed, but Picard's crew also begin uncovering what really happened. If they are allowed to continue, a government could fall. Or is that exactly what Section 31, the infamous secret intelligence organization, wants?

I'll get the obvious out of the way first. Yes, this book reads like a novel about the war in Iraq, and if you want to see it as a political novel, you're more than welcome to. Personally, I think there's enough ambiguity in the book that it's not clear that Mack is using it to make a political statement. Personally, I choose to read it as a novel set in a situation similar, but not exactly the same. Mack has obviously used current events as a springboard to an interesting story, and that's all I'm interested in.

And the story *is* interesting. In many of my reviews of this series, I have stated how wonderful it is that we are getting to know various other crewmembers of the Enterprise in some detail. This comes to a head in A Time to Heal, as many of these people we have come to know die pretty tragically in this book. Some do survive, so you are still able to be surprised when a death finally happens. Mack's ability to make each death felt by the reader is unmatched. These are not just faceless characters, given a character trait or two for identification, ready to be bumped off at a moment's notice. The carnage really does begin to affect you. While the book is extremely interesting, this causes it to be a little depressing and hard to get through as well.

In fact, that's probably the major strike against the book. It gets very oppressive very quickly and then stays that way for long passages. The death and destruction is vividly told, but it's also constant. Thus, it may not fit what you expect a Star Trek novel to be and you may not enjoy it. If you skip it, however, you will be missing one of the pivotal books in the whole Star Trek series, as events in this novel lead into both the next book (A Time for War, A Time for Peace) and the continuation of both Riker's story as captain of the Titan (Taking Wing) and the Enterprise's story (A Death in Winter). Just be ready for a little grimness before all of this.

The characterization in A Time to Heal is much the same as in the previous book. Beverly Crusher gets a lot more characterization as she not only starts leaning toward accepting the position at Starfleet Medical, but finds a love interest that may spur Picard into finally making a move on her after all these years of guilt-ridden friendship. The scene where Picard comes to her quarters for breakfast and discovers crumpled sheets is wonderful. Riker gets to act all stoic as he's held prisoner for most of the book, and Troi gets some counseling of her own, which isn't quite as interesting. LaForge and Data are mostly characterized through their attempts to track down what's really happening, though Data gets a lot of development as the acting first officer in Riker's absence. In fact, that may be the best part of the book, as we get to see him in action, running constant battle drills because of the situation that they're in. It's a vivid contrast to Riker's command style, and it's a major impetus for Riker when he finally returns.

The only character who suffered much was actually Picard, as he's not really prominent in the book. He seems to be very "hands-off" during the occupation and he doesn't seem very effective. Most of the concentration in the book is on everybody else, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. He just doesn't seem to be as "in charge" as he usually does, which doesn't seem like him. He really comes into his own during the conversation with the admirals, near the end of the book. He steers them around to his way of thinking very nicely.

All in all, A Time to Heal is a wonderful book that's just hard to get through at times. The continuing violence gets a bit monotonous after a while, but the attempts by the government to cover up what's really going on do help to break that up a little. What we're left with is a great book that leads into the final book in the series. If you're thinking of continuing the Next Generation saga, then this book is definitely important. Feel free to read whatever politics you want into it as well.

David Roy

a bit bloody but essentially a good book

now this book takes up where the last one left off. the federation is trying to help out a devastated planet but the prior government is making sure that more people are killed through sabotage and guerilla actions. the plot gets a little confusing in spots, but the carnage scenes are well written, and you can almost image yourself in the thick of it. i don't know where the title came from though, because that is about the last thing that is going on in this book.

One of the most daring TREK books in years

When I say a book is "daring," I don't mean it's perfect. This one isn't. Its biggest shortcoming is the utter implausibility of Starfleet's final answer the crimes of the Federation president. And you really have to have a strong stomach or an appreciation for descriptions of graphic injury and violence to get through this book's more brutal passages. David Mack's writing is sometimes shockingly vivid, enough to make one wince at times. There's also no escaping what this book and the one before it, A TIME TO KILL, are really about: the 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The analogy seems plain -- but thinner and not as well-disguised with SF ideas as such episodes of the 1960s STAR TREK series as "A Private Little War" or "A Taste of Armageddon."

But if those are the things that A TIME TO HEAL did wrong, what did it do right? For one thing, even though it used current events as a template, it didn't take sides. Even the so-called villains have reasonable motives, if self-serving or misguided. Mack's portrayal of the tragedies of war, the horrors of combat, and the senselessness of violence is stirring and provocative. He challenges his readers' conceptions of the NEXT GENERATION characters as "pure" or "morally spotless" by putting them in situations where they must make really hard choices between doing the ethical thing and paying a terrible price, or bending their rules little by little in order to stave off disasters, only to find themselves suddenly knee-deep in compromise and complicity.

Another excellent element of this book is its use of supporting characters. The "little people" on the ship come to life in lots of well-dramatized incidents that give them personalities. We get to know them, in both their fragility and their heroism, making it truly poignant and upsetting when they meet gruesome fates.

The plotting of this book is superb; like A TIME TO KILL, action transpires in multiple places at once and encompasses dozens of characters, yet Mack keeps them all clearly drawn. The story has elements of humor and pathos, military tactics and political scheming, strangely bittersweet relationship arcs and an unrelenting sense of impending disaster. In addition, Mack's use of language is remarkably agile. By turns he can be stark, blunt and hard-hitting, then suddenly lyrical and lushly descriptive.

His characters also work on many levels. (Picard is the exception, as he seems to have faded into the background for most of this book. His few moments of pseudo-paternal concern from A TIME TO KILL have greater resonance than all his maudlin pining for Beverly Crusher in A TIME TO HEAL.) In particular, the one frequently underused character who finally got some real development was Deanna Troi. Finally, a STAR TREK main character is forced to confront a truly dark aspect of themselves and isn't able to brush it aside as something alien or "artificially induced" -- Troi must now grapple with the fact that she, like all people, carries the primitive seeds of cruelty in her nature. This is probably some of the best writing ever done for the Troi character.

It's easy to see why this book is so polarizing. It asks readers to realize that even an entity such as the Federation, which we have always been told stands for what is good and noble, can in times of terrible national stress forget the ideals it claims to defend. As the Federation president, his chief of staff, and a cabinet member work a criminal conspiracy to conceal the true reason for why Starfleet had to conquer and occupy the sovereign planet Tezwa, we see the Federation -- long considered STAR TREK's analog to the United States -- engaging in pre-emptive military action, telling one set of lies to its own troops, another to its allies, another to its accomplices on Tezwa... And when good people, like the crew of the Enterprise, are pressed into service based on lies and deception, their achievements, no matter how honorably they were engaged by our heroes, become tainted by the lies of the people who sent them into battle, into war, into conquest.

I don't think that Mack set out to tell a story of carnage and violence because he wanted glorify such evils --- I think this reads like the work of a writer who is appalled and horrified and very angry about what he has been seeing in the news. More than just another STAR TREK book, A TIME TO HEAL in my opinion, is a vicious polemic against a war and a point of view. It is dark, morally complex, violent, graphically brutal, tragic, and, frankly, brilliant.

Regardless of one's opinion of its story, or its conclusions, it is beautifully written. I would never expect everyone to love a book like this -- I don't think that's possible -- but I think it's definitely a book that is worthy of respect.