One of the best Trek novels I have read in a LONG time...

Christopher L. Bennett gives us a "Star Trek" novel the way it ought to be -- hair-raising adventure and courage combined with timeless moral questions, which in this instance are: Can reason be balanced with religion? What can a society do when fanatics go so far as to blow themselves and others up in the name of faith? Can one be Vulcan and still express emotion?

This is not only a sequel to "The Motion Picture", but to the original series episode "For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky." Mr. Bennett gets each character spot-on, from the old regulars to the new crewpeople, some of whom do not have humanoid form (which, alas, was not possible to show on the TV shows and the movies).

The most amazing fact about this book is that it is Mr. Bennett's FIRST published novel. Imagine what we Trek fans have to look forward to from this author! Bravo!

One of the All Time Best Trek Novels

Here is a Trek novel that defies the conventional wisdom. It introduces depth to our beloved characters, and introspection. We see the characters grow, and develop. Sulu grapples with his career direction. McCoy wonders if he is a has been. Spock must deal with his new found need for emotion. Kirk must deal with his image as a "hero" and at the same time seek peace with his method of assuming command of the Enterprise. All this and more await the reader.

The story is in itself a simple Trek story. Instead of using some "end of the universe" plot it is simply a Trek drama with all the things that made Trek so good. It is timely, dealing with terrorism, education reform, and tolerance.

All aspects are weaved together into a beautifully told story. The author clearly has a love for Trek and his characterizations are perfect. Best of all, the ending does not disappoint.

I'm tough on Trek novels. Most of them are throw away, and tolerable at best. This is one of the best and a joy to read.

Long-winded but ultimately satisfying

I found this to be a long winded and often irritating book that works up to a quite entertaining ending. First off, if you are interested in what this book has to say about the fate of V'Ger, Decker and Ilia, it is incidental to the plot and there is not much there. The secondary story of the book is the now typical resistance of a people to the imposition of outside ideas, with the most extreme turning to terrorism and the government responding with heavy handed security measures. Personally I find it irritating when the outer story is just a backdrop to the characters' emotional problems, which are the main story here. This is a transition story, as the main characters question their life paths. It is an interesting idea, but I feel the author was too heavy handed. Each major story character gets a four page internal monologue to set out what brought them to this point. There are eight or ten of them. Long internal monologues are not a good way to sustain reader interest, and that is too many of them. Spock and McCoy, the major characters questioning themselves, also come off too self-centred. Both of them are concerned with how the mission will affect their personal lives, rather than how their problems may affect their mission. Also, Spock and McCoy have counterparts, with almost no story purpose but to point out their flaws as loudly and offensively, for character and reader, as possible. These people are arrogant, close-minded, self-righteous bigots. There can be few things worse than the internal monologue of such a person, and when that character is there for the sole purpose of making McCoy look bad, it just gets ridiculous. To top it all off, I found there to be too much technobabble. This is an area I very rarely complain about, but this author found little details to explain in excessive depth.

Obviously, despite all this I found enough of this book enjoyable. For one thing, Kirk isn't stuck at the questioning stage like everyone else, he is in the looking for answers stage, and he does not let it interfere noticeably in his behaviour, all of which is refreshingly in character. Spock and McCoy are a little annoying when alone, but they are in splendid form when together. Also, my biggest complaint about the monologues is that the dialogue between characters is good. The quality of the writing is generally very good, the descriptions and action scenes very clear. Finally, the last third of the book twists the plot from "get both sides to talk" to "stop the madman". The characters emotional lives take a backseat to the action. It is typical Original Series: Kirk sneaks around and leads redshirts into fire fights, miracle work is demanded of Scotty, Spock is philosophising, mindmelding and exercising his particular brand of sardonic humour. This section was excellent. All in all, I found the book as a whole to be an entertaining read, though it should have been shorter, more focussed, and have less of the close-minded counterpoint characters.