This is the final book of the "New Earth" six-book series, and the best, and it is fitting that the Grande Olde Dame of Star Trek fiction, Diane Carey, be the one to write it. This concludes the "Wagon Train to the Stars" storyline in a most satisfactory manner, with a lot of whistling-in-the-dark humor, with one quibble. Carey evidently contends in this book that Spock's mental balance is dependent upon McCoy for letting off pressure, and that without Bones to argue with for weeks at a time, his emotional balance suffers almost to the point of instability. This rings false to my understanding of the character over the last 35 years, and it surprises me that a veteran writer of Star Trek such as Diane Carey would make this contention. ( )