Yep, back on the Star Trek novels! This is a pretty decent instalment, slotting in between 'The Tholian Web' and 'For The World Is Hollow' from season three. After rescuing a Starfleet ship only to discover that the crew are dead, Kirk and Spock seek answers to clear the captain's name, involving the Romulan commander from 'The Enterprise Incident', a beautiful scientist and the mysterious 'Section 31'.

The Big Three are all in character - the 'womanising' that Kirk is accused of in other reviews is actually very much like him, falling for an attractive yet intelligent woman who is too wrapped up in her own career, like him, for anything more than flirtation. Hardly womanising. Spock seeks the assistance of the Romulan commander he formed a bond with while he and Kirk were out to steal a cloaking device, and Doctor McCoy finds out that he has a terminal illness - but we know he's going to be fine and his recovery is covered in one line in the epilogue, so I'm not sure why that subplot was included here. Some great detective work from the rest of the crew, including Uhura deciphering a code and Chekhov tracing a doctor working with Kirk's scientist, and the usual leaps of faith that might just work from the Captain whenever the ship is in danger.

Good fun, well written. More to come! ( )

Nice TOS introduction to Section 31. picked this up on one of the Trek discount sales - didn't know what to expect, but it was a nice "original Trek" story which only glanced off of Section 31 - I appreciated the subtle touch, as well as the great original series call outs and characterizations. ( )

One of the better Star Trek novels I have read in some time. Kirk has been sent a on a mission to steal a Romulon cloaking device. No one questioned it as the time. They take some R&R at a science symposium. Things turn weird when one of the scientists starts spotting some bigoted conservative propaganda.

S.D. Perry is a great author. She did a fine job letting us get inside of Kirk's head, in particular she did a great job as showing as to how Kirk justify to himself his treatment of women.

This would be the first time in the Star Trek timeline that I am aware of Section 31, the Federation's NSA, shows its head. If it wasn't for the giveaway on the cover it would be much more suspenseful, then again if it wasn't for the give away on the cover, I might not read it at all. No need to read the other books in a series to get this. As long as you have seen Star Trek: The Original Series a few episodes to know the characters you should enjoy this book. Highly recommended. ( )

As best I can remember this was passed on to me by a friend--I'm a big Star Trek fan from childhood and particularly a Kirk fan, and this promised to feature him prominently given the picture of him on the cover. It also deals with an intriguing aspect of the Trek universe added on by Deep Space Nine--Section 31--an irregular clandestine organization within Star Fleet. The problem is, although I appreciated how this novel fit in references to various episodes and tried to make sense of the characters within that framework, the writing struck me as bland boilerplate. And I was additionally disappointed that the author didn't take the opportunity to better develop the origins of Section 31 given a chance to place such a story about it during the original series time-frame.

Mind you, the blandness is a problem I often find in media pro-fiction. The powers-that-be are unwilling to allow for major developments that go outside the box without hitting a major reset button and work-for-hire is unattractive for several reasons to "name" writers. That means it's rare to either get the loving attention to detail, voice and insight into character of good fan fiction (not an oxymoron, it exists) nor the originality and quality of really fine professional writers in the science fiction genre. I never felt this author "got" this cast of characters other than in a bullet point way.

There are exceptions, or at least novels of this sort I've greatly enjoyed. Star Trek fans generally have great affection for pro works by Vonda N. McIntyre, Diane Carey, A.C. Crispin, Diane Duane, John M. Ford, Janet Kagen, Melinda Snodgrass, Jean Lorrah, Barbara Hambly, Della Van Hise, Carolyn Clowes, D.C. Fontana, Jeri Taylor, and Peter David--and even the admittedly cheesy novels of Marshak and Culbreath. If you're interested in reading a good work based on Star Trek, I'd point you to those writers or get some of the fine short story anthologies in the Strange New Worlds series of books. I'm afraid this particular novel is not memorable and will be weeded out on my next purge of my books. ( )

A quite competently written Star Trek adventure, set in the old days of the TV series not long after Kirk and Spock have spirited a cloaking device away from the Romulans. A group of renegade scientists have made use of the cloaking device to facilitate an extremely risky experiment involving the creation of an artificial molecule, of great power and great instability. Kirk is drawn into it when they murder to cover their tracks, and discovers the existence of a shadow organization within Starfleet that has made this happen. A good basic space adventure, with an exciting finish and a half-resolution which leads to a continuation in the other Star Trek domains. ( )