Interesting from a franchise POV because it tells the story of one of the crewmen killed in the second TNG film. It also follows up with characters we met in earlier episodes about Picard's past. I f:thought it was a very interesting book, especially in how it dealt with Section 31's ethics and the Prime Directive (in a non-obvious way).

I enjoyed the storytelling in this book. I felt like I was reading another Star Trek TNG episode. The best part of the novel was the dialogue between character Hawk and Zweller over the purposeful rule-breaking of Section 31 compared to the seat of the pants decision making that Riker and Picard do. Although this is part of a series this book does a good job of standing on its own. I will probably read the other books in this series if they are available in my local library. ( )

I’ve found that I can count on authors Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin to deliver outstanding Star Trek tales and this novel is no exception. Picard is reunited with some old friends when the Enterprise is caught in the middle of a civil war. The Romulans are involved, but with friends in Section 31, the Federation’s covert operations division, who needs enemies?

Published in paperback by Pocket Books. ( )

Q. What's brown and lies at the bottom of the Starship Enterprise's toilet.
A. The Captain's log!

My apologies for that beginning. :)

Very stylish cover. Hopefully I age as well as Patrick Stewart and still make women weak at the knees when I'm 70 years old. The back cover done a good job in making me pick this book in a veritable starship filling, array of novels that are available in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. The title is just a tad too long though.

This was the kind of TNG novel that could easily be made into a movie. In fact it actually read like it was a movie at times. The plot was strong and the characters were written well although this particular story is set in the time frame when Worf no longer served aboard the Enterprise which was a bit of a letdown as he happens to be my favorite character. It's a double edged sword in terms of the story line with the Federation trying to negotiate a peace treaty between two warring factions on a planet called Chiaros IV while intrinsically entwined within that storyline is the Federation's secret shadow group, Section 31, trying to do what it thinks is best for the Federation by deliberately sabotaging the peace talks in exchange for a list of rogue Star Fleet personnel that are Cardassian spies. It all sounds fairly complicated when written down like that but I assure you it plays out very nicely indeed with no confusion whatsoever.

This is what I would refer to as a "thinking man's novel" or "thinking woman's novel" if you are of the female persuasion and if you encompass both sexes then choose either or both as you please. Even though there is a fair amount of action scenes in the book, which play out wonderfully by the way, the story is more about the politics and covert operations taking place and it does get one thinking about the shades of gray in what is supposedly a black and white mission. ( )