Not very good overall, I fear. The depiction of autism is dated at best and offensive at worst, and the writing nor plot satisfies. It's interesting to see the Enterprise so hurt it has to dock at a starbase, but literally nothing else about it is particularly believable, and the characters aren't lifelike either. Just not good.

The first thing that I noticed about this novel was that none of the characters really acted, or what was even more glaring, spoke like themselves. Data was the only one who even remotely seemed like himself. I think that the author was trying to get a certain character to sound more erudite while others sounded more 'down' with the lingo and less formal. I don't think it worked.

In general the writing just seemed clunkier than the average Star Trek novel. Which made it a bit hard to get into.

The story was basic enough. Enterprise answers a distress call from a science station, and from there chaos ensues thanks to a new and interesting life form. Not a very unique Star Trek plot, though it does have its own different twists (and the autism subplot was interesting).

Still the writing was very hard to get past so that the book could be enjoyed. Instead at every turn and every new page I tripped over wrong sounding characters and mostly bad writing. A shame. ( )

STAR TREK

picard and co save the day ( )