Rating: 
Summary: Cox's entertaining Star Trek "historical" is fun, thrilling
Review: Of all the villains or foes in the Star Trek canon, few compare to Khan Noonien Singh as far as screen presence, charisma, or memorable moments go. Oh, the Klingons were interesting heavies, particularly in the feature films. The Borg had their moments, but their toneless "Resistance is futile" compares palely to Khan's word duels with James T. Kirk in both the 1967 Original Series episode "Space Seed" and the 1982 feature film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Of course, credit must go to Ricardo Montalban, whose wonderful voice and acting skills made Khan one of Kirk's most dangerous adversaries.Noted Star Trek author Greg Cox's mu;ti-volume series, The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh is a clever and fascinating Star Trek "historical" novel which not only "fills in the blanks" about Khan and his fellow genetically engineered "supermen," but also tries to reconcile actual historical events with the established Star Trek timeline. Cox begins Volume One in the 23rd century, during Capt. James T. Kirk's first five-year mission. Assigned to investigate a colony of genetically engineered humans, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are still mindful about their recent run-in with Khan. While en route to this Paragon Colony, Kirk decides to study the history of Khan and the Eugenics Wars of the late 20th Century. Star Trek "history" tells us that in the 1990s, a group of some 90 genetically engineered men and women took over vast regions of Earth and waged a bloody series of conflicts that became known as the Eugenics Wars. One of the foremost of these "supermen" was Khan, who at the height of his power ruled one-fourth of the planet Earth. By 1996, however, Khan and 80 of his followers fled Earth aboard the spacecraft SS Botany Bay, where they slept in suspended animation until the year 2267, when the USS Enterprise encountered the derelict vessel and Khan was revived. Cox's challenge as a 21st Century writer was to mesh this fictional history with such real-life events as India's first nuclear test in 1974, the Bhopal accident and Indira Gandhi's assasination in 1984, the Reagan-Gorbachev Iceland Summit in 1986, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, among others. In these 20th Century episodes, Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln (who first appeared in the proposed pilot for Gene Roddenberry's "Assignment: Earth" series)investigate a secret project code-named "Chrysalis." Led by the brilliant but cold-blooded Dr. Sarina Kaur, a team of genetic experts is tweaking human DNA to bring forth a "superior" breed of humanity...a breed which is destined to supplant the existing "flawed" population of the planet. Cox adds to the fun by adding cameos by other Star Trek characters, including Gillian Taylor from Star Trek IV, Redjac from the Classic Series' "Wolf in the Fold," and Ralph Offenhouse from The Next Generation's "The Neutral Zone." And while his basic plotline resembles a mix of Star Trek and Tom Clancy novels, he also injects some witty puns and inside jokes which lighten the tone of this chilling narrative set in one of Star Trek's "dark times" of humanity's past.
Rating: 
Summary: Very ambitious, and mostly successful.
Review: One of the biggest flaws in the Star Trek universe, for some time now, has been the obvious conflict between the "history" that the series posited for the period 20 years or so in advance of when it was created and what we've since seen; it seems that the Star Trek timeline is more and more clearly not our own. After all, in "Space Seed", it was claimed that there were "Eugenics Wars" in the 1990s, when Khan and his people tried to take over the earth, and failed, only to escape in the "sleeper ship" that they were found in by Kirk and crew. Last I checked, that doesn't match the 1990s history that I remember. Greg Cox to the recue; the obvious intention of this book is to rationalize away that inconsistency. He's trying to (and mostly, succeeding in) writing a story in which those events actually DID occur, but have remained (so far, at least) top-secret and unknown to us folks not privy to the real behind-the-scenes goings on in world politics. A marvellous concept, and if he continues to pull it off as well as he has so far, I'll be delighted. So why only four stars? Two reasons, really. Neither of them major complaints, but cumulatively worth a star. First of all, while I realize that when you buy a book that says "volume one" on the cover, you can expect that there's a reasonably good chance that it won't be a complete story in itself, that doesn't mean that it has to end on a cliffhanger. Cliffhanger endings are annoying, amatuerish, and cheesy. ESPECIALLY when you have two completely separate plotlines going on, each good enough to stand on its own, so there is no NEED to make it a continued story. Tell the two stories separately, and be done with it! Secondly, the two stories alluded to above make a "frame story"; there are goings on with Kirk and the Enterprise that cause Kirk to decide to refresh his memory of the events of the Eugenics wars, and what we see of that history is apparently supposed to be what he sees as he brushes up on that part of history. But the events we see are almost exclusively things that WOULDN'T have made it into history books; Gary Seven's activities would certainly nver have been publicized, nor would several of the activities of Khan that we see here. It is POSSIBLE that Cox may have an explanation of this latter complaint (Star Fleet/Federation history may be more thorough than one would expect on the subject; perhaps Gary Seven allowed his notes to be opened after some specific date) (presumably, AFTER the point in their own timeline when Kirk and company originally encountered him, otherwise, they'd have been prepared to encounter him in the first place -- can you say "temporal paradox"?) but it will take some really fast talking to make any such explanation plausible. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Where was the editor?
Review: Padded and overwritten, this book is virtually unreadable. I can't believe someone didn't suggest that Cox seek professional help to overcome his life-threatening adverb addiction. If this novel is 100,000 words, about 10,000 of 'em must be adverbial modifiers. By page ten it's just too damn distracting to ignore. I wasn't expecting Hemingway from a Star Trek novelist, but come on, this is embarrassingly bad stuff. Cox takes forever to get this thing going, probably so he could leave room for the sequel. I haven't read the sequel, nor do I plan to, but I can virtually guarantee that a compentent editor could have combined the two into one novel, possibly even a decent novel at that. 200 pages into this one, here's what's happened so far: Roberta Lincoln and Gary Seven have infiltrated the bad guys' underground lab and Seven has been captured. That's it. And believe me, it's even less exciting than that synopsis. Lack of plot is acceptable if the writing is good and the characters are interesting, but here we get amateur writing and cardboard characters to go along with the fact that absolutely nothing is happening. The intriguing premise drew me to this one. Don't make the same mistake. Avoid it at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: The Untold Story
Review: Simply put: I really enjoyed this book! Reading more like a thriller novel than your classic Trek story, Greg Cox has created a feast of reading pleasure. Taking all the way back to 1974, Cox gives us the story of Khan Noonien Singh -- quite possibly was the best Trek villian ever created. Using snippets of the Star Trek chronology created by Gene Roddenberry in the classis Trek episode "Space Seed" and further in one of the best Trek films, Wrath of Khan, Cox gives us the history of the Eugenics War starting in 1974 and moving forward to story we've heard many times before. I will say this for Greg Cox, he captures the spirit of the times -- the 1970s through the middle 1980s -- accurately and he brings the character of Khan Noonien Singh to life so well you can almost here Ricardo Montalban speaking the words. In addition, the characters of Gary Seven, Isis the cat, and Roberta Lincoln are spot on. Cox has always been a fantastic Trek writer, and his Star Trek: TOS stories are among THE BEST written. This novel is a must-read for any Trek fan.
Rating: 
Summary: ST: The Eugenics Wars Volume 1
Review: Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars Volume One, The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox is a novel based on alternate history with a sprinkle of TREK to spice up a storyline. This book is NOT a Pulitzer. It is written to fill in the history of one of Captain James T. Kirk's archtypical fiends Khan Noonien Singh. Along for the story are the characters of Gary Seven and his perky sidekick Roberta Lincoln with the perfect companion Isis the shape-shifting ephemeral cat. If you are looking for action/adventure with a TREK twist... well you'll have to look elsewhere as there are only a scant few areas in this book where you can get engrossed in the story. This is a character driven book with the main focus on its main character Khan and how he got to be. The book starts out with a TREK-typical situation, Kirk et.al. are on their way to a planet called Sycorax. Sycorax has petitioned the Federation for membership. The planet is close to the Klingon/Federation neutral zone and they have been working on genetic augmentation for the last two hundred years and the Klingon's are wanting this knowledge as well. Enter another of Kirk's fiendish vilians, Koloth of "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode. But, this also brings Kirk to remember a past experience with Khan who was a product of Earth's eugenic past. Now, the storyline begins as we find out about the Chrysalis Project where the best and the brightest minds are being recruited for the ultimate result... geneticly superior human beings. Of course, the heros in this book Gary Seven, Roberta Lincoln and Isis are trying to find out about this mysterious project and are closing in to stop the project. We find Khan as a precosoius five year old child at this point in time with other children of about equal precocial abilities. As you can see, the author is spinning a tale well tied to other TREK events and storylines. In the afterword section of the book, we see the real events of history mentioned in this book as they really occured. The book takes Khan upto the 1980's as a twenty year old headstrong and rather self endulged full of himself person who is the only one who can save the world. As Kirk is on Sycorax faced with a crisis, the book leaves us wanting for some clarity and resolution of the character's collective problems. As this is not the best of TREK, it is a good fill in and fleshing out of characters from events past in the TREK history. A trip down memory lane with entertaining sidebars resulting in a story that could be believed.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest characters of Star Trek is back!
Review: The Khan Noonien Singh who met Captain Kirk was one of the last of a race of genetically engineered humans who tried to take over the Earth in the late 20th century during the Eugenics Wars. "But," you say, "it didn't happen! Look all around you!" Or maybe it DID happen!
Watch Gary Seven, with help from Roberta Lincoln and Isis, his black cat(or alien cat, whatever) go against Khan in a battle for Earth and, maybe, beyond. Very realistic and sometimes you might even feel a tad sad for some of the characters (like the kids).
Rating:
Summary: um... no.
Review: These Khan books are just plain bad. Full of cute trekkie references, they are for die-hard trekkies only. And I'm a huge Khan fan, so I was pretty let down. Really, this is not how I imagined the Eugenics wars at all. Did I mention the writing is atrocious? Some of the worst I've come across. Maybe that's because these were the first Trek novels I've read, so I didn't know to lower my expectations... Do yourself a favor and skip this junk. Get some real sci-fi instead!
Rating:
Summary: The story I've been waiting for
Review: This book is based on a part of Earth history that Spock mentions in the Star Trek episode "Space Seed". It is the fascinating tale of how a group of genetically engineered people try to take over the world in the 1990's. This book is Volume I which covers this history through the 1980's.
I have long thought that the Eugenics Wars should be the subject of the next Star Trek movie or perhaps of a TV series. In fact a series about Gary Seven, Roberta Lincoln, and their adventures in trying to save us from ourselves but it was never produced.
The result of bringing Gary Seven back in this book is a great spy story as well as great science fiction. I enjoyed seeing how the story superimposed itself on real life history. Actual historical events that are a part of the story are accounted for chapter-by-chapter in the afterword.
On a more personal note, what I like about the book is that the good guys use non-lethal methods of stopping their enemies whenever possible. This suggests that the writer as well as the characters has a high respect for humanity.
The book left me anticipating how the next book will fit this story into the 1990's even though that book may fail to do so convincingly. At a time when mammal cloning is possible and human cloning is being debated in Congress, this story is quite timely.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly written, illogical tale
Review: This book is only suitable for kids. The characters are uninteresting at best, and annoying at worst. The female lead character comes out with cutsy remarks that don't fit the mood or action. She is actively annoying. Also, this book is not really a Star Trek novel. Kirk and company only occupy a few pages near the end of the book. This is a poor story, poorly executed. I was disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Pure fun
Review: This book starts where the series episode "Space Seed" and movie "The Wrath of Khan" only briefly referenced, namely the origins of the figure Khan Noonien Singh and the historical context in which he rose to power. The book is fun to read, and the author brings in some characters from the series and movies, and also real characters from history. Tainting a Star Trek episode, movie, or novel with real history can cause problems with accuracy issues, but the author does it only sparingly and so the story is believable. The presence of Gary Seven in the story was a surprising move, and one which I found a little troubling. One would like to believe the future was brought about solely by human action, with no assistance from extra-terrestrial agents who take it upon themselves to guide humanity to the "correct" destination. Much time is spent in the book on how Seven and his delightful female assistant are working to prevent a certain high-tech eugenics project from carrying out its plans. As with most Star Trek stories, this one has a strange admixture of optimism and cynicism. And, despite the enormous statistical evidence to the contrary, the Star Trek view of history paints the human being as a brutal, inconsiderate savage, who only occasionally exhibits compassion and reason. Indeed, this is exemplified by the character Seven, who has no confidence in the efficacy of the human mind to be able to resolve social, economic, and political problems. In addition, the view of intelligence in the Star Trek series is quite narrow. The reader is supposed to believe that Khan has superior intelligence, in spite of his zeal to use violence to achieve his ends. But the initiation of force by any individual is never a sign of intelligence, but rather of stupidity. The character of Spock, who is quoted in the book as saying that "superior intelligence breeds superior ambition", to warn against the use of genetic engineering to create Khan-like monsters, is also another example of the restricted view of human intelligence in the Star Trek series. Emotions are thought of as having a disruptive, irrational effect on the human ability to reason effectively, instead of a set of natural processes that assist in the estimation and mental concentration of the human mind. The book also reflects some of the current anxiety about genetics as a science and its application in genetic engineering. There is valid reasons for concern about the use of genetic engineering, but like all human problems, we can solve them by employing more science and technology, not less. Minds capable of creating a human clone can indeed find solutions to the concerns thus generated. The optimistic view of the future though is one that makes the Star Trek series such a pleasure to participate in. It uses the medium of art and fantasy very effectively, and allows one to take part in an era, not very far distant, that is populated by beings (human and otherwise) who hold as an axiom that reason and mutual respect are the keys to a successful life. The characters of Star Trek have their faults and personal conflicts, but with their optimisim and their sense of adventure, they are worthy of contemplation.
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