Rating: 
Summary: ST-Enterprise: What Price Honor?
Review: Star Trek-Enterprise: What Price Honor? written by Dave Stern is another lack-luster book in the launch of the "Enterprise" series to coinside with the television episodes.This latest book called "What Price Honor? starts out with Captain Jonathan Archer mulling over writting the loved ones of a crew memeber Ensign Alana Hart who was killed in the line of duty aboard the Enterprise NX-01. Now than the Enterprise has been in space for around a year now, thing should be becoming routine. Ah, but this adventure is just getting started. You see, Lieutenant Malcomb Reed is Ensign Alana Reed's immediate superior and is the one who found Reed trying to sabotage the Enterprise. Now, why would a crew member be willing to sabatoge the Enterprise? This is where we get the major plot involving Reed and the war between two civilizations, the Sakassians and the Ta'alaat... but nothing seems as it is, but the crew of the Starship Enterprise don't realize this right away and there in lies the rub. I don't know if it is just me, but this story is missing something and I can't quite put my finger on it. The characters seem a tad flat and subdued. There isn't a dynamic quality a deep zeal to go where no man has gone before. The series Enterprise seem to be like a rat in a maze who hasn't found its way quite yet. This book follows the trend this year of writing book from the point of view of the crew and not the main character or Captain. While some authors seem to grasp this idea, Dave Stern has fallen a bit short with this effort. This book just doesn't show enough of the disciplined and cohesive crew unit. I gave it a 3 star rating just for this reason... the story just doesn't seem to gel and make a good book. This is a book if you want it fine, but I'd wait and pick it up at the library or a second hand book store. This is not one of TREK's best... and the authors writing for this series just haven't found the key to open the characters to a dynamic ACTION-ADVENTURE. This is average at best.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Story
Review: The plot itself held my interest enough that I wanted to
find out how it would end, but I did manage to figure out
the basics of what was happening well before the end of
the story. I have to agree with others that the characters
did not seem to come across as strongly as they do in the
series. Their "spark" was missing. And yet, even with its
shortcomings, this story came across to me much better than
Enterprise: By the Book.
Rating:
Summary: I found some good and some bad in this book.
Review: The plot itself held my interest enough that I wanted to
find out how it would end, but I did manage to figure out
the basics of what was happening well before the end of
the story. I have to agree with others that the characters
did not seem to come across as strongly as they do in the
series. Their "spark" was missing. And yet, even with its
shortcomings, this story came across to me much better than
Enterprise: By the Book.
Rating: 
Summary: Give this one a pass
Review: The plot's been done to death, and much more effectively: A Starfleet vessel, in this case the Enterprise NX-01, caught up in a war between two species. This time around it is the Sarkassians and the Ta'alaat. Mind control, mysterious alien technology beyond the crew's comprehension and a crewmember, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, racked with guilt. Yawn. The text of the book makes several references to the Enterprise being approximately a year into its mission, which would place the story in 2152. Consequently I found it very trying to have a large bold chapter heading glaring at me every few minutes, with a date that places the events well before Enterprise even left earth. Even if you can get past the cookie-cutter plot and conspicuous errors, it's hard to care what happens in What Price Honor?. The writing is stiff and flat. It is impossible to feel any empathy for the downtrodden Ta'alaat as you learn next to nothing about them. The aggressors, the Sarkassians, are easy to dislike, but that is based on the behavior of one particularly obnoxious ambassador. The whole story feels incomplete somehow, as if it was all written in a big rush without the author really thinking about it.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not great.
Review: This book probably should rate a bit higher than three stars, but four would definitely be too high for it; it is a gripping action-adventure novel, with good characterization and an interesting plot, but it is really nothing out of the ordinary as Trek novels go (although it WAS nice to see a more in-depth look at Lt. Malcolm Reed, who is usually just a background character.) On the down side, this is one of those novels that prominently contains a mystery that the reader sees coming by no later than chapter four, but that the characters just can't imagine the solution to until the very end. At least in this case it isn't because the characters are being portrayed as dolts, but simply because this sort of thing is not something one would expect in real life, but any reader of fantasy or science fiction knows that in a fictional story, it is very possible; still, even if their relative lack of speed on the uptake is not unreasonable, it still makes the story very frustrating for the reader. I enjoyed reading this book, but I can't say that there was anything particularly spectacular about it that would make it stand out in the crowd of Star Trek books, other than the fact that it is (at this point) one of very few "Enterprise" novels. If you enjoy the show, or would like a good introduction to it, this book is certainly worth the read, as it is if you simply want a good, action-packed Star Trek novel. But if you want more than that, this isn't the book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Stand Out Among Star Trek Books
Review: What Price Honor is a stand-out among Star Trek books. Unlike many, which simply fall into the ship stops at planet, crew sees problem, crew solves problem and saves planet mold, What Price Honor weaves an interesting tale, combining scenes from the near past, months earlier and present-day in to a cohesive story. We gradually learn more about how ensign Alana Hart dies as the near-past and present-day plot-lines advance. We follow how Ensign Hart goes from a social recluse to finally having a romantic interlude with Malcolm and requesting a transfer right before her death. Complicataing matters is that this all represents "first contact" with the Sarkassians and Ta'alaat who are embroiled in a interplanetary war over ownership of technology from a now-extinct advanced society. Malcolm & Captain Archer's desire to resolve what happened to Ensign Hart (who we later learn was actually killed by Malcolm) draws them deep into the thick of the inter-species conflict.
Rating:
Summary: Stand Out Among Star Trek Books
Review: What Price Honor is a stand-out among Star Trek books. Unlike many, which simply fall into the ship stops at planet, crew sees problem, crew solves problem and saves planet mold, What Price Honor weaves an interesting tale, combining scenes from the near past, months earlier and present-day in to a cohesive story. We gradually learn more about how ensign Alana Hart dies as the near-past and present-day plot-lines advance. We follow how Ensign Hart goes from a social recluse to finally having a romantic interlude with Malcolm and requesting a transfer right before her death. Complicataing matters is that this all represents "first contact" with the Sarkassians and Ta'alaat who are embroiled in a interplanetary war over ownership of technology from a now-extinct advanced society. Malcolm & Captain Archer's desire to resolve what happened to Ensign Hart (who we later learn was actually killed by Malcolm) draws them deep into the thick of the inter-species conflict.
| 
