Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing Plot Marred By Poor Writing
Review: John Vornholt has been among the most consistent writers of good Star Trek fiction, but alas he falls a bit short in "Star Trek: A Time To Be Born". This book will appeal only to those diehard Star Trek fans who are interested in finding out what happened to Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise after the film "Star Trek: Insurrection". Vornholt presents a very intriguing premise in his depiction of the Rashanar Sector's interstellar graveyard of warships left over from the epic Battle of Rashanar during the Dominion War. However, it is a premise marred frequently by poor writing and inconsistent plotting. At best this was an inexpensive, mildly entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Plot Marred By Poor Writing
Review: John Vornholt has been among the most consistent writers of good Star Trek fiction, but alas he falls a bit short in "Star Trek: A Time To Be Born". This book will appeal only to those diehard Star Trek fans who are interested in finding out what happened to Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise after the film "Star Trek: Insurrection". Vornholt presents a very intriguing premise in his depiction of the Rashanar Sector's interstellar graveyard of warships left over from the epic Battle of Rashanar during the Dominion War. However, it is a premise marred frequently by poor writing and inconsistent plotting. At best this was an inexpensive, mildly entertaining read.
Rating: 
Summary: Review for Star trek A Time to Be Born
Review: Overall this book was great. I loved the character interation. The story was ok. My only problems werethe three admirals: Ross, Paris and Niqimoria. I could see Ross and Nick going after Picard because both have political agendas, Ross worked with Section 31 in Ds9 Season 7 and Nick is predugest aganist Data, I could not however see Paris going after Picard a decorated Starfleet vet. Paris from what we saw in Voyager was a fair and just man. I just couldn't see him looking for a scape goat. One other problem is why is Ross incharge of Nechyev who is off higher rank and been in Starfleet longer, those are my only problems.
Rating: 
Summary: The beginning of the end?
Review: Setting: This novel is placed before the movie Star Trek Nemisis, before many events in the movie have even completely come together.Now I can spoil a minor surprise for everyone because it is reveled in the first four pages-Wesley Crusher stops by. He watches from the sidelines through most of the novel and observes. You are very aware of who he is and I personal felt a little cheated. See, he was in the novel but never directly interacted with the other Enterprise characters until the very end. I think it would have been more striking not to know who he was until the revel to the characters. There is no doubt, where things go through out this novel but they are done very well and I was still driven to get to the end and see if my intuition was correct. I can tell you for sure that I will be waiting each month for the next part of this series to show up.
Rating:
Summary: STNG: A Time to Be Born
Review: Star Trek: "A Time to Be Born" written by John Vornholt is an excellent start to a nine book series that takes us on an adventure and tells the untold story of the events that took place between Star Trek: "Insurrection" and Star Trek: "Nemesis." The main part of this book takes place in the Rashanar Battle Site where the Federation and its allies made a last ditch effort to defeat the Dominion. This was the Dominion War's fierest battle where hundreds of ships now float aimlessly and lifeless in this region of space known as the Rashanar Sector. The U.S.S. Enterprise and her crew are sent to this galactic graveyard to help in the retrival of the dead, but they get more than they bargained for. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, even with his vast experience, has a difficult time with this highly dangerous mission. We find out what has become of Wesley Crusher and why he hasn't been heard from since he left with the Traveler. As things go wrong in a hurry for the Enterprise and her crew, Jean-Luc Picard seems to have a real bad hair day in space. It begins with the Calypso, Captain Picard's yacht being stolen right from under his nose, by the resourseful Androssi, while they were exploring the Asgard. Things deteriorated even worse with an encounter with an antimatter asteroid, when they reported that an Ontailian ship had been lost, only to have the Ontailians deny it. There are many encounters with scavengers as there is wholesale looting going on, and considerabe damage to shuttlecraft and escorts. The interstellar graveyard has even more surprises in store with deadly blasts from energy spikes, dramatic rescues, and a spining gravity vortex, just to mention a few of the surprises. All of this makes the adventure move quickly as you read on and in no time your wanting to read on into the next installment " A Time to Die." I found the book to be a fast read with adequate action and adventure to make you want more in the upcoming book. This is a solid 5 stars for this reason... now I only hope that this series of books live up to all of the hipe. There are some pretty good twists of fate in the book and Captain Jean-Luc Picard has the most to lose in the long haul. We are left hanging at the end of the book for a resolution to issues found within this first installment making for a good setup for the next book to come out. I for one will be waiting for Star Trek: "A Time to Die" to come out in March 2004.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, even for a non-Trekkie
Review: The book starts with the inclusion of Wesley Crusher into a group know as "Travellers," although he doesn't re-enter the story till near the end. The story mainly concerns the crew of the Enterprise and their mission to assist in the protection of the site of the Dominian War so bodies can be retrieved and fend of those trying to profit by stealing components from destroyed ships. But as things go wrong, Captain Picard is accused of negligence in his duties for allowing his personal cruiser to be stolen, and then firing upon a friendly ship resulting in more death and destruction. This book is only a beginning for others to continue the story.
This is the first Star Trek book I've read. While I enjoy watching "Next Generation" on TV occasionally, I'm not exactly a fan. But I found the book enjoyable, and although somewhat slow-moving, it was interesting and having seen many episodes I was able to visualize the characters. In all, it felt like I was reading the story of an episode, although significantly longer. My biggest disappointment was that the story wasn't resolved, and realizing there are quite a few other books in this "series."
Overall, kinda fun to read, but I'm not sure I'll become a fan of the books. (I read the electronic version on my PDA).
Rating:
Summary: A Time to be Born (Book 1 of 7)
Review: The Enterprise crew has taken an assignment to the home of the fircest battle in all of the Dominion War, and the home of the worst space battle in history. Federation, Jem' Hadar, and Cardassian ships fought each other to the death here... Or was it something else that day? The Enterprise is here to keep scavengers from salvaging the derelicts and to recover bodies. Captian Leeden of the Juno, a Federation science vessel sent to study and Rashanar and recover bodies has been there for a while and remarks that there is no shortage of ways to die. She is right. Captain Picard and his loyal crew are in one of the most dangerous places in the universe. And, another interesting twist: they have someone watching over them. Wesley Crusher, former ensign and now a Traveler looks over the Enterprise because of the nightmare he saw in the Pool of Prophecy before being born into the Travelers. Will the crew of the Enterprise continue their mission and perhaps find out what happened, or will they meet the same end as the rest of the ships-death-and destruction? Read the book! John Vornholt did a relatively good job of painting the picture here, but his writing was choppy and hard to follow at times. I liked it because of the intracate plot, but his writing was less than what I expected. I hope that you will read it and enjoy it, though, because the sequel came out pretty well. Enjoy it!
Rating:
Summary: a decent book
Review: the rashanar battle sight was one of the most fierces sights in the donminion war. it is also a big mystery. it is a graveyard of ships from both sides that all went on fighting until they had no more weapons. since no one lived to tell about it, it is a big enigma. the enterprise is assinged to the area to collect bodies and to keep scalpers away from the ships. easier said then done. the battle sight holds many mysteries as to how so many ships lost in this battle and if the enterprise is not careful, they can end up in the same shape. for all you star trek fans, this book starts out very slow, building up to a spectacular ending. don't let the first part deter you from finishing or you will be disappointed. it also brings back a dear friend that i am also glad they introduced. happy reading
Rating: 
Summary: Great storyline but amateurish writing at best
Review: The storyline for this book was excellent as you can see from some of the other reviews so I won't explain it again. The thing that bothered me about the book was the dialogue. I found that the characters were saying things out of the ordinary for the TNG crew we all know. For instance, Captain Picard asks Data if a Jeffries Tube leads to the bridge. Can anyone tell my why he would even have had to ask that??? Captain Picard would have already known that, I know I did! Also the writing is not very descriptive or detailed. The only reason I finished it is because I wanted to find out how Wesley rejoined Starfleet. If you want to fill in the gaps between Wesley's departure from TNG and his return to Starfleet I suggest you read the book, otherwise don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: First it's boring then it's irritating
Review: This is a two-part story. In the first half the Enterprise is operating in a "haunted" battle site with some strange new Federation allies. The second half is a legal drama story, as Starfleet Command hangs Picard out to dry to appease those new allies. The second half of the book must be the main story for the second book as it got all of the writer's attention. The descriptions in the first half are flat and boring. The actions and speech of the Enterprise crew are written the same way. Other characters are well-written, making for a bad contrast with the crew. Then suddenly everything changes. We get a vivid description of a very dramatic scene, and an equally vivid and compelling emotional reaction from an Enterprise crewmember. With a rather nasty irony, it's Data and his artificially generated emotions. After that, the descriptions are vivid and interesting and the Enterprise crew suddenly have personalities again. However, for me at least, it's now the plot that becomes irritating. First off, it is explicitly stated to Picard - who astonishingly raises no objections - that his trial will be determined solely on how it affects the Federation's relationship with the new aliens. Truth is irrelevant. Second, we are told the Federation is disintegrating as members leave because 'they feel the Federation cannot defend them.' The Federation defeated the Borg and the Dominion and made an alliance with the Romulans, and planetary governments feel threatened *now*? If that is the central theme of the "A Time to..." series than I am not going to enjoy it as it makes no sense to me. For this book in particular, perhaps the best summary is to say that I want to find out the solutions to the aliens' behaviour and the ship graveyard, but I don't really want to read the next book to do so.
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