Rating: 
Summary: Section 31: Conspiracies in the Trek universe
Review: I should start this review by saying at the outset that I didn't believe in Section 31. That is to say I didn't believe that an extragovernmental agency was tasked *from the founding of the Federation in 2161* to circumvent rule of law, to commit murder, to interfere in scientific research, to be accountable to no one but themselves in order to preserve the Federation's utopian culture. What I wanted to believe was that there was a relatively small cell of Federation officials and Starfleet personnel whose perspective was so skewed that they felt no restraints on their actions in order to preserve a particular vision of what the Federation and Starfleet should be. (To use a movies analogy, more 'Seven Days in May' than 'The Manchurian Candidate.' Or, in science fiction terms, a combination of the Cigarette-Smoking Man and his cronies from 'X-Files' with the ARM from Larry Niven's stories.) In May and June of 2001, Pocket Books released four novels that showed Section 31 in action and noted incidents cited in aired Star Trek (even prior to the DS9 episode, 'Inquisition,' which introduced the shadow organization). Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin's _Rogue_, set six months before the events of 'Star Trek: First Contact,' reintroduces Jean-Luc Picard's Academy classmates Marta Batanides and Corey Zweller. Batanides is now a vice-admiral with Starfleet Intelligence while Zweller is now chief science officer on the USS Slayton. One of those old friends is assigned to interfere with the Federation's negotiations with Chiaros IV so that the latter world will go over to the Romulan Empire. In _Shadow_ by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Seven of Nine meets with a series of accidents while Voyager's officers and crew race to save millions from the explosion resulting from three suns colliding. In _Cloak_ by S.D. Perry, set during the original Star Trek's third season, the Enterprise crew is present at a scientific station's efforts to synthesize an Omega particle. At the same time, Dr. McCoy is secretly dealing with the revelation that he may not live for long. _Abyss_ by David Weddle (author of 'Inquisition') and Jeffrey Lang, Dr. Bashir is recruited by Section 31 to actually stop one of their own. Like Bashir, Ethan Locken is genetically enhanced. Unlike Bashir, Locken wants to create a new culture in the style of Khan Noonien Singh, the Eugenics Wars dictator. All four of the novels make a good case for Section 31's tendrils reaching farther than just the 'relatively small cell' I thought plausible. Section 31's existence does explain the actions of such people as Admiral Cartwright and Col. West in 'Star Trek VI,' or Admiral Dougherty in 'Star Trek: Insurrection.' As well, Janeway's discovery of Section 31's existence -- and how it offends her sensibilities and ideals -- explains the anger with which she pursued Captain Ransom in 'Equinox.' Of the four, I enjoyed _Rogue_ and _Abyss_ the most. In the former, Mangels and Martin (who will be writing an Excelsior novel to be released in 2002) take a character from 'Star Trek: First Contact,' the doomed Lieutenant Hawk, and develop an intereesting background and love interest for him (from the description, I suspect the love interest of being based physically on Mangels). In _Abyss_, we get inside Bashir's head as he struggles with Locken and realizes that *he* could easily have grown up to be his enemy. After reading all four, I came away both entertained and thinking about the issues in a utopian society that a Section 31 calls into question. There was a period in the early 90's when I could read a Trek novel and 'not inhale' -- i.e., forget it almost as soon as I read it. If the Section 31 novels (and the Avatar novels I reviewed recently) are any indication, I think that time is long past.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst Overall Star Trek Novel I've Ever Read
Review: I wish I hadn't purchased this one. I should have read the reviews first. Few of them however, look past the obvious controversy and take into account the poor quality of the whole storyline, and weak characterizations which constantly reminded me of clips hacked from the tv shows. The image of Section 31 as having any intelligence has been severly tarnished. It was immediately obvious that their mission objective was faulty and ill-conceived and their operatives are real stooges. And I had to try really hard to be open-minded and get through all the gay parts, but the author really goes to far with them, planting them like little stink-bombs around every corner, and I feel that he completely ruined a book that was already pretty shallow anyway. I'm so dissapointed that I'm tempted to stop reading Star Trek novels completely now.
Rating:
Summary: Best TNG I've read
Review: Martin and Mangels write with such depth and richness that one cannot help but be completely immersed in the novel while reading it. Frankly, it's the most engrossing TNG novel I've ever read. I look forward to reading more Star Trek by this new team of Star Trek novelists. (Can't wait for their Captain Sulu novel!) The homosexual element is inconsequential as far as the plot and story go. It is used as one of many characterstics of one character. It had no effect what so ever on my enjoyment of the novel. It's a completely neutral issue, and is treated as such by the authors. There is no gay agenda in this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Writer Puts Several GAY Reverences In This Book
Review: Stat Trek Section 31: Rogue The story is perverted beyond belief! I can't beleive the author chose to Change several star trek characters in to gays. Who reads this: Children for the most part. I AM DISGUSTED by this attempt by gays such as the author to entice other people to become gay! If you want to be gay fine but don't go around brainwashing children into thinking it cool to be gay. If later on they decide to be gay once again fine but don't influence something THAT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: a good read
Review: The only reason why this is getting only 3 stars instead of 4 is because I wanted to indicate that it isn't quite as good as its companion novel, "Section 31: Abyss." With "Abyss," I was quickly caught up in the story despite a lack of familiarity with most of the characters and much of the backstory. As for this novel, much has been said about the subplot that establishes Lieutenant Hawk as a homosexual, so I guess I'll have to at least address the issue. Yes, Hawk is presented as gay, and to those of us who are a bit conservative, it is a little shocking to see how easily the other characters accept his homosexuality. In our world, most people would at least be thrown long enough for an awkward moment. But despite its many perils, "Star Trek" has always presented a world that is a little better than ours, especially in terms of acceptance toward others. After all, "Star Trek" is the world that advocates Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination. So if the authors want to make Hawk gay, let 'em do it. Let's try to get past it and concentrate on the story. The story is one of political intrigue in the best "Star Trek" tradition. Specifically, the Federation of United Planets and the Romulan Star Empire both want to annex the same planet in the Neutral Zone. Of course, the U. S. S. Enterprise is sent to represent the Federation during negotiations. This could have been a formulaic story, but the authors are clever with how they intertwine the politics with the Section 31 concept and with the backstory established in the TV episode "Tapestry." If you ever wanted to know whatever happened to Picard's Starfleet Academy friends depicted in that episode, you might want to add an extra star to this review.
Rating:
Summary: A superior read
Review: This book is a superior read for any honest fan of TNG. The known characters are true to their natures as presented in TNG, and the story itself is far more interesting than some of the others under the TNG moniker. There are few mistakes re: our current understanding of physics, but then the entire StarTrek genre is rife with such things. A few reviewers have pointed out the naivete of some Sec. 31 officers, but to my mind, this happens in any such groups when they occassionally become a bit too self assured & cocky. One reason I picked up this specific book was because of the outlandish homophobic comments made by a minority of reviewers (one of whom read less than 40 pages) - I'm always intrigued when a reviewer focuses one only one minor aspect of a book for his/her post. Frankly, if you think this is a work of Gay fiction, you'll be disappointed: the 2 Gay characters are no more Gay than Julian & Neils (surely I'm not the only one who noticed the amount of quality time they spent together on Deep Space Nine or the near-tearful goodbyes they exchanged at the end of the series). As for TNG not dealing with Gays, the original discussions of the series implied that they did intend to do so (but the station soon capped that); in fact, in the first season, if you watch carefully, a crewMAN occassionally appears in the background wearing a dress (yeah, I know, a stereotype, but that's TV for you). As for the author having an agenda, the only agenda I've seen is totally in the mind of a couple of reviewers.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Read - Go out and BUY IT!
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It is a great departure from some of the recent STNG books that have fallen short. It's a quick read - but only because once you start you will not want to put it down! The story is centered around a secret deal between the Romulans and Section 31. Section 31 has agreed to cede what they believe to be a worthless sector to the Romulans in exchange for a list of Romulan spies operating within the Federation. Of course there is more to the deal than the Romulans are revealing and leave it to Picard and the crew of the Enterprise to ferret out the details. The sub-plots are all very interesting and add to the overall story line. I highly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Hawk is Gay, so what?
Review: Geezer alert and Full Disclosure: I knew Andy Mangles When. Since the days of the APA That Dare Not Speak Its Name (long story short, we've corresponded, never met). I picked up this book because of his name on the cover. I like Andy, and I was predisposed to like his book. And I do. One thing did bother me about the book that no other review has mentioned. The action takes place on Chiaros IV, a world that barely qualifies for Federation membership and is being courted by the Federation and the Romulans. The planet is tide-locked, one side perpetually facing its sun. The habitable zone is a narrow band at the terminator, the weather is always bad, and off-planet communications are through a tethered communications relay . . . huh? An orbital tether has to be anchored at geosyncronous orbit. Geosyncronous orbit for a tide-locked planet is the same as the distance to its sun. The Chiarosans' communications relay is on a tether 150 million kilometers long, a very impressive bit of engineering for a civilization that has not fully explored their own solar system. But it doesn't matter to the plot, and no one reads Star Trek books for the physics. Characterization is excellent, all the Next Generation characters are consistent. Andy has done his homework, there is enough continuity and trivia to delight the most hard-core Trekie. Action sequences are well-paced and exciting. Don't know how it fits into the series, but it was good as a stand-alone novel. It's difficult to take Section 31 seriously from this, the two operatives we see here seem incredibly naive in believing the Tal Shiar would hand over a list of their Resources in the Federation for anything, much less a marginal planet. These clowns seem to have more in common with the Watergate Plumbers than the Obsidian Order. If this is the caliber of agent Section 31 recruits, it is difficult to see how it has stayed a secret for two hundred years. On a personal note, I tend to think of Science Fiction fans as more inteligent and more open minded than the average person, so I was somewhat disturbed by the reviewers who made a Big Deal out of the fact that Lt. Sean Hawk is Gay. Trekers follow stories of seeking out new life and new civilizations, it's disappointing that some of them find it easier to accept aliens than humans who are different.
Rating:
Summary: Has Star Trek Gone Too Far?
Review: The short answer is no, but only because Paramount has a much smaller involvement in the plots of the books than they do the series/films. Other reviewers have mentioned here that Star Trek continuously seeks to break new ground, and I agree. One has to wonder then, why in 33 years has Star Trek never explored this controversial subject along in addition to the others they have explored? I, for one, feel there has to have been a compelling reason for this omission. Reading the book's dedication, it seems obvious that one of the authors is using this forum to promote his own lifestyle choice; and while this is perfectly acceptable in a work of fiction, in my opinion it is not acceptable in Star Trek. The true fault here lies with Star Trek editor John Ordover for his inclusion of this book in the ever-growing list of Star Trek titles. For me, this is strike two for Mr. Ordover, his first being the publication of "Adventures in Time and Space" edited by leftist propoganda hack Mary Taylor. I have forgiven much in the Star Trek books I have read through the years, but this is too much. This book is 360 pages long, I put it down after page 50 and don't plan on picking it up again. If you're a liberal who enjoys leftist propoganda, by all means read this book, but if you don't enjoy having others' politics forced on you, then pass on it.
Rating:
Summary: Not terrific but really good
Review: I broke down, I picked it up, the week after I had read Abyss. Nothing better to do with a day right? There is a gay guy, Hawk, the guy who bought it in First Contact---big story flashback. The story is complicated and the writers are given approriate space to work it out but it does lack a little in the fact that Section 31, the Federation and the Romulans set-up a heckuva situation on an innocent planet and then leave when their goals are done. Also the whole shock over Section 31 existing makes Starfleet officers seem a little naive, even slightly dumb (I was hoping that Admiral Batanides would turn out to be in Section 31 too but alas not) it's human nature within such larger organizational systems to have some dark pocket, some arm that handles things that the rules won't allow. It bordered on gross naivete and a bit of racism ( I remember when the Klingon daughter accused Kirk and his crew of the same in one of the films0 and she was right, there is a racist slant from Starfleetin favor of humans that often makes them come off as predisposed to seeing other races as wrong and themselves as infallible. Perhaps the overall purpose of Section 31 is to show that arrogant belief turned on it's ear. Troi finally comes off as useful, her empathic abilities being a threat and a worthy tool that rarely coincided in the series nor the novels. The whole gay thing? It's a little, well, simple. I agree with the reviewer about two sweaty guys in a holodeck playing war games, it did come off a little lame and the Renal being bearded and paternalistic was also stereotypical. They didn't ring true as a couple but moreso as a symbol of integration. The Hawk character came off as odd, we know he dies so emotional investment is hard and making him gay seems like a clever way to get some accolades, a gay award or two and then not really have to deal with the subject again, I mean he is dead, right? Sounds like letting certain races in for Christmas dinner through the backdoor, but only Christmas dinner. The NG crew comes off well, their familiarity and comraderie coem across and the plot is interesting but the naivete of the characters and the flag waving of the writers a (dead) character sort of ruin it in a way. Picard visiting the family of Hawk after his death also sets the stage for there be no more novels involving Hawk where true inclusion would've let a good handful of novels run with him in the interim time. Yeah, teh ol' okay-doke earns it weak 3 stars.
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