Rating: 
Summary: Double-Oh-Extraterrestrial
Review: James Bond should be this good.The original Star Trek series introduced in the episode "Assignment: Earth" two brilliant characters, extraterrestrial secret agent Gary Seven and his assistant, Greenwich Village hippy Roberta Lincoln, in a sadly failed attempt to spin them off into their own show. Author Greg Cox has an eye for what 1960s television execs missed, and presents the pair - with their added helpmeet, Isis the cat - in another excellent story to follow up his first (Assignment: Eternity). In The Eugenics Wars, Cox credibly ties the Star Trek universe's own 1960s to 1980s time-bound characters together, in an immensely satisfying spy/adventure yarn. Gary Seven - extraterrestrial secret agent with a mission to keep Earth from destroying itself in its crucially developmental period of the late twentieth century - stumbles upon evidence of a dangerous project in 1974. Famous genetic researchers have been mysteriously disappearing from public view, and shipments of biological warfare elements and plutonium-grade fissionable material have been making their way out of the country. Roberta Lincoln goes undercover as a geneticist in a successful attempt to get herself hired onto whatever project the vanished scientists have been recruited for, and Seven tracks his weapons shipments to the same location: a massive underground eugenics program in India called the Chrysalis Project. There, leading world geneticist Sarina Kaur is breeding a future generation of supermen for world conquest - the most promising of which is her son, Khan Noonien Singh. Bringing Kaur's mad project to an end, however, is only the beginning of a much longer, and even more involving, story. Seven monitors Khan's progress over the years, eventually recruiting him as a pre-teenager to help him and Roberta with their benevolent mission on Earth. Khan, unfortunately, is not so easily trainable. A product of his environment, the young Khan is horrified at atrocities occurring in his native India (a smallpox epidemic and the notorious Bhopur chemical spill) that Seven, with all his superior extraterrestrial technology, cannot anticipate and prevent. The aging mentor and his brilliant protege come to a parting of the ways, followed by overlapping missions of mutual interest, and develop into uneasy allies-cum-antagonists. The plot and characterizations alone make this book a superior read in the spy-suspense genre, but Cox makes the experience all the more enjoyable by including references to numerous other Star Trek elements - from original series guest characters to Next Generation personages to occurrences in the movie series - and with a prodigiously researched panoply of true-life historical incidents brilliantly interwoven into the story. This book, and the equally excellent Assignment: Eternity, are well worth the time and money to read. Hopefully, Cox will succeed in turning Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln into their own successful book series. They really are fabulous characters, and he writes them extremely well.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book, or reveal your genetic inferiority!
Review: This novel works on many levels - the starring role of Gary Seven and references to other Star Trek lore will please Trekkies, and the inclusion of actual historical events ground the story in reality. Not to mention the life story of one of the galaxy's greatest scene-chewing villians, Khan Noonien Singh!
Rating: 
Summary: Good premise, action packed, fun
Review: To me, Star Trek hit is zenith with the Wrath of Kahn movie. Therefore, it was natural for me to want to see the back story of Kahn told. I've never been a big reader of the Trek books. But I pick one up now and then for some light reading. And this book did not disappoint. This first volume is very intriguing. It blends many elements from Trek lore along with current events and fads of the 70s and 80s. At times that blending is borderline genius at other times it's a little too convenient. Nevertheless, the overall effect is still pleasurable and interesting. I flew through this book quickly and enjoyed its many plot twists very much. Although I could have been totally satisfied without the pointless "frame" story in the 24th century (with Kirk and company), I am willing to let that go as well as some clunky writing and derivative plot elements for the joy of watching Gary 7 and Roberta Lincoln guide Kahn through his formative years. I should note that a good background in Trek history and characters is probably a prerequisite for this book. But, I suspect most Trek books come with such a prerequisite.
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: Good premise peters out
Review: I'm a firm believer that the only real Star Trek is the original series, so I was really excited about this book and bought it the day it was released. There is some pointless bookending with Kirk and crew that frankly could have been dropped all together, though that surely would have upset many of the more rabid Star Trek fans. The setup for the Eugenics Wars by Greg Cox was well thought out and believable (within the context of Star Trek). The use of Gary Seven was a very good idea and Cox does a good job with his characterizations of both Mr. Seven and his agent Roberta. The major failing with the book is that, inexplicably, in the last two- or three chapters a number of references to characters that weren't created until TNG/DS9/Voyager, etc., are introduced. I can only guess that a Paramount honcho was reading this and said to Cox, "I don't understand, where are the Star Trek characters?" Star Trek to this honcho being anything other than the original series. The first volume in this series is defintely worth a read (though you'll get pretty irritated with the last few chapters if you're a true Star Trek fan). Unfortunately, the second volume doesn't hold the same allure. I would have given this a five but for the references to non-Star Trek characters.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting tale with lines from many Star Trek stories
Review: As movie reviewers Siskel and Ebert once said, the success of a good versus evil story is generally not due to the level of goodness of the hero but to the strength of the villain. Khan Noonien Singh was clearly one of the best characters ever developed in the Star Trek genre and "The Wrath of Khan" is still my favorite Star Trek movie. In this book, you learn the origins and early life of this fascinating character.
However, while Khan is the emerging character, the main ones are Gary Seven and Roberta, introduced in another original Star Trek episode. Engaged in a mission to save the world from itself, these two perform many acts that are intertwined with the events that took place in the years following the time frame of the episode where they were introduced. The assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Ghandi, the mass gassing of people in Bhopal, India, the rise of Gorbachev and the fall of the Soviet Union are all woven into the fabric of the story. This makes the book one of historical fiction as well and really makes it interesting.
An additional intriguing aspect of the story is the appearance of several other characters and consequences from the different Start Trek story lines. While these appearances will be well understood by those familiar with all of the stories, it will confuse those who are not. For example, if you have not seen the episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where Quark and Odo are transported back in time to Earth and land at Roswell, the references to the Ferengi will mean nothing to you.
There is also a separate story line where the Enterprise with Kirk at the helm is renewing contact with a colony of genetically enhanced humans. The Klingons of captain Koloth of tribble fame are also there and stirring up trouble.
I enjoyed the book immensely and was left with a feeling of loss when it ended with crises in two of the story lines. I am now searching for the sequel and can't wait to get my hands on it.
Rating:
Summary: Delighted to see it start. Hated to see it end.
Review: I resisted the urge not to buy this book, because it clearly said Vol. 1. Nonetheless my despair at seeing it end was overwhelmed by the wonder of the book itself. The years between "now" and the commencement of the Star Trek saga some three hundred years up the road have been a void. Occasionally, someone (usually Spock) will comment about days gone past, but for the most part the past was the past; seldom referenced and certainly never fully explored. Of course, the original series episode "Assignment Earth" changed all that. There, the Enterprise went back in time to Our day and time (at least this was so when the series first aired). I was (and remain) less than enthused about that character, and certainly his sidekick the ditzy Roberta Lincoln. But somehow, author Greg Cox brings them all together. He brings them together with the most compelling guest EVER brought into the series, Kahn Noonien Singh. He was conceived the
Chrysalis Project, an idea spawned by some of the worlds best scientists, led by whiz-bang geneticists. Their goal (like half the bad guys ever born) is to create a race of supermen - better living through chemistry, as the old commercials said. They make it work, creating a pleasingly inter-cultural group of children to take command of the entire planet. The cream of this
genetically improved crop of course is our Man, K.N.S. Most of the plot covers the attempts of Gary Seven (who we may recall is a human trained and used for good by some other advanced aliens). His challenge is to close down the Project, and prevent its progeny from taking over the world. We know, however, form seeing Space Seed a couple of hundred times (thank you, syndication!), than he cannot succeed. Spock tells us that Kahn came to rule some large percentage of Earth in
his day. We don't get there here, (makes me crave Vol. 2), but seeing Kahn's development from life as a young boy is a fascinating read. Some criticize the book because of a lack of characterization and plot associated with Kirk and the crew. I found that they were not missed at all, as the life of young "Noon" was sufficient for me. Unlike another, I enjoyed the interspersion of current events as we know (?) them. It's been years since I enjoyed the original series. I had never read a book related to Star Trek before this one. Now that Vol. 2 is out, I am eager for the next installment.
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: Seven and Khan Rule!
Review: This book takes the risk of tying obscure ol' Gary Seven to major-leaguer Khan, and hoping it all works out. It does! I loved the whole thing! It's a great spy novel, especially in the early-going where Gary Seven and his entourage can't help pick up a few new fans. Then, the story starts moving around the globe a bit more, and we see Khan begin to grow into the threat he is by the time Space Seed and Wrath of Khan take place. Khan is chilling and charismatic all the way through, and Gary Seven seems a smaller and smaller force in the face of Khan's drive for power and revenge. I have a fondness for the Gary Seven character so I read this Eugenics Wars opener cringing at the thought that Khan may be too much for him, ultimately; say no more about that). This is the most enjoyment I have yet gotten out of a Star Trek novel!
Rating:
Summary: Depends if you are a Trek fan.
Review: If I had to give this book a brief description, I'd call it "eye candy for Star Trek fans". Have you ever watched an episode of a television series and thought "I wonder what will happen to those characters?" regarding guest stars? This will answer at least part of that question regarding characters from the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Eternity", as we see Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln after they met the crew of the Enterprise. The main point of the book is to give the reader a view into the life of Khan Noonien Singh before the episode "Space Seed". I thought it was reasonably effective in that regard. If you are a Trek Fan, I strongly recommend this book.
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