Rating: 
Summary: Surak's Soul
Review: As far as I can recall, this is the first time Capt. Archer's Enterprise has hosted your standard, glowing Star Trek energy being, that proceeds to move about the ship and eventually reveal whether it is friendly or malevolent. So, for the record, we have an energy being aboard before we have a shapeshifter posing as a crewmember or the Captain (of course it's only a matter of time...).The good news: this book is like an Enterprise TV episode, but better. The bad news: this book is like an Enterprise TV episode, if better. What that means is that Hoshi gets more airtime, and finds herself in a similar situation to her extended dream-sequence escapade on TV--ie. "Oh my, I'm the first person on board to discover the real trouble we're in!"--without it actually turning out to be a dream-sequence, thank goodness. Sadly, Mayweather is still an exercise in minimalism, his most important scene taking place on the bridge where he tries to pull rank on someone who points out "Hey, uh, you're the same rank as me.". The other familiar faces--Archer, T'Pol, Trip, Reed, Phlox, and the little dog too--are, predictably, the major players. T'Pol decides she will never kill again, even to save Enterprise, after accidently bumping off the last of the Oani people, who were dying off anyway. Archer, in a surprise move, cuts her some amazing slack over this, but then he has other, bigger problems--Phlox goes into a coma, apparently succumbing to whatever affliction wiped out everyone on Oan (a landing party, as I indicated, had been present for the last sad deaths). Things become very confusing: while Hoshi holes up in the medlab, reviewing tapes of a dead Oani record-keeper, who insists a microbe has destroyed his people (and reveals that the Oani were such pacifists, they let it!), a strange energy being comes aboard, and will only speak with T'Pol, telling her the affliction is produced by radioactivity. Someone is wrong or a liar. The plot rolls on, quick enough for my tastes, and the confusion is sorted out through action and frenzy, even though the book started out feeling it was going to be a somewhat quieter character piece. And I did not mind this shift, although there creeps in a bit of triteness when it comes to the handling of T'Pol's big crisis. However, better that the spacefarers reveal their true natures, and their priorities, in a tense, dangerous situation, then they bore me by sitting cross-legged, meditating, or arguing endlessly. Once the true menace becomes apparent, everyone springs into action--Archer is particularly brave--and okay, a little meditation on T'Pol's part does help save the day. Too simple to be branded as a Trek classic, but if you are a fan of the show, you know the sort of stories we are being treated to every hour. This novel demonstrates how much more rewarding a fairly simple idea can be, if you have 218 pages to play with, instead of a mere 50 pages of script. I was entertained, and not just by reading bits of the dialogue aloud, trying to do Trip, T'Pol, Reed, Phlox, and Archer impersonations.
Rating: 
Summary: most illogical?
Review: Great Cover !can't wait to start reading this one !
Rating:
Summary: Surak's Soul -- Cover Deceiving
Review: I bought this book while on vacation in Virginia. I'm a Trekker, but I'm not that enamored with T'Pol, but I needed something to read. I was delighted to find that this story is truely an ensemble story. Each character on Enterprise is afforded a good amount of the story. I was especially happy to find that Lt. Malcolm Reed had several good scenes. I will definitely reread this book again.
Rating:
Summary: Surak's Soul -- Cover Deceiving
Review: I bought this book while on vacation in Virginia. I'm a Trekker, but I'm not that enamored with T'Pol, but I needed something to read. I was delighted to find that this story is truely an ensemble story. Each character on Enterprise is afforded a good amount of the story. I was especially happy to find that Lt. Malcolm Reed had several good scenes. I will definitely reread this book again.
Rating: 
Summary: Sadly predictable
Review: I was quite disappointed with this book, as most of Dillard's other Star Trek novels have been excellent. This one was sadly predictable; neither the dialogue nor the narrative sustained my interest for long. I gave it two stars because she does some good work with a few of the characters, but overall, this is not a book I can recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: An okay read, but nothing to get too excited about
Review: It has been a very long time since author Jeanne M. Dillard has written an original Star Trek novel. Her work the last few years has primarily been episode and movie novelizations, most recently the novelization of Nemesis. With the Enterprise novel Surak's Soul, she has fashioned a pleasant enough story but regrettably, while the novel is very readable it is not particularly original, complex or lengthy. When the Enterprise responds to a distress signal they find a civilization on the brink of extinction, the entire population dead or dying from a mysterious illness. T'Pol, forced to kill the last remaining survivor in order to save Hoshi, undergoes an identity crisis. She cannot help fearing that her time on board the Enterprise is leading her to forsake the teachings of Surak and his philosophy of non-violence. While the Enterprise remains to investigate the mysterious disease, they learn more about the planets inhabitants, the Oani, a society whose reverence for life has sadly led to their own demise. Offered assistance by a mysterious alien entity, an energy being they call the Wanderer, the Enterprise and its crew soon begin to exhibit the same symptoms as the Oanis. Did they bring the illness back on board despite their precautions, or is there a more sinister plan afoot? Surak's Soul moves at a good pace and I really enjoyed Ms. Dillard's characterization and attention to the small details. Unfortunately that is not enough to overcome the periods of tedium the story generates. Despite the dire circumstances the crew finds themselves in the story fails to generate a sense of urgency or real danger. T'Pol's philosophical soul searching, the issue of when violence is or is not justified, is the major theme of the novel. Unfortunately, in the case of Surak's Soul, ethical contemplation is not enough to sustain the story on its own.
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Summary: Typical of the Series
Review: One of the problems with Enterprise is the accusation it ignores establised canon. The premise of this story: if Vulcans kill does it betray the teachings of Surak has already been addressed in The Original Series by Spock.
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Summary: What a piece of of You know what....?
Review: Star Trek-Enterprise: Surak's Soul written by J.M. Dillard is a well-written book about a first-contact with a humanoid race. This book is written as a character driven book as each of the Enterprise crew tries to cope with who they are and the understanding who they can be. Written as an ensamble, this book delves into the the character of T'Pol and her teachings as she is pulled from the teachings of Surak to Captain Archers on-the-fly behavior and impulsive attempts to make first contact. T'Pol is true to her heritiage and vows to foreswear violence, she tells Captain Archer that she will never kill... even if she is ordered... but will she endanger the Enterprise and her crew in the future? This book does some real soul searching and has an unusual plot, but in the end some serious questions get resolved, making this one of the better Enterprise books. The series is very slow to develop... I'm suprized at how slowly this series is taking to develop as this is the fifth book in the Enterprise series and this is the best so far. What this series was lacking in the frist four was strong characters this book fleshes them out and makes the book tell a better story from the points of view within the ship. Although this story is told well, I hope the books in the future will hold on to strong character development so this genre of TREK can fine its place.
Rating:
Summary: ST-Enterprise: Surak's Soul
Review: Star Trek-Enterprise: Surak's Soul written by J.M. Dillard is a well-written book about a first-contact with a humanoid race. This book is written as a character driven book as each of the Enterprise crew tries to cope with who they are and the understanding who they can be. Written as an ensamble, this book delves into the the character of T'Pol and her teachings as she is pulled from the teachings of Surak to Captain Archers on-the-fly behavior and impulsive attempts to make first contact. T'Pol is true to her heritiage and vows to foreswear violence, she tells Captain Archer that she will never kill... even if she is ordered... but will she endanger the Enterprise and her crew in the future? This book does some real soul searching and has an unusual plot, but in the end some serious questions get resolved, making this one of the better Enterprise books. The series is very slow to develop... I'm suprized at how slowly this series is taking to develop as this is the fifth book in the Enterprise series and this is the best so far. What this series was lacking in the frist four was strong characters this book fleshes them out and makes the book tell a better story from the points of view within the ship. Although this story is told well, I hope the books in the future will hold on to strong character development so this genre of TREK can fine its place.
Rating:
Summary: Good Enterprise Spirit!
Review: Surak's Soul I think stuck to the spirit and feel of the Enterprise show. While it could be more accurately named, Wanderer, I think it is a good idea for anyone looking for Enterprise material to read. Wanderer -- I suggested this title because the whole plot of the book revolves around a character of this name -- I won't reveal and major plot points but I take it you've read the summary? So T'Pol kills a alien and feels guilty -- the truth is, little of the plotline deals with her internal guilt over this act. So if you are expecting to recieve a deeply rooted story exploring T'Pol dealing with guilt over murder than don't expect this. Surak's Soul is a good book but really deals little with T'Pol's guilt -- her guilt plays a part but not as much as I had expected. Surak's Soul has Hoshi as one of its key focuses, so, if you are like me -- a Hoshi fan, than this is an very good book and deals more with Hoshi and T'Pol than previous Enterprise books.
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