Rating: 
Summary: Surak's Soul - Best "Enterprise" book so far
Review: The purpose of this review is to say whether or not "Surak's Soul" is worth shelling out ...hard-earned cash for. Yes, in this case, the entertainment was well worth the exchange. Five stars, A+, a "good-job" sticker, and high praise for J.M. Dillard. So far, I like Dillard's book better than all of the others written for the Enterprise series (with the exception of "Broken Bow" which is the novelization of the pilot TV episode. I found "Broken Bow" useful to get a grip on the "new" Star Trek crews' characters). I unreservedly say that Dillard wrote the best Enterprise story so far. Her book reads like a good TV episode. At first, I was exceedingly apprehensive about spending the money on a book with rather larger print and only 218 pages, but I took the chance. I am glad I did. I read the story slowly to savor it and found that I really enjoyed the book. Other reviews may give synopses of the storyline, so I'll make mine very brief since the purpose of my review is really only to say whether or not I think a book is worth the money it costs. I will take it for granted the you already know who the main characters are and what their relationships to each other are. T'Pol accidently kills an alien and creates a severe philosophical trauma for herself. While she's working to resolve her inner conflict, the Enterprise crew, and ultimately Earth, are threatened by an alien entity. T'Pol must decide whether or not to aid the crew by using violence or not. The story is filled with philosophy (which I never enjoy, but it was essential to the story), emotion (Dillard did a very good job in this department), and action (again, she did a great job with the action scenes). To sum up, I am very well pleased overall with "Surak's Soul" as a new edition to the Enterprise series. I haven't been tremendously happy with the other books in the series, but Dillard revived my hope that Pocket Books found a great voice for telling Enterprise stories. I hope Dillard will write many more books for this new fun group of Star Trek stars. Also, I would like to praise the cover-designer as well. Good job.
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money, folks! It's not too late!
Review: This book deserves a zero. Unfortunately, there is no rating that low, so I am forced to give it a one.
Suffice it to say I've read fanfiction that was less contrvied and boring. It barely has anything to do with T'Pol at all. She just has ONE meditation about the issue at hand, and says "OK, let me give up using violence in any form because it's always wrong." And we get to see nothing else about it until about page 205 (near the end of the book).
And the whole Alien Mystery thing wasn't that great either. I figured out quickly whodunnit.
If you do want to still buy it, don't order it. Borrow it from your library or at the very most buy it from your local bookstore. It's not worth paying the shipping and handling fees.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring novel
Review: This book was really dull, in my opinion, like many of the Enterprise episodes that have aired thus far. The only unique hook is T'Pol referencing Gandhi's stance on non-violence. Other than that, this book is a slim adventure typical of many of the troubled episodes we've seen on TV the last two years. This one's strictly for the completists.
Rating:
Summary: What a piece of of You know what....?
Review: This is not Star Trek. Maybe it's Alien or something but it's not Star Trek.
Rating:
Summary: Weak ending.
Review: This is, overall, a fair to middling Star Trek story; the action is good, the characterizations are better than average, the plot fair if not terribly original. The problem is, it is mostly spoiled by a rather wishy-washy, unsatisfying ending. Since I can't say much more about the ending than that without giving away major plot points, suffice it to say that I found both the climactic point AND the post-climax epilogue to be very implausible and to be a cheap out for the major focus of the story.
Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful Mind
Review: This relatively short Star Trek novel by a veteran writer concerns itself with a less-than-perfect first contact with a new humanoid species. In it, Vulcan Sub-Commander T'Pol has to come to terms with her training in the pacifist tradition all Vulcan's learn at an early age, and how to reconcile this with the reality of everyday circumstances. This concept was developed very well by the author J.M. Dillard, furthering the understanding of Vulcan's and their way of thought. In addition, part of this novel is devoted to how some other crew members feel towards T'Pol, considering her as "incredibly intelligent, courteous, refined, dignified", adding to her lure. This book is well worth reading, done in fine Star Trek style.
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