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They are the self-appointed protectors of the Federation. Amoral, shrouded in secrecy, answerable to no one, Section 31 is the mysterious covert operations division of Starfleet, a rogue shadow group committed to safeguarding the Federation at any cost. Once, in order to preserve the galaxy's fragile balance of power, Captain James T. Kirk carried out a dangerous mission to capture a cloaking device from the Romulan Star Empire. Months later, while investigating a mysterious disaster aboard a Federation starship, Kirk discovers that the same technology he obtained for the sake of peace is being put to sinister purposes. What the crew of the "Starship Enterprise(TM) " uncovers will send shock waves through the quadrant, as Section 31 sets in motion a plan that could bring the major powers of the galaxy to their knees.
NO LAW.
NO CONSCIENCE.
NO STOPPING THEM.
211 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 2001
About the author
S.D. Perry
84 books762 followersSD Perry (Stephani Danelle, by the way, though she prefers SD or Danelle) has been writing novelizations and tie-ins for most of her adult life. Best known for her work in the shared multiverses of Resident Evil, Star Trek, and Aliens, SD is a horror nerd and an introvert. Her father is acclaimed science fiction author Steve Perry. SD lives with her family in Portland, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
November 3, 2015
Good,....real good! But don't go in thinking that you're gonna get a hard core section 31 adventure like we got in Abyss, Zero Sum Game, & Disavowed. The section 31 aspect is mostly pretty understated, but well implimented. Loved how the author used The Enterprise Incident (one of my favorite episodes) for back story. Not to mention the book was very well written & Perry nails the characters we all know & love. Highly recommended!
June 15, 2016
Very good story. The author got the details right on the characters and there were some nice touches linking to the series. Exciting work.
August 4, 2021
2021 reads, #50. I've recently found myself going through a period where I'm once again binging through all the various Roddenberry-era "Star Trek" shows (that is, the ones he was either alive for or that were run by people he originally hired, including the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, but not including the unwatchable crap the suits at Paramount have been greenlighting in the last several years, such as Discovery and Picard), and I found myself once again really intrigued by the concept of "Section 31," first introduced by the subversive writing staff over at the franchise's "black sheep" of the family, Deep Space Nine. For those who don't know, this was an attempt by that staff to add some much needed darkness to Roddenberry's squeaky-clean vision of the United Federation of Planets, positing that there is actually a secret CIA-type "dirty tricks" wing of the Federation that goes around making the tough decisions that the oh-so-noble public-facing side of Starfleet can't bear to do themselves, when things like political assassinations or industrial sabotage needs to take place in order to further the Federation's high-minded agenda. (Unsurprisingly, much of its original development was spearheaded by Ronald Moore, who would eventually go on to create the Peabody-winning dark reboot of Battlestar Galactica, as well as the equally dark Apple+ show For All Mankind.)
I eagerly enjoyed all these Section 31 episodes yet again during this most recent binge, for the third or fourth time now; and when I found myself with a desire for yet more Section 31 stories once I was done, I decided to turn for the first time in my life to the infamous collection of "non-canon" Star Trek novels that have been published over the decades, where I learned that there has actually been a four-book series in the past dedicated specifically to this subject. (All four are currently out of print, so to read them I was forced to turn to The Pirate Bay, where I ended up downloading a super-torrent containing over 700 Star Trek novels in a single ZIP file; even more incredibly, this torrent is several years old at this point, so doesn't even reflect the grand total of over 850 Star Trek novels that now exist.) I say "infamous," of course, because all these novels, just like non-canon novel series from any popular TV show, have a sketchy reputation among the general population, to put it mildly; that is, that they're mediocre quickie crap, pumped out by the wheelbarrow-full in order to make an easy buck off that franchise's "true believers," who don't care what the actual quality is as long as it satisfies their fetishistic obsession for more, more, more, executed by hiring a bunch of dilettante freelancers who all wished they could get the "real" jobs on the actual TV show's writing staff but simply aren't good enough to do so, and who are paid so little for these that they must dash off a 50,000-word book every week or two just to be able to afford baby's little redshirt jammies.
I admit, in my youth I used to be one of these critics; but as I've gotten older, and especially as I've gotten more and more involved in the actual publishing industry, I've come to realize that there isn't actually much difference between the writers of an "official" TV franchise and the cadre of freelancers who write all the "non-canon" companion novels, other than the obvious fact that there are less TV positions available and that they pay a lot more, and therefore there's a lot more competition for them. But when all is said and done, the writing staff of a TV franchise is just like any other literary community: there are a few great writers, there a few terrible writers, and there is a giant middle of so-so writers, and once in a blue moon all the stars align and you get a consistently amazing show like Deep Space Nine or Battlestar Galactica, but much more often you get something like Stargate: SG-1, where you end every episode sorta frowning and thinking, "Well, I guess that was entertaining enough for a Saturday afternoon where I was laying around on my couch eating Cheetos with nothing better to do." As my enjoyment of contemporary literary fiction has dropped more and more in the last decade (all of them starting to feel more and more like interchangeable garbage about hipster idiots whining about their entitled middle-class lives), and as my appreciation for genre literature seems to just be going up and up with age, I find myself drawn to things like Star Trek novels for the first time in my life; and this is especially helped by the fact that I'm now personal friends with several people who write these kinds of projects for a living (over in the world of Star Wars roleplaying games, to be specific), and have come to realize that there's actually a fine art and a specific talent to pumping out a 50,000-word book in two weeks in a way so that it both satisfies the true believers and isn't unreadable crap.
So in this, then, this first Section 31 novel of the series, retroactively set during the original Kirk/Spock era, which first aired decades before the Deep Space Nine staff ever came up with the concept to begin with (which of course is one of the pleasures of non-canon novels, in that "non-canon" is basically a fancy way of saying "it doesn't officially count," and so therefore a lot more liberties can be taken than in the "official" TV episodes*), we see both all the great things about this medium and all the things people complain about, rolled up together. On the plus side, author SD Perry delivers the Section 31 goods, inventing a rollicking story that with its expanded page count allows for the sweeping scope of a full-length movie, and also does a great job at examining such inner-dialogue activities like the famous Vulcan "mind meld" in a beautiful and poetic way that you simply can't get from a TV show's visual interpretation of one pointy-eared nerd grabbing another pointy-eared nerd's head and staring at them intensely; but on the minus side, the exposition is often clunky, the jokes are often forced and not very funny, and the personality traits of the various crew members are often overemphasized to the point of exasperation, for the sake of delivering the well-worn characters the true believers already know and love (I get it, Perry, Chekov is Russian, Jesus Christ I get it already).
I could complain about these things if I wanted to, and others undoubtedly will; but since the whole reason I picked it up was because I wanted a brand-new story about Section 31, and by God I got a brand-new story about Section 31, I will instead consider myself officially mollified, haters be damned. For sure I will be reading the other three novels in the Section 31 series, and you can expect their reviews here over the next few weeks; and given that I now own another 696 Star Trek novels besides these four, I strongly suspect that more of them are fated for my future in the coming months and years. I guess this now officially makes me a true believer myself, just like those I used to make fun of back in my twenties; but if so, then so be it, I guess, because Jesus Christ I can't take even one more novel for the rest of my life about an ennui-filled MFA professor sleeping with one of his students, I swear to God I can't.
*It is in fact this opportunity to take liberties that leads to one of the more notorious edges of the non-canon world, the so-called "slash fiction" actually written mostly by fans, sometimes legally and sometimes not, which is when two or more characters from a franchise are depicted in a sexual relationship together in a way that they'd never be presented in the "official" show. Kirk/Spock is one of the oldest and still one of the most popular; note the slash between their names, which is how this genre gets its name.
I eagerly enjoyed all these Section 31 episodes yet again during this most recent binge, for the third or fourth time now; and when I found myself with a desire for yet more Section 31 stories once I was done, I decided to turn for the first time in my life to the infamous collection of "non-canon" Star Trek novels that have been published over the decades, where I learned that there has actually been a four-book series in the past dedicated specifically to this subject. (All four are currently out of print, so to read them I was forced to turn to The Pirate Bay, where I ended up downloading a super-torrent containing over 700 Star Trek novels in a single ZIP file; even more incredibly, this torrent is several years old at this point, so doesn't even reflect the grand total of over 850 Star Trek novels that now exist.) I say "infamous," of course, because all these novels, just like non-canon novel series from any popular TV show, have a sketchy reputation among the general population, to put it mildly; that is, that they're mediocre quickie crap, pumped out by the wheelbarrow-full in order to make an easy buck off that franchise's "true believers," who don't care what the actual quality is as long as it satisfies their fetishistic obsession for more, more, more, executed by hiring a bunch of dilettante freelancers who all wished they could get the "real" jobs on the actual TV show's writing staff but simply aren't good enough to do so, and who are paid so little for these that they must dash off a 50,000-word book every week or two just to be able to afford baby's little redshirt jammies.
I admit, in my youth I used to be one of these critics; but as I've gotten older, and especially as I've gotten more and more involved in the actual publishing industry, I've come to realize that there isn't actually much difference between the writers of an "official" TV franchise and the cadre of freelancers who write all the "non-canon" companion novels, other than the obvious fact that there are less TV positions available and that they pay a lot more, and therefore there's a lot more competition for them. But when all is said and done, the writing staff of a TV franchise is just like any other literary community: there are a few great writers, there a few terrible writers, and there is a giant middle of so-so writers, and once in a blue moon all the stars align and you get a consistently amazing show like Deep Space Nine or Battlestar Galactica, but much more often you get something like Stargate: SG-1, where you end every episode sorta frowning and thinking, "Well, I guess that was entertaining enough for a Saturday afternoon where I was laying around on my couch eating Cheetos with nothing better to do." As my enjoyment of contemporary literary fiction has dropped more and more in the last decade (all of them starting to feel more and more like interchangeable garbage about hipster idiots whining about their entitled middle-class lives), and as my appreciation for genre literature seems to just be going up and up with age, I find myself drawn to things like Star Trek novels for the first time in my life; and this is especially helped by the fact that I'm now personal friends with several people who write these kinds of projects for a living (over in the world of Star Wars roleplaying games, to be specific), and have come to realize that there's actually a fine art and a specific talent to pumping out a 50,000-word book in two weeks in a way so that it both satisfies the true believers and isn't unreadable crap.
So in this, then, this first Section 31 novel of the series, retroactively set during the original Kirk/Spock era, which first aired decades before the Deep Space Nine staff ever came up with the concept to begin with (which of course is one of the pleasures of non-canon novels, in that "non-canon" is basically a fancy way of saying "it doesn't officially count," and so therefore a lot more liberties can be taken than in the "official" TV episodes*), we see both all the great things about this medium and all the things people complain about, rolled up together. On the plus side, author SD Perry delivers the Section 31 goods, inventing a rollicking story that with its expanded page count allows for the sweeping scope of a full-length movie, and also does a great job at examining such inner-dialogue activities like the famous Vulcan "mind meld" in a beautiful and poetic way that you simply can't get from a TV show's visual interpretation of one pointy-eared nerd grabbing another pointy-eared nerd's head and staring at them intensely; but on the minus side, the exposition is often clunky, the jokes are often forced and not very funny, and the personality traits of the various crew members are often overemphasized to the point of exasperation, for the sake of delivering the well-worn characters the true believers already know and love (I get it, Perry, Chekov is Russian, Jesus Christ I get it already).
I could complain about these things if I wanted to, and others undoubtedly will; but since the whole reason I picked it up was because I wanted a brand-new story about Section 31, and by God I got a brand-new story about Section 31, I will instead consider myself officially mollified, haters be damned. For sure I will be reading the other three novels in the Section 31 series, and you can expect their reviews here over the next few weeks; and given that I now own another 696 Star Trek novels besides these four, I strongly suspect that more of them are fated for my future in the coming months and years. I guess this now officially makes me a true believer myself, just like those I used to make fun of back in my twenties; but if so, then so be it, I guess, because Jesus Christ I can't take even one more novel for the rest of my life about an ennui-filled MFA professor sleeping with one of his students, I swear to God I can't.
*It is in fact this opportunity to take liberties that leads to one of the more notorious edges of the non-canon world, the so-called "slash fiction" actually written mostly by fans, sometimes legally and sometimes not, which is when two or more characters from a franchise are depicted in a sexual relationship together in a way that they'd never be presented in the "official" show. Kirk/Spock is one of the oldest and still one of the most popular; note the slash between their names, which is how this genre gets its name.
June 23, 2012
Remarkably faithful to the original series: which means, it reads like 50 year old pulp sci-fi. Unlike a lot of tie-in novels, the writing's not bad. Not great: the voices don't really resonate. But not bad. However, the plot is errant nonsense, enough so to cause my disbelief's suspension to fail utterly.
The notion of Kirk confronting Starfleet's very black (in both senses of the term) black-ops unit is brilliant: there's so much that can be done with the premise. Unfortunately, none of it's done here, and Section 31 remains largely an offstage presence in a story focused on a mad scientist's cloaked space station (!) and a painfully long subplot about McCoy diagnosing himself with a fatal illness, in which nothing actually happens aside from endless pages of internal-monologue angst.
I've been on a Star Trek popcorn-fic run lately: I think this has cured me.
The notion of Kirk confronting Starfleet's very black (in both senses of the term) black-ops unit is brilliant: there's so much that can be done with the premise. Unfortunately, none of it's done here, and Section 31 remains largely an offstage presence in a story focused on a mad scientist's cloaked space station (!) and a painfully long subplot about McCoy diagnosing himself with a fatal illness, in which nothing actually happens aside from endless pages of internal-monologue angst.
I've been on a Star Trek popcorn-fic run lately: I think this has cured me.
July 28, 2020
I actually had not heard of Section 31 until I watched Discovery. It’s really an interesting concept that Starfleet would have such an agency. Since Star Trek is all about ideals, it was definitely jarring and this series just added to the mystery. Cloak is the first book in the series and it’s a great introduction! Section 31 is barely mentioned, but Kirk taking the initiative and searching out questionable activity within the galaxy is pretty par for the course. The one thing that stuck out to me was small, considering the scope of the story, but I still liked that sometimes it’s the little things. Kirk gave Uhura an encrypted chip to try to translate and she got so frustrated by the encryption and the possibility of failure ... I just loved her for it! She was that constant in the series that seemed to ground everybody and I liked seeing her human side. Overall, this was an interesting book and a good introduction to the series. There’s definitely prep work to be done before reading it tho. I went back and rewatched The Enterprise Incident and then the book made a lot more sense!
March 22, 2020
I was debating between 4 or 5 stars but I think the climax to this novel(and maybe my soft spot for TOS era trek) bumps it to 5. The connections to the Voyager episode are obvious from a relatively early part of the novel in relation to the rest of the plot so I'd almost advise watching that episodes after this novel. When Kirk, Bones and Spock interact together it is as I expected though Bones is obviously not quite as focused on the mission though I did quite enjoy his arc nontheless. 9/10 for flirting points to Kirk, the most memorable woman are always a challenge to him and I can't ever give him a perfect grade under those circumstances.
September 26, 2015
Cool Section 31 story and I liked seeing the Romulan Commander again.
August 26, 2017
„Star Trek: Sektion 31“ ist in vier Bänden abgeschlossen und wurde bereits in dem Jahre 2014 als reine eBook-Reihe von Heyne veröffentlicht. Die vier Bände sind meines Wissens nach über vier verschiedene Star Trek-Ableger verteilt (TOS, TNG, VOY, DS9). In dem Vierteiler geht es um die sogenannte Sektion 31, welche ein Absatz in der Starfleet-Charta ist und grundlegend eine autonome Ermittlungsbehörde beschreibt und legitimiert, alles in ihrem Gutdünken zu tun, um Starfleet-Angelegenheiten zu… sagen wir, verteidigen.
Der erste Band spielt in der Originalserie. Hier wird diese Organisation das erste Mal entdeckt bzw. Vermutet. Um ehrlich zu sein, habe ich mir mehr von dem Roman erwartet, als ich am Ende bekommen habe. Die Gründe dazu erläutere ich, nachdem ich eine kurze Zusammenfassung des Inhaltes wiedergegeben habe.
Die Enterprise ist auf dem Weg zu Deep Space M-20, wo eine wissenschaftliche Tagung stattfindet und einige Crew-Mitglieder, darunter auch Mr. Spock, daran teilnehmen. Auf dem Weg dorthin nehmen sie einen automatischen Hilferuf der USS Sphinx unter dem Kommando von Captain Jack Casden. Durch einen waghalsigen Einsatz gelingt es der Crew der Enterprise, das Schiff vor der drohenden Selbstzerstörung zu retten. Leider musste man feststellen, dass die Crew der Sphinx bereits tot war und jede Hilfe zu spät kam. Alle bis auf den Captain waren erstickt – Casden war von einem nicht registrierten Passagier aus nächster Nähe mit einem Phaser erschossen worden.
Kirk leitete sofort Ermittlungen in diesem Fall ein und glaubte, dass Casden Amok gelaufen sei, da er die Last seiner Pflichten nicht mehr ertragen konnte. Nachdem jedoch die Ermittlung urplötzlich an Captain Derres weitergegeben worden waren, wurde er misstrauisch, Als dann auch noch Derres unter mysteriösen Umständen verstarb, witterte der Captain der Enterprise eine Verschwörung, die sich im Laufe der Geschichte bewahrheitet. Zu seinem Leidwesen muss Kirk feststellen, dass Dr. Ketteract, ein verrückter Wissenschaftler, seine neue Flamme Dr. Suni und auch McCoy alte Studienfreundin Dr. Petterson Teil dieser Verschwörung waren, um die Synthese des sogenannten Omega-Moleküls voranzutreiben, welches sie mit der Hilfe der von der Enterprise gestohlenen Tarnvorrichtung der Romulaner taten.
Am Ende wird die Synthese von Dr. Suni in Gang gesetzt, was die Vernichtung der geheimen Basis und einige Schäden des umliegenden Raums zur Folge hatte. Kirk gelang es, größere Schäden abzuwenden. Doch er muss feststellen, dass er nur Narren und Lakaien eines viel größeren Problems aufgedeckt hatte. Denn die wahre Sektion 31 musste auch hohen Tieren bestehen. Er trifft sich dementsprechend mit seinen engsten Vertrauten irgendwo im Nirgendwo und riet ihnen Wachsamkeit. Man solle warten, bis diese mysteriöse Sektion 31 einen Fehler beginge, damit man sie endlich aufdecken und aus dem Verkehr ziehen konnte. Damit endet der erste Teil.
Da ich die anderen drei Teile der Serie noch nicht habe lesen können, aber weiß, dass sie im vierten Band im Serienableger Star Trek Voyager endet, nehme ich an, dass diese Sektion 31 auch mit Janeway und Co. aufgedeckt wird.
Um ehrlich zu sein, die Zusammenfassung des Romans klingt spannender als er es letzten Endes wirklich ist. Bis zur Seite 97 passiert nichts wirklich spannendes und wirklich los geht es erst im Epilog. Da wird es so richtig Interessant.
Fangen wir aber von vorne an, beginnend mit dem Schreibstil. Als ich mich an das Buch gemacht hatte, ging ich mit der Erwartung voraus, dass es angelehnt an die wirklichen „Classic“-Romane war. Leider wurde ich enttäuscht. Als großer Liebhaber der alten Romane hatte ich diesen freundschaftlichen und familiären Schreibstil wirklich vermisst, auch wenn es sich jetzt wirklich doof anhört. Ich möchte nicht sagen, dass der Autor nicht schreiben kann. Das kann er, sonst wäre dieser Roman nicht verlegt und übersetzt worden. Aber es ist kein Star Trek. S.D. Perry ist keine McIntyre, Cooper oder Sunny. Perry hat wirklich versucht, es so hinzubekommen wie jene genannten Autoren, die die Star Trek Romane, aber auch die Serie an sich anhand der Drehbücher geprägt hatten, aber er scheiterte daran und das merkt man auch in diesem Roman: Es kommt einem vor wie gewollt, aber nicht gekonnt. Perry schreibt sehr distanziert, dabei kam es in Star Trek Romanen immer auf Charakternähe an, alles ist lasch und oberflächlich beschrieben. Es fehlt kontinuierlich etwas.
Das sind meine Gedanken zum Schreibstil. Nun kommen wir zum Inhalt der Story.
Der Prolog beginnt mit einem klassischen Kobayashi-Maru-Szenario (komplett ausweglose Situation). Knackpunkt an der ganzen Sache ist: Es handelt sich um keinen Test. Der Captain der Sphinx wird hier von einem Saboteur getötet.
Anschließend beginnt die Hauptgeschichte mit der Enterprise, welche auf dem Weg zu DS-M20 ist, wo die wissenschaftliche Konferenz stattfindet. Ebenso stehen die halbjährlichen Untersuchungen an, die immer noch keiner leiden kann. Dann erreichte sie auch schon der Notruf der Sphinx.
Jede Handlung, jede Erzählung und Darstellung ist meines Erachtens nicht charakterkonform und sehr nüchtern ausgelegt. Es fehlt die Liebe zum charakterlichen Detail. Wo wir gerade bei Detail sind: Ich weiß, dass ist jetzt Meckern auf höchstem Niveau, aber es wurde doch tatsächlich gesagt, dass Captain Kirk ein kleines Büro hatte, dass direkt an die Brücke grenzte. Das hatte Kirk nie, sondern Picard. In TOS grenzte nichts an die Brücke außer dem Turbolift. Erst ab TNG und Voyager gab es derartige Büros. In den Originalen Serien gab es auch nie eine weitere Tür auf der Brücke. Von daher finde ich es unachtsam von Perry, über etwas zu schreiben, von dessen Materie er anscheinend keine Ahnung hat.
Was ich auch seltsam und sehr unnötig fand, war der Eibau von McCoy angeblich unheilbaren Krankheit Xenopolycythämie. Demnach sollte er mit 42 sterben (zur Handlungszeit ist er 41), dabei taucht er in TNG als Admiral ein letztes Mal auf, bevor er laut Original-Canon verstirbt. Dieser Krankheit und McCoy psychischem und emotionalen Leiden werden sehr viele Erwähnungen und Ausführungen in diesem Roman gewidmet, nur damit im Epilog ganz beiläufig und ohne viel geblubbert erwähnt werden konnte, dass man doch ganz fix eine Heilung in binnen 2 Monaten gefunden hatte. Das war wirklich etwas wo ich mir dachte: Are you kidding me?! Ragefactor 100%, sage ich da nur. Letzten Endes war diese Krankheit total sinnlos und sollte anscheinend nur dafür dienen, um eine nicht gerade spannende Spannung einzubauen. Ein doppelter Fail also.
Generell fand ich den Roman sehr langatmig und ganz nach dem Motto: „Komm auf den Punkt!“ und „Was hat das jetzt mit der eigentlichen Story zu tun?“
Für mich gab es hier auch eindeutig zu viele und zu langatmig ausgeführte, teilweise sinnlose Romanzen. Ja, zwei Romanzen sind zu viel. Vor allem wenn sie wie bei a) Kirk total falsch ausgelegt werden und b) bei Spock zu viel hinein interpretiert wurde.
Durch die Romanzen und McCoy Krankheit wollte man den Roman interessanter gestalten, indem man eine Story in eine Story einbaute, was aber nicht zum allgemeinen Canon passte und schon gar nicht zur Alternativen Zeitlinie (J.J. Abrams). Der Roman passt also in zweierlei Hinsicht einfach nicht hinein.
Vor allem das Ende hatte mich stutzig gemacht. Es wurde davon gesprochen, dass der Wissenschaftler Ketteract die Tarnvorrichtung der Romulaner besaß, die Kirk vor einigen Woche gestohlen hatte (daran kann man den Roman zeitlich nach S3E2 und vor den Filmen einordnen), theoretisch war die Maschine fest in die Basis von dem Doktor integriert und als Kirk sich hat auf die Basis Beamen lassen, hatte er weder die Zeit noch die Mittel dieses Gerät mitzunehmen. Doch am Ende besaß er sie irgendwie. Es kann sein, dass ich in einem Moment nicht aufgepasst habe. Das will ich gar nicht bestreiten. Trotzdem kam mir das etwas komisch vor.
Was für mich wirklich Star Trek war, war der Epilog. Er war durch und durch gut. Gut geschrieben, gut geplant. Einfach toll. Vor allem der Schlussabsatz hat mir super gut gefallen, ebenso das ganze Mysterium um Sektion 31, welches dort quasi geboren wurde.
Was ich nicht verstehe ist, warum sich die Reihe über quasi alle Ableger des Franchises erstreckt (mit Ausnahme von ENT, da ENT vor TOG spielt). Ich hätte es besser gefunden, wäre man bei TOS kleben geblieben. Aber vielleicht wird diese Richtung in den Folgeromanen erklärt. Diese haben zum Glück andere Autoren, deswegen habe ich noch die Hoffnung, dass die Reihe im Laufe der Geschehnisse besser wird.
Was ich auch etwas schade finde, ist die Tatsache, dass es keine Printversionen mehr von dieser Reihe im Handel zu erwerben gibt. Ich bin leider kein großer eBook-Reader-Fan. Ist die Geschichte jedoch interessant, kann ich mich durchaus dazu aufraffen, das Buch zu lesen. 😉
Da ich mich nun mir sehr viel Negativen befasst habe, möchte ich nun auf das Positive zu sprechen kommen, denn das gab es durchaus auch. Das Cover bspw. ist wundervoll, wie bei allen eBook-Neuauflagen des Heyne-Verlags. Auch der Insider mit den Routineuntersuchung, die immer noch keiner Leiden konnte, war wirklich nett und hat diesen Funken Star Trek wieder aufgegriffen. Das waren Momente, wo ich die Hoffnung für diesen Roman noch nicht aufgegeben hatte. Ebenso Prolog wie Epilog waren astrein und schön zu lesen. Auch die Geheimnisse um Sektion 31 fand ich thematisch wundervoll. Ich liebe diese Vorstellung, dass hohe Tiere und auch kleine Ameisen dahinterstecken. Leute, die man kennt und aufgrund dessen doch nicht kennt, wenn ihr versteht was ich meine. Dieses Konstrukt Sektion 31 ist toll und das einzige, was mich zum Weiterlesen animiert. Deswegen könnt ihr euch sicher sein, dass ich die nächsten drei Teile irgendwann in der nächsten Zeit auch lesen und rezensieren werde, wenn ich die Zeit dafür finde.
Fazit: Ich gebe dem Buch insgesamt 3 von 5 Sternen. Es hat mich überhaupt nicht von Hocker gehauen, doch ganz so schlecht war es auch nicht. Ich sehe den Folgeteilen mit großer Hoffnung auf Besserung entgegen.
Der erste Band spielt in der Originalserie. Hier wird diese Organisation das erste Mal entdeckt bzw. Vermutet. Um ehrlich zu sein, habe ich mir mehr von dem Roman erwartet, als ich am Ende bekommen habe. Die Gründe dazu erläutere ich, nachdem ich eine kurze Zusammenfassung des Inhaltes wiedergegeben habe.
Die Enterprise ist auf dem Weg zu Deep Space M-20, wo eine wissenschaftliche Tagung stattfindet und einige Crew-Mitglieder, darunter auch Mr. Spock, daran teilnehmen. Auf dem Weg dorthin nehmen sie einen automatischen Hilferuf der USS Sphinx unter dem Kommando von Captain Jack Casden. Durch einen waghalsigen Einsatz gelingt es der Crew der Enterprise, das Schiff vor der drohenden Selbstzerstörung zu retten. Leider musste man feststellen, dass die Crew der Sphinx bereits tot war und jede Hilfe zu spät kam. Alle bis auf den Captain waren erstickt – Casden war von einem nicht registrierten Passagier aus nächster Nähe mit einem Phaser erschossen worden.
Kirk leitete sofort Ermittlungen in diesem Fall ein und glaubte, dass Casden Amok gelaufen sei, da er die Last seiner Pflichten nicht mehr ertragen konnte. Nachdem jedoch die Ermittlung urplötzlich an Captain Derres weitergegeben worden waren, wurde er misstrauisch, Als dann auch noch Derres unter mysteriösen Umständen verstarb, witterte der Captain der Enterprise eine Verschwörung, die sich im Laufe der Geschichte bewahrheitet. Zu seinem Leidwesen muss Kirk feststellen, dass Dr. Ketteract, ein verrückter Wissenschaftler, seine neue Flamme Dr. Suni und auch McCoy alte Studienfreundin Dr. Petterson Teil dieser Verschwörung waren, um die Synthese des sogenannten Omega-Moleküls voranzutreiben, welches sie mit der Hilfe der von der Enterprise gestohlenen Tarnvorrichtung der Romulaner taten.
Am Ende wird die Synthese von Dr. Suni in Gang gesetzt, was die Vernichtung der geheimen Basis und einige Schäden des umliegenden Raums zur Folge hatte. Kirk gelang es, größere Schäden abzuwenden. Doch er muss feststellen, dass er nur Narren und Lakaien eines viel größeren Problems aufgedeckt hatte. Denn die wahre Sektion 31 musste auch hohen Tieren bestehen. Er trifft sich dementsprechend mit seinen engsten Vertrauten irgendwo im Nirgendwo und riet ihnen Wachsamkeit. Man solle warten, bis diese mysteriöse Sektion 31 einen Fehler beginge, damit man sie endlich aufdecken und aus dem Verkehr ziehen konnte. Damit endet der erste Teil.
Da ich die anderen drei Teile der Serie noch nicht habe lesen können, aber weiß, dass sie im vierten Band im Serienableger Star Trek Voyager endet, nehme ich an, dass diese Sektion 31 auch mit Janeway und Co. aufgedeckt wird.
Um ehrlich zu sein, die Zusammenfassung des Romans klingt spannender als er es letzten Endes wirklich ist. Bis zur Seite 97 passiert nichts wirklich spannendes und wirklich los geht es erst im Epilog. Da wird es so richtig Interessant.
Fangen wir aber von vorne an, beginnend mit dem Schreibstil. Als ich mich an das Buch gemacht hatte, ging ich mit der Erwartung voraus, dass es angelehnt an die wirklichen „Classic“-Romane war. Leider wurde ich enttäuscht. Als großer Liebhaber der alten Romane hatte ich diesen freundschaftlichen und familiären Schreibstil wirklich vermisst, auch wenn es sich jetzt wirklich doof anhört. Ich möchte nicht sagen, dass der Autor nicht schreiben kann. Das kann er, sonst wäre dieser Roman nicht verlegt und übersetzt worden. Aber es ist kein Star Trek. S.D. Perry ist keine McIntyre, Cooper oder Sunny. Perry hat wirklich versucht, es so hinzubekommen wie jene genannten Autoren, die die Star Trek Romane, aber auch die Serie an sich anhand der Drehbücher geprägt hatten, aber er scheiterte daran und das merkt man auch in diesem Roman: Es kommt einem vor wie gewollt, aber nicht gekonnt. Perry schreibt sehr distanziert, dabei kam es in Star Trek Romanen immer auf Charakternähe an, alles ist lasch und oberflächlich beschrieben. Es fehlt kontinuierlich etwas.
Das sind meine Gedanken zum Schreibstil. Nun kommen wir zum Inhalt der Story.
Der Prolog beginnt mit einem klassischen Kobayashi-Maru-Szenario (komplett ausweglose Situation). Knackpunkt an der ganzen Sache ist: Es handelt sich um keinen Test. Der Captain der Sphinx wird hier von einem Saboteur getötet.
Anschließend beginnt die Hauptgeschichte mit der Enterprise, welche auf dem Weg zu DS-M20 ist, wo die wissenschaftliche Konferenz stattfindet. Ebenso stehen die halbjährlichen Untersuchungen an, die immer noch keiner leiden kann. Dann erreichte sie auch schon der Notruf der Sphinx.
Jede Handlung, jede Erzählung und Darstellung ist meines Erachtens nicht charakterkonform und sehr nüchtern ausgelegt. Es fehlt die Liebe zum charakterlichen Detail. Wo wir gerade bei Detail sind: Ich weiß, dass ist jetzt Meckern auf höchstem Niveau, aber es wurde doch tatsächlich gesagt, dass Captain Kirk ein kleines Büro hatte, dass direkt an die Brücke grenzte. Das hatte Kirk nie, sondern Picard. In TOS grenzte nichts an die Brücke außer dem Turbolift. Erst ab TNG und Voyager gab es derartige Büros. In den Originalen Serien gab es auch nie eine weitere Tür auf der Brücke. Von daher finde ich es unachtsam von Perry, über etwas zu schreiben, von dessen Materie er anscheinend keine Ahnung hat.
Was ich auch seltsam und sehr unnötig fand, war der Eibau von McCoy angeblich unheilbaren Krankheit Xenopolycythämie. Demnach sollte er mit 42 sterben (zur Handlungszeit ist er 41), dabei taucht er in TNG als Admiral ein letztes Mal auf, bevor er laut Original-Canon verstirbt. Dieser Krankheit und McCoy psychischem und emotionalen Leiden werden sehr viele Erwähnungen und Ausführungen in diesem Roman gewidmet, nur damit im Epilog ganz beiläufig und ohne viel geblubbert erwähnt werden konnte, dass man doch ganz fix eine Heilung in binnen 2 Monaten gefunden hatte. Das war wirklich etwas wo ich mir dachte: Are you kidding me?! Ragefactor 100%, sage ich da nur. Letzten Endes war diese Krankheit total sinnlos und sollte anscheinend nur dafür dienen, um eine nicht gerade spannende Spannung einzubauen. Ein doppelter Fail also.
Generell fand ich den Roman sehr langatmig und ganz nach dem Motto: „Komm auf den Punkt!“ und „Was hat das jetzt mit der eigentlichen Story zu tun?“
Für mich gab es hier auch eindeutig zu viele und zu langatmig ausgeführte, teilweise sinnlose Romanzen. Ja, zwei Romanzen sind zu viel. Vor allem wenn sie wie bei a) Kirk total falsch ausgelegt werden und b) bei Spock zu viel hinein interpretiert wurde.
Durch die Romanzen und McCoy Krankheit wollte man den Roman interessanter gestalten, indem man eine Story in eine Story einbaute, was aber nicht zum allgemeinen Canon passte und schon gar nicht zur Alternativen Zeitlinie (J.J. Abrams). Der Roman passt also in zweierlei Hinsicht einfach nicht hinein.
Vor allem das Ende hatte mich stutzig gemacht. Es wurde davon gesprochen, dass der Wissenschaftler Ketteract die Tarnvorrichtung der Romulaner besaß, die Kirk vor einigen Woche gestohlen hatte (daran kann man den Roman zeitlich nach S3E2 und vor den Filmen einordnen), theoretisch war die Maschine fest in die Basis von dem Doktor integriert und als Kirk sich hat auf die Basis Beamen lassen, hatte er weder die Zeit noch die Mittel dieses Gerät mitzunehmen. Doch am Ende besaß er sie irgendwie. Es kann sein, dass ich in einem Moment nicht aufgepasst habe. Das will ich gar nicht bestreiten. Trotzdem kam mir das etwas komisch vor.
Was für mich wirklich Star Trek war, war der Epilog. Er war durch und durch gut. Gut geschrieben, gut geplant. Einfach toll. Vor allem der Schlussabsatz hat mir super gut gefallen, ebenso das ganze Mysterium um Sektion 31, welches dort quasi geboren wurde.
Was ich nicht verstehe ist, warum sich die Reihe über quasi alle Ableger des Franchises erstreckt (mit Ausnahme von ENT, da ENT vor TOG spielt). Ich hätte es besser gefunden, wäre man bei TOS kleben geblieben. Aber vielleicht wird diese Richtung in den Folgeromanen erklärt. Diese haben zum Glück andere Autoren, deswegen habe ich noch die Hoffnung, dass die Reihe im Laufe der Geschehnisse besser wird.
Was ich auch etwas schade finde, ist die Tatsache, dass es keine Printversionen mehr von dieser Reihe im Handel zu erwerben gibt. Ich bin leider kein großer eBook-Reader-Fan. Ist die Geschichte jedoch interessant, kann ich mich durchaus dazu aufraffen, das Buch zu lesen. 😉
Da ich mich nun mir sehr viel Negativen befasst habe, möchte ich nun auf das Positive zu sprechen kommen, denn das gab es durchaus auch. Das Cover bspw. ist wundervoll, wie bei allen eBook-Neuauflagen des Heyne-Verlags. Auch der Insider mit den Routineuntersuchung, die immer noch keiner Leiden konnte, war wirklich nett und hat diesen Funken Star Trek wieder aufgegriffen. Das waren Momente, wo ich die Hoffnung für diesen Roman noch nicht aufgegeben hatte. Ebenso Prolog wie Epilog waren astrein und schön zu lesen. Auch die Geheimnisse um Sektion 31 fand ich thematisch wundervoll. Ich liebe diese Vorstellung, dass hohe Tiere und auch kleine Ameisen dahinterstecken. Leute, die man kennt und aufgrund dessen doch nicht kennt, wenn ihr versteht was ich meine. Dieses Konstrukt Sektion 31 ist toll und das einzige, was mich zum Weiterlesen animiert. Deswegen könnt ihr euch sicher sein, dass ich die nächsten drei Teile irgendwann in der nächsten Zeit auch lesen und rezensieren werde, wenn ich die Zeit dafür finde.
Fazit: Ich gebe dem Buch insgesamt 3 von 5 Sternen. Es hat mich überhaupt nicht von Hocker gehauen, doch ganz so schlecht war es auch nicht. Ich sehe den Folgeteilen mit großer Hoffnung auf Besserung entgegen.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2022
‚„Ich glaube, mir wird allmählich klar, dass ich nicht mehr so jung bin wie früher, Mr. Scott.“
Der Chefingenieur lächelte traurig. „Ja, wirklich schade, nicht wahr?“‘
Der Chefingenieur lächelte traurig. „Ja, wirklich schade, nicht wahr?“‘
April 7, 2018
Cloak kicks off with the USS Spinx in dire straits and the USS Enterprise springing to the rescue! :D After the decimated Spinx is investigated Kirk and co start investigating only to have their investigations hindered and then taken taken away from them! :D This begins a series of events that become more and more mysterious events as the Kirk, Spock and McCoy all come across different aspects of the mystery that all start to add up to a conspiracy regarding a dangerous molecule known as the Omega Molecule! :D
As Cloak progresses the people and backstory that Kirk and co encounter continue to mount up form Kirk's encounters with Jain and Spock's headbutting with Ketteract are all handled brilliantly Spock very Spock response to all of Ketteract's responses and arguments is both sharp and humorous! :D Getting round Spock so easily is nearly impossible and you will reckon there should be some kind of Galactic announcement about that! :D Kirk's interactions with Jain are cleverly portrayed with both of them parrying with each other in debate and the fact that she is a blatant Section 31 agent under it all adds a sinister though poignant take on things even though she is clearly dedicated to her cause and cannot change from that viewpoint in the same way that Kirk can't which lead to a plot that you really do not know which way that it is going to go that gives Cloak a really great edge! :D
McCoy during the course of the book comes down with a disease called xenopolycythemia and this touches on most of his interactions throughout the book which leads to very dramatic but touching scenes with both Nurse chapel and tension with his friends as he does not want to let them know how serious things are! :D This leads to great characterisation with McCoy and allows the books to further his backstory and to expand on McCoy's activities off the Enterprise! :D
Cloak also pays attention to the other members of the crew as well, Chekov loses to Chess and in Love to a Joanna Celaux, Scotty gets to use his engineering know how not only on the bridge but also in the Command Chair and Uhura has code to break which give us more of an insight into her character as well as all the duties she has to perform! :D This gives all the characters screen and page time leading to the feeling of all the crew really doing there things but at the same time having humour pop up all over the place an example being Chekov's constantly getting the wrong end of the stick that will have you in stitches! :D
Kirk's illicit meeting with Commodores and other Captains adds a chilling not to the proceedings as they start to plot to out manoeuvre Section 31 who have their fingers in every pie! :D Plus like the the characters in the book you will get a little suspicious of things for example was Mr Tam paying a little to close attention at the Transporter controls? :D
Cloak is brilliant, fast-paced, a real conspiracy themed mystery, full of intrigue and adventure and will keep you on your toes and and page turning to find out what happens an more mysteries are revealed and thrown at the Kirk and co! D At the same time Cloak sets up more mysteries and adventures to be sort so tis handy to have the next book ready! :D Crisp high five! :D Go and get it! :D
As Cloak progresses the people and backstory that Kirk and co encounter continue to mount up form Kirk's encounters with Jain and Spock's headbutting with Ketteract are all handled brilliantly Spock very Spock response to all of Ketteract's responses and arguments is both sharp and humorous! :D Getting round Spock so easily is nearly impossible and you will reckon there should be some kind of Galactic announcement about that! :D Kirk's interactions with Jain are cleverly portrayed with both of them parrying with each other in debate and the fact that she is a blatant Section 31 agent under it all adds a sinister though poignant take on things even though she is clearly dedicated to her cause and cannot change from that viewpoint in the same way that Kirk can't which lead to a plot that you really do not know which way that it is going to go that gives Cloak a really great edge! :D
McCoy during the course of the book comes down with a disease called xenopolycythemia and this touches on most of his interactions throughout the book which leads to very dramatic but touching scenes with both Nurse chapel and tension with his friends as he does not want to let them know how serious things are! :D This leads to great characterisation with McCoy and allows the books to further his backstory and to expand on McCoy's activities off the Enterprise! :D
Cloak also pays attention to the other members of the crew as well, Chekov loses to Chess and in Love to a Joanna Celaux, Scotty gets to use his engineering know how not only on the bridge but also in the Command Chair and Uhura has code to break which give us more of an insight into her character as well as all the duties she has to perform! :D This gives all the characters screen and page time leading to the feeling of all the crew really doing there things but at the same time having humour pop up all over the place an example being Chekov's constantly getting the wrong end of the stick that will have you in stitches! :D
Kirk's illicit meeting with Commodores and other Captains adds a chilling not to the proceedings as they start to plot to out manoeuvre Section 31 who have their fingers in every pie! :D Plus like the the characters in the book you will get a little suspicious of things for example was Mr Tam paying a little to close attention at the Transporter controls? :D
Cloak is brilliant, fast-paced, a real conspiracy themed mystery, full of intrigue and adventure and will keep you on your toes and and page turning to find out what happens an more mysteries are revealed and thrown at the Kirk and co! D At the same time Cloak sets up more mysteries and adventures to be sort so tis handy to have the next book ready! :D Crisp high five! :D Go and get it! :D
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2012
As best I can remember this was passed on to me by a friend--I'm a big Star Trek fan from childhood and particularly a Kirk fan, and this promised to feature him prominently given the picture of him on the cover. It also deals with an intriguing aspect of the Trek universe added on by Deep Space Nine--Section 31--an irregular clandestine organization within Star Fleet. The problem is, although I appreciated how this novel fit in references to various episodes and tried to make sense of the characters within that framework, the writing struck me as bland boilerplate. And I was additionally disappointed that the author didn't take the opportunity to better develop the origins of Section 31 given a chance to place such a story about it during the original series time-frame.
Mind you, the blandness is a problem I often find in media pro-fiction. The powers-that-be are unwilling to allow for major developments that go outside the box without hitting a major reset button and work-for-hire is unattractive for several reasons to "name" writers. That means it's rare to either get the loving attention to detail, voice and insight into character of good fan fiction (not an oxymoron, it exists) nor the originality and quality of really fine professional writers in the science fiction genre. I never felt this author "got" this cast of characters other than in a bullet point way.
There are exceptions, or at least novels of this sort I've greatly enjoyed. Star Trek fans generally have great affection for pro works by Vonda N. McIntyre, Diane Carey, A.C. Crispin, Diane Duane, John M. Ford, Janet Kagen, Melinda Snodgrass, Jean Lorrah, Barbara Hambly, Della Van Hise, Carolyn Clowes, D.C. Fontana, Jeri Taylor, and Peter David--and even the admittedly cheesy novels of Marshak and Culbreath. If you're interested in reading a good work based on Star Trek, I'd point you to those writers or get some of the fine short story anthologies in the Strange New Worlds series of books. I'm afraid this particular novel is not memorable and will be weeded out on my next purge of my books.
Mind you, the blandness is a problem I often find in media pro-fiction. The powers-that-be are unwilling to allow for major developments that go outside the box without hitting a major reset button and work-for-hire is unattractive for several reasons to "name" writers. That means it's rare to either get the loving attention to detail, voice and insight into character of good fan fiction (not an oxymoron, it exists) nor the originality and quality of really fine professional writers in the science fiction genre. I never felt this author "got" this cast of characters other than in a bullet point way.
There are exceptions, or at least novels of this sort I've greatly enjoyed. Star Trek fans generally have great affection for pro works by Vonda N. McIntyre, Diane Carey, A.C. Crispin, Diane Duane, John M. Ford, Janet Kagen, Melinda Snodgrass, Jean Lorrah, Barbara Hambly, Della Van Hise, Carolyn Clowes, D.C. Fontana, Jeri Taylor, and Peter David--and even the admittedly cheesy novels of Marshak and Culbreath. If you're interested in reading a good work based on Star Trek, I'd point you to those writers or get some of the fine short story anthologies in the Strange New Worlds series of books. I'm afraid this particular novel is not memorable and will be weeded out on my next purge of my books.
February 17, 2016
I really like Star Trek. The whole concept is fascinating to me. When I heard there was a book about a secret organization within the Star Trek universe, not to mention within Starfleet, I had to get it. As much as I love Star Trek, I also love a good spy story. The mix of the two really had me anticipating this book.
So, long story short, this was good. Please note I did not say it knocked my socks off or was a definite must read. It was good. This first book in the Section 31 series deals with the Star Trek Original Series crew; Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Chekov, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, etc.
Part of the book deals with a mission the crew of the Enterprise accomplished when they stole a cloaking device from the Romulan Empire. You do not see the particulars in this book, you are just made aware of the fact that it was done. That sets up the story for the research facility that has developed a weapon from this cloaking device, and the Enterprise’s attempt to stop the experiments.
The problem I had with the book is that parts of the book felt rushed, and parts felt thrown together just for the sake of putting out a Star Trek novel. An example is when Kirk meets a woman at a science conference, they get together, they kiss and she had to leave immediately to go back with her colleagues. They become infatuated with each other and he meets up with her towards the end of the book and her character does a 180 from what you think she is from the brief time you know her.
Another upsetting part is how Mr. Spock looks over some calculations and tells the people he is dealing with that their calculations are wrong, and the people tell Spock he is wrong. Excuse me? You mean to tell me that the Science Officer that we all know and love made a mis-calculation? And these people who know of his reputation just blow him off?
All in all is was good, not the best I have read, but certainly not the worst. It is good for a bit of quick guilty pleasure reading.
So, long story short, this was good. Please note I did not say it knocked my socks off or was a definite must read. It was good. This first book in the Section 31 series deals with the Star Trek Original Series crew; Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Chekov, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, etc.
Part of the book deals with a mission the crew of the Enterprise accomplished when they stole a cloaking device from the Romulan Empire. You do not see the particulars in this book, you are just made aware of the fact that it was done. That sets up the story for the research facility that has developed a weapon from this cloaking device, and the Enterprise’s attempt to stop the experiments.
The problem I had with the book is that parts of the book felt rushed, and parts felt thrown together just for the sake of putting out a Star Trek novel. An example is when Kirk meets a woman at a science conference, they get together, they kiss and she had to leave immediately to go back with her colleagues. They become infatuated with each other and he meets up with her towards the end of the book and her character does a 180 from what you think she is from the brief time you know her.
Another upsetting part is how Mr. Spock looks over some calculations and tells the people he is dealing with that their calculations are wrong, and the people tell Spock he is wrong. Excuse me? You mean to tell me that the Science Officer that we all know and love made a mis-calculation? And these people who know of his reputation just blow him off?
All in all is was good, not the best I have read, but certainly not the worst. It is good for a bit of quick guilty pleasure reading.
April 1, 2020
I wasn't interested reading any more of these Section 31 books beyond the 3 DS9 ones, since that's where we first learned of the of the secretive group, but I heard this was related to TOS episode Balance of Terror and thought I'd give it a go. I'm very much glad I did! Not only was S31 barely even mentioned; which is nice because it's at the point of overuse, but it was also a pretty decent story on its own that even included a surprise plot element from VOY.
The story starts off at a sprint with a runaway starship, but there's a few mysteries that pop up as to why and how those events were set in motion. Then the pacing takes a bit of a dive with a conference going on at some random space station, and Kirk nearly getting some action of a different variety. While I get the reason why those chapters were there, to set up characters for future use, I felt it could've been done without steering the plot so far off course.
There's also a sub-plot where Bones discovers he's contracted a fatal illness that went practically nowhere... beyond adding a minuscule piece to the puzzle that could've came from someone else and better suited the story. I would've mentioned that under a spoiler warning, but I'm confident everyone curious about this book will know the doctor comes out just fine considering it takes place in the first year of their mission.
Having said all that, I very much enjoyed this book for the most part, and it seamlessly introduced elements from later series. If you're interested in more Section 31 stories, Cloak is apparently where it all starts, though I believe the four shorter stories are not interconnected.
The story starts off at a sprint with a runaway starship, but there's a few mysteries that pop up as to why and how those events were set in motion. Then the pacing takes a bit of a dive with a conference going on at some random space station, and Kirk nearly getting some action of a different variety. While I get the reason why those chapters were there, to set up characters for future use, I felt it could've been done without steering the plot so far off course.
There's also a sub-plot where Bones discovers he's contracted a fatal illness that went practically nowhere... beyond adding a minuscule piece to the puzzle that could've came from someone else and better suited the story. I would've mentioned that under a spoiler warning, but I'm confident everyone curious about this book will know the doctor comes out just fine considering it takes place in the first year of their mission.
Having said all that, I very much enjoyed this book for the most part, and it seamlessly introduced elements from later series. If you're interested in more Section 31 stories, Cloak is apparently where it all starts, though I believe the four shorter stories are not interconnected.
August 20, 2009
After two rather disappointing novels (Rogue and Shadow), the Section 31 novels take a dramatic upturn in terms of quality and storytelling with S.D. Perry's third Trek novel in as mnay months, Cloak. Set firmly in Trek's third season, this novel does what the best Trek novels can and should do--take threads from various episodes and weave them into an interesting, intellignet story. The book succeeds in large part because we get to see some background to events that occur during the third season--most notably McCoy's finding out about his illness that we'll hear about in "For the World is Hollow...." and his coming to grips with that. We've got some nice character work done with Kirk and Perry attempts to explain just why Kirk had so many relationships the third season and does a pretty good job of it.
All of the original series characters are in fine form here. Each gets to contribue a little something to the storyline and the premise. Slipping into and out of Cloak is like seeing old friends--you get to remember things about them you'd forgotten. It's a wonderful and enjoying book that's just right for the summer reading season.
All of the original series characters are in fine form here. Each gets to contribue a little something to the storyline and the premise. Slipping into and out of Cloak is like seeing old friends--you get to remember things about them you'd forgotten. It's a wonderful and enjoying book that's just right for the summer reading season.
February 22, 2015
Overall a very good book. the author catches the tics and mannerisms of the famous guys like Kirk , Spock and McCoy perfectly.it really does feel like an episode of the original series.
Having said that,the story doesnt go many places. i understand this is just the first book in the a series but the overall threat of Section 31 isnt even fully explored and is barely mentioned. as is to be expected we only get fragments of the overall plan of Starfleets most sinister secret. which i suppose makes sense. we do feel Kirks anger and frustration over not having all of the information as the reader can relate to it. but seeing as how the other books in the series deal with charcters and events set hundreds of years after this book, it just kinda leaves the plot hanging.
I will admit that this might be a case of the other books expanding on this one and making it look better in hindsight but only time will tell.
Having said that,the story doesnt go many places. i understand this is just the first book in the a series but the overall threat of Section 31 isnt even fully explored and is barely mentioned. as is to be expected we only get fragments of the overall plan of Starfleets most sinister secret. which i suppose makes sense. we do feel Kirks anger and frustration over not having all of the information as the reader can relate to it. but seeing as how the other books in the series deal with charcters and events set hundreds of years after this book, it just kinda leaves the plot hanging.
I will admit that this might be a case of the other books expanding on this one and making it look better in hindsight but only time will tell.
April 21, 2015
The writer did an excellent job of tying into existing franchise material to give the story depth, complexity, and gravitas. This element was not over used either.
I could clearly hear the voices of Spock, Bones and Kirk. See the beautiful but opposing women. The text did a very welcome job combining the kitch of the 60s TV with the moral ambiguity of Section 31.
However, the latter was not fully realized, by design or omission the threat isn't even implied, it becomes subconscious bordering on needing to be searched for to find. This is probably due to the antithetical opposition of the two but all in all, a fair read, fairly executed.
I could clearly hear the voices of Spock, Bones and Kirk. See the beautiful but opposing women. The text did a very welcome job combining the kitch of the 60s TV with the moral ambiguity of Section 31.
However, the latter was not fully realized, by design or omission the threat isn't even implied, it becomes subconscious bordering on needing to be searched for to find. This is probably due to the antithetical opposition of the two but all in all, a fair read, fairly executed.
April 16, 2013
A crisp, concise novel that doesn't outstay its welcome. Within its spartan page count, "Cloak" manages to retcon key plot points from DS9 and Voyager effortlessly into the storyline of the Original Series, while offering lashings of lovely character work with the Enterprise crew. To top it all off, there are a number of tense & exciting action set pieces to act as icing on the cake. An incredibly refreshing & enjoyable read.
April 15, 2020
I enjoyed this book, but felt that the Section 31 element seemed a bit like an afterthought, I also thought that McCoy’s storyline was just to give him something to do.
I felt the author made the characters easily accessible and recognisable in the way that she writes - I could picture the locations and hear the characters.
You may wish to watch the Star Trek: Original Series 3, Episode 2 - The Enterprise Incident, before reading this book.
I felt the author made the characters easily accessible and recognisable in the way that she writes - I could picture the locations and hear the characters.
You may wish to watch the Star Trek: Original Series 3, Episode 2 - The Enterprise Incident, before reading this book.
February 23, 2021
In reading this, and with Section 31 on the cover, you would think it had given Section 31 a front seat in the novel. But, it's still just as mysterious and sinister behind the scenes. Even by the end, a handful of Captains & Commodores along with Kirk discuss what this organization is and how they can find them. Not a great book, but a good follow up to 'The Enterprise Incident'.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 12, 2019
We know that Section 31 has been around since the founding of the Federation. We know of Dr. Julian Bashir's battle to destroy the secretive organization in the 24th century, but what about the 23rd?
Kirk, Spock, Bones, and the crew of the Enterprise come across a mystery that hints that 31 was involved. But how can they stop a group that they've never heard of?
Kirk, Spock, Bones, and the crew of the Enterprise come across a mystery that hints that 31 was involved. But how can they stop a group that they've never heard of?
January 21, 2020
It is odd, but cool that Paramount wanted to incorporate Section 31 into Star Trek: TOS. It explains what happened to the cloaking device that Captain Kirk stole from the Romulans on the episode "The Enterprise Incident." The storytelling is great and there is a mystery that needs to be solved in the background.
May 29, 2021
Decided to give the Section 31 anthology a try. This one was a relatively short story taking place in the TOS universe with a certain clandestine faction trying to backward engineer a Romulan cloaking device. What could possibly go wrong? ;-) Overall, rather interesting, and we get to see a bit of McCoy's past resurface.
April 2, 2015
Enjoyable read. A good start to the series
September 23, 2019
I'm gonna start this by saying it was my first, tentative step into Original Series books so I might not fully appreciate the author's use of the characters or OS style plots. I'm reading the Section 31 books and so far I've enjoyed the stories, this was the first one to really disappoint me.
It felt like it had no direction, Kirk learns that something evil is a part of the Federation! He proceeds to try and figure out what it is only to learn that... something evil is a part of the Federation! He also tries to woo a woman in the typical Kirk fashion which didn't bother me in the slightest, except that she really didn't matter? She was smart and driven, everything that Kirk would love in a one-night stand but unfortunately for them she's pulled away by the scientist she's effectively a secretary to. When Kirk has to follow the scientist, he now has a "deeper reason" for not wanting to believe anything bad is happening when she's involved. Then the station she's on explodes and the Enterprise saves the day! Unfortunately everyone on the station is dead but hooray Kirk and everyone else will be a-okay. It meant nothing, they learned nothing other than Section 31 exists and it's bad.
The side plot is it's own beast to deal with because it's boring and pointless. It's supposed to make you worry about McCoy's mortality and his "terminal illness" The effect is lost because the author wrote it after episode 1 of TNG so we all know McCoy lives to be 137! It seems pointless to me for her to prattle on and on about McCoy dying when we know he lives a long life. I don't know if that's just standard fair of OS plots or if this was a unique brand of shoehorning in a main character who has little to no place in the main plot.
I usually try and read these older Star Trek books with a grain of salt. I've read numerous numbered TNG books and I know I have to give them a little leeway with plot complexity and cheesiness but this book was not good. I wouldn't recommend reading it unless you really want to read all the Section 31 books or if you're trying to read all TOS books, other than that it is a waste of time.
It felt like it had no direction, Kirk learns that something evil is a part of the Federation! He proceeds to try and figure out what it is only to learn that... something evil is a part of the Federation! He also tries to woo a woman in the typical Kirk fashion which didn't bother me in the slightest, except that she really didn't matter? She was smart and driven, everything that Kirk would love in a one-night stand but unfortunately for them she's pulled away by the scientist she's effectively a secretary to. When Kirk has to follow the scientist, he now has a "deeper reason" for not wanting to believe anything bad is happening when she's involved. Then the station she's on explodes and the Enterprise saves the day! Unfortunately everyone on the station is dead but hooray Kirk and everyone else will be a-okay. It meant nothing, they learned nothing other than Section 31 exists and it's bad.
The side plot is it's own beast to deal with because it's boring and pointless. It's supposed to make you worry about McCoy's mortality and his "terminal illness" The effect is lost because the author wrote it after episode 1 of TNG so we all know McCoy lives to be 137! It seems pointless to me for her to prattle on and on about McCoy dying when we know he lives a long life. I don't know if that's just standard fair of OS plots or if this was a unique brand of shoehorning in a main character who has little to no place in the main plot.
I usually try and read these older Star Trek books with a grain of salt. I've read numerous numbered TNG books and I know I have to give them a little leeway with plot complexity and cheesiness but this book was not good. I wouldn't recommend reading it unless you really want to read all the Section 31 books or if you're trying to read all TOS books, other than that it is a waste of time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 11, 2023
Love the idea of Section 31 within Star Trek. Had this series on my list for a while, finally decided to give it a whirl.
Overall, it’s good. Perry is good at writing the characters of Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Scotty. They feel authentic. And their reactions and feelings feel true to their character. There’s enough with the characters that I’m happy and I come out liking the book. However, story wise, the book is really closer to 2 stars for me.
To start off, this book is essentially a sequel to the original series third season episode The Enterprise Incident. Which is a good episode. Good starting place, but one problem, Section 31 is barely even mentioned in the book. It really only comes up in the very end. Which is anticlimactic. And speaking of anticlimactic, Bones diagnoses himself with a rare blood disease in the beginning of the book that causes a lot of melodrama throughout because McCoy thinks he has less than a year to live. And then the book resolves it with a one-off line from Kirk in the last chapter. WHAT? Really? I mean, of course I didn’t think Bones would die, but I thought they’d have some futuristic explanation for a crazy cure. Not Kirk essentially saying, “Oh by the way…Bones is fine.”
And the book is slow to start. There’s a science conference, Kirk and crew show up. Mill about. Kirk meets a lady. Seriously nothing really happens for the first 80 or so pages of the book. Some of the character work is good, but you are left wondering where the hell are we going?
So, yes, I’m continuing this series, and this book was fine, but the other Section 31 books better step it up a little bit.
Overall, it’s good. Perry is good at writing the characters of Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Scotty. They feel authentic. And their reactions and feelings feel true to their character. There’s enough with the characters that I’m happy and I come out liking the book. However, story wise, the book is really closer to 2 stars for me.
To start off, this book is essentially a sequel to the original series third season episode The Enterprise Incident. Which is a good episode. Good starting place, but one problem, Section 31 is barely even mentioned in the book. It really only comes up in the very end. Which is anticlimactic. And speaking of anticlimactic, Bones diagnoses himself with a rare blood disease in the beginning of the book that causes a lot of melodrama throughout because McCoy thinks he has less than a year to live. And then the book resolves it with a one-off line from Kirk in the last chapter. WHAT? Really? I mean, of course I didn’t think Bones would die, but I thought they’d have some futuristic explanation for a crazy cure. Not Kirk essentially saying, “Oh by the way…Bones is fine.”
And the book is slow to start. There’s a science conference, Kirk and crew show up. Mill about. Kirk meets a lady. Seriously nothing really happens for the first 80 or so pages of the book. Some of the character work is good, but you are left wondering where the hell are we going?
So, yes, I’m continuing this series, and this book was fine, but the other Section 31 books better step it up a little bit.
February 18, 2023
Two in one book Review: TOS: Section 31: Cloak and Voyager: Protectors
A two in one book review! Having been on vacation, I’ve been able to clear out my list of Trek books to read (still have 30 left to go in the list).
So I’ve read all the other Section 31 that were apart of the Quadilogy and the Voyager was my favorite. It didn’t have Section 31 in the book a lot but it was quite enjoyable otherwise. This is also the case with the TOS book, as the reveal of Section 31 isn’t revealed until the end of the book with Kirk setting up his cabal to defeat it. While, their presence is felt throughout the book in the form of creating the Omega Molecule and setting up the backstory of the Omega Directive which we later see play out in Voyager.
Overall, it was more of a decent TOS novel filling in several parts of Spock’s and McCoy’s backstory. It particularly set up well McCoy getting diagnosed with a terminal illness. Seeing Spock interact with the Romulan commander was very enjoyable and I wish we could have gotten more of it, as that was a great part of the Entreprise Incident (I hope there are books involving her character lol). Anyway, it was a decent book with some great twists and turns, but not enough spy stuff for my liking.
A two in one book review! Having been on vacation, I’ve been able to clear out my list of Trek books to read (still have 30 left to go in the list).
So I’ve read all the other Section 31 that were apart of the Quadilogy and the Voyager was my favorite. It didn’t have Section 31 in the book a lot but it was quite enjoyable otherwise. This is also the case with the TOS book, as the reveal of Section 31 isn’t revealed until the end of the book with Kirk setting up his cabal to defeat it. While, their presence is felt throughout the book in the form of creating the Omega Molecule and setting up the backstory of the Omega Directive which we later see play out in Voyager.
Overall, it was more of a decent TOS novel filling in several parts of Spock’s and McCoy’s backstory. It particularly set up well McCoy getting diagnosed with a terminal illness. Seeing Spock interact with the Romulan commander was very enjoyable and I wish we could have gotten more of it, as that was a great part of the Entreprise Incident (I hope there are books involving her character lol). Anyway, it was a decent book with some great twists and turns, but not enough spy stuff for my liking.
February 23, 2023
This was a good old-fashioned Star Trek story that linked the Original Series episode The Enterprise Incident with the Voyager episode The Omega Directive and the mysterious organization known as Section 31, first introduced in Deep Space Nine. Following the events of the Enterprise Incident, Kirk and his crew discover that the entire crew of a Starfleet ship has been murdered and start digging into it. The investigation eventually leads them to Doctor Ketteract, a man who was hailed as a genius until he theorized about Omega. As a result, he (unknowingly to Kirk,) joined Section 31 in an attempt to synthesize Omega aboard a starbase that was hidden thanks to the Romulan cloaking device. The Enterprise arrives shortly before Ketteract succeeds. It is only thanks to their quick actions that limits Omega's breakdown effects to the single sector.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 27, 2021
Boken börjar i ett oerhört snabbt tempo och utvecklas till en riktigt bra bok. Det enda som stör mig är den mycket lösa kopplingen till temat "Section 31" och den långa kopplingen som James T Kirk gör mellan en enstaka siffra som hittas som ledtråd till grunderna för Secion 31 i Federationens grundstadgar. Det kändes som ett för stort hopp som han rimligen inte kunnat fatta. Bortsett från detta mindre minus är boken riktigt bra. Jag gillar kopplingen med Star Trek: Voyager vid ett tillfälle, över huvud taget gillar jag när man på ett bra sätt förklarar något eller fördjupar någon frågeställning som kommit upp i en annan serie. Det gör SD Perry riktigt bra. Boken rekommenderas för personer som känner till TOS bra, men man behöver inte vara expert på TOS för att uppskatta den.
April 20, 2024
Good read, feels like it could have been an episode or two of the original series and it gives everyone at least a little bit to do. The two big standout action sequences were well written page turners. I didn't like how Kirk completely fell in love with a woman after spending only one day with her, they should have at least given her more to do in the book like stick around the enterprise for a few days (which could have made the main mystery more compelling too), and him brooding about their relationship for multiple pages in the end was kind of overkill. But outside of that, I had a fun time reading the book and am interested in where the section 31 books go from here.
February 2, 2024
Oh what a relief. I was really worried that a Section 31 series might forget how Section 31 works like current Star Trek series do but Perry did a great job and I am looking forward to reading her Avatar DS9 books soon because of this. Surprisingly short book for what is packed in here but I did enjoy the mystery and how it unfolds plus the characterizations of the main 3. Looking forward to the next books in the series even though they are not penned by her. But if they stick to the clandestine nature of who and how Section 31 operates I should be as happy as I am here.
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