Okay, I will admit to being a Star Trek fan here and now. And I will admit to having read and enjoyed many Star Trek tie-in novels over the years.

However, I've mainly been a fan of Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. The Original Series lost a lot of its appeal for me once the newer series had aired. Having seen the first two of the follow up shows I suddenly noticed how dated the original really had become, and so its place in my affections were taken but its offspring.

And with the fortunes of the TV show having waned in my personal Universe I had not read any of the books that have been coming out over the years, restricting myself to TNG & DS9 titles. If this is anything to go by I may have been depriving myself greatly.

Now in some ways this is a Next Generation book, so it possibly was a good way of easing my way into the readership of classic Trek books. The events in this book take place during two distinct timelines, with one of them being slightly after then end of the Deep Space Nine series, in the aftermath of the Dominion War - although the only characters we meet are those familiar from TOS days.

A new threat to the Romulan Empire has made its presence felt shortly after the end of The Dominion War, and it couldn't have come at a worse time in many respects. The Romulan Empire, Klingon Empire and Federation are all trying to recover from their losses to the Dominion, and to cement their new alliances.

So when the threat comes both the Federation and Klingons are reluctant to enter into a new conflict, especially one against an unknown foe.

The other timeline though is far, far in the past - in the days before the separation of the Vulcans and Romulans. Vulcan is in a state of civil war, and the war is threatening the survival of the entire planet and race.

A plan is hatched to convert some warships to generation starships so that even if the war obliterates all life on Vulcan the race will survive elsewhere. If no such tragedy occurs then the two sections of the race could reunify.

It's this part of the book that is the more interesting, partly because it features Surak, the father of Vulcan Logic, but mostly because of a very engaging character called Karatek. And it is a good thing that this character is so good as it's from his viewpoint we see all events in this period.

This a very well written novel. If you like Star Trek but had never read one of the books believing them to be cheap thrill fiction, fan boy dreams to fill the gaps when there are no new episodes then think again. This book, like many of the other Trek books of many hues I've read over the years, is a strongly plotted, well-thought-out narrative populated by believable characters - and when it comes to the familiar folk (Spock, Uhura, Chekov), well the authors have nailed them.

Okay, I'm a convert - lead me to the next Original Series novel.

Synopsis
Ambassador Spock has married his fellow Vulcan Starfleet officer, Captain Saavik, but he and his wife have little time to enjoy their newlywed status before both of them are plunged into the heart of a clandestine war. Pursuing his hope of uniting Vulcan and Romulus after centuries of hostility between them, Spock finds himself inadvertently drawn into conflict with a long-lost race, also of Vulcan descent, who are set on the destruction of the weakened Romulan Empire. Together with the surviving members of Captain James T. Kirk's old crew, Spock and Saavik are forced to abandon the aegis of the Federation and wage their own secret war behind the scenes. And even as their relationship deepens, their future is threatened as Spock's dream of peace leads him into deadly danger...