A Time for War and a Time for Peace (Star Trek: The Next Generation) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is almost a hodgepodge of a novel, with some politics thrown in, some grudges, backstabbing, hard memories and a little bit of intrigue. The characterizations, as in most DeCandido Trek novels, is flawless. Everybody from Picard to Chancellor Martok to Scotty is perfectly in character and interesting to read about. The plotting is also quite intricate, with multiple storylines coexisting almost flawlessly. DeCandido bounces from one to the other with great skill, bringing them together when the need arises. It was a hard book to put down (in fact, I didn't, really, finishing it in one night). He also resolves all the dangling storylines, such as Picard being in Starfleet's doghouse for the events at the beginning of the series, or Crusher's final decision on whether or not to take the job as head of Starfleet Medical. Riker and Troi are planning their wedding, with much interference from Troi's mother. Worf has to return to the fold somehow, since he's now an ambassador and he clearly wasn't in the movie. He even includes a reason why Wesley Crusher was in a Starfleet uniform at the Riker/Troi wedding reception in the movie. Finally, DeCandido has to ship off a few of the characters who don't show up in Nemesis, such as the wonderful security chief, Christine Vale. Thankfully, it appears that she will be back, either in the Titan series with Riker, or in the continuation of The Next Generation.

That's a lot of balls to juggle, along with the election, Klingon intrigue and the inspection. So it's not surprising that occasionally the balls get dropped. The book was captivating while I read it, but my neck also hurt because of the bouncing of my head from story to story. The book feels very packed and some of the stories feel tacked on. The Kahless story, while influencing the Worf storyline, is brought up and solved in a perfunctory fashion that didn't quite fit in with the rest of the book. The inspectors created a lot of anxiety for the crew, especially given their background and their past dealings with the crew of the Enterprise. However, we don't see a lot of them. There's a classic scene between Crusher and her inspector, who she has harshly criticized for years after what happened in the television episode "Ethics." However, other than that scene, we never see her until the end where we get the results of the inspection. The commander of the inspection, Captain Go, is fleshed out a little more, but not by much. The only inspector we see a lot of is Scotty, but that's for obvious reasons, not to mention because he is a sounding board for Geordi.

Given those weaknesses, though, the book is still a great read. One criticism of DeCandido I've had in the past is the tendency to include a lot of continuity references and then taking paragraphs to explain them. He really lessens that tendency in A Time for War, a Time for Peace. There are plenty of references, but the explanations are fluid and generally don't detract from the story. The epilogue, with Vale and Riker talking about the Titan, was very moving and showcased Vale's character wonderfully. In fact, Vale's part of the book is probably my favourite, from her joining the poker game with "The D Guys," (those crewmembers who served on the Enterprise D before it was destroyed) to her sorrow at what happened to Data in Nemesis, she is perfectly done, and I'm glad we're going to be seeing her again.

A Time for War, a Time for Peace is a fitting conclusion to the whole A Time to... series. It wraps up everything, leaving things perfectly placed for the movie, but it also tells an interesting tale. Even though you may recognize faults in the book, you will probably have a hard time putting it down if you're any sort of Trek fiction fan. It wraps you up in a lot of familiar characters, both from the television show as well as those introduced for the novels, and gives you a warm feeling inside. It also leaves things nicely laced for post-Nemesis books, making the wait very hard for the next book to come out. That's the mark of a standout book.

David Roy