Assignment: Eternity

This book is more 1960s than anything written or aired in the '60s. It's a pop-culture mavin's dream. Cox livens his story up with so many '60s touches, it'll really tickle your fancy if you grew up then - and probably if you didn't. Its numerous references include events from contemporaneous T.V. and movie fare such as James Bond, The Avengers, The Prisoner and Stanley Kubrick's 2001. There's even a backstory incident dropped in from another failed Gene Roddenberry pilot of the early 1970s, The Questar Tapes.Picking up the ball T.V. dropped in 1968, Cox takes the characters from the original series' "Assignment: Earth" and gives them a whole new story to play in. That episode was intended as a pilot for a series all its own, and of course that pilot never took off. With any luck, Cox will continue more adventures with extraterrestrial secret agent Gary Seven and his Greenwich Village hippy-chick assistant, Roberta Lincoln - and Seven's other "female" sidekick, Isis the cat - and spin them off into the series they should have been on T.V. If so, he couldn't have gotten off to a better start than this entry in the Star Trek book series.This time around, Seven's future colleague, Septos, sends a cry for help from his base deep undercover in Romulan space, where an especially vicious Romulan secret policewoman commander named Dellas has appropriated much of his superior alien technology for an attempt on the life of Mr. Spock that will destroy the future reunification of the Romulans and the Vulcans. In order to prevent this catastrophe, Seven, Roberta and Isis teleport into the Enterprise's time, taking Captain Kirk and his crew to Romulan space - where, if they're not careful, they'll end up causing an interplanetary war even without Dellas' clandestine machinations.The characters are all brilliantly written, Seven and Roberta especially, without a false note to be found in the bunch. In addition to Cox's many pop-culture references are as many from not only the original Star Trek episodes, but several from the '80s and '90s movies and even The Next Generation.Unbelievably, this gem is out of print. Hunt it down. Especially since Cox is taking the characters further now, with his Eugenics War series - tying Seven into the origin of Khan Noonien Singh.A real feast for Trekkies and '60s kids, and even non-series fans will probably enjoy it.

I was drawn to this book by the author, having read his earlier books and really enjoyed them. For myself the character from the TOS show really didn't have a lot offer. Greg Cox turned, for me, an uninteresting character into an extremely well thought out and compelling story. If you're a fan of the Star Trek books and haven't read this, you really need to. Greg Cox is a true fan that knows what's been done and how to write a new trek novel. I'm looking forward to getting to the Eugenics Wars. Thank you Greg Cox for, in my opinion, one of the top five Trek books ever!

Greg Cox has done a stellar (har) job with this book; here's an author who *knows* Star Trek. Repeated references within the text to various episodes of the series, at entirely germane moments (indeed, the book begins less than a week after the last episode of the series in which Kirk body-swaps with the evil Dr. Janice Lester. Don't ask, if you don't know). Beyond TOS, since this is at its heart a time-travel story, Gary Seven makes references (at least internally) to future Trek history; the Khitomer peace accords, Pardek and Romulan reunification, etc. Additionally, the element of Roberta Lincoln and her 1969-isms is quite fun; such pop-culture references include: The Questor Tapes, The Prisoner (both treated as investigations carried out by Lincoln and Seven), Watergate, Kubrick's 2001, James Bond ("Roberta had outwitted that bald megalomaniac with the white Persian on his lap...") and so on. A great deal of fun. Beyond these 'easter eggs' to find, the story is well-plotted, with all the good paradoxes that any real Time-travel story should have; the characterization of Kirk, McCoy, and Spock in particular are apt, and Seven is written masterfully as well. Kudos to Greg Cox; this one's for the permanent Trek collection.

Gary Seven was the one spin-off that for whatever reason never took place.(remember Spock mentioning that Gary was in for many exciting adventures ahead per history). He was an interesting combination of Napoleon Solo/James Bond. He is brought back brilliantly in this novel which marvelously captures the feel of the original series. I hope the author tries his hand at more Mr. Seven stories!For whatever reason, Kirk doesn't seem to trust Gary Seven. I found this surprising since Kirk already knew what Seven's life was about.

This book was absolutely fantastic. It was written extremely well, and I thought the characters were portrayed well. In a lot of other reviews, people critisised Kirk's treatment of Gary Seven. Let's consider this, he was attempting to save the population of an entire Federation colony but Seven interfered, Seven has proved to be mildly trustworthy in the past, and he threw the Enterprise into the heart of the Romulan Empire! I mean, wouldn't you be just as paranoid of Seven if you were in command? Anyway, I found the book excellent. Originally I didn't want to buy it, but I really wanted something to read and that was all the book shop had. I will say now it was one of the best books I ever bought, no regrets at all. The mission Captain Kirk and Seven went on was written very well, and the situation with the Romulan supervisor was done very well. Treknically it was excellent, no real errors. Another good thing about this book was they way Cox referred to other episodes, and to other series. Refrences to Dr. Soran, Voyager were all pretty good, and there's lots more I cna't remember. For all Star Trek fans, this is one book that is 'One of the best'.