The Death of Princes

It seems like the starship enterprice just keeps on moving through the twenty fourth century and this book is no exception if you are an fan of reading then go and get you one. Rondall Banks

Surprisingly, this is the last Star Trek novel in any of the series written by John Peel who is an excellent author. As with his first two novels, I found his writing to be absolutely superior in the genre, from characterizations to pacing to overall duel plot set up and execution, this novel has everything that a Star Trek novel reader would want when it comes to a desire for a good Star Trek "fix."The cover art is the one minor detractor for this novel and most others published at the same time as it seems that Pocket Books wasn't too concerned with putting too much effort into the cover art for Star Trek books when this one was published.The Premise:This novel is one of those true rarities in the world of Star Trek fiction as it carries two distinctly different plots involving the crew of the Enterprise. On the planet Buran a mysterious disease is overwhelming the population. As the crew of the Enterprise shows up to help, the people of Buran turn against them, leaving Dr. Crusher and Captain Picard with some hard choices in the face of opposition while trying to assist the population of Buran while at the same time, hoping to stop the people of Buran, who recently joined the Federation, from pulling out of the Federation.On nearby Iomides, Commander Riker attempts to find a Federation observer that has disappeared but they know that the observer is bent on violating the Prime Directive in an attempt to prevent an assassination...As stated above, this is an outstanding novel that is a cut above the rest when it comes to numbered novels. I highly recommend this novel to any all fans of Star Trek fiction! {ssintrepid}

For the most part I found this book to be very interesting and exciting (especially the assassination story). There were however two things that didn't make sense to me - 1. I couldn't accept Deanna as some kind of undercover agent (has she ever done anything like that in the series or movies?) 2. Why didn't Riker and the others get sub-cutaneous locators so that they could have been beamed off of Grell's island? It might have presented a problem if they were caught and the locators discovered, but the risk of being caught was greater if they had to carry Maria Wallace.

I really like this book. The two stories were balanced really well, and I enjoyed the crime/mystery scenario surrounding the plague storyline. Buy it ... if you like Star Trek books with lots of character interaction, dealing with alien races and a story line that keeps you guessing. Don't buy it ... if you like lots of action, space battles and things getting blown up.

I enjoyed both the stories; they were both interesting and never got boring. The two separate stories didn't bother me; the only exception was near the book's end, where one planet's name is used when the other should be.