Red Sector [Import] [Unbound]

Diane Carey (Author)

Product Details

• Unbound
• Publisher: Pocket Books (July 1999)
• ISBN-10: 0743421337
• ISBN-13: 978-0743421331
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed But Still Good, June 28, 2003

By 

Ronald B. Turner "my blog: http://naughtypun... (Newport, Kentucky USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Red Sector (Star Trek The Next Generation: Double Helix, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Star Trek: Double Helix series is about a mysterious villain who is releasing biological agents across the Alpha Quadrant. This time he has targeted the Romulan royal family, and is up to Dr. McCoy and Ambassador Spock to find the cure before the Romulan Star Empire collapses into chaos and a potential devastating border war with the Federation.

That's what the book is supposed to be about. Forget all of that. The Romulans, the plague, Ambassador Spock and Dr. McCoy are all on the sidelines. The real story is about two young people. One is a Starfleet officer who desperately wants to live up to the legacy of his ancestors who served with Captain Kirk and fought in the Romulan Wars. The other, Zevon, is a Romulan prince and scientist, wracked with the guilt that a simple experiment he created led to the destabilization of an entire world. Both spent four years together as POWs in Red Sector, an area of space sealed off from the rest of the galaxy because of its political instability and hostility to aliens. Stiles eventually gained his freedom, but Zevon remained. Now years later, it is up to Stiles to rescue his friend and return him to Romulus, for his untainted blood is the last great hope for a cure.

If this all sounds complicated, it is. Diane Carey is a wonderful veteran Trek writer, but the plot jumps all over the damn place. She tries to do too many things in too little space. You've got the plague, the conspiracy behind it, the Romulans and all of their political intrigue, one last adventure for Spock and McCoy, Eric Stiles' maturation from a young ensign to a hero and officer in his own right, and Zevon's fight to bring peace and stability back to the planet his experiment had ruined.

Nitpicks: 1) This is supposed to be a medical thriller but it's not. 2) The mastermind villain becomes so mysterious he's almost like a cartoon character. 3) Red Sector is such an artificial plot device. I just can't believe the Federation, Romulans, and everybody else would seal off an area of space just because of some anti-alien hostility on a primitive world. 4) For various reasons, it makes much more sense to have Dr. McCoy treating the Romulan royals than Dr. Crusher, who starts acting just like him in her bedside manner. 5) The Top Gun stuff gave me a headache.

Despite all of this, the book is still fun to read. Why? Because the characterization is excellent. Ambassador Spock and Dr. McCoy don't appear often, and rarely together, but when they do they shine. You really do feel like you're seeing legends at work. Even more impressive is the creation of a strong character such as Eric Stiles completely out of scratch. His transformation from a young inexperienced ensign to a hero worthy of Kirk makes up more than enough for all of the book's many flaws.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Spock would say, "Fascinating!", June 10, 2000

By 

Mel Orr (Durham, North Carolina) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Red Sector (Star Trek The Next Generation: Double Helix, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

The another book for Double Helix, this book doesn't even mention the virus that's plaguing the series until at least half way through. This book focuses more on the career of Kevin Stiles, grandson of Lieutinent Stiles from the Original Series (Balance of Terror). Also in this story, is the ongoing relationship of Spock and McCoy.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even Spock is impressed by the main character of this book, July 19, 2003

By 

Bernard R. Assaf (Johns Creek, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Red Sector (Star Trek The Next Generation: Double Helix, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a journey of one man. At the beginning of the novel he is but an ensign in charge of extracting Ambassador Spock from a world in political turmoil, and it does not go the way he intends. The first part of the book is about his life after that mission goes awry, and how he grows up from a young, unsure-of-himself officer to a hardened man. The second part of the book sees him take on a new challenge that is intertwined with the Double Helix plot, of which this book is part 3 of 6.

With guest appearances by Spock, McCoy, Dr. Crusher and other characters in the NCC-1701-D crew compliment, this book centers on the journey of this young man from adolescene to adulthood, and I was gripped from beginning to end by the inner turmoil and outer emotions that the main character, Eric Stiles, is expertly described to undergo by Diane Carey. Ms. Carey's expertise in naval technical details shines in this book, as also seen in her hardback novel, _Ship of the Line_, about the first mission of the Enterprise NCC-1707-E, starring Captaion "Frazier" (Kelsey Grammar from Cheers' TNG character) and the NCC-1701-D crew after the movie Star Trek Generations. Both that book and this one have the characters on board vessels not normally seen in Star Trek TV episodes, for example border cutters (like the Coast Guard) and CSTs -- Combat Supply Tenders, one of which plays a major role in both book 3's plot and the ongoing double helix plot in this novel.

I highly recommend the Double Helix series--at least the first three books which I have read so far. They are entertaining, bring in characters from other eras and Star Trek series, and the underlying virus plot is also a great mystery.

If you're just looking for the further adventures of 130-something year old Bones McCoy, and his green blooded pal Spock, this is a great book. She depicts those characters true to their form from TV and the expanded universe of their appearances in various novels since then. Bravo to Diane Carey! Now I'm on to Book 4....