A Time to Be Born (Star Trek The Next Generation) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "THE GAUNT WOMAN, wearing a ragged shift and shoes made of discarded insulation material, knelt in the gully and ran her fingers through the grimy..." (more)
Key Phrases: mimic ship, antimatter asteroid, emotion chip, Captain Picard, Captain Leeden, Admiral Nechayev (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

On the cusp of their epic battle with Shinzon, many of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's long-time crew were heading for new assignments and new challenges. Among the changes were William Riker's promotion to captain and his new command, Riker's marriage to Counselor Deanna Troi, and Dr. Beverly Crusher's new career at Starfleet Medical. But the story of what set them on a path away from the Starship Enterprise™ has never been told.

UNTIL NOW.

The site of one of the Dominion War's fiercest battles, the Rashanar Sector now contains a vast interstellar graveyard littered with the lifeless hulks of hundreds of devastated starships. The explosive destruction of so many varied warp drives has severely distorted the space-time continuum in this region, resulting in dangerous unleashed energies and bizarre gravitational anomalies.

The Enterprise has been assigned to patrol the perimeter of the danger zone, while other vessels carry out the difficult and highly hazardous task of retrieving the bodies of the dead from the wrecked warships.

To some alien races, the former battleground is hallowed space. To others, including the rapacious Androssi, it is a scavenger's paradise, ripe for salvage. None expect this ship's graveyard to hold a deadly secret that will force the android Data to make a heart-wrenching decision about the path his life will take -- and that will endanger not only the Enterprise, but Picard's future in Starfleet.

About the Author

John Vornholt is the author of several bestsellling Star Trek novels including two of the hugely successful four-volume Next Generation/Deep Space Nine DOMINION WAR sequence. He lives in Tuscon, Arizona.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books (January 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743467655
• ISBN-13: 978-0743467650
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #260,183 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ghosts of Rashanar, the dangers of Traveling, March 3, 2004

By	Jason C. Garza "wordsmith116" (Moline, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First off, let me start by saying that "A Time to Be Born" cannot be reviewed merely as a stand-alone; it is half of a story continued in "A Time to Die," and those who lambaste it for being either too rushed or too slow obviously have not finished the second half. With that out of the way, on to the review.

Simply put, if this is what the "A Time to..." series is going to be like, then we are certainly in for a treat. Vornholt probes deeply into the psyches of the "Enterprise" crew, giving even the little-used (but known) characters of Perim and Vale face time. Empathy is key in "Born," as we see in the opening chapters when the Traveler (Wesley Crusher, completing his training) comforts the old woman. We see the possibility of "Enterprise" self-destructing, alone in space, and feel the horror, pain, and shock Wesley feels watching his home explode. He feels helpless and decides to go against his Traveler training to help his former comrades.

And then the action begins. "Enterprise" is sent to assist with the recovery efforts in the Rashanar sector, working in tandem with "Juno" and the Ontailians, a superstitious race whose fear of Rashanar borders on devotional. Quickly we learn the politics and dangers of Rashanar; Picard, Data, and LaForge are ambushed on the hulk of a dead starship, and the result is the theft of the captain's yacht, "Calypso" (really, there is no luck with these captain's yachts). The Androssi are the culprits (for those who have not read the S.C.E. e-books, where we have the first mention of this pirate/foraging race, there is background information, so all is not totally new) and become the catalyst for the novel.

Something is haunting Rashanar, a sort of vampiric ship that feeds of antimatter, causing chaos, confusion, and conflict; it is Starfleet Captain versus Starfleet Captain in a battle of wills and wits. All is not what it seems in Rashanar, and Vornholt pulls off the destruction of the "Juno" and her crew so quickly, efficiently, and shockingly that the reprecussions resonate well after completing the novel.

After "Juno's" destruction, action returns to Earth, where Picard is forced to face a tribunal (Admirals Ross, Nakamuru, and Paris) defended by Vornholt's favorite admiral, Necheyev. With her is an indistinct, unnoticable ensign named Brewster, a young man with years of experience and a hidden agenda. Picard is railroaded, Riker is put in command, and Rashanar is still a bloodbath. With Picard under the ministrations of Starfleet Mental Health and Counsellor Colleen Cabot, Vornholt leaves the reader desiring the answers to the biggest question of them all: what is the secret of Rashanar?

In all, this was a great read and a welcome return to focus of the Next Generation crew. It is somewhat sobering to realize that this is what will set them on the road to their ultimate fate, but in the end, this is a great first step, and one that answers a few questions...but raises more.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars First it's boring then it's irritating, February 22, 2004

By	R. Spottiswood (Western Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a two-part story. In the first half the Enterprise is operating in a "haunted" battle site with some strange new Federation allies. The second half is a legal drama story, as Starfleet Command hangs Picard out to dry to appease those new allies. The second half of the book must be the main story for the second book as it got all of the writer's attention. The descriptions in the first half are flat and boring. The actions and speech of the Enterprise crew are written the same way. Other characters are well-written, making for a bad contrast with the crew. Then suddenly everything changes. We get a vivid description of a very dramatic scene, and an equally vivid and compelling emotional reaction from an Enterprise crewmember. With a rather nasty irony, it's Data and his artificially generated emotions. After that, the descriptions are vivid and interesting and the Enterprise crew suddenly have personalities again. However, for me at least, it's now the plot that becomes irritating. First off, it is explicitly stated to Picard - who astonishingly raises no objections - that his trial will be determined solely on how it affects the Federation's relationship with the new aliens. Truth is irrelevant. Second, we are told the Federation is disintegrating as members leave because `they feel the Federation cannot defend them.' The Federation defeated the Borg and the Dominion and made an alliance with the Romulans, and planetary governments feel threatened *now*? If that is the central theme of the "A Time to..." series than I am not going to enjoy it as it makes no sense to me. For this book in particular, perhaps the best summary is to say that I want to find out the solutions to the aliens' behaviour and the ship graveyard, but I don't really want to read the next book to do so.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Experience does not bring skill, May 25, 2004

By	J. Hitchin (Redmond, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After reading Vornolt's first three Star Trek novels, I skipped everything else he's written because I couldn't stand his awful characterizations and his bad writing style. I picked up "A Time to be Born" from the library hoping that he may have learned something from writing more than ten novels, but unfortunately, he's just as bad as he's always been.

I should say first off that he plots well. I picked up his first three books because the plots sounded interesting. They still do. He's got great ideas.

However, trying to read his writing is quite difficult due to how overly flowery it is. In the first chapter, Wesley's dialogue reads like bad Tolkein fanfic. Also, he hasn't learned how to use the word "said" or how to use only one or two names for a character. For example, in the same chapter, Wesley is referred to as: Wesley, the former Starfleet Officer, the human, the newly born Traveler, and the young man. Usually he won't use the same name twice in a row, which makes for very stilted reading.

If his writing style doesn't put you off, and you want to see what could have happened to the Star Trek TNG crew between Insurrection and Nemesis, then pick it up, you might enjoy it. But I can't get past his bad writing enough to actually be able to like the book much.