Degrees of Affection

*2.5*

*The Gush...and the Negative again*

This is not a bad Star Trek book...its just not a particularly good one. The characters are all...there with Chekhov and Spock's reactions of particular focus with a good bit of Kirk thrown in. Kirk himself shines the most here. You really see the dichotomy of soldier/explorer/diplomat all wrapped up in one rather then dealing with those aspects separately as was often done in the series. Spock is...merely a repeat of the same old 'emotions/no emotions' song that was rather overused in the series. I'll admit, like most people, to wanting to see that Vulcan masked stripped to the emotions below but it was overused in the show and this was merely the 'outside and unknown alien forces affect the crew of the Enterprise...and Spock must try to suppress the emotional responses forced upon him' clad in a slightly different costume.

The Klingons were very Klingony, though it was very interesting to watch a Klingon commander trying to goad those weakling Federation types into breaking the Orgainian Peace Treaty. The fact that the Klingon's ship outgunned the Enterprise was a new idea to me and made for some of the intriguing parts of the novel. This caused Kirk to have to have to work harder to ensure the peace remained. The archeology aspect of it would have been interesting to explore further but it instead merely served to force a mouthy, obsessive, annoying scientist into an already tense situation. I would really liked to have seen how archeology was done in the future and by Andorians no less.

The book opening is a great hook that simply does not amount to anything. I read eagerly past page after page of blah in order to find out just what had killed all the Vulcans on the ship without leaving a mark. The answer was simply another disappointment.

Who finally (after way too long of a time-hello!? they deal with this every day...I figured it out way before they did) figured it out would have been cool if it wasn't so obvious that other characters (I'm looking at a certain brilliant scientist) were OOC in their not figuring it out before the one who did.

I'm not sorry I read the book; it was interesting enough and a quick read. But it could have been better and simply wasn't.

*Conclusion*

If you like Star Trek, Klingons, and reading a differently clothed episode, this is the book for you.