On the surface this one might seem like your standard "Enterprise encounters an Orwellian planet, some people get brainwashed by Orwellian planet dwellers, they succeed but cannot help the inhabitants because of the Prime Directive" story, but then there's layered on top of it a whole subplot in which Troi enters Dreamtime (??) and also Worf writes a novel. It really kept me guessing, which I think must mean it was pretty good, although there's also some strange things about race in it - mostly because as in some but not all Star Trek novels, race and culture walk in lockstep (you have a Zen archer, and not only is she Japanese but she has a very Japanese name...) That's not entirely wrong, I think there's good reasons why Star Trek might prefer to represent diversity not a melting pot, but it does come off as a little 90s at times.

A society has banned fiction. The theme is too big for Star Trek and the plot is too loose to be anything else. ( )

A decent story with only a few flaws. The author liked to keep the reader guessing about different aspects of the story, but many of them didn't live up to the hype at the end. Troi's dreams was the biggest let down I thought. There were too many cultures represented on the planet and too many books dealing with myth and religion on a planet settled from people leaving earth because they wanted to practice a very strict Bible view. Made the story hard to believe. ( )

This book had it's moments. I disliked the feeling I get from Sharee towards religion, but I understand it well. Replace the leader of Rampart, with say, NeoCons and you have a modern-day story. There are many nods to previous works--Orwell, Bradbury, of course Swift... I know many Star Trek fans have found this novel not to their liking, yet they are notoriously dull-witted and snobbish. So for that reason alone I gravitated towards reading it. There are some very memorable moments Sharee gives us. Overall, time well spent! ( )