A Star Trek: The Next Generation: Time #8: A Time to Heal [Mass Market Paperback]

When I say a book is "daring," I don't mean it's perfect. This one isn't. Its biggest shortcoming is the utter implausibility of Starfleet's final answer the crimes of the Federation president. And you really have to have a strong stomach or an appreciation for descriptions of graphic injury and violence to get through this book's more brutal passages. David Mack's writing is sometimes shockingly vivid, enough to make one wince at times. There's also no escaping what this book and the one before it, A TIME TO KILL, are really about: the 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The analogy seems plain -- but thinner and not as well-disguised with SF ideas as such episodes of the 1960s STAR TREK series as "A Private Little War" or "A Taste of Armageddon."

But if those are the things that A TIME TO HEAL did wrong, what did it do right? For one thing, even though it used current events as a template, it didn't take sides. Even the so-called villains have reasonable motives, if self-serving or misguided. Mack's portrayal of the tragedies of war, the horrors of combat, and the senselessness of violence is stirring and provocative. He challenges his readers' conceptions of the NEXT GENERATION characters as "pure" or "morally spotless" by putting them in situations where they must make really hard choices between doing the ethical thing and paying a terrible price, or bending their rules little by little in order to stave off disasters, only to find themselves suddenly knee-deep in compromise and complicity.

Another excellent element of this book is its use of supporting characters. The "little people" on the ship come to life in lots of well-dramatized incidents that give them personalities. We get to know them, in both their fragility and their heroism, making it truly poignant and upsetting when they meet gruesome fates.

The plotting of this book is superb; like A TIME TO KILL, action transpires in multiple places at once and encompasses dozens of characters, yet Mack keeps them all clearly drawn. The story has elements of humor and pathos, military tactics and political scheming, strangely bittersweet relationship arcs and an unrelenting sense of impending disaster. In addition, Mack's use of language is remarkably agile. By turns he can be stark, blunt and hard-hitting, then suddenly lyrical and lushly descriptive.

His characters also work on many levels. (Picard is the exception, as he seems to have faded into the background for most of this book. His few moments of pseudo-paternal concern from A TIME TO KILL have greater resonance than all his maudlin pining for Beverly Crusher in A TIME TO HEAL.) In particular, the one frequently underused character who finally got some real development was Deanna Troi. Finally, a STAR TREK main character is forced to confront a truly dark aspect of themselves and isn't able to brush it aside as something alien or "artificially induced" -- Troi must now grapple with the fact that she, like all people, carries the primitive seeds of cruelty in her nature. This is probably some of the best writing ever done for the Troi character.

It's easy to see why this book is so polarizing. It asks readers to realize that even an entity such as the Federation, which we have always been told stands for what is good and noble, can in times of terrible national stress forget the ideals it claims to defend. As the Federation president, his chief of staff, and a cabinet member work a criminal conspiracy to conceal the true reason for why Starfleet had to conquer and occupy the sovereign planet Tezwa, we see the Federation -- long considered STAR TREK's analog to the United States -- engaging in pre-emptive military action, telling one set of lies to its own troops, another to its allies, another to its accomplices on Tezwa... And when good people, like the crew of the Enterprise, are pressed into service based on lies and deception, their achievements, no matter how honorably they were engaged by our heroes, become tainted by the lies of the people who sent them into battle, into war, into conquest.

I don't think that Mack set out to tell a story of carnage and violence because he wanted glorify such evils --- I think this reads like the work of a writer who is appalled and horrified and very angry about what he has been seeing in the news. More than just another STAR TREK book, A TIME TO HEAL in my opinion, is a vicious polemic against a war and a point of view. It is dark, morally complex, violent, graphically brutal, tragic, and, frankly, brilliant.

Regardless of one's opinion of its story, or its conclusions, it is beautifully written. I would never expect everyone to love a book like this -- I don't think that's possible -- but I think it's definitely a book that is worthy of respect.

A Time to Heal is probably one of the darkest Trek novels I've ever read. The book is a decent read with a labyrinth political maze of shifting alliances. However at times, the twisting tale of murder and conspiracy can frankly overwhelm at times and can become flat-out depressing with its bleak look at politics.

Going purely on entertainment level (which is a big chunk of how I rate anything), A Time to Heal doesn't match its predecessor A Time to Kill in terms of suspense generated by the Clancy-esque tactics and political maneuvering. The book is an even more somber tome than the previous novel. David Mack does a pretty good job of keeping track of all the different threads and helps bring clarity to the different parties all looking after their best interests. As mentioned before, goals shift around, so one minute the new Tezwan government is helping Picard and company and the next working to subvert them, even though what they're doing is for the greater good.

Character development that's been evolving since A Time to be Born continues to good effect in the book as well. Most notable actually is Geordi LaForge, whose shaken faith in Starfleet and the Federation way back in the first book helps give rise to his suspicions about what's going on with the orders from Starfleet Operations. The great thing is that it feels completely natural within this mini-series. I was trying to think about the main characters, but there really isn't any one character that stands out. Even Picard is mostly in the background. If anything, I'd say that the characters that get the most attention are Kell Perim and Jim Peart. Perim's arch in these two books seems to be the first casualty of Nemesis as since she didn't appear in the film, a reason had to be found for her not being there. Given the body count in this book, I guess I'm glad she didn't end up another corpse, but I also felt like I as a reader had missed something in the development of their relationship where she'd be suddenly willing to just walk away from Starfleet. The character of Doctor Hughes felt like too much of a plot device in that he seems to show up at just the right time during Dr. Crusher's indecisiveness about leaving to finally get her heading in one direction.

With the situation raveling so completely out of control in the final pages of the book, I started to wonder how exactly it was going to be wrapped up convincingly. It mostly succeeds, but also felt a bit over the top. It felt like suddenly everyone was gunning for our heroes and at the same time. As dour as it might have been, perhaps seeing more civilians caught in the crossfire might have helped make it more believable.

There's been a lot of talk about what happens in the final pages of this novel regarding people in high places. Suffice it to say, it strains credibility beyond the breaking point and makes absolutely no sense in the long run. All it really does is lower elements of the Federation to that of the mafia and it's sickening that this would even be considered. I've stewed on what happened for awhile now and I just can't see any upside to doing it. In the way it's done, it felt like it was going for shock value (because it's the Federation doing it) and thus felt shallow and cheap. I often felt the book was trying to rub the reader's face in a thinly veiled take on current events, but I get enough of that garbage where I work. I really don't want that in my recreational reading. Modern cynicism seems to have infected Trek and say that since we live in such a jaded time, then the Trek universe should be just as bereft of hope. It's damn unimaginative.

It also creates a contradiction in how Section 31 operates. If they're willing to do something this stupid and out in the open, then why didn't they just destroy Tezwa? The level of how vile Section 31 works changes from scene to scene and book to book. That there's a group out there willing to do whatever it takes, it robs the main characters of ever really having to make those hard choices. I thought the idea used to be that the Federation was such a great organization that there was no need for this sort of thing. This attempt to really subvert the idea of the Federation being a utopia is going over the top. I suppose no one in the book line opposes this happening, but while some will cry "it's fiction!" when doing what they please, I can't help but feel a lot has been snubbed because they just can't come up with anything better. Take it or leave it for what it's worth.

I have enjoyed the A Time to books, some more so than others. A time to kill was great because it showed some cool commando and more hands on stuff which is sometimes a rarity in the star trek universe,except for DS9, which was as close to realistic as Star Trek got.

However, while i enjoyed the story the whole ending of getting rid of the President of the Federation and his aids by Section 31 was a little unbelievable. If Bill Clinton or George Bush (Senior and W.) disappeard tomarrow and were never heard from again I think people would start asking questions. I just can`t believe that the President of the Federation resigns and is never heard from again and no one is the wiser. Also, while Deep Space Nine did put a darker edge on the Star Trek series everyone for the most part stuck to their morals. These last two books have basically made the Federation just as bad (Schemers, liars and muderers) as the Romulans. It sort of takes away that cool innocence that Star Trek has. Star Trek seemed to try and show the good side of humanity and that the future holds promise and the Federation is above stuff like what happened in the books. So, its was a little out of character.

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