Publication Date:August 31, 2004 Availability:Usually ships in 1-2 business days Shipping:Expedited shipping available Shipping:International shipping available Condition:NO CALIFORNIA SALES, PLEASE. Mass Market Paperback is new. The cover has moderate surface wear and moderate handling wear. The inside is clean, bright and tight with moderate handling wear. It looks unread. Your satisfaction guaranteed with quick shipment. NOTE: I will ship this book via MEDIA MAIL. All domestic orders ship with Delivery Conformation (usually the same day). NO CALIFORNIA SALES, PLEASE.
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.
A cataclysmic war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire has been miraculously averted, and a new government is finally in place on the planet Tezwa. But deadly secrets still threaten the fragile peace accord.
Rebels still loyal to the old Tezwa regime have captured Commander Riker and are willing to kill to achieve their goals...the Orion Syndicate is interfering in the rebuilding -- and may also be involved in much more than that. But the most devastating revelation of all threatens the very foundations of the Federation itself -- leaving Captain Picard to possibly face the very conflict that he labored so hard to prevent....
David Mack ST books are a must read.September 1, 2007 M. Hall(Glendale, AZ USA) This book is terrific, and somewhat unlike most ST books. I think David Mack really does justice to the Star Trek thought process, and he spins another great tale here.
If you haven't read the entire series in 2007, I would suggest ordering the entire series, or at least the next three books at a time if you like this series. It seems the books are getting somewhat rare, and it takes a month to get the middle of this series. If you want to read one after the other, I would suggest biting the bullet here and ordering at least the first seven (Be Born, Die, Sew, Harvest, Love, Hate, Kill)books so that you can read right into this one. I had to wait for the middle books, that I could only find on Amazon, for about a month, and I was really watching my mailbox after reading the first three. Great series of books for the ST TNG fan.
Book Two of David Mack's triumpant dulogyAugust 4, 2006 Fr. Robert F. Lyons(Anderson, IN USA) 2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Last month, in my review of the seventh book of this mini-series, I noted that "A Time to Kill" was my favorite read this year. While "A Time to Kill" was a slightly stronger book in some ways than "A Time to Heal", I must recant my previous statement. "A Time to Heal" now stands out as my favorite Star Trek novel of the year.
The story picks up on the planet Tezwa where Starfleet has taken on the role of peacekeeper and rebuilder, akin to America's role in Afghanistan after the first wave of the 'War on Terror' and equally similar to the current occupation of Iraq.
Thousands of Starfleet security, engineering, and medical officers have converged upon Tezwa to render aid to the struggling government, led by Prime Minister Bilok, who has succeeded the fleeing ex-prime minister, Kinchawn - now an underground warlord with desires of returning to his former glory.
The Federation is caught up in the middle of the mess, however, far beyond aid and assistance, and to detail what I mean would result in a spoil of both "Kill" and "Heal" as well as the forthcoming conclusion to the series.
Intrigue, plotting, murder, sex, the Orion Syndicate - all these make effective contributions to the storyline and make the read a very enjoyable, if not downright frightening, journey to the center of the Federation.
The book scores only marginally lower on a 'technical' standpoint than it's predecessor because it took several chapters to get into the slightly varied storytelling style that David Mack adopted for this book. Once one gets involved, it's as gripping as "Kill" and the ending will blow your socks off!
One recommendation, when you get to the beginning of Chapter 28, stop, get a cold drink (or warm one if you are reading from the Southern Hemisphere) and then get cozy, and do NOT stop reading. The final chapters of this novel are best experienced as one complete unit, as if they were a single chapter. The discoveries you will find in these chapters are chilling, and I think that they loose some of their effect if not read quickly and in immediate succession.
One of the difficult things about reviewing this novel is the level of intricate detail that David Mack put into this novel. It is almost impossible to properly review the book without spoiling half of the content, but please believe me, it's not for a lack of effort on the part of the author. The story is tight. VERY tight. There are very few 'trivial' details that don't directly impact the storyline. These books ("Kill" and "Heal") are intense. "A Time to Heal" has really set off a lot of alarms in my mind. Having lived through September 11th and the aftermath (Afghanistan, Iraq, ongoing threat of terrorisim) I have to admit that this book is troubling and challenging. The Federation we know... well, the Feds don't fare so well. After facing the Dominion, the Klingons, and so many other enemies that have sought to do harm to the Federation, suddenly we find that it is not the well organized, imposing, external threat that will take you down. It's the small, unassuming, at times overlooked or underestimated threat that will knock one down all the time.
While I don't attribute any political motivation to Mr. Mack, there were moments in reading this novel when I thought that someone in the White House should have been reading the book... and learning from it.
Do you suppose that 'Dubyah' is a Star Trek fan?
As noted earlier, "A Time to Heal" sets things up perfectly for Keith R.A. DeCandido's final volume "A Time for War, A Time for Peace" due next month.
star trek-gateNovember 13, 2005 drbob 2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Ive read a lot of the star trek books and have enjoyed the series very much.i did not enjoy this book at all.it was everything i could do to get through it.it just drudged along.im not even sure if im even going to read the last book in the series.i know the series used storylines dealing with current events a lot,but i thought this was a bit much.when the series or even books did it,for the most part,it was entertaining.this wasnt at all.star trek was never in my opinion political.i enjoyed the first 6 books in this series.i wouldnt recommend this one to anyone.
The Good, the Bad and the Very UglyAugust 18, 2005 Sxottlan(Canandaigua, NY USA) 5 out of 6 found this review helpful
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.
One of the most violent books is Trek historyMarch 13, 2005 David Roy(Vancouver, BC) 4 out of 5 found this review helpful
One of the common things about the books in Star Trek's A Time to... series is that the two books by the same author are just one continuing story. There's a cliffhanger at the end of the first book and then the second one goes on from there. While David Mack's A Time to Heal is the same in this respect, it is much different in tone and substance from it's predecessor, A Time to Kill. The first book had very short chapters and moved at a frenetic pace. The political intrigue was there, but it was mixed in with six separate special operations missions that filled the book with the tension of one thing going wrong making the whole thing fall to pieces. A Time to Heal, instead, is much more introspective. There is still a lot of violence (and the infamous David Mack body count), but the passages are much longer, the violence much more personal, and the deaths a lot more meaningful. This is another outstanding book.
The planet Tezwa is under Federation occupation, as it was the only way to keep the secret that the Federation government had given advanced weapons to its despotic leader, Kinchawn, hidden. Kinchawn and his government escaped, however, and captured Commander Riker in the process. They head an insurgency of terror that kills many Starfleet officers as well as natives of the planet in bombings and other terror attacks. Captain Picard and the Enterprise head a fleet of Starfleet vessels to help the new Tezwan government maintain control, as well as to hunt Kinchawn down. Unbeknownst to them, many of their clean-up orders are designed to remove all evidence of the government's secrets. As things begin to spiral out of control on Tezwa, more and more Starfleet officers are killed, but Picard's crew also begin uncovering what really happened. If they are allowed to continue, a government could fall. Or is that exactly what Section 31, the infamous secret intelligence organization, wants?
I'll get the obvious out of the way first. Yes, this book reads like a novel about the war in Iraq, and if you want to see it as a political novel, you're more than welcome to. Personally, I think there's enough ambiguity in the book that it's not clear that Mack is using it to make a political statement. Personally, I choose to read it as a novel set in a situation similar, but not exactly the same. Mack has obviously used current events as a springboard to an interesting story, and that's all I'm interested in.
And the story *is* interesting. In many of my reviews of this series, I have stated how wonderful it is that we are getting to know various other crewmembers of the Enterprise in some detail. This comes to a head in A Time to Heal, as many of these people we have come to know die pretty tragically in this book. Some do survive, so you are still able to be surprised when a death finally happens. Mack's ability to make each death felt by the reader is unmatched. These are not just faceless characters, given a character trait or two for identification, ready to be bumped off at a moment's notice. The carnage really does begin to affect you. While the book is extremely interesting, this causes it to be a little depressing and hard to get through as well.
In fact, that's probably the major strike against the book. It gets very oppressive very quickly and then stays that way for long passages. The death and destruction is vividly told, but it's also constant. Thus, it may not fit what you expect a Star Trek novel to be and you may not enjoy it. If you skip it, however, you will be missing one of the pivotal books in the whole Star Trek series, as events in this novel lead into both the next book (A Time for War, A Time for Peace) and the continuation of both Riker's story as captain of the Titan (Taking Wing) and the Enterprise's story (A Death in Winter). Just be ready for a little grimness before all of this.
The characterization in A Time to Heal is much the same as in the previous book. Beverly Crusher gets a lot more characterization as she not only starts leaning toward accepting the position at Starfleet Medical, but finds a love interest that may spur Picard into finally making a move on her after all these years of guilt-ridden friendship. The scene where Picard comes to her quarters for breakfast and discovers crumpled sheets is wonderful. Riker gets to act all stoic as he's held prisoner for most of the book, and Troi gets some counseling of her own, which isn't quite as interesting. LaForge and Data are mostly characterized through their attempts to track down what's really happening, though Data gets a lot of development as the acting first officer in Riker's absence. In fact, that may be the best part of the book, as we get to see him in action, running constant battle drills because of the situation that they're in. It's a vivid contrast to Riker's command style, and it's a major impetus for Riker when he finally returns.
The only character who suffered much was actually Picard, as he's not really prominent in the book. He seems to be very "hands-off" during the occupation and he doesn't seem very effective. Most of the concentration in the book is on everybody else, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. He just doesn't seem to be as "in charge" as he usually does, which doesn't seem like him. He really comes into his own during the conversation with the admirals, near the end of the book. He steers them around to his way of thinking very nicely.
All in all, A Time to Heal is a wonderful book that's just hard to get through at times. The continuing violence gets a bit monotonous after a while, but the attempts by the government to cover up what's really going on do help to break that up a little. What we're left with is a great book that leads into the final book in the series. If you're thinking of continuing the Next Generation saga, then this book is definitely important. Feel free to read whatever politics you want into it as well.
