Surak’s Soul
Star Trek Enterprise
By J M Dillard  

Everybody on the Enterprise is pleased at the chance of finding an inhabited planet after studying so many lifeless ones, but nobody is prepared for the fact that it might not be inhabited for much longer. It looks such a pleasant place as well – but everybody is dead or dying of some mystery illness. When T’Pol fires at one inhabitant who thinks they are trying to attack him and kills him, she swears to the Captain that from now on she won’t be carrying a weapon of any kind, even if it means disobeying orders. She wishes to follow the teachings of the legendary Surak, who taught that peace was the only way to live.

The last book I reviewed from this fifth incarnation of Star Trek, What Price Honor (also reviewed on this site) concentrates on the character of Reed; this one shifts the onus onto T’Pol. We learn a little more about her and her past, and witness her struggles to live what she sees as a better life. There is a mystery to solve as well for the crew must find out what the people died of and who or what was responsible, before the same happens to them. This part is easy enough to guess, but it is the crew’s solutions that hold the interest, and for me perhaps the analogy with Gandhi as T’Pol talks about Surak’s teachings. The whole story is very reminiscent of the type of adventures that Captain Kirk and his crew had during the first series, and maybe is none the worse for that. Also, as this is a series, that can perhaps be faulted for not having enough characters finding out more about the existing ones is a good idea.