A Time to Die  
Star Trek The Next Generation, No. II 
By John Vornholt

      If you have read A Time To Be Born (if you haven’t and want to read this book you had better get hold of a copy now) then you will know that Captain Picard is in a lot of trouble. There is a strange machine, or entity, in the Rashanar battlefield with the power to mimic ships, and it has caused the crew of the Enterprise to destroy an innocent ship. Somehow, Picard is going to have to prove that he is sane and get out of the institution and back into space again – but even if he does manage to get there, it isn’t going to be easy.

    It is always good to read a story that is character-led and which also boasts a plot. True, this one is rather linear, but at least we get to see into the mind of the elusive Wesley, and see the crew of the Enterprise being put through their paces. The addition of another plot strand would have made all the difference, and there ought to have been a spookier atmosphere about the Rashanar battlefield, which failed to be as awesomely eerie in print as it must surely have been. Business as usual then, but it is always entertaining to read about the “business” of Picard and his crew.