Tag / Double Helix

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Book 23 (of 52) – The First Virtue

The First Virtue – Michael Jan Friedman and Christie Golden

In the final chapter of the Double Helix series, Michael Jan Friedman and Christie Golden take a trip back in time, to when Captain Picard commanded the Stargazer and the initial events that triggered the revenge plot of the previous five books.  A series of terrorist attacks have heightened tensions between two races, bringing an entire sector to the brink of war.  While Picard and Governor Gerrid Thul of the Thallonian emperor struggle to keep the peace, Lieutenant Commander Jack Crusher must team up with a Vulcan officer named Tuvok to uncover the hidden architect of the attacks.

I was a little hesitant to read this book, as my interest in the Stargazer is somewhat minimal.  Thankfully, outside of Picard and Crusher, there wasn’t much focus on any of her crew.  A prologue is an interesting way to wrap up a six book series, but I guess it would have killed some of the suspense to know who was behind the goings on and why.  All in all, it was a good trip back to the Star Trek universe and, barring any upcoming Kindle sales, my last for the immediate future.

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Book 3 (of 52) – Double Or Nothing

Double Helix – Peter David

After an encounter with the Romulans in Thollian space destroys a Starfleet vessel, Captain Calhoun of the Excalibur is assigned to a secret mission by Starfleet Intelligence to infiltrate a Thollian general’s inner circle while the Excalibur, temporarily commanded by Will Riker, tries to track down the Romulans.  Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Calhoun, Captain Picard has also been sent on a secret mission, one that brings the two together as they find out who has been responsible for the deadly double helix virus and what the ultimate goal of it was.

Double or Nothing, the fifth entry of the Double Helix series, puts Peter David back on my radar for the first time, at least in book form, since 2001.  He imports the characters from his New Frontier series and teams them with two members of the Enterprise crew to wrap up the mystery of who is testing out this deadly new virus and why.  To his credit, David manages to stick the landing.  Of course, this does beg the question of what takes place in the sixth and final entry of the series, if everything was wrapped up here.  I guess we shall see sooner or later.

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Book 17 (of 52) – Quarantine

Quarantine – John Vornholt

In the fourth entry of the Double Helix series, the artificial virus attacks a planet in the demilitarized zone between the Federation and the Cardassians.  Lt. Tom Riker teams up with a group of the Maquis to try and help, stealing medical supplies from the Federation to help control the outbreak while avoiding the Cardassians, both on the surface and in orbit around the planet.

John Vornholt, whose work I last read in 1998, brings us the appropriately titled Quarantine, focusing on the band of Maquis who would eventually serve on board the USS Voyager.  He brings a new approach to the virus, avoiding the plot overlap from investigating the plague that dragged down some of the earlier efforts in the series.  Unfortunately, Voyager is not really my favorite entry in the Star Trek pantheon and having the focus be on characters from that show tested the limits of my interest.  Now that I am more than half way through the series, I am still cautiously optimistic on where the series is headed and that the payoff of who is behind the creation of these viruses will be worth the journey.

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Book 10 (of 52) – Red Sector

Red Sector – Diane Carey

In the latest entry of the Double Helix series, a commander who spent years as a prisoner on a quarantined planet volunteers to go back to help Spock, Bones, and Dr. Crusher find an heir to the Romulan royal family, which has been decimated by an artificial virus, similar to what was seen at Terok Nor and an outbreak the Enterprise had encountered years earlier.

Diane Carey brings us Red Sector, the third entry in the Double Helix series which focuses mostly on the pair from OG Star Trek, with the Next Gen crew playing a bit supporting role.  She deftly avoids the problems I had with the previous installment, with plot overlap trying to investigate and solve for a mysterious plague, by skipping that part of the story altogether.  The disease is a given, with the action focused on rescuing the one person who can potentially cure it from a bad situation.  With three more entries to go, I am cautiously optimistic on where the series is headed.

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Book 25 (of 52) – Vectors

Vectors – Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Fresh from her tour of duty on the Enterprise, Dr. Pulaski is summoned to the Cardassian outpost of Terok Nor (soon to be known as Deep Space Nine) to help diagnose and cure a plague that is affecting both the Cardassians and their Bajoran slaves.  When she arrives, she finds that the cause of the plague looks awfully similar to something the Enterprise had encountered a year earlier.

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch bring us Vectors, the second entry in the Double Helix series.  Now, I can’t say I was particularly thrilled to find out that this was basically a Pulaski solo story, away from the rest of the Enterprise crew, but it turned out better than I would have thought.  There was some plot overlap with the previous entry, but I guess there are only so many ways to investigate and solve for a mysterious plague affecting a population.

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Book 17 (of 52) – Infection

Double Helix: Infection – John Gregory Betancourt

When a virus breaks out that targets mixed species people on a racist Federation planet, the Enterprise is sent to help find a cure while quarantining the system.  When the virus spreads to the Enterprise and takes down Troi, Dr. Crusher doubles her efforts to get to the bottom of it.

John Gregory Betancourt brings us back to the Star Trek universe with Infection, the first chapter of the Double Helix saga.  It certainly wasn’t the best TNG entry I’ve ever read, with an ending that was very rushed.  The other entries look to be spread across the different corners of the Star Trek universe, which is outside of my usual comfort zone, so we’ll see if picking up this series was worth it.