UNTIL NOW.

Still reeling from the disastrous events that have rocked all of Starfleet and tarnished the career of one of the Federation's most decorated captains, Picard and his crew must now endure the unthinkable: scandal, ostracism, and an uncertain future. But despite all thathas occurred, none aboard the Enterprise have forgotten theirduty as Starfleet officers....

Assigned to assist the imperiled Dokaalan -- a small colony of refugees who maintain a precarious existence in a rapidly disintegrating asteroid mining complex -- the Enterprise crew must somehow aid this alien race in terraforming a nearby planet so that it might someday providea new home for their kind. But violent acts of sabotage soon turna humanitarian crisis into a deadly confrontation. To save the Dokaalan from extinction, Picard must uncover the presence of an old adversary -- and prevent a disaster of catastrophic proportions!

I liked this book for the way the authors tell the story in a straight forward manner with enough retrospective introspection to recap the reader from " A Time to Sow" so you are upto speed on the events coming to you from this book. "A Time to Sow" left the reader up in the air as to some of the unresolved events but "A Time to Harvest" answers all of the reader questions in spades.

"A Time to Harvest" has mystery, intrigue, and subterfuge. Along with plenty of action-adventure that will pique the readers immagination. There is ample detail that makes the story flow well and keeps the reader reading into the story to see what happens next. I don't get to say this very often, but I must say this that this duo of authors knows how to tell a good well-thought-out story.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard is the main character in this book as he wrestles with his thoughts about what has transpired in the earlier books, "A Time to Be Born" and "A Time to Die." Also, there is retrospective from "A Time to Sow" as all of this gets filtered through Picard's thought process and makes for a well told and interesting story, which I really enjoyed reading.

There is crew interaction and of course the bad guys are clever interlopers trying to steal a planet terraforming operation from the mild mannered Dokaal. The characterizations of the main group of characters in this book are spot-on ie. Picard, Will Riker, Deanna Troi, Dr. Crusher, Christine Vale, Geordi LaForge and Data. I enjoyed reading the thought processes that each of these characters goes through to reach a conclusion to a problem.

If you are a fan of The Next Generation books this book series is your cup of tea(Earl Grey, Hot). As the U.S.S. Enterprise goes to the aid of the Dokaalan people the crew is met with a series of mishap and misfortunes, but through it all the crew solves these problems with some very clever innovating solutions.

I can give too much of the story away as it will ruin your read, but trust me this is a good action-adventure that keeps the Enterprise and her crew on her toes... you'll enjoy the read.

I gave this book a solid 5 stars for the reasons stated above. This story will move quickly and you'll be engrossed in a highly entertaining adventure.


EXCELLENT TREK   August 15, 2004
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

"Harvest" is a fantastic conclusion to this two part story. It is full of the kind of excitment that those of us who love Trek expect. This novel takes off at breakneck speed and does a wonderful job at tying a TV episode to itself as well. It gives a great plot and offers yet another look at the "Next Generation" crew in the kind of fantastic action that fans have come to love. I highly recommend this novel along with its predecessor "A Time To Sow."


The authors move from a walk to a jog...   November 26, 2004
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

A Time to Harvest, the sequel to A Time to Sow, has most of the same strengths and weaknesses that the first one had. Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore do give us a rousing conclusion to the story, but they wallow even more in continuity and explanations, dragging the narrative to a halt way too often. Add a bit of angst (but not as much as the first book), and you've got a slow-moving plodder that can get quite interesting at times.

The Enterprise, having discovered survivors of the planet Dokaal's destruction, has been helping them deal with both internal and external strife. The Dokaalan are trying to make another planet in their system habitable for them, but it's not easy. Internal dissent and terrorist attacks have been preventing progress in the whole endeavour. Captain Picard has offered the Enterprise's expertise in the field and the Dokaalan have reluctantly accepted it, as long as there is no actual material help. But the program may be able to get any further as an outside force has its own agenda for the Dokaalans, one that doesn't have their well-being in mind. Once this is discovered, Picard and crew have an even tougher task on their hands as the external threat proves to be more ruthless than even Picard had realized. Old friends have come to visit, and they want to stay!

This review could almost be a carbon copy of A Time to Sow, as it has many of the same problems. The characters don't brood as much, though there is another horrible terrorist attack that gives Riker the opportunity to wallow in guilt over not having been able to do anything. He doesn't do it to the extent Picard did in the first book, though. He does move on, which is a good thing. No, the main problem with A Time to Harvest is once again the heavy continuity and the desire to explain every little bit of every reference. When the aliens are finally revealed for what they are (and there's really no clue unless you know every episode by heart, and then you may still not have guessed!), Dilmore and Ward spend two whole pages explaining what happened in the episode. Two pages! Talk about grinding a book to a halt.

In addition to the continuity drag on the book, Ward and Dilmore take great pains to explain what happened in the first book. And when I say great, I mean *mammoth* proportions. No, a "previously on Star Trek..." forward to the book would not do. Instead, every time an event from A Time to Sow is mentioned, it has to be thoroughly explained. Sometimes it takes more than two paragraphs. Once again, an interesting plot with cool aliens and some pretty decent action is marred by the molasses of overwriting. I understand that you need to allow for the reader who picks this book up without the first one, but I think they could have done this much better. A foreward would have been the way to go in this case.

Ward and Dilmore do some things right, however. Once again, they've nailed the regulars (when they're not getting overly introspective, anyway). Picard shows a sharp intelligence as he outwits his opponents. He shows his compassion as he does everything he can to help the Dokaalans and is willing to let them do as much as they wish to do by themselves. The horror when one of their experiments goes horribly wrong is quite effectively done, though the experiment backfiring is somewhat predictable even without knowing what the aliens' plot is. I didn't mention this in the first review, but the authors do add a few interesting characters in their own right. Especially fun is the Denobulan doctor, Tropp. He's similar enough to Phlox in the television show Enterprise (the best character on the show) to be familiar, but he has his own personality and he's quite a hoot. They also do a good job with the "new" old guard, like Lt. Vale and Perim, the new navigator. These are characters introduced for this series, but this is the fourth book they've been in.

Another strength in the novel is we get a lot of scenes from the aliens' point of view. This is probably more effective because we have no idea who they are, so they're not recognizable. The scenes of them infiltrating the Enterprise are quite well done, though they do get overwritten a bit. One of them spends a great deal of time thinking about the past and their plan and what he needs to do and how maybe the humans aren't as stupid as they look and boy to they smell and...well, you get the picture. For the most part, though, they are very effective and it actually adds to the tension as you see that their plan just might succeed.

It all comes down to a very tense sequence at the end that's all action and plotting and counter-plotting, giving us a break from all of the internal monologues. Picard comes up with a great plan and the bad guys aren't defeated because they're stupid. I like intelligent villains, and these guys are. When Ward and Dilmore decide to get the book moving, they can really do it! It makes me wonder why they can't soften their slow tendencies throughout the rest of the book. Sure, the book can't be all action, but a happy medium would definitely be nice.

A Time to Harvest is a step up from the last book, but just barely. While A Time to Sow is a low three-star book, this is definitely a high one. Hopefully, this trend can continue.

David Roy


Good story. Excellent writing.   May 13, 2004
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I thought the A Time to Sow and A Time To Harvest books were much better than the first two in the series A Time to Be Born and A Time to Die. Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore did an excellent job of pulling together the story line that John Vornholt put out there in the first two books. I felt that the first two books didn't stay true to character and seemed a little childish and a little sappy. The story line was all over the map. As I said Ward and Dilmore did a good job of pulling that together. However, what I DID like about the first two books is that they really brought in a lot of the story lines that this series is claiming to fill in the blanks for. For instance Riker and Deanna's romance, Crusher's indesision for remaining on the Enterprise, and Wesley's leaving the Travelers. I wished that A Time to Sow and A Time to Harvest would have brought more of that story line into it. Instead it turned out to be just a good little stand alone story. The only ties to the rest of the series is the references to the plot introduced by John Vornholt. It could have easily come as a simple stand alone story.
Very good book, good story line, excellent writing. Thanks for the read.


A must read!   June 18, 2004
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I've read other Star Trek TNG books and by a host of other authors. However, in this book and "A Time to Sow" you'll read some of the best TNG trek out there.

I won't say anything here that will spoil your read, other than in this book, the plot tightens up. The action gets more intense. Here, almost every key TNG character is heavily involved with some facet of the plot. In the end, it all comes together like a nicely tailored suit.

It's clear that the authors clearly know the TNG characters as they are written extremely well. Unlike other authors (ahem..Vornholt?) who know very little about the TNG characters.

The "old adversary" will keep you guessing and will probably hit you (as it did me) like a ton of bricks once you put the peices together.

These two books (this and "A Time to Sow") are the best books of the "A Time to....." series. It's a must read.