A Time to Sow

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.

More than two centuries ago, the Dokaalan sent an unmanned probe into the void, bearing a distress call for anyone who could save their doomed world. But the message reached Federation space too late to save the planet or its people.

Or so it was believed....

Generations later, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E are stunned to discover the last of the Dokaalan -- now only a colony fighting to stay alive in a decrepit asteroid mining complex. Although their home planet was destroyed long ago, the survivors hope to someday transform a nearby planet into a new home for their people. But bitter divisions exist among the Dokaalan, sowing the seeds of sabotage and terrorism -- and placing Picard and the Enterprise in the middle of an escalating crisis that can only lead to total destruction!

Customer Reviews:

ST: TNG A Time to Sow

By Joe Zika "Khemprof" - March 30, 2004

Star Trek: The Next Generation "A Time to Sow" written by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore is an action-adventure story with a sprinkle of mystery and intrigue but most importantly there is character interation and development. "A Time to Sow" is the third book in a series of nine to be releasd by Pocket Books this year with "A Time to Be Born and A Time to Die" coming out first and second respectively. This is a continuing story as we discover what was happening between Star Trek: "Insurrection" and Star Trek: "Nemesis." Now the untold story of events is being revealed.I would suggest that you read the first two books in this series first as "A Time to Sow" builds from the telling of the story in those two books and "A Time to Sow" builds the story to continue in the fourth book in the series "A Time to Harvest" which comes on next mouth and is written by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore.I must say that... read more

The long windedness does not quite obscure a good story

By R. Spottiswood - April 7, 2004

This turns into an intriguing mystery story, but takes forever to get going. There seems to be some disease spreading among Trek authors, compelling them to fill the first third of a book with boring and/or long winded material. Prior to arriving in the Dokaalan system, the authors spend time with each major character, going into great detail on their current feelings and situation. The Data-La Forge scene was good and relevant to the story, but only it and one of the others should have actually been in the book. Including them all was just too much. Also, after the dramatic rescue that is the first non-introspective scene, Troi and Picard immediately have to talk it over. The authors also have a bad tendency to put several paragraphs of reflection between single lines of dialogue. During action scenes, they sometimes call a time out and put in two or three pages of historical exposition. It's rather boring since it goes over Trek history that should be common knowledge, it isn't... read more

You won't find a good story in your navel

By David Roy - November 23, 2004

With the first two books in the Time to... series out of the way, would two different authors be able to turn things around? In a way they do, but there is one major strike against it.

Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise are still dealing with the political fallout from the last two books, and are sent on a mission to get them out of the way for a while. It's a bit of a milkrun, really. Many years ago, a probe dispatched from a distant area of the galaxy was found, but Starfleet, still in its infancy, didn't have the time or resources to do anything about it. Now, another probe has been found. Both probes speak of a civilization on a dying planet, and it was figured that getting there would take too long to rescue any survivors (since the probe took years to get to where the Vulcans found it to begin with). The Enterprise is sent to investigate what happened and see if they can find out what happened all those years ago. When they get there, they discover... read more