***Be Warned: This review contains spoilers for the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy of books***

Star Trek: TNG: Losing the Peace, by William Leisner

The United Federation of Planets is facing the worst crisis in it’s history. Following the events of the trilogy Star Trek: Destiny, the damage done to the Federation is incalculable: Acamar, Risa, Yridia, Deneva, and countless other worlds are completely destroyed. Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, and Qo’nos are among the many other worlds that have been devestated by the Borg’s relentless attacks. Starfleet finds itself with stretched to the limits since losing more than 40% of the fleet. For the first time in it’s history, the citizens of the Federation know want, uncertainty and fear. And thus begins William Leisner’s new book, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Losing the Peace.

The book picks up almost immediately after the events of the Destiny trilogy and explores the ramifcations of just how much damage the Borg have done this time. The scale of destruction is catastrophic, even greater than during the entirety of the Dominion War. Leisner is certainly up to the task of making the reader feel the utter lack of despair most of the Federation refugees are feeling. While that task in and of itself is daunting, Leisner somehow still manages to always bring the reader back from the brink of feeling too hopeless. Even through all the death and destruction, he’s managed to infuse Gene Rodenberry’s original feeling of optimism through these dark and troubling times.

This is a very character driven book, not the usual rip-roaring action adventure of some previous books. Remember when, after the edge-of-your-seat action of the two-part Best of Both Worlds was followed up with the very action-free episode Family? Well, this book seems to be to part of that tradition: big grand epic, followed by pure character drama. Leisner’s use of the various characters and the situations they face is sure pure and simple, while at the same time compelling enough that it’s not until you’ve finished the book that you realize there were no epic space battles, no real life-or-death-in-an-instant struggles. He gives us pure, character driven drama that stands up right alongside the action filled previous books in the series.

Leisner has the original characters down cold; I could hear Patrick Steward, Micheal Dorn, Gates MacFadden and LeVar Burton in my head as I read. There is great growth in Worf, who’s settling into his role as first office of the Enterprise-E very nicely. Picard himself has a great moment at the end of the book when he realizes he’s very much like another Starfleet Captain that’s gone before him. But for me, the best part of the original mix was the spotlight on Crusher. She’s always been one of my favorite characters and she really gets a chance to shine in this story. We also get to learn a bit more about her life after Wesley’s birth and after Jack Crusher’s death, and it was interesting to learn some new things about this great character.

The new crew members also get a chance to shine, especially T’Ryssa Chen, the half-Vulcan, half-human contact specialist, and Jasminder Choudhury, the new Chief of Security. These new characters have been fleshed out a bit in previous Star Trek novels, but they really become more real in this story. Trys (as she likes to be called) is finally growing on me. I wasn’t keen on her obnoxious ways in previous books, but Leisner shows that her growth as a Starfleet Officer onboard the flagship has started to take affect, without losing the spunk that has made her a favorite for others. As for Choudhury, I’ve enjoyed having such a deeply spiritual character on the bridge crew, though that same spirituality is called into question for her during the course of Losing the Peace. The other new characters do make appearances throughout the story, but, as with many episodes of the series, when you have a crew this large, sometimes some characters must take a backseat.

Willaim Leisner has continued the compelling storylines setup over the last two years of the Star Trek book line and is a fine addition to the ranks of great Star Trek authors. Losing the Peace is not a nail biter, but it’s definitely a page turner, and brings home to the readers this new, uncertain future that faces the Federation. I, for one, cannot wait to continue reading this line of books and watching as the entire 24th century boldly goes where the Federation has never gone before.

Losing the Peace is available for purchase now at your local bookstore or can be ordered online at Amazon.com.