I began reading this book right after I finished Strike Zone, which I thought was terrible, and within pages I was so thankful for the talent of Jeri Taylor. Her stories are so deep with meaning in each word and she gives a certain clarity of what is going on in the story that other authors lack. Right away you know this isn't going to be the average book of the month for "The Next Generation". Jeri wrote the first teleplay of this two-part episode and she's went on to be a real name in Star Trek. But within pages, you begin to understand why she went far in this franchise. I wasn't a real big fan of the two-part episode that this book was inspired by, believe it or not. I am a Vulcan and Jeri Taylor fan however, so I picked it up to relive the memories through Jeri's words. The infamous Spock has gone missing and Starfleet wants the new Enterprise under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard to find him. His first stop is Vulcan to talk to Spock's father and human stepmother. Spock's father, Sarek, has a friendship with Picard and the two had mind-melded in the past when Sarek found he was suffering from an illness in which logic loses control. Despite his bad condition from the last time Picard saw him, he did get some information out of the dying Vulcan. With that information and with Starfleet intelligence, Picard's search for Spock is turned towards Romulus. Playing with politics a bit with the Klingon Empire, Picard is able to get a ship from them with cloaking capabilities. Data and Picard set out on a journey upon Captain K'Vada's ship. Once there they are discovered by an apparently sympathetic, Romulan governor and taken to Spock. Spock does not greet Picard and the two go head-to-head on Spock's choice of how to go about this. He was called by Pardek, the Romulan governor, to Romulus to help a small group of Romulans that had a dream of reuniting with their Vulcan cousins. The idea was radical and almost sure to fail, but Spock felt it was his duty to try this. Picard slowly backs down and begins to help Spock, but things are looking up just in time for them to come crashing down. Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor create a world that had been unknown to Star Trek fans before. We actually get a look at the Romulan homeworld and the every day life at one of the Federation's biggest enemies. We actually get to decide for ourselves if the Romulans are really as bad as we've basically grown up hearing about. Fans of the show will be glad to know that Jeri is a professional and she knows these characters well. There's no messing up the character's personalities and she even adds depth by having them look back on some past episodes. This book reminded me of why Jeri is not only my favorite Star Trek author, but she's my favorite all-time author. Every word she touches is turned to gold and it helps that she just wrote about one of the biggest, well-known Star Trek episodes ever to be made.
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Title: Unification
Author: Jeri Taylor
Review by: CL6 Amanda Sielu Paris
2-17-05
