I have been an avid fan of Star Trek since I was old enough to to say 'Captain Kirk' and 'Mr. Spock', and of the four series, Deep Space Nine has been my favorite so far.

You can see that the Author worked very hard on the story line, despite that, this book does not rate high on my list. Story line is only part of the reading experience. The author, Dafydd Ab Hugh tends to put a more militaristic style on the Federation. He uses modern terms like "Master Chief" instead of "Chief" (How we've all heard it used) that have no business being in Star Trek. Add this to the fact that he tries to trap every explanation and nuance in a pitiful metaphore, and you have a book with a good all-around story line, but sadly lacking on the details. For instance, what about when O'Brien and Bashir are walking around on the outside of the station *without* environmental suits? What happened to the coldness of space?? I find it hard to believe that they could survive a minute out there, let alone long enough to to hide while some klingons pass by.

Some good points though; the story is involving and unique. Despite it's shortcomings, I couldn't put it down.

Even though I knew all of the terms used in 'Vengeance', I would probably only recommend this book to people who don't know much about Star Trek and don't care to learn much more.

After reading 'Fallen Heroes', my expectations were very high, and I was slightly disappointed. 'Vengeance' is good, but nowhere near the standard set by Daffyd ab Hugh's earlier book, which is one of the best ST works I have ever read. Be warned though, if you hate Klingons, don't buy this; Vengeance is full of 'em.

The story has Worf's loyalties questioned when a group of Klingons including some of his friends attempt to take over the Deep Space Nine space station while Captain Sisko and most of the crew are away.

One of my favourite parts of the book is O'Brien's speech about Dr Bashir, who he thinks is dead. This author manages to incorporate humour into otherwise serious or dull situations, which is one of the reasons I like his books so much.

The book was mostly fast paced, although like some of the other reviewers, I agree it did drag in some places.

I liked the way the author goes into the relationships between the crewmembers, especially Odo and Quark, and Doctor Bashir and Chief O'Brien. Mr Ab Hugh is particularly great at writing for Deep Space Nine, although anything he writes for Star Trek is good.

As I said before, this book will appeal to most Klingon fans, in particular fans of Worf and DS9 fans in general. I give it three and a half stars - not quite four-star material but too good for three - because even though I'm not the Klingons' greatest fan, this was still a good, enjoyable piece of Sci-fi.

If you like Vengeance, go and buy Fallen Heroes. If you don't like Vengeance ... still buy Fallen Heroes. Then you'll see this author at his best.

While Captain Sisko and the Defiant are in the Gamma Quadrant, the Klingons take control of Deep Space Nine. Commander Worf is captured in Operations. He soon realizes that one of the Klingon's is his own brother. In order to possibly save the station, he must outwardly appear to be a traitor and help the Klingons. At the same time, he's doing everything he can to help his comrades regain control of the station. Even to his comrades, he appears to be a traitor.
I believe "Vengeance" is in good keeping with the author's latest work. I really liked this one though. It has Klingons a plenty. The humor in this book is right on time. This is one of those rare trek books, where I found myself laughing quite often. The character interactions are absolutely great in this book!
At times this is an extremely fast paced book, that leaves your head spinning. For brief, but necessary, times the pace slows down. Overall, a really good trek novel and thank you to author for a good read.

Never thought I'd give a Star Trek novel 1 star! But this story was weak, and the Star Trek characters were cardboard and did not fit their personalities, except maybe for Data.

Basically, the story centers on Wesley Crusher being kidnapped by Ferengi, after they discover he has a device that countefeits latinum. A big auction of a dead scientists inventions takes place on Novus Alamogordus. The Federation, Klingons, Romulans and Ferengi, among others travel there to bid on these inventions, the biggest of which is the photonic pulse cannon.

Using counterfeit latinum, the Ferengi, Munk and Tunk, using Wesley as their slave per se, end up winning most of the items. It's up to Wesley to figure out how to stop the two, while at the same time, not breaching his Ferengi contract, and getting charged with counterfeiting by Starfleet.

I thought the writing was deplorable and weak. And when does Picard call everyone by the first name during most of a book or TV show? Except for Data, who was experimenting with a laughter program, the rest of the book drew low interest.

Another serious case of mispackaging by Pocket. The legend across the top of the cover declares "Captain Picard must keep a deadly weapon out of enemy hands!!" The back of the book says Picard must stop all other races from acquiring superweapons. And there is Jean-Luc's face on the cover. All balderdash. Picard plays but a minimal role, and these "superweapons" are nothing more than red herrings, declared such by Geordi LaForge during the first ten pages. Instead, the hero of this one is none other than weenie extraordinaire Wesley Crusher.

It was with a somewhat nauseated feeling that I realized that Wesley was to play a major role in Balance of Power. To my utter astonishment, not only did Wesley not bother me, I actually *enjoyed* him. Ab Hugh has done a wonderful job bringing us a Wesley that is interesting and believable while staying remarkably faithful to the original. Under his skillful pen (er, keyboard), we can actually appreciate Wesley's need to leave Starfleet and join the Traveler - and since the Wesley Joins the Traveler episode ranks among the worst, that is saying something.

The plot is entertaining if somewhat strained. Other reviewers have complained about the implausibility of a high-stakes auction for what appears to be junk, but one can easily put that aside and enjoy a fun ride featuring two greedy Ferengi (sorry for the redundancy), the Grand Nagus, and, of course, Cadet Crusher.

I disagree with others who complained that the characters did not ring "true." On the contrary, Balance of Power is the best Trek book I have read in a long, long time - the best at capturing the characters, the best at entertaining, and the best at keeping me interested until the very end. It makes me regret giving out so many three stars to other Trek books. If only they were all like this . . . .

Star Trek-The Next Generation: Balance of Power written by Dafydd Ab Hugh is a Wesley Crusher/Ferengi book with some very funny humor sprinkled in to make the book read quickly.

Wesley Crusher is at Starfleet Academy and his roommate and best friend has a project that is half-finished (a machine that can counterfeit gold pressed latinum), Wesley finishes the machine but is kidnapped by an outlaw Ferengi who wants to control the universe through commerce.

There is also an auction where a famous Federation scientist dies and his son puts up all of his fathers half-baker inventions, of course, none of them work, but there is one invention that piques the crowd... a photon cannon that can penetrate a ships shielding. You've got people from the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, and Ferengi all in the mix of things. The auction scene is in particular very humorus.

If you like a light read with humor this is the book for you. It can be quickly read and you'll get some good belly-laughs.

I found this book poorly put together. (It could not seem to decide between light humor and horror). I was curious about the Natives and thought that the ending was a bit of a cop out. The largest problem I had with this book, however, was the subtle feeling that the charaters are not represented correctly. I cannot see Jadzia Dax as being afraid, for instance. And Quark is not really a coward, he just does not see fit to hide his fear when it strikes. Don't even let me get started on Major Kira and Kai! All in all quite disappointing read.

"Rebels" pt. 3 was an O.K. conclusion to the overall poor series. I read "Vengeance", also by the author, which was bad, but thought I'd give him another chance; a big mistake. It was the fourth time I'd wished a ST novel would hurry and end; the other three times were Rebels 1&2 and Vengeance. As far as content, the turnaround of the Natives was nice to see, you feel for them throughout the series. The characterization was not the best. I thought Odo was too negative even for Odo, and Dax got on my nerves with her uncharacteristic bloodlust. The most upsetting thing is that we never learn who those people on the cover are! I'd assumed the woman was Sister Winn, but never in the three books does she pick up a weapon (except for a knife) and there was no prominent male Bajoran characters to explain the two men. Overall, I'm disappointed in my self for wasting $19.50 on this series.

The Rebels Trilogy was a great edtion to the Star Trek Universe and I think it was a great series. I liked hearing more about Kai Winn and here life during Cardassian Rule. I also Think that Daffyd Ad Hugh is a great writer and has done well with most of his Star Trek books!