As a Roswell fan, I was extremely excited to see this book come out, picking up right where Season 3 left off, telling the story of Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, Isabel, and Kyle, after they fled Roswell from the FBI Special Unit. Apparently, this takes place before Max and Liz get married, because she is referred to as Max's girlfriend in the book. So, that gives you an idea of the timeframe.

Unfortunately, I found this book to be extremely disappointing for three main reasons:
1) The plot of the book is EXTREMELY slow. They end up with their van broken down in this small town out in the middle of nowhere just one day out of Roswell. They have to get jobs to earn money to fix the car. In the meantime, there are these references to girls disappearing. That pretty much goes on for all but the last four or five chapters of the book. The set up for the main action of the story is just way too long, and causes it to drag. Most of the book is mainly Kyle trying to fix the van, while a jealous mechanic named Gomer (ha, ha) doesn't like the way he looks at his girlfriend; Max, Isabel, and Michael paint a restaraunt and play some cards; Liz and Maria wait tables at the restaraunt and pitty a local boy who's sister is missing. That's it until chapter nineteen or twenty.

2) This story was full of plot holes from the time they broke down in the small town. The author really needed to study the show more closely for information about Max's, Isabel's, and Michael's powers. Supposedly, they have to get jobs to make money to fix the van. But Isabel indicated in an episode of Roswell she could change the denominations of money (in one of the late season two eps, after Alex's death, during a conversation she had with Michael). So, why didn't they just change their one dollar bills into one hundreds? The reason for them being stuck in the town, as a result, did not fit for me in the first place. Plus, I still think one of the pod squad could have just fixed the engine, as indicated in Season three when Kyle was bringing Isabel engine parts for her to use her powers on to fix (see episode "I Married an Alien"). Add to that the fact that the author's time references for past events were all wrong. For instance, the incident in which Max and Michael infiltrate an Air Force base to save an Air Force pilot who collided with Tess' ship was referred to. This event was placed at a couple of days before graduation. That couldn't be, considering that a week (at least) passed between Tess's return in the next episode and Max giving up his child at the end of that episode. This was only one of several references to past events in which the timeline was wrong. To the average reader, these might not be major sticking points. But to a Roswell fan, they stick out as plot holes, and since Roswell fans make up most of the readers for this book-well, it kind of hurts its quality.

3) The whole alien monsters coming down in a ship and taking women was like something out of a 1950's science fiction film. "Mars Needs Women" kept popping into my head, referring to the title of a cheesy 1960's Sci-Fi picture. Plus, when Max and Michael attack the ship, the evil aliens try and shoot some kind of ray gun at them (I wonder if it looked like a hairdryer, just like in the old Flash Gordon serials). The description of the monsters made them sound like the Creatures From the Black Lagoon (green, scaley, clawed). This whole plot device just seemed so hokey.

That being said, there are really two things that still make this book one a Roswell fan would still want to pick up and read once. First, the first couple of chapters, in which Liz has a vision of the future described by Future Max in the episode "End of the World" is very compelling. Liz's revelation of this long kept secret to Max and the others also makes for some interesting dialogue. Second, though the whole alien monsters abducting women plot device is rather cheesy, the action in the last few chapters of the book is pretty good. Max, Michael, and Kyle taking down the alien bad guys was fun, and it showed how the first two had really come to accept Kyle as their friend and comrade (thus, good exploration of character development). Add on a few comical moments (like when the guys try and explain the Godfather to the girls), and you get an okay read. But(I'm sorry to say) a very disappointing and poorly constructed one.

Well I read this book in one day, hopeing that I was going to like it as much as I liked the TV show. Having it kinda start off were season 3 left off was a great idea. I also like how past events that happened in the show, were linked to this book, but thats where the greatness ended. This book lacked a lot of key things that makes me a roswell fan. Where's the relationships?, Where's the comic relief?..... If your a Roswell fan you'll probably like it because of the fact that it's Roswell, but I was disappointed, especially at the end.

this is the first roswell book that dares to venture where the tv show left off last year. it finds our 6 friends on the road and in deep thought about their future. all of a sudden liz has a dream of the future where max and the 2 aliens are killed in the future. this also comes along the time the van breaks down outside of a small town where females have been disappearing. vowing to help people instead of trying to protect themselves, they delve head first into the live of the small town and they are in for an adventure they could not believe possible in such a small place. this book is for any disappointed roswell fan who was as upset as i was that the show was cancelled and the last 6 episodes were obviously thrown together in haste as the network pulled the plug. i hope authors such as this one keep the faith alive and keep writing books for many years to come.

I have to admit: I did not finish this book. The writer went too much into the minds of the characters and didn't do much with plot development or action. Plus, because she uses so few of the available characters, she gives away her "bad guy" and the "plot" after the fifth chapter.

Good story, bad ST writer.

Again the books were lost. Cardassian focus. Mixed crisises. Focus on a character that hadn't bene focused on in a book yet seemed to be the choice but in the end that didn't necessary mean it was a hood thing.

While the best Deep Space Nine book in my opinion is still "Fallen Heros", "Betrayal" also has its moments. Not for any specific plot reasons but its nice to see a book where Jake Sisko is not the dull eyed preadolsent and actually does something to contribute.

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.

The last book in the Lost Years-series is definitely the worst one.

We get a book, that unlike it's predecessors, doesn't use the potential of the characters being out of a starship, in their own separate ways and situations.

The plot of "Recovery" might as well have been used in any other TOS novel. It offeres nothing but un-beliavabilities by introducing a 100% automated "hospital-ship", that would be a technological marvel even in the era of Enterprise-E and Voyager in the year 2272.

The story is boring and predicteble. Beyond saving by the good writing of Jean Mary Dillard, who has written so much better book in her career that it's a real surprise to find her ending the series like this. We get only one important original character. The one we've seen a hundret times already: the young and eager cadet, who thinks Captain Kirk is a god and perfect in every way, and finally get's to meet him.

The book isn't really closely related to the other books of the series, but it can't hurt to read it as a bad ending.

At leas not much.

Each mini series of Star Trek novels needs its action, romance, and dark mind control novels.

Dillard applies her insight into the demented mind to the Lost Years saga. If you like her other books, you will probably like this one.

This book is exactly what the cover says... warped. It takes a slightly twisted mind to think up something like this. But if you like scary books, then this is for you. Once I got used to the idea, it wasn't that bad.

If you're one of those fans of Deep Space Nine who enjoy that series' tendancy to supply a healthy dollop of psuedo-mysticism along with the usual Star Trek psuedoscience, you'll doubtless love this book. It was well-written, the characters were handled well, the plot moved nicely, and so forth.

If, on the other hand, (like me) you find the credibility granted the Bajoran mysticism and mumbo-jumbo (including Sisko's status as the "Emissary") to be at best minorly irritating, then this is definitely NOT the book for you. The basic concept was just a little too silly for words.

I don't understand why everyone keeps saying that this book is so bad. I picked it up, and couldn't put it down. Sure, it got a little overinvolved with some technological details at points, but it's not bad.

The only reason I will give it only four stars is because the author made one slight mistake. As I am writing a book about Federation starships, the author used both the runabouts Mekong and Ganges. Well, during my research, I learned that the Mekong is the runabout that was assigned to Deep Space 9 after the Ganges was destroyed. Just a little annoyance with me that the author did not research the information first.

Overall, a good pick. I highly recommend you pick it up to read.

Unless you know absolutely nothing about video production, don't waste your money on this book. It's far too basic. There are hardly any illustrations of camera and production techniques. Even though the author provides some praticle ideas about producing music videos and parodies of commercials, he glosses over way too many ideas. Whycouldn't the heprovide some actual samples of work he did students in the area of video production? Teachers need a book like this, but this one needs to be updated and revised.

This book contains nothing but blank pages! I know a lot of gaming companies are doing this sort of thing now, but it still seems ridiculous that they expect us to be so dedicated we'll even buy blank paper bound in colourful covers. When I bought this book, it was in a hobby shop and I didn't realise what it was until I was shelving it with the rest of my acquisitions. I should have known better, as I had the option of looking for it before I bought it. In mail, order, this sort of misunderstanding is even easier to happen into. I'm a very dedicated Deadlands player, and I am almost as into L5R and the others (I don't know which company thought of it first) . . . but this sort of thing seems underhanded somehow. If you're looking at this, and the detail-oriented collector that is in most gamers is telling you to buy it, consider yourself lucky that you noticed this review. If you choose to buy it anyway, you must have been the type they had in mind all along - not to mention the fact that you will be confirming P. T. Barnum's oft-quoted opinion that "there is a sucker born every minute."