Back to a Star Trek book. Not sure when the last time was I read one of these. This one has been on my read list for years just waiting for a Star Trek phase.
It was certainly worth the wait. Getting Kirk and company back together with Gary Seven for another time bending adventure was fun to read. The author has a good grasp on writing the standard characters so well you can hear their voices and see their mannerisms while reading the text.
If you love Star Trek and love when they tie into previous episodes then you should love this one. ( )

This is a pretty competent start trek novel featuring Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln who the crew of the Enterprise had last seen back in the 1960s as a certain Apollo mission was about to take off. This time Gary Seven and Roberta have come forward to the Enterprise's home time in an effort to save Seven's Romulan equivalent from the hands of the Tal Shiar. Kirk was not inclined to heed Seven's rather cryptic warnings and refused to divert from his emergency mission but Seven's mysterious alien sponsors had given him enough technological knowledge to deposit the Enterprise deep inside the Romulan Star Empire. After various shenanigans Seven and Kirk find themselves in the hands of Dellas as she plans to assassinate the Spock of the Khitomer Peace Conference. ( )

Assignment: Eternity is another very enjoyable Star Trek (original series) novel from Greg Cox. It is also a time-travel story that includes, Gary Seven, a character first seen in the last episode of the second year of the original Star Trek TV show. Gary Seven is a 24th century man who was sent back in time to Earth in the late 1960s as a Class One Supervisor known as Supervisor 194. In this book, Seven, who has the ability to communicate and travel through time, sees the assassination of Mr. Spock in 2293 by a Romulan. He recognizes that this assassination will precipitate extreme violence in the future universe. Therefore, he and his assistant, Roberta, transport themselves from Earth in 1969 to the Enterprise in 2269. Then they commandeer the Enterprise and take it into the heart of Romulan space, where they attempt to prevent the threatening changes in the time stream. Of course the fierce and hostile Romulans attack the Enterprise. Mr. Spock finds himself commanding the ship against the Romulan aggressors with help from Roberta, while Captain Kirk, Gary Seven, Sulu, and Chekov break into a mysterious fortress on a cloaked planet in the Romulan sector to avert the assassination. It is another fun read from Greg Cox, which includes many references to the original TV series and to the dear old 1960s on planet Earth. Of course, it also includes explosive starship battle action between the Enterprise and the Romulan ship and fearsome struggles between Kirk, Seven and the aspiring assassin. I recommend it to all Star Trek fans, time-travel fans, and anyone who likes military space travel sagas. ( )

I'm conflicted about what to rate this novel. On the one hand, the story was really fun. It was nice to see Gary Seven again, and watching Roberta muddle her way around the Enterprise with her green cube was hilarious. The basis of the plot was a little thin but no more so than your average TOS episode, and there were a lot of enjoyable moments - not to mention a lot of references and in-jokes for fans to pick up on.

On the other hand, the writing left a lot to be desired. Reading it felt as if each scene were unfolding in slow motion; every little description got its own complete sentence, and most of the detail was simply stated rather than shown. (Show Don't Tell!) The characters all sound the same and the dialogue suffered from severe overuse of increasingly distracting synonyms for the word "said" - even the dreaded "quipped" made an appearance. There was far too much first-person inner monologue that jumped around to different characters. There were a couple of plot devices - notably the mind meld - that just didn't really fit in to the action, and seemed to have been used because Cox needed something to write more pages about.

I think if this had been an actual TOS episode, it would have been among the better ones. The audiovisual medium would have eliminated some of the bad stuff (the tedious descriptions and the irritating inner monologues) but kept the good stuff (time travel! Romulans! mysterious secret agents! a shootout in a burning building!) As a piece of writing, it just falls flat, which is all the more disappointing because the base material is good.

I think ultimately your enjoyment of the novel hinges on what you are looking for in a Star Trek book. I want my authors to push the boundaries of the Trek universe and make me think; but if you're just looking for a new story that feels just like the episodes, you might end up liking this one more than I did. ( )

An intriguing Star Trek adventure which draws upon events from one of the more interesting original TV episodes, in which the Enterprise found itself in 1969, and Kirk not knowing whether Gary Seven, trained and equipped by advanced aliens, was working for or against the interests of Earth. Now Kirk finds himself in a similar quandry when Seven hijacks the Enterprise and sends it on a dangerous journey into the heart of the Romulan Empire. ( )