I was quite surprised when I read this Star Trek book. I'm far from the biggest fan in the world, but I did enjoy the movies and some of the feature length episodes. Also, in Britain the only thing ST competes with is the Australian soaps that dilute the TV schedules, so I get to see quite a few of them. I had never read a ST book however, and this book was a very delightful first.

The plot of this book is set six months before the movie "First Contact" and involves the covert Federation group Section 31. Section 31 is so covert in fact, that Starfleet doesn't even know about them, even though many of it's members are Starfleet officers too. They come into play over a power struggle between the Federation and Romulans over a planet which could gain either side 3 sectors of space. The Enterprise-E is sent as ambassadors to the planets native people, the Chiarosans, to help end their civil war to show how the Federation can help them better than the Romulans. On top of that, Section 31 also need to get a new recruit to be their eyes and ears for them onboard the Enterprise-E. The Conn Officer Lt. Hawk is chosen, and throughout the book he must decide if he should join and where the fine line is between right and wrong.

There are so many plot-threads in this book, it's a wonder I never got lost reading it, and it's a wonder the writers ever got the story to come together at the end. It's a good job two fantastic authors were signed up to write this book, as they move the plot along very well indeed, adding plenty of twists along the way. They deal with everything as it comes, hiding what you don't need to know yet so the plot is paced at a speed you can keep up with. It also adds a little mystery along the way, which can never be a bad thing.

All of the non-series characters are fleshed out really well. The Section 31 members are never black and white, right or wrong, good or evil. They believe that everything they do is for the welfare for the Federation and will protect it no matter what the cost may be or how many ideals they crush doing it. The Chiarosan's could have easily been cut-price Klingons, but their planet's and rebel's leaders are strongly wrote, just as willing do do what they believe is right as much as the Section 31 members.

The most interesting character that is fleshed out is Lt. Hawk, who was killed during First Contact. He is portrayed as an officer with lots of skill and great potential, who idolises the bridge officers he works alongside. His inexperience is pointed out though, as he continues to decide if he should join Section 31 or tell his superiors about it. He also happens to be gay, which probably has something to do with Andy Mangels being one of the writers, but it's handled well and doesn't appear gimmicky at all.

So with this book forget that most other Star Trek books are crap (or anything else in it's franchise). If you think of most other ST books like the annoying episodes when the Enterprise gets stuck in some anomaly and bratty Wes Crusher has to invent some doohickey to get them back out, Rogue is the equivalent of a feature-length episode with a better special effects budget than usual (and no smart-arse kids in sight).