A Time to Harvest

Star Trek: A Time to... #4

by Kevin Dilmore, Dayton Ward

On the cusp of their epic battle with Shinzon, many of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's long-time crew were heading for new assignments and new challenges. Among the changes were William Riker's promotion to captain and his new command, Riker's marriage to Counselor Deanna Troi, and Dr. Beverly Crusher's new career at Starfleet Medical. But the story of what set them on a path away from the Starship Enterprise™ has never been told.

UNTIL NOW.

Still reeling from the disastrous events that have rocked all of Starfleet and tarnished the career of one of the Federation's most decorated captains, Picard and his crew must now endure the unthinkable: scandal, ostracism, and an uncertain future. But despite all that has occurred, none aboard the Enterprise have forgotten their duty as Starfleet officers....

Assigned to assist the imperiled Dokaalan -- a small colony of refugees who maintain a precarious existence in a rapidly disintegrating asteroid mining complex -- the Enterprise crew must somehow aid this alien race in terraforming a nearby planet so that it might someday provide a new home for their kind. But violent acts of sabotage soon turn a humanitarian crisis into a deadly confrontation. To save the Dokaalan from extinction, Picard must uncover the presence of an old adversary -- and prevent a disaster of catastrophic proportions!

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Star Trek The Next Generation, Fiction, Ebooks, Adventure, Space

330 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

Kevin Dilmore was a newspaper reporter and long-time contributing writer to Star Trek Communicator Magazine before breaking into fiction writing.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is how I like my space operas: exciting and fun. Can't wait to see where the series goes from here!

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A satisfying conclusion to "A Time to Sow", although I'm left with the unmistakable feeling that these two books have just been stretched too thin - they'd have worked far better as one volume.

Much like the first volume, the authors really nail the characterizations of all the primary crew in addition to bestowing some realistic, believable and interesting personalities to the Starfleet guest characters (especially Vale, Perim, Taurik and Dr. Tropp). The "bad guys" fared less well, however, often descending into stereotypical cartoon villains who had the propensity to induce a few eye-rolling moments. I mean come on, Geordi and Taurik's captor just *has* to come into their prison cell and boast about the whole Nefarious Bad Guy Plot. Really?! What happened to taking them straight to Minister Nidrin?

Alas, the main problem we have here is momentum. Granted, the first volume also has issues with slower pacing, but those were perhaps more acceptable from a stylistic point of view, introducing some much-needed character moments and points of introspection. "A Time to Harvest", on the other hand, seems to squander those positive points in favor of way too much recap and filler. While a lot of that is just reminding folks what happened in the first book, it quickly becomes tedious and drags the pacing down with it. Perhaps more frustrating are filler scenes like the Mining Colony 12 rescue: We've already had a mining colony rescue effort in Book 1 - did we really need another one spanning multiple chapters in Book 2? I'm not so sure. And then there are some rather bizarre rambling detours the authors take which seem to serve no purpose other than fill pages: the unnecessary summary of the Bajoran Wormhole discovery and Dominion war is the prime example here.

A couple of other points that annoyed me:
* There are large sections of the book where no one seems to be worried about Geordi/Taurik at all... they're just forgotten! The Enterprise just moved off to the second mining colony disaster without thinking about their rendezvous with them. Hours and hours go by after the official rendezvous time before anything is mentioned.
* Picard seems overly burdened with not just self-doubt but also doubt about his other officers’ abilities. This becomes a bit tiresome at points, and out of character.

While these factors contribute to Book 2 ranking one star lower than Book 1 for me, it was still an enjoyable read and a satisfying conclusion to the Dokaalan story. There were plenty of standout moments sprinkled throughout. The Beverly/Kell ethics debate is an interesting one, and nicely spills over to her dinner with Picard. If a “cure” for the Dokaalan radiation-dependence is developed, what if it has negative consequences for the species? This is TNG ethics/morality 101... and captures the core of the show's appeal. The unveiling of the Bad Guys is handled well, and the choice of species nicely slides into established canon for fans of the series. While the action sequences involving our nefarious spies on the ship tend to become slightly repetitive, the climax at the Dokaalan central habitat more than makes up for it and leads to quite a thrilling end.

All in all - a good conclusion. But prevented from being great by pacing issues.

[reherrma · Rating 3 out of 5]

In den Bänden 3 und 4 der “Zeit des Wandels”-Reihe setzt sich die Geschichte um die Enterprise fort, nachdem Captain Picard von der Sternenflotte der Prozess gemacht wurde, nachdem man ihm ein vermeintliches Fehlverhalten bei einer Mission in einem Raumschiff-Friedhof des Dominion-Krieges vorgeworfen hatte. Nach einem Freispruch mit fahlem Nachgeschmack, konnte er die Mission zu einem erfolgreichen Ende führen (siehe Band 1 und 2 der Reihe).
Man muss aber diese ersten beiden Bände nicht zwingend gelesen haben, da hier quasi eine neue Storyreihe beginnt. Wie schon zuvor ist auch der dritte Band der erste Teil eines Zweiteilers – die Fortsetzung gibt es mit Band Vier.
Im Gegensatz zu den ersten beiden Bänden wird in den beiden Bänden von Kevin Dilmore und Dayton Ward nicht krampfhaft versucht, die Charaktere auf den Kurs zu “Nemesis” zu bringen, wie es mit Wesley Crusher in den ersten beiden Bänden geschah. Zwar taucht hier auch Worf in einem kurzen Cameo auf, was zwar Vorzeichen für die Zukunft setzt, aber eben recht dezent.
Dabei besinnt man sich auf die Stärken von Star Trek. Hier steht keine Action im Vordergrund, sondern der Erstkontakt mit einer fremden Spezies. Dabei punktet die Handlung damit, dass sie… mit einem Fehler beginnt. Nun, zumindest einen Druckfehler, denn das einleitende Kapitel spielt angeblich im Jahr 2051. Gemeint ist natürlich 2151, was kurz darauf auch erwähnt wird, als die Ereignisse um das andorianische Kloster P’Jem aus der ersten Enterprise-Staffel erwähnt werden.
Das Ganze ist zwar wirklich nur ein kleiner Prolog für die TNG-Handlung im 24. Jahrhundert, stimmt aber schon mal ganz gut auf die weitere Handlung ein. Unterstützt wird der Erstkontakt mit den Dokaalanern noch durch die Tagebucheinträge ihres Herrschers zu Zeiten der Katastrophe.
Der Heimatplanet der Dokaalanern wird durch eine nicht näher beschriebene Katastrophe zerstört, die Dokaalanern schicken einen Hilferuf über eine Sonde aus, der jedoch in eben diesem erwähnten 22. Jahrhundert nicht beachtet wird, im 24. Jahrhundert wird die Nachricht jedoch nochmals aufgefangen und die Sternenflotte schickt die ENTERPRISE unter Captain Picard aus, um die Sache zu untersuchen, man wollte natürlich Picard von der unmittelbaren Bildfläche entfernen, damit sich die Aufregung um ihn etwas legt. Dort findet die ENTERPRISE eine Zivilisation der Dokaalaner in einer sehr prekären Lage vor, viele haben in notdrüftigen Habitaten überlebt und arbeiten seit Generationen an der Terraforming eines Planeten. Da dies sehr langwierig ist und schwierig, bietet die ENTERPRISE ihre Hilfe an, die jedoch durch Terroranschläge torpediert wurden. Als sich herausstellt, dass die Terraforming-Bemühungen konterkariert werden, indem die Ergebnisse des Terraformings in eine falsche Richtung gehen, wird die Lage brenzlig, da die Dokaalaner den ganzen Terror der ENTERPRISE in die Schuhe schieben... Nach der Beschädigung Datas durch einen Anschlag findet die Besatzung heraus, dass noch eine andere Spezies inkognito eine Rolle spielt, eine Formwandler-Spezies, die die Gesellschaftder Dokaalaner und die Besatzung der ENTERPRISE unterwandert hat...
Tempo und Spannung nehmen im Vergleich zum Vorgängerroman noch einmal zu und obwohl der Ausgang der Geschichte zu erahnen ist, glänzt dieser Zweiteiler mit einer tollen Handlung, in der es eine Begegnung mit einem Volk gibt, auf das die Enterprise einst in der 5. TV-Staffel gestoßen ist. Ich habe mich wunderbar unterhalten gefühlt, das mich an die besten Zeiten des Star Trek-(Literatur-) Kanons erinnert hat...

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong follow-up and conclusion of Ward and Dilmore's part in the A Time To series. Great world-building with the Dokaalans and their society, as well as an unexpected use of an adversary from back in the TNG on television days. Great character work with only a few minor nitpicks with regards to some of the actions undertaken by our heroes. Plus, a terrific re-affirmation of the ideals of Starfleet and the Federation, and for what Star Trek itself espouses. For the most part, A Time to Harvest was a great addition to this nine-book series and the Star Trek lit-verse as a whole.

Full review: http://www.treklit.com/2018/11/ATtH.html

[Graff Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Trek: TNG: A Time To... 04 A Time to Harvest by Dayton Ward, Kevin Dilmore

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense

Medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters are a main focus: Yes

3.5 Stars

I'm just not having a lot of fun with this series. It is not the author's styles, but the stories are just not captivating me. They really should be, but something is off...and I cannot put my finger on it.

Loved the beginning of this story, but from about a quarter on till about three-quarters...it was boring as hell.

I usually can finish these books in three days (while reading other books), but for some reason...I couldn't wait to start something (anything) else, and then keep putting off getting back into the story.

When I did come back, it wasn't until the last quarter...that the story became interesting enough...that I actually wanted to know how it was going to end. Isn't that weird?

The big reveal seemed anti-climactic. The reason for the terraforming seemed overly complicated. It just wasn't working for me.

The race of people that TNG had encountered before were interesting in their own right, but ...ugh, I just could care.

Loved Captain Picard, Riker and LaForge, but everyone else seemed to fade into the wallpaper. Dr. Crusher popped out, every once in a while, but that's about it.

Lots of "redshirts" doing red shirt type things. IYKYK

I need to keep reading this series, but I don't really want to. Not a good position to be in...as a reader. Come on Star Trek, give me an epic story to fall in love with. Please.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

[2.5/5] I couldn't help but get slightly bored during this one. It moves surprisingly slowly, which is all the more strange when you consider that this is the second half of a story begun in the previous novel and it should now be barrelling ahead. I can only see this as a result of artificially expanding the story to stretch it across two volumes. It's notably repetitive throughout and just feels too long even at 300 pages.

Fortunately it is well written and this helps somewhat. I also liked its focus on characters over action, with some nice development happening for everyone. The character of Christine Vale leapt off the page more than any previous story I've read with her in even with a relatively small role. I seem to always be happy to see Taurik return too.

[Khanh · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I kind of got bored after about 50% of the book.

[Les Hopper · Rating 2 out of 5]

As always, a nice and light read for a busy week at work. Compared to others in the series this one dragged a little though.

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My full review will be up on Roqoo Depot. This one is a step up from its predecessor, but this series still has yet to achieve greatness. 3 out of 5.

[Patrick Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent conclusion to the story begun in A Time to Sow. Reading the previous book isn't necessary to understanding this book, as there's plenty of catch up in the first few pages, and none of it comes off as an "info dump" from the writers. However, I enjoyed the first book, so if you have the opportunity to read that first, do so.

There's a lot that starts this book off: the crew of the Enterprise is still trying to help the Dokaalan whose situation grew more dire at the end of the last book with their colony set with an asteroid blew up, Data has been rendered inactive by the work of a saboteur, and Geordi and two others are on the run from a bomb that's about to go off.

These cliffhangers are resolved, but Ward and Dilmore keep the pressure on the protagonists as other obstacles come in their paths to helping these people. Chief among them is the saboteur. I knew that clues were being given constantly as to the identity of the villain and when it was revealed I was impressed: they are from an episode of the show, but nothing has been done with them since. What's happened to these people and why they've continued their villainous ways was written very smoothly.

Naturally, fans of the series know that nothing can really harm the leads, since they have to move on to their next novel, show, etc. That said, I was also impressed with how concerned I was with the Dokaalan and really wanted them to overcome all the odds against them. Again, the writers didn't disappoint.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although technically this is part 4 of an 8-book series, it could really be read as part 2 of a 2-book series. Books 1 & 2 of the 'A time to' series are only nominally related. 'A Time to Harvest' really reminded me of a TNG episode: it was compact, dramatic, action-packed. Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore did a nice job bringing to life (and sometimes disposing of) the minor lower-decks characters such as Taurik, Vale, Perim, and the various crewmen and nurses on the Enterprise who might otherwise have just been background/white-noise. In one particularly excellent chapter, they introduce us to Nurse Lomax and Ensign Maxson, and to those crewmen's thoughts, hopes, desires, and professional ambitions. So when something negative happens to those crewmen (I don't want to spoil it for you readers), we experience a genuine sense of loss; these aren't just nameless redshirts. And in that regard, these novels have a capacity to push Star Trek to a new depth that we don't often see onscreen.

[Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why did I wait so long to read this after reading the first book in this duology? I blame aliens. Anyway I reread my review of the previous installment. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . So much for “new” alien enemy. I love it when a previous one-off plot and/or species makes a reappearance. This one from an episode of The Next Generation.

Potential spoilers aside, this novel continues the theme of Picard doubting his ability to lead while at the same time relationships among the crew are strengthened or reforged. In some ways it is sad reading these knowing what happens to the crew in the movie which this series sets up. But at the same time they are good old fashioned, action-packed space adventures and I gobble them up!

[Peter Rydén · Rating 4 out of 5]

Såsom fortsättning på boken A Time to Sow börjar denna bok i en riktig s.k. "cliffhanger". Med en stor motståndare som dessutom är känd av Picard sedan tidigare, blir denna bok en intensiv jakt efter de som söker förstöra vad dokaalerna försöker bygga upp och som redan dödat många dokaaler tillsammans med flera ur Picards besättning. Mycket god avslutning på denna bok med bra personporträtt av framför allt Geordi LaForge, Beverly Crusher och Jean-Luc Picard.

[George Kingsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

New Beginning

It is amazing how the writer can bring new interest to a familiar story line. They bring a story line full of emotion. I have followed Star Trek for many years and hope to continue for many more.

[Jeffery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic STNG

This book follows immediately upon A Time to Sow, providing a satisfying conclusion to that story. Again, characters, story, and writing are top notch. I highly recommend the previous volume and this to any Next Gen fans. 🙂👍🏻

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoying the story line-looking forward to the next one.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

All hail Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore!

[Kennylee Beeks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story, but some disappointing loose ends.

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. enjoyable conclusion to the story introduced in the previous book. crew characterisations were much better than book 1 and 2 and I genuinely cared about the Dokaalans and their plight.

[Doreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this duology reminds me of two part episodes of TNG!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This duology had a enough material for a single book. Seemed stretched over 2 novels. Some restructuring could have made it more interesting, as is it's a bit too linear and plodding.

[Joel Aarons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it more than I thought I would, mainly due to the sneakiness of the antagonists who were a return of an old favourite. Yes liked it a lot.

[Kenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ends stronger than A Time to... #2. And I think this is the best thing I've read from Dayton and Kevin so far?

The situation with the Dokaalan is so much fun.

[Shoumik Hassin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid and unremarkable. It's pointless for these books to be split into two. All it adds is a few paras of exposition detailing the plot of the last one.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got bored during this one, unfortunately. Guess it was inevitable that this series' mandate of stretching stories across two books at a time would have consequences.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

As the previous book in the series, I really did like the concept of the story. However, the gross majority of the book suffered from the same pitfalls as the previous one. I would have "liked it" and given it 3 stars, but the things the book did wrong really bothered me as a reader and really dragged me down to the point of just wishing the book was over and done with at about the half way point.

The pacing of the book felt rather slow. There were pages and pages of unnecessary information that were obviously there just for filler, which I dislike quite a lot. There's mention of Picard's time in the Borg collective, which has absolutely nothing to do with anything remotely in the story. There are unnecessary additions of doctors from both Voyager and Enterprise, who contribute nothing, again, to the story line. They only seem to have been added to add to the word count, and to say "Hey, look at me! Don't I know my Trek?" That's all tolerable to an extent, however, it seemed to come at the expense of developing characters actually involved in the story. So, we're left with a 2 dimensional antagonist that spouts off cliches like "I don't like to kill, but sometimes it's necessary," in an attempt to add depth to the character. Then this same line is repeated 2 more times later on, just to make sure we didn't forget.

For the majority of the story the Enterprise and their crew simply felt like a backdrop for the story. I would have preferred an exciting hunt on the Enterprise from the perspective of the crew, than from the point of view of a villain with little to no depth. The entire book is not this way. The book starts off with some cool Geordi moments, and ends off with some actual Enterprise crew involvement. However, it's what's sandwitched between these moments that's dry and relatively uninteresting. At the end of the book I thought "that was a cool chapter. It's too bad the rest of the book wasn't like that."

My last point may be a legitimate gripe, or it may simply be a pet peeve. What do you suppose the percentage of readers would be that would start a book 2 of a series like this without reading the first book? Maybe 5 or 10%? Perhaps only 1 or 2%? Please tell me why authors feel the need to re-cover all of the events that led up to the 2nd book? Is it really that big of a sin to leave them out when they were just too lazy to read the first book? Is it worth boring the readers to tears with page after page of plot summaries, or is this just another way of adding filler to the book?

I'm sorry if this turned into a bit of a rant and that I'm a bit more critical than usual. What disappoints me the most is the book could have been a nice read if both books were fused into 1, and all of the filler and summaries flew out the window. If the POV was from the crew, and we had real character development instead of flash backs, I would have loved it even more. However, as it lies, the book is simply bloated and I found it difficult to trudge through.

[Joshua Palmatier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this book last night. It's the fourth novel in the A Time To . . . series that explains what Picard and crew were doing between the movies Insurrection and Nemesis. However, the series is divided up into four two-part books, with a final single volume, so this is the concluding volume to the second duology. Let me know if you followed all that.

In this duology, the Enterprise has been sent to the Dokaalan system, investigating the results of a two-hundred-year-old distress call. They expect to find the remains of a destroyed planet and hope to find out what happened to the planet (why it exploded) and perhaps find out more about the Dokaalan's in terms of ruins, etc, although this hope is thin. What they find instead is that survivors of the culture have eeked out an existence in the radiation-plagued asteroid belt in the system and are in the process of terraforming one of the other planets. Making first contact, Picard and crew help the Dokaalans with rescue efforts, but in the process begin finding hints that something bigger is going on with this system, the terraforming project, and the rising tensions among the Dokaalan themselves. In fact, they find evidence that someone else from outside the Dokaalan system is interfering in their culture and exploiting the terraforming project for their own ends. Picard intends to find out who and what and why . . . even as the group behind it begins to infiltrate the Enterprise itself.

This is probably one of the best-plotted Star Trek books I've read in a while, with the motivations of the people, the revelations of who and what is actually going on, and the combination of exploring strange new worlds with action and intrigue perfectly balanced. The problems faced are escalated to a great high level, and no one on the Enterprise immediately figures out how to solve the problems once they are presented. Even the differences in technology levels are resolved, with the crew having to work around the problem presented by the radiation in the asteroid field. And that radiation isn't just there to level the tech field, it's used for other twists as well. In fact, nearly everything introduced--whether as something to aid the crew or to hinder it--serves a dual purpose in the plot.

So, a great plot overall, with some great use of everyone's favorite characters. Everyone felt true to their characters as well. Again, as mentioned in my review of the first part of this duology, it was perhaps too wordy. Detailed explanations of everyone's actions wasn't necessary, especially when their motivations or reasoning was already clearly shown in their actions or dialogue. But a great set of books nonetheless.

[Cy · Rating 4 out of 5]

These pair of books might just be my favorite Star Trek books. The writers demonstrate a deft understanding of the characters, the story is original, and it mixes the militarism that Star Trek gradually took on with the Enterprise's original mission of exploration and discovery. Much is spent on the inner monologues of the characters and rather than just relying on the action and Treknobabble of many other Star Trek novels to tell the story, it really goes into trying to show how the characters react to the events of the previous pair of novels as well.

That said, it's hardly without faults. This novel is long, wordy, and repetitive, and while interest in the story kept me reading it, I found myself closing my Nook on more than one occasion when I got thrown into yet another long-winded explanation of Dokaalan "resolve" and "determination". Hijatyn's journal entries were excellent worldbuilding in the beginning - describing to us how the race ended up in its situation without relying on long, unnatural dialogue - but none of the Dokaalan really have any personality. Aside from the ones that it would be spoilers to mention, all of the government officials are selfless civil servants and all of the citizens are sheeple being herded from one crisis to another and regularly blasted down to provide pathos.

Still, this is a novel about Star Trek characters and for all their faults, the Dokaalan let them do what the Enterprise does best and display the best qualities of humanity. Regardless of how wordy they go about doing it.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an avid Star Trek TNG book reader, books 3 & 4 (A Time to Sow and this one) put forth a very original story and tied into a bit of the TV series intriguingly. However, I feel these books fell a bit short. There was just too much coincidence and not enough intelligent writing. Too many impossible escapes and convenient "errors" made by Starfleet's finest leave a bitter taste for me. I'm not saying this 2 parter is bad, I'm saying there are far better TNG books out there. I can't give them all 5 stars, and 3 out of 5 "ain't bad".

I would suggest trucking through all nine books like I am, and then make your own opinions, after all, these books DO add a lot to the history of the crew by filling in many blanks in the timeline between movies!

Personally, AND THIS IS A SPOILER for Book 1, A Time to Be Born, I am wondering when Data gets his emotion chip back...maybe in a later book in this series? We'll see.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simultaneously part 4 of a series of duologies and part 2 of one of those duologies, this one continues to elaborate what takes place between INSURRECTION and NEMESIS, while also covering the fallout from the Ontollian Affair in the previous duology. This two part story is better than the previous, with a better grasp on the characters and a stronger narrative, though it lacks anything as "cool" as the Rashanar Starship Graveyard from the previous two books. As always, the Trek Book writers do a fine job of keeping the tradition alive, and if you're a fan like me, you can even hear the characters' voices when you read the dialogue. Live long and prosper!