Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I'm a little disapointed with this one. I normally consume Trek books of any era, by any author with great delight. You don't even want to know how many copies of "How Much For Just The Planet" I have.
I don't regret buying this one, but I regret not buying it at a used book store for less.
One issue is perhaps unavoidable given the overall format. With the whole "Living History" idea, I expect some certain similarities in tone and format to World War Z. But on this one, there are a couple times when I can almost hear the rustle of pages from That Other Book in the background. Again, that could be simply because it's a "living history" about a massive war.
The other, greater issue is the author's clear and obvious choice to politicize the book. Between dedicating the book to a currently active politician, and making assorted thinly veiled references to policies of a Recent President Who Shall Not Be Named as well as current events, it gets pretty ham-handed.
Social commentary has always been an enriching element in Star Trek, but this work is somewhat tainted by it's level of current-day political commentary, enhanced by the "narrator's" penchant for wistfully sermonizing, sermons which become downright sticky and gooey sweet.
"Jake" ends up reducing the notional interviews from interviews to a socio-political soapbox for the author to use him to mumble from, a vehicle for his own commentary as opposed to focussing on the experiences and stories of his interview subjects. It's rarely a good thing when the focus of a documentary becomes the interviewer, and not the subjects or their stories. If I want to read an author's politicizing, I'll go to their homepage or blog. The digs at a recent administration and political faction become a wink at the camera that damages the immersion, and wastes type that could have been used telling a better story. (This being despite my personal dislike of said administration.)
Still, there are some good vignettes, some good bits of dialogue, but it's somewhat inferior to what I've come to expect in current Star Trek reading material.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many

Prior to the terror-filled times of the Long War—the seemingly endless struggle against the Undine, a paranoid, shape-shifting race once known only as Species 8472—enemy sleeper agents quietly penetrated every echelon of Federation society, as well as other starfaring civilizations throughout the Alpha and Beta quadrants. The ensuing conflict shook humanity to its very core, often placing its highest ideals against a pure survival instinct. All too frequently, the Undine War demanded the harshest of sacrifices and exacted the steepest of personal costs from the countless millions whose lives the great interdimensional clash forever altered.Drawn from his exhaustive research and interviews, The Needs of the Many delivers a glimpse of Betar Prize–winning author Jake Sisko's comprehensive "living history" of this tumultuous era. With collaborator Michael A. Martin, Sisko illuminates an often-poorly-understood time, an age marked indelibly by both fear and courage—not to mention the willingness of multitudes of unsung heroes who became the living embodiment of the ancient Vulcan philosopher Surak's famous axiom, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Click here for more information about Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many