Section 31: Shadow: Star Trek Voyager

Star Trek: Section 31 #4

by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch

They are the self-appointed protectors of the Federation. Amoral, shrouded in secrecy, answerable to no one, Section 31 is the mysterious covert operations division of Starfleet, a rogue shadow group committed to safeguarding the Federation at any cost.

Someone or something is trying to kill Seven of Nine. As the crew races against time to save millions of refugees from an imminent stellar cataclysm, the former Borg becomes the target of several seemingly random but potentially lethal "accidents." The investigation reveals a truth more terrifying than anyone ever imagined, as Captain Kathryn Janeway and the crew of the Starship Voyager fight for their lives against the most unexpected enemy of all.

NO LAW. NO CONSCIENCE. NO STOPPING THEM.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Star Trek Voyager, Fiction, Space, Media Tie In, Science Fiction Fantasy

187 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2001

About the author

Pen Names
Edward Taft
Dee W. Schofield
Sandy Schofield
Kathryn Wesley

Dean Wesley Smith is the bestselling author of over ninety novels under many names and well over 100 published short stories. He has over eight million copies of his books in print and has books published in nine different countries. He has written many original novels in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and romance as well as books for television, movies, games, and comics. He is also known for writing quality work very quickly and has written a large number of novels as a ghost writer or under house names.

With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. The following is a list of novels under the Dean Wesley Smith name, plus a number of pen names that are open knowledge. Many ghost and pen name books are not on this list because he is under contractual obligations not to disclose that he wrote them. Many of Dean’s original novels are also under hidden pen names for marketing reasons.

Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.

Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books.

Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.

Reviews

[Jason Pettus · Rating 3 out of 5]

2021 reads, #57. This is book #4 of my four-book read this month of the "Section 31" series of Star Trek "non-canon" novels, which by coincidence happens to be my first-ever read in my life of any of the now 850 Star Trek non-canon novels that exist, which gave me an excuse to write in much more general terms on the subject in my review of book #1, S.D. Perry's TOS-set Cloak, for those who might be interested in getting a primer on the topic. Following chronologically by show, that made book #2 set during the Enterprise of The Next Generation, Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels' disappointing Rogue (my review); then book #3 set among the cast of Deep Space Nine, David Weddle and Jeffrey Lang's excellent Abyss (my review); and then today's concluding* book #4 set within the milieu of Voyager, Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Shadow.

Smith and Rusch, a longtime married couple, are busy and beloved veterans of genre publishing (between the two of them they've written over 300 novels at this point, as well as running their own small press, and collectively they've either won or been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Stoker, Endeavour, Sidewise, and World Fantasy awards), so I wasn't worried this time about whether the quality of the writing itself was going to be good, which it indeed was. But there were two big problems with this novel, one not really their fault but one very much their fault, which is what drops the score down to three stars today. First, as I mentioned during my write-up of Rogue, it disappoints me when authors in these circumstances have an opportunity to build out a scope for a story that's limited only by the imaginations of their readers, but choose instead to limit their stories to the same kinds of small, budget-conscious scopes that TV writers are forced to deal with, when confronted with the realities of actually having to adapt a script into a finished television episode; and that's exactly what Smith and Rusch do here, coming up with an admittedly interesting idea but then doing very little with it beyond what would normally fit within a 44-page television screenplay, which made me shrug my shoulders at the end of it and mutter, "Meh, whatever, I guess this was fine."

And then the other problem, the much bigger one, is that the milieu of Voyager simply makes it difficult to shoehorn in a Section 31 plot; but since the original idea behind this four-book series was to set a Section 31 story within each of what at the time was the four Star Trek television shows that currently existed, Smith and Rusch are forced to work in one here in about the most awkward way I've ever seen a plot development get crammed into a setting that doesn't want to naturally accept it. See, for those who don't know, the big gimmick behind the original Voyager TV show was that it was an only average ship among the Federation fleet but that goes through an extraordinary experience, a MacGuffin-like magic-wand waving during the show's pilot that ends up sending them to the exact opposite edge of the Milky Way galaxy, where it would take them literally hundreds of years to get back to Earth even at light speed; so the seven-year show itself was about this admittedly so-so Starfleet crew that was forced to grow up and become a one-ship navy unto itself, since there was no Picard-led cavalry to swoop in and save the day if they found themselves in over their heads.

That made for an interesting show, but it also makes it nearly impossible to inject a plot device like finding out suddenly that one of the crew members has been a member all along of a shadowy CIA-like "dirty tricks" wing of Starfleet that the general public doesn't even know exists, nor does it provide any justification for why said dirty-tricks agent might end up performing their dirty tricks way out on the ass-end opposite edge of the universe where it doesn't matter, which makes Smith and Rausch's noble but flawed attempt to do so here just a barely plausible one that never quite ends up working. That's not necessarily terrible, but it's not necessarily great either, resulting in a middle-of-the-road reading experience that is getting a middle-of-the-road score from me today. It should be kept in mind by any of you in the future who are thinking of taking on this four-book series yourself.

*But of course, as I'm quickly discovering, there is no such thing as "over for good" within the money-printing world of franchise-based non-canon novels; so while these four Section 31 books I've been reviewing over the last several weeks were for many years the definitive start and end of all Star Trek novels on the subject, about 15 years later the powers-that-be decided to authorize yet two more books devoted to Section 31 machinations, 2014's Disavowed and 2017's Control, both by David Mack. I'll be tackling those next, so keep your eye out for those reviews next week.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shadow is just that. The Shadow where a good story could have gone, thrown by a publishing idea that doesn't understand its subject.

The story follows the crew of the USS Voyager, stuck thousands of light-years from home. Diverting from their journey to observe the majesty of a stellar collision, where they discover another ship -- the remnants of the civilization of this star system. They are running away, but will be unable to get to safety before the explosion of the stellar collision destroys them. All this, while a member of the crew, Seven of Nine, narrowly avoids death with alarming frequency.

The pace and literal ticking clock of the novel set a pace that, even short at 272 pages reads more like a script for an episode. A civilization faced with its own extinction gives fertile ground to how you face failure with hope. And a mother looking after her child among the chaos of a disaster also setup not just hope, but determination.

Unfortunately everything is either off-tone or unused. The first problem is that Star Trek: Voyager is the sunniest, most hopeful version of Star Trek. The idea of Section 31, birthed by the darkest Trek sheep, Deep Space Nine, flies directly in the face of it's hopefulness, to the point that the captain, upon learning of it, does nothing. The pacing while fast like an episode, leads to glossing over important details or ideas. Millions of people simply abandon old-held ideas, a civilization deals with upheaval as if it's just another monday.

The familiar characters are not quite right, Tom Paris, is just a little too argumentative. Tuvok is just a little too-rigid, the Seven/Torres dynamic is heightened just a bit too far. Chakotay is the only spot on... largely ignored, just like the show. The alien's ship is segregated, setting up the classic Trek homily of eliminating class/racial distinctions, is ignored. Instead this Section 31 angle is shoe-horned in to the story as the complication, almost as if the main story was conceived separately.

Perhaps the fact that there are two authors are to blame. But the story is short, forgettable, and not worth the time unless you are a completionist.

[Elizabeth Perez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was about Voyager helping a ship in distress and then Voyager started having it's own problems. The cover makes it seem like it revolves around Seven but really it's the whole crew and a lot from the alien POV.

This was a fast paced read, it read like a mystery. There were a few parts that seemed a little off, mostly the characters weren't completely on par. This book didn't have as many light or humorous moments like many other Voyager novels did. I still don't understand why they were talking about certain people on the other ship they didn't seem to add anything to the book and just made me a tad confused.

I do think most Voyager fans will like this one though. It wouldn't be the first I recommended but still a decent read.

[Brayden Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

Calling this a Section 31 novel is a bit of a stretch. Sure Section 31 is involved but not directly and not uniquely either. Anyone could have caused the problems Voyager encounters in this book. It just felt extremely disconnected from the other books and the only real inclusion of Section 31 personnel(the part to me that makes section 31 the most exciting) is briefly at the beginning and then in an expository way at the end. The saving of Traveler is easily the most interesting part of the story, I found the Rhawns to be a very interesting species on top of that. Unfortunately for all the I enjoyed 3 Stars is the max I can award for its lackluster Section 31 connection.

Though this being my first Voyager novel I do think its time I watched more of that series.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of three parts. The first is the "Voyager" action hour, transferred to prose...and it's exciting, engaging, and adrenaline-pumping. The second is the pre-war alien ark -- a fantastic idea, but one that deserved far more depth & detail than it gets. The final part involves a mother & child, and frankly, it did nothing for me...except long to get back to the more exciting material. The end result is a solid adventure novel, but one that had the potential to be spectacular.

[Apostolos · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't necessarily call this a Section 31 story. It's basically a voyager story where the B-plot is about a former S31 operative who sabotaged the ship (which makes the A-Plot harder to achieve). The A-Plot was interesting though.

[Crystal Bensley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine Voyager novel that didn't really need the Section 31 bits I feel.

[A.K. Johns · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book states that the events take place just before Equinox 1 & 2 (Star Trek: Voyager - Series 5, Episode 26 & Series 6, Episode 1). It is also worth noting, for people that aren’t super fans who know all there is to know, that this occurs after Tom Paris and B’elanna Torres have become an item and references are made to Scientific Method (ST:VOY - Series 4, Episode 7) in which we are told the Section 31 Agent in this book was killed.

How, I hear you ask, can the Section 31 Agent be dead long before the setting of this book? Don’t worry, she is not brought back to life or trapped in the Holodeck or Transporter Filters, as so many are, but instead she has laid a trap before she is killed. And this is what annoys me about the three S31 books I have read so far, not one of them is really about this special branch, but their presence instead is just purely coincidental and almost a throw away part of the story. Each of the three books spanning The Original Series, The Next Generation and this one could have been written without the S31 storyline at all. It bears no relevance to the stories really, I am hoping when I finally get around to reading the Deep Space Nine edition (Abyss) that it is at least more covert, undercover and spy like, with evil plans that must be stopped.

Other than that, it is a good story, an episode worthy of the TV series and as with the previous books it delivers great representations of the characters we know and love so well and gives a lot of them plenty of coverage, but don’t read it if you’re expecting large contributions from Harry Kim, Chakotay, Neelix or The Doctor.

A little bit tamer than Star Trek: The Next Generations- Rogue, because there is no obvious or previously recognised enemy (Romulans/Borgs and so on) but still worth reading.

[Derek Oberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this one. It's the 4th in a series, and the first 3 were really good. This one was just dumb.

How to pit the Voyager crew (stranded 30+ years from home) against Section 31 (which operates within the heart of the Federation)?

The answer: Section 31 placed an operative on the ship to deal with the Maquis threat, who was then stranded with the rest of the crew in the pilot episode. Okay, makes sense so far.

The book takes place near the end of the 5th season of the show. All of a sudden someone is attempting to kill Seven of Nine. It ends up being the COMPUTER ITSELF (2001 Style). The Section 31 agent died years ago, but once Seven came aboard the agent decided that it was too risky to have a Borg on board and decided to kill her, so created a computer program and then died. Years later B'elana Torres accidentally activates it and chaos ensues.

Add to it some species that we don't even care about, and some random mother trying to save her injured daughter (both of whom have NOTHING what-so-ever to do with the general plot). Pointless and stupid.

And full of really annoying things like trying to make a ship go faster by ditching heavy equipment and cargo?!? This is space, idiots. Ditch mass, not weight (which doesn't exist in space).

In all, a low point for these geeky Star Trek novels I've been into lately.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not all that good, but fortunately very short. Tales of the secretive Section 31 should be full of intrigue and cunning, but this book elects to have their threat be "off screen". This means that it's never all that exciting, and the fact that it's placed in the middle of the TV series means that it can't have any real impact on the characters.

There are two main stories here, and I actually found the Section 31/Seven of Nine one to be the more interesting. The other narrative concerns an alien race who are evacuating their planet on an enormous colony ship and the trouble they run in to. It feels like nothing more than a distraction from the central plot, and it doesn't help that the aliens themselves are kind of annoying.

The lack of depth to the story really stands out, a missed opportunity for some strong storytelling. As a Star Trek book, the biggest flaw is that it doesn't capture the characters well. Dialogue is stilted and often strange, not fitting with what the actors would have delivered. It elects to remain on the surface when presenting these people to us, having them react and just move on.

The next Section 31 book is a DS9 story set after the show, so that should hopefully be able to tell a far more interesting story.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are two basic plot elements to this book. First, someone is trying to kill Seven of Nine. Secondly, a pair of stars is about to collide, killing millions on a ship carrying refugees from a world destroyed by the stellar collision. The attempts at Seven's life are taking place through the ship's computer, and they are affecting Voyager's ability to help the aliens.

It's a fine story, but pretty predictable. You, as the reader, know in advance that Voyager will find out who's responsible for the attempted murder and they will find a way to save the alien civilization. The only question is how. The book is short enough that once you've started it, it's worth reading to the end to find out the answers to these questions. However I really wouldn't recommend buying it. Better books are out there.

One other thing is that this novel seems to have been poorly edited. There are a number of obvious typographical errors present, and other places where there are extra words that don't fit grammatically in the sentence, or similar things that indicate nobody bothered to read the book from cover to cover before sending it to production.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the fourth in the series and set on Voyager, I kept an open mind. I can see Section 31 in operating in the early 22nd century as part of Earth Starfleet's charter. I can see them operating in the TOS era (e.g. Cloak - which tied Section 31 to the Omega particle). I can see them operating in TNG and DS9, but not Voyager. They're here to protect the Federation's interests and security, but the Federation is 70,000 light years away. Maybe the agent is going to steal technology from the other advanced races. Maybe the agent helps Janeway sabotage the Borg and Species 8472.

Instead, the agent died a year and a half before the events took place. The plan is to kill Seven. The other plot - Voyager helping a pre-warp species escaping the destruction of their home - was way more compelling and more like a Voyager episode than like a Section 31 novel like the others in the series.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't honestly know why I keep reading Star Trek novels, but occasionally when I find a cheap used one I'll read it. I'm not overly fond of "the computer is trying to kill us" plots and I can't stand Section 31. Also this novel spent a lot of time trying to make us care about aliens we've never met before and will never meet again. Still, every now and then there is a passage like this that I enjoy:

One of the tall, thin purple people, a youngish-looking male, frowned and crossed his arms. He seemed very irritated.
His irritation irritated the Doctor. The Doctor wanted to be the only irritated person in this room at this moment. (p. 203)

Followed by a reference to stone knives and bear skins. Also I found out in the About the Authors section that there is a Captain Proton novel and now I need to read that.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable enough conclusion to the series that has introduced some of the concepts of Section 31 to the other 3 Star Trek franchises. I did wonder how it would work, given Voyager's unique situation, but it was pulled off, and once I stopped trying to work out the protagonist, the story grabbed me. It built up quickly, introducing a number of issues and then intertwining them, ending with a delicious climax. The resolution was a little short for my mind, but so was the entire book.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

good story.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shadow starts with Sloan giving a rather 'impromptu' briefing to a Section 31 Agent who assumes the identity of Ensign Roberta Luke who promptly upon the arrival of Voyager in the Delta Quadrant get to work setting things up the way Section 31 would want behind the scenes! :D Years later of course this comes to bite the ship in the butt as a bio-neural Gel Pack that Torres replaces goes awry and starts trying to eliminate Seven! :D The situation is complicated as the Voyager is engaged in operations trying to save the Colony Ship Traveller the only ship of it's type for a race of people called the Rawn and there is due to be a stellar collision that will send a shock wave through the system and destroy the Traveller! :D

Throughout the whole book there the character and the reader are constantly made aware of the encroaching stellar collision and this makes for a tense dramatic story as the time ticks and the Voyager becomes more and more uncontrollable as the computer core becomes more malicious in it's pursuit of Seven! :D This really complicates matters and the way the crew deal with each new issue is brilliantly handled and at the same time is gives all of the crew screen/page time! :D

The crews interactions with the Rawn and the civilians and their Emperor Aetayn are brilliant an cutting! :D You really get to see how technically pre-warp society reacts to a more advanced one like the Federation and Shadow let us see both sides of this argument and also sees characters that pre-judging having the Universal view that they do and then finding themselves having to adjust to the news situations and ideas! :D At the same time as we see in Shadow as the story progresses the example that is set by the crew really rubs off on the Rawn and this really show what the Voyager crew and the Federation in wider context is about! :D

The meddling of Section 31 is in the background always and Janeway's learning of them sets up things brilliantly for future books as the book is set during the journey home so these plot points can be picked up immediately when needed! :D At the same time we get to see more of how Section 31 operates both as an agency and when they are out on the own having to adjust on the fly! :D

Shadow is a rip roaring adventure with Voyager doing what it does heroically but at the same time spreading their view of things with powerful personalities and absolutely practical but ingenious view of things and it succeeds brilliantly! :D Shadow is fast-paced, world building, humorous, mysterious and action packed crisp high five! :D

[Caleb Dorsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A ticking time bomb of a novel. While the title references Section 31, the role they play is rather minor. The Section 31 title is really misleading and this feels like a standalone Voyager story and not a Section 31 story (although they do have an influence on the A plot events). This story felt like a scripted episode of Voyager with an A plot and a B plot (and even a minor C plot). The story takes place shortly before Equinox. The A plot involves an assassination attempt of Seven of Nine while aboard Voyager and the B plot involves a Prime Directive-questionable attempt to save a civilization on board a massive but technologically less advanced ship as it tries to escape two colliding suns in their system. The C plot focuses on a mother and daughter on board the civilization ship. I’m surprised and shocked this was not made into an episode because I believe it would have quickly become a fan favorite. Overall an enjoyable read if viewed as a Voyager novel and not a Section 31 novel. DS9: Section 31 - Abyss had a stronger connection to Section 31.

[David Hibberd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Voyager sets out to watch the collision of two stars in a binary system. When they approach the stars they encounter a spaceship of immense proportions. The ship is determined to contain 800 million humanoids along with lesser animal life and plants.
It is learned that the Rhawn ship had been 100 years in construction and is ten years into their journey to escape the exploding stars. However, their primitive nuclear engines are not powerful enough to take the ship beyond the blast radius of the stars.
Janeway contacts the Rhawn Emperor and offers their help. There is a problem with their rescue efforts. The computer has gone a muck and it trying to kill Seven. Time is running short, Voyager is uninhabitable, and the suns have collided sooner than expected.
Lots of intrigue with surprises throughout the book. A good read.

[Lila Diller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A page-turner! Mostly plot-driven.

I wonder if the Prologue was really necessary, since we didn't meet either of the characters again in the entire book. Perhaps some of the other Section 31 books tied in somehow. But it did create tension that we had no idea of her name until more than halfway through the book. Although when we find out who she was, it was a bit anti-climatic.

It was interesting that we got to see two of the aliens from their perspectives all throughout the entire thing. The ticking bomb deadline was extremely effective, too.

All in all, a very engaging read.

Favorite quotes:
“The givers of life would be the bringers of death. Somehow that was appropriate.” (p. 221)

“Some things he couldn't repair, but others he could. And the things he could change, he would.” (p. 241)

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, not the greatest Voyager novel I have read and not the weakest Section 31 novel either but with the heights of Abyss and Cloak this one seemed to be lacking a spark to make it great. There wasn't a lot of intrigue and the plot B of the story with the mother and the daughter seemed more like they were padding the length of the story and not driving any central part of it. At times it looked like it was going to go somewhere... and then it didn't. None of the main characters seemed really authentic and seemed more like their season one selves (Seven excluded of course) where they didn't seem to find their footing. I had a hard time getting into this one and it left a lot to be desired. Just average.

[Jimyanni · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's just a cheap cop-out when the "villain" of the piece, the Section 31 operative, has been dead since before the story begins, and the plot involves nothing more than the crew having to thwart her programming of the ship's computer, thus averting having to deal with what, exactly, Janeway would have done with her if she was still alive when she was exposed. Other than that, the plot is at least mediocre, maybe a tad better, and the characters are handled reasonably well. Further, the writing is technically adequate, but overall, there's nothing here good enough to even begin to offset the cheap initial concept.

[Chris Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voyager books are such a guilty pleasure for me. Every now and then I pull one out and it’s like watching a quick episode of the show. First thing I do at our local library book sale is make a beeline to the sci fi section to seek out Voyager books. Sometimes I find none and sometimes two or three!

This one was just average. The characters were written well, very similar to the show. But honesty I just didn’t care for the whole Section 31 part of it. There were also too many scenes with no Voyager crew members which always makes me a little bored in these books.

[Peter Rydén · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mycket spännande bok med Seven of Nine i huvudrollen. Rhawnierna, som den främmande rasen heter, är en spännande ras som man får djupa inblickar i. Sevens egna farhågor kommer upp till ytan och man får se mer av Seven. Hela boken är en nagelbitare och det finns väl faktiskt som jag kan klaga särskilt nämnvärt på.

Författarna är mycket bra på att berätta sin historia på ett trovärdigt och levande sätt.

[Andrew Still · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one played like a fairly average episode of the series. The ties to Section 31 were pretty interesting, and they managed to find a fairly neat way to integrate them into the Voyager series/storyline. I think that Voyager coming across a colony ship that they had to try and save is a clever premise that would have felt right at home in the series. Because of where it was placed in the timeline, it couldn't have any meaningful ramifications to Voyager overall, but I still found it a fun and interesting read.

[Barbara Florez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thrilling story with unexpected twist.

If you're a fan of Voyager you will appreciate this story. It reads like an episode. The writers clearly convey the voices and personalities of the crew. The only thing I might criticize is the length. It flew by fast, and I was hoping for a longer read.

[Sofia Lepe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and I’m glad there are still some Voyager stories than I will be able to explore. My only complaint about this book is that I wish section 31 was a more active role instead of the side plot that it was. But I love how it was connected to the show and it gave more insight into Janeway which was interesting to see.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m really struggling between rating this a 3 or a 4. The plot is kinda simple the more I think about it, but it was also refreshing to get through this after struggling through other Star Trek books. I did appreciate how this conveyed Seven feeling somewhat isolated from the rest of the crew as she’s seen as a threat and targeted.

[nx74defiant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn't put it down.

As the crew races against time to save millions of refugees from an imminent stellar cataclysm, the former Borg becomes the target of several seemingly random but potentially lethal "accidents."

As Voyager tries to save the aliens Seven is attacked. And waiting to discover - Who is the Section 31 agent on Voyager?

[Johanna Karlsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good Star Trek book and a fun read. The characters felt like their true self and the book manage to capture their mannerisms very well. It mostly felt like an episode of the show.

(The rating is more like 3-3.5 stars, but as a star trek book it's definitley a 4)

[Ken Giles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this book.
Essentially it is a good Voyager story that they have shoehorned Section 31 into. If it wasn’t a sec 31 book and didn’t have the sec 31 content I truly believe that it would be a better book.