Set during the events of season two of The Next Generation, John Vornholt’s novel, Masks, is a bit of a basic tale, but does give Captain Picard a bit of a romance.

The Enterprise arrives at the planet Lorca, transporting ambassador-at-large Fenton Lewis to open diplomatic relations with the inhabitants. This seems kind of odd, as the Lorcans aren’t a warp society yet. They are human, and colonized the planet a long time ago, forced down by the volcanic activity of the planet. Apparently they were based on a theatre troop, and carried lots of stage masks, something that has since taken over the society.

Masks are worn everywhere, and denotes social standing, and occupation. A feudal society has sprung up around them, and Lewis’ assignment is to find the culture’s leader, Almighty Slayer, and open a line of communication that could lead to Federation membership.

It seems to be a proactive move on the Federation’s part, as the Ferengi are making less than polite overtures at grabbing the planet’s resources, and installing themselves as rulers.

When Picard, Lewis, Worf and Troi beam down they immediately lose contact with the Enterprise because of the volcanic activity and the debris in the sky. Soon, Riker follows with another team, including Dr. Pulaski and Data, they are able to maintain communications with the Enterprise, but soon adventure takes them on a strange path.

The novel bounces back and forth between the two away teams and the Lorcans they are travelling with, and each Lorcan group has something to hide, and are invested in leading the society themselves.

Of course, things aren’t going to go smoothly for either away team, but it does go somewhat predictably, there’s no real surprises to the story, no shocking narrative reveals, it’s all fairly standard stuff.

Vornholt has a fairly solid hold on the characters though at this point Pulaski doesn’t quite sound like the character does on screen.

Overall, it’s a fairly standard tale for the crew, and it took me a little while to get into the adventure completely. If it was an episode, it would have been fairly lackluster, but at this point in the book series, the characters are still finding their way, as is the series.

It’s not my favorite book in the series to date, and while I know I had it when it came out, and haven’t read it since, it didn’t make much of an impression, though I do like the cover art.

The Human Adventure continues as the crew of the Enterprise-D continues to boldly go…