The seemingly endless stream of Star Trek books out there continually amazes me. Books dealing with The Original Series , The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , and Voyager , as well as trivia books and nitpicker's guides. At last count, there were at least 72 New Generation books. Actually make that 78, because Infection is the first of 6 books, launching a new Next Generation series. While you may not recognize John Gregory Betancourt's name, you will recognize some of the other authors of the remaining books in the series, including Dean W. Smith and Kristine K. Rusch, Diane Carey, John Vornholt, Peter David, and Michael Jan Friedman.
Infection introduces the master plot for the series.
Jean-Luc Picard, our favourite Star Fleet Captain, is in his first year as Captain of the Enterprise . The Enterprise and her crew are sent to Archaria III, where a raging epidemic is sweeping the planet. It's a particularly nasty disease that only strikes down individuals with mixed genetic backgrounds. I'm sure I'm giving nothing away when I tell you that Dr Crusher works her magic in Sick Bay and discovers the infectious agent. Her discovery that the virus was engineered comes as a surprise to the crew of the Enterprise , but not to the reader.