Masks, by John Vornholt, is the seventh of the numbered TNG novels. The plot involves the Enterprise transporting ambassador Lewis to a planet called Lorca, on which reside descendants of a circus-troupe whose culture has formed around a caste system externalized through the wearing of masks. A number of plot-elements allow two isolated parties of the crew to stay on the planet while details are slowly developed or revealed to the reader. These include facts relating to Lewis’ trustworthiness, or lack thereof, as well as the importance of the sought after ‘mask of wisdom’, whose bearer rules the planet.
Comments: Like many other reviews note, Vornholt creates a unique and interesting culture here. As mentioned the culture employs masks to externalize social relations, and as a result, allows for the challenging of these masks.
Other than that, a lot about the story is silly. This includes little things like the Enterprise apparently can only come up with three masks (including a pig mask, haha[!]). And also the way the plot is structured, including Lewis’ apparently running around in villainous circles as he keeps betraying everyone and failing.
Additionally the characters don’t feel right; in fact, it can be argued that this can be transposed into a fairly proto-typical TOS storyboard, (with an obvious Picard/Kirk, Data/Spock, and Riker/McCoy). A lot about this, including the various “silly” bits, does make this feel like a classic TOS television episode, and in that sense, it does have a campy charm.
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A browse of the reviews on Amazon suggests that this is a very popular novel, primarily due to the creation and presentation of the Lorcan mask-culture. Mostly in agreement is Siskoid, who also offers a more thorough summary than presented here, and suggests that Masks qua Star Trek novel succeeds because it makes use of the advantages of its media over that of television. The review at Siskoid also points out that this is Vornholt’s first (adult) novel, (nb. Masks was published in 1989 and Vornholt has since published a number of other Star Trek and other tie-in novels). At this time the pages at the Memory pages (A/B) are practically empty.
