Note: This review contains spoilers for the first book in the series, Old Wounds. Of course that book is already spoiled, so that's not that big of an issue.

After reading Old Wounds, I was left to wonder whether a book series could get any worse. I was almost dreading picking up the second book, Enemy of my Enemy, but since I had already bought it, there didn't seem to be much reason not to. Whatever its problems were, Old Wounds was a quick read, so this one promised to at least be the same (despite being 30 pages longer). I am happy to say that it is a lot better than the first book. I am unhappy to say that the reason for this is because the first one is so bad, not because this one is that good. Enemy of my Enemy doesn't have near the number of howlers as Old Wounds did, but that's mainly because it's using the same story and characters and thus we are used to them.

Chakotay and his sister, Sekaya, have been captured by an old Cardassian nemesis, Crell Moset, and his associate, a Changeling who is stuck in the Alpha Quadrant after the war with the Dominion. The Changeling has spent the last six years masquerading as the man who has become Chakotay's first officer, Andrew Ellis. Chakotay's capture is all part of Moset's plan to use his ties with "The Sky Spirits" and the DNA that they infused him with in order to make many scientific discoveries. The Changeling is using Moset and his studies to help him, as he has been frozen in the Ellis shape for a long time. Moset has managed to make it so he can become any human male, but he still does not have all of his abilities. Meanwhile, the Changeling goes aboard Voyager as Chakotay, but Dr. Kaz and new security chief Harry Kim (excuse my derisive laughter here) become suspicious of him and enlist the aid of Admiral Janeway and Tom Paris to help them out. Ultimately, Chakotay must go on a "spirit walk" of his own that could either save all of them, or result in his own death.

Enemy of my Enemy contains many of the same problems as Old Wounds, but they aren't as prominent, mainly because there is actually some action and intrigue in this book. The cat and mouse game between "Chakotay" and the doctor got interesting at times, even if some of the scenes were just laughable (especially the scene where Kaz sneaks into Kim's quarters to wake him up. What, the door buzzer doesn't work?). While I didn't buy how long it took for everybody to figure out that something was wrong with Chakotay (as spiritual a man as Chakotay is leaving behind the body of his sister when it would be very easy to retrieve her? That's not the Chakotay I, or most of the others, know), I was able to put that aside and let some of the individual scenes wash over me. Granted, there weren't many of them, but there were a couple. The problem with this plot is that it's not even remotely believable. Not retrieving Sekaya's body is one of the main points. Sure, it makes everybody think that something's wrong, but nobody seems to realize that Chakotay's grief in no way explains it like they seem to think it does. It drags out the plot a lot longer than it should have (but then it'd be a pretty short book, wouldn't it?)

Golden's "romance novel" language is slightly toned down in this one, or at least I didn't notice it as much. There is one "heaving breasts" reference which I had to laugh at, but overall it's not too bad. The prose itself is fairly wooden, but at least I didn't feel like putting my finger down my throat. She has an annoying turn of phrase at times. One time, referring to Kaz and Kim, she actually says "The two Voyagers exchanged glances." Excuse me? Ugh. Golden also continues to have problems keeping continuity within her own books. In Old Wounds, Kaz's previous host's personality keeps coming to the forefront of his mind because his isoboromine levels were too low. Then, on page 97 of this book, he claims that his problems were caused by "elevated" isoboromine levels. Which is it?

Golden gets most of the other characters right (or at least close), but one character continues to stick out as being horribly designed. That is Astall, the Huanni ship's counselor, who continues to be written as overly emotional and, thus, unrealistic as a counselor. "Her huge purple eyes searched his, and tears welled in them. She blinked them back, striving to maintain her professional demeanor despite her almost overwhelming emotions." This is a counselor?

One of my earlier complaints was that the scenes with the holographic doctor and Seven of Nine didn't appear to have anything to do with the story. I still believe that, but at least their few scenes in this book actually did have a little relevance. The same can't be said for Torres' scenes. Torres is on the Klingon monastery world of Boreth, and she begins delving into the prophecies that may involve her daughter. This storyline is clearly intended for subsequent books and just feels shoehorned into this one, bringing what little tension there is in the main plot to a screeching halt. The Deep Space Nine relaunch series does have a lot of continuing plotlines that carry from book to book, but at least all of the characters are interacting within those plots. The O'Briens had gone back to Earth, and they weren't featured in any of the books until they returned to the station. Torres is so far removed from this story that she seems completely out of place in it.

All in all, Enemy of my Enemy is a marginally better book than Old Wounds. Some of the scenes are more interesting, the writing foibles are toned down slightly, and it didn't irritate me nearly as much. Consider it a mild sunburn to the poison oak of Old Wounds. I'm still not going to try any more of these Voyager relaunch books unless they get good reviews from people who are known to have hated these two.