Rating: 
Summary: can be skipped without losing continuity
Review: Gateways What Lay Beyond is a compilation of the conclusions to all of the Star Trek Gateways series. Personally I only read "Horn and Ivory" which is the conclusion to the Deep Space Nine Gateways series. There is nothing astounding to the conclusion. First of all, I will warn everyone that spoilers follow. So stop reading now if you want don't want to know what happens. The whole story is focused on Kira, none of the other DS9 crew plays a role. In the last Gateways book, we find Kira stranded on a deserted planet in the Delta Quadrant dieing of theta radiation poisoning and Taranatar recovering from a brutal fight with a Hirogen. We also know that at the end of the last Gateways book, Kira staggers into a gateway that keeps flashing between two places. We would expect something to happen like her being returned to DS9 or Bajor but that's not quite what happens. After staggering into the Gateway, Kira is transported to a familiar planet 30,000 years in the past. The rest of the story has nothing to do with solving the mystery of the Gateways, it only opens up more questions. Not until the final chapter do we find out what happened with the evacuation. It's a nice litte story, but you can easily skip it and go on to the Deep Space Nine Gamma series.
Rating:
Summary: can be skipped without losing continuity
Review: Gateways What Lay Beyond is a compilation of the conclusions to all of the Star Trek Gateways series. Personally I only read "Horn and Ivory" which is the conclusion to the Deep Space Nine Gateways series. There is nothing astounding to the conclusion. First of all, I will warn everyone that spoilers follow. So stop reading now if you want don't want to know what happens. The whole story is focused on Kira, none of the other DS9 crew plays a role. In the last Gateways book, we find Kira stranded on a deserted planet in the Delta Quadrant dieing of theta radiation poisoning and Taranatar recovering from a brutal fight with a Hirogen. We also know that at the end of the last Gateways book, Kira staggers into a gateway that keeps flashing between two places. We would expect something to happen like her being returned to DS9 or Bajor but that's not quite what happens. After staggering into the Gateway, Kira is transported to a familiar planet 30,000 years in the past. The rest of the story has nothing to do with solving the mystery of the Gateways, it only opens up more questions. Not until the final chapter do we find out what happened with the evacuation. It's a nice litte story, but you can easily skip it and go on to the Deep Space Nine Gamma series.
Rating: 
Summary: Deceitful Marketing Ploy
Review: I bought each of the "Gateways" novels expecting a great interaction between all of the Star Trek series, and hoping for a continuation of the plotlines running through the three previous "Deep Space Nine" novels, "Avatar: Books I and II," and "Section 31: Abyss." Sadly, the overall "Gateways" series was a great disappointment to me. I felt forced to read a "Challenger" and "New Frontier" novel, despite my having little interest in either. I also felt forced to buy this $24.00 retail hardcover in order to know the conclusions of the previous six novels. Subjected to substandard writing in all of the "What Lay Beyond" chapters except the "Deep Space Nine" and "New Frontier" ones, and having fallen for this deceitful marketing ploy, I feel extremely ripped off. The only saving grace of "What Lay Beyond" was Keith R. A. Decandido's interesting and satisfying continuation of the "DS9" novels I mentioned earlier. I agree with those reviewers who suggest getting this book out of the library or waiting for the paperback.
Rating:
Summary: Story-GOOD.... Extra Book-BAD
Review: I didn't get into the Gateways series until this book was out in paperback, so I didn't have the continuity problems some others had. The stories (I read TNG, DS9, NF, and VOY) are great with TNG's being the best. However there was ABSOLUTELY NO reason for this last book. Every one of the conclusions in this book could have been added to the end of their original books. Being each ending was only about an extra couple of chapters. One thing I was quite disappointed about upon receiving the book was that I originally thought that the last book would be some kind of compilation story where somehow the different crews interact in some manner. Instead the book is not one story to be read from cover to cover, but a compilation of a bunch of endings to the previous stories. One thing readers should know about Gateways is that if you don't plan to read more than 2 of them you probably shouldn't read any of them unless you are comfortable with throwing away your money on the last book simply for two more chapters.
Rating:
Summary: THE GOOD AND THE BAD....
Review: I ENJOYED GATEWAYS: BOOK 7 - BUT I HAVE A FEW PROVERBIAL BONES TO PICK. FIRST OFF, THE MYSTERY OF THE ICONIANS IS NEVER WHOLLY EXPLAINED. (I.E. WHY THEIR HOME PLANET WAS BOMBARDED, WHERE THEY WENT TO IN THE UNIVERSE, HOW THEIR ORIGINS STARTED, ETC.) THE FIRST STORY, FEATURING JAMES KIRK, WRAPPED UP THE EVENTS THAT BEGAN IN THE BOOK 'ONE SMALL STEP.' WHILE THE CLOSURE WAS NICE, IT SOMEHOW FELT TO BE A BIT OF AN ANTI-CLIMAX. THE SECOND STORY, FEATURING THE CREW OF THE 'CHALLENGER' IS VERY INTERESTING. I WILL BE LOOKING FOWARD TO THE CONTINUATION OF THIS STORY IN THIS WONDERFULLY WRITTEN ORIGINAL BOOK SERIES. THE THIRD STORY, FEATURING THE CREW OF 'DEEP SPACE NINE', HAD AN INTERESTING TWIST TO IT. I WAS SURPRISED TO SEE WHERE COLONEL KIRA ENDED UP WHEN SHE ENTERED THE GATEWAY LOCATED ON A HOSTILE PLANET IN THE DELTA QUADRANT. THE FOURTH STORY, FEATURING THE CREW OF 'VOYAGER', WAS GREAT. I REALLY LIKED ALL OF THE DIVERSE ALIENS THAT WERE FEATURED HERE. AS FOR WHO THE TRUE OWNER OF BARKLEY/FLUFFY IS, WELL, THE HIDDEN MEANING IN THE TITLE OF THIS PARTICULAR STORY SHOULD TELL YOU THAT. BUT, WHILE I LIKED THIS STORY A LOT, I FELT THAT THE ENDING WAS TOO NEATLY WRAPPED-UP. THE FIFTH STORY, FEATURING THE CREW OF THE ORIGINAL BOOK SERIES 'EXCALIBER', WAS MY LEAST FAVORITE. FIRST OFF, YOU NEVER HAD ANY RESOLUTION WITH THE EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE IN GATEWAYS: BOOK SIX. WHO/WHAT WAS THE 'GIANT' THAT THE TWO PETRAW CREATURES (BOTH NAMED SMYTT, ONE MALE, ONE FEMALE, BOTH FROM ALTERNATE UNIVERSES [?!]) WERE TALKING ABOUT? WHAT DID THE 'GIANT' TELL THEM, AND HOW/WHY DID THIS 'GIANT' LIE TO THEM? AND LIE TO THEM ABOUT WHAT? ALTHOUGH, I WILL GIVE AUTHOR PETER DAVID CREDIT FOR USING THE HARDLY EVER-USED STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES CHARACTERS OF M'RESS AND AREX. THE SIXTH STORY WITH THE CREW OF THE 'NEXT GENERATION', WAS O.K. I THINK THAT IN THE WRITER'S OF THE TNG EPISODE 'CONTAGION' (THE EPISODE THAT FIRST INTRODUCED THE ICONIAN SPECIES), MADE THE ICONIAN CIVILIZATION SEEM SO GRAND THAT ANY ADDITIONAL STORIES/INFO, WOULD MAKE THEM SEEM LESS THAN THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE (THAT IS WHY I HOPE THAT WE NEVER KNOW THE TRUE ORIGINS OF THE BORG, THE CHARACTER OF GUINAN, AND THE Q CONTINUUM). EVEN PICARD WAS DISAPPOINTED AFTER MEETING THEM. THE ONE THING IN THIS PARTICULAR STORY THAT IS UNFORGIVABLE IS THE FACT THAT THE WRITER REFERS TO TITAN (THE LARGEST MOON THAT ORBITS *SATURN*) AS *JUPITER'S* LARGEST MOON!!! IN MY OPINION, A MISTAKE LIKE THAT IN ANY STAR TREK NOVEL IS UNACCEPTABLE. ALL IN ALL, I SUGGEST THAT YOU WAIT AND SEE IF A PAPERBACK VERSION OF THIS BOOK COMES OUT. THE MONEY PAID FOR THE HARDCOVER EDITION JUST DOESN'T SEEM WORTH IT.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and pointless
Review: Instead of one big novel involving characters from all six current Star Trek book series, this is a collection of six short stories, each one picking up from the cliffhanger ending of each of the Gateways novels from the individual series (if that makes sense). While this sounded like a cynical marketing ploy, I had hoped that the six stories would build on each other to present some sort of unified whole, bringing the whole adventure to one grand conclusion. How wrong I was! The Star Trek (original series), Challenger, and Voyager stories could--and probably should--have easily been included as concluding chapters in their respective books. Each one is nothing more than an epilogue to the main story. The Deep Space Nine and New Frontier stories present somewhat separate adventures, but that doesn't make them much better. In both, characters get transported to significant locations (an important historical moment for Colonel Kira, a mythical afterlife for Calhoun and Shelby) where nothing of any real consequence seems to happen. Of course, since both series present ongoing adventures, it's possible that these tales plant seeds for upcoming stories. Even if that were the case, it doesn't make these stories any less inconsequential or any more satisfying. The Next Generation tale, longer than the other five, does, indeed, wrap up the Gateways story. But, like the other five, there's no real reason (besides financial) that this story couldn't have been included at the end of Doors Into Chaos. Because four of the stories are completely dependent upon what came before, there is a complete lack of tension or suspense. All the big events happened in the parent novels, and all the authors have left to do in What Lay Beyond is tie up the loose ends (even when there aren't really any loose ends that need tying up). Any opportunites for suspense that could have been sustained through the other two stories are completely ignored by their authors. Frustratingly, those two authors, Peter David and Keith RA DeCandidio, have done particularly good Star Trek work in the past, which makes their lackluster contributions here even more disappointing. So, if you followed the Gateways saga so far and need to see what happens next, I recommend waiting for the paperback. Nothing of enough consequence happens to make this an immediate must-read.
Rating:
Summary: ST-Gateways: What Lay Beyond
Review: Star Trek-Gateways: What Lay Beyond written by Diane Carey et.al.is the culmination of a seven part series including all of the different genre of the Star Trek Universe. Now, I'll be up front about this series... I'm not a fan of shelling out money for poor marketing and the way this series was presented to the reader was a downright travisty. I really do NOT understand the reasons why they (Paramount/Simon and Schuster) did this, save but one, to dig into the readers wallet. Enough said, now, here is the contents: Star Trek: One Giant Leap by Susan Wright
Star Trek Challenger: Exodus by Diane Carey
Star Trek DS-9: Horn and Ivory by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Star Trek Voyager: In the Queue by Christie Golden
Star Trek New Frontier Death After Life by Peter David
Star Trek TNG The Other Side by Robert Greenberger Found in this volume are the conclusions to the above stories, but the hook is you have to buy the first six volume in order to make sense of these conclusions. This is why people believe they've been ripped off... and I can't blame them. I this was my idea, I'd expect a pink slip with my last pay check. The only saving grace in this book is The Pocket Books STAR TREK Novels Timeline written by the Timeline Gang; Robert Bowling, Johan Ciamaglia, Ryan J. Cornelius, James R McCain, Alex Rosenzweig, Paul T.Semones, and Corey W. Tacker... with David Henderson and Lee Jamilkowski. After you read the first six books you'll see what I mean, you really lose the flow of the story. But, now that all seven are available in paperback the contenuity should be easier to follow.
Rating: 
Summary: Wrapping up the Gateways Series
Review: STAR TREK
GATEWAYS
What Lay Beyond
AUTHORS: Diane Carey, Peter David, Keith R.A. DeCandidio,
Christie Golden, Robert Greenberger, & Susan Wright
PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster
REVIEWED BY: Barbara Rhoades BOOK REVIEW: The Gateways provide unimaginable distance travel in only a few seconds. Yet rather than just finding a new civilization, unwanted problems occur because people have gone through them. The builders of the Gateways, The Iconians, are back but do they come in peace or do they want something more. Read Gateways - What Lay Beyond to find the answer. My suggestion would be to read this ONLY after reading the previous six that sets up everything that happens in this, the seventh book. So order all of them- One Small Step (Star Trek: Gateways Book One)
Chainmail (Star Trek Challenger: Gateways Book Two)
Doors into Chaos (Star Trek: The Next Generation: Gateways Book Three)
Demons of Air and Darkness (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Gateways Book Four)
No Man's Land (Star Trek : Voyager : Gateways Book Five)
Cold Wars (Star Trek: New Frontier--Gateways, Book Six) --and settle in for a good reading session. The reader, David Kaye, is very good. The added sound effects detract from the stories to the point that sometimes you cannot hear what David is saying for sure. Notwithstanding, this is good ending book for the whole series. The only drawback I found to the whole series is that they did not interact with the others.
Rating: 
Summary: Loud sucking noise
Review: The loud sucking noise is the $$ being sucked out of your wallet. Once upon a time, Star Trek hardcovers were saved for truly excellent ST stories (e.g., Spock's World, Sarek, Prime Directive, Pathways). Then they slipped a notch, but were still *decent* reads (e.g., Best Destiny, Imzadi, Shadows on the Sun, Kahless). Then the quality slipped another notch, but the books were still worth buying used ... or borrowing from the public library (e.g., Genesis Wave (Books I and II), Imzadi II, I,Q., Warped). And once upon a time, even the "series" books were pretty decent reads (e.g., Invasion, Millennium, Section 31). But, now...a whole new low! The editors really missed the mark with this finale to a rather interesting premise. They should have just added a few more pages to each of the other six books in the series (especially considering how much paperbacks cost these days!) and saved the hardcover (and my $$) for a really GOOD book, instead of engaging in this marketing ploy to part us from our hard-earned cash. Borrow this one from the library (just to read the TNG part)...don't even waste money on it from the used book store, unless you can find it for less than a buck. I used to just be disappointed in the way the novels are "slipping" in quality - but now, I'm really angry. Listen up, ST editors at PocketBooks: Here's one Star Trek fan who will be very wary of all of those "Book X of Y" series that seem to be all that you can publish lately. In fact, I will no longer buy a single one until after the whole "set" is released, so I can see what I'm getting first!
Rating:
Summary: Cute But No Cigar
Review: The publishers of Star Trek novels have, once again, come up with a gimmick to entice readers into buying an additional and superfluous book. This book is just a collection of endings to the first six books in the mini-series! Cute, but no cigar. Well, they conned me into buying the book. The other Gateways books were well enough written and I did want to read the endings, but I got the book from the library first and then decided to invest the extra money. Notice that this book came out in hardback whereas the others were only published as paperbacks. Apparently the endings of each book were worth saving more than the rest of each story. Of course, the mass market paperback version on this book was finally issued, but impatient souls such a myself just wouldn't wait. Remember when they published Star Trek Year One as a trailer to other Star Trek novels? And then finally brought it out as a separate novel. The current ploy of delaying the endings had the same feel of a serial novel, but compounded by waiting for SIX finales. This may be a radical idea, but why doesn't the publisher concentrate on putting out quality stories instead of cute gimmicks? Buy the paperback. Don't be like me and fork out the money for the hardback. Of course, if you really think it is worth the money, go ahead and buy the hardback. After all, that's what I did.
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