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Algernon_Asimov's reviews of the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels
These books are set after the end of the 'Deep Space Nine' TV series, following on from the events of the DS9 finale. If you have not watched DS9 to the end, then be warned: HERE BE SPOILERS!
Prequels
The Lives of Dax, edited by Marco Palmieri
This book is not officially part of the relaunch - as the editor writes in the introduction, it was inspired by Jadzia's death at the end of Season 6. Also, most of these stories refer to the earlier hosts of Dax, which means they take place before the 'Deep Space Nine' TV series. However, some of the events in these stories are referred to in the later relaunch novels, so this book has de facto "Season 8" status: it was originally released as a generic Star Trek book, but later editions feature the DS9 relaunch logo and styling on the cover.
It's an anthology of nine short stories, each written by a different author and focussing on a different Dax host.
Ezri: Second Star To The Right ... And Straight On 'Til Morning
This framing story focusses on the current Dax host: Ezri. She's in the holodeck with Vic Fontaine, and starts telling him her history, starting with the story of how Ezri Tegan came to be joined with the Dax host. So, this story has three layers: Ezri Dax in the current day in the holodeck; Ezri Tegan in flashback on the USS Destiny; then the lead-in to the stories of the various previous Dax hosts.
As a framing story, it fulfils its purpose: it sets up the premise for us, the readers. As a stand-alone story, it's not so good.
The scenes in the holodeck with Vic Fontaine are laboured and overly descriptive. We spend way too much time learning that Ezri is wearing a blue-sequined spaghetti-strap cocktail dress with uncomfortable high heels. Vic doesn't talk like the Vic we've seen in the show. But, it's just a set-up.
Then, Ezri starts telling the story of how she came to be joined. And it gets worse: the Ezri Tegan we meet on the USS Destiny is nothing like the Ezri Dax we meet on Deep Space Nine, even allowing for the changes brought about by being joined with Dax. We learn that Ezri Tegan is one of the few Trill who have not been screened for their suitability for joining with a symbiont, which is what we expect based on what we saw in the show: Ezri was a surprise host. However, more than simply neglecting to be screened, Ezri is actively against the concept of joining. She believes that "the whole of Trill society was dedicated to brainwashing its children into believing there could be no higher goal than sacrificing their individuality to a parasitic race of slugs", and thinks of the symbionts as "parasitic brain vampires".
The Ezri Dax we met at the start of Season 7 of 'Deep Space Nine' was confused, lost in her multiple identities, having trouble coping - all these things and more. But there was no sign that she resented having been forced to join with a "parasitic brain vampire". Even if she'd learned the truth about the nature of joining from Dax itself, there should still be some residual hints of this anti-parasite Ezri in the post-joining personality. But, there's none - because the authors of this story have created conflict just for the sake of it, without considering character continuity.
This story does its job competently in framing the book, but it's not great itself. It's clunkily written, it's laboured, and it introduces contradictory characterisation.
Lela: First Steps
The first story naturally centres on Dax's first host: Lela. And, one important thing to note with most of the hosts is that we don't have much first-hand information about these characters - most of them made only one on-screen appearance, in the Season 3 episode 'Facets'. This, plus a few off-hand remarks, is all we know about them. This gives the authors in this anthology more room to move, and makes it less likely that they'll contradict what we know of these characters.
Lela is a junior member of the ruling council of Trill at a time when Trill has only recently learned about the existence of other species. The Trill people's response to their first encounter with the Vulcans has been to withdraw into ignorant isolation, shutting everyone else out. However, an alien ship has now appeared in orbit, making a request that noone can understand...
Each story is prefaced with a quote from the TV show about the relevant host. In this case, the quote is naturally about Lela. However, a more relevant quote would be the one by Captain Sisko in Season 7 when Ezri goes off to search for a lost Worf: "She's a Dax. Sometimes they don't think. They just do." Because Lela does things, when the rest of the council won't. We also learn that the Dax symbiont has a wish to see the stars, which Lela herself did not have before being joined. This shows how the symbiont's qualities influence and are part of the joined Trill's personality.
Along the way, she meets a character we have met before: T'Pau. This is another common factor of these stories - they all have some reference to a character and/or event we already know from other Star Trek canon. In a minor digression in a larger conversation, T'Pau tells Lela about a recent species the Vulcans have encountered; even without naming names, we know she's talking about the events seen in the movie 'First Contact'. The reference is awkwardly inserted, even if gratifying, but it sets this story in the 2060s or 2070s.
Overall, this is a good story, and well told.
Tobin: Dead Man's Hand
Tobin, Dax's second host, is an engineer who is socially awkward. He's nervous. The Human captain of the ship he's on gave him a deck of Human playing cards, together with a book on card tricks, "to keep your hands busy. You fidget too much." The victim of his attempts to practice his card tricks is the only other non-Human on board: Skon, a Vulcan mathematician (here's the character from canon - Skon is mentioned as the father of Sarek in 'The Search for Spock'). The two of them, together with other engineers and mathematicians on the ship, are working on a secret prototype. Well, it must be secret, because we the readers don't get to learn what it does until more than halfway through the story. Suffice to say that it's a significant piece of technology that we see a lot of in Star Trek.
The story is prefaced by about a page of dialogue between two characters who are not named or identified in any way, and nor do we understand what they're talking about until later in the story. This preface is awkward, unhelpful, and ultimately unnecessary - it adds nothing to the story. In fact, the paragraphs after this preface make a much better opening to the story.
The story focusses on some Romulans' attempts to gain knowledge of warp drive by hijacking the ship that Tobin and Skon are on, because Romulus only has slower-than-light travel at this time. There is mention "that the humans and Romulans had been engaged in a vicious border war for the better part of three years", which places this story in the mid-2100s. Some of the references to the Human-Romulan war in this story may have been superseded by events in 'Star Trek: Enterprise', which was not even a twinkle in a producer's eye at the time this book was written.
The story operates a bit like a card trick itself: key pieces of information (such as the nature of the prototype) are hidden from the reader to artificially build suspense, and only revealed at the right "wow" moment. It's frustrating. The character of Tobin is written a little too simply: there really does seem to be nothing to him beyond him being an engineer and playing card tricks - the author has not added anything to what we know from on-screen references.
It's an okay story.
Emony: Old Souls
This story is actually told from the point of view of someone other than one of Dax's hosts: a young Leonard McCoy. It's basically an expansion of a brief exchange in the episode 'Trials and Tribble-ations', between Sisko and Jadzia Dax:
JADZIA: McCoy... McCoy... Leonard McCoy! I met him when he was a student at Ole Miss.
SISKO: Who met him - Curzon?
JADZIA: No. My host at the time was Emony. She was on Earth judging a gymnastics competition. I had a feeling he'd become a doctor... he had the hands of a surgeon.
McCoy is "a small-town boy a few months shy of his eighteenth birthday" who goes to a gymnastics competition with his Ole Miss dorm-mate, only to see the famous gymnast Emony Dax acting as one of judges. His mother was a fan of Emony when she won her three latinum medals in the '24 Olympics... twenty-one years ago. This sets the story in 2245, some twenty years before McCoy serves with Kirk on the Enterprise.
It also seems that Emony is old enough to be McCoy's mother! And, yet, they make a romantic connection. Brief, but still real. The romance is set against some interspecies conflict at the gymnastic competition, but this is basically a love story. And, it's nice. The story is short and sweet, like the romance itself.
A Stitch In Time, by Andrew Robinson
This is another "honorary" relaunch novel. It was originally written as a stand-alone Star Trek novel, but some of the elements introduced in this book were incorporated into the relaunch storyline, thereby making this part of the relaunch continuity.
The book is framed by a letter from Garak to Doctor Bashir, a short while after Garak returned to Cardassia after the Dominion was defeated. Garak explains to the doctor that he started writing his memories of his younger days while exiled on the station, and is now sending them to the doctor for him to read. The book is told mostly in flashback, focussing on Garak's experiences at "the Institute" (the Cardassian equivalent of university), his early days at the Obsidian Order, his relationship with Enabran Tain, and the events leading up to his exile on Terok Nor. There are some interspersed passages written in the present day, about Garak's experiences in post-Dominion Cardassia, and the efforts of some people to rebuild their world, but the main focus is Garak's past.
Andrew Robinson, who wrote this book, was also the actor who played the character of Garak. As he said in this interview with 'Inside Star Trek', he started this book as a series of notes in the form of diary entries, to provide himself with some backstory to the character he was portraying. Over time, the notes become a book. And, Robinson was the first - and, to date, the only - Star Trek actor to write a novel without a professional writer co-writing or ghost-writing.
To Robinson's credit, the lack of a professional writer has not hurt this novel at all. It's an excellent read, well-written, and nicely detailed (in the book's endnotes, he thanks Denise and Michael Okuda for their 'Star Trek Companion'!). There are times when you can hear Garak's voice saying the words on the page; he's captured the character quite well - as you'd expect from an actor who was "inside the character's skin" (pun intended!) for seven years. He's also built a solid background for Garak, as well as shown us a side of Cardassia that's only hinted at in the TV shows.
I highly recommend this study of Garak, even if you don't intend to read the relaunch series.
"Season 8"
Avatar, by S.D. Perry
This is the official start of the DS9 relaunch. It starts three months after the events of 'What You Leave Behind'.
It was released as two separate books, Book One and Book Two, but I'll review them as a single book. In fact, these two books combined have fewer words than the next book in the series (Mission Gamma: Twilight) - and, if you take out the additional text at the start of Book Two to recap events from Book One, that word count drops even more. There was no good reason to publish them as two books.
At the start of this book, we get re-introduced to some old friends, and familiar faces:
Colonel Kira is now in command of Deep Space Nine.
Dr Bashir is still DS9's Chief Medical Officer.
Lt. Ezri Dax is still the station's Counsellor.
Quark is still in his bar.
Kasidy Sisko is four months into her pregnancy with Ben's child.
Jake Sisko has taken a break and gone to work in the archaeological digs of B'hala on Bajor.
Lt. Ro Laren is now the Head of Security on the station.
... and some new faces:
Commander Tiris Jast (a Bolian female) is the second-in-command on DS9, reporting to Col. Kira.
Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane ("Shar") (an Andorian chan) is the newly assigned Science Officer on the station.
Commander Elias Vaughn (a Human male) is a Starfleet Operations officer, temporarily assigned as an advisor on the Enterprise-E.
The author writes with very little introduction to these new characters. Ro and Shar and Jast have already been assigned to DS9, and there are glancing references to events involving them which happened a few weeks ago, or a couple of months ago. Vaughn is an old acquaintance of Picard's (Vaughn reflects at one point that Picard knows him as well as anyone does). It's supposed to give the reader the sense that these people aren't new, but are embedded in the milieu. However, it also leaves the reader wondering what they missed. I kept thinking there was another book I should have read before starting this one - but no such prequel exists. We're simply mid-continuity when the book starts.
In fact, this lack of introduction is an ongoing flaw of the book. Whenever the point of view shifts from one character to another, we usually get a full paragraph describing the new surroundings or situation from the new character's point of view - without our knowing who this new character is. It's just "She watched...", "They were gathered...", "He wondered..." without telling us who watched or gathered or wondered. It's not until the second paragraph of the new section that the different character is referred to by name - which then makes the reader have to go back and re-assess the previous paragraph with this knowledge. And, there are sections of the book where the point of view shifts every page or two. It's quite frustrating. (Although, this problem does seem to improve as the book continues.)
We also spend a whole chapter getting to know characters who get killed off shortly afterward. It's supposed to make us feel sympathy for these people who die in war, but it also leaves a bad impression of having wasted our time. We didn't really need to waste a whole chapter on these people who have no influence on the story or any interaction with the other characters.
A good thing the book does is to switch points of view between the various characters. This helps us get to know the characters (especially the new ones), and shows us different perceptions of the same events. Occasionally, these characterisations are a bit too heavy-handed and clumsy, but it's still a positive.
The events of the novel start with an attack on an unprepared Deep Space Nine and Defiant. The next main event is the discovery of a previously unknown Orb of the Prophets. Then, two old prophecies surface which seem to relate to the first-born son of the Emissary, and the unborn child of the Emissary (the Avatar). An unexpected messenger turns up on the station with a surprising message.
One of the prophecies is dismissed by the Vedek Assembly as heresy, but the reasons for this are never really made clear in the book. The conflict about whether this is a true prophecy or heretical drives some of the events of the book, but I never really felt like there was a good reason for this, beyond the author simply reporting that the prophecy was of a "secular" nature - because every other prophecy in the same book has come true. This doesn't make sense. Surely a prophetic text which is clearer and more accurate than all other prophetic texts should be welcomed by the Vedeks as proof of the Prophets' involvement. But no, they reject it as being "secular" and "heretical", purely to generate some conflict in the novel. This doesn't feel right.
Jake goes missing for large portions of the book. The prologue involves him finding the first of the two prophecies and deciding to take action as a result of reading it. However, he turns up only once or twice during the remainder of the book. He achieves almost nothing while everyone else is busy, busy, busy.
All in all, it's a good book. Not great, but good enough. There are definitely flaws, as I've already mentioned. However, the events are interesting (if a little slow at times). It definitely feels like a set-up book, arranging the characters and circumstances for the events to come; a "pilot episode", as it were. And, like all pilots, we have to allow it some leeway, because the pay-off comes later. There are even loose threads left dangling, to tie up - including a cliff-hanger ending!
Mission Gamma: Twilight, by David R. George III
This is the first of four books in the 'Mission Gamma' series. The set-up of this book involves Commander Vaughn taking the Defiant, along with many of the Deep Space Nine crew, on an exploratory mission in the Gamma Quadrant. The books therefore follow two main threads: the Defiant's exploration; events on Deep Space Nine.
Vaughn takes with him: Ensign ch'Thane as Science Officer, Doctor Bashir as Medical Officer, Lieutenant Nog as Chief Engineer. He also takes Lieutenant Ezri Dax along - as his First Officer. Because Dax has changed the direction of her career in Starfleet following events in 'Avatar', and is now in the Command stream. Finally, and most importantly for this book, Vaughn takes his daughter Ensign Prynn Tenmei as helmsman. Because this book, no matter what else might happen, is Vaughn's and Tenmei's story.
The book opens with Prynn lying dead on the bridge of the Defiant, while Vaughn desperately tries to save the ship from its attackers. Of course, being a main character, Prynn isn't really dead, but Vaughn sincerely believes she is, and that he has killed his daughter just like he killed her mother. This is the issue that this father and daughter have to deal with: their estrangement since Vaughn's actions led to Ruriko Tenmei's death while they were on a Starfleet mission together.
The first few chapters deal with the aftermath of Deep Space Nine's and the Defiant's involvement in the events in the DS9 installment of the 'Star Trek: Gateways' books - 'Demons of Air and Darkness'. It takes a while for the main action of the book to start.
The only characters left on Deep Space Nine seem to be: Colonel Kira (station commander), Lieutenant Ro (Chief of Security), and Quark (still running his bar). Vaughn took everyone else with him.
There's a mysterious summit coming to Deep Space Nine that Kira and Ro have to prepare for. There's an antagonistic Starfleet Admiral who keeps interrogating Kira and pissing her off. Quark has a troublesome dabo girl to deal with. There's also a budding romance between... two very unexpected characters. There's a brief appearance by a character we met earlier in the 'Allegro Ouroboros in D Minor' story in 'Lives of Dax' (but, don't blink, or you'll miss it!). There's even a huge change in things at the end of the book. However, the focus of the book is very much on Vaughn and Prynn, and how the mission they're currently on makes them realise some key things about their relationship.
With so many plot threads, there's a lot of switching between characters: each chapter follows a different character and plot point (I lost count of how many different plot threads are running in this book!). However, the author has a tendency to end chapters on cliffhangers, which means you have to wait a few more chapters to come back to the outcome of that cliffhanger - with the intervening chapters also ending on cliffhangers of their own. It makes for very disjointed reading, but it's not too bad.
I will say that the decision (not by this author, but by the editor of this series) to shift Ezri Dax to Command is both annoying and understandable. Leaving her as the Station Counsellor would make it difficult to involve her in a lot of storylines. However, the character we're reading just doesn't feel like the Ezri we saw in the final season of the TV show.
There's a final event on Deep Space Nine which changes everything. However, because of the strong focus on Vaughn and Prynn in the Gamma Quadrant, and because the plots we've been following on Deep Space Nine have been unrelated to the final reveal, it makes the station-based plots feel like filler, to keep the characters occupied because the reveal has to come at the end of the book and we're not supposed to be able to suspect what it is. I almost feel like I would have preferred this book to do with the station-based personnel what 'Avatar' did with Jake - only revisit their situation once or twice, to remind us they're still around - rather than fill pages with pointless activity by the station-based characters. Oh well. It wouldn't be a Deep Space Nine series without things happening on Deep Space Nine itself.
It's definitely a better book than 'Avatar'. The writing style is much better, and there's more depth to it.
Mission Gamma: This Gray Spirit, by Heather Jarman
This is the second of four books in the 'Mission Gamma' series. This book continues the two threads of the Defiant's exploration of the Gamma Quadrant with Commander Vaughn in charge and the events on Deep Space Nine.
For starters, this book feels more equal in its treatment of the separate DS9 and Defiant storylines. I was actually interested in what was happening on-station as well as in the Gamma Quadrant. I found myself turning pages quite quickly and enthusiastically.
The focus of this book is on Shar (Ensign ch'Thane) and Ezri in the Gamma Quadrant, and Kira on Deep Space Nine. And, the Cardassian pictured on the cover of the book with Shar, Ezri, and Kira is not Gul Dukat - it's his cousin on his mother's side, Gul Macet (who was the first Cardassian we ever saw on screen, in the TNG episode 'The Wounded'). We already re-acquainted ourselves with Macet in the Gateways book 'Demons of Air and Darkness'; he's now become a recurring character in the novels. Macet has an unfortunate resemblance to his cousin (because, on-screen, they were played by the same actor), which means most Bajorans have trouble dealing with him because they're continually reminded of their oppressor, Dukat (there are even those who wonder if Dukat didn't really die...).
The on-station drama involves Kira dealing with various Federation officials, including Admiral Akaar who doesn't seem to like her, and Federation Councillor Charivretha zh'Thane (the zhavey of Ensign ch'Thane - equivalent to "mother"). The Cardassians have sent a negotiating team led by Ambassador Natima Lang (who we first met as a political dissident in the episode 'Profit and Loss'), and accompanied by Gul Macet, to negotiate a peace treaty with Bajor. However, the talks aren't going well, and Colonel Kira needs to find out why, leading her to question Bajoran Second Minister Asarem Wadeen's motives in the negotiations.
Meantime, Shar's bondmates (remember that Andorians marry in groups of four) are staying on the station, awaiting Shar's return from the Gamma Quadrant. However, his bondmate Thriss (Shathrissia zh'Cheen) is having emotional issues, which are causing problems on the station, and lead to her seeing the station's new Counsellor, Lieutenant Phillipa Matthias.
Out in the Gamma Quadrant, while Commander Vaughn is off trying to acquire materials to build a new defence for the Defiant, against a new weapon they encountered, Lieutenant Ezri Dax gets herself involved in an internal civil dispute of the Yrythny, and allows herself to be co-opted as a mediator between the two factions. Ensign ch'Thane is aiding Ezri, but is also following his own agenda - he thinks he's found something here which might help his own Andorian people with their population issues.
We spend a lot of time seeing the Yrythny through Ezri's and ch'Thane's dealings with them. However, despite the fact that they have a very different reproduction method to most Alpha Quadrant humanoids - which forms part of the basis of the civil dispute, and is linked to the solution that ch'Thane is looking for - these aliens never feel alien. They talk like Humans and act like Humans. There's nothing alien about them, except the fact of how they reproduce. It's a flaw of the book that the aliens don't feel like aliens.
However, this is one of few flaws of this book. There is another flaw at the end of the book, where some of the climactic events happen "off screen", and all we see are the consequences. I would have liked to have seen Ezri's presentation of her solution to the Yrythny, for example, rather than just read about the Yrythny's reaction to it.
But, overall, it's an easy and engaging read. The plots are evenly balanced between on-station and Gamma Quadrant events. The events are interesting, the characters work. It's an enjoyable read.
Mission Gamma: Cathedral, by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels
This is the third of four books in the 'Mission Gamma' series. This book continues the two threads of the Defiant's exploration of the Gamma Quadrant with Commander Vaughn in charge and the events on Deep Space Nine.
The book opens with the consequences of the surprise event at the end of the previous book. However, despite the fact that this event involved Shar's family on the station, after this brief appearance, we never see them again in this book. These people are deeply affected by this event, yet we never see (or even hear) how they react to it or deal with it. The only outcome is that Shar, on the Defiant, learns about what happened and has some emotional reactions to the news. This makes it feel like his family were disposable characters: introduced only for the purpose of giving Shar something to react to. I felt bad for these characters being treated so badly.
Anyway, this book is about Bashir and Nog and Ezri (these Defiant-based characters haven't had their turn in the spotlight yet), who are exposed to something mysterious which causes them all to regress to earlier versions of themselves: Ezri loses Dax, Nog regains his leg, and Bashir loses his genetic enhancements. As a massive fan of the story 'Flowers for Algernon', I saw the similarities between Bashir's journey and Charlie's journey - and Bashir's story suffered for the comparison. Especially when we read some of his personal journal entries, in full esoteric and eloquent style. I've seen this story done so much better that it was quite jarring to see it done again, wrongly. In fact, even though Bashir's story was given more focus than Nog's or Ezri's, I would have preferred to see more of Ezri and Nog; I felt Bashir's story wasn't done very well here.
Meanwhile, back on the station, Kira and Ro and company are still preparing for this big event. It's been nearly three whole books - how long does it take to organise this? It just felt, again, like events on the station were being deliberately delayed to ensure that the right dramatic moments happen at the right time - like the surprise cliffhanger at the end of this book.
The writing style of this book was good. It's definitely not a chore to read. I felt that its main internal flaw was its treatment of Bashir. And, the major flaw is more an editorial direction than the fault of these authors (or of any of the authors): to keep dragging things out on the station so that things don't happen too early. It makes everything on the station feel like filler.
Mission Gamma: Lesser Evil, by Robert Simpson
This is the fourth and final book in the 'Mission Gamma' series. This book continues the two threads of the Defiant's exploration of the Gamma Quadrant with Commander Vaughn in charge and the events on Deep Space Nine.
And, finally, we're getting to the good stuff! The cliffhanger ending of the previous book is the event we've been waiting for. Finally, the plot on the station gets underway - and it's a rocking one. Intrigue, invasion, a long-standing feud between two alien species, this has it all.
The Gamma Quadrant story was also exciting: the Defiant finds a Borg ship crashlanded on a Gamma Quadrant planet. Vaughn and his daughter Prynn are confronted with their past, and it affects their current actions and their relationship.
All in all, I found this book to be quite a page-turner. This is what I'd been waiting for the whole time: exciting stories, interesting character interactions, events that actually matter.
Rising Son, by S.D. Perry
And, here is where we finally find out what Jake Sisko has been up to while he's been missing from the other novels. This book is 100% Jake, from start to finish: there's no Defiant, no station, just Jake off on his grand adventure. And, adventure it is. This is the story of "Jake Sisko, fortune hunter" (that's how he wrote it in his journal!).
Jake randomly finds himself flung a hundred parsecs across the Gamma Quadrant, far from the Anomaly (as the locals refer to the wormhole - they also call the Dominion War "the Quadrant War"). He's so far away from home that it will take him months to get back. But he's rescued by a motley and kindly crew of scavengers and fortune hunters, and goes on adventures with them. This really is a Boys' Own Adventure^TM book. As Jake thinks to himself later: "It wasn't fair. He'd been out with friends, having fun, having a life, and things had changed. Now he was faced with a responsibility that he didn't want, and couldn't ignore."
And, what is this responsibility? Well... have a look at the cover of the book to get an idea: it's not really a surprise!
However, before he gets to that, he does enjoy himself with his new friends. He grows especially close with the captain of the crew, Dez, who tries to become a kind of father-figure for the young man. I have to compliment the author on the character of Dez: here is a shallow selfish man who you can't help but be fond of. He's the anti-hero who you root for. You know he's doing the wrong things, for the wrong reasons, but you want him to succeed. Actually, I can extend this compliment to the whole crew: they're a motley crew of many different species and types (one of the crew isn't even biological!), and each one has their own different qualities.
Overall, it's an enjoyable book, and fun to read. It's just... not related to the main story-arc. Until Jake meets his mysterious surprise responsibility - who's on the cover of the book! Way to spoil the surprise twist, Mr Marco "The Editor" Palmieri. However, you won't miss much if you don't read this book: you can get all the relevant information you need from the cover, and skip to the next book in the series.
Unity, by S.D. Perry
Finally, all the threads come together. The "unity" of the title refers not only to the ending of this book, but also to the unifying of the various threads of the series until now. This is the season finale of these books.
The Defiant returns from the Gamma Quadrant at the end of its three-month mission of exploration, with its crew older and wiser - only to find Deep Space Nine in total lockdown. All ships arriving at and leaving the station must be approved and their crews scanned. After the Defiant crew boards the station, they find out what's been going on in their absence. And, the re-integrated crew of DS9 devotes their full efforts to tracking down the enemy.
This is an enemy we've seen twice before: on-screen in TNG, and mentioned in one of the stories of 'The Lives of Dax'. The stakes are high: the enemy is out to destroy a whole planet and exterminate the entire species on that planet.
This is an excellent book. Finally, we have the exciting plot we've been waiting for. Our crew is back together, and working against a common enemy. The stakes are high. And, the writing is good, to support this story. This book is what makes the rest of the series worth reading (except maybe 'Rising Son'!). The pay-off is definitely worth waiting for.
I do have one complaint, though. I didn't like the ending. Well, I did: I loved the final chapter. It was an excellent ending to the story-arc, and a suitable resolution for the characters. Then, the very last scene of the book has an emotional moment between two central characters which literally brought a tear to my eye. I was satisfied. Then there was an epilogue. It also was touching and sentimental and sweet (it wasn't a new cliffhanger, or anything like that). It just felt like someone tacked a second, worse, ending on to a book that already had one of the best endings I've ever read. The epilogue was unnecessary and jarring.
'Worlds of Deep Space Nine' sextet
There is a group of six novellas collected in three volumes under the title "Worlds of Deep Space Nine", all set after the culminating events of 'Unity'. They don't share a single plot thread: they're each stand-alone stories. Also, they all happen individually and separately, at about the same time; they're not sequential (you don't have to read them in order). However, even though these six stories are independent of each other, each of them is a direct sequel to the preceding series (up to 'Unity') - you need to read the pre-'Unity' series in order to follow what's happening in these stories. In fact, a better name for this series, instead of "Worlds of Deep Space Nine" might have been "What Came After": each novella in this sextet follows up the continuation of a plot thread from the main series.
I'll treat them here as six separate books.
Cardassia: The Lotus Flower, by Una McCormack
This is basically just a character study of post-Occupation Cardassia. There's not a lot of plot; the whole story takes place in the space of only one day. There is a big event which happens in that day, but this event is mainly just a device to explore the various political, religious, and social problems facing Cardassia. And, it's good.
For one thing, McCormack really knows how to capture her characters' voices. The story is told from the viewpoints of Garak, Miles O'Brien, and Keiko O'Brien. For the chapters told from Garak's and Miles' point of view, it really did feel like I was getting inside their heads and seeing things as they would see them. I didn't notice this as much for Keiko, but she doesn't have as strongly developed a character as the other two. McCormack extended this to the spoken dialogue; I was reading a conversation between Garak and Miles, and I found I could almost hear the actual actors speaking these words, and it sounded right. McCormack is good at finding the characters in her story.
And, seeing as Cardassian society is basically the main character in this story (the story being a character analysis of Cardassia), this story works well. I found it a good read, and very interesting.
Andor: Paradigm, by Heather Jarman
This story continues the Andorian-related plot lines from 'Mission Gamma: This Gray Spirit' - both the species-wide issue and the personal issue. And, our Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane ("Shar") is dead-centre of both of these issues: he's the one who discovered something on the Yrythny planet which might help the Andorians, and there's a family event involving his family that he was conspicuously not invited to (but ends up attending anyway, due to requirements of the plot). Shar is accompanied on his trip to Andor by Station Counsellor Lieutenant Phillippa Matthias (who was invited to that family event) and Ensign Prynn Tenmei. The story is told through these three characters' viewpoints.
There's some unnecessary adventure and derring-do in this story, which at times felt like action just for the sake of it. I found the family-related plot quite interesting - which was lucky, because it was front and centre of the story. The species-related plot mostly happened in the background, which was a little disappointing; I would have liked to have seen more discussion about the implications of Shar's Yrythny discovery and what it meant for the Andorians.
It was good to be on Andor and see this four-gendered culture up close and personal. We even get a glimpse, through Prynn's eyes, of the indoctrination young Andorians face in order to keep breeding more Andorians and stave off the extinction of the whole species. It's little touches like this, and like meeting the young zhei and talking to "her", which show us the life of Andorians. Although it was a little bit too coincidental that the zhei also just happened to be married to some key plot-drivers - umm... characters - in the story. This felt forced.
Overall, it's an interesting read.
Trill: Unjoined, by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels
This is the third 'Worlds' novella in a row to feature terrorists as a plot point. Even though I'm sure each story's writer(s) could justify their own terrorists for their own reasons, I think a watchful editor could have (should have?) avoided this repetitiveness. By the time you get the third scenario involving a terrorist attack, or the threat of a terrorist attack, it just feels like lazy writing: using the same trick over and over again to excite interest in readers. I'll have to be honest and say that the outcome of the terrorist attack in this story was probably the most interesting and most necessary to the plot.
That's not to say I liked the plot, though - especially the massive changes to the Trill species which occur as a result of this story. I felt cheated and betrayed. The background we learn about the Trill species - humanoids and symbionts - is fascinating. I'm not sure I like the retcon about how they're involved with the antagonists in 'Unity', though. And, the outcome of the story simply changed the Trill species forever (to the same degree as if we learned that Vulcans had given up logic, or if the Klingons turned into a race of artists). It was certainly dramatic, but it felt wrong.
This story was told primarily through the eyes of Lieutenant Ezri Dax and Doctor Julian Bashir - with some random chapters from other Trills' viewpoints. This included two chapters from a totally irrelevant character, two from a relevant character, and one from someone who had a secret... which made for some very awkward writing while we were talked through this person's thought processes while the writers dodged around the secret at the centre of those thought processes.
This was an uneven story: strange points of view, some awkward moments, a lot of fascinating backstory, thoughtful conflict between Bashir and Ezri, and a resolution that changed the Trill species.
Bajor: Fragments and Omens
There were two big flaws with this story.
First, while the previous stories had been told from only two or three characters' points of view, this story has eleven protagonists, seven of whom are the viewpoint character for only one chapter each. At the other extreme, one character is the central voice for seven chapters - a whole third of the novella. This switching between multiple characters' points of view has some benefits, such as being able to follow a particular plot from the surface of Bajor to Deep Space Nine to the Defiant on a deep-space chase. However, it makes for very disjointed reading, jumping from one character to another to another to another...
The other main flaw doesn't become apparent until late in the novella, when I realised that the action plot (the one which starts on Bajor and goes via DS9 to the Defiant) actually had no resolution. I'm not sure if this loose thread will be resolved in a future 'Worlds of Deep Space Nine' novella, or a different novel, or never at all - but it was frustrating to not even have a clear idea of the implications of this unresolved plot. It just petered off into nothing about three-quarters of the way through.
In the meantime, the character whose viewpoint we follow for seven chapters is basically just having a romance with one of our main characters. It's an interesting trick: following the romance from the other character's point of view, rather than from the main character's point of view. It allows us to learn how other people see this main character - which, surprisingly, works quite well.
And, in the background, all these other characters popping in and out of the narrative spotlight are basically just setting the players in place for future stories: a new Liaison Officer on Deep Space Nine between the Bajoran and Starfleet, and a new Bajoran representative on the Federation Council.
This story feels like a prologue, rather than a story in and of itself. I didn't like it.
Ferenginar: Satisfaction is Not Guaranteed
Here's a disclaimer up front: I like the Ferengi. Let me rephrase that: I dislike the Ferengi themselves, but I like episodes about the Ferengi. I know many people disliked the Ferengi episodes of DS9, but I enjoyed them. And, if you disliked the Ferengi episodes of the show, you'll probably dislike this story, because it feels just like a Ferengi episode.
It has almost every Ferengi character we've ever seen - Quark, Rom, Zek, Ishkar, Nog, Brunt (of course: what's a Ferengi episode without Brunt?), Nilva, Gaila - plus a couple of new ones. There's also Maihar'du, and Leeta (she's pregnant with Rom's child!), and even Ro Laren. It has scheming and plotting and sneakiness. It has humour, and lightheartedness, and silly Ferengi being silly Ferengi. It feels just like a Ferengi episode.
That said, not much actually happens. The plot is foiled (of course), and the status quo is maintained. But, it's fun. Just like a Ferengi episode.
I liked it. Just like a Ferengi episode.
The Dominion: Olympus Descending
This story started out with lots of promise, then went in a direction I did not like at all.
Firstly, unlike the other five stories in this series, this story is not set primarily on a single planet. But, then, the Dominion isn't a single planet. However, we follow three main threads here: Odo with the Great Link; a Vorta, Vannis, who has errands to run for the Dominion which take her to a few different places within the Gamma Quadrant; Taran'atar, the Jem'Hadar that Odo sent to the Alpha Quadrant. Taran'atar's story is set entirely in the Alpha Quadrant, but is still focussed on the Dominion. Having this story set across all these different locations doesn't feel like a flaw.
The flaws are with the plot itself. For one thing, the Founders have a religion. While they've genetically engineered the Vorta and Jem'Hadar to worship them as gods, they themselves worship a god. That's new. And not only do they have a religion and a god, but this story retcons their origins. There's a very metatextual moment in Chapter 3, when Odo is learning about the Founders' origins from another changeling he has named "Indurane" (Founders don't have names, but Odo is used to individuals having names so he made one up for this Founder): "Odo remembered questioning the changeling leader about whether the Founders had always been able to shapeshift, and her response that, eons ago, their people had been like the solids. Indurane's contentions did not contradict that." It's like the author is trying to convince us readers that he's not breaking the rules. Well, no, this new origin story doesn't contradict the on-screen origin story, but it surely does subvert it and change it beyond recognition. I found this new version of the Founders' origin to be gratuitous and awkward. It's one thing to change the future direction of a species, like the Trill story in this sextet did, but it's another thing to re-write the history we've learned on screen.
Then there's the whole chapter that turns out to be a dream sequence (unfortunately, not the aforementioned chapter with the Founders' new origin story). That felt cheap. Very cheap and gimmicky. After the fact, I understood what the author was trying to do, but it still felt like cheating the reader.
The Ascendants, a species we encountered in 'Rising Son' (Jake's adventures in the Gamma Quadrant) take on a more ominous role in this story and are obviously being set up to become important in future stories.
Finally, the resolution of this story was a game-changer: not only for the Dominion, but for the whole DS9 post-television series. I found it a bit shocking, and I suspect it was intended to be. Whether this massive change is worth it will depend on future books.
Summary: Worlds of Deep Space Nine
Apart from a couple of major plot points, like: the staff changes on Bajor; the new direction on Trill; the shocking changes in the Dominion; this series is not necessary reading. Some of the stories are enjoyable, such as the Cardassian one and the Ferengi one, but they're not needful. They're also not excellent reading material in and of themselves. The only one of this sextet of novellas I would rate "Engage!" is the Dominion story - and that only because of the significant event at the end of the story. Other than that, these are all "Just for fun" or "Meh" stories. Read them if you've got some time to kill.