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eponymous_roseAs most DS9 fans on the flist are probably aware, after the TV show ended, a set of tie-in novels started up where the series had left off, creating a relaunched "season eight" (most folks seem to put "Unity" as the season eight finale, it looks like), and now even a "season nine" of sorts.
I've started reading the relaunch novels in the order suggested here (scroll down for a list of the relaunch novels and comments about assorted other tie-ins that fit into the same timeline), and have made it to the end of the Mission Gamma quartet. And I've enjoyed them quite a lot! Lots of fantastic development for existing characters, cleverly realized new characters, and smartly unpredictable plots.
If you've been on the fence about reading these books, I'd definitely recommend giving them a shot. Since I've been enjoying them muchly, I figured I'd write them up a bit - under the cut are my (incredibly longwinded) thoughts on the four Mission Gamma novels.
One of the things that felt so satisfying about the DS9 finale was the fact that it didn't really end as such - sure, we had Odo going back to the Founders, the O'Briens going back to Earth, Garak going back to Cardassia, Worf going back to the Klingon Empire, and Sisko going to hang out with the Prophets. But we also had a new beginning: Kira in charge of Deep Space Nine, the shaky beginnings of peace with the Dominion, Cardassia picking up the pieces after its one billion dead, Nog getting promoted, Kasidy pregnant, Bajor still not a member of the Federation, Ezri and Julian newly together, and Jake now without his father. All the openings on station staff also suggested the possibility for a ton of new characters.
It wasn't the sort of finale where you felt like things were contrived to wrap up every single loose end (okay, so I had some issues with the pastede-on-yey nature of the plot featuring Sisko and Dukat's final struggle, set as it was alongside such a well-paced and (mostly) carefully plotted storyline as the end of the Dominion War) - the major plots had reached a logical stopping point, but tomorrow would be another day, with plenty of new mysteries. The relaunch novels take those tomorrows and spin them out as a fascinating serial storyline that, I think, has been largely very successful at what it's been going for.
No matter how much nitpickery I'm about to indulge in, I have enjoyed the books quite a lot overall, and I'm thrilled that there's this whole extension of a great show out there. Hurrah, extended universes!
Okay, I guess I'll just jump in with the Mission Gamma novels, because they're freshest in my mind. I'll be referring back to earlier books throughout, though, so keep in mind that comments and criticism are not necessarily being leveled at a single book.
Book One: Twilight by David R. George III
It's a bit unfortunate that this book was the first in the series, because I definitely found it the weakest of the bunch, writing-wise - the whole thing was so unnecessarily over-descriptive that I spent much of the time feeling like the book could have been half as long without losing an iota of content. Each time somebody spoke, I felt like I was about to be treated to an in-depth explanation of what their left elbow was doing at the time. There's something admirable about clear description, certainly, but only in moderation - there should be at least some semblance of a balancing act going on between what you picture in your head and what your reader's going to be able to come up with for herself.
As a contrast, Una McCormack's tie-ins do the most fantastic job with sparse description - look at the early scene in Garak's shop in "Hollow Men". The dialogue does the heavy legwork, but the little actions going on throughout add a deeper layer that fits so well with all the subterfuge going on.
Stylistic issues aside, there were elements of the plot of "Twilight" that were certainly interesting, though the glacial pacing made much of it a lot less fascinating than it could have been. Again, as a contrast, S.D. Perry's kick-off to the series wasn't particularly fast-paced in its first part, but the rhythm of it suited the expository and reflective nature of what was going on, and then the second half absolutely exploded action-wise, whereas "Twilight" suffered from having a series of exciting developments mired down by the prose.
Another downside for me was the focus on Elias Vaughn, who's managed to provoke my indifference somewhere along the way - I suppose there's too much of the tragic-hero's-backstory stuck with him, which makes him seem weirdly conventional compared to the rest of the cast. I do like that he's set up as a bit of an anti-Sisko in some ways - they both lost a wife to the Borg, but whereas Jennifer's death brought Jake and Ben closer together, Ruriko's death tore Prynn and Elias apart. My issue is that we saw another side to Sisko right from the get-go with the Emissary business. Vaughn is completely defined by his relationship with Prynn, except when his career in Starfleet Intelligence handily gives him the upper hand in some plot development. And it's a shame, because there's a lot of potential in that he's got this whole rediscovering-himself thing going, but he keeps hitting personal tragedies en route.
Vaughn's experience with the Inamuri also seemed like a bit of a cheat - the conflict between Vaughn and his daughter was one of the only things giving Vaughn any sort of depth, especially since the situation was mostly unknown, but all of a sudden Prynn finds out that, hey, her dad didn't mean to send her mom off to die and he feels really, really bad about it, so all's well that ends well. Vaughn's realization that his years avoiding Prynn were just as damaging as Ruriko's death was a nice touch, but it was repeated over and over again, so that even that facet lost its shine before long.
I think my main issue is that we still haven't seen Vaughn connect on any level (even adversarially) with anyone besides Prynn. There's a very bland mentor-protégé thing going on with Ezri that still has potential, and the end of "Abyss" certainly brought up the possibility of an interesting friendship with Julian, but we've seen no development since then. Vaughn had his big epiphany early on in "Avatar", and we haven't seen him grow in the intervening pages - except via this very contrived situation the Inamuri set up. It just wasn't a satisfying plot for me.
Enough about Vaughn, though - let's talk Quark and Ro. Hell, let's talk Quark/Ro! (Selling me on that pairing is probably the strangest thing the relaunch has ever done.) I like that they've bonded closer, in that they both see Bajor's upcoming Federation membership as a threat to their respective careers. And I actually kinda adore Treir (and finally introducing a dabo boy!). Change, whether Quark likes it or not, is always a lot of fun.
Jumping back to the A-plot, I liked the idea of the Vahni Valtupani and communication via colour - I love that sort of sci-fi thing. And I've been enjoying the continued evolution of Ezri Dax as a whole person, and as XO of the mission. What bothered me there was the way Julian kept undermining her authority and second-guessing her, including in front of Vaughn, after Roness died under her command - it seemed wildly out of character, which was disconcerting. I get that there are still issues to be resolved between them (and how!), but in previous books - and this is very much just my interpretation - it's seemed like they've been setting up the notion that Julian needs Ezri more than she needs him, and that conflict arises because he sometimes feels threatened by that. In this book, the balance of power between them seemed skewed, and a lot of what Julian was doing rang false because of that.
On to Kira! Poor Kira's been a bit rudderless since the Attainder came down on top of everything else, and it's weird to see her without a driving force or an explicit mission or adversary to be faced down. From a characterization standpoint, I actually like the notion that she's trying to stay in the background during all this political upheaval, trying to just run her station and keep moving, because it feels a bit like she's been in shock for much of the relaunch, and that seems realistic considering what's been going on (especially now that she's responsible for a schism in the Vedek Assembly). In the past, Kira could get angry, but now she has to be diplomatic, and that's been making her shut down altogether. And I can buy that she's not used to being in the public eye, because her presence as Bajoran liaison officer aboard DS9 during the series seemed not to give her any particular fame among her people (though that in itself feels like a bit of an omission that would be nice to see addressed in fanfic!). All that said, though, I really want to see her taking an active role in something again, rather than just reacting to all the political machinations going on, fascinating as they may be.
Also, hey, speaking of characters who haven't had much to do, what's happening with this Sam Bowers guy? We haven't seen much of him yet, apart from the odd scrap of backstory. It'd be nice to see more, if only so I can form an opinion of some sort.
Taran'atar is kind of my favourite, which is silly, I know, but come on, that scene with him in the schoolroom? Little kids and Jem'Hadar, man, I don't know. That poor guy's got a heckuva learning curve to contend with, considering how weird the denizens of DS9 are even by Alpha Quadrant standards. His impromptu meeting with Nog was well done, and appropriately chilling in that he was just passing by and Nog was preparing to die. Poor kid.
Speaking of people about whom I say "poor kid" a lot, it's Shar! Interesting to see the intro of his relationship with his bondmates, though we'll get more detail on that later. The whole thing with Thriss rubs me the wrong way (she's all "I love you so much that I can't live without even hearing from you for a few weeks, literally", and he's had a much less dramatic reaction, though I suspect that'll change once he's back on the station), but I get the impression that it's supposed to do that, so I'll reserve judgement on that until a later date. Loving the friendship between Shar and Nog, especially the hug in "Cathedral".
And that's enough about "Twilight" - I enjoyed it overall, but the writing style and bits and pieces of characterization ran false enough that I felt it was the weakest in the Mission Gamma series.
Book Two: This Gray Spirit by Heather Jarman
Definitely a contrast! I felt that this was the strongest book in the Mission Gamma series, in fact, which is an opinion that was possibly coloured by jumping straight into this one after "Twilight". Encountering humor and good-natured banter again was a welcome relief, as was the shift of focus away from Vaughn and his navel-gazing.
The running gag with "Burning Hearts of Qo'noS" was a fun one, as were the poker games - even the extremely minor characters got some much-needed fleshing out in this one, personality-wise, which made the forty-person crew (well, thirty-nine now that we're sans Roness) seem a bit more like a family.
I kind of love the way Gul Macet keeps popping up, all "What's happening, dudes? Yeah, I still totally look like Dukat, man. What's with that? Anyway, mind if I come visit?". If these books were being televised, I'd accuse the writers of bringing in Macet just to get Marc Alaimo back - it's kind of bizarre not to have that excuse here, unless it was all a conspiracy on the part of the cover artists or something. I do like that he's being used as a way to gauge the capability of the Bajorans (and Kira in particular) to look past the shadow of Dukat, though. It's all quite nicely done.
I like the new closeness between Ro and Kira - maybe it's more of a truce at this point than anything, personally, but professionally they work extremely well together now. I would watch a whole show about those two just trying to keep the station running smoothly, and being about thirty kinds of awesome in the process.
The reveal of Ziyal's artwork was a genuinely startling one, and having the exhibit be vandalized was a shocking but symbolic little twist. And speaking of twists, I loved the fact that Asarem was only sabotaging the Cardassian peace talks on Shakaar's authority! Nicely done. The "he's changed in recent months" thing wasn't as heavy-handed at this point, either, which I appreciated for reasons I'll address a bit further down.
The bits with Shar's bondmates were very well done, although as mentioned before, I have a bit of trouble with Thriss. The suicide was painfully well done, though, and I'm expecting we'll see some spectacular fireworks once Shar gets back to the station.
Meanwhile, back in the Gamma Quadrant, Ezri gets to be a diplomat, Shar gets to be a dissident, Vaughn gets to be a wheeler-dealer, and Nog gets to run around being awesome. There were multiple small twists in the plot there, too, but I found myself mostly hoping to get back to the stuff going on station-side. Ezri's development was excellent in this one, I thought, even though the resolution where she had to use her own counseling abilities instead of the expertise of another of Dax's hosts was a bit heavy-handed.
I enjoyed this one quite a lot - it just read well, and the pacing was excellent.
Book Three: Cathedral by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels
This one was also very good - I loved the image of that multidimensional cathedral tumbling through space, and all of the analogies that came up to try and describe what was going on visually. Very cool stuff. Did I mention I like sci-fi stuff like that?
Of all the experiences the crew of the Sagan had in connection with the cathedral, I actually found Nog's the most interesting, perhaps because we've already seen similar ground covered for Ezri in previous books re: her part in the Dax symbiont's history, and I've possibly overdosed on fanfic about the Julian-who-might-have-been, some of which may have handled the whole thing better.
This whole plot read a bit like a "three things that never happened" fic, actually! I couldn't help feeling that the Alice in Wonderland connection of Julian's final hallucination/parallel should've been brought up more obviously early on or left out altogether.
Let's talk Julian for a second, because I've had a bit of a beef with his development (or lack thereof) in the relaunch to date. "Avatar" set up so much potential, and while the conflict with Ezri has been developed in some manner, there's been absolutely no reference to that bit where Kitana'klan attacked him, and he nearly bled to death, which would understandably be a bit traumatic emotionally as well as physically. I mean, there he was immediately afterwards in "Abyss", working alongside Taran'atar, and it seemed like they were totally square just because Taran'atar was the one who wound up killing Kitana'klan. You'd think there'd at least be a bit of hesitation here and there, much like Nog's reaction to running into Taran'atar in "Twilight", wouldn't you? Or have I read too much fanfic?
I actually really liked the universal translator's issues with the language - it was handled well, though I would've liked to have seen a more dramatic misinterpretation at some point. And I liked the fact that one race feared the cathedral while the other worshipped it - it seemed like a natural dichotomy for something like that.
Oh, and the description of Julian's mnemonic device was pretty excellent, too! Having used things like that myself, they're a lot of fun to see in print.
And how about that Vedek Yevir, man? You think you know a guy as a total jerkwad, and then he goes off to Cardassia and brings back four Orbs of the Prophets, while simultaneously forging a peace that completely sidesteps the political process. Well played, authors. Well played. Nice to see Garak in his little cameo, too!
And the big twist at the end? I was spoiled for Shakaar's assassination by a Memory Beta page (my fault, I know), but I didn't know the who or why or when. That said, it was pretty obvious to me that Gard would be the one to do it, if only because it was such a clichéd narrative device - dude shows up out of the blue to go after one half of an established romantic couple, dude is pretty much too good to be true, dude is actually evil bet you didn't see that one coming. So that was a bit of a disappointment.
And here's a sentence I never thought I'd type: I wish they hadn't gone the parasitic brain-worm route. I was really, really hoping that the earlier references to changes in Shakaar would have been explained in some other way, that there was an actual reason for Shakaar to be acting so strangely. Heck, I would've been happy if we'd had a red herring going on, where Kira would come up with a plausible motivation for Shakaar to be acting the way he was and then we'd actually be shocked when it turned out he was being controlled all along. Alas, the whole time, we just got "Shakaar's acting really weird, he's not himself lately, HE'S NOT HIMSELF GEDDIT", which wasn't quite conducive to maintaining suspense for long.
That said, yikes, almost beheading the guy? That's gonna sting in the morning.
Predictability aside, I really liked this book as well, though again, I found everything happening at the station more exciting than what was going on elsewhere.
Book Four: Lesser Evil by Robert Simpson
This book was a lot more lightweight than the others, but it did a good job with the plots it did choose to tackle.
The Ruriko-Elias-Prynn plot was quite well done, especially the shock ending - not so much that Vaughn killed her, but the reason why Vaughn killed her. I'm hoping that the fact that Ezri knows the truth will help strengthen the friendship between them, and that Vaughn won't go back to existing only to introspect at length.
That said? I loved the flashbacks featuring a younger Vaughn and Ruriko as rival Intelligence agents. So much fun. And I love that Ruriko was able to step away from the job, and that Vaughn's obsession with Intelligence work wasn't treated as a wholly positive thing. It made a nice change. And there were some nice scenes between Prynn and Vaughn toward the end, there ("You are so screwed up", indeed). I just hope we're not back to square one with those two, because I might need to jump out an airlock if we're going to tread over all that ground all over again.
I honestly did like that Vaughn completely lost control for a while, there, and that his whole crew was doubting his competence. That was nice to see, for once, because there's been this strange vibe with him. If the writers were brave enough to take that to its logical extreme, we could even have him going rogue - he's made no meaningful connections among the crew of the Defiant, and every time he has a positive, life-affirming epiphany, it all twists and goes horribly wrong. That would be a lot of fun to see, anyway.
Kira finally got to do something! Granted, the twist was pretty darn obvious again, in almost exactly the same way as Gard's duplicity was in the last book. I did like that we had a bit of an unreliable narrator going on, in that all our information about Shakaar's time on the ship came direct from Montenegro, but it was still patently obvious that Kira was being played the whole time. I loved the interactions between Kira and Mello, though, and it was such a shame that Mello wound up getting killed off (even though it did result in that moment where Kira became captain of the Gryphon). The bit with Akaar "losing" the paperwork that withdrew Kira's Starfleet commission was pretty awesome, too.
But hurrah, Jake's reappearance! And Kai Opaka! Nice twist at the end, there. I'm gonna go read "Rising Son", now, to fill in the gaps.
All in all, I enjoyed "Lesser Evil" quite a lot.
Phew. That was long! I haven't properly reviewed anything in a long time.
If you reply (and I hope you do, even if you just want to tell me how wrong I am about all of the above!), I just want to mention that I haven't read beyond "Lesser Evil" yet, and so I'd really appreciate it if you avoided spoilers for later books in your replies.
I've started reading the relaunch novels in the order suggested here (scroll down for a list of the relaunch novels and comments about assorted other tie-ins that fit into the same timeline), and have made it to the end of the Mission Gamma quartet. And I've enjoyed them quite a lot! Lots of fantastic development for existing characters, cleverly realized new characters, and smartly unpredictable plots.
If you've been on the fence about reading these books, I'd definitely recommend giving them a shot. Since I've been enjoying them muchly, I figured I'd write them up a bit - under the cut are my (incredibly longwinded) thoughts on the four Mission Gamma novels.
One of the things that felt so satisfying about the DS9 finale was the fact that it didn't really end as such - sure, we had Odo going back to the Founders, the O'Briens going back to Earth, Garak going back to Cardassia, Worf going back to the Klingon Empire, and Sisko going to hang out with the Prophets. But we also had a new beginning: Kira in charge of Deep Space Nine, the shaky beginnings of peace with the Dominion, Cardassia picking up the pieces after its one billion dead, Nog getting promoted, Kasidy pregnant, Bajor still not a member of the Federation, Ezri and Julian newly together, and Jake now without his father. All the openings on station staff also suggested the possibility for a ton of new characters.
It wasn't the sort of finale where you felt like things were contrived to wrap up every single loose end (okay, so I had some issues with the pastede-on-yey nature of the plot featuring Sisko and Dukat's final struggle, set as it was alongside such a well-paced and (mostly) carefully plotted storyline as the end of the Dominion War) - the major plots had reached a logical stopping point, but tomorrow would be another day, with plenty of new mysteries. The relaunch novels take those tomorrows and spin them out as a fascinating serial storyline that, I think, has been largely very successful at what it's been going for.
No matter how much nitpickery I'm about to indulge in, I have enjoyed the books quite a lot overall, and I'm thrilled that there's this whole extension of a great show out there. Hurrah, extended universes!
Okay, I guess I'll just jump in with the Mission Gamma novels, because they're freshest in my mind. I'll be referring back to earlier books throughout, though, so keep in mind that comments and criticism are not necessarily being leveled at a single book.
Book One: Twilight by David R. George III
It's a bit unfortunate that this book was the first in the series, because I definitely found it the weakest of the bunch, writing-wise - the whole thing was so unnecessarily over-descriptive that I spent much of the time feeling like the book could have been half as long without losing an iota of content. Each time somebody spoke, I felt like I was about to be treated to an in-depth explanation of what their left elbow was doing at the time. There's something admirable about clear description, certainly, but only in moderation - there should be at least some semblance of a balancing act going on between what you picture in your head and what your reader's going to be able to come up with for herself.
As a contrast, Una McCormack's tie-ins do the most fantastic job with sparse description - look at the early scene in Garak's shop in "Hollow Men". The dialogue does the heavy legwork, but the little actions going on throughout add a deeper layer that fits so well with all the subterfuge going on.
Stylistic issues aside, there were elements of the plot of "Twilight" that were certainly interesting, though the glacial pacing made much of it a lot less fascinating than it could have been. Again, as a contrast, S.D. Perry's kick-off to the series wasn't particularly fast-paced in its first part, but the rhythm of it suited the expository and reflective nature of what was going on, and then the second half absolutely exploded action-wise, whereas "Twilight" suffered from having a series of exciting developments mired down by the prose.
Another downside for me was the focus on Elias Vaughn, who's managed to provoke my indifference somewhere along the way - I suppose there's too much of the tragic-hero's-backstory stuck with him, which makes him seem weirdly conventional compared to the rest of the cast. I do like that he's set up as a bit of an anti-Sisko in some ways - they both lost a wife to the Borg, but whereas Jennifer's death brought Jake and Ben closer together, Ruriko's death tore Prynn and Elias apart. My issue is that we saw another side to Sisko right from the get-go with the Emissary business. Vaughn is completely defined by his relationship with Prynn, except when his career in Starfleet Intelligence handily gives him the upper hand in some plot development. And it's a shame, because there's a lot of potential in that he's got this whole rediscovering-himself thing going, but he keeps hitting personal tragedies en route.
Vaughn's experience with the Inamuri also seemed like a bit of a cheat - the conflict between Vaughn and his daughter was one of the only things giving Vaughn any sort of depth, especially since the situation was mostly unknown, but all of a sudden Prynn finds out that, hey, her dad didn't mean to send her mom off to die and he feels really, really bad about it, so all's well that ends well. Vaughn's realization that his years avoiding Prynn were just as damaging as Ruriko's death was a nice touch, but it was repeated over and over again, so that even that facet lost its shine before long.
I think my main issue is that we still haven't seen Vaughn connect on any level (even adversarially) with anyone besides Prynn. There's a very bland mentor-protégé thing going on with Ezri that still has potential, and the end of "Abyss" certainly brought up the possibility of an interesting friendship with Julian, but we've seen no development since then. Vaughn had his big epiphany early on in "Avatar", and we haven't seen him grow in the intervening pages - except via this very contrived situation the Inamuri set up. It just wasn't a satisfying plot for me.
Enough about Vaughn, though - let's talk Quark and Ro. Hell, let's talk Quark/Ro! (Selling me on that pairing is probably the strangest thing the relaunch has ever done.) I like that they've bonded closer, in that they both see Bajor's upcoming Federation membership as a threat to their respective careers. And I actually kinda adore Treir (and finally introducing a dabo boy!). Change, whether Quark likes it or not, is always a lot of fun.
Jumping back to the A-plot, I liked the idea of the Vahni Valtupani and communication via colour - I love that sort of sci-fi thing. And I've been enjoying the continued evolution of Ezri Dax as a whole person, and as XO of the mission. What bothered me there was the way Julian kept undermining her authority and second-guessing her, including in front of Vaughn, after Roness died under her command - it seemed wildly out of character, which was disconcerting. I get that there are still issues to be resolved between them (and how!), but in previous books - and this is very much just my interpretation - it's seemed like they've been setting up the notion that Julian needs Ezri more than she needs him, and that conflict arises because he sometimes feels threatened by that. In this book, the balance of power between them seemed skewed, and a lot of what Julian was doing rang false because of that.
On to Kira! Poor Kira's been a bit rudderless since the Attainder came down on top of everything else, and it's weird to see her without a driving force or an explicit mission or adversary to be faced down. From a characterization standpoint, I actually like the notion that she's trying to stay in the background during all this political upheaval, trying to just run her station and keep moving, because it feels a bit like she's been in shock for much of the relaunch, and that seems realistic considering what's been going on (especially now that she's responsible for a schism in the Vedek Assembly). In the past, Kira could get angry, but now she has to be diplomatic, and that's been making her shut down altogether. And I can buy that she's not used to being in the public eye, because her presence as Bajoran liaison officer aboard DS9 during the series seemed not to give her any particular fame among her people (though that in itself feels like a bit of an omission that would be nice to see addressed in fanfic!). All that said, though, I really want to see her taking an active role in something again, rather than just reacting to all the political machinations going on, fascinating as they may be.
Also, hey, speaking of characters who haven't had much to do, what's happening with this Sam Bowers guy? We haven't seen much of him yet, apart from the odd scrap of backstory. It'd be nice to see more, if only so I can form an opinion of some sort.
Taran'atar is kind of my favourite, which is silly, I know, but come on, that scene with him in the schoolroom? Little kids and Jem'Hadar, man, I don't know. That poor guy's got a heckuva learning curve to contend with, considering how weird the denizens of DS9 are even by Alpha Quadrant standards. His impromptu meeting with Nog was well done, and appropriately chilling in that he was just passing by and Nog was preparing to die. Poor kid.
Speaking of people about whom I say "poor kid" a lot, it's Shar! Interesting to see the intro of his relationship with his bondmates, though we'll get more detail on that later. The whole thing with Thriss rubs me the wrong way (she's all "I love you so much that I can't live without even hearing from you for a few weeks, literally", and he's had a much less dramatic reaction, though I suspect that'll change once he's back on the station), but I get the impression that it's supposed to do that, so I'll reserve judgement on that until a later date. Loving the friendship between Shar and Nog, especially the hug in "Cathedral".
And that's enough about "Twilight" - I enjoyed it overall, but the writing style and bits and pieces of characterization ran false enough that I felt it was the weakest in the Mission Gamma series.
Book Two: This Gray Spirit by Heather Jarman
Definitely a contrast! I felt that this was the strongest book in the Mission Gamma series, in fact, which is an opinion that was possibly coloured by jumping straight into this one after "Twilight". Encountering humor and good-natured banter again was a welcome relief, as was the shift of focus away from Vaughn and his navel-gazing.
The running gag with "Burning Hearts of Qo'noS" was a fun one, as were the poker games - even the extremely minor characters got some much-needed fleshing out in this one, personality-wise, which made the forty-person crew (well, thirty-nine now that we're sans Roness) seem a bit more like a family.
I kind of love the way Gul Macet keeps popping up, all "What's happening, dudes? Yeah, I still totally look like Dukat, man. What's with that? Anyway, mind if I come visit?". If these books were being televised, I'd accuse the writers of bringing in Macet just to get Marc Alaimo back - it's kind of bizarre not to have that excuse here, unless it was all a conspiracy on the part of the cover artists or something. I do like that he's being used as a way to gauge the capability of the Bajorans (and Kira in particular) to look past the shadow of Dukat, though. It's all quite nicely done.
I like the new closeness between Ro and Kira - maybe it's more of a truce at this point than anything, personally, but professionally they work extremely well together now. I would watch a whole show about those two just trying to keep the station running smoothly, and being about thirty kinds of awesome in the process.
The reveal of Ziyal's artwork was a genuinely startling one, and having the exhibit be vandalized was a shocking but symbolic little twist. And speaking of twists, I loved the fact that Asarem was only sabotaging the Cardassian peace talks on Shakaar's authority! Nicely done. The "he's changed in recent months" thing wasn't as heavy-handed at this point, either, which I appreciated for reasons I'll address a bit further down.
The bits with Shar's bondmates were very well done, although as mentioned before, I have a bit of trouble with Thriss. The suicide was painfully well done, though, and I'm expecting we'll see some spectacular fireworks once Shar gets back to the station.
Meanwhile, back in the Gamma Quadrant, Ezri gets to be a diplomat, Shar gets to be a dissident, Vaughn gets to be a wheeler-dealer, and Nog gets to run around being awesome. There were multiple small twists in the plot there, too, but I found myself mostly hoping to get back to the stuff going on station-side. Ezri's development was excellent in this one, I thought, even though the resolution where she had to use her own counseling abilities instead of the expertise of another of Dax's hosts was a bit heavy-handed.
I enjoyed this one quite a lot - it just read well, and the pacing was excellent.
Book Three: Cathedral by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels
This one was also very good - I loved the image of that multidimensional cathedral tumbling through space, and all of the analogies that came up to try and describe what was going on visually. Very cool stuff. Did I mention I like sci-fi stuff like that?
Of all the experiences the crew of the Sagan had in connection with the cathedral, I actually found Nog's the most interesting, perhaps because we've already seen similar ground covered for Ezri in previous books re: her part in the Dax symbiont's history, and I've possibly overdosed on fanfic about the Julian-who-might-have-been, some of which may have handled the whole thing better.
This whole plot read a bit like a "three things that never happened" fic, actually! I couldn't help feeling that the Alice in Wonderland connection of Julian's final hallucination/parallel should've been brought up more obviously early on or left out altogether.
Let's talk Julian for a second, because I've had a bit of a beef with his development (or lack thereof) in the relaunch to date. "Avatar" set up so much potential, and while the conflict with Ezri has been developed in some manner, there's been absolutely no reference to that bit where Kitana'klan attacked him, and he nearly bled to death, which would understandably be a bit traumatic emotionally as well as physically. I mean, there he was immediately afterwards in "Abyss", working alongside Taran'atar, and it seemed like they were totally square just because Taran'atar was the one who wound up killing Kitana'klan. You'd think there'd at least be a bit of hesitation here and there, much like Nog's reaction to running into Taran'atar in "Twilight", wouldn't you? Or have I read too much fanfic?
I actually really liked the universal translator's issues with the language - it was handled well, though I would've liked to have seen a more dramatic misinterpretation at some point. And I liked the fact that one race feared the cathedral while the other worshipped it - it seemed like a natural dichotomy for something like that.
Oh, and the description of Julian's mnemonic device was pretty excellent, too! Having used things like that myself, they're a lot of fun to see in print.
And how about that Vedek Yevir, man? You think you know a guy as a total jerkwad, and then he goes off to Cardassia and brings back four Orbs of the Prophets, while simultaneously forging a peace that completely sidesteps the political process. Well played, authors. Well played. Nice to see Garak in his little cameo, too!
And the big twist at the end? I was spoiled for Shakaar's assassination by a Memory Beta page (my fault, I know), but I didn't know the who or why or when. That said, it was pretty obvious to me that Gard would be the one to do it, if only because it was such a clichéd narrative device - dude shows up out of the blue to go after one half of an established romantic couple, dude is pretty much too good to be true, dude is actually evil bet you didn't see that one coming. So that was a bit of a disappointment.
And here's a sentence I never thought I'd type: I wish they hadn't gone the parasitic brain-worm route. I was really, really hoping that the earlier references to changes in Shakaar would have been explained in some other way, that there was an actual reason for Shakaar to be acting so strangely. Heck, I would've been happy if we'd had a red herring going on, where Kira would come up with a plausible motivation for Shakaar to be acting the way he was and then we'd actually be shocked when it turned out he was being controlled all along. Alas, the whole time, we just got "Shakaar's acting really weird, he's not himself lately, HE'S NOT HIMSELF GEDDIT", which wasn't quite conducive to maintaining suspense for long.
That said, yikes, almost beheading the guy? That's gonna sting in the morning.
Predictability aside, I really liked this book as well, though again, I found everything happening at the station more exciting than what was going on elsewhere.
Book Four: Lesser Evil by Robert Simpson
This book was a lot more lightweight than the others, but it did a good job with the plots it did choose to tackle.
The Ruriko-Elias-Prynn plot was quite well done, especially the shock ending - not so much that Vaughn killed her, but the reason why Vaughn killed her. I'm hoping that the fact that Ezri knows the truth will help strengthen the friendship between them, and that Vaughn won't go back to existing only to introspect at length.
That said? I loved the flashbacks featuring a younger Vaughn and Ruriko as rival Intelligence agents. So much fun. And I love that Ruriko was able to step away from the job, and that Vaughn's obsession with Intelligence work wasn't treated as a wholly positive thing. It made a nice change. And there were some nice scenes between Prynn and Vaughn toward the end, there ("You are so screwed up", indeed). I just hope we're not back to square one with those two, because I might need to jump out an airlock if we're going to tread over all that ground all over again.
I honestly did like that Vaughn completely lost control for a while, there, and that his whole crew was doubting his competence. That was nice to see, for once, because there's been this strange vibe with him. If the writers were brave enough to take that to its logical extreme, we could even have him going rogue - he's made no meaningful connections among the crew of the Defiant, and every time he has a positive, life-affirming epiphany, it all twists and goes horribly wrong. That would be a lot of fun to see, anyway.
Kira finally got to do something! Granted, the twist was pretty darn obvious again, in almost exactly the same way as Gard's duplicity was in the last book. I did like that we had a bit of an unreliable narrator going on, in that all our information about Shakaar's time on the ship came direct from Montenegro, but it was still patently obvious that Kira was being played the whole time. I loved the interactions between Kira and Mello, though, and it was such a shame that Mello wound up getting killed off (even though it did result in that moment where Kira became captain of the Gryphon). The bit with Akaar "losing" the paperwork that withdrew Kira's Starfleet commission was pretty awesome, too.
But hurrah, Jake's reappearance! And Kai Opaka! Nice twist at the end, there. I'm gonna go read "Rising Son", now, to fill in the gaps.
All in all, I enjoyed "Lesser Evil" quite a lot.
Phew. That was long! I haven't properly reviewed anything in a long time.
If you reply (and I hope you do, even if you just want to tell me how wrong I am about all of the above!), I just want to mention that I haven't read beyond "Lesser Evil" yet, and so I'd really appreciate it if you avoided spoilers for later books in your replies.
