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eponymous_rose(Previous reviews in this series are here, and comments on earlier reviews are always welcome!)
I really enjoyed this one - after having liked the Avatar books, I had high hopes going in, and they weren't disappointed.
I think that what I was most expecting from this was your standard coming-of-age story, in which Jake would go out, see that the universe isn't always a great place, and come home changed - which we've seen with his character several times already, in episodes like "Nor the Battle to the Strong".
In a lot of ways, that's exactly what happened in Rising Son, but there was just enough of a twist to it to make the whole thing feel refreshing and somewhat unpredictable - not to mention realistic. It's what happens when you go out into the world for the first time: sometimes you fall in with a group of people, and you wind up staying with them simply because you like the idea of being part of something. At some point, you either learn to live with the differences, or you find out they're irreconcilable and you move on, a little wiser, a little more cautious, and with a little more self-confidence than before.
I really liked the way Jake's relationship with his father was explored here - a lot of Jake's story has been about trying to find his own path (not going into Starfleet, staying behind during the Dominion Occupation of the station) while still being unable to completely sever that tie to his father's life (such as when he deferred the Pennington School to stay behind). I was always a bit surprised that he wasn't more resentful, given some of the choices Sisko made about the Prophets, especially later in the series, and it was nice to see that addressed in this book. Jake has been almost completely defined by his father up to this point, and that rarely ends well.
The new characters in this book were a joy - colorful, well-rounded people that'd be the basis for an excellent series of their own. Dez was especially well done: for a long while, I kept expecting the story to give his materialistic point of view the upper hand, to berate Jake for being naive. It was fantastic to see the twist where Jake had enough unshakeable confidence in his own beliefs to see Dez as the one being naive - very, very nicely done. That right there was why this wasn't entirely a standard innocence-to-experience story, because it treated what Dez perceived to be Jake's "innocence" as something worthy of respect. Jake's decision to go home was also very nicely done, especially since it ties in with a running theme throughout the series - remember Kira's story about the kava farmers in "Starship Down"?
Dez's relationship with his father was really well executed, and it was certainly a useful device from a narrative standpoint, because a whole lot of things could be explained away as "he's trying to impress Jake". I'm a sucker for stories in which two people's similarities are explored, and then the spotlight comes down on their one fundamental difference (think Garak and Odo in the third-season two-parter: both were desparate to return to their respective homes, and both had the chance to do it, but only Garak was willing to sacrifice everything to get there).
It was good to see Opaka again (what with all the callbacks to the first season, it was especially fun to see a major character from that time), though I thought the entire chapter devoted to her escape from the moon was unnecessary, especially since the only thing we really needed to retain from that was the existence of the Ascendants. A couple more lines of dialogue would have sufficed, surely. Still, nice to know the entire conflict wasn't blown over in a matter of weeks - that it took years to stop the fighting makes sense. It was also a neat fake-out, that the prophecy was referring to Opaka and not Sisko.
No idea what to make of Wex - after all the vivid characters who popped up throughout the story, she's been nothing but a blank slate. I look forward to seeing where they go with her.
Pif was adorable. End of story.
Anyway, long story short: I really enjoyed this one. The dialogue sparkled, the characters were genuinely entertaining, and the plot, while a little thin on the ground at times, gave Jake a well-deserved moment in the spotlight.
As always, I'd appreciate it if you avoided spoilers for later books in your comments!
I really enjoyed this one - after having liked the Avatar books, I had high hopes going in, and they weren't disappointed.
I think that what I was most expecting from this was your standard coming-of-age story, in which Jake would go out, see that the universe isn't always a great place, and come home changed - which we've seen with his character several times already, in episodes like "Nor the Battle to the Strong".
In a lot of ways, that's exactly what happened in Rising Son, but there was just enough of a twist to it to make the whole thing feel refreshing and somewhat unpredictable - not to mention realistic. It's what happens when you go out into the world for the first time: sometimes you fall in with a group of people, and you wind up staying with them simply because you like the idea of being part of something. At some point, you either learn to live with the differences, or you find out they're irreconcilable and you move on, a little wiser, a little more cautious, and with a little more self-confidence than before.
I really liked the way Jake's relationship with his father was explored here - a lot of Jake's story has been about trying to find his own path (not going into Starfleet, staying behind during the Dominion Occupation of the station) while still being unable to completely sever that tie to his father's life (such as when he deferred the Pennington School to stay behind). I was always a bit surprised that he wasn't more resentful, given some of the choices Sisko made about the Prophets, especially later in the series, and it was nice to see that addressed in this book. Jake has been almost completely defined by his father up to this point, and that rarely ends well.
The new characters in this book were a joy - colorful, well-rounded people that'd be the basis for an excellent series of their own. Dez was especially well done: for a long while, I kept expecting the story to give his materialistic point of view the upper hand, to berate Jake for being naive. It was fantastic to see the twist where Jake had enough unshakeable confidence in his own beliefs to see Dez as the one being naive - very, very nicely done. That right there was why this wasn't entirely a standard innocence-to-experience story, because it treated what Dez perceived to be Jake's "innocence" as something worthy of respect. Jake's decision to go home was also very nicely done, especially since it ties in with a running theme throughout the series - remember Kira's story about the kava farmers in "Starship Down"?
Dez's relationship with his father was really well executed, and it was certainly a useful device from a narrative standpoint, because a whole lot of things could be explained away as "he's trying to impress Jake". I'm a sucker for stories in which two people's similarities are explored, and then the spotlight comes down on their one fundamental difference (think Garak and Odo in the third-season two-parter: both were desparate to return to their respective homes, and both had the chance to do it, but only Garak was willing to sacrifice everything to get there).
It was good to see Opaka again (what with all the callbacks to the first season, it was especially fun to see a major character from that time), though I thought the entire chapter devoted to her escape from the moon was unnecessary, especially since the only thing we really needed to retain from that was the existence of the Ascendants. A couple more lines of dialogue would have sufficed, surely. Still, nice to know the entire conflict wasn't blown over in a matter of weeks - that it took years to stop the fighting makes sense. It was also a neat fake-out, that the prophecy was referring to Opaka and not Sisko.
No idea what to make of Wex - after all the vivid characters who popped up throughout the story, she's been nothing but a blank slate. I look forward to seeing where they go with her.
Pif was adorable. End of story.
Anyway, long story short: I really enjoyed this one. The dialogue sparkled, the characters were genuinely entertaining, and the plot, while a little thin on the ground at times, gave Jake a well-deserved moment in the spotlight.
As always, I'd appreciate it if you avoided spoilers for later books in your comments!
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Date: 2010-08-02 11:34 pm (UTC)I really enjoyed this one best of the season eight books, though I'm finding that it's been so long since I read it I've forgotten a lot of the details. Everyone claims this one is quite a bit 'DS9 + Firefly', but I personally think it wears its debt to Diane Duane's novels on the sleeve.