Algernon_Asimov's reviews of the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels
Algernon_Asimov's reviews of the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels
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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.
Audrid: Sins of the Mother
This story is in the form of a letter from Audrid Dax, to her estranged daughter Neema. In it, Audrid confesses the truth about Neema's father's death eight years earlier, in the hopes of rebuilding the relationship with her daughter. The estrangement and re-acquaintance is mentioned on-screen in Deep Space Nine, although the reasons for it aren't made clear.
As a letter, it doesn't work; people just don't write personal letters which read like fiction stories. Because that's what most of this letter is: a story told in the first person, complete with detailed descriptions of the environment and events (details that Audrid supposedly remembers eight years later). As a story, it's interesting. It introduces something new to the Star Trek universe and, in particular, to Trill lore. There's a tie-in to something seen in an episode of The Next Generation (not 'The Host'!), and this plot point is then brought into the relaunch novels (which is one reason this book is given honorary "relaunch" status).
Audrid and her husband are sent out as Trill experts to investigate something that Starfleet has discovered, which they recognise as being somehow connected to Trills but don't understand (we are reminded here that Trill is keeping the symbionts a secret from other species, as mentioned in TNG: 'The Host'). The leader of the mission is Captain Pike (our canonical character).
It's an interesting story, but I'm not sure that a letter is the best form for this.
Torias: Infinity
Torias Dax is a test pilot, and this story is about the 24 hours leading up to his test of a brand-new "transwarp" drive, installed in a shuttle. It's also being installed in the new 'Excelsior' starship, to be commissioned in two days' time and commanded by Captain Styles. Torias is also working with a Cadet Saavik. Plus, a certain Admiral will be showing up to the ceremony... And, of course, he's working with his wife, Nilani Kahn - who we met in the TV episode 'Rejoined', through Kahn's later host, Lenara. This points out one of the main flaws of this story: we already know how it's going to end, because Lenara Kahn and Jadzia Dax discussed these events extensively in that episode. Like Emony's story earlier in this book, this is just another fleshing out of a scenario we already know, rather than a new story.
That said, it's not bad. Not great, but not bad. It's a simple, solid story.
Joran: Allegro Ouroboros in D Minor
Here we get an insight into the mind of a serial killer - and the mind of the Symbiosis Commission agent who has to track him down. This story follows Joran Dax as he selects and kills his victims, and Verjyl Gard as he tracks the killer. The point of view shifts between Dax and Gard throughout the story.
Unlike other stories in this book, this is not merely fleshing out a line from an episode, but is a new story. This story is set on Trill itself, and is the only story in this anthology which does not include a reference to any existing Star Trek characters or events.
It's a good story. We see some hints of the dark side of Trill joinings. We see the psychology of a serial killer. We learn how the Symbiosis Commission deals with events like this. It's good.
Curzon: The Music Between The Notes
This story is told as an after-the-fact reminiscence by Benjamin Sisko, remembering back to his days as an Ensign, and how Curzon Dax became such a pivotal figure in his life.
This story tells about a diplomatic mission Curzon Dax is involved in, with Ensign Sisko as his adjutant, to sign a treaty with the Bactricans who want to join the Federation. During this mission, a second alien species turns up and complicates everything. This second species is truly alien - something we wouldn't be able to see on-screen, and something very different to what we expect. There are things to learn everywhere: about the alien species, about the Bactricans, about Curzon's mysterious but attractive friend. Sisko learns a lot, and so do we. This is interesting science fiction.
The main fault is that the person telling the story doesn't sound very much like the Benjamin Sisko we see during the series.
Jadzia: Reflections
This story is set in the middle of the fourth season of 'Deep Space Nine', as the Defiant is returning to the station from Earth. Jadzia Dax gets a message about her sister on Trill, and Captain Sisko diverts the Defiant so that he and Jadzia can investigate.
We see the dark side of Trill joinings. We meet an old "friend". We learn about the relationship between Jadzia and her sister. It's a good story.
Summary
Like any anthology, some of the stories are stronger and some are weaker. I would recommend 'First Steps', 'Allegro Ouroboros in D Minor', and 'The Music Between the Notes' as the two best stories. 'Dead Man's Hand' and 'Infinity' are the two weakest stories - the first because it's just uninteresting, the second because it doesn't really add much to a single line of dialogue from the series. And, if you're going to read the rest of the relaunch novels, you need to read 'Sins of the Mother' for background information.
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:
... and some new faces:
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.