My biggest gripe about Star Trek has finally been answered! I have always thought that the shows and movies showed Starfleet as being invincible. No matter how tough the enemy is they always gone away unscathed and on top.

When enemies like the Borg were introduced they were unstoppable and then later on when they were brought back they seemed meek in comparison. This is probably why the last 2 seasons of Star Trek Deep Space Nine interested me so much. The storyline about the war with the Dominion and how Starfleet was getting their butts kicked at every turn had a million possibilities. Of course killing off 2 major characters was also am extremely bold move seeing as how for 5 years there were fan favorites and now any DS9 movies that come out will either have to leave them out or find a way to bring them back.

This brings me to the most recent book I have read, Fallen Heroes, it was simply awesome! Finally Starfleet meets an enemy that is unstoppable, and seemingly nothing can be done.

The Plot

After some wheeling and dealing DS9’s resident shady barkeep Quark comes into possession of a strange box that no one seems to know its origin. Upon playing with it he finally gets it open only to have himself and Odo warped to a strange version of DS9 where the station is trashed and bodies litter the floor.

Meanwhile on DS9 present day a strange ship has come through the wormhole and is demanding the return of an imprisoned comrade. Sisko of course does not know what they are talking about and tries to reason with them. When their comrade is not returned within a certain amount of time the aliens transport to DS9 and begin killing anyone in their way. Dressed in large silver helmets and uniforms they start firing projectile weapons (uzi type weapons) and begin a death march to locate and retrieve their comrade.

Immediately Odo’s security detail go into action returning fire with their own phasers. Unfortunately the aliens shiny armor seems to reflect the phaser beams off them and out into the station. The security teams are helpless to stop the rampage.

Back in the future Odo and Quark are trying to piece together what exactly happened to turn the station into a war zone. After listening to various logs they are convinced that Quarks new “toy” is the cause of all this and must find a way to reverse what has happened.

Back on DS9 present day they are trying to repel the attackers but without any success. Phasers are worthless and the Bajorans have now taking it upon themselves to fight these attackers like they did the Cardassians. Instead of firing phasers they are overloading them and using them like grenades, but again their armor is impervious. They take to actually collapsing parts of DS9 onto the attackers to stop them.

It is too late however as one by one the crew of DS9 is struck down. Chief O’Brian watches as his wife is killed and then he himself is killed. Dax fights valiantly but in the end is also struck down by the assailants. There is not one person on DS9 that survives the onslaught. It is up to Odo and Quark to fix the past.

My Thoughts

Wow!!!

Of the 6 or 7 books I have now read in the DS9 universe this is the absolute best. Not only is it written extremely well, but also the author got each characters mannerisms and attitudes down perfectly. One part that sticks out is the death of Dax, she gets stabbed in the heart, which kills the host part but leaves the symbiote part of her to experience all that is happening, but unable to do anything about it. The way the book is written you will actually feel bad for the people on the station. The detail in this book is just superb. You feel like you are actually there watching it happen.

One major problem with a lot of books based on TV shows or movies (not just Trek shows) is that the author has a problem getting some of the characters right. It annoys me to no end when an author turns a favorite TV character around and I don’t even recognize them. The author of this book did an excellent job getting each person down pat. If you watched the show this is just like reading about an episode.

The other cool aspect was the fact that the aliens were mysterious and no one knew who they were. I am a fan of the idea “things happen just because”. When something is over explained it looses something. These aliens are something no one has ever seen and they are there to rescue a comrade and are not interested in the “Federation” way of negotiating. The author spends very little time in the book with the crew trying to find out who they are most of the time on the story of them trying to survive.

One thing that bugs me is the fact that the aliens were impervious to phaser type weapons, but not to projectile weapons. What was stopping the people on DS9 from making bows and arrows? It just drove me nuts the whole time. Another slightly less annoying thing was the lack of control in the chaos. It just seemed that everyone was off doing his or her own thing with no clear leadership.

If you are like and me and were just disgruntled over how the Federation win everything with little effort READ THIS BOOK. Finally a writer that wasn’t afraid to make an enemy that the Federation was no match for.


Recommended: Yes