Angst here, angst there...I'm really feeling bad about that.
Written: Aug 23 '04 (Updated Aug 17 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Some great character work with the regulars, the events on the station
Cons: Too much angst, I didn't care about any of the incidental characters
The Bottom Line: The bottom line is really depressed
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| hist's Full Review: Heather Jarman - The Gray Spirit Books |
This Gray Spirit is the first book written by Heather Jarman, which I think is unusual for a Star Trek book. It has the difficult job of continuing the Defiant's exploration of the Gamma Quadrant and the political machinations that are resulting from Bajor's application to join the Federation. As such, there's a lot of story to juggle. While not as big as Twilight, it's still almost 400 packed pages. For a first effort, it's very good, but there are some real problems with it that I hope she rectifies in her subsequent books.
The situation on Deep Space Nine is rife with tension. Gul Macet, the Cardassian commander who looks exactly like the Dukat, the head of the occupation on Bajor, has returned to the station with an unexpected guest. Ambassador Natima Lang has come to try and bridge the gap between Cardassia and Bajor. Her gift to the Bajoran people brings back some harsh memories, however. Memories that some people aren't ready to deal with. Colonel Kira Nerys, commander of Deep Space Nine, is especially affected, and she's even more affected by the cold attitude that Shakaar, First Minister of Bajor and Kira's former lover, now seems to have toward her. When negotiations seem to be stonewalled, Kira has to figure out why, when the rift between the two planets must be healed.
Meanwhile, in the Gamma Quadrant, Commander Vaughn and the crew of the Defiant are continuing their exploration when they find themselves trapped in the middle of an interstellar war. Heavily damaged by the weapons of one side of the conflict, Vaughn finds himself going to the other for help. Unfortunately, doing so embroils him in a volatile situation that could spell the end of the planet's civilization. While Vaughn attempts to get the parts required to repair the Defiant and keep it safe from attack, Ezri Dax must navigate the minefield on the planet to keep the society alive, before it collapses into civil war.
I said in my review of Twilight that the book was full of Vaughn's angst. Unfortunately, the trend continues in This Gray Spirit, though this time it's Dax's turn. Dax is a Trill, a species with a humanoid host containing a slug that's been alive for a long time, and Dax has been alive for three hundred years. Ezri was joined against her will as the only Trill on board when her ship was attacked by the Dominion. Thus, she's had to assimilate a lot of abilities and memories, and she's still working toward that. She's forced into an extremely diplomatic situation on the planet and she has to try and use her various Dax personalities to come up with a way out of the current problem. While it's interesting to see Dax's dilemma, I do have to say that the angst factor was turned up to a high level and got a bit tiring to read about. It helps that Dax is an interesting character, though.
Unfortunately, Dax angst isn't the only angst to deal with. Ensign ch'Thane's Andorian reproductive problems also take center stage in this book. Andorians form a group of four who all come together to reproduce at the proper time. Reproduction is very structured on Andor, and ch'Thane realizes that going to drive Andorian society to extinction if something isn't done about it. He's on a quest to discover some way to genetically engineer a solution to the problem, and he uses his experiences on the planet to help him. Ch'Thane isn't the problem, however. It's his bondmates back on the station who really started to grate on my nerves. One of his three bondmates, Thriss, is extremely fragile and very hurt that he went off to the Gamma Quadrant rather than go home to Andor with them. In fact, occasionally she turns violent, and there is one vivid scene with the security chief, Lieutenant Ro, trying to break up a fight between Thriss and another of her bondmates. Scenes like this really bring home the dilemma, but there are just too many of them. They start to become repetitious and boring. We get the idea that Thriss is despondent over what's going on. Let's get on with it! These scenes do introduce us to the new station counselor, Phillipa Matthias. She is an intriguing character who Ro immediately begins to like (and knowing Ro's feelings about counselors, that's a good thing). I also really liked her, though it will be nice to get to know her a little better than we get in this book.
In addition to the angst, there is the problem of characters. The regulars are fine. In fact, they are extremely well done. While I thought there was too much angst, I still thought Dax was very interesting. I loved the characterization of Vaughn, especially as his strategies on how to get the material they need to evade the Cheka web-mines. He's shown to be a brilliant tactician, quick-thinking but also willing to listen to his subordinates when they have an idea. The regulars back on the station are quite good as well, as I really liked the developing relationship between Ro and Quark, as well as Kira's dedication to her people.
No, the characters I'm talking about are the Yrythny, the people who Vaughn and his crew are dealing with. We see the caste system that they have set up, we get an interesting world where these amphibious aliens go back in the water to spawn, with a class of other Yrythny who have no home waters to go to and are thus "lesser" people. The problems on this world are fascinating and I loved how the crew of the Defiant interacted with them. However, there are no real characters for the crew to interact with. There's a "terrorist" organization made up of a radical faction of these "houseless" Yrythny who are trying to better their status through violence. There is a Delegate who is also an outsider and trying to solve the problems from within the government. There appears to be a conspiracy mixed up in there somewhere, to betray the Yrythny to the Cheka. This is all fine, but why should we care when we don't get to identify with anybody? The closest we get to a character is Keran, the Delegate who befriends ch'Thane and is trying to get more rights for her fellow Wanderers. Other than Keran, we get a bunch of faceless aliens who I couldn't really distinguish between. When the conspiracy is revealed and the story hits its climax, I didn't really care. I didn't have anything invested in anybody other than whether or not Dax and ch'Thane succeeded in what they were trying to do. If you can't get us to care about any of the characters you introduce, then you've lost half the battle of making an enjoyable book.
That being said, I loved bits and pieces of the book. The climax is full of tension and since it involved the entire Defiant crew in different places, the fact that I didn't care about any of the Yrythny didn't bother me. Plus the events on the station were really intriguing too. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled about what's happening there, so instead of trying to figure out what was going on, I was trying to figure out how what I knew fit in with what was going on, but it was still satisfying. So far I'm finding the political problems on Bajor to be much more interesting than the exploration of the Gamma Quadrant, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. I hope that improves.
Jarman is a pretty good writer, and the fact that I ultimately enjoyed This Gray Spirit despite not really caring about the Andorians or the aliens that she created didn't really take away from that. She did create an intriguing society, and if she ever decides to populate that society with characters I actually want to read about, I'm looking forward to reading that book. The fact that she does such a great job with the regulars also saves this one. Give it a try, even if it is just to get to the next book in the series. It's definitely worth a read. At least once.
Other Deep Space Nine continuation books:
Avatar
Section 31: Abyss
Demons of Air & Darkness
Mission Gamma: Twilight
Mission Gamma: This Gray Spirit
Mission Gamma: Cathedral
Mission Gamma: Lesser Evil
Rising Son
Unity
Worlds of Deep Space Nine: Cardassia & Andor
Worlds of Deep Space Nine: Bajor & Trill
Worlds of Deep Space Nine: Dominion & Ferenginar
Warpath
Fearful Symmetry
A Stitch in Time
Left Hand of Destiny: Book 1
Left Hand of Destiny: Book 2
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: David Roy
Location: Vancouver, BC
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