Deep Space Nine gets back to exploration
Written: Apr 24 '04 (Updated Aug 17 '08)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Great characters, pretty good writing
Cons: a bit bloated
The Bottom Line: The bottom line has a lot of guilt to make up for.
|
|
|
| hist's Full Review: Twilight Books |
One of the draws to the television show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was the fact that the wormhole passage that was right next to the station enabled exploration to a completely uncharted area of space, the Gamma Quadrant. While the show had its fair share of episodes exploring this area, they spent more time with Bajor, and, subsequently, with the Dominion War. In fact, in later seasons, the wormhole was closed and the Gamma Quadrant was unreachable.
Now that the series is over and the books have taken over the grand Deep Space Nine story, it’s time to open up the exploration again. Twilight, by David R. George III, is the beginning of a four-part story which details this. It’s a huge novel with a very large story to tell, one which it tells effectively for the most part. However, it’s a bit bloated with so much information, and George’s occasionally heavy prose and repetition make this problem worse. Still, it’s a great read for any DS9 fan.
The book starts out with Commander Vaughn, first officer of DS9 and currently commanding the Defiant, under attack by some Jarada warships. The Jarada are very xenophobic and they only agreed to help Starfleet in the previous book because they were promised some information on the Iconian gateways (in Demons of Air & Darkness). When that doesn’t happen, they attack the Defiant, and Vaughn can’t fight back or the Jarada would attack the entire civilian convoy that Defiant is protecting. The fight almost destroys the Defiant, though thankfully there are few casualties (which is actually a bit unrealistic, but there you go). After the Defiant returns, it is refitted and prepared to go on the first exploration of the Gamma Quadrant in years.
Vaughn, his daughter Prynn, Dax, Bashir, Nog, and Ensign ch’Thane, are the main characters along on this ride. Their first encounter is with a peaceful race of beings who communicate through lights flashing across their bodies. Vaughn is extremely taken with them, but suddenly an energy pulse hits the planet’s moon and causes it to blow apart. Pieces of it land on the planet, causing great destruction, even more so if the Defiant and some quick thinking didn’t stop some of the pieces from landing. Vaughn is horrified, and determined to find out where the pulse came from. Their investigations lead to another planet, where weird things are happening. Energy crackles throughout the atmosphere, a landing party is cut off, and Vaughn must deal with not only his past, but his future as well.
Meanwhile, back on the station, a summit is taking place to discuss Bajor’s application for Federation membership. Colonel Kira, still cut off from the official practice of her religion by events in previous novels, wonders about her place. Not just in her religion, but as commander of the station, especially if Bajor ends up joining. Security Chief Ro Laren and Quark try to figure out just what their relationship is going to be, and what their relationship with the station will be if Bajor joins. And Ben Sisko’s pregnant wife, Cassidy, sits down on Bajor wondering what her place on Bajor will be as the Emissary’s wife, and how this will affect her child’s growing up. Surprises await everyone, especially when events start moving faster then even they can contemplate.
I have never seen a 500 page Trek novel before, but George has a lot of ground to cover. I’m glad to say that he doesn’t waste much of it, though the book could have been trimmed a bit here and there. George’s style is very workmanlike and enjoyable. One thing it is not is boring. However, he does repeat himself at times, seemingly to emphasize points that he thinks the reader should definitely remember. Kira’s attainder against practicing her religion gets mentioned many times. Other times, repetition is not the problem, but heavy-handed prose is. George allows his characters to get very introspective, but sometimes he goes a bit too far, with pages going by with nothing but a character thinking. I really loved the book, but I found it dragging at times because of this.
The main place where this happens is on the planet where the pulse originated. George does a wonderful job examining his characters, especially Vaughn. Vaughn has a lot of soul-searching to do. His relationship with his daughter is non-existent, as she blames him for her mother’s death and for abandoning her afterward in his own guilt. He has always dreamed of exploring, but most of his career has been spent fighting various menaces. He has a lot of regrets in his past, and he ends up reliving a lot of them on the planet. While this was fascinating stuff, it began to get tedious as the pages roll by. Sometimes, I just wanted Vaughn to shut up and get on with it. There are some passages for Dax like this as well, and each character has just a bit too much introspection for my taste. The book just feels a bit bloated because of this.
George captures the other characters wonderfully, getting to the heart of the various conflicts between them. The ongoing tension between ch’Thane and his family is beautifully drawn, finally extracting a promise that he never wanted to make to his fellow Andorians. Ro and Quark tap dance around their feelings, making a wonderful contrast with Quark’s relationship with Odo in the series. Kira, and Kassidy are both equally well-done. Taran’atar, the Jem’Hadar warrior who has been assigned by Odo to observe the Alpha Quadrant and learn something, has some wonderful scenes as he moves out of the Operations area and tries to observe the rest of the station. The only characters who are given short shrift are Bashir and Nog (who does get a wonderful scene with Taran’atar), but that’s to be expected. George has already tried to pack the book full. However, if the book had to be this big, it would have been nice to chop some of the bloat and give it to these two.
Twilight is a wonderful beginning to the “Mission: Gamma” series, and a wonderful addition to the Deep Space Nine mythos. I’m loving the continuation of the television series, and there hasn’t been a bad book yet. I’m hoping the other three books in the series are just as good, if not better.
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
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
hist
|
 in Books |
|
Member: David Roy
Location: Vancouver, BC
Reviews written: 723
Trusted by: 218 members
About Me:Thinking of taking Greyhound? Be careful:
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.