I’ve more or less decided not to review media tie-in novels quite so much, because most of them are average and don’t inspire much in the way of commentary. In this case, however, I made an exception, since the book is part of the post-finale relaunch of the “Deep Space Nine” novels. For the most part, I have found those novels to be among the most impressive in recent years.
One thing I loved about the first dozen or so post-finale DS9 books was the format. The format was very similar to the “New Jedi Order” run of “Star Wars” books, where the story was broken into duologies, quartets, and so forth, but ultimately comprised a serialized long-term arc. This all culminated in “Unity”, after which the story began to sputter and falter. The post-finale books have been given less and less attention, and now the story is barely making any progress.
This novel is merely the most recent symptom of the problem. The gimmick for this book is its presentation; two stories, both connected to the post-“Unity” arc, are told in a “flip-book” format. One side covers the action on DS9 after the events of “Warpath”, and the other side fills in the expository background for the villain revealed in the first side.
Both sides tell their appointed tales rather well. Considering how long it took for the book to be released since “Warpath”, this should be no surprise. Unfortunately, the book resolves nothing, leading towards a cliffhanger that will need to be resolved in a future novel. Given how infrequent the post-finale DS9 novels have been, this is not a welcome prospect. There are already too many dangling plot threads from the ill-advised “Worlds of DS9” novellas, released immediately after “Unity”, and far too little indication that this situation will ever be repaired.
Given my disenchantment with the recent relaunch of the “Next Generation” novels (which also covered a relaunch of sorts for “Voyager”), I can only hope that the upcoming “Destiny” trilogy will pick up the pieces and get the novels back on track.
Rating: 6/10
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