I'm a big fan of the DS9 relaunch. I loved Avatar and am now finishing up with the Mission Gamma #3. I have all the books to The Never-Ending Sacrifice (so I have quite a few books left to read to read to catch up to the current DS9 books). That said, I was wondering how (a) entertaining and (b) integral the Left Hand of Destiny (books 1 and 2) and the Worlds of DS9 (books 1 to 3) are to the ongoing post-Avatar DS9 adventure. These 5 books seem the least interesting from their back cover solicits, but perhaps those write-ups don't do the books justice. Are these 5 books interesting and important to the DS9 lit? I plan to finish off Mission Gamma #3, and then #4, Rising Son, and Unity by the end of March (as I'm caught up with PAD's New Frontier now having inhaled Treason in 4 days). However, on the DS9 list, the 2 Left Hands of Destiny books seems to precede Unity. Are those 2 must-reads between Rising Son and Unity? Also, I may just jump to reading the 3-part Terok Nor series after Unity. Those seem to be period pieces, that also seem quite interesting, and I imagine can be read at any time as they precede even the DS9 tv show, right? Whew. I now that's a lot of Qs. Thanks. Please let me know what you think. Cheers.
While excellent in my opinion The Left Hand of Destiny duology is more of a side story not integral to the Relaunch narrative and if I'm remembering correctly is actually set before Avatar. The WODS9 books on the other hand are integral to the ongoing saga as they move the story forward.
Thanks. The WODS9 appear to be 2 stories in each of the 3 issues. Is that right? They spotlight a character or 2 in each? Is there a broader narrative that they play into, like one story leads into the other?
As the title indicates each of the 6 novellas is focusing on one of the worlds who played a big part in the DS9 narrative or those which are the homeplanet of a character. The first book features Cardassia (with the O'Briens) and Andor (Shar and Prynn), the second Trill (Dax and Bashir) and Bajor (The Siskos) and the third Ferenginar (Quark, Rom, Ro, Leeta) and the Dominion (Odo, Taran'atar). They are all pretty much stand alone, but move the individual stories for the respective characters forward and the ending of Olympus Descending leads directly into Warpath.
BTW, I noticed there weren't too many DS9 threads around here. Is the series lit not doing well or of interest to folks around here?
Whew... I'll have to check the publisher's site to see when the next DS9 book of the relaunch narrative is out. But, I did do an advanced "title" search for "DS9" in ST lir forum and found zero replies. So, it seems its been a long time since we had a DS9 thread here (if at all.... but maybe I did the search wrong).
Nothing further in DS9 has been announced yet. With so many different Trek novel series these days, it's been a long time since any one of them came out on a guaranteed regular basis. Typically, a given series may be light or absent one year and heavily featured the next, depending on the vagaries of the schedule, whatever special events there might be that year (such as anniversaries or movie releases), etc. The folks who participate regularly in this forum are generally pretty familiar with the new/upcoming book titles and so they might not feel it necessary to specify the series title in their threads. For instance, I just did a search for threads in this forum discussing DS9: The Soul Key, and there are eight with "Soul Key" in the thread title, none of which have "DS9" or any other form of the series name in their titles. I did a search for the word "Deep" and got eight threads about DS9, all with "Deep Space Nine/9" spelled out in the titles. Three of them have been posted in within the past six months. EDIT: Oh, also, I think the search form doesn't work on any word shorter than four characters, so "DS9" wouldn't get any results.
I haven't looked at the 2011 release schedule in a while but I'm fairly certain there wasn't a single DS9 title scheduled for release this year. I believe the only DS9 fix you'll get will be from the DS9 characters mentioned in the various Typhon Pact novels. - Byron
So, if I read all the DS9 novels I have this year or by early/mid 2012, I'll be up-to-date for any new DS9 coming out in 2012 or afterwards. I'll read up to Never Ending Sacrifice and then I'll be ready for new DS9, but will the publisher? Interesting about the 3 characters. Since "DS9" is the common way of talking about Deep Space Nine, I wonder why the mods around here don't change the search threshold to allow at least a 3-letter title search. I also take your point about Soul Key thread titling.
I should also add that a 3-letter search would allow folks to find threads with TOS, TNG, and DS9 in them. And these are 3 heavily used short forms for ST series. I'm surprised this limitation exists in the search function around here.
It's also worth pointing out that two of the four Typhon Pact novels do move the story of several DS9 characters forward. None of the books are specifically DS9 books, but it would be a good idea for anyone who wants to continue to follow DS9 to read the books. Just don't read them until you've read Destiny and A Singular Destiny.
Shar... Spoiler Who is apparently not part of DS9 any longer from what somebody posted. Since I'm only at Mission Gamma 3, he's still on DS9.
Cool. Since I'm a bit behind, once I finish some of these older novels, would folks mind if I pose Qs about the novels or share what I thought of them in the appropriate thread? I see myself posting on this one my thoughts on the DS9 relaunch lit. However, I am a few *ahem* books behind.
Don't discount the Left Hand of Destiny Parts 1 & 2. While it is indeed what you might call a side story to the main DS9 plot, it's really well done and probably one of the more enjoyable reads I can recall. If you're interested in the character of Martok in the slightest or Klingons at all, definitely not a story to be missed. Plus Emperor Kahless is just so damn badass. (Especially when you realize why)
Agreed. While not vital to the Relaunch continuity, The Left Hand of Destiny duology is well worth your time.