Please no spoilers: I am currently reading the Soul Key and then will re-read The Destiny books but do they explain why Dax leaves DS9 in the Soul Key?
No, there's like a 5 year or so gap between The Soul Key and the Destiny trilogy, and that happened over that time.
And hopefully, it will all be explained at some point... I'd really hate to never get that 5-year gap filled-in. Of course, the DS9 story arc kind of lost it's oomph overa the past 3 years. I used to be a devoted DS9-R reader and now I think (since it looks like the Gorkon/Klingon Empire Novels are no more) I'm a Titan/Vanguard person. Looking forward to what DRGIII does with his turn at bat though, so that's something to look forward too. And Garak. (Never enough Garak)
DS9-R was a great series until Warpath where it went off the road. The follow-ups then had it hit a tree and roll down a hill. It apparently wandered through a field and maybe a Forest at some point for five years but it's apparently found the road again. Time will tell if the road leads back to former greatness or it's a gravel road leading to a dead end. I'm still not sold on the necessity for all the prime universe 24th century series to be in the exact same time frame. It just looks like set-up for more crossovers.
She does talk a little in Soul Key about thinking about moving on. What year did Greater Than The Sum take place? Because there was a mention by Crusher (I think) that a colleague of Worf's from DS9 had recently transferred to a Vesta class ship (I'm sure that line was there), which would obviously have been Dax to Aventine.
Greater Than the Sum takes place in the months immediately prior to Destiny. The scene in question takes place in September 2380.
And Soul Key takes place around 2377 according to memory Beta. Hmm, clearly Dax didnt rush the decision...
Nonetheless, there is some material in The Soul Key that has Dax headed in the direction that will eventually lead her to take on her own command, at least as I recall, though nothing specific about leaving the station. Seeing the DS9-R get back on track is #1 on my wishlist for Trek lit, by the way. Here's hoping Rough Beasts is awesome in itself and drops some hints about what is to come.
The passage in GTTS only says that an old colleague of Worf's from DS9 was "now serving" aboard the Aventine. It doesn't specify how recently she took that posting, and it doesn't say she went directly from DS9 to the Aventine. I was specifically instructed to avoid pinning anything down about when and how Dax ended up there.
I figure if I keep saying this, it'll somehow make it happen, but my hope is that for DS9's twentieth, we'll get an anthology that focuses on the missing five years.
I will quote your post in a probably futile attempt to garner interest in this fabulous idea Seriously. Do it, Pocket Books. Do it.
Until we get a reason for her tranfer, I'd wager it's have something to do with the pain of the break-up with Julian. Perhaps...she wanted to spare him any further pain. It would certainly explain why she was struggling in Soul Key to keep it vague when she presses him about it....
Or ambition, a recognition of skills, a more successful merging of the qualities of previous hosts as Ezri matures, career aspirations... Any or all of these. Why "a" reason?
I find it hard to believe that someone who's lived for over 300 years and nine lifetimes would be so deeply affected by a mere breakup that it and it alone would shape her career decisions. I mean, Ezri and Julian were only a couple for nine and a half months. That's a pretty short-lived relationship even for a mere mortal, let alone for someone with over three centuries of life experience. I doubt it would've affected her all that deeply. And we've known since Avatar that Ezri was interested in switching to the command track, so it makes no sense to think that her departure from DS9 to advance her career arises from something totally unconnected to that. It was something she was bound to do eventually anyway.
As you say...but I would be surprised if her feelings for Julian were not, at the very least, a contributing factor....
Perhaps this will be addressed in Zero Sum Game. It sounds like they should be dealing with each other at least a little in the book, so I'm thinking if this will be addressed anywhere it would would be the most likely place.
It'd better be. I'm goint to ASSUME there's a particular reason they just HAPPEN to both be in the same book. Unless it's a torture-Ezri-as-we've-done-enough-to-poor-O'Brien, let's-have-her-witness-Julian-forming-a-romance-with-Sarina-and-there's-no-hope-anymore-for-reconciliation. In which case, I will be very...put out. But you know? The title is Zero Sum Game. Someone wins, but someone therefore loses in turn. It could just be talking about the stakes in this "cold war". However--again, I'm assuming there's a reason Mack would re-open this old wound, and put them in the same book after some years apart.... I predict a triangle. You can quote me on that.