Worlds of DS9 - Thoughts and review. SPOILER ALERT.

[theblitz]

So, having finished the 3 books here are my thoughts.

No question about the best story: Trill.
Awesome action the whole way with a great ending plus a small sad note.

Most disappointing: Dominion
I found it disjointed and in some ways not credible. The Founders discover religion? A Founder admits not to being a god? Sorry, just doesn't add up. Had to force myself to read it to the end.

Most obvious ending: Andor.
Was clear where the narative was heading almost from the start. Nevertheless, well written and kept me reading (until I lost it on the train with my tab. Luckily someone found and returned them.)

Most riveting: Cardassia
Everyone loves a story about a hostage situation. I guessed the ending but that's just one of those things. I guessed the ending to Ender's Game too.

Sudden Ending: Ferenginar
The story kinda ended suddenly. It was obvious from the start that Brunt was resposible but that was OK. Kinda like a Columbo-type "how caught him" drama. Still the ending "scene" was short.
The one bit that I didn't understand was why having a monogamy clause in a marriage contract would be considered old-fashioned.

Most resembled a TV episode: Bajor
Has multiple story lines running together rather like most of the episodes do. Other books do too (especially Dominion) but not as much.
The "Hi, Dad I am married" scene reminded me of the one from The Waltons (yeah - I am THAT old!) when one of the boys (was it Jim-Bob?) turned up married.

Well, those are my thoughts.

Time to move on to Warpath.

[lvsxy808]

theblitz wrote:

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No question about the best story: Trill.
Awesome action the whole way with a great ending plus a small sad note.

A big action rollicker, certainly. To my mind this is like the big blow-out season opener for "season 9." I was slightly unhappy with what a massive exposition machine the Annuated turned out to be - they have no story purpose other than to explain everything - but I suppose I can't come up with a better way of getting that information out there. And at least the lack of history or understanding of the symbionts was a hole we wanted filled, and not just some random deus crap, and Dax specifically went to them for answers, they didn't just "show up." So I guess I'm okay with it.

theblitz wrote:

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Most disappointing: Dominion
I found it disjointed and in some ways not credible. The Founders discover religion? A Founder admits not to being a god? Sorry, just doesn't add up. Had to force myself to read it to the end.

Nothing in the show ever suggested that the Founders actually believed their own hype. They never claimed that they believed themselves to be gods. They just set themselves up as gods to the Vorta and Jem'Hadar as an extra level of control. So this may not be your chosen interpretation, but it isn't necessarily inconsistent. And you didn't even mention the Taran'atar-Kira thing

theblitz wrote:

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Most obvious ending: Andor.
Was clear where the narrative was heading almost from the start. Nevertheless, well written and kept me reading (until I lost it on the train with my tab. Luckily someone found and returned them.)

Do you mean obvious in terms of what Shar did, or of what Thia did? Because Heather Jarman herself has said that she never intended Thia to do what she did at the end when she began - it was only when she got to that point in the story that she realized it the obvious choice. In retrospect it seems obvious, yes, what with the whole "economy of characters" rule. But it just goes to show you that the subconscious can be planning something all along even if the conscious mind isn't aware of it.

theblitz wrote:

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Most riveting: Cardassia
Everyone loves a story about a hostage situation. I guessed the ending but that's just one of those things. I guessed the ending to Ender's Game too.

A Garak story is always a delight, but I found this oddly slow and talky, and a surprisingly small story considering some of the more momentous events going on elsewhere in the series. Still, at least that means there's variety. But seeing Garak, O'Brien, Macet and Yevir team up is kind of a wacky idea that works out brilliantly.

theblitz wrote:

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Sudden Ending: Ferenginar
The story kinda ended suddenly. It was obvious from the start that Brunt was responsible but that was OK. Kinda like a Columbo-type "how caught him" drama. Still the ending "scene" was short.
The one bit that I didn't understand was why having a monogamy clause in a marriage contract would be considered old-fashioned.

I enjoyed having a story that took the Ferengi seriously as a culture - that could have fun with them without making fun of them. I did find there to be a bit of a plot hole in the solution, though. Aside from the fact that the extended marriage contract was a fake, Ro's answer was that Rom's marriage to Leeta didn't violate his marriage to Prinadora because the former was a Bajoran contract and not a Ferengi contract, and therefore didn't count. But if that's true, then surely it equally doesn't count for the purposes of Leeta getting access to all of Rom's wealth and prestige as the wife of the Nagus. It would mean that Rom isn't really married to either of them according to Ferengi law.

theblitz wrote:

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Most resembled a TV episode: Bajor
Has multiple story lines running together rather like most of the episodes do. Other books do too (especially Dominion) but not as much.
The "Hi, Dad I am married" scene reminded me of the one from The Waltons (yeah - I am THAT old!) when one of the boys (was it Jim-Bob?) turned up married.

No idea about the Waltons, but I did enjoy the structure of the story, especially as it's all right there in the title - Fragments and Omens. It was all these tiny fragments of story, small plot-lets that seems mostly unconnected at first, until they all come together at Sisko's dinner party. The Jake-Rena is one of the most quiet, gentle, pleasant and human-scaled stories we've had in the DS9-R. As a generalisation the DS9-R hasn't had room for the small character stories like the series used to do - O'Brien has to tidy his quarters, Odo gets a houseplant - simply because of the different formats of TV and prose. I think this is the nearest we get - it's a simple boy-meets-girl story that really could happen to any two characters.

How did you feel about the series as a whole? There was some discussion IIRC about a sense of repetitiveness - all the stories involved tension between conservative versus progressive forces in government. Obviously that can only be a deliberate theme - do we allow the past to define us, or do we redefine ourselves in the now in response to our current circumstances? And that applies both on a global scale, with all the cultures in some level of upheaval, and on a personal scale, with all the various break-ups and get-togethers and near-misses.

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[theblitz]

lvsxy808 wrote:

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Nothing in the show ever suggested that the Founders actually believed their own hype. They never claimed that they believed themselves to be gods. They just set themselves up as gods to the Vorta and Jem'Hadar as an extra level of control.

Still was weird that they would admit to a JemHadar that they are not gods.
In addition, the answer to the ultimate question: why send out those specific hundered doesn't really add up. Even if they weren't infants, they were still changelings who could not transform. Not really the type you would send out when every life is precious.

lvsxy808 wrote:

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And you didn't even mention the Taran'atar-Kira thing

I knew something was wrong with the escape story. Thought is was just a writer's mistake. If I was in charge of a prison out in space and one of the inmates escaped the cell, the FIRST thing I would do would be to make sure ALL ships left immediately so as to remove any possible escape route.

lvsxy808 wrote:

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Do you mean obvious in terms of what Shar did, or of what Thia did?

I was talking about the way Thia became part of the four.

lvsxy808 wrote:

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But seeing Garak, O'Brien, Macet and Yevir team up is kind of a wacky idea that works out brilliantly.

My thoughts exactly

lvsxy808 wrote:

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No idea about the Waltons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_waltons

lvsxy808 wrote:

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How did you feel about the series as a whole? There was some discussion IIRC about a sense of repetitiveness - all the stories involved tension between conservative versus progressive forces in government. Obviously that can only be a deliberate theme - do we allow the past to define us, or do we redefine ourselves in the now in response to our current circumstances? And that applies both on a global scale, with all the cultures in some level of upheaval, and on a personal scale, with all the various break-ups and get-togethers and near-misses.

In spite of all I wrote I definitely enjoyed it overall.
It's like with the epsiodes. There are some you like more and some you like less.

[lvsxy808]

theblitz wrote:

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Still was weird that they would admit to a JemHadar that they are not gods.

My impression was just that she'd gone a bit loopy. Under ordinary circumstances you'd be right, but I guess these weren't ordinary circumstances.

theblitz wrote:

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_waltons

Oh I know what the Waltons is, I'm just not familiar enough with it to compare to anything else.

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