Hate to double post, but so be it! I finished Revelation and Dust today and was pretty disappointed. The book isn't bad. Indeed, it's well written and DRGIII remains the most literary-minded of Trek Lit authors. But it just didn't connect with me on any level and aside from showcasing the new station, didn't give me enough of the DS9 uniqueness. The Keev storyline was too long and I was never given a reason to care or root for the characters there. I do wish TrekLit would avoid the temptation to give characters touched by the Prophets their own Benny Russell. I feel that section, instead of giving us insight into Kira via a proxy, pushed Kira to the side. The DS9 parts were good but not great. Too many characters in too little space. We get small scenes and that's it, Ezri/Julian could have been bigger. Nog and O'Brien seemed off. The biggest issues remain the constant time jumps for the DS9-R since "Soul Key" and the "missing" years of the Ascendant Incident. There's too much to fill in and at the same time there's a hesitancy to establish anything about the Ascendant arc. It's time to move on and either spill the beans on it all or put a book out that fills it. You can only read "The Ascendant incident" so many times. And man this book couldn't have more artlessly done political allegory.
Lest it seem I'm totally down on the book, I loved the scene between Wadeen and Gell Kamemor. And the scene with Quark and Ro late in the book was phenomenal, Quark's tearful statement of remorse set shivers down my spine in how emotionally and character true it was. It could have been so much better, but a weak DRGIII DS9 entry is still solid.
Finally, I started The Crimson Shadow today and am absolutely loving it. In just a single chapter, Una McCormack already has me caring for her policewomen and the Cardassian equivalent of a Southerner in the big city. And the real world reflections seem truer. Plus, Garak. Everything is improved by Garak.