Spoilers DS9: Sacraments of Fire by DRGIII Review Thread

[VDCNI]

I don't massively object to Sisko moving on from his life as the Emissary but all we've really had since is generic Captain with small child who wants to explore the galaxy which is in many ways the same as Picard at the moment and the sudden need to explore has already been done in DS9 with Vaughn.

I don't think it has helped with DS9 recently that not only have we lost some of the original crew but also the first wave of replacements like Vaughn and Shar and very little has been done with the likes of Candlewood or Stinson. Yes Nog and O'Brien are still around but have they actually had a storyline on DS9 of late? Along that point does DS9 have any female officers other than Ro these days?

I don't have a wholesale objection to change - though personally I thought it was a mistake to lose Kira from the crew, there was much more to be done with her as Captain - but personally I don't feel that the books have really done anything particularly compelling with the new status quo.

 

[Enterpriserules]

^ I think that for me, the story they are telling with Sisko has been done with someone like Picard already. I am just disappointed that he's lost what set him apart as a character. The Emissary job, his attachment to Bajor and his ability to think "big picture" are all being swept aside for a story line that is so played out already. imo

 

[Idran]

Along that point does DS9 have any female officers other than Ro these days?

Prynn and Phillipa are still around passingly, but just passingly. I don't think Phillipa's even had a line since before the time jump.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Along that point does DS9 have any female officers other than Ro these days?

Prynn and Phillipa are still around passingly, but just passingly. I don't think Phillipa's even had a line since before the time jump.

There's also Zivan Slaine.

 

[VDCNI]

Sorry yes though Prynn doesn't appear to be important in the chain of command and her only significant storyline has been to mourn her father, Phillipa who's basically been invisible despite all the trauma they've all been through and Slaine who got a bit of attention in her first book but nothing since.

 

[TheUsualSuspect]

I don't think it has helped with DS9 recently that not only have we lost some of the original crew but also the first wave of replacements like Vaughn and Shar and very little has been done with the likes of Candlewood or Stinson. Yes Nog and O'Brien are still around but have they actually had a storyline on DS9 of late? Along that point does DS9 have any female officers other than Ro these days?

I'm hoping the resolution of Ascendance will

Spoiler: situations in Ascendance

lead to the return of Taran'atar to the relaunch.

The resolution of the Ascendants plotline also leaves the possibility of more books set between The Soul Key and
Rough Beasts of Empire.

 

[DS9Continuing]

We lost some of the original crew but also the first wave of replacements like Vaughn and Shar and very little has been done with the likes of Candlewood or Stinson.

It is strange that the first wave of new characters - Vaughn, Shar, Taran'atar - are still so much more popular 15 years later. As I said upthread, I think that's down to the style of stories - the older books gave us time to explore those characters, whereas Candlewood and Stinson are basically just names at this point, even though Candlewood himself has been a background character since Mission Gamma.

I've tried to explore Candlewood myself in my own stories, as well as Evik Nath, the previous security chief to Blackmer (it's oddly appropriate that I had to check MB to even remember that guy's name).

Yes Nog and O'Brien are still around but have they actually had a storyline on DS9 of late?

Nog's biggest stories to date have actually been in non-DS9 books - Indistinguishable From Magic (TNG) and The Poison Chalice (TTN). But there is apparently an upcoming Nog/O'Brien buddy-movie book coming up called called Force and Motion. But the author himself says that even that isn't all that much of a DS9 book.

Along that point does DS9 have any female officers other than Ro these days?

As Idran says, we have Prynn Tenmei and Phillipa Matthias (frankly I'm not entirely sure who Zivan Slaine is). We also had Sarina Douglas for a little while there. In the 24th century it obviously shouldn't matter that the sexes are unbalanced, because obviously everybody is equal, and I try to remember to think in those terms. But in 21st century terms, it is a touch odd. Still, at least the woman is the boss.

.

 

[toughlittleship]

Slaine is the member of the Cardassian military who was assigned to DS9 when the Cardassian Union joined the Khitomer Accords. She takes up Worf's old job as strategic operations officer.

 

[Shane Houston]

And here ladies and gentlemen lies the problem. I didn't know who Slaine or Candlewood were because I didn't buy the book to read about them. Where's the real DS9 crew? Where's the station that was unique? There's nothing interesting about the new uber starbase. Like peeling an onion piece by piece, the editors have destroyed what made the show special. I bought this book giving the author another chance. And he did...okay. But let's not pretend it's DS9 anymore just because you sprinkle a bit of Kira here and a little Odo there and slap the name Deep Space Nine on the cover and pretend that's what it is anymore.

This story has lost its heart. Before I invest another dollar it had better get it back soon.

 

[Mage]

And here ladies and gentlemen lies the problem. I didn't know who Slaine or Candlewood were because I didn't buy the book to read about them. Where's the real DS9 crew? Where's the station that was unique? There's nothing interesting about the new uber starbase. Like peeling an onion piece by piece, the editors have destroyed what made the show special. I bought this book giving the author another chance. And he did...okay. But let's not pretend it's DS9 anymore just because you sprinkle a bit of Kira here and a little Odo there and slap the name Deep Space Nine on the cover and pretend that's what it is anymore.

This story has lost its heart. Before I invest another dollar it had better get it back soon.

All I can say is, YMMV/each to his own.

These novels still capture the essence of DS9 to me. A lot of Star Trek was always by people fitting into the hole that was given to them. No one felt uncomfortable or out of place and all was good.
Then came DS9 (the show). Everyone was looking to find a place in life, a place to belong. And they didn't at that old Cardassian rustbucket. They all had their own burdens to bear. And after a few years, this gloomy thing, this station, became home. And all the other characters, somehow became friends.
This new line of novels, with these new characters, and this new station..... it's the same again. A new home, that still feels 'off' for some, people not understanding where they belong, where they need to go. Just trying to fit in. Seeing if they can either change the hole and or themselves and make it all fit.

It is Deep Space Nine at the core, as Deep Space Nine was always ment to be. An appereance of a town changed over years, and its inhabitants come and go. But the heart will always remain. It's anchored somehow, into the location. Crossroads are crossroads because of something beneath the material. And that's why, like Quark said... The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

[Csalem]

One thing I have noticed myself in the recent books is that most of the station crew seem to be represented by Ro and Blackmer now. The books do also deal with Sisko, Ro, Odo and Quark, but of those working on the station, we only seem to follow those two.
It would be nice to spend some more time with the crew members. Maybe even have a conference or two in a book?

 

[toughlittleship]

Cenn Desca gets a lot of attention in SoF.

 

[Idran]

And here ladies and gentlemen lies the problem. I didn't know who Slaine or Candlewood were because I didn't buy the book to read about them.

Candlewood's been in the DS9 books since Mission Gamma; he wasn't created for this book, or even for the post-Fall books. Granted he wasn't as prominent as Vaughn, Shar, Prynn, or the other pre-Fall DS9 Relaunch new cast, but I'm surprised you didn't at least recognize his name from past books.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Spoiler: I wonder if . . .

. . . Cenn's crisis of faith, and the discovery of the falsework, and so forth are all leading to the Prophets engineering a massive crisis of faith for the Ascendants.

 

[TheUsualSuspect]

Spoiler: I wonder if . . .

. . . Cenn's crisis of faith, and the discovery of the falsework, and so forth are all leading to the Prophets engineering a massive crisis of faith for the Ascendants.

There's an interesting thought. I had assumed that the discovery on Endalla was setting up a new plotline, but perhaps the two are related.

 

[USS Firefly]

I'am still hesitating to buy this book because i loved David R. George III's "Serpents Among the Ruins: The Lost Era 2311" and Star Trek: Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night (Star Trek- Typhon Pact Book 6)

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Spoiler: I wonder if . . .

. . . Cenn's crisis of faith, and the discovery of the falsework, and so forth are all leading to the Prophets engineering a massive crisis of faith for the Ascendants.

Spoiler: Building on the above.

Hmmm. What with freeing Sisko from his role as the emissary, and the damage to the wormhole in Raise the Dawn, one wonders if the Prophets are seeking to disentangle themselves from the corporeal realm, at least to some degree. Maybe they think they've gotten too close, and are, in their unfathomable way, regretful for the depth of the contact?

 

[toughlittleship]

Spoiler: I wonder if . . .

. . . Cenn's crisis of faith, and the discovery of the falsework, and so forth are all leading to the Prophets engineering a massive crisis of faith for the Ascendants.

Spoiler: Building on the above.

Hmmm. What with freeing Sisko from his role as the emissary, and the damage to the wormhole in Raise the Dawn, one wonders if the Prophets are seeking to disentangle themselves from the corporeal realm, at least to some degree. Maybe they think they've gotten too close, and are, in their unfathomable way, regretful for the depth of the contact?

Spoiler: SPOILER

Why would they send Altek to DS9 though? The Kai seemed worried that he might become the new Emissary.

 

[jaime]

Spoiler: I wonder if . . .

. . . Cenn's crisis of faith, and the discovery of the falsework, and so forth are all leading to the Prophets engineering a massive crisis of faith for the Ascendants.

There's an interesting thought. I had assumed that the discovery on Endalla was setting up a new plotline, but perhaps the two are related.

There would be no sense in that...the framework is in the"now" part of the story, the descendants part being already resolved. The tie in will likely be the odo smashing shape shifter, which I expect to pop Kira out in part two.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Spoiler: I wonder if . . .

. . . Cenn's crisis of faith, and the discovery of the falsework, and so forth are all leading to the Prophets engineering a massive crisis of faith for the Ascendants.

There's an interesting thought. I had assumed that the discovery on Endalla was setting up a new plotline, but perhaps the two are related.

There would be no sense in that...the framework is in the"now" part of the story, the descendants part being already resolved. The tie in will likely be the odo smashing shape shifter, which I expect to pop Kira out in part two.

The Jaime is linear. Its perceptions are limited.