Okay some I'm reading them through a second time and I have still have a mixed reaction, at times it feels almost like 'bad fanfiction' yet most of its brilliantly written.
First thing, it's not the kind of story I would have thought of telling but I can see why the authors gravitated to it and did enjoy it, that being said some of the choices seem problematic to me.
The big problem I have is Ezri Dax's death, it just sort of happens, she doesn't do anything especially heroic as the later characters do in their final moments, for instance Nog's sacrificing his life to save the refugee ships, Ro and Quark buying time, O'Brien fixing the hatch so Kira can escape, the Prophets giving Kira what she needs to complete the plan etc. Every other A list character's death is a big moment whereas Ezri, just dies, in a novel she's barely in at that! I'm not really sure what Ward was thinking when he structured the book that way, but Ezri's death should have been the climax of the book, the big moment its built around and it should have had some emotional impact. For heavans sake Worf is in this story, you know Worf, who was married to Jadzia Dax and considered Ezri part of his House/Family and interacted the most with Ezri in the final episodes with it being her that sees him off when he goes to be Ambassador. Yeah, they never meet in the book. WTAF Not forgetting she only gets introduced two thirds of the way through! She has no arc, very little to do and ends up dying merely to show that anyone can die.
The only other purpose her death in that manner served was to motivate the guy's on the DS9 cast, let that sink in three middle aged white men wrote a novel trilogy where one of the few female characters gets unceremoniously killed off to motivate the guys...
Again her death moves the *male* character Bowers to take the captain's seat of Ezri's ship in one of the few novels featuring Aventine as the main hero ship. It seems to me that this could have been written to save Ezri's death for later for the second book and if needs must having Ezri and the others going rogue bringing Bashir back to help her if he can to deliberately parallel with when she helped him during "A Ceremony of Losses" she can then have a meeting with her DS9 costars and a big heroic end stopping say the last Naga from reaching DS9 before it blows.
As has been stated elsewhere the Riker psychosis last too long, I've heard the authors try to justify it but given this is Star Trek and the things that exist there the idea that they can't force a clearly unstable officer to at least undergo a medical exam seems far fetched. Maybe if he'd been kept off page for most of the second book it wouldn't feel so long but it makes the Titan crew look like idiots for letting it go on so long.
Then there's the choice to go to the Mirror Universe, seriously? I'd have loved to be a fly in the room on that meeting, just think we could have seen how Gell Kamenor's government deals with the crisis as a direct contrast with how "Last Best Hope" handles their response to their sun going nova. We could have seen how the Typhon Pact as a whole deals with it, maybe how Garak and Cardassia try to handle the knowledge, hell we could have seen the Federation and its enemies and allies come together to make one last stand against the Devidians. Instead we go to the Mirror Universe... Erm, what?
Then there was the Worf/K'Ehylr nonsense, I honestly couldn't read those bits without sneering, I mean we're supposed to be celebrating the 20 years of novel development of these characters and we do that by ignoring not just the twenty years of novels but almost a full decade of character development he got on TV as well! I mean Worf is far from the insecure Klingon brought up by humans that he was when he had a fling with her, and that's all it was a fling. Hell watch the episode he doesn't even really want to marry her, it's just 'tradition' to him at a point where he hypercompensates. Even her death is merely because she got caught in the middle with Duras. Compare his fling with K'Ehylr to his relationship to Jadzia, he marries her because he wants to spend his life with her, he wants to build a future with her. Hence the discuss trying for kids. Worf by the end of TNG is pretty far from the guy who had a fling with K'Ehylr, by the end of DS9 let alone the 12 years passed in the novels he is so far from that man its laughable.
All that said there were a great many bits I did like.
The Stealing the Enterprise was great fun to read and brought a grin to my face as I read along with all the little injokes.
I actually enjoyed the Naga battles and all the different ways they fought rather than just shooting phasers and disruptors at one another.
I liked Ward practically admitting defeat on the T'Ryssa Chen/Rennan Konya weird thing he's had going his last few novels by having her discus her future with Taurik, chase after Taurik in the middle of her date with Taurik and actually spending more time cut up about Taurik's death than Konya's.
I love how Swallow flat out ignored the creepy as all f**k marriage between Spock and Saavik.
Bringing Picard and Sisko together, wish that'd happened earlier too bad it took the end of everything.
The alternate Borg were fun to read as Mack had a different take on them, I really liked the idea that the Borg's meddling with time has lead to multiple possible origins and cross pollenating their own past. Reminds me of the 90s Doctor Who novel Unnatural History where the multiple conflicting backstories for the Doctor was blamed off of changes to the timeline caused by his time travel.
I actually like how Mack was able to make Kira become a Vedek make some sort of sense given it goes against her character so completely Nana Visitor actually spoke out against it, I'd hoped when DRGIII sent Vedek Kira back in time that was how he was going to reconcile her joining the clergy, ie meeting herself. But Mack actually has it so something that goes totally against make some sort of sense.
First thing, it's not the kind of story I would have thought of telling but I can see why the authors gravitated to it and did enjoy it, that being said some of the choices seem problematic to me.
The big problem I have is Ezri Dax's death, it just sort of happens, she doesn't do anything especially heroic as the later characters do in their final moments, for instance Nog's sacrificing his life to save the refugee ships, Ro and Quark buying time, O'Brien fixing the hatch so Kira can escape, the Prophets giving Kira what she needs to complete the plan etc. Every other A list character's death is a big moment whereas Ezri, just dies, in a novel she's barely in at that! I'm not really sure what Ward was thinking when he structured the book that way, but Ezri's death should have been the climax of the book, the big moment its built around and it should have had some emotional impact. For heavans sake Worf is in this story, you know Worf, who was married to Jadzia Dax and considered Ezri part of his House/Family and interacted the most with Ezri in the final episodes with it being her that sees him off when he goes to be Ambassador. Yeah, they never meet in the book. WTAF Not forgetting she only gets introduced two thirds of the way through! She has no arc, very little to do and ends up dying merely to show that anyone can die.
The only other purpose her death in that manner served was to motivate the guy's on the DS9 cast, let that sink in three middle aged white men wrote a novel trilogy where one of the few female characters gets unceremoniously killed off to motivate the guys...
Again her death moves the *male* character Bowers to take the captain's seat of Ezri's ship in one of the few novels featuring Aventine as the main hero ship. It seems to me that this could have been written to save Ezri's death for later for the second book and if needs must having Ezri and the others going rogue bringing Bashir back to help her if he can to deliberately parallel with when she helped him during "A Ceremony of Losses" she can then have a meeting with her DS9 costars and a big heroic end stopping say the last Naga from reaching DS9 before it blows.
As has been stated elsewhere the Riker psychosis last too long, I've heard the authors try to justify it but given this is Star Trek and the things that exist there the idea that they can't force a clearly unstable officer to at least undergo a medical exam seems far fetched. Maybe if he'd been kept off page for most of the second book it wouldn't feel so long but it makes the Titan crew look like idiots for letting it go on so long.
Then there's the choice to go to the Mirror Universe, seriously? I'd have loved to be a fly in the room on that meeting, just think we could have seen how Gell Kamenor's government deals with the crisis as a direct contrast with how "Last Best Hope" handles their response to their sun going nova. We could have seen how the Typhon Pact as a whole deals with it, maybe how Garak and Cardassia try to handle the knowledge, hell we could have seen the Federation and its enemies and allies come together to make one last stand against the Devidians. Instead we go to the Mirror Universe... Erm, what?
Then there was the Worf/K'Ehylr nonsense, I honestly couldn't read those bits without sneering, I mean we're supposed to be celebrating the 20 years of novel development of these characters and we do that by ignoring not just the twenty years of novels but almost a full decade of character development he got on TV as well! I mean Worf is far from the insecure Klingon brought up by humans that he was when he had a fling with her, and that's all it was a fling. Hell watch the episode he doesn't even really want to marry her, it's just 'tradition' to him at a point where he hypercompensates. Even her death is merely because she got caught in the middle with Duras. Compare his fling with K'Ehylr to his relationship to Jadzia, he marries her because he wants to spend his life with her, he wants to build a future with her. Hence the discuss trying for kids. Worf by the end of TNG is pretty far from the guy who had a fling with K'Ehylr, by the end of DS9 let alone the 12 years passed in the novels he is so far from that man its laughable.
All that said there were a great many bits I did like.
The Stealing the Enterprise was great fun to read and brought a grin to my face as I read along with all the little injokes.
I actually enjoyed the Naga battles and all the different ways they fought rather than just shooting phasers and disruptors at one another.
I liked Ward practically admitting defeat on the T'Ryssa Chen/Rennan Konya weird thing he's had going his last few novels by having her discus her future with Taurik, chase after Taurik in the middle of her date with Taurik and actually spending more time cut up about Taurik's death than Konya's.
I love how Swallow flat out ignored the creepy as all f**k marriage between Spock and Saavik.
Bringing Picard and Sisko together, wish that'd happened earlier too bad it took the end of everything.
The alternate Borg were fun to read as Mack had a different take on them, I really liked the idea that the Borg's meddling with time has lead to multiple possible origins and cross pollenating their own past. Reminds me of the 90s Doctor Who novel Unnatural History where the multiple conflicting backstories for the Doctor was blamed off of changes to the timeline caused by his time travel.
I actually like how Mack was able to make Kira become a Vedek make some sort of sense given it goes against her character so completely Nana Visitor actually spoke out against it, I'd hoped when DRGIII sent Vedek Kira back in time that was how he was going to reconcile her joining the clergy, ie meeting herself. But Mack actually has it so something that goes totally against make some sort of sense.
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