The Soul Key
- Thread starter toughlittleship
- Start date
Here's the problem with The Soul Key's ending:
The ending, with Illiana proclaiming herself to the gathered Ascendants as the Fire, finally puts the entire "Crisis on Infinite Kiras" into perspective, and seems to finally set the long-awaited Ascendants storyline into motion... and, unless TNES wraps up the arc in one book (doesn't seem likely), the skip ahead in the following DS9-R novel seems even more disappointing... unless the skip ahead will be interwoven with flashbacks, LOST-style. That could be very interesting. Dropping the storyline or rushing it just as you're on the cusp? Not so much.
After five years of this story not going anywhere, and after now five books in a row which spend all or much of their time filling in background, I'm just . . . tired of this story.
Something I appreciated about the early Deep Space Nine books (all until The Left Hand of Destiny, I think, which split one story over two books), the first three Vanguard books, and the dilogy A Time To Kill and A Time To Heal was that they were complete stories despite being part of an overarching narrative. Day of the Vipers, Full Circle, and most of the Worlds of Deep Space Nine novels were readable on their own, but the bulk of the Deep Space Nine novels since, much of the Next Generation relaunch, the Destiny Trilogy, the most recent Vanguard novel - most of the recent nominally high-profile books - have been fully incomplete stories. It doesn't help, too, that most recent books have been much more plot-driven than character-driven.
I'm tired of looking forward to new novels only to find that they aren't episodes (in the literary sense) unto themselves. At this point, I'm close to giving up - and I've been reading Star Trek novels since I was five years old.
^ By all means, if you're tired of the books, stop reading them. You can always come back and read them later if you get back into the mood; that's happened to me a bunch of times with series that I love. Hell, the first time I read Unity, I gave it a 6/10 and called it "annoyingly self-indulgent and lacking in story". I'd been not enjoying Trek much for a while, and it was the last Trek book I read for at least a year. And then I came back and re-read it a year later, and thought it was exceptional, 10/10, the best DS9-R book since Avatar. Just had to be in the right mood. So I hear where you're coming from.
That said, I think your criticism is a bit off the mark. The Avatar duology was certainly one story split over two books, and the DS9 plot of the Mission:Gamma series was one story split over four books, with a cliffhanger that didn't resolve until Unity. And when I read Summon The Thunder, I totally read the middle third of a larger arc, it didn't feel self-contained to me at all.
The TNG post-Nemesis books, too; if anything, their flaw was that they weren't connected enough. I don't see how you can view Q&A as anything but a total standalone. Losing The Peace is the only one I can think of that might be too connected, but it was 100% character-driven, so I don't see how that really fits your complaint either.
And it's not like Destiny is the first trilogy that Trek has ever published; in fact, it's at least the 10th. And if you view it as one big-ass story, it's absolutely an episode, in the literary sense, if String Theory or Millennium or any of the others were.
Finally, you didn't mention Titan, but after the first two every single Titan book has been a story unto itself, and even the first two probably counted if ATTK/ATTH did.
Now, I haven't read Soul Key yet, but I do hear you about the DS9-relaunch; this mirror universe arc was supposed to be two books in two years and has ended up being three books in five years, and it is kind of annoying for the series to stall like that. But I think you're totally off-base on the rest.
That said, I think your criticism is a bit off the mark. The Avatar duology was certainly one story split over two books, and the DS9 plot of the Mission:Gamma series was one story split over four books, with a cliffhanger that didn't resolve until Unity. And when I read Summon The Thunder, I totally read the middle third of a larger arc, it didn't feel self-contained to me at all.
The TNG post-Nemesis books, too; if anything, their flaw was that they weren't connected enough. I don't see how you can view Q&A as anything but a total standalone. Losing The Peace is the only one I can think of that might be too connected, but it was 100% character-driven, so I don't see how that really fits your complaint either.
And it's not like Destiny is the first trilogy that Trek has ever published; in fact, it's at least the 10th. And if you view it as one big-ass story, it's absolutely an episode, in the literary sense, if String Theory or Millennium or any of the others were.
Finally, you didn't mention Titan, but after the first two every single Titan book has been a story unto itself, and even the first two probably counted if ATTK/ATTH did.
Now, I haven't read Soul Key yet, but I do hear you about the DS9-relaunch; this mirror universe arc was supposed to be two books in two years and has ended up being three books in five years, and it is kind of annoying for the series to stall like that. But I think you're totally off-base on the rest.
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I considered that aspect of Avatar, but the two books were released simultaneously, so separation wasn't really issue; really, it was like a novel that was printed in two volumes, like the old three-volume novel.
I'm really not likely to come back to series I've given up on unless they're reset. The narrative wouldn't be coherent without reading a lot of books I don't really like (or really dislike, in a few cases).
I felt differently about Summon the Thunder and Mission Gamma. Each story was satisfying and interesting to me on its own. (Actually, the ongoing elements of the Mission Gamma stories were those I found the least interesting, but they felt more like ongoing subplots than ongoing plots.) I should admit, though, that I never read Lesser Evil, so the cliffhanger aspect wasn't a part of my reading experience. For some reason, I couldn't find it until well after I read Unity.
Maybe the perpetual story was confined only to the books I read (I skipped Q&A and Christopher's books). But neither of the two books published since Destiny have been self-contained, as Destiny wasn't before it, and as Resistance and Before Dishonor (at least) weren't before that. It doesn't help that the eventual Borg invasion story was told much like, and has left an aftermath much like, the Genesis Wave series, which itself was drawn out and plot-driven.
Ah. I didn't read any of those, so I didn't know. Until the DS9 relaunch, I more or less stuck to random standalones (except, unfortunately, the Genesis Wave tetralogy).
I may be on TNG. I don't read enough Next Generation novels to say whether the ones I've read were the exception or the rule. Vanguard and Deep Space Nine are the two series I read regularly (Titan, being plot-driven almost as a rule, isn't to my liking), and both have had similar problems. In fairness, in Vanguard's case only one book offered an incomplete story, but it was only the fourth book of the series, and was the first new installment in two years.
I don't want to sound like I hate Star Trek books. I still thoroughly enjoy at least one a year. But so long as the emphasis is on continuing narratives, it's going to be very hard to find that one per year (or, in a good year, better), particularly as the novels continue to bring significant changes. I still love each of the older recent novels I loved the first time I read them. Maybe there have just been fewer books from the authors whose work I've really liked (and a few from some of them which have disappointed), and more from authors whose work I've not liked very much. Or maybe plot has taken precedence and things have slowed down. Or maybe I'm just reading the wrong books. I don't know.
To end on a positive note, the novels I really liked were A Stitch In Time through Paradigm, and Warpath, especially A Stitch In Time, Twilight, This Gray Spirit, Rising Son, and Paradigm; Harbinger through Reap the Whirlwind, especially Reap the Whirlwind; Serpents Among the Ruins; Provenance of Shadows; A Time To Kill and A Time To Heal. Each is still a great read. I think something that connects them, beyond their focus on character, is that they've brought something new, different, and unanticipated.
A Time To Kill and A Time To Heal were a fantastic look at the policies of the United States in Iraq, and was one that no one was expecting, but was also summed by one epigraph: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
A Stich In Time is well-acclaimed enough to demure further explanation.
Twilight, This Gray Spirit, and Paradigm each were ... hm, I don't remember. But they each were mesmerizing and moving in their own and similar ways. I suppose in their own ways they each felt like they had something to say about our own lives: what effort is required of the honorable, what of ourselves we are willing to give and lose for love, what we could learn and see were we to sail beyond the sunset and discover worlds we have never known.
Serpents Among the Ruins was something unusual, a story about a pivotal moment from the past which didn't seem like a story about a pivotal moment from the past. It wasn't concerned with history, and instead painted a present in 2311 that had much to say about truth in the face of saving life, connection in the face of facing death, and accepting responsibility when staring into the uncertain face of tomorrow.
Vanguard has also had its plaudits discussed at length, but it bears repeating that each of the first three novel was more impressive than the last, and that, for all that they make up a continuing story, each installment delivered fantastically as a standalone volume.
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If you consider the Mission:Gamma books self-contained, I don't see how you wouldn't consider Resistance and Before Dishonor self-contained. The first left behind a Borg cube that was emptied; that's such a trivial piece of information that even if you'd skipped Resistance entirely, joining Before Dishonor would've been easy. And BD only left behind the single loose end of the Einstein, which was resolved in a book you didn't read anyway.
And if you can consider Avatar one 2-part novel, why not Destiny one 3-part novel?
And I don't think Titan is plot-driven at all; you must be defining that differently from me. If Titan is plot-driven, so was 90% of televised TNG.
Oh, and as far as Vanguard goes, it was 2 years before Open Secrets, but only 7 months to Precipice, so if there had to be an incomplete story Open Secrets was the time to do it.
And if you can consider Avatar one 2-part novel, why not Destiny one 3-part novel?
And I don't think Titan is plot-driven at all; you must be defining that differently from me. If Titan is plot-driven, so was 90% of televised TNG.
Oh, and as far as Vanguard goes, it was 2 years before Open Secrets, but only 7 months to Precipice, so if there had to be an incomplete story Open Secrets was the time to do it.
It could be that my having known of the ongoing Borg storyline before reading either TNG book, but being innocent of future developments in the Mission: Gamma series when I read each volume colored my experience of each series.
Avatar was released in one month, and Destiny was released over three. Otherwise, you do make a good point. Perhaps I'm allowing Destiny's other problems to affect my consideration of it as a single rather than separate entities.
Consider the opening chapter of Taking Wing, which I would consider somewhat representative of the plot-driven aspect of the Titan series. The chapter is told from the point of view "the operative", but intentionally avoids covering events from his perspective. We are left with plot.
The novel then proceeds for nearly two hundred pages before any character's decision affects the plot (aside from Vale's agreeing to join the crew). There are some nice character moments during the story - particularly Jaza's reproach of Dakal - but, until fairly late, the characters are irrelevant to the plot's movement.
(Re-reading the book just now to be sure I remembered it correctly, I noticed that David Mack isn't the only Trek author to have used the word stygian recently.
)In general, the Titan novels - including Destiny, if it/they may be counted among them - are typified by the very limited degree to which the decisions of characters - particularly the central characters - are responsible for the direction of the plot. In contrast, consider Andor: Paradigm, a fairly typical Deep Space Nine novel, in which the story concerns itself almost entirely with the consequences of the characters actions, and the new actions which are in turn consequent to those events.
That's probably true. If we had another two year wait ahead of us, I'd probably have decided not to bother reading the next book.
Hm, I think you may have given up on Titan too soon. I actually agree that a huge problem with the first two books was that most of the new and interesting main characters didn't have much to do with the story, but both of CLB's entries and the thoroughly unique and fascinating Sword Of Damocles are almost completely motivated by the characters' actions.
But I also think that stories about how characters react to circumstances beyond their control can often be just as fascinating and often tell us more about the characters than stories where they do dictate the action. I thought a lot of the character arcs in Destiny were fascinating in that respect, and I also thought Titan's parts of the trilogy were the most character-driven in the sense of being primarily about the characters' emotions and reactions, rather than technology etc. And certainly if you're looking at Hernandez and her crew, those characters drove the whole history of the Borg.
Either way, it's very funny to me that you're saying that cliffhanger endings make you less likely to buy future books. Usually it's the other way around! I mean, I understand your point of view, it's just surprising to me. I suppose I do agree somewhat though, but I just plan ahead; usually, I'll wait until 2 or 3 books in a given series have come out before I read them, knowing I'll be more satisfied that way. I read the Destiny trilogy in one weekend after all three books were released, so I really did treat it like one giant novel, and that probably increased my enjoyment a lot. I haven't read Open Secrets yet for the same reason.
But I also think that stories about how characters react to circumstances beyond their control can often be just as fascinating and often tell us more about the characters than stories where they do dictate the action. I thought a lot of the character arcs in Destiny were fascinating in that respect, and I also thought Titan's parts of the trilogy were the most character-driven in the sense of being primarily about the characters' emotions and reactions, rather than technology etc. And certainly if you're looking at Hernandez and her crew, those characters drove the whole history of the Borg.
Either way, it's very funny to me that you're saying that cliffhanger endings make you less likely to buy future books. Usually it's the other way around! I mean, I understand your point of view, it's just surprising to me. I suppose I do agree somewhat though, but I just plan ahead; usually, I'll wait until 2 or 3 books in a given series have come out before I read them, knowing I'll be more satisfied that way. I read the Destiny trilogy in one weekend after all three books were released, so I really did treat it like one giant novel, and that probably increased my enjoyment a lot. I haven't read Open Secrets yet for the same reason.
You're right that I've given Christopher short shrift. I just reread Orion's Hounds, and it was much better than I had remembered. I don't have the other two Titan books, but perhaps I'll try them again. The one thing I will say about Christopher's writing, though, is that it isn't character-driven. His writing is driven by ideas. There's very little in the way of information about how characters feel in Orion's Hounds, and I remember Ex Machina having been the same way. Christopher's characters discuss, debate, and consider with one another in very interesting - sometimes very charming - fashion, but they're more avatars of perspectives than persons. (They're well-written avatars.)
The stories form an intellectual connection with the reader more than an emotional one, and more than a personal one. In Christopher's novels, one gains a very good idea of what characters believe - or, sometimes, of what they say they believe - but little understanding of the thoughts behind their actions, the feelings and unspoken ideas, histories, and insights which motivate them. (This may be an unfair criticism of his most recent work; I haven't read it.)
I can't say that this approach is inferior to the one I usually enjoy, but it is different, and I enjoy it less. In the best of worlds, a story would be about ideas, character, and plot, like A Stitch In Time or The Kobayashi Maru, but few novels successfully synergize those engines.
That's a good point. The only ship's story I enjoyed more than the Titan's was the Aventine's. But the main characters of a 1300-page novel to having only marginal effect on the outcome of their story is ... frustrating, if not ultimately uninteresting.
That's true. As a story about the crew of the Columbia, my point about effect on outcome is totally moot. On the other hand, as such a story, it's filled with hundreds of pages about other people who don't accomplish very much.
Ironically, the cliffhanger at the end of Heir To the Empire put me off of finishing the rest of the Thrawn trilogy for years when I was in middle school. I only came to love the books after I found myself with nothing to read one morning but The Last Command.
To a certain extent I agree, but I think I may value having an intellectual connection to the characters more than you do. Ex Machina was the first book that I read that made the TOS characters feel like people to me. Admittedly, a large part of that was that I grew up with the TOS movies and they'd integrated themselves into my mind before I thought about things like characterization much, but either way.
That said, I think you might find Over A Torrent Sea a bit different. My two favorite scenes in the novel are 100% character stories, not about philosophies or ideas but just characters growing and changing and ultimately triumphing. (Sorry, I tend to be a bit of a cheerleader for books I really love; if you're not interested then you're not interested, but I honestly think OaTS might have more of what you're looking for.)
Well, except for Ezri's security chief who deals with causing friendly fire, or Picard, who is confronted with his inability to think rationally, or Geordi, who takes a moral stand in an extremely unusual act for him, or Troi and her baby, or... I mean, sure, they may not have much effect on the outcome of the Borg invasion, but aside from some kind of huge contrived space battle, there's not much way for more than a few people to have an impact on The Borg at a time, and that's been done so many times before. I looked at Destiny as a story about how the crew of the Columbia changed the galaxy, and in the process, changed many of our heroes as well. Just because some characters don't accomplish very much doesn't mean their stories aren't interesting.
But I digress; we're kind of off topic here...
Yeah. Again, I always make sure I have the whole trilogy before I read the first one. I love big stories, multi-novel huge kinds of epic stories, but I also like experiencing them in their entirety. One of my favorite authors is Peter F. Hamilton, who writes multi-thousand page sci-fi epics, and I can't wait to read his most recent trilogy but I'm forcing myself not to buy it until all three books come out. I know I'll like it better that way.
Personally, I love the fact that we're getting big ongoing arcs like the current Kiras and Ascendants ones in the DS9 Relaunch. In fact it is the arcs like these that really helped me get into Trek Lit in the first place. Although ever since I started watching shows like Buffy, Lost, Battlestar Galactica and X-Files, I've really started to enjoy the big series spanning arcs in TV too.
As for character vs plot, IMO even if the characters don't have a direct impact on what is happening it can still be interesting to see how they react. This was pretty much how I saw the majority of the Destiny trilogy, not so much as a story about the characters fighting the Borg, but a story about how they deal with and react to the invasion.
I also managed to get my hands on the book at work, and I'm about 15 pages into it and already enjoying it.
As for character vs plot, IMO even if the characters don't have a direct impact on what is happening it can still be interesting to see how they react. This was pretty much how I saw the majority of the Destiny trilogy, not so much as a story about the characters fighting the Borg, but a story about how they deal with and react to the invasion.
I also managed to get my hands on the book at work, and I'm about 15 pages into it and already enjoying it.
Well, probably my favorite part of both A Stitch In Time and The Kobayashi Maru (and of Ender's Game, another of my favorite books) is the way in which those stories, and the characters in them, explore ideas and concepts. Actually, while reading A Stitch In Time, I took a break to walk over to a very busy bookstore at Harvard Square and examine some of the philosophies of appearance and disappearance discussed in the book. Standing and reading, walking, etc., I found that the hypotheses of presence expressed by Garak - that one could make oneself small to others by feeling small, or large by feeling large - were strongly supported by my experiences at the store. It was a very interesting few hours.
On the other hand, I think that the reflective and emotional aspect to the stories (even when the emotion was calmness) were where I found correspondence with the characters, at least as much as in the ideas they stated and actions they took. I grew up with both TOS and the TOS movies, but also with Next Generation (and Deep Space Nine and Voyager by the time I was ten) - one of the above, either Encounter At Farpoint or The Voyage Home, is probably my first memory - but I connected immediately with Captain/Admiral Kirk, and to a lesser extent with Spock, Riker, Geordi, and Yar. Oddly enough, McCoy was the character I only came to appreciate after growing up.
I hope so. I'll look for it and Sword of Damocles when I'm next at a bookstore.
Well, except for Ezri's security chief who deals with causing friendly fire, or Picard, who is confronted with his inability to think rationally, or Geordi, who takes a moral stand in an extremely unusual act for him, or Troi and her baby, or... I mean, sure, they may not have much effect on the outcome of the Borg invasion, but aside from some kind of huge contrived space battle, there's not much way for more than a few people to have an impact on The Borg at a time, and that's been done so many times before. I looked at Destiny as a story about how the crew of the Columbia changed the galaxy, and in the process, changed many of our heroes as well. Just because some characters don't accomplish very much doesn't mean their stories aren't interesting.[/quote]
I think the problem Destiny suffered is that it set its main cast against a problem it didn't allow them to resolve, or contribute to resolving, in any way. If we accept that this is necessary - or even best - the story might have done better set against the backdrop of the Borg invasion, telling a story in which the invasion itself was a setting, but not a focus.
For instance, if Geordi's resistance were the story, or Troi's struggle with pregnancy, or Picard's difficulty with control - or all three - Destiny would have been more satisfying. But the focus of the story was on defeating the Borg, and the character's issues were subplots. Which brings us back to the problem of ineffectiveness.
Really, even making the point determination in the face of ineffectiveness, like in Babylon 5's In The Beginning, would probably have served the story better. But Destiny as written occupies a troubled middle ground in which the bulk of the characters and the bulk of the pages are thematically and effectively irrelevant to the core of the story.
I read the first four Harry Potter books that way, after being talked into reading the series. But after finishing those within a couple of school days, I was happier anticipating each new volume for two years before it was released. There's something nice about reading a satisfyingly large installment of a story (or watching one on film), then eagerly awaiting the next edition for awhile. The unfortunate problem I've had with Star Trek books is that the awaited installments have been unfulfilling or incomplete.
My grandmother got the delivery of The Soul Key this morning. I shall be going there sometime this week to pick it up 
I was going to pre-order it the other day, forgot... so I did it today, it was already released and Amazon said there were 4 left... Go Procrastination! But it's ordered...can't wait to see what happens.
I'm worried about the DS9PF jump to Post-Destiny tho, I want Ascendant novels (not just comics)...
I'm worried about the DS9PF jump to Post-Destiny tho, I want Ascendant novels (not just comics)...
Finished it yesterday. 
Very nice conclusion to the MU arc. Can't wait for The Never Ending Sacrifice.
Very nice conclusion to the MU arc. Can't wait for The Never Ending Sacrifice.
Picked it up from my grandmother yesterday, already 75 pages in and loving it.
Below are my thoughts on the book...
A MAJOR step up from the disappointment that was 'Fearful Symmetry', 'The Soul Key' wraps up the loose ends from the three-book arc that began in 'Warpath'.
The novel spends a good amount of time with flashbacks, sometimes jumping backwards at a key point in the narrative. This wasn't too dissimilar from the way that 'Full Circle' was written, but the technique was used much less frequently than in FC.
Overall, I felt like the book did a good job dealing with the various motivations of the different characters, especially those in the Mirror Universe. I would say about 60-70% of the book or more takes place in the MU, with all of the major events taking place there.
The first several chapters of the book focus on explaining where the deranged Iliana Ghemor was during various events from 'Warpath' and 'Fearful Symmetry'. It also lays out her plan in full, which in turn shows how mentally broken she really was. Her plan reminded me a lot of the movie/TV show 'Highlander', and the movie 'The One' (which is even more appropriate).
I have to give the author credit for including even a little bit about the MU's Luther Sloan, who thinks almost the same as his counterpart in our universe. The other MU characters came off just as they did in the recent MU collection 'Shards and Shadows', and the events of that collection are continued perfectly without any discrepancies. Kudos to the author for keeping the MU's continuity flowing. We find out more about the Alliance's political structure, and see what the MU versions of several familiar characters from DS9 are like (Winn, Opaka, Vaughn, Dukat, Natima Lang, etc.). The 'Vulcan Underground' storyline that had gone through all of the MU stories previously is continued. We also learn about the Bajoran movement to expel Alliance sympathizers from their world, and restore the traditional Bajoran belief system to something closer to our universe's Bajor. The story ends with the possibility that Bajor will now remove itself from the Alliance, since the new Emmisary (MU Iliana Ghemor) has now arrived. Judging from what we learned in this book about how Bajor frequently kept the Klingons and Cardassians together, this could spell the beginning of the end for the Alliance.
I found one storyline very confusing, and parts of it seemed to hint at something bigger. At the end of the last novel, Ben Sisko sent Vaughn on a mission to the MU, where he was tasked with finding the MU Ben Sisko, who he claimed was still alive, and not actually dead as we had seen during the TV series. Oddly, Vaughn arrives in the MU to find that the MU Ben Sisko is indeed dead, and that Sisko lied to him. It turns out that for some reason Sisko wanted Vaughn to meet his dying counterpart, who Vaughn ends up mercy killing so that he is not captured by the Alliance. There is also some discussion that our universe's Vaughn was supposed to be the MU's Emmisary, although this was somewhat vague. This sideplot ends with Vaughn slugging Sisko for lying to him, and saying that he was letting the Prophets control too much of his life.
Our universe's Iliana Ghemor has most of the spotlight in this book, as she rightly should. Because of the memory transfer described in 'Fearful Symmetry' not being fully completed, her mind is divided between her own memories, and those of Kira Nerys. She decides that she wants to fully BECOME Kira Nerys, first by killing Intendant Kira and taking her place, and then trying to kill our Kira later. She even gets the idea of using the paghvaram (the Bajoran word for the 'Soul Key' bracelet that contains the shard of the MU Orbs) to travel to other alternate universes in order to kill the Kiras in those universes. The part of her mind that still has some good in it allows her to reunite the MU version of her fiancee and the Bajoran woman he loves, and allow them to escape Mirror Terok Nor. This is at the same time where she is willing to kill everyone else on the station so that she can enter the Wormhole. So this particular villain has an unpredictability that makes her more three-dimensional than some other ST villains in the past.
Except for Vaughn and Kira, the rest of the DS9 crew has almost nothing to do in this book, except to show up as the cavalry at the end in order to rescue the two officers from the Alliance and Ghemor. Ro Laren has all of two scenes, since she is still unable to even walk without assistance thanks to Taran'atar's horrible assault from 'Warpath'. Quark, Ezri, Bashir, Nog, and the others only appear at the beginning where they talk to the MU's Terran Rebellion aboard that Terok Nor, and at the end where they use the Defiant to rescue Vaughn and Kira. There is a brief hint to Ezri requesting a transfer off of DS9, but it is extremely brief and not followed up again.
The ending hints at the future conflict with the Ascendants, and the sudden arrival of what appears to be our universe's Iliana Ghemor as their kind of 'Dark Emmisary'. I'm not entirely sure, but judging from the mention of 'nine red orbs', I assume that the Ascendants worship the Pah Wraiths. Especially since this 'Dark Emmisary' calls herself the 'fire', a frequent term for anything related to the Pah Wraiths.
Of course, it's really hard to say at this point when we're going to see this new conflict, since next month's DS9 book primarily focuses on the Cardassian view of the events from the beginning of the DS9 TV series up until the current DS9-Relaunch stories. It's very very unlikely that there will be much of a mention of the Ascendants. In addition, the next DS9 book jumps the entire series forward so that they can have a role in the 'Typhon Pact' miniseries. This means we may have to wait a long time to hear again about the Ascendants. In addition, we still haven't heard anything new about what has gone on in the Dominion since the Great Link disbanded. That may never be answered at this rate.
Anyway, I would give this book an A, and say that it has helped to save the DS9-Relaunch from stagnation.
The novel spends a good amount of time with flashbacks, sometimes jumping backwards at a key point in the narrative. This wasn't too dissimilar from the way that 'Full Circle' was written, but the technique was used much less frequently than in FC.
Overall, I felt like the book did a good job dealing with the various motivations of the different characters, especially those in the Mirror Universe. I would say about 60-70% of the book or more takes place in the MU, with all of the major events taking place there.
The first several chapters of the book focus on explaining where the deranged Iliana Ghemor was during various events from 'Warpath' and 'Fearful Symmetry'. It also lays out her plan in full, which in turn shows how mentally broken she really was. Her plan reminded me a lot of the movie/TV show 'Highlander', and the movie 'The One' (which is even more appropriate).
I have to give the author credit for including even a little bit about the MU's Luther Sloan, who thinks almost the same as his counterpart in our universe. The other MU characters came off just as they did in the recent MU collection 'Shards and Shadows', and the events of that collection are continued perfectly without any discrepancies. Kudos to the author for keeping the MU's continuity flowing. We find out more about the Alliance's political structure, and see what the MU versions of several familiar characters from DS9 are like (Winn, Opaka, Vaughn, Dukat, Natima Lang, etc.). The 'Vulcan Underground' storyline that had gone through all of the MU stories previously is continued. We also learn about the Bajoran movement to expel Alliance sympathizers from their world, and restore the traditional Bajoran belief system to something closer to our universe's Bajor. The story ends with the possibility that Bajor will now remove itself from the Alliance, since the new Emmisary (MU Iliana Ghemor) has now arrived. Judging from what we learned in this book about how Bajor frequently kept the Klingons and Cardassians together, this could spell the beginning of the end for the Alliance.
I found one storyline very confusing, and parts of it seemed to hint at something bigger. At the end of the last novel, Ben Sisko sent Vaughn on a mission to the MU, where he was tasked with finding the MU Ben Sisko, who he claimed was still alive, and not actually dead as we had seen during the TV series. Oddly, Vaughn arrives in the MU to find that the MU Ben Sisko is indeed dead, and that Sisko lied to him. It turns out that for some reason Sisko wanted Vaughn to meet his dying counterpart, who Vaughn ends up mercy killing so that he is not captured by the Alliance. There is also some discussion that our universe's Vaughn was supposed to be the MU's Emmisary, although this was somewhat vague. This sideplot ends with Vaughn slugging Sisko for lying to him, and saying that he was letting the Prophets control too much of his life.
Our universe's Iliana Ghemor has most of the spotlight in this book, as she rightly should. Because of the memory transfer described in 'Fearful Symmetry' not being fully completed, her mind is divided between her own memories, and those of Kira Nerys. She decides that she wants to fully BECOME Kira Nerys, first by killing Intendant Kira and taking her place, and then trying to kill our Kira later. She even gets the idea of using the paghvaram (the Bajoran word for the 'Soul Key' bracelet that contains the shard of the MU Orbs) to travel to other alternate universes in order to kill the Kiras in those universes. The part of her mind that still has some good in it allows her to reunite the MU version of her fiancee and the Bajoran woman he loves, and allow them to escape Mirror Terok Nor. This is at the same time where she is willing to kill everyone else on the station so that she can enter the Wormhole. So this particular villain has an unpredictability that makes her more three-dimensional than some other ST villains in the past.
Except for Vaughn and Kira, the rest of the DS9 crew has almost nothing to do in this book, except to show up as the cavalry at the end in order to rescue the two officers from the Alliance and Ghemor. Ro Laren has all of two scenes, since she is still unable to even walk without assistance thanks to Taran'atar's horrible assault from 'Warpath'. Quark, Ezri, Bashir, Nog, and the others only appear at the beginning where they talk to the MU's Terran Rebellion aboard that Terok Nor, and at the end where they use the Defiant to rescue Vaughn and Kira. There is a brief hint to Ezri requesting a transfer off of DS9, but it is extremely brief and not followed up again.
The ending hints at the future conflict with the Ascendants, and the sudden arrival of what appears to be our universe's Iliana Ghemor as their kind of 'Dark Emmisary'. I'm not entirely sure, but judging from the mention of 'nine red orbs', I assume that the Ascendants worship the Pah Wraiths. Especially since this 'Dark Emmisary' calls herself the 'fire', a frequent term for anything related to the Pah Wraiths.
Of course, it's really hard to say at this point when we're going to see this new conflict, since next month's DS9 book primarily focuses on the Cardassian view of the events from the beginning of the DS9 TV series up until the current DS9-Relaunch stories. It's very very unlikely that there will be much of a mention of the Ascendants. In addition, the next DS9 book jumps the entire series forward so that they can have a role in the 'Typhon Pact' miniseries. This means we may have to wait a long time to hear again about the Ascendants. In addition, we still haven't heard anything new about what has gone on in the Dominion since the Great Link disbanded. That may never be answered at this rate.
Anyway, I would give this book an A, and say that it has helped to save the DS9-Relaunch from stagnation.
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