Spoilers DS9: Revenant by Alex White - review thread

[David cgc]

I loved this book, but one thing I will say: we watched "Field of Fire" the other night -- an episode I don't much care for in the first place -- and it's pretty hard to square that depiction of Joran (and Ezri's relationship with him) with the events of this book. To be clear I far prefer the take in the book but while this novel really fleshes out the Jadzia/Trill episodes I'm not sure it's quite consistent with the Ezri/Trill episode.

I wasn't sure how much of my mental image of Joran came from the actual episodes versus the Lives of Dax story, so I largely gave the novel the benefit of the doubt in fleshing him out in a way contrary to what I expected. I do remember some disagreement in different stories about whether Joran Belar was an okay guy before he was joined and the combination with Dax just made Joran Dax violent and amoral, or if Joran was alway a murderer and conned his way into being joined. This novel seemed to split the difference between those two readings, though his killings ended up feeling a bit too justifiable (and more of a "spree" than a "serial killer").

Maybe I missed something, but why would they implant a cloned symbiont into a human, Colin Hart, when there were apparently so many initiate washouts to choose from? Just to get somebody close so they could attack Dax? Being in Starfleet doesn't seem to have aided Hart in that. And why was it apparently unfinished as he had an open wound from the procedure? They never say it was a Vess but I imagine it had to be.

Yep. Hart was kidnapped and implanted in a rush job so Vess could get the drop on Dax and assassinate her, and was regarded as disposable by Vess.

I liked the story for the most part, and it was a clever and dark twist. But I have to say, having all the evil symbionts be clones controlled by a single primary symbiont felt kind of like the cliched copout of having all the weapons/invading aliens/monsters be slaved to a single control, so you can take them all out just by defeating one. (There was a DS9 episode that did that with a grid of Cardassian or Dominion defense satellites, and The Avengers did it with the Chitauri.)

I thought it was only really contrived that Jadzia's friend was the "head vampire," and they all just seemed to assume that was the case, and I don't believe there was a reason given why she would've gotten the original Vess.

 

[The Wormhole]

It's weird Worf did not mention that Riker had been joined briefly since he was standing right there when Dax and Bashir derived that Hart had been joined. This just happened the other day on Discovery too, where Adira mentioned they'd been the first human bonded to a symbiont or some such. Maybe they meant permanently.

Disco did indeed specify permanent in regards to Adira being the first human host to a symbiont. It was stated that symbionts had temporarily joined with humans in the past, and that Adira is the first human to be joined long term.

 

[Christopher]

Disco did indeed specify permanent in regards to Adira being the first human host to a symbiont. It was stated that symbionts had temporarily joined with humans in the past, and that Adira is the first human to be joined long term.

What they said was that Adira was the first successful bonding of a symbiont with a human host, although that's basically the same thing as "permanent." The bonding with Riker in "The Host" was unsuccessful because his body rejected the symbiont after a while. As for Hart, I don't think a symbiont taking over a zombie host really counts as a successful merger, and it was pretty short-term anyway.

 

[ryan123450]

Can anyone confirm that the name Koal for Jadzia’s uncle from The Lives of Dax was also used in this novel? Memory Beta says he is mentioned, but I’m not certain that the same name is used.

 

[The Wormhole]

No, I don't recall him being mentioned.

 

[captainmkb]

Can anyone confirm that the name Koal for Jadzia’s uncle from The Lives of Dax was also used in this novel? Memory Beta says he is mentioned, but I’m not certain that the same name is used.

the name wasn't used, but the fact that she had an uncle with a lida fruit orchard was mentioned

 

[Elwro]

If more Trill can be joined than the Commission admitted... are we to infer that there are adult symbionts waiting for a proper host? If not, then the evil of washing out more people than necessary is somewhat mitigated. (Though of course the message should be 'you're perfectly eligible but we just don't need you right now', and not 'you're not good enough'.)

 

[Christopher]

If more Trill can be joined than the Commission admitted... are we to infer that there are adult symbionts waiting for a proper host?

No, that's the point -- that there aren't nearly as many symbionts as hosts, so most potential hosts can't be joined. The Commission pretends that host eligibility is rare because if it were known how many people could be joined, they fear that symbionts would become a commodity that people would fight to possess.

Although Discovery: "Forget Me Not" seemed to, uh, forget this, since the 32nd-century Trill said that there weren't enough viable hosts left on Trill for the symbionts they had. A lot can happen in eight centuries, of course, but something pretty drastic would've had to happen there.

 

[captainmkb]

when Jadzia noticed that Hart's uniform showed a spreading bloodstain i knew immediately that this was following the old protocol from that era where planetary personnel wore the standard uniforms and not the all-black uniforms of DS9. nice touch

also... with all the body horror described i was happy that Noodles was ok in the end
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Noodles

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

A riveting story: I was up past midnight last night finishing it, knowing full well I had to go to work this morning. It had action, tension, character development, and a mystery to be solved, and the only prior work it directly and irreconcilably contradicted was a rather forgettable short story in The Lives of Dax. (And I don't have a problem with that, the way I do with the Kirk "Autobiography" directly contradicting the Riley backstory from A Flag Full of Stars, or with various "revisionist Oz" works, because unlike the cardboard cutout psychotic serial killer of "Allegro Ouroboros in D Minor," this Joran is a complex, believable character, a sociopathic host on the cusp of redemption, being tortured relentlessly by a sociopathic symbiont.)

I could not help but think of the whole parasite backstory from "Sins of the Mother," Unjoined, and Unity. And eventually, with the revelation that

Spoiler

the antagonists were all Vess, I also found myself thinking of the Borg, and of Blastoneuron portolanii.

It would have gotten one of my vanishingly rare "Outstanding" votes, except for a couple things:

In the first place, it screamed for more and better copy-editing. There was at least one place where I was thrown out of the story by awkward syntax, and a few where I was thrown out by not being able to tell who was speaking.

In the second place, I knew it had to be

Spoiler

Vess

by the time I got to Chapter 14. In a proper whodunit, or a proper Holmesian tale, or even a proper howcatchem, you aren't, as a reader, generally a third of the book ahead of the detective protagonist.

 

[Krupp]

Something interesting about the book, is the way the author is directly challenging some of the things we’d find unacceptable today, which were acceptable in 1990s TV. Curzon and Jadzia being the most obvious and direct one. They are calling out Curzon through the lens of MeToo, and to be quite honest they are right to do so!

It’s also interesting to see the relationship of Jadzia and Kira in more natural tones, the things they say to one another and the way they behave as women supporting one another. A facet I hadn’t really seen in much treklit to date. And they sure enjoyed eating!

 

[Enterpriserules]

The Literary Treks interview will be out on Sunday!

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I'm now re-reading Trill: Unjoined. I'm thinking of re-reading Unity, and re-watching "Equilibrium," "Facets," and "Field of Fire."

The only real contradictions between Revenant and the handful of Joran references in Trill: Unjoined seem to be a matter that in-universe, Ezri would have almost certainly known the "real story" of Joran. Which of course is not possible, because it hadn't been written yet.

I suspect that some of the commercials in my DS9 off-air archives will be rather interesting.

 

[captainmkb]

I suspect that some of the commercials in my DS9 off-air archives will be rather interesting.

i've found the commercials are my favorite part of watching my old Trek tapes. the ebb and flow of 80s/90s/00s advertising certainly takes the mind aback some

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I will note that it's rather odd timing that I would be in the middle of re-reading Trill: Unjoined on the anniversary of a violent insurrection. And under the circumstances, I'm finding it every bit as harrowing as the most harrowing parts of Coda.

Did I mention that up until Revenant, I had never gotten the impression that the Caves of Mak'ala were "one flight down" from the Symbiosis Commission building?

Hmm. If the events of Unity and Trill: Unjoined only happened in the First Splinter (Novelverse) reality, then perhaps we have another positive outcome of the Coda trilogy.

 

[Christopher]

Did I mention that up until Revenant, I had never gotten the impression that the Caves of Mak'ala were "one flight down" from the Symbiosis Commission building?

In Discovery, they're out in the mountains, IIRC. Revenant does say they stretch for some distance, but that bit struck me as odd too.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Even before DSC, I was under the impression that they were in a wilderness area, based on previous canon, and on various TrekLit.

In Discovery, they're out in the mountains, IIRC. Revenant does say they stretch for some distance, but that bit struck me as odd too.

Either it really is odd, or we're both crazy. Not that the two conditions are mutually exclusive.

 

[Krupp]

I went back and re read some passages. I have to say, this trek book has just landed with me in a refreshing way. One can clearly see a lot of 2020s empathy and best practice around dealing with struggles and mental health and the impact of all the things we see our characters go through - right up to Jadzia telling Worf simply that she believes him over something he confides… contrasted with authorities not believing or trusting people… anyway, it brings something to the trek lit I think, and will hopefully open up the likes of DS9 to new audiences - maybe some of the new Disco fans who enjoy the very modern take on diversity, and who can go back and enjoy some of what the golden 90s gave us - while also perhaps retconning some of the social aspects!

I say all this as someone who doesn’t go searching for media that has this stuff in spades. But I really enjoyed reading the “lived experience” side of things for our characters.

 

[Enterpriserules]

Literary Treks with Alex is out now! Hope you enjoy!

 

[Reanok]

Ive been looking forward to your interview with Alex White. Thanks for posting it here.