Spoilers DS9: Rules of Accusation by Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann Review Thread

Blurb:
An original eNovella set in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine universe!

On the space station Deep Space 9, Quark’s Public House, Café, Gaming Emporium, Holosuite Arcade, and Ferengi Embassy can’t legitimately be called an embassy until the Grand Nagus—namely, Quark’s brother Rom—dedicates it as such. Not that Quark really cares about Ferengi protocol, but a well-publicized dedication ceremony will naturally draw people to the bar. Everybody loves a good open house—free appetizers, half-price drinks, door prizes, etc.—all of which Quark can write off as Embassy expenses. It’s a win-win situation, with him on both sides of the win. There’s even a plan to display the original scroll of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition—which no one has seen for decades given that it’s been held in protective storage—and charge patrons by the minute to look at it up close. Nothing, of course, could possibly go wrong with this big plan. Absolutely nothing at all…

About the Authors:

Paula M. Block (with Terry J. Erdmann) is a co-author of the ebook novella Star Trek: Deep Space Nine—Lust’s Latinum Lost (And Found). She has also written the non-fiction books: Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier; Star Trek Pop-Ups; Star Trek The Original Topps Trading Card Series; Star Trek The Next Generation 365; Star Trek The Original Series 365; Star Trek 101; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion; The Secrets of Star Trek: Insurrection; The Magic of Tribbles; and Star Trek: Action! Her additional titles include Monk: The Official Episode Guide and The 4400 Companion. As a licensing director for Paramount Pictures, Paula was co-editor of Pocket Books’ short story series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Terry J. Erdmann (with Paula M. Block) is a co-author of the ebook novella Star Trek: Deep Space Nine—Lust’s Latinum Lost (And Found). He has also written the non-fiction books: Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier; Star Trek Pop-Ups; Star Trek The Original Topps Trading Card Series; Star Trek The Next Generation 365; Star Trek The Original Series 365; Star Trek 101; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion; The Secrets of Star Trek: Insurrection; The Magic of Tribbles; and Star Trek: Action! His additional titles include Monk: The Official Episode Guide and The 4400 Companion. During his career in film publicity, Terry authored The Last Samurai Official Companion. They live in Southern Oregon with their two collies, Shadow and Mandy.


http://books.simonandschuster.biz/R...Block/Star-Trek-Deep-Space-Nine/9781501110689

 

Thanks for starting this review thread, Defcon. I'm going to amend my not-really-a-review post in the "When is the Rules of Accusation out?" thread:
I've just finished this, and found it to be a very entertaining and typical Quark/Ferengi tale, and certainly-IMO-better than Lust's Latinum Lost (and Found). Quark's interaction with Odo and Brunt were fun, and really evoked the feel of the show. It was good to see Bena, rather than just get a quick reference to her. And Morn is in it with an important role!
Rules of Accusation takes place over a few days just after The Missing and before Sacraments of Fire. It doesn't really have anything to do with, or have any affect upon the other novels, but there are a few nods to what's going on with other characters: At this point, Nog's not around, Sisko is about to depart DS9 on a priority mission, and Odo's waiting to be granted permission to visit the Newton Outpost.
Over all, this was a quick, fun, Ferengi-centric read - A real tonic to the longer, more serious novels.

 

This is already out?

 

Yes, since fourth of July. [Insert 4th of July and Independence Day movie reference

 

Finished it today. Good short story. Really enjoyed it.

 

- I can't say that I did, and normally I do in Star Trek media as I find it so anachronistic. What was it? Feet and inches? Pounds? Ooh, this is going to bug me now

 

Voted above average on this one.
A nice, fun read. Block and Erdmann seem to really get the Ferengi well. I think they hit the same tone of comic relief but genuine believable culture and characters that the best DS9 Ferengi episodes had. It was great to see Odo and Quark interacting again. Their bond in spite of their mutual suspicion for one another was always a great aspect of DS9.
One thing I would have liked to see more of was Ro/Quark. Their relationship is one of my favorite things about the relaunch, and I was disappointed not to see more of it here.
On the whole, another fun entry in the ebooks line.

 

Regarding the Quark/Ro relationship, have you read Ascendance?

 

Yes I have. I guess we'll find out what comes next for them next February.

 

Fun story. I am thinking of the DS0 ebooks as the stand alone episodes that appeared between the more story arc episodes. Sometimes fun, sometimes intense, but they didn't move the main story forward much if at all. Some of those are the best episodes. I'm not saying these are the best episodes, just good stories about about characters I like that don't have to involve life and death situations. I rated this above average.

 

You've really gotta wonder about writers who use the word "repast" instead of "food." I think all of us writers were warned about using "affected alliteration"

 

Actually "repast" is more a synonym for "meal." And what has alliteration to do with it? There are no repeated letters in "repast," and you didn't specify whether it's in the context of a sentence with other R or P sounds.

 

We had a fantastic time with this one on Literary Treks and Dan got to catch up with them at Shore Leave so double the fun!

 

What I meant is that it's flowery language, using a more obscure word when the current word will do. It's like MASH when Hawkeye said, "'Behooves?' What, are we in the cavalry now?"

 

I wasn't aware "repast" was an obscure word. Granted, it's a bit old-fashioned, but I'm sure any decently educated person knows what it means.

And you still haven't explained where the alliteration comes in. That doesn't mean flowery language, it means the repeated use of consonant sounds. If it were something like, ohh, "A resplendent repast replete with ripping red papaya and radish pierogies," say, then it would be alliterative.

 

I listened to the podcast it sounds like a fun story.

 

It was really fun!

 

Just finished this the other day, and just like LLL, it was a light and frothy confection and an absolute delight. I think I preferred LLL just a little bit, I remember laughing out loud to that one in the office, but this one was still great too. All the characters were well captured - Zek, Odo, Brunt, even Morn.

And how wonderful to have him back, and playing a major role in the story. (Surely we need to have a Morn-Maihardu face off at some point, no?) I hope that when DRG3 finally dredges that story out of himself in the next novel, the interminable wait for him to get the damn point will be worth it and not ruin what we have here.

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Oh, Christopher, why must you come to this website acting so uppity and literal? It's very clear you like to display some sort of advanced education, and it's also very clear you expect everybody to operate on your level. Some days it's like talking to Data before he acquired any humanity at all.

When I was a young writer, I encountered a set of rules about fictional writing, and one of them was, "do not use affected alliteration" without explaining what affected alliteration was. My younger self was forced to assume it meant something along the lines of "don't use 'repast' when 'food' will do" and nobody ever corrected me.