DS9: Trial by Error

[Joel_Kirk]

When I get some time, I'll post my little customer review on Amazon.

Other reviews give this book some harsh criticism. However, I thought it was pretty good up until the end.

While reading, everyone seemed to be written as onscreen counterparts: O'Brien had his usual quips, Sisko was his cool self, Dax was HER cool and analytical self, and you can 'hear' Odo speaking in his raspy voice...and so on...

*SPOILERS*
The main villains of the piece, unseen aliens who are able to be transparent (literally not metaphorically...heh, heh, heh) suddenly become 'solids' towards the end of the novel; nothing is explained why they mimic other species, nothing is explained why they bring Jake and his Cute-Bajoran-girlfriend-of-the-moment down to their planet, bump the shuttlecraft around before making the atmosphere breathable. (In order for Jake to make 'first contact' with this species).

What is questionable is the face that Captain Sisko takes Jake's assessment of the aliens and seems to go with it. The book seems to end without really delving into the aliens that has caused a bit of chaos around DS9.

We still don't get an idea of who or what they are. It's almost as if there could have been an additional paragraph or two that would have tied things together.

I would like to hear some responses from some others who have read this book.

 

[Defcon]

It's years since I read it, so all I remember is that I wasn't very impressed by it and that I wrote a short review for a German forum way back then so I looked it up and translated it:

"This is a barely average novel. It partly felt like an overlong Deep Space Nine young adult novel, since the story lacks depth and the characterizations aren't really good either. Especially Quark isn't depicted fitting at all, but all of them are flawed. Overall a novel I wouldn't really recommend."

 

[historypeats]

It's been years since I read it as well; all I remember is a feeling of overwhelming pointlessness once Garland made his big reveal. I didn't understand why the thing had been written at all.