Nutshell review: a book so good I'm almost willing to forgive the fact that nothing much happened in it.
As everyone reading this probably knows, Fearful Symmetry has been a long time coming. It was 27 months ago that I read Warpath, the previous installment in the post-finale DS9 series. That book was an engaging and well-told action story with some strong character foreshadowing, but I felt that it didn't do enough to expand the many ongoing stories of its series. I remember hoping that the next book would remedy these problems when it was released in a year's time. As the delays of Fearful Symmetry mounted, I became more concerned about whether the final product could ever be worth this wait. Having read the book, I can say that, while it may not quite satisfy my desire for substantive developments in the saga, it's so well and tightly told that I'm inclined to overlook that.
It's a flip-book with two sides. They're numbered "Side One" and "Side Two;" just to be difficult I started with Side Two, which discusses the life of our Iliana Ghemor from 2357, when she's a young woman uncertain about her future within the restrictive climate of Cardassian society, to 2375, when she's... something else entirely. I don't want to go into a lot of detail about this side of the story, as it's very well-done and the surprise deserves to be preserved. I will say that the troubles Iliana faces are more than enough to explain the shattered maniac first glimpsed at the end of Warpath, and that the twists and turns of her saga left me never knowing quite what to expect. It looked like it would be a sadly cliched account of how a promising artist was forced by her authoritarian culture into a sad half-life, but as the story develops it becomes clear that more is going on, though a couple of the plot's revelations are a bit predictable.
Iliana herself is the only POV character of this story, allowing the reader plenty of space to observe her evolution over the course of nearly two decades despite the fact that this side of the story is only 161 pages long. Iliana's different personalities are sometimes familiar, but the writing always includes little nuances that prevent her from turning into a stereotype. As the events of her life pile up, it becomes almost possible to pity Iliana despite the evil she's done to our heroes; at any rate, one fully understands what she has become.
It's also fascinating to see the occupation of Bajor through the eyes of Cardassian characters; I'm sure the Terok Nor trilogy, which I haven't read yet, does this as well, but it's especially potent here because our insight comes only through Iliana and those with whom she interacts. The characters' debates over the nature of occupation and terrorism are inevitably applicable to modern realities, but the book avoids any cheap parallelisms in favor of careful consideration of the different perspectives people can hold based on their experiences.
So Side Two was pretty successful. But what of Side One, which continues the story of the DS9-R regulars in the aftermath of Warpath? It's even shorter than the other section, at a mere 137 pages, but there's a lot of good character work packed into those pages. Woods has a strong sense of character dialogue- I could "hear" Kira, Ro, Sisko, Quark, and others in their lines. Obviously a work of this length can't offer meaty developments for every character. Kira is obviously at the fore. There's a little of the typical "tough person facing recovery" material about Kira's new artificial heart, but this is blessedly brief. Her story here is instead about her ability to trust people-- Vaughn, Taran'atar, herself. The "facing recovery" subplot is instead given to Ro, and it's entirely standard, though executed with a certain charm. Vaughn and Sisko are also prominent characters here, though less so; it's difficult to go into detail about their arcs without offering unnecessary spoilers. Other relaunch regulars tend to have background roles; they're on the page, but with very little to do. This is somewhat regrettable, though of course the format demands it.
As for the story on offer here, what there is of it is fascinating. The prologue offers some hints about the stakes of the current conflict, in a scene so clever and striking I'm resisting the temptation to tell exactly what happens in it; more revelations about this come near the end. I have my own theories about all this, which I'll discuss in more detail when others have read the book. The ending is definitely something of a cliffhanger, though on the "What next?" scale of Warpath's ending rather than the "OMG WHO WILL SURVIVE" conclusion of something like Olympus Descending. It looks like the narrative and character consequences of this storyline will be substantial, and I'm eager to find out about them... in eleven months' time, or more.
I guess I'd better get this major complaint out of the way, since it's been hanging over this review since the beginning. This book does very little to move the overall story forward. It's great at what it sets out to do, but it only sets out to detail Iliana's backstory and to offer a few hints about what will come next in the "Crisis on Infinite Kiras" storyline in terms of character and plot. There's nothing about other lingering threads in the DS9 metastory, like the dispersal of the Dominion or the Bajoran/Ea'voq/Ascendants storyline. These plotlines have been getting by on bare hints for 3.5 years and more; it's getting hard to care. This book is like a meal at a fine restaurant-- what you get is exquisite, but the portions leave a lot to be desired.
Still, exquisite is exquisite, and Fearful Symmetry does so well on its own merits that I don't want to use my complaints about the series to beat up on this single volume. Woods has a simple but clear prose style that makes the book a smooth reading experience, with some nice humor to ease the tension from time to time. The "flip book" aspect is well and subtlely handled, as Kira's and Iliana's lives intersect in small ways on levels of both narrative and character. And I simply enjoyed reading it, in a way I haven't enjoyed a Star Trek novel in over a year. How can I not give it high marks for that alone?
As everyone reading this probably knows, Fearful Symmetry has been a long time coming. It was 27 months ago that I read Warpath, the previous installment in the post-finale DS9 series. That book was an engaging and well-told action story with some strong character foreshadowing, but I felt that it didn't do enough to expand the many ongoing stories of its series. I remember hoping that the next book would remedy these problems when it was released in a year's time. As the delays of Fearful Symmetry mounted, I became more concerned about whether the final product could ever be worth this wait. Having read the book, I can say that, while it may not quite satisfy my desire for substantive developments in the saga, it's so well and tightly told that I'm inclined to overlook that.
It's a flip-book with two sides. They're numbered "Side One" and "Side Two;" just to be difficult I started with Side Two, which discusses the life of our Iliana Ghemor from 2357, when she's a young woman uncertain about her future within the restrictive climate of Cardassian society, to 2375, when she's... something else entirely. I don't want to go into a lot of detail about this side of the story, as it's very well-done and the surprise deserves to be preserved. I will say that the troubles Iliana faces are more than enough to explain the shattered maniac first glimpsed at the end of Warpath, and that the twists and turns of her saga left me never knowing quite what to expect. It looked like it would be a sadly cliched account of how a promising artist was forced by her authoritarian culture into a sad half-life, but as the story develops it becomes clear that more is going on, though a couple of the plot's revelations are a bit predictable.
Iliana herself is the only POV character of this story, allowing the reader plenty of space to observe her evolution over the course of nearly two decades despite the fact that this side of the story is only 161 pages long. Iliana's different personalities are sometimes familiar, but the writing always includes little nuances that prevent her from turning into a stereotype. As the events of her life pile up, it becomes almost possible to pity Iliana despite the evil she's done to our heroes; at any rate, one fully understands what she has become.
It's also fascinating to see the occupation of Bajor through the eyes of Cardassian characters; I'm sure the Terok Nor trilogy, which I haven't read yet, does this as well, but it's especially potent here because our insight comes only through Iliana and those with whom she interacts. The characters' debates over the nature of occupation and terrorism are inevitably applicable to modern realities, but the book avoids any cheap parallelisms in favor of careful consideration of the different perspectives people can hold based on their experiences.
So Side Two was pretty successful. But what of Side One, which continues the story of the DS9-R regulars in the aftermath of Warpath? It's even shorter than the other section, at a mere 137 pages, but there's a lot of good character work packed into those pages. Woods has a strong sense of character dialogue- I could "hear" Kira, Ro, Sisko, Quark, and others in their lines. Obviously a work of this length can't offer meaty developments for every character. Kira is obviously at the fore. There's a little of the typical "tough person facing recovery" material about Kira's new artificial heart, but this is blessedly brief. Her story here is instead about her ability to trust people-- Vaughn, Taran'atar, herself. The "facing recovery" subplot is instead given to Ro, and it's entirely standard, though executed with a certain charm. Vaughn and Sisko are also prominent characters here, though less so; it's difficult to go into detail about their arcs without offering unnecessary spoilers. Other relaunch regulars tend to have background roles; they're on the page, but with very little to do. This is somewhat regrettable, though of course the format demands it.
As for the story on offer here, what there is of it is fascinating. The prologue offers some hints about the stakes of the current conflict, in a scene so clever and striking I'm resisting the temptation to tell exactly what happens in it; more revelations about this come near the end. I have my own theories about all this, which I'll discuss in more detail when others have read the book. The ending is definitely something of a cliffhanger, though on the "What next?" scale of Warpath's ending rather than the "OMG WHO WILL SURVIVE" conclusion of something like Olympus Descending. It looks like the narrative and character consequences of this storyline will be substantial, and I'm eager to find out about them... in eleven months' time, or more.
I guess I'd better get this major complaint out of the way, since it's been hanging over this review since the beginning. This book does very little to move the overall story forward. It's great at what it sets out to do, but it only sets out to detail Iliana's backstory and to offer a few hints about what will come next in the "Crisis on Infinite Kiras" storyline in terms of character and plot. There's nothing about other lingering threads in the DS9 metastory, like the dispersal of the Dominion or the Bajoran/Ea'voq/Ascendants storyline. These plotlines have been getting by on bare hints for 3.5 years and more; it's getting hard to care. This book is like a meal at a fine restaurant-- what you get is exquisite, but the portions leave a lot to be desired.
Still, exquisite is exquisite, and Fearful Symmetry does so well on its own merits that I don't want to use my complaints about the series to beat up on this single volume. Woods has a simple but clear prose style that makes the book a smooth reading experience, with some nice humor to ease the tension from time to time. The "flip book" aspect is well and subtlely handled, as Kira's and Iliana's lives intersect in small ways on levels of both narrative and character. And I simply enjoyed reading it, in a way I haven't enjoyed a Star Trek novel in over a year. How can I not give it high marks for that alone?
I like.
