Getting annoyed by the DS9 Relaunch... (spoilers)

[Danoz]

I've had trouble getting through "The Soul Key" because I'm so tired of this extended confusing hodgepodge of duplicate universe characters. Granted, while "Warpath" was another excellent novel by David Mack and damn good storytelling-- I never believed for a second that Dukat, the entire time we knew him, was actually a serial rapist of an imprisoned Kira lookalike.

I know that I need to go back and finish "The Soul Key" before new books come out, but I don't particularly want to and I'm far more interested to return to some of the new stories outlined in the Worlds of Deep Space Nine (most pressingly, Olympus Descending).

Am I off base here? Or is the mirror-universe arch virtually unreadable?

 

[captcalhoun]

i had no trouble with it.

 

[Rowan Sjet]

"The Soul Key" wasn't a particular favourite of mine either, but I'm just glad the Mirror Universe story is finally done with.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ It's not done yet...

Spoiler: MU

We haven't seen Spock's plan succeed. We all know it will: the Memory Omega project will come to fruition, and the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance will fall. But that hasn't been 'novelized' yet. Until it is, the MU arc will never truly be finished.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but The Soul Key ends on a cliffhanger, doesn't it?

 

[DS9Continuing]

Of a sort. Some things are resolved, others are not, some you think are resolved but then they surprise you.

And what I'm sick of is people complaining about the MU arc in the DS9-R. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions obviously, but IMO it's getting as old as the Articles jokes.

 

[Thrawn]

If it helps any, the next DS9-R book takes place 5 years in the future from Soul Key, so it seems pretty clear that Soul Key finishes that arc right off.

 

[JD]

i had no trouble with it.

Me neither, in fact I enjoyed it. But then again I've always enjoyed the Mirror Universe, so that was probably why. As for Dukat, I wasn't to sure about it at first, but for me it wasn't a serious enough possible mischaracterisation for me to get upset over.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If it helps any, the next DS9-R book takes place 5 years in the future from Soul Key, so it seems pretty clear that Soul Key finishes that arc right off.

Or something else that's supposed to take place in between those books, finishes it off, which we may or may not ever see.

 

[Elias Vaughn]

Of a sort. Some things are resolved, others are not, some you think are resolved but then they surprise you.

And what I'm sick of is people complaining about the MU arc in the DS9-R. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions obviously, but IMO it's getting as old as the Articles jokes.

Articles jokes?

 

[David cgc]

When "Articles of the Federation" came out, the "Historian's Note" at the beginning mentioned where it took place in relation to a novel that wasn't going to come out for another month or two. A lot of people were confused by this, and thought it meant you had to read that second first book for "Articles" to make sense. It became a running joke here about what arbitrary book you had to read before "Articles of the Federation."

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think it just boils down to some people like the Mirror Universe, while others don't. I tend to fall into the latter category myself, so I walked away from the series after "Unity". I do hope to come back after the time-jump though...

 

[Judith Sisko]

I think it just boils down to some people like the Mirror Universe, while others don't. I tend to fall into the latter category myself, so I walked away from the series after "Unity". I do hope to come back after the time-jump though...

I fall into this category as well.

 

[Danoz]

I think it just boils down to some people like the Mirror Universe, while others don't. I tend to fall into the latter category myself, so I walked away from the series after "Unity". I do hope to come back after the time-jump though...

I fall into this category as well.

That may be the problem for me. It's just too far a stretch, I think-- though the idea that the "Prophets" were responsible for the dimensional rift is one of the best explanations for the alternate universe I've ever heard.

 

[Rowan Sjet]

I don't have a problem with the MU itself. I've actually got all the MU anthologies, and am looking forward to when and how the events described in Baba's spoilers play out. I guess I just don't like how this arc unfolded, though maybe that's more down to Iliana. I never took to her as a character, much less the big villain. Maybe I would have preferred her as a one off, like Locken in the Section 31 book.

 

[o'brien's scotch]

I don't have a problem with the MU and I really loved the idea of the gathering of multiverse Siskos. Unfortunately, I have been less than excited by the last two DS9-R books. I really don't have enough interest in Illiana Ghemor (either version) and my weariness is probably magnified by the fact this story has been going on through three books over a four year period (if you include the excellent Warpath). Also, the last two books didn't leave much room for much character development for anyone outside of the Illianas, Kira, or Vaughn.

 

[Warp Coil]

I don't have a problem with the MU and I really loved the idea of the gathering of multiverse Siskos. Unfortunately, I have been less than excited by the last two DS9-R books. I really don't have enough interest in Illiana Ghemor (either version) and my weariness is probably magnified by the fact this story has been going on through three books over a four year period (if you include the excellent Warpath). Also, the last two books didn't leave much room for much character development for anyone outside of the Illianas, Kira, or Vaughn.

I have to agree with this. It wasn't the MU that bothered me, it was the fact that the storyline didn't particularly interest me and I felt as if most of the major characters and stories were pushed into the background in order to put so much emphasis on Illiana Ghemor, a character that I don't particularly care about. However, having said that, it seems as if the end of The Soul Key merges the MU/Ghemor story into the Ascendants story, so at least this might all lead somewhere interesting.

Of course, with the massive 5-year jump about to take place in the DS9 series, who the hell knows what's going to happen.

 

[DS9forever]

I've really enjoyed Ghemor's appearances, especially due to the fact that she remembers both her own experiences AND Kira's. As she reflects in Fearful Symmetry, she remembers Ataan in her own memories and having planted the bomb that killed him as Kira. Thats pretty fascinating.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'm not particularly interested in the Iliana storyline. All I want to see from the MU is the rise of Earth and the fall of the K-C Alliance. That's all I care about.

 

[JD]

I think it just boils down to some people like the Mirror Universe, while others don't. I tend to fall into the latter category myself, so I walked away from the series after "Unity". I do hope to come back after the time-jump though...

I fall into this category as well.

That may be the problem for me. It's just too far a stretch, I think-- though the idea that the "Prophets" were responsible for the dimensional rift is one of the best explanations for the alternate universe I've ever heard.

That wasn't an explanation for the MU, it was just how Kira and Bashir ended up there the first time.

 

[flemm]

Am I off base here? Or is the mirror-universe arch virtually unreadable?

Pretty much, yeah. On the one hand, crossing over into the mirror universe is a storytelling device that wears thin very fast. On the other hand, the character of Illianna Ghemor is contrived to such an extreme that she becomes entirely uninteresting in my view, yet she is the focus of the story.

In the original scheme of the DS9-R, this probably made sense as a quick one novel set-up for the Ascendant arc, but in practice this ended up being a fiasco.

At the end of the Worlds of DS9 books, there was a real sense that great things were on the horizon. Unrealized potential unfortunately, doubtless for a variety of reasons.

I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming jump into Typhon Pact. The DS9-R needs to find a renewed sense of momentum.