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

[tenmei]

I did find all the Kira-doubles popping up a bit confusing - might go back and reread the three MU novels in one continuous run to see if it makes more sense in that way. I think that might have been the issue - if they'd been published together (a la the Mission Gamma novels) it might not have been so tricky for me to keep track of them.

Speaking of the MG arc, does anyone else feel the MU arc is essentially the MG arc equivalent of 'Season 9' (assuming Avatar - Unity as S8). It's a divergence from the main arc (the Ascendancy Arc) which ties into the main events at the end.

 

[Warp Coil]

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.

I think that Fearful Symmetry and The Soul Key were originally going to be one book, to serve as setup for things to come (i.e. the Ascendants story). But then there were a lot of behind-the-scenes issues (like the change in author) that delayed Fearful Symmetry, and then the decision was made to drag the Illiana Ghemor story out across two books. All of this took the momentum out of the series. Delays, long waits between books, and the emphasis on Ghemor's character really detracted from DS9's main focus and I think left a lot of people wondering when the pace would finally pick up again.

I think that the series has a chance to get back on track. However, I think that the five year time jump might actually make things worse, not better.

 

[flemm]

I think that Fearful Symmetry and The Soul Key were originally going to be one book, to serve as setup for things to come (i.e. the Ascendants story). But then there were a lot of behind-the-scenes issues (like the change in author) that delayed Fearful Symmetry, and then the decision was made to drag the Illiana Ghemor story out across two books. All of this took the momentum out of the series. Delays, long waits between books, and the emphasis on Ghemor's character really detracted from DS9's main focus and I think left a lot of people wondering when the pace would finally pick up again.

Yeah, that sounds about right and corresponds to what I have gleaned from discussions of the issue in previous threads.

I think that the series has a chance to get back on track. However, I think that the five year time jump might actually make things worse, not better.

Anything's possible. The time jump might well be tricky to handle, but I'm just going to hope for the best at this point.

 

[Sxottlan]

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

You are not alone.

 

[DarKush]

I've personally been experiencing a growing disappointment with the DS9R since the parasite arc. I thought that should've been handled in the TNG books. But I thought Worlds of DS9 was uneven, with enough good in it to keep me going. I also enjoyed Warpath, more for D. Mack's great writing than what happened in the book. I bought Fearful Symmetry but haven't been that interested in actually picking it up and reading it. I didn't buy Soul Key, not after reading some of the reviews and finding out that Vaughn punches out Sisko. Don't care for that at all.

I thought I would hate the idea of Captain Ezri Dax but I would be more interested in reading about the Vesta than more MU-DS9R stories. Don't care from the shift to Kira and Vaughn with Sisko being pushed into the background. Though I'm still curious to see what happens with the Ascendents.

 

[flandry84]

Much will depend on the manner in which the 5 year jump will be handled.Will the re-relaunch be under the direction of one author (like it was for S D Perry )or will it be a mish-mash of conflicting ideas with the inevitable(unintentional)contradictions?
Personally I have lost interest in so many of Treklits current iterations,that to see DS9 get shafted too would be terrible.

 

[Stevil2001]

The DS9 relaunch was never under the direction of S. D. Perry. She was an author taking part like any other.

 

[flandry84]

Perhaps "under the direction"was the wrong turn of phrase.
Though Ms.Perry did write the first couple of books of the relaunch right?
It made for some cohesion vis a vis characterisation.

 

[Defcon]

Perhaps "under the direction"was the wrong turn of phrase.
Though Ms.Perry did write the first couple of books of the relaunch right?
It made for some cohesion vis a vis characterisation.

She wrote the opening duology, but those two books were rather short, so I'm not sure if you can really say they established enough to give them nearly the defining status you seem to imply. After that other authors took over for six books before she penned two more, after that other authors took over again. So overall she was responsible for 4 of 16 (counting each of the WoDS9 volumes as one title instead of two) core titles of the relaunch.

 

[Christopher]

Much will depend on the manner in which the 5 year jump will be handled.Will the re-relaunch be under the direction of one author (like it was for S D Perry )or will it be a mish-mash of conflicting ideas with the inevitable(unintentional)contradictions?

The novels are always under the direction of the editor. Marco Palmieri was the editor who served as the "showrunner" for the DS9 post-finale novels, devising the story direction, choosing the authors, and working with them to create a cohesive, focused narrative. When Marco was laid off, editor Margaret Clark took over responsibility for shaping the direction of the series, and she had her own plans for where it would go. However, she was also laid off, and now Jaime Costas is the editor responsible for all Trek fiction, so she will be the one shaping the course of future DS9 novels and keeping their authors in sync with one another.

 

[flemm]

Perhaps "under the direction"was the wrong turn of phrase.
Though Ms.Perry did write the first couple of books of the relaunch right?
It made for some cohesion vis a vis characterisation.

The Avatar books were great. They were actually what got me into Trek lit. I had never looked into it before, but I was curious to see how the DS9 storylines would play out. In many ways these novels still set the standard for me as far as what I enjoy in the tie-in books.

I think one of the keys is that they were fairly modest in scope. Sci-fi often tries way too hard to be epic, often falling into heroic fantasy cliches or just forgetting that events are not necessarily compelling simply because they happen on a grand scale.

The Avatar books just plunged the reader back into the atmosphere of the station, convincingly portrayed the familiar characters while picking up story arcs from the show's finale. At the same time they brought some new characters and a touch of fanwank into the mix (such as having the Enterprise crew on DS9).

It was a new look at the DS9 cast in the sense that it was definitely a novelistic approach. We suddenly had a lot of access to what the characters were thinking, for example, so there was a kind of interiority there that you don't get in a tv script. At the same time it was convincingly an extension of the show. It felt like the beginning of Season 8.

Anyway, just saying: I thought they were good. And I thought the story stayed strong and mostly true to this approach at least through Unity, which I think maybe was also penned by Perry? It's been a while. Worlds of DS9 was a mixed bag, but still lots of good moments, with an effective mix of plot, character development, and exploration of the various alien cultures. I'm not sure how we went from there to two novels about the escapades of Insane Kira Clone Serial Rape Victim Interdimensional Killing Spree Turned Ascendant Emissary or whatever. Yikes. I'd love to see the DS9-R get back to something a little closer to the Avatar style myself.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'm also tiring of the whole 'Crisis on Infinite Kiras'.

 

[-Brett-]

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 used to like the mirror universe just fine. The MU arc changed my mind.

 

[DigificWriter]

The type of 'mini-arc' storytelling that is demonstrated in the Ghamor/Mirror Universe arc in the Relaunch novels is nothing new for the DS9 franchise, so I'm not quite understanding why people have such a problem with it, nor why they're condemning the entire Relaunch project based on it.

 

[Christopher]

The type of 'mini-arc' storytelling that is demonstrated in the Ghamor/Mirror Universe arc in the Relaunch novels is nothing new for the DS9 franchise, so I'm not quite understanding why people have such a problem with it, nor why they're condemning the entire Relaunch project based on it.

I'm not hearing anyone saying that mini-arc storytelling in general is bad, just that they didn't think this specific arc worked out to their satisfaction. I also don't think anyone is "condemning the entire Relaunch project"; rather, it sounds to me like they're praising the way the post-finale DS9 series went prior to these books but asserting that the past few volumes have disappointed them.

I don't share that opinion; I liked the last few books just fine, and I recognize that the delays were unavoidable. But I nonetheless recognize that criticizing a specific arc is not the same thing as condemning the whole series or the whole concept of story arc.

 

[o'brien's scotch]

Personally, I don't mind the time jump. I loved the Destiny trilogy, but one of the things that killed me was wondering how the folks on ol' Terok Nor were weathering the situation. Granted, the Aventine helped a little, but Ezri and Sam were the only holdovers from the DS9-R books. With the increased cohesion between books set during 2380/2381, it makes perfect sense to bring DS9 along for the ride and I welcome it.

A sweet duology filling in the gaps at some point will be fine for me.

 

[DigificWriter]

The type of 'mini-arc' storytelling that is demonstrated in the Ghamor/Mirror Universe arc in the Relaunch novels is nothing new for the DS9 franchise, so I'm not quite understanding why people have such a problem with it, nor why they're condemning the entire Relaunch project based on it.

I'm not hearing anyone saying that mini-arc storytelling in general is bad, just that they didn't think this specific arc worked out to their satisfaction. I also don't think anyone is "condemning the entire Relaunch project"; rather, it sounds to me like they're praising the way the post-finale DS9 series went prior to these books but asserting that the past few volumes have disappointed them.

I don't share that opinion; I liked the last few books just fine, and I recognize that the delays were unavoidable. But I nonetheless recognize that criticizing a specific arc is not the same thing as condemning the whole series or the whole concept of story arc.

The way I interpreted the complaints, particularly the OP's, it gave the impression that the dissatisfaction surrounding the Ghamor arc had bled over into a dissatisfaction with the DS9 Relaunch - and the direction thereof - as a whole.

While I haven't yet been able to read any of the more recent DS9 novels (the last one I was able to get my hands on was Unity), I'm not actually that surprised that the storytelling delved back into the MU because of all the mini-arcs that DS9 as a property dealt with, the MU was definitely one of its more defining ones, and had been previously established as such by both on-screen and novel continuity, so it's kind of hard for me to understand the complaints as I interpreted them.

 

[tenmei]

What could be fun is if the next novel - the one that caught up with the other series - was a 'Flash Forward' episode of sorts and then the novels returned to proceeding through 'Season 9' at the usual pace.

If the MU Arc is S9's Mission Gamma, then the next novel could be the equivalent to Rising Son.

 

[Paris]

^The next DS9R book will be DS9's Typhon Pact book by DRG3, The Rough Beasts of Empire. Catching up the 5 year period in that book on top of all the TP stuff would be daunting and would probably take the emphasis off of the TP stuff. Maybe the book after that will be a "Rising Son" type of book. Or maybe I'm wrong and DRG3 is going to give us a 1000-page opus with everything everyone has been waiting for. I guess we'll find out next fall...

 

[Christopher]

^I believe DRGIII has said that his Typhon Pact novel is focused on the Typhon Pact timeframe, not the whole five years. Which is consistent with what Margaret Clark has said about not intending to fill in the gap right away.