I think I have to make a thread talking about how awesome it is. Which I don't really do often, but I'd forgotten just how impressive it really is.
I mean, as a rule, all short story collections ideally end up being greater than the sum of their parts. That's kind of the point, that’s why they’re interesting. But I think this one ends up doing so on like three separate levels simultaneously.
First, on the usual level of short story collections, there’s an amazing amount of variety among the tales, from action to romance to politics to art and right back around again. And, as Dax’s hosts have varied tremendously in personality, even the main characters aren’t repetitive. So if nothing else, it succeeds brilliantly in its obvious mission statement to demonstrate what an amazing varied life Dax has had. And that’s just the beginning.
Second, it works, oddly, as a historical narrative of Trill’s influence/acceptance of the outside world. From tentative steps, to scientific aid, to bad situations when more is revealed, to further disasterous secrets that Must Be Kept, and eventually back around to working with the Federation again, it kind of shows all sides of the issue, including (nicely enough) some of the dark sides to that amount of exposure. I thought it was surprisingly well-balanced, how Emony’s story showed that some aliens really did end up bigoted and hateful towards the Trill; so much of the stories around Trill paint them as idiotically secrecy-obsessed, but in a lot of ways that mindset does make sense, and I like that this collection showed that side of things too.
And finally, it works as one, big character arc! This is most surprising to me, but if you map the prevailing emotion of each story, they tell a genuine emotional arc, from the realization of a scary outside world to awkward adolescence and early romance, tragedy and comeuppance, and to maturity with Curzon. Then we’re at Jadzia, who in the series took all of that and integrated it into one character, but who's purpose here is slightly different. Her story ties up the last couple of loose ends, setting the stage for both Ezri’s story in DS9-R and beyond (as the arc for Dax starts over again at awkward adolescence) and also Trill’s story of finally having everything come crashing down. This is beautiful, truly, and so nicely ties in to Trill's later story in the DS9-R that it almost defies belief.
The book works so well as a unified whole that it almost feels weird to talk about individual stories, but some of them should be mentioned; the Reeves-Stevens’s, for instance, do a thoroughly remarkable job setting the tone for everything, combining infodump and sense of portent in a way that’s almost more gripping than the actual action sequences later on, and the sensitivity with which Barnes portrays Sisko is surprising and genuine. But the real major points have to go to S. D. Perry, proving she’s the one to start the series proper with both of her entries being clear highlights, especially the utterly stunning Joran story. The passion and art in that tale is at once creepy and bizarrely electrifying, anchoring the whole anthology and arc at its darkest point.
It's true, there are a couple unfortunate missteps; I think Torias’s story is totally useless, and especially combined with Dax meeting Sarek’s dad, McCoy, Chris Pike, and the Parasites in other stories, starts to feel way too much like small universe syndrome. I also think, as much fun as it was to read, that Ezri was ostensibly the narrator and so taking a whole tale from Sisko’s perspective was sort of silly, and was the only time this felt like an anthology and not like a unified story. And also, really, Ezri’s big revelation at the end works nicely with the anthology, but is telegraphing too much too quickly, and should’ve been more low-key to fit into the DS9-Relaunch a bit better.
But really, this is much better than any short story collection has any right to be, and demonstrated 2 years before the DS9-Relaunch started just how amazing it was going to turn out. Marco was just ridiculously good at coordinating all this, these authors were perfectly chosen, and each one nailed their tale. I think anyone reading the DS9-Relaunch from the beginning should start with this (and maybe A Stitch In Time too, which is next on my list.)
Anyway, this was just awesome. Definitely too much awesome for the "what are you reading lately" thread to hold.
Has anyone else happened back upon this decade-old piece of storytelling brilliance lately?
I mean, as a rule, all short story collections ideally end up being greater than the sum of their parts. That's kind of the point, that’s why they’re interesting. But I think this one ends up doing so on like three separate levels simultaneously.
First, on the usual level of short story collections, there’s an amazing amount of variety among the tales, from action to romance to politics to art and right back around again. And, as Dax’s hosts have varied tremendously in personality, even the main characters aren’t repetitive. So if nothing else, it succeeds brilliantly in its obvious mission statement to demonstrate what an amazing varied life Dax has had. And that’s just the beginning.
Second, it works, oddly, as a historical narrative of Trill’s influence/acceptance of the outside world. From tentative steps, to scientific aid, to bad situations when more is revealed, to further disasterous secrets that Must Be Kept, and eventually back around to working with the Federation again, it kind of shows all sides of the issue, including (nicely enough) some of the dark sides to that amount of exposure. I thought it was surprisingly well-balanced, how Emony’s story showed that some aliens really did end up bigoted and hateful towards the Trill; so much of the stories around Trill paint them as idiotically secrecy-obsessed, but in a lot of ways that mindset does make sense, and I like that this collection showed that side of things too.
And finally, it works as one, big character arc! This is most surprising to me, but if you map the prevailing emotion of each story, they tell a genuine emotional arc, from the realization of a scary outside world to awkward adolescence and early romance, tragedy and comeuppance, and to maturity with Curzon. Then we’re at Jadzia, who in the series took all of that and integrated it into one character, but who's purpose here is slightly different. Her story ties up the last couple of loose ends, setting the stage for both Ezri’s story in DS9-R and beyond (as the arc for Dax starts over again at awkward adolescence) and also Trill’s story of finally having everything come crashing down. This is beautiful, truly, and so nicely ties in to Trill's later story in the DS9-R that it almost defies belief.
The book works so well as a unified whole that it almost feels weird to talk about individual stories, but some of them should be mentioned; the Reeves-Stevens’s, for instance, do a thoroughly remarkable job setting the tone for everything, combining infodump and sense of portent in a way that’s almost more gripping than the actual action sequences later on, and the sensitivity with which Barnes portrays Sisko is surprising and genuine. But the real major points have to go to S. D. Perry, proving she’s the one to start the series proper with both of her entries being clear highlights, especially the utterly stunning Joran story. The passion and art in that tale is at once creepy and bizarrely electrifying, anchoring the whole anthology and arc at its darkest point.
It's true, there are a couple unfortunate missteps; I think Torias’s story is totally useless, and especially combined with Dax meeting Sarek’s dad, McCoy, Chris Pike, and the Parasites in other stories, starts to feel way too much like small universe syndrome. I also think, as much fun as it was to read, that Ezri was ostensibly the narrator and so taking a whole tale from Sisko’s perspective was sort of silly, and was the only time this felt like an anthology and not like a unified story. And also, really, Ezri’s big revelation at the end works nicely with the anthology, but is telegraphing too much too quickly, and should’ve been more low-key to fit into the DS9-Relaunch a bit better.
But really, this is much better than any short story collection has any right to be, and demonstrated 2 years before the DS9-Relaunch started just how amazing it was going to turn out. Marco was just ridiculously good at coordinating all this, these authors were perfectly chosen, and each one nailed their tale. I think anyone reading the DS9-Relaunch from the beginning should start with this (and maybe A Stitch In Time too, which is next on my list.)
Anyway, this was just awesome. Definitely too much awesome for the "what are you reading lately" thread to hold.
Has anyone else happened back upon this decade-old piece of storytelling brilliance lately?
It's been a while since I've read it, but I do recall being impressed by the way in which the anthology gave us the story of the Trill society's interaction with outsiders as well as Dax's personal story, as you say. I particularly enjoyed the Lela and Audrid entries, which were strong character pieces and very much focused on Dax yet never lost sight of Trill as a whole, and the meaning Dax's actions would have for her entire race. The Trill never reached their full potential on TV, and "The Lives of Dax" was one of the first steps in Trek lit to remedy that, I think.
