Is Worlds of Deep Space Nine Essential?

[Admiral James Kirk]

I finally managed to get my hands on Mission Gamma books 2 & 3 without having to pay 14.95 a pop for them. This means I'm going to read the relaunch from Avatar to Unity and hopefully have a great time doing so. What I'm wondering is if you can just go directly from Unity to Warpath and have everything make sense? The impression I'm getting from WoDS9 is that they're just a bunch of novellas that tell unimportant side stories. Essentially a bunch of Ferengi episodes placed back to back to back. Is that correct or are there a bunch of essential gems to be found in those books?

I've also purchased Left Hand of Destiny 1 & 2 for pennies. Where are those placed on the relaunch timeline? How important are they to the overall storyline? Are they just about Martok or are they Worf heavy? Did JG Hertzler really write them? I've heard they started as teleplays for the series and that another writer adapted them into novel format. Is that true? How are they quality wise?

 

[Hamilton]

There's some stuff that happens in the novels, but you can still read through Warpath without reading them first. That's what I did when I first got the DS9 relaunch novels.

If you're curious about all six worlds, I highly recommend reading them in order. They're a pretty enjoyable read.

 

[Thrawn]

Left Hand of Destiny - not at all important. They take place right after What You Leave Behind, three months before Avatar, and are as far as I know not referenced at all in the DS9 relaunch. You might want to read them if you're doing all the Klingon stories (Gorkon / KE), but otherwise nah. (And I didn't like them very much, but opinions vary. They're very blood and guts and mythic action; feel like Star Wars novels.)

Worlds of DS9 - extremely important. Well, mostly. Cardassia, Trill, and Ferenginar are mostly side-stories, but all have some important character beats in them (in particular, Ezri and Bashir in Trill). But Andor resolves a HUGE plot arc from the Avatar through Unity stuff, and Bajor and Dominion immediately set up the Warpath story. So at least those three are really important. (And I loved all 6 stories, so take that for what it's worth.)

And Cardassia is an essential component of the Cardassian reconstruction side-arc (A Stitch In Time, "The Calling", The Never Ending Sacrifice) so if you plan on reading those, move it to the essential column too.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Thanks. Is Left Hand of Destiny any good?

 

[Thrawn]

Thanks. Is Left Hand of Destiny any good?

I edited my original post with that, too.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I won't be reading the IKS Gorkon or Klingon Empire novels but I do like Martok very much.

 

[Thrawn]

I'd still say they're low priority.

By the way, the stuff from Avatar through Unity, and debatably Worlds as well, is one of the finest runs of fiction that's ever come out of the Star Trek line, so you're in for a real treat

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I read Avatar, Demons of Air and Darkness and Abyss when they originally came out. I've also already read Rising Son and Unity but I never got around to MG or LHoD. Now that I've got all those books I'm going to have me a DS9 marathon. Then I'm going to read the Destiny trilogy.

 

[Hamilton]

That sounds amazing... I might have to do the same during the summer.

 

[Thrawn]

I read Avatar, Demons of Air and Darkness and Abyss when they originally came out. I've also already read Rising Son and Unity but I never got around to MG or LHoD. Now that I've got all those books I'm going to have me a DS9 marathon. Then I'm going to read the Destiny trilogy.

Oddly enough, that's just about what I'm doing right now, except I'm alternating between DS9-R, Lost Era, Mirror Universe, and New Frontier, and then when I finish all FOUR, I'm going to re-read the Destiny trilogy. Should take me a couple months...

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Book marathons are hella fun. I've done the same with New Frontier more than once. BTW don't do that! I was acting like Calhoun for weeks afterwards.

 

[indianatrekker26]

Book marathons are hella fun. I've done the same with New Frontier more than once. BTW don't do that! I was acting like Calhoun for weeks afterwards.

Yeah they are a lot of fun. I just started up my own marathon with the TNG-R and TTN books. I started with "Taking Wing" and plan to read all the TTN, TNG-R and VOY-R books in chronological order as best i can, all the way up to the last VOY-R book, "Unworthy."

 

[Starbreaker]

I read Avatar, Demons of Air and Darkness and Abyss when they originally came out. I've also already read Rising Son and Unity but I never got around to MG or LHoD. Now that I've got all those books I'm going to have me a DS9 marathon. Then I'm going to read the Destiny trilogy.

This is my plan. I read Avatar, Mission Gamma #1, and Demons of Air and Darkness, but I've bought all the books and am going back to read everything straight through, along with Titan before I get to Destiny. Somehow I got back into Trek Lit.

That being said, I think this timeline adequately covers the reading order:


The Left Hand of Destiny
Framing story of The Lives of Dax
A Stitch in Time
April: Avatar
Rising Son
Abyss
Demons of Air and Darkness
"Horn and Ivory"
Twilight
This Gray Spirit
Cathedral
Lesser Evil
Unity
"Trill: Unjoined"
Framing story: "The Officers' Club"
"Bajor: Fragments and Omens"
"Andor: Paradigm"
"Ferenginar: Satisfaction is Not Guaranteed"
"Cardassia: The Lotus Flower"
"The Dominion: Olympus Descending"
December 29 - January 2: Warpath
2377
Fearful Symmetry

 

[Christopher]

^Err, doesn't "The Officer's Club" take place entirely in 2367, during the Cardassian Occupation? Are you referring to its introductory segment in Tales from the Captain's Table, which isn't actually part of the story proper?

 

[Starbreaker]

^Err, doesn't "The Officer's Club" take place entirely in 2367, during the Cardassian Occupation? Are you referring to its introductory segment in Tales from the Captain's Table, which isn't actually part of the story proper?

Just copied that from Memory Beta... I guess it is just the framing story. I'll edit that!

 

[Thrawn]

No need to juggle things around chronologically; just read them in the order that they were published. In particular, Worlds of DS9 is designed to be nonlinear, with emotionally contrasting stories in each installment.

 

[JD]

Thanks. Is Left Hand of Destiny any good?

I'm a huge Klingon fan, and I loved them. But don't even bother if you're not a big Klingon fan. As for what Thrawn said, I think I remember hearing somewhere that the story was inspired by the story of King Artur, so I'm pretty sure that the blood and guts and mythic action were done on purpose.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Did JG Hertzler really write them?

Most definitely he wrote them. There was a tiny announcement somewhere, that the books were coming, and then JG was in Australia for a convention (with Robert O'Reilly) so I was able to ask JG how he was going. He was excited to have the opportunity to talk about them to the audience but admitted that, when he'd finished, he was way too critical of his own work and was very worried the books weren't good enough. He then broke the news (to the audience, and the world) that Marco had just assigned Jeff Lang to help him revise the manuscripts (and I was thrilled because I'd just finished - and loved - "Immortal Coil"). So yes, the books were written by JG Hertzler and then revised with Jeffrey Lang as his collaborator.

That's why those books missed their initial publishing slots.

JG is a many of many talents. It was his little production team that won the contract to write, produce and compile the filmed bonus features on many of the CBS "Star Trek" DVD boxed sets. More recently, IIRC, he was developing some more Klingon stories that he hoped may become comics?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Book marathons are hella fun. I've done the same with New Frontier more than once. BTW don't do that! I was acting like Calhoun for weeks afterwards.

Give that fan a 21 Bun Salute!

 

[DevilEyes]

Thanks. Is Left Hand of Destiny any good?

I'm a huge Klingon fan, and I loved them. But don't even bother if you're not a big Klingon fan. As for what Thrawn said, I think I remember hearing somewhere that the story was inspired by the story of King Artur, so I'm pretty sure that the blood and guts and mythic action were done on purpose.

Well, I wouldn't exactly call myself a big Klingon fan, but I'm reading it (I'm at the start of book 2) and quite enjoying it. It's not going to be my favorite Trek novel, but it is a really fun, good epic adventure story with mythic elements - and with good characterization, which is usually what I look for in books. (To answer an earlier question: Martok is the main charactyer, but it focuses on Worf a lot as well.) It managed to surprise me with a revelation at the end of book 1 that I really should have seen coming, a return of a long forgotten character.... but I suppose I didn't see it coming exactly because of the fact that the character had been forgotten for so long in the shows.

The King Arthur connection didn't cross my mind - but now that you mention it, it is so damn obvious I can't believe that I didn't think of it. It's funny, I was thinking that the plot is rather far-fetched and melodramatic - but this story is really an SF version of the King Arthur myth. Even the name of one of the characters is a giveaway.