Hm, I could read the chunks of it where they take place!
Novels for a DS9 Rewatch?
- Thread starter Stevil2001
- Start date
Have you considered Legends of the Ferengi for season 5? It's not a novel, but it came out shortly before that season's start, and reviews on Amazon suggest it might be good.
Oh gosh, I love that book and I forgot all about it!
"Win or lose, there's always Hupyrian beetle snuff."
"Win or lose, there's always Hupyrian beetle snuff."
So today it occurred to me that Slings and Arrows, though a Next Generation story, has a crossover with Deep Space Nine as its finale... a crossover set during Season 5!
But then I discovered this novella costs over $6 on Amazon. Surely this is some kinda war crime? Who do I complain to?
But then I discovered this novella costs over $6 on Amazon. Surely this is some kinda war crime? Who do I complain to?
So I read The Siege over Thanksgiving break.
What's impressive about this book is how much Peter David gets right. Mostly this is accomplished by sticking to elements of the show that were clearly defined in the first five episodes. So, Odo is the main character: something my wife and noted in Season One was that Odo is basically always the best regular in every scene, enlivening even the dullest of dialogue. Kira is the other strongly depicted character of S1, but there's not much to grab onto in the first five episodes except for "Past Prologue," so she's pretty much sidelined here, along with Dax.
Anyway, my favorite bit about Odo actually comes from O'Brien's perspective, where he reflects that Odo has a similar naïveté about human(oid) nature to Data, but where Data is curious about what he doesn't understand, Odo is just offended.
Speaking of O'Brien, he's almost right but not quite; his dedication to figuring out magic tricks doesn't really feel like the guy we know. On the other hand, David falls right into the Keiko Trap the writers of the show usually did too: treating her as a Generic Motiveless Nagging Wife, and not an actual person with some kind of interior life.
Bashir is a pretty Generic Crusading Starfleet Doctor in some respects, but this works pretty well for Bashir, especially when he's still all idealistic in Season 1. He has a good handle on Sisko, too, except that at the very end of the book Sisko turns into a Generic Peter David Character and begins cracking terrible puns at Odo's expense for some reason. A thing I do not believe Sisko would ever, ever do.
The only character that rang really false for me was Quark; though he is obviously greedy, he was never as stupid as depicted here. The idea that the Ferengi would try to buy DS9 is actually a pretty good one, and has potential to be a real plot line, but here it's an unfunny joke, and Quark pursues it with a business acumen below that of Nog (or even Rom!).
It's interesting that David doesn't really emphasize the decolonization aspects of the series, but that's something the show itself largely avoided in Season 1, until "Duet" and the Circle trilogy and "Cardassians." Instead, The Siege is a pretty standard "weird things come to the station" plot that we saw a lot of in Season 1, and David pulls it off better than the show itself usually did at that point.
Continuity points:
* It's amazing how well Meta fits with what we later learn about Changelings; there's nothing here that contradicts the idea that he couldn't be one of the Hundred. The only thing that doesn't quite work is that Odo doesn't mention him again, but I can assume that he and Laas talk about Meta off screen in "Chimera" next time I see it.
* At first I thought Meta was a different goo color than Odo because he's described as red, but late in the novel, Odo's goo is described as red as well. (I'd say it was more orange.)
* Sisko says he's never seen Odo shift before this novel, but Odo turned his head gooey to avoid that thief in "Emissary."
* Also Odo is described as maintaining his mass in smaller forms, which is realistic, but contradicted by "Vortex" (though of course that was yet to air at this point).
* Finally, is Dukat's ship called the Ravage in any other source? It seemed familiar to me, but I can't find anything on Memory Beta or Google.
Side Note:
Something that's really interesting to me in rewatching the series is how fascinating the decolonization of Bajor ought to be-- anyone who's read their postcolonial history or literature or theory knows this is a violent, bloody, fraught process, and we get glimpses of that every now and then. But not many, and I often feel like that's where the real meat is and instead we're watching Alexander Siddig ham it up as Ray Oh Van Tika. I'd love to read (or write!) a novel that delved into the upheaval that Bajoran society must be experiencing at this point in time. I find Bajoran politics and religion fascinating.
Even in microcosm, how did Kira go from being a terrorist one week to being an effective administrator the next isn't something we really see on screen. Like, that's a big job adjustment, surely? How did the Bajoran military get organized-- who got to be generals? How did smarmy politicians come into being so quickly?
What's impressive about this book is how much Peter David gets right. Mostly this is accomplished by sticking to elements of the show that were clearly defined in the first five episodes. So, Odo is the main character: something my wife and noted in Season One was that Odo is basically always the best regular in every scene, enlivening even the dullest of dialogue. Kira is the other strongly depicted character of S1, but there's not much to grab onto in the first five episodes except for "Past Prologue," so she's pretty much sidelined here, along with Dax.
Anyway, my favorite bit about Odo actually comes from O'Brien's perspective, where he reflects that Odo has a similar naïveté about human(oid) nature to Data, but where Data is curious about what he doesn't understand, Odo is just offended.
Speaking of O'Brien, he's almost right but not quite; his dedication to figuring out magic tricks doesn't really feel like the guy we know. On the other hand, David falls right into the Keiko Trap the writers of the show usually did too: treating her as a Generic Motiveless Nagging Wife, and not an actual person with some kind of interior life.
Bashir is a pretty Generic Crusading Starfleet Doctor in some respects, but this works pretty well for Bashir, especially when he's still all idealistic in Season 1. He has a good handle on Sisko, too, except that at the very end of the book Sisko turns into a Generic Peter David Character and begins cracking terrible puns at Odo's expense for some reason. A thing I do not believe Sisko would ever, ever do.
The only character that rang really false for me was Quark; though he is obviously greedy, he was never as stupid as depicted here. The idea that the Ferengi would try to buy DS9 is actually a pretty good one, and has potential to be a real plot line, but here it's an unfunny joke, and Quark pursues it with a business acumen below that of Nog (or even Rom!).
It's interesting that David doesn't really emphasize the decolonization aspects of the series, but that's something the show itself largely avoided in Season 1, until "Duet" and the Circle trilogy and "Cardassians." Instead, The Siege is a pretty standard "weird things come to the station" plot that we saw a lot of in Season 1, and David pulls it off better than the show itself usually did at that point.
Continuity points:
* It's amazing how well Meta fits with what we later learn about Changelings; there's nothing here that contradicts the idea that he couldn't be one of the Hundred. The only thing that doesn't quite work is that Odo doesn't mention him again, but I can assume that he and Laas talk about Meta off screen in "Chimera" next time I see it.
* At first I thought Meta was a different goo color than Odo because he's described as red, but late in the novel, Odo's goo is described as red as well. (I'd say it was more orange.)
* Sisko says he's never seen Odo shift before this novel, but Odo turned his head gooey to avoid that thief in "Emissary."
* Also Odo is described as maintaining his mass in smaller forms, which is realistic, but contradicted by "Vortex" (though of course that was yet to air at this point).
* Finally, is Dukat's ship called the Ravage in any other source? It seemed familiar to me, but I can't find anything on Memory Beta or Google.
Side Note:
Something that's really interesting to me in rewatching the series is how fascinating the decolonization of Bajor ought to be-- anyone who's read their postcolonial history or literature or theory knows this is a violent, bloody, fraught process, and we get glimpses of that every now and then. But not many, and I often feel like that's where the real meat is and instead we're watching Alexander Siddig ham it up as Ray Oh Van Tika. I'd love to read (or write!) a novel that delved into the upheaval that Bajoran society must be experiencing at this point in time. I find Bajoran politics and religion fascinating.
Even in microcosm, how did Kira go from being a terrorist one week to being an effective administrator the next isn't something we really see on screen. Like, that's a big job adjustment, surely? How did the Bajoran military get organized-- who got to be generals? How did smarmy politicians come into being so quickly?
I'd expect the resistance leaders were giving the high ranking positions.
I'd love to get a novel that was set during the DS9 tv series but focused on the action going on Bajor - similar to how Vanguard takes place during TOS. Obviously characters like Opaka and Winn could play important roles. I doubt this could ever happen, but it's an interesting idea.
I'd love to get a novel that was set during the DS9 tv series but focused on the action going on Bajor - similar to how Vanguard takes place during TOS. Obviously characters like Opaka and Winn could play important roles. I doubt this could ever happen, but it's an interesting idea.
Except Opaka's role would end about 1/13 of the way through the novel, when she gets stranded in the Gamma Quadrant...
Absolutely. But in the beginning she'd be really important.
Unless this were a series of books, in which case, Opaka's exile from Bajor would make a great end for book 1.
My wife and I finished Season 2 over break, which means I read Fallen Heroes over the past couple days. It's an odd one-- I can see why people like it, but it's slightly off; characters sometimes feel like caricatures of themselves. Odo is more overtly mean to Quark than he usually is, and at one point we learn that Bashir persuaded Odo to bug Quark's holosuites so that he can spy on Dax and Kira. Like, really, either of them would do that???
But on the whole, I think ab Hugh has good command of the characters. Obviously this is a "reset button" story, but you can write a good one of those if it gives insight into characters, and this one does. If the station were overrun and everyone was killed, this is exactly how it would happen I think. There's a lot of good stuff here: Keiko's death was actually quite sad, O'Brien's soldier/engineer balance (so rarely addressed in the series) is well handled, the way that Jadzia dies but Dax lives on for a few moments is creepy but effective, Bashir is actually quite brilliant as he goes out. Maybe the only character whose death is a little too perfunctory is Kira's. (She's written a little dumbly at times, actually; I don't think ab Hugh has a great handle on her.)
Best of all (aside from the protagonists) is Sisko and Jake and Molly. Sisko is a great Starfleet commander here, balancing the immediate needs of his people with that of the Federation/Bajor and even his son. His death is amazingly badass. And poor Jake and Molly's survival narrative is harrowing but really quite great. I don't think we ever even see Sisko and Jake in the same scene, but their bond is ever-present and strong.
Quark and Odo form the core of this novel, which makes this the second Odo-centric novel I've read in a row. Watching the show, it's easy to see why: though early S2 is where the other characters begin to pop much more ("The Circle" is where I finally felt the writers had a handle on all seven), throughout S1 Odo is consistently the strongest character, with Kira just behind him. If you asked me to pitch a DS9 novel in 1993, I'd pick Odo as protagonist too. I think this is the first story to pair the two off, something the show wouldn't do until "The Ascent" in S5. It's handled pretty well (except for Odo's occasional unnecessary meanness): I liked Odo's callback to "Babel," where he revises his statement that being trapped on DS9 with Quark would be the worst torment he could imagine, to that being trapped with a repentant Quark is even worse. I also liked some of the touches ab Hugh gives Ferengi culture, such as that there is an enormous set of ritual cringes, from the "relative's cringe" to "okay, you caught me with my hand in the cookie jar, but society's to blame." Someone needs to enter these on Memory Beta.
The heroic triumph of both characters is great: Odo's journey into the still-hot fusion core of the station is truly harrowing, and I like that Quark gets to actually save the day. Though everyone is a jerk to him about it, poor guy. (Does Quark ever do anything as bad as people act like he does?)
Continuity Points:
* Not a lot here, but explicit references are made to a number of S1 episodes up to "In the Hands of the Prophets." Since that episode, Bajoran "Sunday schools" have sprung up on the station, and Sisko has been sending Jake to them. Through this, we learn some about ancient, pre-Prophet Bajoran gods, no longer worshipped except by radicals.
* There are also references to other DS9 novels, which is neat. O'Brien thinks of himself as an "amateur magician," a reference to his attempts to learn magic tricks to amuse Molly in The Siege, and there's also a couple references to the poker game in The Big Game (which I last read many, many years ago). If there were any references to Bloodletter, I missed them.
* O'Brien says he worked on the Enterprise when it was under construction at Starbase 13, which is why he transferred aboard the ship five years later. Given it's canonical that the ship was constructed at and launched from Utopia Planitia, do we take this to mean that perhaps some components were built at S13 in 2359 and sent on to Mars?
* The enemy race is this novel is known to the Cardassians as bogeymen called the "Bekkir." A hundred years ago, the Cardassians tried to recruit their help in attacking the Klingons. The Bekir declined and attacked the Cardassians, who couldn't launch a punitive expedition because the Bekir reside in the Gamma Quadrant. I'm not sure this really makes sense.
Other Notes:
* I liked the rhyming aliens.
* Welshman ab Hugh populates his novel with a number of UK sorts: a Scot, a Welshman, and another Irishman are all on the DS9 crew. Also Odo calls a flashlight a torch!
* How generic is that cover?
But on the whole, I think ab Hugh has good command of the characters. Obviously this is a "reset button" story, but you can write a good one of those if it gives insight into characters, and this one does. If the station were overrun and everyone was killed, this is exactly how it would happen I think. There's a lot of good stuff here: Keiko's death was actually quite sad, O'Brien's soldier/engineer balance (so rarely addressed in the series) is well handled, the way that Jadzia dies but Dax lives on for a few moments is creepy but effective, Bashir is actually quite brilliant as he goes out. Maybe the only character whose death is a little too perfunctory is Kira's. (She's written a little dumbly at times, actually; I don't think ab Hugh has a great handle on her.)
Best of all (aside from the protagonists) is Sisko and Jake and Molly. Sisko is a great Starfleet commander here, balancing the immediate needs of his people with that of the Federation/Bajor and even his son. His death is amazingly badass. And poor Jake and Molly's survival narrative is harrowing but really quite great. I don't think we ever even see Sisko and Jake in the same scene, but their bond is ever-present and strong.
Quark and Odo form the core of this novel, which makes this the second Odo-centric novel I've read in a row. Watching the show, it's easy to see why: though early S2 is where the other characters begin to pop much more ("The Circle" is where I finally felt the writers had a handle on all seven), throughout S1 Odo is consistently the strongest character, with Kira just behind him. If you asked me to pitch a DS9 novel in 1993, I'd pick Odo as protagonist too. I think this is the first story to pair the two off, something the show wouldn't do until "The Ascent" in S5. It's handled pretty well (except for Odo's occasional unnecessary meanness): I liked Odo's callback to "Babel," where he revises his statement that being trapped on DS9 with Quark would be the worst torment he could imagine, to that being trapped with a repentant Quark is even worse. I also liked some of the touches ab Hugh gives Ferengi culture, such as that there is an enormous set of ritual cringes, from the "relative's cringe" to "okay, you caught me with my hand in the cookie jar, but society's to blame." Someone needs to enter these on Memory Beta.
The heroic triumph of both characters is great: Odo's journey into the still-hot fusion core of the station is truly harrowing, and I like that Quark gets to actually save the day. Though everyone is a jerk to him about it, poor guy. (Does Quark ever do anything as bad as people act like he does?)
Continuity Points:
* Not a lot here, but explicit references are made to a number of S1 episodes up to "In the Hands of the Prophets." Since that episode, Bajoran "Sunday schools" have sprung up on the station, and Sisko has been sending Jake to them. Through this, we learn some about ancient, pre-Prophet Bajoran gods, no longer worshipped except by radicals.
* There are also references to other DS9 novels, which is neat. O'Brien thinks of himself as an "amateur magician," a reference to his attempts to learn magic tricks to amuse Molly in The Siege, and there's also a couple references to the poker game in The Big Game (which I last read many, many years ago). If there were any references to Bloodletter, I missed them.
* O'Brien says he worked on the Enterprise when it was under construction at Starbase 13, which is why he transferred aboard the ship five years later. Given it's canonical that the ship was constructed at and launched from Utopia Planitia, do we take this to mean that perhaps some components were built at S13 in 2359 and sent on to Mars?
* The enemy race is this novel is known to the Cardassians as bogeymen called the "Bekkir." A hundred years ago, the Cardassians tried to recruit their help in attacking the Klingons. The Bekir declined and attacked the Cardassians, who couldn't launch a punitive expedition because the Bekir reside in the Gamma Quadrant. I'm not sure this really makes sense.
Other Notes:
* I liked the rhyming aliens.
* Welshman ab Hugh populates his novel with a number of UK sorts: a Scot, a Welshman, and another Irishman are all on the DS9 crew. Also Odo calls a flashlight a torch!
* How generic is that cover?
I suppose there was the time he got Jadzia Dax physically violated, Jadzia nearly killed and Dax abducted, when he let Verad take over the station. I can understand why season two Quark needs a while to work his way back into "we tolerate you almost fondly" from "we tolerate you, though I don't know why".
The Verad thing is so bad, though, that it doesn't make any sense he wouldn't go to jail for it. And other than that, he seems pretty harmless most of the time. I wish the show gave a better sense of him constantly getting away with illegal things that Odo can't quite pin on him.
By stardate, though, Fallen Heroes takes place not long after "Invasive Procedures" so that might explain why everyone is jerkier to Quark than normal.
By stardate, though, Fallen Heroes takes place not long after "Invasive Procedures" so that might explain why everyone is jerkier to Quark than normal.
True. I agree on both counts there.
Also, he sells weapons to the Maquis. Kassidy Yates sells medical supplies to them and gets six months in prison. Quark traffics weapons through DS9? Nothing. 
Also, he sells weapons to the Maquis. Kassidy Yates sells medical supplies to them and gets six months in prison. Quark traffics weapons through DS9? Nothing.
Since six months in prison is also the penalty for attempted genocidal mass murder of an alien species using Starfleet weaponry (Mr. Garak, I'm looking at you), Kasidy really got the book thrown at her, didn't she? It's amazing this monster isn't still rotting in a dank hole!
One thing you have to remember with Fallen Heroes and the earlier DS9 books was that they were written prior to DS9 being on the air. So most of the authors probably just had the script for Emissary and maybe the first two or three episodes, but no video. So Dafyd ab Hugh would've been working off of what was written in the scripts, and between the writing of the scripts and the filming of the episodes, the characters may've been portrayed differently.
Fallen Heroes came out about a year and a half after production started on the show, and over a year after the show started airing. I think by that point in the run of DS9 books, that was no longer true; at least not for the entirety of the writing process, or even a majority of it. Plus, like stevil said, it actually references a specific episode from late in season 1.
Also, he sells weapons to the Maquis. Kassidy Yates sells medical supplies to them and gets six months in prison. Quark traffics weapons through DS9? Nothing.
Quark has a better lawyer.
It may've come out a year after the show started airing, but in "Voyages Of Imagination" both Lois Tilton and Nathan Archer mention how the majority of their books (in the case of Tilton it was the whole book, and then for Archer it was only half before he broke his hand) were written before DS9 had even aired. AndTilton mentions that she had to "cram" watching the episodes for scene rewrites, since all she had to go on in the first place was the show outline.
Can't explain it for those books coming out so late in the line - maybe it was shuffling around in the schedule, they were supposed to come out earlier but got delayed or something? But I think you missed KRAD's post about this one, which backs me up for it.
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