Lois Tilton's book came out right after Dafydd ab Hugh's book (ab Hugh was #5, Tilton was #6). Nathan Archer's Valhalla, before his accident was suppose to be, as he mentions in VOI "number 3 or 4" in the line. So for those early books everyone was working on the books before the "Emissary" even aired.
Novels for a DS9 Rewatch?
- Thread starter Stevil2001
- Start date
We finished Season 3 a month or more ago, but I only got around to reading Time's Enemy this week.
Of the three books, I've read so far, this one-- for obvious reasons-- fits the series the best. While the books for S1 and S2 were set early in their respective seasons, Time's Enemy actually takes place in the S3/4 gap; Sisko is a captain, but he still has his hair. The book has a strong grasp on all the characters. Sisko, Dax, Bashir, and Kira are the focuses, but just like in the show at this point, Odo, Quark, and O'Brien shine even though they just have brief appearances. I especially liked the protracted sections told from Kira's perspective; Graf really gets Kira's mix of hot-headedness, persistence, and professionalism, and balances her terrorist past with her administrator present very well.
The book really captures the nuances of the DS9 world better than preceding ones, with references small and big; it's definitely the most interested in Bajor of the ones I've read so far. Kai Winn is in it (not quite her first prose appearance; Memory Beta tells me she appeared in Objective: Bajor first), and her schmarmiess is perfect. Though to be honest, her role really should have been taken by Shakaar (who is mentioned as Kira's former Resistance leader, but not in the context of being First Minister). The only thing that feels off is that there's very little worry about the Dominion; no one suggests that they might be responsible for an attack on the wormhole, or the destroyed ships they find. They are used well as an ancillary threat, though.
In terms of plot, this is also a good book. There's a real sense of desperation, both from the time paradox that begins the whole thing, and from the unclean/viroids themselves, who are really creepy enemies-- not really sentient, but very determined space locusts. They're very effective, especially in the early sections of the book, where our protagonists keep on coming across ships with their crew and power sources missing. The book stands alone from the rest of Invasion! easily; I haven't read that for over a decade, but all you really need to know is that the Furies used to control local space and are trying to take it back, and the unclean kicked them out.
Graf is surprisingly deft with the science stuff, which actually feels "real" for the most part-- too much Star Trek science comes across as substanceless babble. There's some neat stuff with the wormhole, especially; I really liked it when they realized the wormhole was opening and closing, but they couldn't see it because its light had moved out of the visible spectrum.
Continuity Points:
* Earth is supposedly eleven hours from Bajor at maximum warp. In "Emissary," the Enterprise was the closest ship, and two days away, so this seems unlikely. Even in the context of how quick the journey is in S4 and beyond, this makes little sense.
* Rom says he makes extra money on the side (doing repairs) to send to Nog: "He likes going out with his hu-man friends when he isn't in engineering classes." At first, I thought this was a prochronistic reference to Nog being at the Academy, but on reflection, it's probably the Academy preparatory program Nog was trying to get into in "Facets"; it seems plausible that that would be off the station, and there's no references to (present day) Nog from "The Adversary" to "Hippocratic Oath," so he could very well be off the station.
* There's a group of former Bajoran resistance fighters who oppose Bajor's alliance with the Federation who play a key role in the novel; I'd assume they were affiliated with the Circle, but one ever says that. Their leader gets away to fight another day, but Graf never brought her back.
* Sisko talks to the Prophets here, which is his first time doing so since "Emissary." Nothing in the later "Accession," however, contradicts this. No one seems to know that Quark talked to them, though.
* Something my wife and I noted was that in S3, Eddington only turns up to do something suspicious or shady (in "The Search," "The Die Is Cast," and "The Adversary"). In S4, he starts to get used much more often, and much more nicely, usually when the plot needs an extra Starfleet character, or O'Brien is away ("Rejoined" and "Our Man Bashir" spring to mind). Time's Enemy is actually the beginning of this trend, it turns out; he fights the Bajoran paramilitary group on the station, and is part of the Defiant's skeleton crew for its desperate Gamma Quadrant mission.
* I really like what we learn about Jem'Hadar self-destruct codes: all you have to do is say "self-destruct," because no Jem'Hadar would wrongly engage self-destruct (so no need for multiple authorizations), and there's no time for codes in the kind of situations where you need to self-destruct. The catch is that no one ever hears the Jem'Hadar speak their own language (they always speak the language of their opponents), so the code is virtually impossible to come by. I wonder if the show ever does anything to contradict this; I hope not, because it's a great idea.
* We're also told Jem'Hadar have no junk DNA (actually, the book uses the nonsense term "junk genome," but whatever). Also a cool idea. "Junk DNA" is more properly non-coding DNA, and it does serve some purposes, but many of them would not apply to a species that doesn't reproduce, so that makes sense.
Other Notes:
* Odo flying himself through the wormhole with the Dax symbiont inside himself is pretty badass.
* Graf does a good job of populating with minor-but-distinctive characters; I liked Admiral Hayman and Cadet Petersen.
* Has anyone ever expanded on what castes mean in Andorian culture? An Andorian disease is mentioned that only affects members of the "shesh caste."
* Dax being an ansible is also a cool idea.
* As an academic, I appreciate the references Bashir, Dax, and Petersen all make to journal publishing. (Bashir seems surprised that no one else reads his articles. Of course.)
Of the three books, I've read so far, this one-- for obvious reasons-- fits the series the best. While the books for S1 and S2 were set early in their respective seasons, Time's Enemy actually takes place in the S3/4 gap; Sisko is a captain, but he still has his hair. The book has a strong grasp on all the characters. Sisko, Dax, Bashir, and Kira are the focuses, but just like in the show at this point, Odo, Quark, and O'Brien shine even though they just have brief appearances. I especially liked the protracted sections told from Kira's perspective; Graf really gets Kira's mix of hot-headedness, persistence, and professionalism, and balances her terrorist past with her administrator present very well.
The book really captures the nuances of the DS9 world better than preceding ones, with references small and big; it's definitely the most interested in Bajor of the ones I've read so far. Kai Winn is in it (not quite her first prose appearance; Memory Beta tells me she appeared in Objective: Bajor first), and her schmarmiess is perfect. Though to be honest, her role really should have been taken by Shakaar (who is mentioned as Kira's former Resistance leader, but not in the context of being First Minister). The only thing that feels off is that there's very little worry about the Dominion; no one suggests that they might be responsible for an attack on the wormhole, or the destroyed ships they find. They are used well as an ancillary threat, though.
In terms of plot, this is also a good book. There's a real sense of desperation, both from the time paradox that begins the whole thing, and from the unclean/viroids themselves, who are really creepy enemies-- not really sentient, but very determined space locusts. They're very effective, especially in the early sections of the book, where our protagonists keep on coming across ships with their crew and power sources missing. The book stands alone from the rest of Invasion! easily; I haven't read that for over a decade, but all you really need to know is that the Furies used to control local space and are trying to take it back, and the unclean kicked them out.
Graf is surprisingly deft with the science stuff, which actually feels "real" for the most part-- too much Star Trek science comes across as substanceless babble. There's some neat stuff with the wormhole, especially; I really liked it when they realized the wormhole was opening and closing, but they couldn't see it because its light had moved out of the visible spectrum.
Continuity Points:
* Earth is supposedly eleven hours from Bajor at maximum warp. In "Emissary," the Enterprise was the closest ship, and two days away, so this seems unlikely. Even in the context of how quick the journey is in S4 and beyond, this makes little sense.
* Rom says he makes extra money on the side (doing repairs) to send to Nog: "He likes going out with his hu-man friends when he isn't in engineering classes." At first, I thought this was a prochronistic reference to Nog being at the Academy, but on reflection, it's probably the Academy preparatory program Nog was trying to get into in "Facets"; it seems plausible that that would be off the station, and there's no references to (present day) Nog from "The Adversary" to "Hippocratic Oath," so he could very well be off the station.
* There's a group of former Bajoran resistance fighters who oppose Bajor's alliance with the Federation who play a key role in the novel; I'd assume they were affiliated with the Circle, but one ever says that. Their leader gets away to fight another day, but Graf never brought her back.
* Sisko talks to the Prophets here, which is his first time doing so since "Emissary." Nothing in the later "Accession," however, contradicts this. No one seems to know that Quark talked to them, though.
* Something my wife and I noted was that in S3, Eddington only turns up to do something suspicious or shady (in "The Search," "The Die Is Cast," and "The Adversary"). In S4, he starts to get used much more often, and much more nicely, usually when the plot needs an extra Starfleet character, or O'Brien is away ("Rejoined" and "Our Man Bashir" spring to mind). Time's Enemy is actually the beginning of this trend, it turns out; he fights the Bajoran paramilitary group on the station, and is part of the Defiant's skeleton crew for its desperate Gamma Quadrant mission.
* I really like what we learn about Jem'Hadar self-destruct codes: all you have to do is say "self-destruct," because no Jem'Hadar would wrongly engage self-destruct (so no need for multiple authorizations), and there's no time for codes in the kind of situations where you need to self-destruct. The catch is that no one ever hears the Jem'Hadar speak their own language (they always speak the language of their opponents), so the code is virtually impossible to come by. I wonder if the show ever does anything to contradict this; I hope not, because it's a great idea.
* We're also told Jem'Hadar have no junk DNA (actually, the book uses the nonsense term "junk genome," but whatever). Also a cool idea. "Junk DNA" is more properly non-coding DNA, and it does serve some purposes, but many of them would not apply to a species that doesn't reproduce, so that makes sense.
Other Notes:
* Odo flying himself through the wormhole with the Dax symbiont inside himself is pretty badass.
* Graf does a good job of populating with minor-but-distinctive characters; I liked Admiral Hayman and Cadet Petersen.
* Has anyone ever expanded on what castes mean in Andorian culture? An Andorian disease is mentioned that only affects members of the "shesh caste."
* Dax being an ansible is also a cool idea.
* As an academic, I appreciate the references Bashir, Dax, and Petersen all make to journal publishing. (Bashir seems surprised that no one else reads his articles. Of course.)
^It also makes sense that genetically engineered species wouldn't have junk DNA. If I remember correctly junk DNA is DNA that, as far as we know, doesn't serve a purpose. It makes sense that when you're designing a species that you wouldn't give them DNA that doesn't do anything.
That was what was originally thought, but more and more research into genetics over the last 15 years or so shows that what we thought was "junk DNA" actually does have purpose, it's just not directly related to protein coding. Regulatory mechanisms, control mechanisms for other portions of DNA, backup genetic data in the event of genetic damage, promoters, increased immunity to viral DNA/RNA injection, stuff like that. Evolution overall is a relatively efficient process, and anything that wastes resources like having a significant amount of unnecessary DNA that energy needs to be spent copying during reproduction would tend to be selected against over time; as best we can tell, there's not really any DNA that has literally no biological purpose for a given organism whatsoever, or at best a vanishingly-small fraction.
We're only two episodes into S5, and I've already read my novel for Season 4, so I'm much more on track than I've been in the past.
In terms of "fitting in," The 34th Rule has a big advantage over previous novels I've read for this project-- instead of being written during its broadcast season, it was actually written much later. In this case, the book was released during Season 7, so the Deep Space Nine of this era was very much a known quantity. The 34th Rule fits comfortably between "Bar Association" and "Body Parts"; I didn't notice any real irregularities. Indeed, the book fills a minor gap in the show's continuity, depicting how the Orb of Wisdom got from Zek's possession in "Prophet Motive" to Bajor's in "In the Cards."
This is really a book of two parts. The first is Quark's imprisonment at the hands of the Bajorans. In classic David R. George III (note, however, that he is listed on the title page only as "David George") fashion, this plot line takes a long time to build up, but once it gets going, it's quite brutal, and of course Armin Shimerman and George have a strong grasp on the characters of Quark and Rom. I would have really liked to have seen the characters receive dramatic material this powerful more often on screen-- even the best "Ferengi episodes" like "Bar Association" still have comic turns that this book just does not.
But the real protagonist is, surprisingly, Sisko. Quark is not really changed by the experiences of The 34th Rule. He's been through a rough time to be sure, but he's learned that Zek is even smarter than he can imagine, and he's had some of his assumptions about the fundamental prejudices of hew-mons confirmed, but he's still basically Quark. But the most interesting thing about the novel is Sisko's character arc of learning about his own prejudice, and trying to move past it. The book's highlight scene is definitely the one where Ben and Jake discuss prejudice while watching Jackie Robinson play baseball in the holosuite, and again, it's a scene that would have been really great to have seen on screen.
What also surprised me in this reread is the extent to which some characters are not changed: Kira moves a little, but barely so, and she's pretty awful to Quark before that, so it's hard to see her shift as very big. There's also a very awkward scene where after Quark has been brutally tortured, Bashir is cracking jokes about his appearance. It's intentionally awkward. I can imagine that if it was on screen, it would have been funny-- Quark's injuries are often played for laughs-- but seeing it from Quark's interiority is not funny. It's actually quite a damning indictment of some of our main characters. Both Kira and Bashir come across quite unsympathetically when you're looking at things entirely from Quark's perspective.
Continuity Points:
* Sirsy is introduced as Shakaar's aide; she will reappear in that role in the relaunch novels.
* Similarly, the USS New York is mentioned, and Sisko evidently commands it in some later novels. (I still haven't read beyond... Losing the Peace, I think.)
* On one hand, the book can't have any of the Federation characters change their hearts and stop being jerks to the Ferengi simply because of its chronological placement-- they act the same way to Quark in Season 5 through 7 as they did before. But it's not a bug, it's a feature: it would be unrealistic for any of them to experience cathartic, large shifts in behavior. And you can imagine everyone's experiences here informing their behavior in the last scene of "Body Parts."
* When the Prophets Cried is a Bajoran religious text about how the Orbs came to Bajor, much read by Kira (and also read by Sisko). This is probably our most sustained and detailed knowledge of any Bajoran religious text. It's nice to have one that's not just a plot-catalyzing spooky prophecy. The only other ones I think we have are Akorem's poems, but I don't think they're canonical.
Other Notes:
* Has Zek ever been smarter than he is here? This is probably the only time he ever does something in-story that would validate the idea that he controls a vast financial empire.
* No, seriously, the stuff in Gallitep is brutal. Man, I would love to see Max Grodénchik do some of this .
* I find it odd that Nog only comes up tangentially here. As a Ferengi in Starfleet, what does he think of the Federation's actions here? Even just a chapter from his perspective would have been nice. Wouldn't he have called his dad up?
In terms of "fitting in," The 34th Rule has a big advantage over previous novels I've read for this project-- instead of being written during its broadcast season, it was actually written much later. In this case, the book was released during Season 7, so the Deep Space Nine of this era was very much a known quantity. The 34th Rule fits comfortably between "Bar Association" and "Body Parts"; I didn't notice any real irregularities. Indeed, the book fills a minor gap in the show's continuity, depicting how the Orb of Wisdom got from Zek's possession in "Prophet Motive" to Bajor's in "In the Cards."
This is really a book of two parts. The first is Quark's imprisonment at the hands of the Bajorans. In classic David R. George III (note, however, that he is listed on the title page only as "David George") fashion, this plot line takes a long time to build up, but once it gets going, it's quite brutal, and of course Armin Shimerman and George have a strong grasp on the characters of Quark and Rom. I would have really liked to have seen the characters receive dramatic material this powerful more often on screen-- even the best "Ferengi episodes" like "Bar Association" still have comic turns that this book just does not.
But the real protagonist is, surprisingly, Sisko. Quark is not really changed by the experiences of The 34th Rule. He's been through a rough time to be sure, but he's learned that Zek is even smarter than he can imagine, and he's had some of his assumptions about the fundamental prejudices of hew-mons confirmed, but he's still basically Quark. But the most interesting thing about the novel is Sisko's character arc of learning about his own prejudice, and trying to move past it. The book's highlight scene is definitely the one where Ben and Jake discuss prejudice while watching Jackie Robinson play baseball in the holosuite, and again, it's a scene that would have been really great to have seen on screen.
What also surprised me in this reread is the extent to which some characters are not changed: Kira moves a little, but barely so, and she's pretty awful to Quark before that, so it's hard to see her shift as very big. There's also a very awkward scene where after Quark has been brutally tortured, Bashir is cracking jokes about his appearance. It's intentionally awkward. I can imagine that if it was on screen, it would have been funny-- Quark's injuries are often played for laughs-- but seeing it from Quark's interiority is not funny. It's actually quite a damning indictment of some of our main characters. Both Kira and Bashir come across quite unsympathetically when you're looking at things entirely from Quark's perspective.
Continuity Points:
* Sirsy is introduced as Shakaar's aide; she will reappear in that role in the relaunch novels.
* Similarly, the USS New York is mentioned, and Sisko evidently commands it in some later novels. (I still haven't read beyond... Losing the Peace, I think.)
* On one hand, the book can't have any of the Federation characters change their hearts and stop being jerks to the Ferengi simply because of its chronological placement-- they act the same way to Quark in Season 5 through 7 as they did before. But it's not a bug, it's a feature: it would be unrealistic for any of them to experience cathartic, large shifts in behavior. And you can imagine everyone's experiences here informing their behavior in the last scene of "Body Parts."
* When the Prophets Cried is a Bajoran religious text about how the Orbs came to Bajor, much read by Kira (and also read by Sisko). This is probably our most sustained and detailed knowledge of any Bajoran religious text. It's nice to have one that's not just a plot-catalyzing spooky prophecy. The only other ones I think we have are Akorem's poems, but I don't think they're canonical.
Other Notes:
* Has Zek ever been smarter than he is here? This is probably the only time he ever does something in-story that would validate the idea that he controls a vast financial empire.
* No, seriously, the stuff in Gallitep is brutal. Man, I would love to see Max Grodénchik do some of this .
* I find it odd that Nog only comes up tangentially here. As a Ferengi in Starfleet, what does he think of the Federation's actions here? Even just a chapter from his perspective would have been nice. Wouldn't he have called his dad up?
The main problem is that it just takes so much time. It spans at least a couple of months, and that makes it hard to fit into the timeline. In my chronology, I have its first part taking place simultaneously with Act 5 of "The Quickening," since that part of the episode focuses on Bashir off-station for a couple of weeks, and Bashir isn't in the first part of the novel. But it still stretches out the season by a couple of months, and I have to cram the subsequent seasons more tightly together to get back on track.
This weekend we crossed from Season 5 to Season 6 (wow, Season 6 is good so far), and it took me all of an afternoon today (as long as it take my wife to make tacos) to read the 11th DS9 young adult novel, Day of Honor: Honor Bound. As reading earlier in this thread will assure you, Season 5 has slim pickings when it comes to book-length fiction: it's this, Vengeance by Dafydd ab Hugh, the main story of The Captain's Table: The Mist by Smith and Rusch, and the Rebels trilogy by Hugh. I remember none of these fondly, to say the least. Maybe I should have reread Marvel's Telepathy War crossover instead? But this is what I opted for.
It's an okay book: Alexander is having difficulty living on Earth with his grandparents, and Worf swings by to celebrate the Day of Honor with him because Alexander has been getting into trouble at school. This is the third time Worf's experienced some excitement on the Day of Honor, and the second time we've seen Alexander go through it, too.
As an adult, the existence of DS9 YA novels baffles me; despite the presence of two child characters in the main/recurring cast, it's probably the least child-friendly of all the Star Treks. It ended one book after this one, and I kind of wonder if tying into the Day of Honor crossover was a way of bolstering sales in a dying line by appealing to the collectors/completists. (It obviously worked on me; though I have many of the TNG and TOS YA novels, this is the only DS9 one I own.) It's even weirder that this one stars a character who had never appeared on DS9 when this book was written, though (I assume by total coincidence) he finally did appear the month this book came out. More on that later.
Alexander's difficulties come down to a fear of his own strength, and problems controlling his anger; Worf tells the story of the soccer player he killed (from "Let He Who Is Without Sin"), which is a nice tie-in. Basically he keeps on throwing fights with bullies, but this only encourages his bullies. Worf has to both help him manage his anger (through Klingon techniques he's avoided his entire life, like Mok'bara) and defeat his bullies... honorably. This book won't win any medals for sophisticated prose (the opening line is, "Alexander Rozhenko was one-quarter human, three-quarters Klingon and totally furious!") or dialogue (at one point, one of Alexander's bullies says, "I'm so flabbergasted, I don't know what to say"), or indeed, characterization. We're told of Alexander's tendency to become savage, but we never really feel it.
Still, it's a decent way to spend an hour, and peeks into an aspect of Worf the show neglected for Worf's first two years. There is a really nice conversation between Worf and Alexander about honor, and the hard choices Worf has had to make in its name over the years, including when not to fight.
My favorite bit was when Worf told a girl at Alexander's school that Alexander snarled at her because he was into her. Would have loved to have seen Michael Dorn play that one on screen! Also Alexander's school's librarian makes googly eyes at him.
Continuity Notes:
* As far as I could tell, Alexander's age is never given. He's seven chronologically, but looks more like 12-14 in Gordon Purcell's illustrations, as do his bullying classmates. This is fortuitously consistent with what "Sons and Daughters" will imply about Klingon aging.
* It's sometime early during Season 5, before hostilities with the Klingons come to an end, before the uniform change. I'd suggest after "Nor the Battle to the Strong," since one of the kids at Alexander's school had an uncle killed in the Klingon conflict, and that seemed to be the hottest the war got; most of the time it's more subdued.
* Worf references a Master from Boreth, Lourn. To my surprise, he's a character from Diane Carey's novelization of "Way of the Warrior."
* Zefram Cochrane wrote a book called The Potential of Warp Propulsion; Alexander's school library has a first edition. There's a typo in it hand-corrected and initialed, allegedly by Cochrane, but it's probably a fake. A pre-WWIII publication?
* Kids of the 24th century watch "holoflicks"; the ones at Alexander's school are excited about a new Ferengi comedy.
* Obviously Diana G. Gallagher couldn't have known, but it's a bit of an awkward fit with "Sons and Daughters," which I coincidentally watched tonight. In that episode, Alexander says, "you haven't tried to see me or talk to me in five years"; this book takes place approximately a year prior. Of course, that line is bad on its own terms because, 1) "Sons and Daughters" is set less than three years after Generations, when Worf sent Alexander back to Earth, and 2) that's completely terrible and implausible! I can kind of accept that Worf rarely visits-- he's not a great dad-- but to never even talk to his son over subspace for five years, or even three!? Impossible, his mother would kill him.
* More difficult, though is Alexander's decision at the novel's end that doesn't have to choose "to be a diplomat or a Klingon warrior or a Starfleet officer or something else entirely. Right now, he just wanted to be a kid." He seems to reach something of a peace here, both with the elements of his Klingon heritage and with his father. It's possible that his utilization of Klingon ritual and technique here sends him down the path that leads him to joining the Klingon Defense Force, but his anger at his father would still come out of nowhere. On the other hand, Worf going through so much to help Alexander stay in human school here would make his anger at Alexander's joining the KDF very understandable!
Other Notes:
* Supposedly this book takes place in Russia, in a settlement called Mirnee Doleena, near Bobruisk. You wouldn't know it by the names of the characters: Bernard Umbaya, Kim Ho, Jeremy Sullivan, Suzanne Milton, Howard Chupek, Ms. Marconi, Mr. Houseman, Mrs. Miyashi, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Santiago. There is a Ms. Petrovna. I get that the future is multicultural, but really? (Also Worf goes to a briefing at Starfleet Headquarters at the same time Alexander is in school; it must be a very early morning briefing!)
* Despite appearing on the cover, the Defiant is nowhere near this book. Worf seems to take a commercial flight to Earth.
It's an okay book: Alexander is having difficulty living on Earth with his grandparents, and Worf swings by to celebrate the Day of Honor with him because Alexander has been getting into trouble at school. This is the third time Worf's experienced some excitement on the Day of Honor, and the second time we've seen Alexander go through it, too.
As an adult, the existence of DS9 YA novels baffles me; despite the presence of two child characters in the main/recurring cast, it's probably the least child-friendly of all the Star Treks. It ended one book after this one, and I kind of wonder if tying into the Day of Honor crossover was a way of bolstering sales in a dying line by appealing to the collectors/completists. (It obviously worked on me; though I have many of the TNG and TOS YA novels, this is the only DS9 one I own.) It's even weirder that this one stars a character who had never appeared on DS9 when this book was written, though (I assume by total coincidence) he finally did appear the month this book came out. More on that later.
Alexander's difficulties come down to a fear of his own strength, and problems controlling his anger; Worf tells the story of the soccer player he killed (from "Let He Who Is Without Sin"), which is a nice tie-in. Basically he keeps on throwing fights with bullies, but this only encourages his bullies. Worf has to both help him manage his anger (through Klingon techniques he's avoided his entire life, like Mok'bara) and defeat his bullies... honorably. This book won't win any medals for sophisticated prose (the opening line is, "Alexander Rozhenko was one-quarter human, three-quarters Klingon and totally furious!") or dialogue (at one point, one of Alexander's bullies says, "I'm so flabbergasted, I don't know what to say"), or indeed, characterization. We're told of Alexander's tendency to become savage, but we never really feel it.
Still, it's a decent way to spend an hour, and peeks into an aspect of Worf the show neglected for Worf's first two years. There is a really nice conversation between Worf and Alexander about honor, and the hard choices Worf has had to make in its name over the years, including when not to fight.
My favorite bit was when Worf told a girl at Alexander's school that Alexander snarled at her because he was into her. Would have loved to have seen Michael Dorn play that one on screen! Also Alexander's school's librarian makes googly eyes at him.
Continuity Notes:
* As far as I could tell, Alexander's age is never given. He's seven chronologically, but looks more like 12-14 in Gordon Purcell's illustrations, as do his bullying classmates. This is fortuitously consistent with what "Sons and Daughters" will imply about Klingon aging.
* It's sometime early during Season 5, before hostilities with the Klingons come to an end, before the uniform change. I'd suggest after "Nor the Battle to the Strong," since one of the kids at Alexander's school had an uncle killed in the Klingon conflict, and that seemed to be the hottest the war got; most of the time it's more subdued.
* Worf references a Master from Boreth, Lourn. To my surprise, he's a character from Diane Carey's novelization of "Way of the Warrior."
* Zefram Cochrane wrote a book called The Potential of Warp Propulsion; Alexander's school library has a first edition. There's a typo in it hand-corrected and initialed, allegedly by Cochrane, but it's probably a fake. A pre-WWIII publication?
* Kids of the 24th century watch "holoflicks"; the ones at Alexander's school are excited about a new Ferengi comedy.
* Obviously Diana G. Gallagher couldn't have known, but it's a bit of an awkward fit with "Sons and Daughters," which I coincidentally watched tonight. In that episode, Alexander says, "you haven't tried to see me or talk to me in five years"; this book takes place approximately a year prior. Of course, that line is bad on its own terms because, 1) "Sons and Daughters" is set less than three years after Generations, when Worf sent Alexander back to Earth, and 2) that's completely terrible and implausible! I can kind of accept that Worf rarely visits-- he's not a great dad-- but to never even talk to his son over subspace for five years, or even three!? Impossible, his mother would kill him.
* More difficult, though is Alexander's decision at the novel's end that doesn't have to choose "to be a diplomat or a Klingon warrior or a Starfleet officer or something else entirely. Right now, he just wanted to be a kid." He seems to reach something of a peace here, both with the elements of his Klingon heritage and with his father. It's possible that his utilization of Klingon ritual and technique here sends him down the path that leads him to joining the Klingon Defense Force, but his anger at his father would still come out of nowhere. On the other hand, Worf going through so much to help Alexander stay in human school here would make his anger at Alexander's joining the KDF very understandable!
Other Notes:
* Supposedly this book takes place in Russia, in a settlement called Mirnee Doleena, near Bobruisk. You wouldn't know it by the names of the characters: Bernard Umbaya, Kim Ho, Jeremy Sullivan, Suzanne Milton, Howard Chupek, Ms. Marconi, Mr. Houseman, Mrs. Miyashi, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Santiago. There is a Ms. Petrovna. I get that the future is multicultural, but really? (Also Worf goes to a briefing at Starfleet Headquarters at the same time Alexander is in school; it must be a very early morning briefing!)
* Despite appearing on the cover, the Defiant is nowhere near this book. Worf seems to take a commercial flight to Earth.
Thanks! It probably took me longer to write it than to read the book.
Hollow Men is the obvious choice for Season 6, but I want to try to slip in the Far Beyond the Stars novelization if I have a chance; I remember really liking it, but I've never reread it.
EDIT: Actually, a quick perusal of Memory Beta claims that those are the only two S6-set novels at all, aside from the too-long-for-this-project Millennium trilogy.
Hollow Men is the obvious choice for Season 6, but I want to try to slip in the Far Beyond the Stars novelization if I have a chance; I remember really liking it, but I've never reread it.
EDIT: Actually, a quick perusal of Memory Beta claims that those are the only two S6-set novels at all, aside from the too-long-for-this-project Millennium trilogy.
Indeed, yes. In order to fill out the hourlong episode to novel length, Steve Barnes adds a whole subplot set in Benny Russell's childhood in 1940.
Great. I've just ordered it (used condition). I liked the episode very much. I don't know when I will read it, though.
Great. I've just ordered it (used condition). I liked the episode very much. I don't know when I will read it, though.
Far beyond the Stars is by far the best episode novelization out there, to quote myself from an article for Unreality SF`s "Celebrating Tie-ins" series last year:
Great. I've just ordered it (used condition). I liked the episode very much. I don't know when I will read it, though.
Far beyond the Stars is by far the best episode novelization out there, to quote myself from an article for Unreality SF`s "Celebrating Tie-ins" series last year:
And I talked about it in my essay for the same series: http://unreality-sf.net/2013/04/02/lasting-impressions/
"Far Beyond the Stars" is an episode I somehow missed when DS9 was on the air originally, so I first encountered the story when I picked up the novelization because I liked its cover (not realizing it was a novelization!). I remember actually being somewhat disappointed when I saw the actual episode!
I've actually had the novelization of Far Beyond the Stars since it came out, but I never read it. I've had a lot of books for years that I've never read, but I'm trying to rectify that. It sounds like I might have to move this one up in my plans. Are there any added scenes in the 24th Century or are they just in the Benny Russell era?
I don't remember any noteworthy C24 additions.
Yeah, I remember liking it, but now is not the time to reread three enormous books!
Indeed. Kai Weyoun was incredible.
Resurrecting my comments about Time's Enemy for a moment:
Last night we watched "Statistical Probabilities," where the Jack Pack replay some of Weyoun's recorded dialogue untranslated from the Dominionese. I was a little sad to hear this, as it kind of contradicts this point. Maybe if you squint you could imagine that the Vorta do speak their own language, while the Jem'Hadar do not, but I'd think that the Vorta would have even more incentive to speak native languages for diplomatic reasons. And you'd have to assume that the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar speak different languages to stop the self-destruct codes from getting out.
This stuck out at me upon rereading this entry because of Bashir's sheer enthusiasm about conferences in "Nor the Battle to the Strong." Graf definitely pegged that part of Bashir's character!
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