Rank the Typhon Pact books!!

[Enterpriserules]

1. Paths of Disharmony
Amazing book, thought that it really fit well with the DS9 relaunch and continued that kind of level of greatness about it.
2. Zero Sum Game
3. Seize the Fire
4. Rough Beasts of Empire
I cannot say how much I was disappointed by this book. So disjointed in character and plot.

 

[Plaristes]

1) Zero Sum Game
2) Paths of Disharmony
3) Sieze the Fire
4) Rough Beasts of Empire
If I could give RBoE a lower rating, I would. I loathed what was done to Sisko.

 

[Freman]

So...wait. The fourth one is out? Eek!

 

[Christopher]

So...wait. The fourth one is out? Eek!

Yeah, for about two months now.

 

[Wally]

#1- Zero Sum Game : I love what was done with Breen, they instantly became my favorite faction in the Typhon Pact. A little concerned about what this did to the character of Bashir, but very interested in what follows.

#2- Paths of Disharmony: A nice payoff to the building Andorian plot started all those years ago. Was a little dissapointed in the lack of Tholians. Quite shocked at the finale.

#3- Rough Beasts of Empire : Nice filling in some gaps of the DS9 relaunch and finally having Spock's Reunification have something to do. While I think it happened too soon, I like the reunification of the Romulan Empire. Love that the Tzenkethi were nothing how I have figured. But Sisko. Ouch. Granted he was supposed to find 'no peace on Bajor' , but the direction his character took in this novel was not a good one. IMHO.

#4- Seize the Fire : Painful. The Titan series is my current favorite series, so this made it doubly hard. The story dragged and dragged and folks acted out of character and made no sense.

 

[JWolf]

Spoilers deleted.

The thread topic does not say (spoilers) so why did you not use the spoiler code? This is a ranking thread, not a spoiler thread. If you cannot go back and edit your post, can you get a moderator to fix it? Not everyone has read all the books and to spoil them in a thread that's not a spoiler thread is wrong.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Spoilers deleted.

The thread topic does not say (spoilers) so why did you not use the spoiler code? This is a ranking thread, not a spoiler thread. If you cannot go back and edit your post, can you get a moderator to fix it? Not everyone has read all the books and to spoil them in a thread that's not a spoiler thread is wrong.

Apologies. I assumed we wouldn't be ranking the books unless we'd read them, and that anyone choosing to read the thread would have also read them. I was evidently mistaken in that. Given the length of my post, I also would have thought it would have been clear I was actually discussing the books and giving reasons for my rankings. Nonetheless, sorry for any incovenience. I can't edit at this point - if the mods want to put it in spoilers, it's of course their call. This seems to be one request.

I try to be careful with spoilers overall; I just didn't think to include spoiler tags in a thread that's straightforwardly about the books in question.

 

[Freman]

So...wait. The fourth one is out? Eek!

Yeah, for about two months now.

Wow. Don't know how I lost track of that one. Playing too much Dragon Age, I guess.

Ordering now!

 

[Johnhead99]

1. Zero Sum Game
2. Paths of Disharmony
3. Rough Beasts of Empire
4. Seize the Fire

I would like to say though that Seize the Fire is not nearly as "bad" as some claim it to be. While it was my least favorite of the bunch, it was still better than some other relaunch novels I have read.

 

[toughlittleship]

Zero Sum Game
Rough Beasts of Empire
Paths of Disharmony
Seize the Fire

 

[ice]

1) Zero Sum Game - excellent, flows nicely and I can imagine this happening on TV (a must for TV tie-in books, many of which don't get it right)

2) Paths of Disharmony - very good, great storyline and well characterized

3) Rough Beasts of Empire - a good story and Sisko shines well. The only problem is the prose is very stodgy and can be difficult to wade through

4) Seize the Fire - a nice look at the Gorn, and Riker is always good to see, but the story is rather pedestrian and I find the Titan crew boring. Especially the bit where the Doctor says "this ship is about eliminating prejudice, yet here we are judging them because they're lizards." It's not 1988, OK?

 

[JRoss]

First I will rank them according to how well each book in the series actually showcased it's theme villain or Villains, descending from best to worst:
1. Zero-Sum Game- Extremely creative and in-depth look at the Breen.
2. Rough Beasts of Empire- A great bit about both the Tzenkethi and the Romulans.
3. Seize the Fire- We see that there are a bunch of castes and an egg crisis, but not much more than that.
4. Paths of Disharmony- Mostly a cameo by the Tholians.

Pacing:
1. Zero-Sum Game- Quick.
2. Paths of Disharmony- Starts out slow but escalates well, could have done without the multiple paragraphs-long synopses of past episodes.
3. Rough Beasts of Empire- Slow and steady, very much like the novel Dune.
4. Seize the Fire- Felt like being jerked about on a roller coaster.

Characterization (including faithfulness to the original material)
1. Paths of Disharmony- Picard was Picard, Geordi spoke exactly Geordi, etc.
2. Seize the Fire- Similar to the entry for Paths of Disharmony.
3. Zero-Sum Game- Bashir seemed just a tiny bit too comfortable with his secret agent role.
4. Rough Beasts of Empire- I know that it's been said elsewhere, so I'll be brief: there are better ways to make a man independent and "adventure-ready" than this.

Plot
1. Paths of Disharmony- Simply fantastic, loved the ending, could have been a Next Gen episode.
2. Zero-Sum Game- It's 24 in space.
3. Rough Beasts of Empire- It's Dune in space, er, Dune in Trek
4. Seize the Fire- needed a lot more polishing.

Overall
1. Zero-Sum Game
2. Paths of Disharmony
3. Rough Beasts of Empire
4. Seize the Fire

 

[Reanok]

1 Zero Sum Game2Paths of diharmony3 Rough Beast of the empire I thought Sisko was written totally out of character I wondered why some of Siskos story seems so disjointed when it came to some of his behavior when he chose to leave Kassidy and Rebecca being left them behind on bajor and distancing himself from Jake and his wife Rayna.I really didn't care for this story Sorry DRG.4 Seize the fire was long winded in some of the chapters it took forever to read this book.

 

[DigificWriter]

I just finished Zero Sum Game a few days ago, so here we go:
1. RBoE
2. ZSG
3. PoD
4. StF

RBoE and ZSG really could be swapped, as I enjoyed both of them about the same, but RBoE does give you more insight into the 'current state of affairs' with regards to DS9 (or at least certain DS9-R characters), so I decided to rank it first.

I liked StF, but, in comparison to the others, its plot is somewhat formulaic, even for Trek, and really doesn't bring anything new to the table the way that the others do, which is why I ranked it last.

 

[Paris]

My order would be:
1) Rough Beasts of Empire
2) Zero Sum Game
3) Paths of Disharmony
4) Seize the Fire

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

For me it would be:
1. Rough Beasts of Empire
2. Paths of Disharmony
3. Zero Sum Game
4. Seize the Fire

 

[j3067]

1) Zero Sum Game
2) Paths of Disharmony
3) Sieze the Fire
4) Rough Beasts of Empire
If I could give RBoE a lower rating, I would. I loathed what was done to Sisko.

Exact same for me. I'm not sure that these books should even have been numbered; there is nothing really sequential about them. I also agree that none of the books were stand outs for any of the authors. They have all done great work in the past.

 

[Christopher]

I'm not sure that these books should even have been numbered; there is nothing really sequential about them.

They weren't numbered. The numbers used here are the individual posters' rankings of the books.

 

[j3067]

I'm not sure that these books should even have been numbered; there is nothing really sequential about them.

They weren't numbered. The numbers used here are the individual posters' rankings of the books.

Sorry for the confusion...I was refering to the the way the books were titled. Seize the Fire was billed Typhon Pact #2. This implies that there was going to be a linear progression from book to book. The consequences of reading these books out of order would not be the same as reading the Destiny books out of order. I think this may have contributed to the general disappointment some of us feel with the Typhon Pact books as a whole.

 

[Christopher]

Sorry for the confusion...I was refering to the the way the books were titled. Seize the Fire was billed Typhon Pact #2.

If book retailers catalogued them that way, then that was a misrepresentation. There are no numbers on the books themselves.