After reading the excellent book “Day of the Vipers” I was looking forward to the next Terok Nor book. The first book felt a bit more polished to me and has a stronger impact because it felt like one big story. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book very much, too. I understand that this book and also the next one are more about filling gaps the TV series left than the first book which changes the nature of the story telling somewhat. I think the two authors definitely succeeded doing that. I haven`t watched DS9 for quite a long time and when reading I often wondered what is actually new and what has been shown or just mentioned on screen. But what counts is that I never felt lost and had no trouble to follow the story or better, stories in this book. Also this book looks at the occupation from various perspectives. I think it was important to point out that the Bajoran resistance fighters are not all heroes worth admiring. It is true that extreme circumstances bring out the best in people but also in some cases the worst and there is a lot of grey area in between. I found the difference between Ro`s story and Kira`s very interesting. I had the feeling that I heard about the plan to blow up Terok Nor mentioned before but I could be wrong. Anyway, Ro showed a lot of strength of character when she did the right thing at the end and sabotaged her own work. After reading this book I understand very well why she left Bajor. Contrary to Ro at least Kira was lucky enough to spend her teenage years in a resistance cell with a leader and members who could give her support and guidance. I liked the story about Opaka very much. I could see again what a remarkable woman she is and for someone like me who has a lot of problems with organized religion it felt good to read about people like her in DS9, who are strong believers but able to look past old ways of thinking. It is good to see that liberals like her are getting more and more the upper hand compared to the traditionalists. But this book also added in general to my feeling of great respect I have for this lady and I find her very likeable, too. As I said, it has been a while, but I remember how much I loathed Damar in DS9 for a very long time. The Damar in this book is definitely how I remember him from that time. His relationship between him and Dukat felt like master and devoted servant to me. Maybe I would feel better about it if the mindless devotion would feel worthy of the master but that is certainly not the case. What started in the first book also continued here: Dukat is definitely a full blown villain. With this book I can understand the roots of the current multiple Kira storyline better, for example Dukat`s interest in Kira. The story about Natima was interesting on some level but I must admit, I never managed to find this part of the book as captivating as the rest of it. I barely remember her from DS9 on TV. Maybe it was the fault of the actress, the way she was written or a combination of things – for some reason Natima never even reached some of the potential she could have and should have shown. Seeing her name in the book already put me off from the start and I never managed to overcome my irrational feelings. More interesting will be to find out how the tory about Miras/Astraea and the Oralian Way will continue. I am very much looking forward to read the next book but soon the Destiny saga will start. It will be quite a while but I am determined not to forget to finish reading the Terok Nor novels eventually.