My opinion, having read all of The Fall books up to half-way through the last, is that Revelation & Dust is entirely unnecessary for any of the other novels. They each contain a "Historian's Note" at the beginning that wrap up R&D's major points in just a couple of paragraphs. 90% of R&D has no bearing upon the rest of The Fall.
Spoilers TF: The Crimson Shadow by Una McCormack Review Thread
- Thread starter Sho
- Start date
Yet it does help unravel the mystery of who is responsible for the assassination making it so important to the story line of "The Fall"
The assassination is the only element of Revelation and Dust that's really present in The Crimson Shadow (apart from the Castellan returning from DS9 early). The Crimson Shadow is brilliant not only in giving an interesting picture of Cardassia, its politics and people, but also in once again superbly depicting the character of Garak. You can hear him talking when you read the book. His interactions with Picard and his political debates were simply great.
I just finished The Crimson Shadow, and between my enjoyment of the book and the above quoted post, Una McCormack is now my favorite Trek author.
I'm perpetually 3-6 months behind, but I'm throwing my hat into the ring. This is advertised as a TNG heavy crossover novel. That's what I was expecting. What I got was something different. A fantastic Garak novel. The only really negative thing I have to say about this novel is that I had trouble keeping up with the characters outside of Garak and Garan. I also thought a lot of the beats of the story were similar to Paths of Disharmony, but it has been a couple of years since I read that one.
I skipped Revelation and Dust and did not feel lost when I read the other books. I generally agree with the consensus of this board in ranking the other novels, but once I slogged through the first few chapters of Peaceable Kingdoms I might have liked it just a little more (or hated it less) than some of the other posters here.
I think skipping it wouldn't influence much the experience of The Fall series, but it could be especially worth reading before/if new DS9 novels appear, because it brings us up to date with the station and its staff.
That said, I'd read it anyway. It wasn't a bad book
I think skipping it wouldn't influence much the experience of The Fall series, but it could be especially worth reading before/if new DS9 novels appear, because it brings us up to date with the station and its staff.
That said, I'd read it anyway. It wasn't a bad book
I definitely think it going to be very important to future DS9 stories and well worth the read.
I've got a question:
The Historian's Note says that The Crimson Shadow and Revelation and Dust take place concurrently, but I was wondering exactly how much 'overlap' there is and which book ought to be read first. Can anybody help me out (and no, I don't mind spoilers)?
The Historian's Note says that The Crimson Shadow and Revelation and Dust take place concurrently, but I was wondering exactly how much 'overlap' there is and which book ought to be read first. Can anybody help me out (and no, I don't mind spoilers)?
Thanks. That's exactly what I wanted to know.
2385 actually.
Superb.
I loved this when I read it a couple of weeks back but now I've read the other Fall books, it really stands out from them. It doesn't hurt that I love Garak, always a fascinating character but there's the Cardassia arc the DSN relaunch has been running since the start, which I've also liked a great deal.
It's.... flawless, just really, really good.
I loved this when I read it a couple of weeks back but now I've read the other Fall books, it really stands out from them. It doesn't hurt that I love Garak, always a fascinating character but there's the Cardassia arc the DSN relaunch has been running since the start, which I've also liked a great deal.
It's.... flawless, just really, really good.
I voted above-average because IMO the story really did take readers right into Cardassian society, and the original characters were pretty interesting, but not Outstanding since for me the book itself didn't end up being that meaningful for my Trek psyche. Still is something I'm glad to have read; it had original aspects to it that made the experience worthwhile.
I finished up TCS last night and I loved it.
I'm a huge fan of Una McCormack and her development of the Cardassians and this was a great addition to that arc. It did a great job of tying the Cardassian arc into the Fall's story.
Mhevet's storyline was one of the highlights of the books, it's always nice to see a different perspective on things.
The book gave me something great that we never were able to get onscreen, scenes with Picard and Garak.
Defintiely an Outstanding rating, and a huge improvement over the first book.
I'm a huge fan of Una McCormack and her development of the Cardassians and this was a great addition to that arc. It did a great job of tying the Cardassian arc into the Fall's story.
Mhevet's storyline was one of the highlights of the books, it's always nice to see a different perspective on things.
The book gave me something great that we never were able to get onscreen, scenes with Picard and Garak.
Defintiely an Outstanding rating, and a huge improvement over the first book.
