I hope folk’n’ll forgive me, but I’ve been trying to stay spoiler free and have not read any of the posts above; however, I just finished (like, thirty minutes ago)
Warpath and want to put down my thoughts will everything is fresh and jumbled. As such, there’s probably going to be a fair amount of repetition, since I’m so late to the reading.
If there’s a single word that can describe
Warpath, it is this:
driven. Warpath hits the ground running from where the cliffhanger at the end of
Olympus Descending leaves off and steams ahead full, barely squeezing in a few softer scenes edgewise to let you catch your breath before cracking some more 2x4s over the reader’s head. Throughout the novel, we spend our time diving in and out of a goodly number of plot threads, and it’s a testament to the author’s skill that not a single one of these threads drags or makes one feel as though we’d much rather be following one of the other threads. Even those threads that only seem tangentially related to the main thrust (pun intended) of the plot are no less entertaining because of the intrigue, the action, and the vividness of the scenes, actions and characters involved.
Some random points:
When I saw that we were heading for a Cardassian prison, I told myself: “Well, I guess this means we’ll be seeing Tom Riker, Sito Jaxa, or both.” And what do I get? Nada. Well done. I’m glad my expectations were dashed, because I think it otherwise would have been too predictable. Besides, I’m not sure I ever want to see Sito Jaxa again. Not that she wasn’t interesting, but the fiction has been pleasantly resurrection-free of late, and I’d like it to remain that way. (Of course, they’re not off Harkoum yet…)
Good job on the Ro/Quark thing. Such an odd pairing, but every writer has so far managed to make it quite believable. A good way to rope in a non-combatant like Quark into an action-oriented storyline, too, however brief their scenes might have been.
Good job, also, on the Kira vision sequences. It was actually fun to get some sword and siege-craft in the middle of a sci-fi novel without it seeming contrived. That, too, was a well-enacted sequence. I could just hear the music from the siege of Helm’s Deep thrumming in the background as I read the chapter where the Ascendants assault.
Dense as I am, it actually took me a while to figure out that some of the regulars were participating in the vision. Jamin fell into place first, then I noticed the anagram of Laren, then deciphered Vaughn’s, and Bashir was easy by the time he showed up. But (I’m terrible at anagrams), I just couldn’t figure who Nantech was supposed to be… Help? Also, was the name of the fortress in reference to something else? Couldn’t unscramble that one either…
I was actually surprised, given the hints we’ve been seeing in the fiction about a connection between the Prophets, Bajor and the Hebitian culture on Cardassia, that there would no Cardassians in Kira’s wormhole visions when we saw the different paths. Perhaps that would be tipping your hand too early? I like the idea of the Cardassians as wayward children of the Prophets. It adds another tragic layer to the already dreadful story of the Occupation, that the rape of Bajor was unintentionally incestuous. Anyway, I know Jamin said in the vision that they would need allies to defeat the Ascendants. I was thinking perhaps that would be the Cardassians (though they are a rather third-rate power this soon after the war), or perhaps an Odo-controlled Dominion. I guess the Federation will be helping in the Eav’oq’s stand… granted, they are an unaligned species, and the Federation just got out of a large-scale conflict, but the alternative is having the Gamma terminus of the wormhole fall into the hands of a hostile species, and Bajor could easily be next on the Ascendant hit-list.
The commando raid scene on Harkoum just didn’t do it for me. Sorry; but I found myself glazing over paragraphs as Vaughn’s team was moving in. Perhaps I just don’t have a good appreciate of the tactics therein, but I found I didn’t really care for what was happening because I didn’t know who these characters were. There were several of them, but other than a few mentions of species, gender and specialization, nothing much to distinguish one from the other. I don’t know if you had, at some point, intended to flesh them out more but didn’t due to size or pacing, but the actions of ciphers are, to me, easily summed up by sentences like “They went about their tasks with skill and dedication.” I was pleased to see that “The security officer from ‘Rocks and Shoals’ who was perplexingly still alive at the end of the episode” made a return, however.
Prynn Tenmei. I really liked her character before, because I thought she was complex and sympathetic. Now that I see what she's like under pressure, and how much rear-end she is capable of kicking if cornered...
Illiana Ghemor. Wow, what an obscure reference. Had to look her up. Sure addresses the question of why she looked like Kira, but what made you guys think of her in the first place?
It took a year to get to here from the cliffhanger at the end of
Olympus… and we end on a distinctly unresolved note, promising more hellfire on the horizon. Then I see how long we’re going to have to wait for Fearful Symmetry. Now, David, Marco, be honest… you don’t care in the slightest about our mental health, do you?
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
