S. D. Perry

Yep, back on the Star Trek novels! This is a pretty decent instalment, slotting in between 'The Tholian Web' and 'For The World Is Hollow' from season three. After rescuing a Starfleet ship only to discover that the crew are dead, Kirk and Spock seek answers to clear the captain's name, involving the Romulan commander from 'The Enterprise Incident', a beautiful scientist and the mysterious 'Section 31'.

The Big Three are all in character - the 'womanising' that Kirk is accused of in other show more reviews is actually very much like him, falling for an attractive yet intelligent woman who is too wrapped up in her own career, like him, for anything more than flirtation. Hardly womanising. Spock seeks the assistance of the Romulan commander he formed a bond with while he and Kirk were out to steal a cloaking device, and Doctor McCoy finds out that he has a terminal illness - but we know he's going to be fine and his recovery is covered in one line in the epilogue, so I'm not sure why that subplot was included here. Some great detective work from the rest of the crew, including Uhura deciphering a code and Chekhov tracing a doctor working with Kirk's scientist, and the usual leaps of faith that might just work from the Captain whenever the ship is in danger.

Good fun, well written. More to come! show less

Moderately entertaining tie-in fiction; there are too many characters to keep track of. The novel shines when it focuses on the Cardassian characters who are fleshed out and beset with doubts. The Bajorans are less interesting. I saw DS9 around 10 years ago and I am sure many one-off characters from that show make appearances that are lost on me.

I had a real problem writing a review of this book, as every time I picked it up I ended up playing with it. I can therefore guarantee that it will give any Waking Dead fan hours of fun. It's a huge book and resembles a ring binder in appearance which gives you some idea of the depth of detail in the 5 pop-up scenes.

I seem to find something new every time I open it; a flap I haven't lifted or a detail I didn't notice. I can't imagine I will ever get tired of looking at it - my favourite show more scene is The West Georgia Correctional Facility as the whole building does literally pop-up before your very eyes. The paper engineering really is second to none, and the detail in even the smaller pop-ups is quite awe-inspiring.

It's a fabulous gift for any Walking Dead fan, or a gift for yourself if you can't bear to part with it. At £40 it's not cheap but it really is an absolutely breathtaking pop-up book for adults.

I received this book from the publisher, PGUK, via Twitter in exchange for an honest review. show less

This post-TV continuation of DS9 was something of a mixed bag, but overall continued in the spirit of the original series with meditations on religious faith (and lack of it) and war. With the finale sending so much of the cast off to different places, there are several of original characters here- my favorite addition was definitely Ro Laren from TNG, who takes over Odo's position as security chief, and my least favorite was the thoroughly eyeroll-inducing Elias Vaughn, a 101-year-old show more Starfleet veteran who becomes Kira's second-in-command.

Vaughn is quite possibly the most obvious example of a "Gary Stu"/"Mary Sue" character I have ever seen in original or fan-fiction, and those are terms I do not use lightly: he is 101-years old with 80 years of combat experience, immediately beloved by everyone on the Enterprise-E (we get POV of Picard, Riker, _and_ Troi wishing they were as cool as he was and wanting to be his friend), he has a security clearance higher than Picard and chose not to become an admiral not because he couldn't do it but because he "doesn't like meetings," is an expert on Jem'Hadar biology and development, is also able to outmaneuver Section 31 (including _stealing_ from them with no repercussions), and comes to DS9 after rediscovering a Bajoran Orb (which Picard is envious of, note) and seeing a vision of Sisko, convinced that it is his ~destiny~. Also, for additonal angst, another addition to the cast turns out to be Vaughn's estranged daughter, who is an ensign under his command.

If there's any reason I almost DNFed this book, Vaughn is it. _Thankfully_, the Vaughn-squee calmed down after the first half or so of the book; he and Kira respect each other and settle into a healthy working relationship, with absolutely no fawning on her part or the rest of DS9. Thank goodness.

Onto the actual stories, this omnibus starts off with a two-part story, Avatar, about a crisis in the Bajoran religion when a prylar finds an undocumented, possibly heretical book of prophecies, continues with a Section 31 novel where Bashir is coerced into stopping a genetically enhanced rogue agent with delusions of being the next Khan, and concludes with a novel and a novella out of the Gateways crossover series where the long-thought-dead Iconians reactivate their gateway network and try to sell the technology to the highest bidder and DS9 must help with evacuation of a planet plagued by radioactive waste being dumped through a new gateway.

The strongest character arc throughout is Kira, now commander of the station, dealing with being in that role and with the crisis in the Bajoran faith. I thought it was really solid- I especially liked the Gateway novella at the end- but was disappointed that a very key moment for her character occurred off-screen in Avatar. Ro's arc as commander of security trying to figure out if she wants to be on DS9 or not was great too, and I'm intrigued by the unresolved issues brought up for Ezri as her past incarnations seem to be surfacing more and more and Bashir as he wrestles with his genetic enhancement. Kasidy and Jake have interesting subplots relating to the prophecies in Avatar, but those kind of trail off with no resolution in this omnibus (I believe they are resolved in Rising Son and Unity respectively.) Quark remains Quark, and Nog remains Nog.

Taran'atar, a Jem'Hadar sent by Odo to learn about the Federation is an interesting but somewhat underused (more plot device than character at this point) addition, but probably the most interesting of the four original characters. I actively disliked Vaughn and it will take a whole lot to make me come around (I'm not happy that Mission Gamma seems Vaughn-centric), but am cautiously interested in Andorian science officer Thirishar ch'Thane and human ensign Prynn Tenmei. I hope that Tenmei will get characterization as her own person outside Vaughn's orbit rather than as a source of angst for him.

I plan to read through at least Unity, having picked up the four Mission Gamma books on sale last month; will be curious how things progress. show less