Olivia Woods

With this volume of the Deep Space Nine relaunch, the long mirror universe story that was kicked off in Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Volume Two (2005) finally draws to a close. And thank goodness: it's been a long, slow journey. Despite my high enjoyment of Olivia Woods's previous contribution to the series, Fearful Symmetry, I found this one a bit flat. There's a lot of running around, and not even by our protagonists, who contribute distressingly little to the story. Furthermore, I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that with a few exceptions, the flatly characterized mirror universe is just not as effective on the page as the screen-- and putting the strongly characterized DS9 characters in there just highlights the problem. What really bothers me is that Fearful Symmetry gave Iliana Ghemor a complex backstory and strong character... but that felt entirely pointless here, as she became just another sneering madwoman. Not outright bad, but pretty subaverage, as well as easily one of the worst DS9 relaunch stories so far.… (more)

After God knows how long, we've finally gotten another installment of the Deep Space Nine relaunch. It's a flip book, which is a pretty neat idea: Side One has Kira on the cover and picks up from the events of Warpath. This side is slight, but what's there works well. The strands of the last few books are finally coming together in a clear fashion, and this book introduces some neat ideas of its own, especially in the knock-your-socks-off prologue. And that cliffhanger! Subtle, yet effective. Woods's command of the DS9 characters is perfect, too-- I look forward to seeing where she takes the story in next year's The Soul Key. Side Two, the majority of the book, has Iliana Ghemor on the cover and follows her life from early adulthood to a point during "What You Leave Behind", filling in a whole heck of a lot of gaps. It's expository backstory, but it works, since understanding Iliana is fundamental to the current route of the relaunch, and because Woods does it so well. Iliana's course in life is entirely manipulated by outside forces, feels almost inevitable, and yet I was never disinterested in what was going on. And some stuff is still unexplained, leaving even more to look forward to in The Soul Key.… (more)