Tor.com content by

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

view profile | RSS feed

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — Sacraments of Fire

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Oct 14, 2020 2:00pm 4 comments 1 Favorite [+]

Sacraments of Fire
David R. George III
Publication Date: July 2015

Timeline: September-December 2385, immediately after The Fall: Revelation and Dust; and also 2377, on the heels of The Soul Key

Progress: Following the events of Warpath, Fearful Symmetry, and The Soul Key, Iliana Ghemor joins the Ascendants, taking on the role of The Fire for this group of confrontation-eager religious zealots. Still obsessed with Kira, Iliana has her sights on Bajor. After leading the Ascendants in an attack on an Eav’oq colony, Iliana ends up commandeering the Ascendant’s main weapon and heading toward Bajor.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — The Missing

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Sep 30, 2020 2:00pm 11 comments 3 Favorites [+]

The Missing
Una McCormack
Publication Date: December 2014
Timeline: November 2385; after the Fall miniseries

Progress: Dr. Katherine Pulaski, passionate in her pursuit of a multi-cultural scientific enterprise that will not only yield valuable insights but also achieve what diplomacy by itself cannot, is allocated the Olympic-class starship Athene Donald. Its delightfully multi-species crew sets out on an explicit mission of exploration. Joined Trill Maurita Tanj is the ship’s commanding officer, and other crew members include Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans, a Ferengi, and even a representative of the Tzenkethi Coalition named Metiger Ter Yai-A.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — Lust’s Latinum Lost (and Found)

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Sep 16, 2020 2:00pm 1 comment 2 Favorites [+]

Lust’s Latinum Lost (and Found)
Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann
Publication Date: September 2014
Timeline: November 2385; following The Fall: A Ceremony of Losses

Progress: In the aftermath of the events of The Fall miniseries, Quark finds that business is down. An old Boslic freighter captain friend of Quark’s by the name of Rionoj (who appeared in “The Homecoming”, “The Abandoned”, and “Broken Link”) claims to have an advance copy of a new holonovel sure to be a sensation: the fourth interactive installment of the infamous Vulcan Love Slave series, titled Lust’s Latinum Lost.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — The Fall: A Ceremony of Losses

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Sep 2, 2020 2:00pm 4 comments 1 Favorite [+]

The Fall: A Ceremony of Losses
David Mack
Publication Date: November 2013
Timeline: August-September 2385

Progress: “One failed pregnancy at a time…the Andorian people were dying.”

The Andorian reproductive crisis has been with us for some time. There were hints of it in the Avatar duology, our very first relaunch books in this review series, and when we reached Chapter 11 of Gateways #4: Demons of Air and Darkness it was made explicit. The discovery of the Yrythny Turn Key in Mission Gamma, Book Two: This Gray Spirit raised the possibility of a solution, and indeed that path still seemed viable, if admittedly risky and extreme, as recently as Andor: Paradigm.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — The Fall: Revelation and Dust

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Aug 19, 2020 2:00pm 11 comments 2 Favorites [+]

The Fall: Revelation and Dust
David R. George III
Publication Date: August 2013

Timeline: August-September 2385

Progress: This novel opens up a new five-volume miniseries within the broader relaunch series. It acts as both a natural extension of the preceding Typhon Pact miniseries, and as its own significant crossover chapter in the grander saga, connecting various DS9, TNG, and Titan storylines. Collectively these books advance the timeline by approximately two months. In this review and the next, we’ll be focusing on the first and third volumes, the Ds9-centric ones.

A prologue recaps the events that happened inside the wormhole in Typhon Pact: Raise the Dawn from Kira’s perspective—and we see that once inside the Celestial Temple, she appears to meet Sisko.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — Typhon Pact: Raise the Dawn

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Aug 5, 2020 1:00pm 3 comments 1 Favorite [+]

Typhon Pact: Raise the Dawn
David R. George III
Publication Date: June 2012
Timeline: August-September 2383, September 2384, following Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night

Progress: Ka-boom. DS9’s fiery explosion at the end of Plagues of Night was no simulation, no scheme-within-a-scheme to deceive the Typhon Pact, no alternate timeline offshoot, no event readily undone by canny temporal agents. It was real, and definitive, and as we soon learn in this story, leads to a death toll of slightly over one thousand beings. (Or, to put modern times in grim perspective, a casualty figure right on par with that reported for the U.S. as a result of COVID-19 for the single day of August 1^st, 2020). Fortunately, Captain Ro and company had time to evacuate about eighty-four percent of the station’s population—significantly, ninety percent of its civilians—before the collapse. Parts of the wreckage, including a number of jettisoned and floating bulkheads, were sealed off by force fields before the explosion, further saving lives. Aboard one such fragment are Kira and Kasidy, who are ejected by the blast into the wormhole, and eventually rescued inside the wormhole by the Enterprise.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Jul 22, 2020 1:00pm 8 comments 3 Favorites [+]

Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night
David R. George III
Publication Date: May 2012
Timeline: April 2382 – August 2383

Progress: First, we revisit the attack on Utopia Planitia and the extraction of the Breen spy, Kazren, that kicked off Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game, this time from the perspective of the Romulans, and learn that Subcommander Orventa T’Jul led the mission. Kasidy, on Bajor, sees the UP attack on the news. She thinks about Ben. Jasmine Tey is the Malaysian woman who helps look after Rebecca, ever since Rebecca’s kidnapping, and acts as a “one-woman security force.” Kasidy replays the message Sisko sent her towards the end of Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire. She decides that even if Sisko keeps his distance from her, the Prophet’s words may not apply to his relationship with Rebecca, and she contacts Vedek Kira Nerys.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Jul 8, 2020 2:00pm 16 comments 4 Favorites [+]

Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire
David R. George III
Publication Date: January 2011
Timeline: 2362; February 2381 – February 2382

Progress: Though this is the third in the Typhon Pact novel miniseries, and the second volume we’re covering as part of our DS9 relaunch re-read, it takes place before the last book we looked at. Chapters alternate between three main storylines…

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Jun 24, 2020 2:00pm 11 comments 3 Favorites [+]

Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game
David Mack
Publication Date: November 2010
Timeline: April 2382; August 2382

Progress: Welcome to the Typhon Pact eight-book miniseries, which is set a year after David Mack’s Star Trek: Destiny trilogy and three years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. Because our focus is on the relaunch adventures of the DS9 cast, we won’t be covering all eight of these books, but instead limiting ourselves to the current title, along with Rough Beasts of Empire, Plagues of Night, and Raise the Dawn. Anyone worried that skipping over some related books, as we’re doing, may make it difficult to jump into this volume, fret not. The following two paragraphs from Chapter 3 of Zero Sum Game basically give us all the key info we need to know to dive in:

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — The Never-Ending Sacrifice

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Jun 10, 2020 2:00pm 7 comments 2 Favorites [+]

The Never-Ending Sacrifice
Una McCormack
Publication Date: September 2009
Timeline: 2370 through 2378, following the events of Cardassia: The Lotus Flower & Unity

Progress: This is a novel primarily of character rather than plot, so I’m going to keep this summary succinct. Also, the book includes a cross-listing of all the referenced episodes and other stories at the end for your convenience, so I won’t barrage you with links here.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — The Soul Key

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed May 27, 2020 1:00pm 8 comments 2 Favorites [+]

The Soul Key
Olivia Woods
Publication Date: August 2009
Timeline: 2377, following the events of Fearful Symmetry and Warpath; also 2376

Progress: A Prologue set in the Alternate Universe (AU; also, I’ll be using “m-” to denote the mirror version of a character) aboard Terok Nor recaps the basic conflict between the Terran Rebellion and the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. We’re shown m-Eddington, m-O’Brien, m-Ezri, m-Keiko, and m-Sloan receiving the inter-dimensional call from our Bashir, Sisko, Ro, Quark, Kira, Dax and m-Iliana, as depicted in Fearful Symmetry from our side. Terok Nor is then attacked by Klingons.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — Fearful Symmetry

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed May 13, 2020 1:00pm 13 comments 1 Favorite [+]

Fearful Symmetry
Olivia Woods
Publication Date: June 2008
Timeline: 2377, following the events of Warpath; also, 2357, 2358, 2359, 2360, 2361 and 2375

Progress: This book has a flip format, so that it can be read from either cover, with both stories meeting roughly in the middle of the volume. Mirror, mirror, and all that. These two sections are referred to as Side One and Side Two. Here we go:

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — Warpath

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:00pm 9 comments 3 Favorites [+]

Warpath
David Mack
Publication Date: April 2006
Timeline: January 2377, immediately after Worlds of Deep Space Nine #3—The Dominion: Olympus Descending

Progress: There are five main plotlines in Warpath, all of which advance simultaneously by alternating increments, before converging at the novel’s end. I’m going to break them up into separate self-contained units here, to avoid the whiplash of going back and forth a dozen times in this summation.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — The Dominion: Olympus Descending

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Apr 1, 2020 1:00pm 4 comments 1 Favorite [+]

Worlds of Deep Space Nine #3
The Dominion: Olympus Descending
David R. George III
Publication Date: February 2005
Timeline: December 2376, thirteen weeks after Unity

Progress: After his recent stint in the Alpha Quadrant, Odo is back in the Great Link. However, he doesn’t spend all his time in the shapeshifter sea. Sometimes he hangs out on Jem’Hadar Attack Vessel 971, buddying it up with a new Weyoun clone and a Jem’Hadar named Rotan’talag (who, like Taran’atar, is not dependent on ketracel-white).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — Ferenginar: Satisfaction Is Not Guaranteed

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Wed Mar 25, 2020 1:00pm 3 comments 1 Favorite [+]

Worlds of Deep Space Nine #3
Ferenginar: Satisfaction Is Not Guaranteed
Keith R. A. DeCandido
Publication Date: February 2005
Timeline: November 2376, seven weeks after Unity

Progress: Quark’s Bar—excuse me, Embassy—is feeling the repercussions of recent Ferengi economic reforms, like income tax, championed by Quark’s brother, Grand Nagus Rom. A Ferengi named Chek, the head of Chek Pharmaceuticals, books Quark’s embassy (“the last outpost of true Ferengi values”) for a private meeting of ten notable businessmen, which Quark attends. Chek makes the case that, as a result of Rom’s reign, Ferenginar is heading towards both a financial and a moral crisis, and that the only way to stop the decline is to oust Rom from power.