Lesser Evil (Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Mission Gamma, Book 4)

Rating:
Summary: Every once in a while...
Review: ...they do a story that flies in the face of the liberal banality that has ruled the Star Trek universe for nearly 40 years. Donald Fagen has an old song called "I.G.Y." that pokes fun at the whole I.G.Y. kitsch of the late 1950s/ early 1960s, the idea that some day we were going to have all sorts of gizmos given to us by scientists and engineers that would make life a breeze, the world was going to become peaceful, yadda-yadda. In a recent documentary, William Shatner pointed out that Star Trek anticipated a lot of the technology we have today--hand communicators (we call them cell phones), Romulan spaceship cloaking (we have two different "stealth" warplanes), and one thing that Shatner didn't mention--tricorders. We call those "laptops" and they're already being upstaged in capapbility by palm pilots that are smaller than anything Spock ever toted around. But one thing hasn't changed. We still kill people wholesale because we're us and they're them. Star Trek has made a few efforts to debunk the early Trek idea of there being groups who are 100% great folks. Like the Vulcans--there was a novel which depicted a Vulcan named Christopher who didn't fit the relentless nobility mold. He went around in his decommissioned Constitution class starship and raised all sorts of hell and had a grand old time. He didn't commit any evil, but mainstream Vulcankind thought he was scum nonetheless. In this series, we have to unlearn the DS9 propaganda that joined Trills consist of a symbiont who's a great person implanted into a humanoid who's also a great person. The result--great person squared. Look at Dax, for example. Its last two hosts have been real 10s. The lovely Jadzia, who could have been Charlie's 89th angel in the timeline. Cutesy cuddly Ezri, who's everybody's cherished kid sister--if they do a DS9 movie with time travel scenes showing Ezri in middle age, they should ask Sally Field. Gidget Goes Bajoran, hear what I'm saying? But let's not forget that Dax also had a host who was a psycho killer. They blew it on that match, Trill cultural pretensions to perfection in the joining process not withstanding. Over this series, we learn that Andorian marriage consists of four spouses. But what if one of those spouses is unbalanced to the point of self-destructiveness? It results in a dysfunctional marriage, no matter how many partners there are to try to balance things out. There are positive notes in this series to be sure. Like the estranged daughter of Commander Vaughan coming back into his life and there being a reconciliation rather than a resumed squabble. Like a Jem'Hadar soldier being sent by his new master Odo to Federation territory for an education. He no doubt knows that his old girlfriend Colonel Kira will do right by the kid. The DS9 franchise has always been the best because it presents a more realistic picture of humanoid nature than the leftover I.G.Y. contrived optimism ("What a beautiful world it will be...what a glorious time to be free!"--Donald Fagen) which has governed earlier Trek franchises. Now if only it didn't take four books to tell that believeable a story.

Rating:
Summary: Good Conclusion to ST: DS9 Mission Gamma series
Review: After being hooked by the second and third installments in this series, I was determined to read "Lesser Evil", the concluding installment. Although it is not nearly as densely written as the previous books, it does have its own share of surprises. Commander Elias Vaughn and the crew of USS Defiant stumble upon the wreckage of a Dominion warship and its pursuer, bringing back unexpected memories of a disastrous mission led by Vaughn years before. Colonel Kira Nerys resumes her Starfleet commission, joining forces with Starfleet in search of a cloaked ship and a Trill assassin heading back to his homeworld. Or does he? The search leads to the discovery of a conspiracy first unmasked by Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise years before. And Lieutenant Ro Laren must come to grips with the assassination of one of Bajor's most important politicians during the ceremony celebrating Bajor's admission into the United Federation of Planets. Last, but not least, in a surprising conclusion, one of the major characters from "Star Trek Deep Space Nine" returns, bringing with him an exiled Bajoran religious leader.

Rating:
Summary: Good Conclusion to ST: DS9 Mission Gamma series
Review: After being hooked by the second and third installments in this series, I was determined to read "Lesser Evil", the concluding installment. Although it is not nearly as densely written as the previous books, it does have its own share of surprises. Commander Elias Vaughn and the crew of USS Defiant stumble upon the wreckage of a Dominion warship and its pursuer, bringing back unexpected memories of a disastrous mission led by Vaughn years before. Colonel Kira Nerys resumes her Starfleet commission, joining forces with Starfleet in search of a cloaked ship and a Trill assassin heading back to his homeworld. Or does he? The search leads to the discovery of a conspiracy first unmasked by Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise years before. And Lieutenant Ro Laren must come to grips with the assassination of one of Bajor's most important politicians during the ceremony celebrating Bajor's admission into the United Federation of Planets. Last, but not least, in a surprising conclusion, one of the major characters from "Star Trek Deep Space Nine" returns, bringing with him an exiled Bajoran religious leader.

Rating:
Summary: Lesser novel
Review: Compared to the first three volumes of Mission Gamma, this installment is thin in many ways. It's thin in that it's half the length of the first installment, it's thin in that the characters lack depth in what should be times of great tragedy. It's thin it that it looks for explanations for horrifying events OUTSIDE the pervue of Deep Space Nine's characters. Thus, since Deep Space Nine has always been character driven, Simpson's approach undermines the show's legacy with senseless and uninspired action and dashes hopes that the violent cliffhanger of the third book would lead to a better understanding of Bajor and its place in the Federation. The DS9 relaunch has steadily cranked its characters through various personal and professional ringers, stretching and challenging them in fascinating new ways in the process. This default to brainless conspiracies is deeply disapointing.

Rating:
Summary: The weakest book of series.
Review: Finished Lesser Evil this weekend. Good book with a killer ending. I noticed that each book in the Gamma series ended with a cliffhanger, and they escalated each time. This is, of course, the moment we've all been waiting for a year now, ever since Avatar. I think Vaughn was the best that I've seen him in this book, and I like how the events of Twilight played into this book so well. I am still wondering what exactly went down with Vaughn and Captain Harrimann, but that is another story. I wish the book had been longer, and that we could have seen more emotional build-up with the Gamma storyline, but it was nice to finally get some resolution on the Vaughn/Prynn storyline. And it is incredibly cool that Marco has been serializing these books. From a reader's point of view, it makes me feel much closer to the story and the characters. I am anxiously awaiting Rising Son and Unity. I get the sense in this book that big things are all about to come to a head. In my mind, the DS9 relaunch is the best series of Trek books ever. Go buy them!

Rating:
Summary: The relaunch continues...
Review: Finished Lesser Evil this weekend. Good book with a killer ending. I noticed that each book in the Gamma series ended with a cliffhanger, and they escalated each time. This is, of course, the moment we've all been waiting for a year now, ever since Avatar. I think Vaughn was the best that I've seen him in this book, and I like how the events of Twilight played into this book so well. I am still wondering what exactly went down with Vaughn and Captain Harrimann, but that is another story. I wish the book had been longer, and that we could have seen more emotional build-up with the Gamma storyline, but it was nice to finally get some resolution on the Vaughn/Prynn storyline. And it is incredibly cool that Marco has been serializing these books. From a reader's point of view, it makes me feel much closer to the story and the characters. I am anxiously awaiting Rising Son and Unity. I get the sense in this book that big things are all about to come to a head. In my mind, the DS9 relaunch is the best series of Trek books ever. Go buy them!

Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: Great big ending, lots of familiar faces, and plenty of action make this the best book yet in the DS9 relaunch. I have only one complaint, and that is that the publisher is taking far too long to get the next book out. I crave more.
As much as I'd like to, I won't give out plot points, but I will say that I just knew it was easy to bring back a clone.
Buy and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: The weakest book of series.
Review: I did not like this book, it was to short. I think that the writer could have add a lot more to it. I wanted to know more about Ro and how Starfleet sees her after she captures the killer. The part about the borg was boring. I still do not understand how the Borg-Starfleet got to the Gamma Quad.

Rating:
Summary: And I was actually lolking foward to reading this!
Review: I found this final installment of the Mission: Gamma series almost comical compared to the first three books, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters seem poorly developed and the dialogue between them often seems childlike and moot. Although some fairly dramatic occurences take place, I found myself uninterested and felt that the plot was a long stretch, even by Star Trek standards.

Rating:
Summary: "Mission Gamma" fizzles, but sets up next books
Review: I thought that these four books would be a great space to explore the Gamma Quadrant, but the focus is on the characters rather than the quadrant. Fortunately, character development is one of Star Trek's strengths, and it's done well in these books. Trekkers will also appreciate the return of charaters like Akaar ("Leonard James Akaar?") and Weyoun. Also, the book does set up events for "Rising Son" and "Unity," two books to follow. This would have been a five-star book, but the "Mission Gamma" saga felt like it just ended, instead of climaxing.