Rating: 
Summary: The Quality of this Series Continues to Rise!
Review: It is obvious that the powers-that-be behind the DS9 relaunch are working to make this the best-written set of Star Trek books to date. The "Mission Gamma" quartet continues to improve in quality of both writing and plot, and I, for one, can't wait for the next - and final - issue in teh quartet.
"Cathedral" continues the two major story arcs: the Defiant's exploration of the Gamma Quadrant, and the inception of Bajor into the Federation. The Defiant half deals with the apex of the trip through the Gamma Quadrant, where events conspire to force Nog, Bashir, and Ezri Dax to do some sincere soul-searching about the paths their lives have taken. The counterpoint of the various character's spiritual sides was quite an enjoyable reading experience, and as the summary gives away, watching Julian Bashir's genetic enhancing degrade was fabulous plot.The Bajor-Federation half of the story was just as satisfying, and there are hints of some pretty dark things on the way - I've come up with a few theories as to what is going on, but the book was written so well that I'm not sure, which is the perfect result. Of interest is that Vedek Yevir's taking of centre stage for a good deal of this half of the book, and doing so in a very well characterized way. He's not as one dimensional as we've previously seen, something that is well received of this reader, at least.
Martin and Mangels also brought us the Section 31 Next Generation novel "Rogue," which showed their already fantastic characterization and writing skills, and it is with great pleasure that I see them as a part of the DS9 Relaunch.
You certainly won't see the ending coming, that's for sure. It'll leave you waiting for more.
'Nathan
Rating: 
Summary: The best DS9 book I've read
Review: Of the three DS9 Mission Gamma books that I read so far, this is the best one. It has the most balance between characters and each chapter ends with a cliffhanger of sorts which keeps you from putting the book down. There's a lot of action as well as social commentary. This book could stand alone from the Mission Gamma series by its own merit. Hopefully, this author will continue to contribute more to the DS9 novels!
Rating:
Summary: The best DS9 book I've read
Review: Of the three DS9 Mission Gamma books that I read so far, this is the best one. It has the most balance between characters and each chapter ends with a cliffhanger of sorts which keeps you from putting the book down. There's a lot of action as well as social commentary. This book could stand alone from the Mission Gamma series by its own merit. Hopefully, this author will continue to contribute more to the DS9 novels!
Rating:
Summary: ST-DS9: Mission Gamma: Cathedral
Review: Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Mission Gamma: Cathedral Written by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels is the thrid book in a four series and the story continues from where book two left off. This book is part of the relaunch of "Deep Space Nine" since the television series. Here again, this volume of the relaunch is very well-written the the characters go through a real soul searching. The book has two main themes as we read on... the Defiant is on an exploratory tour of the Gamma Quadrant when they come upon an artifact in their space exploration. We all know the Julian Bashir has been genetically enhanced when he was six years old on Adigeon Prime and has alway wonder what his life would have been like had his parents not had him genetically
altered. As Bashir is going through progressive neurological deggeneration, Dax is becoming an unjoined Trill, and Nog is reverting back to a true Ferengi. The detail of this story is wonderful as all of his unfolds. The second theme of the book is back on Deep Space Nine with Ro Laren, a failing diplomacy between Bajor and Cardassia, and Vedek Yevir is no longer just a cardboard character. This story is filled with intrigue, tragedy and some true callings, making for one good tale. "Cathedral" continues with the very richly written narrative of the first two books as this series brings excitement back into Deep Space Nine. "Lesser Evil" is the fourth book in this series and should wrap-up Mission Gamma. "Entrprise: What Price Honor?" will be out soon. See you around the galaxy...
Rating: 
Summary: What a disappointment.
Review: The editors for this book series really missed the mark by having these two guys write this book. You'd think they'd have been overjoyed with the opportunity to expand from the Comic Book genre into a full length novel that propels so eloquently the DS9 story line. Instead, the authors continue the story in a pedantic manner. The characters don't develop in the same arc established by the previous books in the series. And I've guessed the next event in the book before reading it. Absolutely no surprises. These authors never strayed from the comfort of the game room where they have stagnated in the short story format of comics. Would that I could blurt out all of the major story points and spare other potential buyers from the torture.
Rating: 
Summary: Cathedral - Colossal Disappointment
Review: The purpose of my review is not to tell about the story lines because other reviews do this, but my purpose is to say whether or not the book is worth its cover price in my opinion. In this case, yes, if you love DS9 and are up to date in its story-line. Because I stopped watching the DS9 TV series when the Dominion War started, I came to "Cathedral" as a not-up-to-date fan. Because I was not up to date on the DS9 story, "Cathedral" was very difficult to follow. And, if you don't know anything about the planet Bajor and its struggles, the story is also exceedingly difficult to follow. I really had no clue as to the roles of the people involved in the power struggle. And of course, an alien race appeared to complicate the story, but for me, their presence didn't add any value to the story. Actually, by the time they showed up, I was annoyed with their interrupting the story that I just finally getting comfortable with. I wanted to read "Cathedral" because the book's hook was a good one: I wanted to see how the authors handled Dr. Bashir's loss of his bioengineered talents. I think their initial idea was great, but they did not do a terrific job of presenting it. Like another reviewer, I was baffled how the Dr could mentally deteriorate at such an alarming rate but write about it so well in his log. It was not convincing. Overall, I found the entire story rather difficult to follow. Be that as it may, if you are a DS9 fan, you might really love the story regardless of the difficulties I encountered. I thought the authors wrote well--I just wasn't very fond of the story. Maybe better luck next time for me. The other reviewers give reviews of the story lines, so I won't repeat them here. I just wanted to say that I think the story had potential for entertainment, but just not for me--this time. But, you can give it a try if you are a DS9 fan.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Dramatic
Review: This book takes lots of twists and turns and is an extremely powerful and dramatic story. This series just gets better and better.
Rating:
Summary: excellent installment!
Review: This book was throughly engaging. All of the plots kept me turning the pages wondering what was going to happen next. The three plots which are Bajor, DS9 and the Gamma Mission has all of the elements of a good science fiction story, all of the intrigue of a political thiller and all of the character development and dialogue one would find in a good drama.
Bajor has long been a major focus in the Deep Space nine series but after the last installment of Mission Gamma I was losing interest in all of the politics involved. This book however has rekindled my interest and made Bajor one of my favorite plots to follow. Bajor's entry into the Federation is the primary focus, but other issues have to be delt with as well like Kira's attainer, the growth of a spliinter group and the Cardassian/Bajoran peace talks. All of these issues are delt with excellently. Garak even makes an appearance although his role is limited at the moment.
The drama on board DS9 evolves nicely. Quark and Ro still seem to get along well and things are going well in their relationship but Ro in particular gets more and more concerned about her future as Bajor moves closer to joining the Federation. Meanwhile, Quark seems more concerned about his relationship with Ro as opposed to what's going to happen to him after the Federation takes over the station. It brings up some interesting questions because the Federation I understand is a moneyless organization so Quark won't be able to make a profit after the Federation takes over. Ro on the other hand does not have a very good reputation with the Federation or Bajor. On another front, Taran'atar continues to observe and study humanity. Some interesting dialogue takes place between him, Vic Fontaine and another. There is still no sign of Jake, but Joseph (Sisko's father) makes an appearance.
The story of the Gamma Mission can be made into a full feature length movie by itself. It continues to impress me as the crew run into new alien species and artifacts. Everyone who has read about this installment knows that Dr. Bashir will lose his genetic enhancements somewhere along the line. The real meat of the story is not in him losing his enhancements, but in him and his crew's contact with an alien artifact. The alien artifact forces them to go back into their past and confront their most serious issues.
WARNING SPOILER:
A major player in one of the three plots is assassinated in the most dramatic ending to date in the series. It took me by complete surprise.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed!!
Review: This was a great book. I enjoyed the seeing the Dr, Dax and Nog change. It was great to see what the Dr would be without his "gifts". Ezri Dax becaming just Ezri, and Nog regrowing this leg back. I hope I didn't ruin the book for you. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Good story line and characterization
Review: While this book doesn't shine the way Book Two (Heather Jarman's THIS GRAY SPIRIT) does, it's still one of the best of the DS9 novels. My biggest problem with it was that I couldn't figure out any possible scientific explanation for the "dimensional regression" caused by the Cathdral/Anathema, although the stories told of Julian's, Ezri's and Nog's past were well done and ultimately triumphant. Even if the latter two were more-or-less reiterations of DS9 shows, we learn more about Dr. Bashir "Jules" than we knew, and the denouement of that story is particularly satisfying. If you decide to accept some suspicious science, however, the story moves right along, the characterization is top-notch, and I especially liked the authors' understanding of politics -- how do you tell the good guys from the bad guys? can you stop politics from constantly changing? how do you avoid being suckered by plausible protestations of a superficially apparent "good-guy"? A rich and deeply understood Realpolitik was always DS9's greatest strength -- one of reasons why I loved it far more than any other Star Trek series. Genuine DS9 fans will love this book. A warning to others: Don't look for Gene Roddenberry's rather simple-minded Federation that seems to run on stardust and permanent good-will. The Cathedral alien and the Bajoran-Federation-Cardassian conflicts are as confusing, fascinating, and dangerous as today's headlines. Very well done indeed!
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