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Call to Arms...:  The Dominion War Book 2 (Star Trek Deep Space Nine)

Call to Arms...: The Dominion War Book 2 (Star Trek Deep Space Nine)

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: This is a novelization of ST:DS9 episodes already shown.
Review: Book 1 of this series is an original story. However, book two (and I suspect book that book four will be also) is just a cheap novelization of ST:DS9 episodes involving the Dominion war. Rip off! It's one thing to refer to all the elements that took place in the episodes, but quite another to sell a book that most people have already watched!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Would have read better had I not seen the show first.
Review: Books 1 and 3 should really be part 1 of the Dominion War, and books 2 and 4, part 2 (or vice-versa) since there is no overlap between the two whatsoever. So it is ok to start reading book 2 having not read book 1. I believe had I not just watched DS9 on DVD that I would have enjoyed book 2 and 4 more than I did. The episodes were among my favorite, but reading it, much of which is taken word for word from the show, hardly offered new exciting twists. I agree you get a lot deeper insight into characters, especially Sisko and Martok's plan to do something about the War. At times I questioned whether Carey was right about some of the inner thoughts of Sisko and whether the producers of DS9 had the same views, or if Carey just invented them. Either way, it works. It's also good to see more of what happens when the Defiant goes off on a mission, esp. when Dax is in command. It was also good to see Charlie Reynolds and his crew. For that, I give this book 4 stars rather than 3, and also because I believe if one hasn't seen these episodes, that the books will be quite enjoyable. Seeing O'Brien on a suicide mission was quite funny, although the Tex character seemed very odd and out-of-place. Personally I prefered TNG books (1&3) more.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Such a waste of potential
Review: Call to Arms is the first of two books novelizing the six-episode "Dominion War" story-arc of Deep Space Nine. These six shows were among the best of the series; some of the highest quality television footage ever produced. And they squandered it all in the novelizations. Whereas usually they stretch 1 2-hour show to fill 250 or so pages of text, here they've condensed 6 hours of shows in two 250 page books. It's not a welcome change. Some of the scenes are shown from the same point of view as the show, some from different points of view, but there is very little new materiel, and much of what there is simply isn't enough.

The whole premise of the story is that the Federation is fighting a war against the Dominion, and losing. This is drilled into us, time and again, throughout the book. And yet we never really see this losing. Just about every battle or conflict that is shown here is won, and even when the station is evacuated, it's not really a horrible defeat -- the evac is done on Sisko's own terms. This shouldn't really seem so bad, except it's jarring because that's the whole point of the book, it seems. This book is so proud of itself, filled with little cliches and epiphanies about the nature of war, the devastation, the horror, and yet we see nothing of that except the talk.

However, the book still would have been salvageable if it had had some decent writing, editing, and length. The word Jem'Hadar is not spelled correctly *once* in the entire novel, and even such basic Star Trek words as Cochrane are misspelled. Often sentences are grammatically unsound, and it's unsettling to be jarred out of a battle scene by a sentence that just doesn't make any sense. And worst of all, none of the scenes are written memorably.

And the adaptation isn't that great. Presumably in an effort to save space, there were occasional whole passages that were nothing but dialogue -- no description or anything. While that can be very effective if done right, here it was just annoying. In addition, there were many battle scenes and crash scenes that weren't included in the shows for budget reasons -- and yet for some reason they didn't appear here, either, although the book could have been much more dramatic and fulfilling if they had, rather than just showing us "before the crash" and "after the crash" scenes.

There were a couple of high points here -- Worf's relationship with Alexander and Martok was much more effective here than on the show, and also we got a good look at Jem'Hadar thought processes and motivations here.

Unfortunately, overall this book just wasn't very good and isn't worth getting. Not enough effort, it seems, was put into it to be able to really take anything out of it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Such a waste of potential
Review: Call to Arms is the first of two books novelizing the six-episode "Dominion War" story-arc of Deep Space Nine. These six shows were among the best of the series; some of the highest quality television footage ever produced. And they squandered it all in the novelizations. Whereas usually they stretch 1 2-hour show to fill 250 or so pages of text, here they've condensed 6 hours of shows in two 250 page books. It's not a welcome change. Some of the scenes are shown from the same point of view as the show, some from different points of view, but there is very little new materiel, and much of what there is simply isn't enough.

The whole premise of the story is that the Federation is fighting a war against the Dominion, and losing. This is drilled into us, time and again, throughout the book. And yet we never really see this losing. Just about every battle or conflict that is shown here is won, and even when the station is evacuated, it's not really a horrible defeat -- the evac is done on Sisko's own terms. This shouldn't really seem so bad, except it's jarring because that's the whole point of the book, it seems. This book is so proud of itself, filled with little cliches and epiphanies about the nature of war, the devastation, the horror, and yet we see nothing of that except the talk.

However, the book still would have been salvageable if it had had some decent writing, editing, and length. The word Jem'Hadar is not spelled correctly *once* in the entire novel, and even such basic Star Trek words as Cochrane are misspelled. Often sentences are grammatically unsound, and it's unsettling to be jarred out of a battle scene by a sentence that just doesn't make any sense. And worst of all, none of the scenes are written memorably.

And the adaptation isn't that great. Presumably in an effort to save space, there were occasional whole passages that were nothing but dialogue -- no description or anything. While that can be very effective if done right, here it was just annoying. In addition, there were many battle scenes and crash scenes that weren't included in the shows for budget reasons -- and yet for some reason they didn't appear here, either, although the book could have been much more dramatic and fulfilling if they had, rather than just showing us "before the crash" and "after the crash" scenes.

There were a couple of high points here -- Worf's relationship with Alexander and Martok was much more effective here than on the show, and also we got a good look at Jem'Hadar thought processes and motivations here.

Unfortunately, overall this book just wasn't very good and isn't worth getting. Not enough effort, it seems, was put into it to be able to really take anything out of it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful account of some great episodes in a great series!
Review: Depp Space Nine is the best television series of all time, and the episodes these books novelized were some of my favorites. I like novelizations if the episodes they're based on are good, I hate them if they're not. I was really disappointed on the T.V. show "Behind the Lines" That they showed the dumb Kira part instead of the Argolis mission, and I was glad that the novelization included that part. This series was so good that I read it nonstop and finished it in four days. The John Vornholt Next Generation ones were good too.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good book
Review: Diane Carey couldn't have written better novelization like Trials and Tribble-ations. On the other hand, this book is excellent. It's fast-paced story.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good cover of the DS9 episodes
Review: Even tough this book was a cover certain episodes from DS9 and I was expected an original story, I enjoyed book, partially because I hadn't seen all of these episodes and it had different prespectives from the original shows.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: From the small screen to print
Review: Everyone say the book is always better then the movie. Diane Carey's novelization of these Deep Space Nine episodes holds to the same standards. We get to see into the minds of the characters and understand the choices they made on screen. We get to see specific outcomes of events never fully disclosed during the series.

There were a few new characters introduced but the development of the regular cast was great. Captain Sisko's development and the insight into his choices I felt were completely in character. General Martok showed new depth into his character but having read the two part series by J. Hertzler, am not sure of some of this character's actions.

Overall, a wonderful read and I enjoyed pushing through it quickly. As a four part series, I was hoping for some interaction and cross over with the first book. From what I have read so far, I see two, two-book series, rather then an interconnected four part I was hoping for.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: From the small screen to print
Review: Everyone say the book is always better then the movie. Diane Carey's novelization of these Deep Space Nine episodes holds to the same standards. We get to see into the minds of the characters and understand the choices they made on screen. We get to see specific outcomes of events never fully disclosed during the series.

There were a few new characters introduced but the development of the regular cast was great. Captain Sisko's development and the insight into his choices I felt were completely in character. General Martok showed new depth into his character but having read the two part series by J. Hertzler, am not sure of some of this character's actions.

Overall, a wonderful read and I enjoyed pushing through it quickly. As a four part series, I was hoping for some interaction and cross over with the first book. From what I have read so far, I see two, two-book series, rather then an interconnected four part I was hoping for.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An excellent novelization
Review: I am a collector of Star Trek novels of all four series, and I enjoyed this novelization of several of last season's episodes. Because I had the sense to read the back cover of the book when I bought it, I knew it was a novelization, and not a cheap one at that. Diane Carey, as usual, put together a good story with some elements not seen onscreen. Here is an example of a good writer improving on an already excellent story.


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