Worlds of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Volume Two : Trill and Bajor

Rating:
Summary: Just as good as the first one.
Review: In fact, it's probably a wee bit better. When I was reviewing the first volume, I rated the Cardassia story as higher than the Andorian story because of the soap opera feel in that story, and gave that book a 4 star rating. This book is more between a 4 and 4.5 star rating. Before saying anything, i have to give kudos to all of the writers for incorporting the most random episodes from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the days of DS9 and TNG and parlaying them into important backstories for these new stories, both in this volume and in Unity and others. I'm impressed :) This version also follows the general thread of the first book, where the first story focuses more on the society than the personal characters (Trill and Cardassia) and the second one focuses on the interactions between the society and the characters (Andor and Bajor).

The Trill story is the better of the two by a nose, because it wraps up completely. It focuses on the upheavals on Trill after the events of Unity, the role of Trill in the parasite evolution and the reasons for the parasite's hatred, and it has a very strong ending with very strong repercussions for all Trill, unjoined and joined, as well as for Ezri and Julian. I liked the way the story was written and the implications of what happens to the symbiotes as they grow older (much older). I look forward to the aftermath of these events, and how it affects Trill and the Federation.

The Bajor story is a paradox. It is more interesting than the Trill story (to me) but is a cliff-hanger, and has about 3 or 4 different story threads, only half of which are resolved in this volume. While it plays a bit like the Andor story in the soap opera vein, Jake is a whole lot more sympathetic than Prynn Tenmei is. Call me biased :) The cliffhanger nature of the story reduced the enjoyment for me, 'cause now I have to wait for a while to find out what some of the loose ends were referring to, and it was a bit hard to follow all the threads, even interesting as each of them were. However, what was given was great, and it is a joy to see Capt. Sisko and his lovely baby girl, and family, and Jake and...read it and see. However, I think that this story should have been used as the basis of a novel a la Unity, rather than as a novella in this series.

All in all, I recommend it to all fans of DS9 Relaunch, and I look forward to the Dominion and Ferengrinar stories. What's after those???


Rating:
Summary: Worlds in flux.
Review: So far, the Worlds of Deep Space Nine books have been very good. Volume two, which contains "Unjoined" (about Trill) and "Fragments & Omens" (about Bajor) continues the strong showing from Volume 1. This time, though, both stories are extremely strong. "Unjoined" is by Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin, while "Fragments & Omens" is by newcomer J. Noah Kym (though that is a pseudonym, so maybe the author isn't that new?). As with Volume 1, one of the stories is fairly quiet while the other one has huge ramifications for the planet involved. Both are excellent, with only the Bajor story leaving me slightly wanting, but in this case that can be a good thing.

Both of these stories are powerful in their own way. "Unjoined" hits you in the gut and keeps doing it as you need to find out what's going on. As the violence escalates, we wonder if there will be a Trill society left for Dax to save. There's also a great deal of tension between Bashir and Ezri, and the authors handle this very deftly. All throughout the story, I was wondering if the tension was from what was going on around them or if it was internal to them. It was definitely interesting to watch.

Mangels & Martin show us an intriguing look at a world under siege by terrorists, though these terrorists have a point. The government *is* hiding something from them all, part of which has been established way back in the television series, but some other information that's just in the books as well. The story is very dark and downbeat, which is unusual for them. However, dark does not mean bad in this case. When the terrorists do something truly horrifying, I felt my gut clench a little bit. The finale, which is a harbinger for massive change on Trill, leaves any long-term reader of the re-launch (or even a fan of the television series) wondering what will become of this world.

The entire story is gripping, with the only real fault being that the sequence where Dax is trying to find the answers to what happened in ancient Trill history drags on a little too long (despite being interrupted by other, more interesting scenes). It's nothing major, but I do wish that Mangels & Martin had avoided using the "a character is in an environmental suit, so something has to go wrong with it" cliché. They do make good use of it, however, as in the process of being saved, she encounters the horror of what the terrorists have finally done. The story also starts in the middle of the action and then backtracks. While this can be annoying at times (and is overused in televised Trek), I think it was put to good use here. It draws us into the story and bridges what could have been a slow beginning otherwise. This story is definitely a keeper.

"Fragments & Omens" has a lot of pluses and minuses, mostly pluses. It sets up a large part of what is probably going to follow in the next sequence of books, with Ben Sisko warning about the coming of the Ascendents (a race of beings that even the Founders may fear). The tone of the story alternates between dark foreboding (Sisko's warning, not to mention the destruction of the village) and somewhat lighter fare (Jake's story). Kym handles this change in tone very deftly, however, never leaving the reader reeling.

Jake's story is very sweet, and told from the point of view of Rena, a woman that he meets in a Bajoran village. The romance is quite sweet, but the story does even more by giving us a layman's view of how Bajor is being integrated into the Federation. We see the common person's point of view, the worry about how all of a sudden there is no money, whether the Federation will rob Bajor of its core values and what life will be like within rather than as an outsider. There is nervousness there, understandable given the massive change that is coming.

What I found the most interesting part of the story, however, was the interaction between Ro and Cenn, a Bajoran major who is very leery of the Federation and what it represents. Thousands of Bajoran militia members are leaving to join Starfleet now that the opportunity is there, and he feels that Bajor may lose a lot of its uniqueness. He also doesn't like what Ro did, abandoning Bajor to the Cardassians to join Starfleet. The tension between them is very nicely done, and I see great things ahead for the Cenn character.

One major annoyance with this story, however, is that the story feels unfinished. The first three stories, while leaving vast changes in the worlds' societies that will have to be dealt with, actually finished the story they were telling. They just left a lot of room for the story to go afterward. This story seems entirely setup with no resolution (except Jake). The village destruction is left dangling (we don't even find out who the villain is in this piece, though we're given a very big clue), Sisko's story is made up entirely of "Omens" (though it was nice to see him trying to settle in on Bajor), and we are introduced to Cenn and what his status will be on the station, but without anything actually happening with it. I realize that this was intentional, as the relaunch stories have always been "continuing," and that this story is intended to be the launching pad for the next series of stories, but this story left too much hanging in my opinion. When you only resolve one of the four plots that you've introduced, it gets annoying. Still, that's no reason not to read the story. While it's mostly setup, it's *good* setup. It will hold your interest and keep you coming back for more.

David Roy

Rating:
Summary: Creative and Interesting
Review: The Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine volumes are intended to immerse the reader in the cultures of the planets most closely associated with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and allow the reader to experience those societies from a familiar character's point of view. At the same time, these volumes advance the post-finale storylines. In Volume Two, the worlds explored are Trill in "Unjoined" by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels and Bajor in "Fragments and Omens" by newcomer J. Noah Kym.

At the end of Unity, Trill society stands on the edge of an abyss. The parasites have been destroyed but the ramifications of the cover-up by the Trill government reverberate throughout the planet and Trill society. "Unjoined" begins with Dr. Julian Bashir in the middle of bedlam and then proceeds to explain how he got there, how the chaos he and Ezri Dax find themselves caught up in came to be.

"Unjoined" is a beautifully constructed story that explores Trill's previously hidden history by carefully taking into account everything previously established about the planet and it's culture and expanding upon it in a very creative and interesting way. With the very fabric of their civilization being torn apart, the inhabitants of Trill find themselves in a desperate fight for the future of their society, a fight they may be unable to win.

"Fragments and Omens" has a much more hopeful tone. Set shortly after Bajor's admission to the Federation there is still much work to be done helping Bajor become a fully integrated member of the Federation. J. Noah Kym successfully employs several different storylines and characters to weave together a descriptive and evocative story that provides the reader with a much broader picture of Bajor and its people than we have sometimes been given in the past.

You are likely to feel a bit lost if you attempt to read any of the volumes of Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine without having read the previously published novel Unity. The six stories contained in these three volumes are in many respects an interlude. They carry the story forward from Unity, wrapping up some of the ongoing storylines not fully concluded in that novel while introducing new story threads.

At the conclusion of both "Unjoined" and "Fragments and Omens", the characters have been brought to the point where they are ready to move forward with their lives leaving the reader eagerly anticipating whatever the future may hold.