Rating: 
Summary: What was he thinking!
Review: Could Robert Sheckley have got it any more wrong? From the situations he puts the characters in, to the dialogue, to their reactions; it just gets worse and worse. Bashir has never seemed so one-dimensional, Sisko so laid-back. A Ferengi priest? Please! A truly stupid book, if you enjoy DS9 at all, it will annoy you on every page. I only gave it one star because Amazon wouldn't let me give it zero. Avoid.
Rating:
Summary: What was he thinking!
Review: Could Robert Sheckley have got it any more wrong? From the situations he puts the characters in, to the dialogue, to their reactions; it just gets worse and worse. Bashir has never seemed so one-dimensional, Sisko so laid-back. A Ferengi priest? Please! A truly stupid book, if you enjoy DS9 at all, it will annoy you on every page. I only gave it one star because Amazon wouldn't let me give it zero. Avoid.
Rating:
Summary: This is one of the worst DS9 books I have read...
Review: Good (sort of) story, but badly written.. Also, the writer appears to get fed up thinking out a way to actualy get from situation a to situation b, and simply invents a 'Chaos Machine' which is total stupid and fixes everything..
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written, poorly conceived, not terribly original.
Review: I think that this book is intended to be something of a spoof, sort of like John Ford's "How Much For Just The Planet", original series #36. If so, the fact that I'm not CERTAIN that this is true is a good indication that it failed miserably. On the other hand, if it WAS intended to be taken as a serious story, it fails even more miserably. Many of the characters (notably Kira and Sisko) are unrecognisable, simply ciphers carrying the names of the characters we know, but with none of their personality. The story is choppy, entirely composed of chapters three pages long or less. The plot (Quark is in danger of being bankrupted by a lucky gambler) has been done before, and done better. The psuedoscience bafflegab is even sketchier and less plausible than usual (and in a world where instantaeous matter transport and faster than light travel are both commonplaces, that's saying a lot). And the ending is contrived, as are several of the plot twists.
All in all, give this one a pass. It has very little to recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: DS9 #12 The Laertian Gamble - Very poorly written!
Review: It is of little wonder as to why this was the one and only Star Trek title by this author, given the extremely poor characterizations and structure of this novel. "The Laertian Gamble" most certainly must be one of the titles that the publisher requested from the author and he had only the series "bible" and "maybe" an episode or two to watch. This is certainly one of those Star Trek novels that had me wondering why in the world I was reading it in the first place.I've read novels that the basic plot required several chapters but with this novel it reaches the point of ridiculous quite quickly, 273 pages and 73 chapters, my goodness. The cover art matches the novel quite perfectly, poorly thought out. The premise: A mysterious alien woman from the planet Laertes convinces Dr. Bashir to gamble for her at Quark's bar and he accedes thinking it innocent enough. To everyone's surprise though, the more he wins, the more things go wrong throughout the Federation; in comes the "Complexity Theory." When Julian attempts to stop, a Laertian fleet appears and forces him to continue. Kira and Dax find that they must go to the planet Laertes themselves to attempt to stop this madness but they soon find that they must battle through chaos and danger in order to save Deep Space Nine and the Federation itself. The plot behind this one is a bit ridiculous and would've probably worked out a little better if it were written outside of the Star Trek genre. Overall, I would only recommend this as a collectors/completists purchase. {ssintrepid}
Rating:
Summary: DS9 #12 The Laertian Gamble - Very poorly written!
Review: It is of little wonder as to why this was the one and only Star Trek title by this author, given the extremely poor characterizations and structure of this novel. "The Laertian Gamble" most certainly must be one of the titles that the publisher requested from the author and he had only the series "bible" and "maybe" an episode or two to watch. This is certainly one of those Star Trek novels that had me wondering why in the world I was reading it in the first place. I've read novels that the basic plot required several chapters but with this novel it reaches the point of ridiculous quite quickly, 273 pages and 73 chapters, my goodness. The cover art matches the novel quite perfectly, poorly thought out. The premise: A mysterious alien woman from the planet Laertes convinces Dr. Bashir to gamble for her at Quark's bar and he accedes thinking it innocent enough. To everyone's surprise though, the more he wins, the more things go wrong throughout the Federation; in comes the "Complexity Theory." When Julian attempts to stop, a Laertian fleet appears and forces him to continue. Kira and Dax find that they must go to the planet Laertes themselves to attempt to stop this madness but they soon find that they must battle through chaos and danger in order to save Deep Space Nine and the Federation itself. The plot behind this one is a bit ridiculous and would've probably worked out a little better if it were written outside of the Star Trek genre. Overall, I would only recommend this as a collectors/completists purchase. {ssintrepid}
Rating:
Summary: DS9 #12 The Laertian Gamble - Very poorly written!
Review: It is of little wonder as to why this was the one and only Star Trek title by this author, given the extremely poor characterizations and structure of this novel. "The Laertian Gamble" most certainly must be one of the titles that the publisher requested from the author and he had only the series "bible" and "maybe" an episode or two to watch. This is certainly one of those Star Trek novels that had me wondering why in the world I was reading it in the first place. I've read novels that the basic plot required several chapters but with this novel it reaches the point of ridiculous quite quickly, 273 pages and 73 chapters, my goodness. The cover art matches the novel quite perfectly, poorly thought out. The premise: A mysterious alien woman from the planet Laertes convinces Dr. Bashir to gamble for her at Quark's bar and he accedes thinking it innocent enough. To everyone's surprise though, the more he wins, the more things go wrong throughout the Federation; in comes the "Complexity Theory." When Julian attempts to stop, a Laertian fleet appears and forces him to continue. Kira and Dax find that they must go to the planet Laertes themselves to attempt to stop this madness but they soon find that they must battle through chaos and danger in order to save Deep Space Nine and the Federation itself. The plot behind this one is a bit ridiculous and would've probably worked out a little better if it were written outside of the Star Trek genre. Overall, I would only recommend this as a collectors/completists purchase. {ssintrepid}
Rating: 
Summary: Very good book. I recomend it!
Review: It is really good, if you like the characters it features. I would recomend it!
Rating: 
Summary: Just "pay copy" for a great writer
Review: Not since he let Playboy magazine pay him for literary doodling has Mr.Scheckley produced work so far below his talents. Try some of his older short stories instead, and you'll see why he can get away with stuff like this.
Rating: 
Summary: Did this man ever watch Deep Space Nine??
Review: Someone once told me that this book is better the second time you read it. I have to agree. The first time I read it, it was so convoluted and I was totally confused about Complexity theory. The second time wasn't so bad. The premise is very interesting, but unfortunately it falls flat. A big problem is how choppy the dialogue is. Either the author is trying to write at a 5th grade level or he just doesn't have a clue how to write for Star Trek. None of the characters in the book speak like they should be speaking. The entire thing seems forced. If your a Trek completist and happen to already have the book, I'd give it another read. Otherwise, there are A LOT better Trek novels to read.
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