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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Demons of Air and Darkness
Once they moved from world to world in a single step, through innumerable doors that spanned the galaxy. They were masters of space, and to those who feared them, they were demons of air and darkness. But long ago they left their empire and their miraculous technology behind. Now someone has found the key to it, and all those doors have been flung open.
Gateways ~ Demons Of Air & Darkness
A world near Deep Space 9, threatened with destruction from the distant Delta Quadrant, becomes the focus of a massive rescue effort as Colonel Kira Nerys, her crew, and some unexpected allies fight to avert disaster on a planetary scale. Meanwhile, as Lieutenant Nog and Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane search for a way to shut down the spatial portals forever, Quark becomes involved in a dangerous game that could determine, once and for all, who will control the Gateways.
Gateways ~ Demons Of Air & Darkness
A world near Deep Space 9, threatened with destruction from the distant Delta Quadrant, becomes the focus of a massive rescue effort as Colonel Kira Nerys, her crew, and some unexpected allies fight to avert disaster on a planetary scale. Meanwhile, as Lieutenant Nog and Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane search for a way to shut down the spatial portals forever, Quark becomes involved in a dangerous game that could determine, once and for all, who will control the Gateways.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 2001
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October 17, 2021
(This is part of my ongoing look at the 850+ novels comprising the "Star Trek Non-Canon Expanded Universe." For more on what exactly non-canon novels are and why they can be tricky to review, see my very first Star Trek write-up, for SD Perry's Section 31: Cloak; or see here for the master list of all Star Trek novels I've now reviewed.)
2021 reads, #85 and 86. This book comes at the intersection of two different mini-series I'm currently tracking here at Goodreads in the universe of Star Trek non-canon novels. It's at once book #3 in the "Deep Space Nine Relaunch" series, in which Paramount gave these Simon & Schuster authors permission to pretend they were writing an eighth, ninth, tenth season and more of the official TV show, so that permanent deaths could happen within a persistent universe of events that's carried over from one book to another (but see my review of the first book in the series, S.D. Perry's Avatar, for more); and it's also book #6 of the seven-book "Gateways" series, one of the gimmicky "Special Summer Reading Event" publicity stunts Simon & Schuster held in the early '00s, in which a subject from the Star Trek universe was picked (like Section 31, for example, or in this case the Iconian Gateways), and a different story concerning this subject was published simultaneously in all the various Star Trek ongoing series of novels (both TV-based ones like The Next Generation and the original Kirk/Spock series, and series invented exclusively for the novels, like the "Challenger" and "New Voyages" books), usually in May so that fans could slowly make their way through all four or six or eight of the books over the summer at various pools, beaches and airports.
That's a lot of explanation for a beach read, so no wonder Simon & Schuster recently decided to bring an official end to this "Relaunch" storyline that's been persistently existing for the last twenty years, with the coming "Coda" trilogy at the end of this year that promises to wrap up every outstanding storyline in not only these 35-odd DS9 relaunch novels, but the dozen-plus relaunch books The Next Generation has been going through at the same time. After all, like I talked about in my last Star Trek review, the TNG and DS9 teams (both in the novels and the original TV shows) had a warmly collaborative relationship; the two storylines are supposed to be happening in the same fictional time period, in the same fictional part of the Milky Way galaxy, and there was even a fair amount of bleeding over between actors and staff writers of the two shows when they were first being produced. So it makes sense that, after Simon & Schuster lead editor Marco Palmieri got permission from Paramount to do this with their intellectual property rights for DS9 (already heavily serialized on television, which is why it made sense to do it in the books too), and it went well (i.e. fans were still willing to buy the books, even with the new rule that you must read them all and read them in order for them to make sense), it would be expanded to the TNG milieu as well. This "special relationship" became so strong, in fact, that even most of the book-exclusive brand-new series that were invented (like the popular "Corps of Engineers," for example) were set in the same time period and same section of the galaxy, so that they could ride the coattails of these two other series' bigger successes; and there were even attempts over these years to bring all the titles together "Avengers"-style into series-crossing mega-events, a good example being this exact "Iconian Gateways" seven-book series we're looking at today.
Eventually, though, these kinds of persistent universes get so loaded down with their own history and exposition that they end up imploding; and you can see a good example of these "Relaunch" titles heading in that direction with these very books, in which six of the novel division's ongoing series all tried to get together for a massive mega-story, but ended up having to keep up with so many different people's machinations throughout all seven books that it sometimes became almost unreadable. I talk about that some in my review of the TNG part of the "Gateway" series, and you can see it here too, especially in sections like the giant meeting with Starfleet brass that all the people in these various titles have together at a certain point, in order to get everyone up to speed and on the same page, and is essentially repeated in all the titles so that it has to get through literally six books' worth of characters giving expository dialogue before it can finally be declared over. Author Keith R.A. DeCandido, a well-loved non-canon regular contributor (he's also written books for Supernatural, World of Warcraft, Firefly, Resident Evil, and a lot more), does the best he can here, putting in an admirable amount of effort at trying to advance the "DS9 Relaunch" series of events regardless of being forced to shoehorn in this ongoing story about the galaxy-wide Gateway openings, with some characters getting "crisis of the week" situations to take care of (such as Kira helping out a race of people who are threatened with extinction by the reverberations of these energy-sucking interplanetary gateways), and others whose minimal plot developments are more in service of deep character-building (such as Ro Laren's decision to pose as an accompanying dabo girl when Quark is hired to be the Orion Syndicate's spokesman for the gateway bidding war, and the funny and interesting way they interact as they blast their way out of trouble by the end of all the shenanigans).
Then there's the last book of this series, What Lay Beyond, which is about as shameless a grab for money as I've ever seen a multinational corporation do; essentially, they withheld the last chapter of all six other novels from the rest of this series, making the last volume an anthology of all the other six last chapters, making it pointless as anything else but an excuse to pay Simon & Schuster another ten bucks to see how any of these other books actually end. That makes it rather useless to do a review of, which is why I'm just incorporating it into my review of the DS9 volume, and posting this at both the book pages; and here's hoping that S&S learned their lesson from what I bet was a big outcry when this first happened (at least if all the outraged reactions here at Goodreads are any indication), and that I won't have to deal with this regarding any of the other "special mega-series" I might wind up reading down the road. For next time, though, we go in the opposite direction -- another multi-book series regarding a special topic, but this time concerning only a small sliver of DS9's regular cast, as mysterious new character Elias Vaughn leads a bunch of regulars on the fighting ship USS Defiant through the Bajoran wormhole and into the largely unknown Gamma Quadrant for a four-book uber-arc of a story. I hope you'll have a chance to join me again here next month for the start of that.
2021 reads, #85 and 86. This book comes at the intersection of two different mini-series I'm currently tracking here at Goodreads in the universe of Star Trek non-canon novels. It's at once book #3 in the "Deep Space Nine Relaunch" series, in which Paramount gave these Simon & Schuster authors permission to pretend they were writing an eighth, ninth, tenth season and more of the official TV show, so that permanent deaths could happen within a persistent universe of events that's carried over from one book to another (but see my review of the first book in the series, S.D. Perry's Avatar, for more); and it's also book #6 of the seven-book "Gateways" series, one of the gimmicky "Special Summer Reading Event" publicity stunts Simon & Schuster held in the early '00s, in which a subject from the Star Trek universe was picked (like Section 31, for example, or in this case the Iconian Gateways), and a different story concerning this subject was published simultaneously in all the various Star Trek ongoing series of novels (both TV-based ones like The Next Generation and the original Kirk/Spock series, and series invented exclusively for the novels, like the "Challenger" and "New Voyages" books), usually in May so that fans could slowly make their way through all four or six or eight of the books over the summer at various pools, beaches and airports.
That's a lot of explanation for a beach read, so no wonder Simon & Schuster recently decided to bring an official end to this "Relaunch" storyline that's been persistently existing for the last twenty years, with the coming "Coda" trilogy at the end of this year that promises to wrap up every outstanding storyline in not only these 35-odd DS9 relaunch novels, but the dozen-plus relaunch books The Next Generation has been going through at the same time. After all, like I talked about in my last Star Trek review, the TNG and DS9 teams (both in the novels and the original TV shows) had a warmly collaborative relationship; the two storylines are supposed to be happening in the same fictional time period, in the same fictional part of the Milky Way galaxy, and there was even a fair amount of bleeding over between actors and staff writers of the two shows when they were first being produced. So it makes sense that, after Simon & Schuster lead editor Marco Palmieri got permission from Paramount to do this with their intellectual property rights for DS9 (already heavily serialized on television, which is why it made sense to do it in the books too), and it went well (i.e. fans were still willing to buy the books, even with the new rule that you must read them all and read them in order for them to make sense), it would be expanded to the TNG milieu as well. This "special relationship" became so strong, in fact, that even most of the book-exclusive brand-new series that were invented (like the popular "Corps of Engineers," for example) were set in the same time period and same section of the galaxy, so that they could ride the coattails of these two other series' bigger successes; and there were even attempts over these years to bring all the titles together "Avengers"-style into series-crossing mega-events, a good example being this exact "Iconian Gateways" seven-book series we're looking at today.
Eventually, though, these kinds of persistent universes get so loaded down with their own history and exposition that they end up imploding; and you can see a good example of these "Relaunch" titles heading in that direction with these very books, in which six of the novel division's ongoing series all tried to get together for a massive mega-story, but ended up having to keep up with so many different people's machinations throughout all seven books that it sometimes became almost unreadable. I talk about that some in my review of the TNG part of the "Gateway" series, and you can see it here too, especially in sections like the giant meeting with Starfleet brass that all the people in these various titles have together at a certain point, in order to get everyone up to speed and on the same page, and is essentially repeated in all the titles so that it has to get through literally six books' worth of characters giving expository dialogue before it can finally be declared over. Author Keith R.A. DeCandido, a well-loved non-canon regular contributor (he's also written books for Supernatural, World of Warcraft, Firefly, Resident Evil, and a lot more), does the best he can here, putting in an admirable amount of effort at trying to advance the "DS9 Relaunch" series of events regardless of being forced to shoehorn in this ongoing story about the galaxy-wide Gateway openings, with some characters getting "crisis of the week" situations to take care of (such as Kira helping out a race of people who are threatened with extinction by the reverberations of these energy-sucking interplanetary gateways), and others whose minimal plot developments are more in service of deep character-building (such as Ro Laren's decision to pose as an accompanying dabo girl when Quark is hired to be the Orion Syndicate's spokesman for the gateway bidding war, and the funny and interesting way they interact as they blast their way out of trouble by the end of all the shenanigans).
Then there's the last book of this series, What Lay Beyond, which is about as shameless a grab for money as I've ever seen a multinational corporation do; essentially, they withheld the last chapter of all six other novels from the rest of this series, making the last volume an anthology of all the other six last chapters, making it pointless as anything else but an excuse to pay Simon & Schuster another ten bucks to see how any of these other books actually end. That makes it rather useless to do a review of, which is why I'm just incorporating it into my review of the DS9 volume, and posting this at both the book pages; and here's hoping that S&S learned their lesson from what I bet was a big outcry when this first happened (at least if all the outraged reactions here at Goodreads are any indication), and that I won't have to deal with this regarding any of the other "special mega-series" I might wind up reading down the road. For next time, though, we go in the opposite direction -- another multi-book series regarding a special topic, but this time concerning only a small sliver of DS9's regular cast, as mysterious new character Elias Vaughn leads a bunch of regulars on the fighting ship USS Defiant through the Bajoran wormhole and into the largely unknown Gamma Quadrant for a four-book uber-arc of a story. I hope you'll have a chance to join me again here next month for the start of that.
September 27, 2021
Ro Ro Ro yer Quark
March 12, 2017
When the galaxy-wide network of Iconian gateways are mysteriously flung open, the crew of Deep Space Nine find themselves in the midst of an ecological disaster. Waste from a Malon freighter in the Delta Quadrant is being dumped through one of the gateways and making its way to the colony of Europa Nova, a short jump from the station. With the population under threat from theta radiation poisoning, Kira must mobilise a task force to save the natives.
This DS9 crossover into the Delta Quadrant may be somewhat small and gratuitous in nature, but it's nevertheless effective in continuing to advance the relationships which are being developed in this relaunch. Many of the complaints relating to the Gateways series of novels stem from the cliffhanger endings to each novel. For the purposes of this review, I've also read the "coda" to Kira's story included in the "What Lay Beyond" novel.
The evacuation of Europa Nova takes center stage in "Demons of Air and Darkness", allowing for a rather paint-by-numbers adventure with most of the crew that often falters and slows the pace of the novel considerably. While we're constantly reminded that time is running out and radiation levels are rising, I never sensed any real urgency in the writing.
If pacing is the first issue, then the second is most certainly the likability of the colonists that the crew are trying to help. With the only true sympathetic character being the elderly president of the colony, we're exposed to a long line of ungrateful refugees who just seem to want to complain about having their lives disrupted. Case in point: Ezri takes time out to address the complaints of refugees who have been given quarters on the station, only to have them moan about light levels and the quality of coffee. Seriously? Scenes like this just serve to stretch credulity and annoy me as a reader. Coupled with that, we have a rather contrived scene where a space-fearing resident decides to take hostages on the planet and Vaughn must step in to prevent their murder. I really was left scratching my head about the inclusion of such scenes: they're not even interesting filler, and they actively remove any empathy the reader may have with the cause our heroes are fighting for.
Yet while the evacuation storyline may have left me unimpressed, I was happy with the opportunity it presented to focus on the characters. Kira, in particular, was finally allowed chance to address many of the events that have taken place in the previous novels (although, granted, a lot of this takes place in the "What Lay Beyond" coda). The pairing of Kira and Taran'atar on the Delta Quadrant mission was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed the showdown between Jem'Hadar and Hirogen hunter (even if it was rather short lived). I can't help but feel that the author would have been better focusing more on the Delta Quadrant angle, just for the pure fun-factor of seeing species from the two quadrants interact so uniquely.
Meanwhile, there's a further storyline involving Quark and Ro attempting to infiltrate the Orion Syndicate. This is believably linked in to the larger Gateways story, and I enjoyed it more than the evacuation plot. DeCandido's characterisation of Quark is spot-on, and the tangential inclusion of Garak was cleverly done. From the way things are left, there seems to be room for the return of Quark's new Orion dabo girl employee, Treir.
Finally, the coda - "Horn and Ivory". I'm still not sure what I thought of this. While it's undoubtedly a great vehicle to explore Kira's inner turmoil after being attainted and losing Sisko, I'm left with mixed feelings as to how effective it was. Kira steps through the DQ gateway to find herself 30,000 years in Bajor's past and involved in a war between different factions for the possession of a tactically important peninsula. This is all designed to be a reflection of Kira's own life: a man of the military faced with a government who has just been liberated but is considering allowing another power to come in and "support" them. The similarities are clear to see, however I find it curious that we had to go through this time-traveling/vision inspired detour to simply come to the conclusion that Kira must pick herself up, dust herself off, and carry on with the job of commanding the station. I'm not sure I really bought into the fact that this was meant to be a pivotal moment in Kira's life - she never really felt like she was standing at enough of a crossroads to justify it. Still, the change of setting is fun, and the end-scene with the Iconian gateway attendant was a great way to finish off.
So, a mixed bag. Some great writing for Quark and Kira stops this from slipping to two-stars, although it still ranks as the low-point of the relaunch series to date.
This DS9 crossover into the Delta Quadrant may be somewhat small and gratuitous in nature, but it's nevertheless effective in continuing to advance the relationships which are being developed in this relaunch. Many of the complaints relating to the Gateways series of novels stem from the cliffhanger endings to each novel. For the purposes of this review, I've also read the "coda" to Kira's story included in the "What Lay Beyond" novel.
The evacuation of Europa Nova takes center stage in "Demons of Air and Darkness", allowing for a rather paint-by-numbers adventure with most of the crew that often falters and slows the pace of the novel considerably. While we're constantly reminded that time is running out and radiation levels are rising, I never sensed any real urgency in the writing.
If pacing is the first issue, then the second is most certainly the likability of the colonists that the crew are trying to help. With the only true sympathetic character being the elderly president of the colony, we're exposed to a long line of ungrateful refugees who just seem to want to complain about having their lives disrupted. Case in point: Ezri takes time out to address the complaints of refugees who have been given quarters on the station, only to have them moan about light levels and the quality of coffee. Seriously? Scenes like this just serve to stretch credulity and annoy me as a reader. Coupled with that, we have a rather contrived scene where a space-fearing resident decides to take hostages on the planet and Vaughn must step in to prevent their murder. I really was left scratching my head about the inclusion of such scenes: they're not even interesting filler, and they actively remove any empathy the reader may have with the cause our heroes are fighting for.
Yet while the evacuation storyline may have left me unimpressed, I was happy with the opportunity it presented to focus on the characters. Kira, in particular, was finally allowed chance to address many of the events that have taken place in the previous novels (although, granted, a lot of this takes place in the "What Lay Beyond" coda). The pairing of Kira and Taran'atar on the Delta Quadrant mission was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed the showdown between Jem'Hadar and Hirogen hunter (even if it was rather short lived). I can't help but feel that the author would have been better focusing more on the Delta Quadrant angle, just for the pure fun-factor of seeing species from the two quadrants interact so uniquely.
Meanwhile, there's a further storyline involving Quark and Ro attempting to infiltrate the Orion Syndicate. This is believably linked in to the larger Gateways story, and I enjoyed it more than the evacuation plot. DeCandido's characterisation of Quark is spot-on, and the tangential inclusion of Garak was cleverly done. From the way things are left, there seems to be room for the return of Quark's new Orion dabo girl employee, Treir.
Finally, the coda - "Horn and Ivory". I'm still not sure what I thought of this. While it's undoubtedly a great vehicle to explore Kira's inner turmoil after being attainted and losing Sisko, I'm left with mixed feelings as to how effective it was. Kira steps through the DQ gateway to find herself 30,000 years in Bajor's past and involved in a war between different factions for the possession of a tactically important peninsula. This is all designed to be a reflection of Kira's own life: a man of the military faced with a government who has just been liberated but is considering allowing another power to come in and "support" them. The similarities are clear to see, however I find it curious that we had to go through this time-traveling/vision inspired detour to simply come to the conclusion that Kira must pick herself up, dust herself off, and carry on with the job of commanding the station. I'm not sure I really bought into the fact that this was meant to be a pivotal moment in Kira's life - she never really felt like she was standing at enough of a crossroads to justify it. Still, the change of setting is fun, and the end-scene with the Iconian gateway attendant was a great way to finish off.
So, a mixed bag. Some great writing for Quark and Kira stops this from slipping to two-stars, although it still ranks as the low-point of the relaunch series to date.
February 13, 2016
These are a great series but end on a cliffhanger!
June 10, 2021
***If you only care about the Deep Space Nine crew, you don’t need to read the other stories and can skip ahead to ‘What Lay Beyond’.
The reading of this book has been an epic task preceded by many others and a lot of time spent on IMDB and other websites to recall everything necessary. Therefore you may wish to consider if you have the time, before investing in the series, if like me, you need to know what you’re reading.
I hope I have covered all the necessary points below. If you have kept up to date with the books as they have been released or have a better memory than I do, you can skip down to the bit where I actually say how good this one is.
Otherwise, before you read this you may wish to look up other aspects of the Star Trek Universe.
Most obviously are the first 3 books of the Gateways series-
Star Trek (Gateways #1) - One Small Step (It literally follows on from The Original Series episode ‘That Which Survives’ and makes more sense if you watch that first).
Star Trek: Challenger (Gateways #2) - Chainmail (This is a new crew who feature only in the other book ‘Star Trek: New Earth - Challenger’. The new team is hard to get used to, so you will need to read the other book as well to even vaguely understand how they came to be. The first 6 books in the ‘New Earth’ series aren’t necessary to follow this thread).
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Gateways #3) Doors Into Chaos (The Series 2, episode #11 ‘Contagion’ introduces the Iconian race, the creators of the Gateways. The Deep Space Nine Series 4, episode #22 ‘To The Death’ introduces a second Gateway and The Voyager Series 3, episode #24 ‘Displaced’ gives us our first glimpse at the Nyrians and Taleen in particular, who features heavily in this story. There are lots of other references to episodes, but these are the key ones to follow this tale).
This book is also a part of a series that follows on from the end of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine TV show itself, so it will help if you ensure you know what has happened in that too.
Especially the following-
Series 7
Episode 24 - The Dogs Of War (Rom & Leeta becomes the Grand Nagus).
Episode 25 - What You Leave Behind (Sisko leaves to be with the Prophets/Worf Is appointed Federation Ambassador to Qo’nos/Odo goes to live with the Founders/Chief O’Brien moves back to Earth to teach at the Academy/The end of the war with the Dominion and Nog’s promotion to Lieutenant, while Garak stays on Cardassia to help rebuild after the war).
As a result of all these changes a new crew is introduced in the following books-
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Avatar (1&2) (Commander Vaughan and Taran ‘atar are brought in and we meet Shar, an Andorian and find out that Ro Laren has been brought in as Security Chief having survived the Maquis liquidation by the Dominion. Ezri also decides to transfer to command from sciences and Jake ventures to the Wormhole looking for his Dad. Kira becomes attainted by the Vedeks)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Section 31) Abyss (We learn that Jake is struggling in the Wormhole)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Rising Son (This story runs alongside the Gateways story, but doesn’t affect it, however if you’ve read the others, you might want to find out what happens to him?)
Star Trek: S.C.E - Indistinguishable From Magic (Nog teams up with Scotty - I haven’t read it yet, but it doesn’t seem to effect things too much here)
On top of these you may want to refresh yourself on these TV episodes too-
Star Trek: The Next Generation -
Series 1
Episode 11- The Big Goodbye (The Jaradans feature in this episode establishing their xenophobia as seen in this book)
Series 3
Episode 25 & Series 4 Episode 1 - Best Of Both Worlds (Commander Shelby is introduced and appears in Gateways as a Captain, it’s not essential to watch it to follow this story, but they are great episodes).
Series 4
Episode 12 - Wounded (Gul Macet, who looks suspiciously like Gul Dukat, works with Picard to stop Ben Maxwell from a murderous rampage)
Episode 21 - Drumhead (We meet Simon Tarses, a half Romulan Medical Officer who has been transferred to Deep Space Nine before the Gateways storyline)
Series 6
Episode 4 - Relics (Scotty is released from a transporter beam and brought in to the next century)
Episodes 10 & 11 - Chain Of Command (Captain Jellico takes over the Enterprise while Picard is on Cardassia)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -
Series 3
Episode 22 - Explorers (Sisko and Jake build a Bajoran Sail Ship)
Episode 24 - Shakaar (We meet Lenaris Holem who features heavily in this book).
Series 4
Episode 7 - Little Green Men (Cousin Gaila gives Quark a dodgy ship that sends him back to Roswell)
Series 5
Episode 18 - Business As Usual (Quark works with his Cousin Gaila selling weapons)
Series 6
Episode 10 - The Magnificent Ferengi (Quark recruits a number of regulars to help him rescue his Mother from the Dominion, including Gaila)
Cousin Gaila is a recurring reference throughout the series, if you haven’t heard of him and his antics or his moon, I’m not sure why you would read this book?
Episode 15 - Honor Among Thieves (O’Brien goes undercover working for the Orion Syndicate. Although the Orions in this book are more like the one first seen in The Original Series Episode 1 (Pilot) The Cage).
Series 7
Episode 4 - Take Me Out To The Holosuite (Captain Solok challenges Sisko to a Baseball game).
Star Trek: Voyager
Series 4
Episode 15 - Hunters (We meet the Hirogen for the first time - None of the characters are used in this book, but you may not remember the species?)
Series 5
Episode 1 (The first appearance of the Malon - You don’t need to remember any specifics, just the species and their exploits)
Review:
I actually really liked this one. Now I have trolled through all of the necessary books that go before it and know who all the characters are, it is much easier to understand the continuing story that follows on from the end of the TV series.
It’s also better, because some of the crappier characters have gone to be replaced by far more interesting ones. Even Ezri is bearable in this written format.
Kira is definitely the better leader and focus of the series and her Second, Vaughan is a great combination of Picard and Riker. Ro is getting a better exploration as a more featured character and Nog has always been a great addition to the Starfleet crew.
As a follow on in the Gateways series, I’m not sure how it will link in with books 1 or 2, but it’s clearly connected to book 3 and in actual fact could have been interspersed with it to make one larger volume quite easily, especially as it’s not that long at all.
This volume is much more contained than the last, which seemed to be trying to cover the entire Galaxy and it fits in nicely with the other DS9 books mentioned above, but if you haven’t read at least The Next Generation Gateways book, all this talk of Portals and things might leave you guessing.
It will be interesting to see how all of the books tie together in #7 ‘What Lay Beyond’, but I will be furious if the first two books weren’t relevant enough to warrant reading. It does seem that the book section of Star Trek merchandise must bring in billions as it drags stories out over a number of books that could easily be cut together as one. I’ve spent a fortune lately just because I wanted to read one book.
The reading of this book has been an epic task preceded by many others and a lot of time spent on IMDB and other websites to recall everything necessary. Therefore you may wish to consider if you have the time, before investing in the series, if like me, you need to know what you’re reading.
I hope I have covered all the necessary points below. If you have kept up to date with the books as they have been released or have a better memory than I do, you can skip down to the bit where I actually say how good this one is.
Otherwise, before you read this you may wish to look up other aspects of the Star Trek Universe.
Most obviously are the first 3 books of the Gateways series-
Star Trek (Gateways #1) - One Small Step (It literally follows on from The Original Series episode ‘That Which Survives’ and makes more sense if you watch that first).
Star Trek: Challenger (Gateways #2) - Chainmail (This is a new crew who feature only in the other book ‘Star Trek: New Earth - Challenger’. The new team is hard to get used to, so you will need to read the other book as well to even vaguely understand how they came to be. The first 6 books in the ‘New Earth’ series aren’t necessary to follow this thread).
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Gateways #3) Doors Into Chaos (The Series 2, episode #11 ‘Contagion’ introduces the Iconian race, the creators of the Gateways. The Deep Space Nine Series 4, episode #22 ‘To The Death’ introduces a second Gateway and The Voyager Series 3, episode #24 ‘Displaced’ gives us our first glimpse at the Nyrians and Taleen in particular, who features heavily in this story. There are lots of other references to episodes, but these are the key ones to follow this tale).
This book is also a part of a series that follows on from the end of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine TV show itself, so it will help if you ensure you know what has happened in that too.
Especially the following-
Series 7
Episode 24 - The Dogs Of War (Rom & Leeta becomes the Grand Nagus).
Episode 25 - What You Leave Behind (Sisko leaves to be with the Prophets/Worf Is appointed Federation Ambassador to Qo’nos/Odo goes to live with the Founders/Chief O’Brien moves back to Earth to teach at the Academy/The end of the war with the Dominion and Nog’s promotion to Lieutenant, while Garak stays on Cardassia to help rebuild after the war).
As a result of all these changes a new crew is introduced in the following books-
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Avatar (1&2) (Commander Vaughan and Taran ‘atar are brought in and we meet Shar, an Andorian and find out that Ro Laren has been brought in as Security Chief having survived the Maquis liquidation by the Dominion. Ezri also decides to transfer to command from sciences and Jake ventures to the Wormhole looking for his Dad. Kira becomes attainted by the Vedeks)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Section 31) Abyss (We learn that Jake is struggling in the Wormhole)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Rising Son (This story runs alongside the Gateways story, but doesn’t affect it, however if you’ve read the others, you might want to find out what happens to him?)
Star Trek: S.C.E - Indistinguishable From Magic (Nog teams up with Scotty - I haven’t read it yet, but it doesn’t seem to effect things too much here)
On top of these you may want to refresh yourself on these TV episodes too-
Star Trek: The Next Generation -
Series 1
Episode 11- The Big Goodbye (The Jaradans feature in this episode establishing their xenophobia as seen in this book)
Series 3
Episode 25 & Series 4 Episode 1 - Best Of Both Worlds (Commander Shelby is introduced and appears in Gateways as a Captain, it’s not essential to watch it to follow this story, but they are great episodes).
Series 4
Episode 12 - Wounded (Gul Macet, who looks suspiciously like Gul Dukat, works with Picard to stop Ben Maxwell from a murderous rampage)
Episode 21 - Drumhead (We meet Simon Tarses, a half Romulan Medical Officer who has been transferred to Deep Space Nine before the Gateways storyline)
Series 6
Episode 4 - Relics (Scotty is released from a transporter beam and brought in to the next century)
Episodes 10 & 11 - Chain Of Command (Captain Jellico takes over the Enterprise while Picard is on Cardassia)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -
Series 3
Episode 22 - Explorers (Sisko and Jake build a Bajoran Sail Ship)
Episode 24 - Shakaar (We meet Lenaris Holem who features heavily in this book).
Series 4
Episode 7 - Little Green Men (Cousin Gaila gives Quark a dodgy ship that sends him back to Roswell)
Series 5
Episode 18 - Business As Usual (Quark works with his Cousin Gaila selling weapons)
Series 6
Episode 10 - The Magnificent Ferengi (Quark recruits a number of regulars to help him rescue his Mother from the Dominion, including Gaila)
Cousin Gaila is a recurring reference throughout the series, if you haven’t heard of him and his antics or his moon, I’m not sure why you would read this book?
Episode 15 - Honor Among Thieves (O’Brien goes undercover working for the Orion Syndicate. Although the Orions in this book are more like the one first seen in The Original Series Episode 1 (Pilot) The Cage).
Series 7
Episode 4 - Take Me Out To The Holosuite (Captain Solok challenges Sisko to a Baseball game).
Star Trek: Voyager
Series 4
Episode 15 - Hunters (We meet the Hirogen for the first time - None of the characters are used in this book, but you may not remember the species?)
Series 5
Episode 1 (The first appearance of the Malon - You don’t need to remember any specifics, just the species and their exploits)
Review:
I actually really liked this one. Now I have trolled through all of the necessary books that go before it and know who all the characters are, it is much easier to understand the continuing story that follows on from the end of the TV series.
It’s also better, because some of the crappier characters have gone to be replaced by far more interesting ones. Even Ezri is bearable in this written format.
Kira is definitely the better leader and focus of the series and her Second, Vaughan is a great combination of Picard and Riker. Ro is getting a better exploration as a more featured character and Nog has always been a great addition to the Starfleet crew.
As a follow on in the Gateways series, I’m not sure how it will link in with books 1 or 2, but it’s clearly connected to book 3 and in actual fact could have been interspersed with it to make one larger volume quite easily, especially as it’s not that long at all.
This volume is much more contained than the last, which seemed to be trying to cover the entire Galaxy and it fits in nicely with the other DS9 books mentioned above, but if you haven’t read at least The Next Generation Gateways book, all this talk of Portals and things might leave you guessing.
It will be interesting to see how all of the books tie together in #7 ‘What Lay Beyond’, but I will be furious if the first two books weren’t relevant enough to warrant reading. It does seem that the book section of Star Trek merchandise must bring in billions as it drags stories out over a number of books that could easily be cut together as one. I’ve spent a fortune lately just because I wanted to read one book.
June 30, 2024
Star Trek: DS9/Section 31 - Demons of Air and Darkness by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Adventurous, challenging, dark, emotional,
hopeful, inspiring, reflective, sad, and tense.
Fast-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25 Stars
This is the following story of Star Trek: DS9/Section 31 - Demons or Air and Darkness.
I loved how this story was executed. It played to the strengths of the characters and the ongoing story arcs for the characters within the Abyss book.
Kira Nerys is my favourite within this book. Her eventual future...is the most tension filled part of this story.
Love the idea of races/organizations/worlds...coming together to save another world from a ecological disaster (not of their doing).
The "gateways" are a very interesting ploy, within the story.
The introduction of the Malons from the Delta Quadrant (which we know from Star Trek: Voyager TV series.
Loved how each person had their jobs, and they "stepped up" and showed up, to do their best.
Quark and his cousin, was a funny portion of the story, along with Ro Laren. So good.
I am really thankful to a YouTuber who told me to read this story and the following "Horn and Ivory" before reading the Mission Gamma quartet. Thank you.
Adventurous, challenging, dark, emotional,
hopeful, inspiring, reflective, sad, and tense.
Fast-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25 Stars
This is the following story of Star Trek: DS9/Section 31 - Demons or Air and Darkness.
I loved how this story was executed. It played to the strengths of the characters and the ongoing story arcs for the characters within the Abyss book.
Kira Nerys is my favourite within this book. Her eventual future...is the most tension filled part of this story.
Love the idea of races/organizations/worlds...coming together to save another world from a ecological disaster (not of their doing).
The "gateways" are a very interesting ploy, within the story.
The introduction of the Malons from the Delta Quadrant (which we know from Star Trek: Voyager TV series.
Loved how each person had their jobs, and they "stepped up" and showed up, to do their best.
Quark and his cousin, was a funny portion of the story, along with Ro Laren. So good.
I am really thankful to a YouTuber who told me to read this story and the following "Horn and Ivory" before reading the Mission Gamma quartet. Thank you.
November 22, 2023
Summary: Delta Quadrant: The supertanker Apsac is attacked by a Hirogen vessel. Their tank of theta radiation is damaged and about to rupture, but suddenly a hole in space, some sort of gateway, opens directly ahead of them. In a last ditch effort to avoid poisoning the entire star system, they jettison their antimatter waste payload into the hole, destroying the Hirogen ship in the process.
Gamma Quadrant: Nog and Shar bring the new communications array online, reestablishing communications between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. Kira immediately summons the Defiant back to DS9 for a meeting with Admiral Ross; there is an emergency on Europa Nova, wherein massive amounts of theta radiation have suddenly been ejected into the system. As soon as they get back to the station, a message comes through the array from a civilian ship that had been on the Terran system; they have no idea how they wound up in the Gamma Quadrant. Commander Vaughn says not to worry, that they'll dispatch a runabout to lead them through the wormhole.
Kira and Vaughn attend a holoconference with many of the top Starfleet commanders and Admiral Ross, who says outfits Iconians approached the Federation Council. Captain Picard explains that the Iconians lived over 200 millennia ago, with their home planet being in the Romulan Neutral Zone. They invented gateways that would allow instantaneous travel across light-years. The Iconians have offered up their gateway technology to the highest bidder, and as a demonstration, they've activated all of them. Montgomery Scott, head of the SCE, says studies show that the gateways, once they've expended their energy, will tap into any nearby sources for power--including stars and planets.
For some reason, the wormhole seems to be preventing any gateways from opening with 10 lightyears, so Kira and Vaughn are tasked with researching why. Vaughn had previous experience with a gateway in a classified mission. Ross says the Intrepid and the Gryphon are en route to DS9 to assist with the Europa Nova disaster. The Bajorans are also sending a fleet, and Kassidy Yates, who is on DS9 for a checkup with Dr. Bashir, also volunteers her ship, the Xhosa, giving them about 20 ships total. They have 52 hours before the theta radiation exposure is fatal.
Vaughn tasks Nog and Shar with figuring out why there are no gateways near the wormhole, Ezri will stay on DS9, Vaughn will take the Defiant, and Kira is taking the Euphrates, with Taran'atar in tow.
Farius Prime: Malic of the Orion Syndicate has brought Quark in to negotiate with the Iconians for control of the gates. Quark is shocked to find his cousin Gaila is negotiating on behalf of the Iconians. After the initial round of talks, Quark learns from Malic that there are no gates near the whole and uses this to strengthen his bargaining position.
Someone named Kam tells another named Hig to go figure out why there are no gates by the wormhole; he says the longer the Ferengis negotiate, the higher the chance of the illusion slipping.
Shar and Nog run all the scans they can, without finding a correlation between the wormhole and the lack of gateways; until they realize that a gateway actually has opened with 10 lightyears on the Game Quadrant side. Shar then remembers the Denorios Belt is know for its heavy tachyon eddies, and they surmise that that is what's preventing the gates. They report their findings to Ezri, and just as they're about to return to DS9, they're attacked by an unknown, much larger, ship that knocks out their shields and disables them.
Kira arrives at Europa Nova and speaks with their president, Silverio Grazia, who says they've already evacuated the planet's children. She says Councilor zh'Thane is there, and should be evac'ed next, so Kira has her beamed aboard the Defiant. She says after everyone is evacuated, they'll devise a way to restore the planet. Taran'atar doesn't understand why they care about the planet, as they can just find a new one; Kira explains that it's because it's their home. He says for the Jem'Hadar, their unit is home, not a planet. She can tell he was affected by his trip to Sindoren.
The Defiant detects a gateway on the planet, in a coastal town named Costa Rocosta. Vaughn goes to check it out and finds that it leads to Torona IV, home of a rather xenophobic species called the Jarada. Kira tells Vaughn he just negotiate with them to harbor Europani citizens, as the ships won't be able to transport them in time. Though they will not allow it at first, Vaughn eventually convinces them to let 500,000 people through for the exchange of information about the gates--though they say that if anyone strays from the allotted zone, or more than the agreed upon number come through, they will be executed. Vaughn agrees to the terms.
Just as the runabout Sungari is about to explode, the Defiant arrives and destroys the unknown enemy ship. They beam Nog and Shar aboard just as the runabout's core breaches. Shar runs into his zhavey, she Vretha says that after the crisis is over, they need to talk.
A large, irradiated meteorite comes through the gate, and Kira uses her roundabout's tractor beam to divert it from a population center into a once thriving lake. She gets a message from Vaughn saying that Shar and Nog have modified the Defiant's deflector to emit a tachyon burst that should disable all gateways of used on just one of them. She punts the decision to Admiral Ross, and in the meantime, decides to go through the gate to stop the radiation at the source. However, the Cardassian ship Trager arrives in the system, and when she hails them, she is greeted by the face of Dukat.
Kam receives a report that Higs's ship was destroyed while attacking the Starfleet vessel. Kam says the Orion deal is still in negotiations, and that it's orders of magnitude better than all other offers.
Quark is hoping to draw the negotiations to a close, but Gaila tells the Orions that Quark is working to stall their talks on behalf of Starfleet so his nephew Nog can close the gates. Malic says if Quark doesn't tell him the truth, he's dead, so Quark tells him that he is working for Starfleet. Malic tells his guards to kill him anyway.
Gul Macet explains to Kira that he is Dukat's cousin, and that he's here to help; he says his ship is in such bad shape because he was helping Damar's resistance destroy the cloning facilities on Rondac III. She reluctantly agrees to his help, and says that since his ship is equipped with more advanced Dominion transporters, he should begin beaming up survivors; he says Cardassians will likely not be welcomed by the Europani, as they have a "history." Kira contacts President Silverio who is vehemently against their help; she says the asteroid belt in their system used to be a planet that the Cardassians destroyed. Kira eventually gets her to relent by telling her that a lot of people may die without their help.
Ezri gets a call from Dr. Renhol of the Trill Symbiosis Commission, who she's supposed to contact weekly--but hasn't for 6 weeks now. The doctor is concerned to find that Ezri has switched to the command track without consulting them, but Ezri writes her off and says that with the ongoing crisis, she doesn't have time to talk. While making the rounds, she finds herself switching personas and screaming at a Europani woman, and thinks that maybe the doctor had a point--but chocks it up to not having slept for 50 hours.
Ezri rounds a corner and overhears Shar arguing with his zhavey Vretha, who wants him to return to Andor. He tells her that he's working another angle on their dying species, and that he will not. Shar turns and runs straight into Ezri. Vretha blows her off, and Shar says that she may try to get Vaughn to reassign him to Andor; Ezri says she doubts that would happen, but Shar says she doesn't know the extent of his zhavey's influence.
Kira and Taran'atar travel through the gate and find the ship dumping waste through it. They hail it, but are met with weapons fire that knocks out their shields. Kira awakens aboard the enemy vessel to find its crew cut into pieces, and a Hirogen says only "prey" to her.
Just as Malic is about to kill Quark, his dabo girl Tamra, who is actually Ro Laren, throws one of her waist tassels on the ground, detonating a flash grenade, and they make a run for it.
Quark had approached Ro weeks before, asking for help with the Orions, afraid that they would rat him out to Garak; Quark has been working with a Cardassian named Deru to illegally divert relief supplies to wealthy patrons in exchange for land. She agrees to help Quark, but only if he helps her infiltrate the Orion Syndicate; otherwise, she's going to tell both Starfleet and Garak about what he's been doing.
Ro takes an Orion slave girl named Treir hostage, and they use her to get past a squadron of Orions, who would never sacrifice such valuable merchandise. Ro activates a beacon and they're beamed onto a Bajoran Militia flitter near Farius Prime's innermost moon. Ro reveals that she also nabbed Malic's padd when she threw the flash grenade, so the evidence against Quark is theirs--unless he made a backup.
The Hirogen tells Kira that she is bait for the other from her ship; just then Taran'atar unshrouds and attacks him. He and Kira flee, trying to find their way to the transporters. Along the way, they stumble across the ship's shield enhancer, which is similar to those that Bajoran ships used; Kira says they need to take it to shield their runabout against the enormous mass of radiation about to go through the gate. Taran'atar beams her back to their ship, resolved to stay behind to fight the Hirogen. Right before, he tells her that he thought his gods had cast him out, but he was wrong.
Back on the Euphrates, Kira finds that the enhancer won't have enough power unless she shuts down life support, so she records a message explaining that she's going to a nearby class M planet, sending the shuttle on autopilot through the gate to shield against the radiation, and tells them to close the gate on her if they find a way to. The shuttle drops her off near a lake, but the planet is mostly a desert. She begins building a shelter as the radiation starts to poison the sky.
Vaughn gets a report from Costa Rocosta that a Europani is holding people and 6 cases of radiation meds hostage, demanding that he and his family be allowed through the gate to Torona IV. Vaughn goes down to the surface and negotiates with the man, who is terrified of space travel. With little time to lose, Vaughn simply stuns him with a phaser, then tells Bashir to make sure the man stays sedated for his trip to space. Back on the Defiant Vaughn tells Nog to follow Kira's orders and initiate the tachyon burst; both the gate above the planet and the one on the surface deactivate.
Kira, with only 2 hours left before she succumbs to the radiation, gets a notification on her tricorder that indicates a gate has opened nearby. She trudges through the desert, collapsing from heat exhaustion multiple times, but makes it to the gate; it flashes back and forth between DS9 and the realm of the Prophets. Before she can choose when to enter, it closes. Her skin covered in blisters, and she is certain she's going to die.
Ro and Quark try to escape through the gateway near them, and it closes. The Orions see them and begin pursuit.
Taran'atar shrouds and stalks the Hirogen until he finds the right moment to attack; then stabs him in the face with his blade, causing it to drop its rifle. This doesn't kill it however, and they engage in a protracted fight, with the larger, faster foe constantly attacking Taran'atar with an arm-mounted blade. The Hirogen eventually manages to stab Taran'atar through the arm, and Taran'atar retaliates with another stab to its face. Eventually, he maneuvers it into stabbing a console, and while it's stuck, Taran'atar goes for it's dropped rifle; however, it breaks free and tackles him at the last second, then drives it's broken blade into Taran'atar's chest.
Kam tells Gen to get the gateways back online before the Orions discover their deception.
Malic checks his pockets for his padd and finds it gone. He puts out a bounty of 100 bars of gold-pressed latinum to anyone who gets it back, then goes to ask the Iconians why all the gates are offline. Shortly into their discussion, the gateways reboot and come back online, but the Orions are able to crack the communications between the Iconians onboard and their ship.
Quark manages to break the Iconian's codes as well; they intercept their com chatter and learn that they're not Iconians at all, but a race called the Petraw.
Malic tells the Iconian named Kam that he's a charlatan, and orders him and Gaila to be killed. Kam says he's been in subvocal communication with his ship, and that they will destroy Malic's ship.
Ro takes the flitter through the gate, and Quark beams Gaila off the Orion ship, right before it's destroyed by the Petraw vessel--which itself is nowhere to be seen. Quark says Gaila owes him another life debt as they head back to DS9.
The last of the Europani are evacuated from the planet and a cheer goes up; Prynn even smiles at her dad. Vaughn orders Lt. Bowers to stay behind and listen for a transmission from Kira while the refugees are taken to DS9 and Bajor. Vaughn asks Macet why he came to help, and The gul recalls the time that the Enterprise helped him track down former Starfleet Captain Ben Maxwell, who went rogue, destroying Cardassians ships. He says Maxwell was actually correct that the Cardassians were smuggling weapons, and that Picard knew it too, but decided to keep the peace anyway. He says the Cardassians need to work with their neighbors if they ever want to return to their former glory, and hopes this can be the first step.
Quark's partner Deru on Cardassia Prime receives a house call from a notorious former member of the Obsidian Order, Garak.
Back on the station, Treir complains to Ro that thanks to Ro taking her hostage, she's given up a life of luxury for no life at all. Quark says he has a perfect solution: she can work as a dabo girl at his bar. As they're walking away, Treir tells Ro the encryption algorithm for Malic's padd. Back in his bar, Quark receives a terrifying message: Garak says Ro kindly pointed him in the direction of Quark's friend Deru, who has unfortunately and suddenly fallen on hard times. He says Deru tried to blame Quark for his illicit dealings, but Ro vouched for him. He says they can talk about it at a later date.
The Hirogen pulls his blade out of Taran'atar's chest and is just about to leave for an escape pod when Taran'atar kills him with his own rifle. The computer detects a weak Bajoran lifesign on a nearby planet, but then it winks out. Taran'atar makes it to an escape pod and back through the gate, where he's picked up by Bowers. Taran'atar tells them that Kira is dead, then collapses.
The gateway opens back up, again flashing between DS9 and the Prophets. Knowing that she's already been exposed to a lethal amount of radiation, she makes her choice and goes through.
Review: 3.5 stars. I skipped this when reading through the DS9 stories, assuming it was a side story and not part of the ongoing continuity, so I already basically knew what was going to happen (obviously, that's my fault). The story itself was fine, but not super-captivating, and it's very lame that the ending is in book 7. There was some character growth that would've seemed less accelerated in the Mission Gamma series that follows, but really you can skip this one without missing much.
I'm curious if the other Gateways novels not set in the same time period even have anything to do with this one? Because this seemed fairly standalone.
Gamma Quadrant: Nog and Shar bring the new communications array online, reestablishing communications between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. Kira immediately summons the Defiant back to DS9 for a meeting with Admiral Ross; there is an emergency on Europa Nova, wherein massive amounts of theta radiation have suddenly been ejected into the system. As soon as they get back to the station, a message comes through the array from a civilian ship that had been on the Terran system; they have no idea how they wound up in the Gamma Quadrant. Commander Vaughn says not to worry, that they'll dispatch a runabout to lead them through the wormhole.
Kira and Vaughn attend a holoconference with many of the top Starfleet commanders and Admiral Ross, who says outfits Iconians approached the Federation Council. Captain Picard explains that the Iconians lived over 200 millennia ago, with their home planet being in the Romulan Neutral Zone. They invented gateways that would allow instantaneous travel across light-years. The Iconians have offered up their gateway technology to the highest bidder, and as a demonstration, they've activated all of them. Montgomery Scott, head of the SCE, says studies show that the gateways, once they've expended their energy, will tap into any nearby sources for power--including stars and planets.
For some reason, the wormhole seems to be preventing any gateways from opening with 10 lightyears, so Kira and Vaughn are tasked with researching why. Vaughn had previous experience with a gateway in a classified mission. Ross says the Intrepid and the Gryphon are en route to DS9 to assist with the Europa Nova disaster. The Bajorans are also sending a fleet, and Kassidy Yates, who is on DS9 for a checkup with Dr. Bashir, also volunteers her ship, the Xhosa, giving them about 20 ships total. They have 52 hours before the theta radiation exposure is fatal.
Vaughn tasks Nog and Shar with figuring out why there are no gateways near the wormhole, Ezri will stay on DS9, Vaughn will take the Defiant, and Kira is taking the Euphrates, with Taran'atar in tow.
Farius Prime: Malic of the Orion Syndicate has brought Quark in to negotiate with the Iconians for control of the gates. Quark is shocked to find his cousin Gaila is negotiating on behalf of the Iconians. After the initial round of talks, Quark learns from Malic that there are no gates near the whole and uses this to strengthen his bargaining position.
Someone named Kam tells another named Hig to go figure out why there are no gates by the wormhole; he says the longer the Ferengis negotiate, the higher the chance of the illusion slipping.
Shar and Nog run all the scans they can, without finding a correlation between the wormhole and the lack of gateways; until they realize that a gateway actually has opened with 10 lightyears on the Game Quadrant side. Shar then remembers the Denorios Belt is know for its heavy tachyon eddies, and they surmise that that is what's preventing the gates. They report their findings to Ezri, and just as they're about to return to DS9, they're attacked by an unknown, much larger, ship that knocks out their shields and disables them.
Kira arrives at Europa Nova and speaks with their president, Silverio Grazia, who says they've already evacuated the planet's children. She says Councilor zh'Thane is there, and should be evac'ed next, so Kira has her beamed aboard the Defiant. She says after everyone is evacuated, they'll devise a way to restore the planet. Taran'atar doesn't understand why they care about the planet, as they can just find a new one; Kira explains that it's because it's their home. He says for the Jem'Hadar, their unit is home, not a planet. She can tell he was affected by his trip to Sindoren.
The Defiant detects a gateway on the planet, in a coastal town named Costa Rocosta. Vaughn goes to check it out and finds that it leads to Torona IV, home of a rather xenophobic species called the Jarada. Kira tells Vaughn he just negotiate with them to harbor Europani citizens, as the ships won't be able to transport them in time. Though they will not allow it at first, Vaughn eventually convinces them to let 500,000 people through for the exchange of information about the gates--though they say that if anyone strays from the allotted zone, or more than the agreed upon number come through, they will be executed. Vaughn agrees to the terms.
Just as the runabout Sungari is about to explode, the Defiant arrives and destroys the unknown enemy ship. They beam Nog and Shar aboard just as the runabout's core breaches. Shar runs into his zhavey, she Vretha says that after the crisis is over, they need to talk.
A large, irradiated meteorite comes through the gate, and Kira uses her roundabout's tractor beam to divert it from a population center into a once thriving lake. She gets a message from Vaughn saying that Shar and Nog have modified the Defiant's deflector to emit a tachyon burst that should disable all gateways of used on just one of them. She punts the decision to Admiral Ross, and in the meantime, decides to go through the gate to stop the radiation at the source. However, the Cardassian ship Trager arrives in the system, and when she hails them, she is greeted by the face of Dukat.
Kam receives a report that Higs's ship was destroyed while attacking the Starfleet vessel. Kam says the Orion deal is still in negotiations, and that it's orders of magnitude better than all other offers.
Quark is hoping to draw the negotiations to a close, but Gaila tells the Orions that Quark is working to stall their talks on behalf of Starfleet so his nephew Nog can close the gates. Malic says if Quark doesn't tell him the truth, he's dead, so Quark tells him that he is working for Starfleet. Malic tells his guards to kill him anyway.
Gul Macet explains to Kira that he is Dukat's cousin, and that he's here to help; he says his ship is in such bad shape because he was helping Damar's resistance destroy the cloning facilities on Rondac III. She reluctantly agrees to his help, and says that since his ship is equipped with more advanced Dominion transporters, he should begin beaming up survivors; he says Cardassians will likely not be welcomed by the Europani, as they have a "history." Kira contacts President Silverio who is vehemently against their help; she says the asteroid belt in their system used to be a planet that the Cardassians destroyed. Kira eventually gets her to relent by telling her that a lot of people may die without their help.
Ezri gets a call from Dr. Renhol of the Trill Symbiosis Commission, who she's supposed to contact weekly--but hasn't for 6 weeks now. The doctor is concerned to find that Ezri has switched to the command track without consulting them, but Ezri writes her off and says that with the ongoing crisis, she doesn't have time to talk. While making the rounds, she finds herself switching personas and screaming at a Europani woman, and thinks that maybe the doctor had a point--but chocks it up to not having slept for 50 hours.
Ezri rounds a corner and overhears Shar arguing with his zhavey Vretha, who wants him to return to Andor. He tells her that he's working another angle on their dying species, and that he will not. Shar turns and runs straight into Ezri. Vretha blows her off, and Shar says that she may try to get Vaughn to reassign him to Andor; Ezri says she doubts that would happen, but Shar says she doesn't know the extent of his zhavey's influence.
Kira and Taran'atar travel through the gate and find the ship dumping waste through it. They hail it, but are met with weapons fire that knocks out their shields. Kira awakens aboard the enemy vessel to find its crew cut into pieces, and a Hirogen says only "prey" to her.
Just as Malic is about to kill Quark, his dabo girl Tamra, who is actually Ro Laren, throws one of her waist tassels on the ground, detonating a flash grenade, and they make a run for it.
Quark had approached Ro weeks before, asking for help with the Orions, afraid that they would rat him out to Garak; Quark has been working with a Cardassian named Deru to illegally divert relief supplies to wealthy patrons in exchange for land. She agrees to help Quark, but only if he helps her infiltrate the Orion Syndicate; otherwise, she's going to tell both Starfleet and Garak about what he's been doing.
Ro takes an Orion slave girl named Treir hostage, and they use her to get past a squadron of Orions, who would never sacrifice such valuable merchandise. Ro activates a beacon and they're beamed onto a Bajoran Militia flitter near Farius Prime's innermost moon. Ro reveals that she also nabbed Malic's padd when she threw the flash grenade, so the evidence against Quark is theirs--unless he made a backup.
The Hirogen tells Kira that she is bait for the other from her ship; just then Taran'atar unshrouds and attacks him. He and Kira flee, trying to find their way to the transporters. Along the way, they stumble across the ship's shield enhancer, which is similar to those that Bajoran ships used; Kira says they need to take it to shield their runabout against the enormous mass of radiation about to go through the gate. Taran'atar beams her back to their ship, resolved to stay behind to fight the Hirogen. Right before, he tells her that he thought his gods had cast him out, but he was wrong.
Back on the Euphrates, Kira finds that the enhancer won't have enough power unless she shuts down life support, so she records a message explaining that she's going to a nearby class M planet, sending the shuttle on autopilot through the gate to shield against the radiation, and tells them to close the gate on her if they find a way to. The shuttle drops her off near a lake, but the planet is mostly a desert. She begins building a shelter as the radiation starts to poison the sky.
Vaughn gets a report from Costa Rocosta that a Europani is holding people and 6 cases of radiation meds hostage, demanding that he and his family be allowed through the gate to Torona IV. Vaughn goes down to the surface and negotiates with the man, who is terrified of space travel. With little time to lose, Vaughn simply stuns him with a phaser, then tells Bashir to make sure the man stays sedated for his trip to space. Back on the Defiant Vaughn tells Nog to follow Kira's orders and initiate the tachyon burst; both the gate above the planet and the one on the surface deactivate.
Kira, with only 2 hours left before she succumbs to the radiation, gets a notification on her tricorder that indicates a gate has opened nearby. She trudges through the desert, collapsing from heat exhaustion multiple times, but makes it to the gate; it flashes back and forth between DS9 and the realm of the Prophets. Before she can choose when to enter, it closes. Her skin covered in blisters, and she is certain she's going to die.
Ro and Quark try to escape through the gateway near them, and it closes. The Orions see them and begin pursuit.
Taran'atar shrouds and stalks the Hirogen until he finds the right moment to attack; then stabs him in the face with his blade, causing it to drop its rifle. This doesn't kill it however, and they engage in a protracted fight, with the larger, faster foe constantly attacking Taran'atar with an arm-mounted blade. The Hirogen eventually manages to stab Taran'atar through the arm, and Taran'atar retaliates with another stab to its face. Eventually, he maneuvers it into stabbing a console, and while it's stuck, Taran'atar goes for it's dropped rifle; however, it breaks free and tackles him at the last second, then drives it's broken blade into Taran'atar's chest.
Kam tells Gen to get the gateways back online before the Orions discover their deception.
Malic checks his pockets for his padd and finds it gone. He puts out a bounty of 100 bars of gold-pressed latinum to anyone who gets it back, then goes to ask the Iconians why all the gates are offline. Shortly into their discussion, the gateways reboot and come back online, but the Orions are able to crack the communications between the Iconians onboard and their ship.
Quark manages to break the Iconian's codes as well; they intercept their com chatter and learn that they're not Iconians at all, but a race called the Petraw.
Malic tells the Iconian named Kam that he's a charlatan, and orders him and Gaila to be killed. Kam says he's been in subvocal communication with his ship, and that they will destroy Malic's ship.
Ro takes the flitter through the gate, and Quark beams Gaila off the Orion ship, right before it's destroyed by the Petraw vessel--which itself is nowhere to be seen. Quark says Gaila owes him another life debt as they head back to DS9.
The last of the Europani are evacuated from the planet and a cheer goes up; Prynn even smiles at her dad. Vaughn orders Lt. Bowers to stay behind and listen for a transmission from Kira while the refugees are taken to DS9 and Bajor. Vaughn asks Macet why he came to help, and The gul recalls the time that the Enterprise helped him track down former Starfleet Captain Ben Maxwell, who went rogue, destroying Cardassians ships. He says Maxwell was actually correct that the Cardassians were smuggling weapons, and that Picard knew it too, but decided to keep the peace anyway. He says the Cardassians need to work with their neighbors if they ever want to return to their former glory, and hopes this can be the first step.
Quark's partner Deru on Cardassia Prime receives a house call from a notorious former member of the Obsidian Order, Garak.
Back on the station, Treir complains to Ro that thanks to Ro taking her hostage, she's given up a life of luxury for no life at all. Quark says he has a perfect solution: she can work as a dabo girl at his bar. As they're walking away, Treir tells Ro the encryption algorithm for Malic's padd. Back in his bar, Quark receives a terrifying message: Garak says Ro kindly pointed him in the direction of Quark's friend Deru, who has unfortunately and suddenly fallen on hard times. He says Deru tried to blame Quark for his illicit dealings, but Ro vouched for him. He says they can talk about it at a later date.
The Hirogen pulls his blade out of Taran'atar's chest and is just about to leave for an escape pod when Taran'atar kills him with his own rifle. The computer detects a weak Bajoran lifesign on a nearby planet, but then it winks out. Taran'atar makes it to an escape pod and back through the gate, where he's picked up by Bowers. Taran'atar tells them that Kira is dead, then collapses.
The gateway opens back up, again flashing between DS9 and the Prophets. Knowing that she's already been exposed to a lethal amount of radiation, she makes her choice and goes through.
Review: 3.5 stars. I skipped this when reading through the DS9 stories, assuming it was a side story and not part of the ongoing continuity, so I already basically knew what was going to happen (obviously, that's my fault). The story itself was fine, but not super-captivating, and it's very lame that the ending is in book 7. There was some character growth that would've seemed less accelerated in the Mission Gamma series that follows, but really you can skip this one without missing much.
I'm curious if the other Gateways novels not set in the same time period even have anything to do with this one? Because this seemed fairly standalone.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 8, 2014
CAREFUL, I GIVE SOMEMILD HINTS TO THE STORY IN THIS REVIEW
This is more of a 3.5 book for me.
I generally enjoyed the first half of it. But as soon the time shift started I thought that should have been two boks on there own.
The characters are still as great as they have been for the firts three novels in the series and I did enjoy to see some of the relationships and especially friednships develop some more. ( Nog and Shar as well as Quark and Ro Laren)
The plot as I stated was really good for he first part but I thought that the second part did lose a little focus, as we are now only concentrating on one character and don't get a lot of room to take in the things that just happened. In a ddtion to that I thought that the second part could have been a lot longer, as we seem to jump forward by a couple of weeks between some of the chapters.
In conclusion I do think that this book continues to develop the characters in a way that follows the previous books and I do recommand it, just be prepared that you find the second part of it a little less engaging as the first.
This is more of a 3.5 book for me.
I generally enjoyed the first half of it. But as soon the time shift started I thought that should have been two boks on there own.
The characters are still as great as they have been for the firts three novels in the series and I did enjoy to see some of the relationships and especially friednships develop some more. ( Nog and Shar as well as Quark and Ro Laren)
The plot as I stated was really good for he first part but I thought that the second part did lose a little focus, as we are now only concentrating on one character and don't get a lot of room to take in the things that just happened. In a ddtion to that I thought that the second part could have been a lot longer, as we seem to jump forward by a couple of weeks between some of the chapters.
In conclusion I do think that this book continues to develop the characters in a way that follows the previous books and I do recommand it, just be prepared that you find the second part of it a little less engaging as the first.
April 24, 2016
This was my first time reading a DS9 book due to it being a part of the Gateways series. I like DS9 and had been planning to read the relaunch books later on (when I finish with all the Voyager ones), and this book just made me want to do that even more. I feel that the author is being true to the characters and I like the new characters as well, so this is great.
And the Gateways story continues to keep me interested. I just love the whole concept and look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series. One thing I felt that I missed in this book, though, is that Voyager didn't get to be more of a part of the story when we got a taste of the Delta Quadrant. I fully buy the fact that they had moved on from that part of space, but still, I just felt that would have been awesome if it could have been arranged since this is a crossover series after all. With that said, this book is, like I believe I already stated, great and I can highly recommend it as a part of the Gateways series/DS9 relaunch if you're into Star Trek.
And the Gateways story continues to keep me interested. I just love the whole concept and look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series. One thing I felt that I missed in this book, though, is that Voyager didn't get to be more of a part of the story when we got a taste of the Delta Quadrant. I fully buy the fact that they had moved on from that part of space, but still, I just felt that would have been awesome if it could have been arranged since this is a crossover series after all. With that said, this book is, like I believe I already stated, great and I can highly recommend it as a part of the Gateways series/DS9 relaunch if you're into Star Trek.
December 31, 2020
This volume of the larger Gateways arc was a little easier to appreciate than the previous one, probably because of the tighter story structure centered around various members of the DS9 crew. We have Quark getting contracted by the Orian Syndicate to negotiate on their behalf with the Iconians. We have Kira leading a rescue mission to evacuate Europa Nova from what turns out to be Malon (read: Voyager) antimatter waste that had been jettisoned through a gateway. And we have smaller stories centered around Nog still in Starfleet and stuff about Vaughn, the leading Starfleet representative on DS9.
I liked this book a lot - probably a lot more than the first three volumes of this crossover series. It kept the stakes at a scale that made sense to me as a reader and DeCandido did a good job of giving the different characters their spotlight moments despite all the different stories that needed to be juggled.
I liked this book a lot - probably a lot more than the first three volumes of this crossover series. It kept the stakes at a scale that made sense to me as a reader and DeCandido did a good job of giving the different characters their spotlight moments despite all the different stories that needed to be juggled.
July 17, 2009
This was a pretty good one. The author cleverly invovles alien races from the Voyager cannon in a way that is actually appropriate. The character voices and motivations ring true. It's a refreshing change of pace for a DS9 plot to involve a global disaster scenario rather than a war scenario. The pacing is good as well.
Of course, since the last Trek movie kind of blew up this universe, it made the whole thing a little less satisfying that it would have been had I read it a year ago.
There is also a companion novella set immediately after these events by the same author called "Horn and Ivory." It is completely pointless. If you're going to write something, then reveal that it was all a dream afterwards, it had better have been a damn interesting/revealing/insightful dream. This was mundane and choppy.
Of course, since the last Trek movie kind of blew up this universe, it made the whole thing a little less satisfying that it would have been had I read it a year ago.
There is also a companion novella set immediately after these events by the same author called "Horn and Ivory." It is completely pointless. If you're going to write something, then reveal that it was all a dream afterwards, it had better have been a damn interesting/revealing/insightful dream. This was mundane and choppy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 31, 2012
This is an excellent entry in the "Gateways" line of books and a very good entry in the Deep Space Nine relaunch series. As with all the Gateways books, this one annoyingly ends on a cliffhanger to be continued in the final book. The novel does pick up where The Next Generation's book finished, only without the resolution to the before-mentioned cliffhanger. The makers of the gateways are "unmasked" the numbers of chaotic events happening is increasing with in numbers and severity. In this case, the crew of DS9 are responding to one such case involving people from the Delta Quadrant affecting people in the Alpha Quadrant through a gateway without realizing it. The book further fleshes out many characters while continuing the story lines introduced in previous relaunch novels. Highly recommended.
October 31, 2018
Much better writing than the previous novel. The fact that this ties into the ongoing DS9 relaunch helps, as there's much more of a sense of progression and things going on in the background, as well as an investment in the events.
The story is also pretty good fun. The "gateways" crisis doesn't affect Deep Space Nine and the Bajoran system in the same way as other places, so we spend most of the book with the crew helping to evacuate a planet. This allows for some particularly strong character moments for Kira, as well as Commander Vaughn whom we're still getting to know at this point.
The stuff with Quark negotiating with the Iconians is maybe a bit less interesting, but ends up going to some fun places. Likewise, the background plot with Ezri feels unnecessarily squashed in amongst all the other happenings, especially since it gets so little resolution here.
The story is also pretty good fun. The "gateways" crisis doesn't affect Deep Space Nine and the Bajoran system in the same way as other places, so we spend most of the book with the crew helping to evacuate a planet. This allows for some particularly strong character moments for Kira, as well as Commander Vaughn whom we're still getting to know at this point.
The stuff with Quark negotiating with the Iconians is maybe a bit less interesting, but ends up going to some fun places. Likewise, the background plot with Ezri feels unnecessarily squashed in amongst all the other happenings, especially since it gets so little resolution here.
January 18, 2016
Average Star Trek novel has as its primary interest the building up of the new post-television DS9 cast. The first half is concerned with the relatively smooth evacuation of a planet which reads like a procedural with some character moments, but nothing very exciting. The plot points involving the gates and the Iconians are all baggage from the Gateways miniseries and it doesn't feel very organic to DS9. Several characters log in some parental conflicts in the story, but most interesting is Ezri's worsening symbiont issues. Quark and Ro have a nice B-story that kicks in just about the same time the action finally starts with Kira and her Jem Hadar 'BFF' through the gate. The cliffhanger ending is sure to entice the reader to look for the next part.
March 12, 2012
A nice, solid entry in the Gateways series, but I definitely appreciate this novel more for its continuation of the story of Deep Space Nine than for the Petraw story. Seeing the DS9 characters come together to save the Europa Nova colony is a great story, and let us be honest, seeing a Jem'Hadar face off against a Hirogen is pretty darn cool. Great writing that kept me engrossed through the ending (which, of course, is a cliffhanger to be resolved in What Lay Beyond).
Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2012/03/d...
Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2012/03/d...
June 27, 2018
Meh. A little bit more on Shar's background. What's seemingly a fun idea to take on the Gateways (they start throwing people everywhere & causing chaos, and it's a little like Marvel's Acts of Vengeance in that one show's bad guys are leashed on another show's good guys) becomes a boring plod when Kira and Tar'an'tar (sp?) take on the Hirogen. Great idea, but the Hirogen are dull as paint.
Mostly just ... kind of a big yawn. I'm not sure why the Star Trek crossover ideas always SOUND fun, then just ... aren't.
Mostly just ... kind of a big yawn. I'm not sure why the Star Trek crossover ideas always SOUND fun, then just ... aren't.
July 24, 2018
A worthy read
Even tho lots of characters moved on, DS9's relaunch novels can be good. This one is worth reading, whether you're reading it for the Gateways series or just for DS9. Cliffhanger, need book 7 for the conclusion.
Even tho lots of characters moved on, DS9's relaunch novels can be good. This one is worth reading, whether you're reading it for the Gateways series or just for DS9. Cliffhanger, need book 7 for the conclusion.
September 12, 2011
My least favorite of the Gateways series, though that might have something to do with the fact that I wasn't much of a fan of the relaunched DS9 series, or of the Hirogen.
November 4, 2011
Star Trek. Deep Space Nine. What more could you possibly want? :)
September 11, 2015
A well-written book held down by a ludicrously absurd premise from a couple of not-great TNG episodes.
March 29, 2023
This book continues the Deep Space 9 “relaunch”, i.e., the “eighth” season of the TV series, while simultaneously fitting into the seven-book “Gateways” mini-series that combines all of the extant Trek series going at the time. The events in the book occur just a few days after the events in Abyss by David Weddle & Jeffrey Lang. The “Gateways” crossover books all occur more or less simultaneously (except for the one concerning the original series crew). Gateways are alien transporters almost identical in function to the Stargates of Stargate SG-1 and its spinoffs. To fully understand what's going on the reader should read the previous DS9 relaunch novels, but not necessarily the other “Gateways” novels.
DeCandido does a good job of advancing the DS9 story while not delving too deeply into the Gateways side of things that he was forced to shoehorn into it. The action is triggered by the Gateways crisis, but it's really just a McGuffan to put the characters into peril—in other words, the “adversary of the week”. For example, Kira leads a planet-wide evacuation due to lethal radiation leaking from a Gateway, and Quark leads negotiations for the Orion Syndicate who are trying to gain control of the Gateways from some other aliens (which turns out to be a scam, anyway).
The Kira sections are full of tense action and the Quark sections are lighthearted, very much in the spirit of the TV series. Most of the DS9 regulars make at least token appearances, but some like Bashir, who was featured in the previous novel, Abyss, don't get much stage time. There are also some interesting cameos by characters from Next Generation, such as Gul Macet, the cousin of DS9 villain Gul Dukat, played by the same actor.
The novel ends with a huge cliffhanger, to be continued in the “Horn and Ivory” novella in What Lay Beyond, the seventh book of the “Gateways” crossover. What Lay Beyond contains the final 50 to 130 pages of each of the previous six “Gateways” books, a crass marketing attempt at getting readers to buy another book if they want to read the conclusion of the book they're interested in. I skipped the other sections in What Lay Beyond. “Horn and Ivory” sees Kira passing through one of the Gateways, going not only through space, but also 30,000 years into the past of Bajor, her home planet. Nowhere in the previous novel was there any hint that the Gateways were capable of time travel, but there you go. Kira lands in the middle of an ancient civil war, using her leadership and battle skills to help one of the sides. But the ending is virtually akin to the tired trope of “and then she woke up”, making the whole thing close to pointless. Maybe in subsequent books the experience will shade some of her thinking, but I won't hold my breath.
What Lay Beyond also contains an extensive Star Trek chronology, covering all the TV episodes and novelizations up to its print date
DeCandido does a good job of advancing the DS9 story while not delving too deeply into the Gateways side of things that he was forced to shoehorn into it. The action is triggered by the Gateways crisis, but it's really just a McGuffan to put the characters into peril—in other words, the “adversary of the week”. For example, Kira leads a planet-wide evacuation due to lethal radiation leaking from a Gateway, and Quark leads negotiations for the Orion Syndicate who are trying to gain control of the Gateways from some other aliens (which turns out to be a scam, anyway).
The Kira sections are full of tense action and the Quark sections are lighthearted, very much in the spirit of the TV series. Most of the DS9 regulars make at least token appearances, but some like Bashir, who was featured in the previous novel, Abyss, don't get much stage time. There are also some interesting cameos by characters from Next Generation, such as Gul Macet, the cousin of DS9 villain Gul Dukat, played by the same actor.
The novel ends with a huge cliffhanger, to be continued in the “Horn and Ivory” novella in What Lay Beyond, the seventh book of the “Gateways” crossover. What Lay Beyond contains the final 50 to 130 pages of each of the previous six “Gateways” books, a crass marketing attempt at getting readers to buy another book if they want to read the conclusion of the book they're interested in. I skipped the other sections in What Lay Beyond. “Horn and Ivory” sees Kira passing through one of the Gateways, going not only through space, but also 30,000 years into the past of Bajor, her home planet. Nowhere in the previous novel was there any hint that the Gateways were capable of time travel, but there you go. Kira lands in the middle of an ancient civil war, using her leadership and battle skills to help one of the sides. But the ending is virtually akin to the tired trope of “and then she woke up”, making the whole thing close to pointless. Maybe in subsequent books the experience will shade some of her thinking, but I won't hold my breath.
What Lay Beyond also contains an extensive Star Trek chronology, covering all the TV episodes and novelizations up to its print date
January 11, 2024
Das vierte Buch der Fortsetzung der TV-Serie als Romane und der zweite hintereinander, der Teil eines Crossovers mit anderen Star Trek Reihen ist.
Das Buch bietet viel zu viele Einzelschauplätze um wirklich eine runde Story liefern können, trotzdem gibt es viele spannende Charaktermomente die die Geschichte sehr lesenswert machen. Das Lob gebührt hier dem Autor, diesen Spagat gemeistert zu haben. Das hier ein Teil eines Crossovers vorliegt merkt man eigentlich erst, wenn das Buch vorbei ist und die Problematik mit den Gateways noch nicht abgeschlossen ist. Wichtig für den Genuss der Deep Space Nine Fortsetzung ist das eigentlich nicht. Schwerer wiegt dabei die Tatsache, dass Kiras Teil der Geschichte, der für die Gateways irrelevant, für DS9 jedoch ziemlich wichtig erscheint, am Ende einfach abgebrochen wird und erst in einer Kurzgeschichte weitererzählt wird, die sich im letzten Buch des Crossovers nachlesen lässt. Ein ziemlich frecher Marketingtrick. Diese Kurzgeschichte hätte es auch durchaus verdient, ein ganzes Buch zu werden. Mittlerweile ist die Geschichte auch in einem Sammelband erhältlich, der die ersten vier neuen DS9-Bücher enthält.
Ohne diese Masche hätte das Buch wahrscheinlich 4 Sterne verdient, so gibt es einen Stern Abzug.
Das Buch bietet viel zu viele Einzelschauplätze um wirklich eine runde Story liefern können, trotzdem gibt es viele spannende Charaktermomente die die Geschichte sehr lesenswert machen. Das Lob gebührt hier dem Autor, diesen Spagat gemeistert zu haben. Das hier ein Teil eines Crossovers vorliegt merkt man eigentlich erst, wenn das Buch vorbei ist und die Problematik mit den Gateways noch nicht abgeschlossen ist. Wichtig für den Genuss der Deep Space Nine Fortsetzung ist das eigentlich nicht. Schwerer wiegt dabei die Tatsache, dass Kiras Teil der Geschichte, der für die Gateways irrelevant, für DS9 jedoch ziemlich wichtig erscheint, am Ende einfach abgebrochen wird und erst in einer Kurzgeschichte weitererzählt wird, die sich im letzten Buch des Crossovers nachlesen lässt. Ein ziemlich frecher Marketingtrick. Diese Kurzgeschichte hätte es auch durchaus verdient, ein ganzes Buch zu werden. Mittlerweile ist die Geschichte auch in einem Sammelband erhältlich, der die ersten vier neuen DS9-Bücher enthält.
Ohne diese Masche hätte das Buch wahrscheinlich 4 Sterne verdient, so gibt es einen Stern Abzug.
January 20, 2022
I was surprised how much focus this has on developing the DS9 characters. Loved Quark's involvement in the storyline and also the ticking clock of evacutating Europa Nova. It reads like a really good standalone episode and highlights how well Vaughn has settled into the world, as well as it gives us a chance to see all the characters in their new roles (and doing well with them!). Bashir is done perfectly and I really appreciate how well the reboot has recreated these people. Ro still annoys me, I see no reason for her to be here. The idea of the gateways too is interesting and I loved the Hirogen v Jem'Hadar fight, as well as the creepy rubbish ship. Too bad the ending is cut out and put in a random novella.
October 26, 2023
Star Trek Gateways #4: DS9: Demons of Air and Darkness
This book was a mixed bag to be honest, but it still had a lot of great character moments and each of the regular cast got a time to shine. Tar’tanar, Quark and Vaughn were the highlights for me. But the emergency on Europa Nova didn’t really engage me. I knew they were going to be able to save everyone and the tie in with the general Gateways felt like it was being stretched a bit in terms of credibility. But probably the best part of this book is that it still moves foward the narrative of the DS9 relaunch despite being a crossover and focuses still on the characters and not on the wider crossover as a whole. Also the idea of a Jem’Hadar fighting a Hirogen was just too much fun.
7/10
This book was a mixed bag to be honest, but it still had a lot of great character moments and each of the regular cast got a time to shine. Tar’tanar, Quark and Vaughn were the highlights for me. But the emergency on Europa Nova didn’t really engage me. I knew they were going to be able to save everyone and the tie in with the general Gateways felt like it was being stretched a bit in terms of credibility. But probably the best part of this book is that it still moves foward the narrative of the DS9 relaunch despite being a crossover and focuses still on the characters and not on the wider crossover as a whole. Also the idea of a Jem’Hadar fighting a Hirogen was just too much fun.
7/10
June 20, 2024
This book achieved what book 3 was trying to but fell flat. Here we have a case of a planet who's population is threatened by what the gateways have brought and made it a dire situation. The tension and excitement here was developed through the plot and not random vignettes which are irrelevant to the plot in general.
Kira, Quark, Nog to a point and Vaughan are where the main plot points are the central characters here and feel very much a part of what is happening with DS9 at the time.
Don't read the book cover or even look at it as I have no idea who they person beside the Hirogen is... is she supposed to be Andorian?
Best of the 3 that I have read thusfar and glad I am nearing the conclusion of this series.
Kira, Quark, Nog to a point and Vaughan are where the main plot points are the central characters here and feel very much a part of what is happening with DS9 at the time.
Don't read the book cover or even look at it as I have no idea who they person beside the Hirogen is... is she supposed to be Andorian?
Best of the 3 that I have read thusfar and glad I am nearing the conclusion of this series.
March 14, 2021
An interesting, though meandering novel in the DS9 Relaunch, “Demons of Air and Darkness” is nevertheless a fun entry in the series.
Multiple plot lines are juggled, including an evacuation of a planet and a negotiation over rights to the ancient Iconian gateways.
The book features a few fun jaunts into the Delta Quadrant, and an absolutely genius fight between our resident Jem’Hadar and a Hirogen hunter. What a great mash-up.
The only thing that stops this from being a 5-star book is that it’s obvious that it sets up future plot points that remain unresolved here as part of the “Gateways” series. As part of the DS9 Relaunch, it’s certainly acceptable.
Multiple plot lines are juggled, including an evacuation of a planet and a negotiation over rights to the ancient Iconian gateways.
The book features a few fun jaunts into the Delta Quadrant, and an absolutely genius fight between our resident Jem’Hadar and a Hirogen hunter. What a great mash-up.
The only thing that stops this from being a 5-star book is that it’s obvious that it sets up future plot points that remain unresolved here as part of the “Gateways” series. As part of the DS9 Relaunch, it’s certainly acceptable.
June 9, 2021
As expected, catching up with the DS9 crew has been the highlight of the Gateways crossover for me. Seeing the old characters work with the new and continue to gel as they tackle galaxy-wide problems in their corner of space is compelling, as always.
4.5/5 Still not the strongest crossover, but this is at least a solid Deep Space Nine entry.
4.5/5 Still not the strongest crossover, but this is at least a solid Deep Space Nine entry.
July 8, 2021
I really like DeCandido writing. I absolutely loved the Klingon books he wrote. So it goes to say I liked this one as well. Unfortunately, being part of the Gateways series it ends in a , well, a kind of cliffhanger. But if you love DS9 as I do , then yes, you will enjoy this adventure.
March 11, 2022
Beat Book In The Gateways Series
A very good read. Fast paced, lots of action, a good amount of suspense, and a cliffhanger ending…. Volume 7 is going to have a LOT to wrap up, and explain.
A very good read. Fast paced, lots of action, a good amount of suspense, and a cliffhanger ending…. Volume 7 is going to have a LOT to wrap up, and explain.
August 15, 2023
Again it's a DS9 book that read's just like watching an episode. It's fun... You'll learn a little bit more about a couple of the newer characters & it introduces some new characters too. There's even a brief appearance from an old favourite.
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