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Star Trek: Typhon Pact #1
Zero Sum Game
A spy for the Typhon Pact—a new political rival of the Federation—steals the plans for Starfleet’s newest technological advance: the slipstream drive. To stop the Typhon Pact from unlocking the drive’s secrets, Starfleet Intelligence recruits a pair of genetically enhanced agents: Dr. Julian Bashir, of station Deep Space 9, and Sarina Douglas, a woman whose talents Bashir helped bring to fruition, and whom Bashir thinks of as his long-lost true love.
Bashir and Douglas are sent to infiltrate the mysterious species known as the Breen, find the hidden slipstream project, and destroy it. Meanwhile, light-years away, Captain Ezri Dax and her crew on the U.S.S. Aventine play a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a Typhon Pact fleet that stands between them and the safe retrieval of Bashir and Douglas from hostile territory.
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 2010
About the author
David Mack
115 books641 followersDavid Mack is the New York Times bestselling author of 39 novels of science-fiction, fantasy, and adventure, including the Star Trek Destiny and Cold Equations trilogies.
Beyond novels, Mack's writing credits span several media, including television (for produced episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), games, and comic books.
Follow him on Twitter @davidalanmack or like his Facebook page.
Beyond novels, Mack's writing credits span several media, including television (for produced episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), games, and comic books.
Follow him on Twitter @davidalanmack or like his Facebook page.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews
September 4, 2023
I'm not all that familiar with Deep Space 9, but I still enjoyed this novel. However, along with the usual profanity and violence, the sex scene was rather disappointing. Discerning readers, take note.
August 6, 2022
Star Trek: Zero Sum Game is the first novel in the "Typhon Pact" line of novels. It was written by David Mack and was released in November of 2010.
David Mack has turned in several amazing books. His Destiny Trilogy is truly legendary for the scope and sheer audacity. His "The Fall" novel "Ceremony of Losses" was one of the best thematic books in Star Trek. His "A Time to" books and his "Legacies" book were both really stellar! Unfortunately, this book does not live up to the others.
Don't get me wrong, this is a perfectly fine book. David Mack used this book to set up not only the Typhon Pact storyline, but also the ongoing stories of Julian Bashir and Sarina Douglas. The action in this book is very good, and it reads like an excellent espionage thriller set in Star Trek. The problem is that it really lacks the deeper themes necessary to bring it up to the best of the best.
I love the character of Julian Bashir. He is my favorite Star Trek Post-Nemesis character, and this book sets up his eventual journey into the future with "The Fall" series and "Section 31". Unfortunately, the deeper themes about the killing he has to commit in this book are not properly explored, but rather are hinted on. Instead, Mack doesn't really explore these themes properly until the other books. As a result, this book just feels mediocre, like any Trek author might have written it, not the great David Mack.
Ezri Dax was entertaining in this novel, but most of her entertainment came from her interactions with Sam Bowers. They have a good Captain/First Officer dynamic, and I laughed out loud at a few of their interactions. I just wish there was more meat to the Aventine's story here.
The story itself felt a little rushed. The book is only 330 pages. It could have added about 100 more pages, adding a little to each storyline making it feel more complete and more thematic. Instead, it just feels like a "run-of-the-mill" action book.
The best part of the book for me is the politica/military back and forth between the Typhon Pact and the Khitomer Accords Signatories. This whole story feels very much like a reference to the Cold War, and I like how we are seeing Cold War scenarios take place in Star Trek. I still think it's handled better in "Takedown" and "The Fall”, but it's interesting here. There is still lots of opportunity within this series to reach that greatness.
David Mack has always had a sexual element to his books that I have never appreciated. He just doesn't have the writing chops to get romances right, compared with say Kiersten Beyer.
Overall, I thought this was a fine book. It was not great, but it was not bad. It sets up an interesting storyline in the Typhon Pact series, but hasn't properly gripped me. Zero Sum Game gets a 3 out of 5.
David Mack has turned in several amazing books. His Destiny Trilogy is truly legendary for the scope and sheer audacity. His "The Fall" novel "Ceremony of Losses" was one of the best thematic books in Star Trek. His "A Time to" books and his "Legacies" book were both really stellar! Unfortunately, this book does not live up to the others.
Don't get me wrong, this is a perfectly fine book. David Mack used this book to set up not only the Typhon Pact storyline, but also the ongoing stories of Julian Bashir and Sarina Douglas. The action in this book is very good, and it reads like an excellent espionage thriller set in Star Trek. The problem is that it really lacks the deeper themes necessary to bring it up to the best of the best.
I love the character of Julian Bashir. He is my favorite Star Trek Post-Nemesis character, and this book sets up his eventual journey into the future with "The Fall" series and "Section 31". Unfortunately, the deeper themes about the killing he has to commit in this book are not properly explored, but rather are hinted on. Instead, Mack doesn't really explore these themes properly until the other books. As a result, this book just feels mediocre, like any Trek author might have written it, not the great David Mack.
Ezri Dax was entertaining in this novel, but most of her entertainment came from her interactions with Sam Bowers. They have a good Captain/First Officer dynamic, and I laughed out loud at a few of their interactions. I just wish there was more meat to the Aventine's story here.
The story itself felt a little rushed. The book is only 330 pages. It could have added about 100 more pages, adding a little to each storyline making it feel more complete and more thematic. Instead, it just feels like a "run-of-the-mill" action book.
The best part of the book for me is the politica/military back and forth between the Typhon Pact and the Khitomer Accords Signatories. This whole story feels very much like a reference to the Cold War, and I like how we are seeing Cold War scenarios take place in Star Trek. I still think it's handled better in "Takedown" and "The Fall”, but it's interesting here. There is still lots of opportunity within this series to reach that greatness.
David Mack has always had a sexual element to his books that I have never appreciated. He just doesn't have the writing chops to get romances right, compared with say Kiersten Beyer.
Overall, I thought this was a fine book. It was not great, but it was not bad. It sets up an interesting storyline in the Typhon Pact series, but hasn't properly gripped me. Zero Sum Game gets a 3 out of 5.
April 20, 2012
Well, this is the lowest marking I've ever given a David Mack book and it was tough to do. Don't get me wrong, I liked the book, but I found I was able to put it down and go a few days before I picked it up again.
With that said, good story arc of Julian and looking to see more development there. Ezri? I didn't feel anything new was developed there. She was just filler, and really dragged the story down for me.
With that said, good story arc of Julian and looking to see more development there. Ezri? I didn't feel anything new was developed there. She was just filler, and really dragged the story down for me.
April 8, 2020
I just finished this book we might as well get into it. To start out with this book is a Star Trek novel. When I first started reading books regularly as a freshman in high school almost everything I read was a Star Trek novel. Reruns of Star Trek Voyager are what got me into Sci Fi in the first place so it’s only fitting. Honestly over the years I’ve had some really hit or miss experiences with them and have kind of shifted into standalone SFF books that aren’t media tie ins. But at some point last year I picked this up off the backburner of my TBR where it had sat for quite a while and began reading it. It’s part of the Typon Pact series of books, the first one actually, and I really enjoyed later books in that series so I went into it with decent expectations that at least it wasn’t going to be garbage and it definitely wasn’t that.
The main character in this book is Bashir and I haven’t watched a lot of DS9 so unlike a lot of the Next Generation novels I’ve read I didn’t go into this one with quite as much foreknowledge about his character. He’s a good POV character for the most part, having a heart in places where other characters don’t, and sort of just fumbling his way through being a special ops agent undercover. He starts out the book in a rut, still stuck on DS9 all these years later while most of his friends have moved on, and that immediately puts him in a relatable light. By the end of the novel he has to consider and follow through with several cold calculations for the mission to succeed so he has a good arc too. His relationship with Sarina is, well I don’t know how it’s portrayed in the show but here it definitely felt like Geordi-Leah 2.0 and that’s not a place you want to be if you’re a relationship in my eyes. Honestly if it wasn’t for that bit at the end, we’ll get to that later, it would have been a bigger problem but that saved it at least from the standpoint of the relationship as a whole.
Dax is in this too as a secondary POV character and she’s passable. Honestly there isn’t enough focus on the Aventine storyline in general in this book, at least if they wanted it to be the secondary main plot like it’s portrayed as in the summary on the back. They shift back a few times throughout the book but you never get a chance to really be in that storyline the way you do the main plot. It’s just window dressing and that’s fine if that’s what they were going for, but I went into this expecting more. Honestly if you’re interested in something from Dax’s perspective I’d recommend you read Brinkmanship by Una McCormack which focuses almost solely on her and the Aventine and also portrays her character better.
Federation President Bacco and Breen engineer Thot Keer get a couple chapters a piece to round out the story. Bacco’s chapters are almost completely window dressing that add nothing to the story beyond some lore tidbits and a reminder that there is a wider world beyond just the story you’re reading. I know she gets killed and all at some point in the novel canon but I’d really like to see a book centered entirely around her and her little family of a staff. Maybe that book exists somewhere out there but if it doesn’t that’s a missed opportunity. Keer’s good for getting the Breen perspective. He could be considered the antagonist in this book but he never really felt that way to me. He’s not even that unlikable of a guy and there’s a really good part in this story where he contemplates Bashir’s actions as those of a monster. Overall neither of them are in the story enough for you to get super attached though.
Let’s talk about Chot Nar though because she has a couple of POV chapters too and I definitely have something to say about how this book treated her and that whole storyline. When she was first introduced I didn’t even know what to make of her. I thought it was going to turn into one of those things where she was the main antagonist tracking them down as they went about their work. But that’s not what happened. No she’s actually a super cool person just looking to do the right thing even when she doesn’t entirely trust Bashir and Sarina when she finds out they’re Starfleet. When the book introduced the concept that she was going to try and use Bashir and Sarina as a way to get her and her dissident friends out of Breen society I made a Twitter post about how how they treated that storyline was going to have a large bearing on how much I liked this book. I didn’t have high hopes that they were going to do what I wanted because I know how these Trek books and Trek in general treats these kinds of things. And god did they not do what I wanted at all.
Did this book take the chance to break away from the typical espionage story and have a feel good story about bringing people out of an oppressive society because you grow to care about them and it’s the right thing to do? Of course it didn’t because this is Star Trek and we can’t have anything like that. No the mission and Starfleet protocol must always come first. At least this wasn’t a Prime Directive situation because that would have made things even worse. Alas, even when Bashir wants to help Sarina talks him out of it and instead we have the classic Starfleet comes in and ruins the lives of the local people who try to help them outcome. Nar deserved better than this. The Warren deserved better than this. But no, Nar practically gives herself up without a fight and is tortured into betraying everything she is. Except of course she doesn’t completely betray the Starfleet personnel who got her into this mess. No that would be a step too far and might actually complicate things for the characters that aren’t just fodder for the author to throw away when he’s done with them. She dies and Bashir and Sarina hardly notice even when they’re out of harm’s way and reflecting.
The climax was passable I suppose. A little all over the place but both Bashir and Sarina got to have their moments to go full secret agent. And then the Aventine shows up to make everything just that much easier and there’s a good battle of wills between Dax and Keer as he tries to save his prototype and she makes sure that doesn’t happen. Bashir and Sarina are retrieved without much actual drama and the story starts winding down to its final conclusion. Bashir and Sarina have their couple moment. Dax is selfless to the last. Bacco toys with the Typhon Pact ambassador. And we wind up back on DS9 as Bashir tries to return to work. It’s obvious he’s struggling in the wake of everything he had to do and he even says as much to himself. There’s a cool reversal of an ethical question regarding medically assisted suicide that was introduced at the very beginning that was neat to see. But all of that is really just setting up for the final scene.
Boy did this final scene catch me off guard in the best possible way. Sarina sits down for a debriefing with her boss from Section 31. Section 31 is always an interesting element to have in any Trek story. They’re the morally grey underbelly of the Federation that you always love and hate to see show up at the same time. And it’s revealed throughout the book that Sarina is willing to do a lot to get the mission done, kill people that don’t necessarily need killing, and sacrifice anyone who needs sacrificing up to and including herself. But this conversation with her boss reveals her whole relationship with Bashir, at least from her perspective, is a ruse to break him down morally until Section 31 can recruit him and honestly I am here for it. It’s bad enough that I have to sit through the long lost love Geordi-Leah 2.0 love story from Bashir’s perspective but if this had ended up being another Geordi/Leah situation where these books just put them together despite the problematic elements of the dude’s infatuation I would have been way more down on this book. But it’s a ruse, a ruse that Sarina is enjoying partaking in, and I want to look for the next book that deals with these two just to get more of that. I mean I do feel bad for Bashir, seeing him harden even the small amount he did in this book was tough, but it’s definitely interesting and sets up for some potential fireworks down the road.
Overall this book was good. Not the best Trek book I’ve read by any stretch of the imagination but far from the worst. Ultimately it fell victim to a lot of the same story flaws that are present in the Trek TV shows so I can’t hold that against it too harshly. And at least there weren’t any overly gratuitous sex scenes like there seem to be in a lot of Trek novels for some reason. If you’re looking for a good espionage story, which isn’t something we get a lot of in Trek, then you’ll probably enjoy this because it has that in spades. Just don’t expect it to do anything super revolutionary or outside the box with the plot because it just isn’t going to go there. Would I recommend it? Sure, if you’re a Trek fan you could definitely do worse. To the general SFF fan, eh it’s a tougher sell. Overall this wasn’t a bad way to get my 2020 reading kicked off even if I started this book last year. Fingers crossed that I can actually read more than 8 books this year because that was pitiful.
\
The main character in this book is Bashir and I haven’t watched a lot of DS9 so unlike a lot of the Next Generation novels I’ve read I didn’t go into this one with quite as much foreknowledge about his character. He’s a good POV character for the most part, having a heart in places where other characters don’t, and sort of just fumbling his way through being a special ops agent undercover. He starts out the book in a rut, still stuck on DS9 all these years later while most of his friends have moved on, and that immediately puts him in a relatable light. By the end of the novel he has to consider and follow through with several cold calculations for the mission to succeed so he has a good arc too. His relationship with Sarina is, well I don’t know how it’s portrayed in the show but here it definitely felt like Geordi-Leah 2.0 and that’s not a place you want to be if you’re a relationship in my eyes. Honestly if it wasn’t for that bit at the end, we’ll get to that later, it would have been a bigger problem but that saved it at least from the standpoint of the relationship as a whole.
Dax is in this too as a secondary POV character and she’s passable. Honestly there isn’t enough focus on the Aventine storyline in general in this book, at least if they wanted it to be the secondary main plot like it’s portrayed as in the summary on the back. They shift back a few times throughout the book but you never get a chance to really be in that storyline the way you do the main plot. It’s just window dressing and that’s fine if that’s what they were going for, but I went into this expecting more. Honestly if you’re interested in something from Dax’s perspective I’d recommend you read Brinkmanship by Una McCormack which focuses almost solely on her and the Aventine and also portrays her character better.
Federation President Bacco and Breen engineer Thot Keer get a couple chapters a piece to round out the story. Bacco’s chapters are almost completely window dressing that add nothing to the story beyond some lore tidbits and a reminder that there is a wider world beyond just the story you’re reading. I know she gets killed and all at some point in the novel canon but I’d really like to see a book centered entirely around her and her little family of a staff. Maybe that book exists somewhere out there but if it doesn’t that’s a missed opportunity. Keer’s good for getting the Breen perspective. He could be considered the antagonist in this book but he never really felt that way to me. He’s not even that unlikable of a guy and there’s a really good part in this story where he contemplates Bashir’s actions as those of a monster. Overall neither of them are in the story enough for you to get super attached though.
Let’s talk about Chot Nar though because she has a couple of POV chapters too and I definitely have something to say about how this book treated her and that whole storyline. When she was first introduced I didn’t even know what to make of her. I thought it was going to turn into one of those things where she was the main antagonist tracking them down as they went about their work. But that’s not what happened. No she’s actually a super cool person just looking to do the right thing even when she doesn’t entirely trust Bashir and Sarina when she finds out they’re Starfleet. When the book introduced the concept that she was going to try and use Bashir and Sarina as a way to get her and her dissident friends out of Breen society I made a Twitter post about how how they treated that storyline was going to have a large bearing on how much I liked this book. I didn’t have high hopes that they were going to do what I wanted because I know how these Trek books and Trek in general treats these kinds of things. And god did they not do what I wanted at all.
Did this book take the chance to break away from the typical espionage story and have a feel good story about bringing people out of an oppressive society because you grow to care about them and it’s the right thing to do? Of course it didn’t because this is Star Trek and we can’t have anything like that. No the mission and Starfleet protocol must always come first. At least this wasn’t a Prime Directive situation because that would have made things even worse. Alas, even when Bashir wants to help Sarina talks him out of it and instead we have the classic Starfleet comes in and ruins the lives of the local people who try to help them outcome. Nar deserved better than this. The Warren deserved better than this. But no, Nar practically gives herself up without a fight and is tortured into betraying everything she is. Except of course she doesn’t completely betray the Starfleet personnel who got her into this mess. No that would be a step too far and might actually complicate things for the characters that aren’t just fodder for the author to throw away when he’s done with them. She dies and Bashir and Sarina hardly notice even when they’re out of harm’s way and reflecting.
The climax was passable I suppose. A little all over the place but both Bashir and Sarina got to have their moments to go full secret agent. And then the Aventine shows up to make everything just that much easier and there’s a good battle of wills between Dax and Keer as he tries to save his prototype and she makes sure that doesn’t happen. Bashir and Sarina are retrieved without much actual drama and the story starts winding down to its final conclusion. Bashir and Sarina have their couple moment. Dax is selfless to the last. Bacco toys with the Typhon Pact ambassador. And we wind up back on DS9 as Bashir tries to return to work. It’s obvious he’s struggling in the wake of everything he had to do and he even says as much to himself. There’s a cool reversal of an ethical question regarding medically assisted suicide that was introduced at the very beginning that was neat to see. But all of that is really just setting up for the final scene.
Boy did this final scene catch me off guard in the best possible way. Sarina sits down for a debriefing with her boss from Section 31. Section 31 is always an interesting element to have in any Trek story. They’re the morally grey underbelly of the Federation that you always love and hate to see show up at the same time. And it’s revealed throughout the book that Sarina is willing to do a lot to get the mission done, kill people that don’t necessarily need killing, and sacrifice anyone who needs sacrificing up to and including herself. But this conversation with her boss reveals her whole relationship with Bashir, at least from her perspective, is a ruse to break him down morally until Section 31 can recruit him and honestly I am here for it. It’s bad enough that I have to sit through the long lost love Geordi-Leah 2.0 love story from Bashir’s perspective but if this had ended up being another Geordi/Leah situation where these books just put them together despite the problematic elements of the dude’s infatuation I would have been way more down on this book. But it’s a ruse, a ruse that Sarina is enjoying partaking in, and I want to look for the next book that deals with these two just to get more of that. I mean I do feel bad for Bashir, seeing him harden even the small amount he did in this book was tough, but it’s definitely interesting and sets up for some potential fireworks down the road.
Overall this book was good. Not the best Trek book I’ve read by any stretch of the imagination but far from the worst. Ultimately it fell victim to a lot of the same story flaws that are present in the Trek TV shows so I can’t hold that against it too harshly. And at least there weren’t any overly gratuitous sex scenes like there seem to be in a lot of Trek novels for some reason. If you’re looking for a good espionage story, which isn’t something we get a lot of in Trek, then you’ll probably enjoy this because it has that in spades. Just don’t expect it to do anything super revolutionary or outside the box with the plot because it just isn’t going to go there. Would I recommend it? Sure, if you’re a Trek fan you could definitely do worse. To the general SFF fan, eh it’s a tougher sell. Overall this wasn’t a bad way to get my 2020 reading kicked off even if I started this book last year. Fingers crossed that I can actually read more than 8 books this year because that was pitiful.
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October 30, 2010
There's a point toward the end of the book where first officer Bowers, confronted with the next crisis, half jokingly asks "never a dull moment, eh?" and the Amazing Captain Dax replies: "not if we're doing this right". I could see this doubling as an exchange between David Mack and his editor, because Zero Sum doesn't have dull moments either and very few of the quiet variety: mostly the nice introspection into Bashir's character, now that his DS9 "family" is all but shattered, with his friends and colleagues all gone into different directions and career paths.
Bashir is the focal emotional point of Zero Sum, the book that kicks off the new crossover miniseries Typhon Pact set in the Trek universe that Mack himself has reshaped with the Destiny trilogy. If you've been following the various relaunch titles of the 24th century shows (Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation especially), this book is a no-brainer: you have to read it, it's where the story goes next and it's an entertaining read that seems to set up nicely the stage for the next three books. The same goes if you've only jumped back on board Trek lit with the Destiny Trilogy (and his excellent coda, A Singular Destiny by Keith R. De Candido). As a book to pick up with only the tv shows under your belt, though, this might work less well, leaving such a reader scrambling to adjust to a different galaxy, with new characters and the old ones weighted down by much more backstory.
For the faithful, though, there's plenty of treats: Captain Ezri Dax and the Aventine crew, Federation's president Nan Bacco, the return of the "Jack Pack", a close look at the Breen and Breen society (something the tv shows never got around to), the first consequences of the new political landscape emerged after the Destiny events and the beginning of a new (and perilous) journey for Julian Bashir that draws deeply from the character's history and traits.
Bashir is the focal emotional point of Zero Sum, the book that kicks off the new crossover miniseries Typhon Pact set in the Trek universe that Mack himself has reshaped with the Destiny trilogy. If you've been following the various relaunch titles of the 24th century shows (Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation especially), this book is a no-brainer: you have to read it, it's where the story goes next and it's an entertaining read that seems to set up nicely the stage for the next three books. The same goes if you've only jumped back on board Trek lit with the Destiny Trilogy (and his excellent coda, A Singular Destiny by Keith R. De Candido). As a book to pick up with only the tv shows under your belt, though, this might work less well, leaving such a reader scrambling to adjust to a different galaxy, with new characters and the old ones weighted down by much more backstory.
For the faithful, though, there's plenty of treats: Captain Ezri Dax and the Aventine crew, Federation's president Nan Bacco, the return of the "Jack Pack", a close look at the Breen and Breen society (something the tv shows never got around to), the first consequences of the new political landscape emerged after the Destiny events and the beginning of a new (and perilous) journey for Julian Bashir that draws deeply from the character's history and traits.
September 9, 2015
Really loved this first entry in the Typhon Pact series. The BREEN are an interesting species and David Mack does an excellent job as usual.
December 1, 2021
A year after the massively destructive Borg invasion detailed in David Mack's awesomely epic Destiny trilogy, a deadly terrorist strike against the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards allows the Typhon Pact to steal the Federation's recently developed slipstream technology. The Typhon Pact themselves are a disparate group of alien governments, including the Romulan Empire, the Breen, and the Gorn, who share one common goal - to destroy the United Federation of Planets and gain total control over the Alpha Quandrant. The faster-than-warp slipstream technology, coupled with Romulan cloaking technology, could spell a quick end to Starfleet. Drafted by Starfleet Intelligence, the genetically enhanced Dr. Julian Bashir and Sarina Douglas are sent to infiltrate the Breen military and disrupt their research.
Zero Sum Game is a thrilling espionage story, and it's always fun to see Bashir play out his spy fantasies, even as he grows to regret the very real difficulties of such capers. It's this dawning realization of what being a spy and stopping the Breen slipstream project entails that gives Mack some of the strongest material to work with. Bashir's internal conflict is expertly portrayed, particularly toward the book's climax as he is forced to do some fairly awful things, and with ruthless precision, for the greater good.
Equally captivating is the B-story involving the Aventine's cat-and-mouse game with an attack group of cloaked Romulan ships stalking them along the border separating Federation and Breen space. Mostly, though, it's just a hell of a lot of fun to see Ezri Dax captain Starfleet's latest cutting-edge ship and worry her First Officer, Sam Bowers, into premature old age with some brilliant and daring maneuvers.
This first book in a series of eight (!) Typhon Pact novels serves as a promising start, and its final pages deliver one hell of a tantalizing promise for future developments sure to keep Trekkies on the edge of their seat. Now...onto book #2, Seize the Fire!
Zero Sum Game is a thrilling espionage story, and it's always fun to see Bashir play out his spy fantasies, even as he grows to regret the very real difficulties of such capers. It's this dawning realization of what being a spy and stopping the Breen slipstream project entails that gives Mack some of the strongest material to work with. Bashir's internal conflict is expertly portrayed, particularly toward the book's climax as he is forced to do some fairly awful things, and with ruthless precision, for the greater good.
Equally captivating is the B-story involving the Aventine's cat-and-mouse game with an attack group of cloaked Romulan ships stalking them along the border separating Federation and Breen space. Mostly, though, it's just a hell of a lot of fun to see Ezri Dax captain Starfleet's latest cutting-edge ship and worry her First Officer, Sam Bowers, into premature old age with some brilliant and daring maneuvers.
This first book in a series of eight (!) Typhon Pact novels serves as a promising start, and its final pages deliver one hell of a tantalizing promise for future developments sure to keep Trekkies on the edge of their seat. Now...onto book #2, Seize the Fire!
July 24, 2023
Summary: A Dessev (an unknown species) named Kazren infiltrates the Utopia Planitia shipyards, steals plans for the slipstream drive, and escapes via a Romulan vessel using an undetectable phasing cloak. President Bacco authorizes Starfleet Intelligence to do anything necessary to stop the Typhon Pact from building a slipstream drive.
Dr. Bashir is lonely on DS9, as most of his friends have moved on, and former DS9 Captain Elias Vaughn is in a vegetative state after a battle with the Borg. Bashir is summoned to Captain Ro Laren's office where he meets with a Starfleet Intelligence operative named Aldo Erdona. SI wants to send Bashir to an icy planet in Breen space where they believe the slipstream drive is being developed; he is notably suited for it because of his genetic enhancements. He reluctantly agrees.
Erdona introduces Bashir to his fellow operatives: Jack, Patrick, Lauren, and Sarina, the genetically enhanced, but deeply flawed, Jack Pack. He is resistant at first, but reluctantly agrees to work with them since they won't tell anyone else what they know, which is that they have deduced that the Breen are actually a dozen different species, all with different biological needs, and that they should be able to sneak into the shipyard by wearing Breen armor. Bashir thinks it's a terrible plan, but Sarina convinces him.
Bashir and Sarina beam over to the USS Aventine, captained by Ezri Dax. The plan is for them to board a captured Breen vessel that will be destroyed in a simulated battle, then the Breen will pick up their escape pod. Dax invites Julian to get quarters for dinner. She tries to apologize for breaking things off back on DS9, but they end up squabbling.
The Breen tractor in the escape pod. The Breen crew that rescues them says they'll drop them off at Salavat in 10 hours. The Aventine notices a sensor echo and realizes they're being tailed by a cloaked ship, possibly a Romulan warbird. Dax changes their patrol to take them closer to a known Breen hub planet.
Bashir and Sarina are dropped off at the spaceport and find the Breen city is actually underground. They can't figure out how to get a hotel room, so they break into a maintenance alcove and camp out there. After resting up, they hang out on the street to improve their suits' translation heuristics, but eventually people get suspicious and the authorities chase after them. Bashir is shot in the leg while they escape in a subway car. They blow the train and retreat into an abandoned tunnel.
Thot Keer's superiors tell him he has 4 days to make the slipstream prototype work; he says it will take considerably longer because Breen ships aren't the right shape to enter a slipstream.
After eating and healing up, they poke their heads back out, check out a public information kiosk, and decide to head towards a military comm complex.
Chot Nar notices null errors dumped out from scans of identichips by the public kiosks and finds footage of Bashir and Sarina. She decides she's going to try and capture them herself to get a promotion.
The Aventine gets a distress call that they believe is a trap, but Dax decides to investigate anyway. Romulans await to ambush them, disobeying the Pact's orders.
Nar gets the drop on Bashir and Sarina, explaining how their chips caused null values for her to track. She offers to take them to her home to fix their chips, and they agree. Once there, she takes off her helmet armor and tells them to do the the same; she is shocked, as she's never seen humans before, and Bashir is shocked at how beautiful she is. She tells them about her species, the Silwaan, and about )some of the many others that the Breen consist of. She says only the government knows individuals' species, so people are promoted based on merit alone. The government also arranges marriages. Nar says she's telling them all this because she's a civilian dissident and wants asylum from the UFP for her people.
The other Typhon Pact members have called for a vote; they want the slipstream drive data. Thot Keer says he won't be able to integrate it with Breen technology without a massive increase in resources.
The Aventine arrives to find no ship at the source of the distress call. 3 Romulan warbirds decloak and demand that Dax surrenders; she says the hell she will, and 5 Klingon ships decloak.
A friend of Nar's named Chon Min arrives and fixes Bashir and Sarina's identichips. He is suspicious of them but agrees to take them to a hidden shelter called the warren, where dozens of different Breen species mingle without their masks on. He gives them a place to stay and warns them not to reveal their faces.
The Typhon Pact sends scores of ships to mirror the Aventine's course, blocking them from getting to Salavat. Dax plans to ask the Klingons to sus out the cloaked warbirds so they can make a run for it.
Alone in their room, Bashir tells Sarina how much he missed her when she left; she says she felt the same. They make love and say they'll never be apart again.
Nar calls Bashir and tells him and Sarina to come get their new credentials. After she hangs up, she notices that her call was tapped. They meet with her at the rendezvous point and she tells them they've been made; she says to go to the Ferengi bank to get their credentials, and not to follow her her. They hear sirens shortly thereafter. After getting their credentials, Bashir wants to warn the other dissidents, but Sarina says they don't have time.
President Bacco meets with a Klingon ambassador to ask for backup, but he says Chancellor Martok has declined; they know about the Breen infiltration operation on Salavat, so the Pact must know too.
Bashir and Sarina's credentials get them into the government building with ease, until someone asks for their orders when they try to access the system. Sarina kills him, to Bashir's shock, and she accesses the location of the slipstream prototype.
They return to the warren to warn the other dissidents, but they're too late: the Breen are already rounding them up. They decide to head to the hotel in their fake credit history. Sarina decodes the data and they find the slipstream lab is 2000km away. They book a 7 hour train ride and go.
Thot Keer tells the domo he needs more 700 more people and $6B to get the slipstream done in the 3 days they have left. Both are granted, but the consequences for failure will be severe.
Dax's crew comes up with a plan to hack a Breen relay to send a fake distress signal saying the Klingons are attacking.
Bashir and Sarina arrive at a city surrounded by a massive underground lake. Their ferryman tells them there's a hiring frenzy for ship work. Bashir realizes they must make the parts here but ship them elsewhere for assembly.
After being tortured extensively, Nar gives up everything about Bashir and Sarina before she dies, except their real aliases.
Bashir and Sarina scale a tower, hack a computer, and figure out that all the parts are going to the nearby recycling center. They sneak into it via sewer tunnels, and decide the best way to figure out where the barges go is to sneak onto one inside a recycling pod. Bashir enters a pod and an alarm goes off, warning of human infiltrators on Salavat. Sarina forces his pod to go and stays behind to give him cover. She is ultimately overpowered by a squad of Breen soldiers.
Bashir's pod stops short of the Breen scow, so he has to rappel to it. He can't find a way in, so he uses his suit's magnetic clamps to cling to the hull, as it does along the water--then breaks atmosphere. Judging by the ship's trajectory, he thinks the shipyard must be hidden in the system's asteroid belt.
Sarina tells the inquisitor that she will break him before he breaks her, but the neural truncheon is much more painful than she expected. She drops a lie that there are other Starfleet infiltrators within the Breen, and he seems to buy it though. She feigns passing out, so the inquistor tells his subordinates to take her down to rest. When they undo her constraints, she grabs one of their disruptors and shoots them. She gets her suit back on and tells the inquisitor over the comm that the prisoner is awake.
The Breen scow enters the shipyard, hidden in a camoflauged asteroid. Bashir rappels in just as the docking bay doors close. He picks up some cables and blends in with the work crews. With everyone working hectically to build the prototype in time, security is lax. He makes his way to the command level, kills 2 guards, and then kills 6 engineers. They're just about to bring the ship online when an alarm goes off, saying the base's core is about to breach. Bashir inserts an optolythic rod into the Breen computer system that deletes all slipstream data and corrupts any backups. He shoots some guards on his way to an escape pod.
Sarina takes the inquisitor hostage, makes it to an interceptor, and detonates some explosives in the docking bay on her way out. Before long she is intercepted by a squad of fighter pilots.
Bashir hijacks a maintenance ship, sets the autopilot to collide with the slipstream ship, and uses a fire extinguisher to propel himself outside the asteroid base's dampening field. He triggers his emergency recall beacon.
The Aventine sees Bashir's beacon go off, so they deploy a virus to the Breen comnet that makes it look like their outer planets are being invaded by Klingons, leaving only Romulans to defend the border.
Sarina sees Bashir's beacon go off during her dogfight with Breen interceptors, so she activates hers too and heads to his position. When she runs out of fuel, she ejects herself towards him, hoping she'll make the rendezvous in time.
The Aventine arrives and Bashir tells them to stop the prototype ship from leaving the base. If they fire it's an act of war, so they use the ship's shields to stop it from exiting the asteroid. The Breen ship tries to fight back, but they don't have enough power or time. At the last moment, the Aventine drops it's shields, beams Bashir and Sarina aboard, and does a warp hop out of the way as the asteroid explodes. On the transporter pad, Bashir asks Sarina what's next and she says she'll go wherever he goes.
In Bashir's quarters, while he is asleep, a Vulcan Section 31 operative named L'Haan tells Sarina to make sure Bashir falls completely in love with her so SI can manipulate him via his romanticism. Sarina says it will be no problem.
Review: 3.5 stars. I liked the idea of the Breen being multiple species; I hope they make that canon if they're ever mentioned again in mainline Trek. I found it somewhat unbelievable that the Jack Pack would be part of Section 31, but I did like the twist at the end that Sarina is just using Bashir. Overall, the plot was fairly interesting on paper, it just never really grabbed me in practice.
Dr. Bashir is lonely on DS9, as most of his friends have moved on, and former DS9 Captain Elias Vaughn is in a vegetative state after a battle with the Borg. Bashir is summoned to Captain Ro Laren's office where he meets with a Starfleet Intelligence operative named Aldo Erdona. SI wants to send Bashir to an icy planet in Breen space where they believe the slipstream drive is being developed; he is notably suited for it because of his genetic enhancements. He reluctantly agrees.
Erdona introduces Bashir to his fellow operatives: Jack, Patrick, Lauren, and Sarina, the genetically enhanced, but deeply flawed, Jack Pack. He is resistant at first, but reluctantly agrees to work with them since they won't tell anyone else what they know, which is that they have deduced that the Breen are actually a dozen different species, all with different biological needs, and that they should be able to sneak into the shipyard by wearing Breen armor. Bashir thinks it's a terrible plan, but Sarina convinces him.
Bashir and Sarina beam over to the USS Aventine, captained by Ezri Dax. The plan is for them to board a captured Breen vessel that will be destroyed in a simulated battle, then the Breen will pick up their escape pod. Dax invites Julian to get quarters for dinner. She tries to apologize for breaking things off back on DS9, but they end up squabbling.
The Breen tractor in the escape pod. The Breen crew that rescues them says they'll drop them off at Salavat in 10 hours. The Aventine notices a sensor echo and realizes they're being tailed by a cloaked ship, possibly a Romulan warbird. Dax changes their patrol to take them closer to a known Breen hub planet.
Bashir and Sarina are dropped off at the spaceport and find the Breen city is actually underground. They can't figure out how to get a hotel room, so they break into a maintenance alcove and camp out there. After resting up, they hang out on the street to improve their suits' translation heuristics, but eventually people get suspicious and the authorities chase after them. Bashir is shot in the leg while they escape in a subway car. They blow the train and retreat into an abandoned tunnel.
Thot Keer's superiors tell him he has 4 days to make the slipstream prototype work; he says it will take considerably longer because Breen ships aren't the right shape to enter a slipstream.
After eating and healing up, they poke their heads back out, check out a public information kiosk, and decide to head towards a military comm complex.
Chot Nar notices null errors dumped out from scans of identichips by the public kiosks and finds footage of Bashir and Sarina. She decides she's going to try and capture them herself to get a promotion.
The Aventine gets a distress call that they believe is a trap, but Dax decides to investigate anyway. Romulans await to ambush them, disobeying the Pact's orders.
Nar gets the drop on Bashir and Sarina, explaining how their chips caused null values for her to track. She offers to take them to her home to fix their chips, and they agree. Once there, she takes off her helmet armor and tells them to do the the same; she is shocked, as she's never seen humans before, and Bashir is shocked at how beautiful she is. She tells them about her species, the Silwaan, and about )some of the many others that the Breen consist of. She says only the government knows individuals' species, so people are promoted based on merit alone. The government also arranges marriages. Nar says she's telling them all this because she's a civilian dissident and wants asylum from the UFP for her people.
The other Typhon Pact members have called for a vote; they want the slipstream drive data. Thot Keer says he won't be able to integrate it with Breen technology without a massive increase in resources.
The Aventine arrives to find no ship at the source of the distress call. 3 Romulan warbirds decloak and demand that Dax surrenders; she says the hell she will, and 5 Klingon ships decloak.
A friend of Nar's named Chon Min arrives and fixes Bashir and Sarina's identichips. He is suspicious of them but agrees to take them to a hidden shelter called the warren, where dozens of different Breen species mingle without their masks on. He gives them a place to stay and warns them not to reveal their faces.
The Typhon Pact sends scores of ships to mirror the Aventine's course, blocking them from getting to Salavat. Dax plans to ask the Klingons to sus out the cloaked warbirds so they can make a run for it.
Alone in their room, Bashir tells Sarina how much he missed her when she left; she says she felt the same. They make love and say they'll never be apart again.
Nar calls Bashir and tells him and Sarina to come get their new credentials. After she hangs up, she notices that her call was tapped. They meet with her at the rendezvous point and she tells them they've been made; she says to go to the Ferengi bank to get their credentials, and not to follow her her. They hear sirens shortly thereafter. After getting their credentials, Bashir wants to warn the other dissidents, but Sarina says they don't have time.
President Bacco meets with a Klingon ambassador to ask for backup, but he says Chancellor Martok has declined; they know about the Breen infiltration operation on Salavat, so the Pact must know too.
Bashir and Sarina's credentials get them into the government building with ease, until someone asks for their orders when they try to access the system. Sarina kills him, to Bashir's shock, and she accesses the location of the slipstream prototype.
They return to the warren to warn the other dissidents, but they're too late: the Breen are already rounding them up. They decide to head to the hotel in their fake credit history. Sarina decodes the data and they find the slipstream lab is 2000km away. They book a 7 hour train ride and go.
Thot Keer tells the domo he needs more 700 more people and $6B to get the slipstream done in the 3 days they have left. Both are granted, but the consequences for failure will be severe.
Dax's crew comes up with a plan to hack a Breen relay to send a fake distress signal saying the Klingons are attacking.
Bashir and Sarina arrive at a city surrounded by a massive underground lake. Their ferryman tells them there's a hiring frenzy for ship work. Bashir realizes they must make the parts here but ship them elsewhere for assembly.
After being tortured extensively, Nar gives up everything about Bashir and Sarina before she dies, except their real aliases.
Bashir and Sarina scale a tower, hack a computer, and figure out that all the parts are going to the nearby recycling center. They sneak into it via sewer tunnels, and decide the best way to figure out where the barges go is to sneak onto one inside a recycling pod. Bashir enters a pod and an alarm goes off, warning of human infiltrators on Salavat. Sarina forces his pod to go and stays behind to give him cover. She is ultimately overpowered by a squad of Breen soldiers.
Bashir's pod stops short of the Breen scow, so he has to rappel to it. He can't find a way in, so he uses his suit's magnetic clamps to cling to the hull, as it does along the water--then breaks atmosphere. Judging by the ship's trajectory, he thinks the shipyard must be hidden in the system's asteroid belt.
Sarina tells the inquisitor that she will break him before he breaks her, but the neural truncheon is much more painful than she expected. She drops a lie that there are other Starfleet infiltrators within the Breen, and he seems to buy it though. She feigns passing out, so the inquistor tells his subordinates to take her down to rest. When they undo her constraints, she grabs one of their disruptors and shoots them. She gets her suit back on and tells the inquisitor over the comm that the prisoner is awake.
The Breen scow enters the shipyard, hidden in a camoflauged asteroid. Bashir rappels in just as the docking bay doors close. He picks up some cables and blends in with the work crews. With everyone working hectically to build the prototype in time, security is lax. He makes his way to the command level, kills 2 guards, and then kills 6 engineers. They're just about to bring the ship online when an alarm goes off, saying the base's core is about to breach. Bashir inserts an optolythic rod into the Breen computer system that deletes all slipstream data and corrupts any backups. He shoots some guards on his way to an escape pod.
Sarina takes the inquisitor hostage, makes it to an interceptor, and detonates some explosives in the docking bay on her way out. Before long she is intercepted by a squad of fighter pilots.
Bashir hijacks a maintenance ship, sets the autopilot to collide with the slipstream ship, and uses a fire extinguisher to propel himself outside the asteroid base's dampening field. He triggers his emergency recall beacon.
The Aventine sees Bashir's beacon go off, so they deploy a virus to the Breen comnet that makes it look like their outer planets are being invaded by Klingons, leaving only Romulans to defend the border.
Sarina sees Bashir's beacon go off during her dogfight with Breen interceptors, so she activates hers too and heads to his position. When she runs out of fuel, she ejects herself towards him, hoping she'll make the rendezvous in time.
The Aventine arrives and Bashir tells them to stop the prototype ship from leaving the base. If they fire it's an act of war, so they use the ship's shields to stop it from exiting the asteroid. The Breen ship tries to fight back, but they don't have enough power or time. At the last moment, the Aventine drops it's shields, beams Bashir and Sarina aboard, and does a warp hop out of the way as the asteroid explodes. On the transporter pad, Bashir asks Sarina what's next and she says she'll go wherever he goes.
In Bashir's quarters, while he is asleep, a Vulcan Section 31 operative named L'Haan tells Sarina to make sure Bashir falls completely in love with her so SI can manipulate him via his romanticism. Sarina says it will be no problem.
Review: 3.5 stars. I liked the idea of the Breen being multiple species; I hope they make that canon if they're ever mentioned again in mainline Trek. I found it somewhat unbelievable that the Jack Pack would be part of Section 31, but I did like the twist at the end that Sarina is just using Bashir. Overall, the plot was fairly interesting on paper, it just never really grabbed me in practice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 6, 2011
Zero Sum Game takes place about a year after the events of A Singular Destiny and the Typhon Pact flexes its muscles by getting their hands on the schematics of the Federation's slipstream drive. What follows is some behind-enemy-lines action with Julian Bashir and his old flame, the also genetically enhanced Sarina Douglas with Ezri Dax and the USS Aventine acting as backup.
Sadly, after the extremely epic Destiny series, the plot here feels a bit flat. The focus is the infiltration of a Breen colony, which definitely makes for some nice intel on the mysterious enemy of the Federation, but that's about it. In the end the author himself adds some nice easter egg with the admiralty doubting the missing report. Especially to the end some things felt a bit rushed and "too convenient" to be plausible. But perhaps they really were (I've only read the first book of the trilogy so far), in which case I'll have to edit this review ;-)
The other focus of the whole story is Julian and how he still enjoys playing spy-games. He even has an argument about this with Ezri early on which for some reason is never really picked up again through the rest of the story. Julian always was a bit of a weird character, in my opinion: Brilliant but at the same time completely naive. That combined with him acting as a spy leads to some classic Bashir-moments where you'd love to hit him in the face ;-)
In this end this book lives from its in-depth look into Bashir's soul and how he mostly perceives espionage as this romantic James Bond-like experience, and finally some information about the Breen. For this alone it is absolutely worth a read for Star Trek fans and never gets "dull". That said, some parts of the plot still feel weird and far to convenient for the protagonists. If you can ignore these, it is a nice story fully packed with action.
Sadly, after the extremely epic Destiny series, the plot here feels a bit flat. The focus is the infiltration of a Breen colony, which definitely makes for some nice intel on the mysterious enemy of the Federation, but that's about it. In the end the author himself adds some nice easter egg with the admiralty doubting the missing report. Especially to the end some things felt a bit rushed and "too convenient" to be plausible. But perhaps they really were (I've only read the first book of the trilogy so far), in which case I'll have to edit this review ;-)
The other focus of the whole story is Julian and how he still enjoys playing spy-games. He even has an argument about this with Ezri early on which for some reason is never really picked up again through the rest of the story. Julian always was a bit of a weird character, in my opinion: Brilliant but at the same time completely naive. That combined with him acting as a spy leads to some classic Bashir-moments where you'd love to hit him in the face ;-)
In this end this book lives from its in-depth look into Bashir's soul and how he mostly perceives espionage as this romantic James Bond-like experience, and finally some information about the Breen. For this alone it is absolutely worth a read for Star Trek fans and never gets "dull". That said, some parts of the plot still feel weird and far to convenient for the protagonists. If you can ignore these, it is a nice story fully packed with action.
January 7, 2023
Starfleet got robbed! Someone posing as an unknown species (Dessev) forged credentials to work at the Utiopia Planitia shipyard on Mars and stole the plans for slipstream drive.
When evidence points to help from a phase cloaked Romulan warbird, Starfleet Intelligence gets involved. They learn that the "Dessev" was an unmasked Breen, and that the stolen plans are at a Breen facility. They want to send in two covert operatives disguised in Breen armor to destroy the plans and any prototype slipstream ship the Breen might have built. They choose Lieutenant Sarina Douglas and Dr. Julian Bashir for the job, because their enhanced physiologies enable them to react faster and endure more physical stress than other operatives.
The Aventine is assigned to transport them there and pull them out when they're ready. Captain Dax and her crew have to play cat and mouse with various Typhon Pact ships to stay in the area for a fast extraction. Meanwhile, Bashir and Douglas learn more about the Breen than anyone before them. Breen armor conceals at least a dozen different species
I enjoyed seeing in depth information about the Breen, Bashir and Douglas working together in a desperate attempt to keep slipstream away from the Typhon Pact and the Breen working with equal desperation to provide a working slipstream vessel before the other members of the Pact take over the process.
When evidence points to help from a phase cloaked Romulan warbird, Starfleet Intelligence gets involved. They learn that the "Dessev" was an unmasked Breen, and that the stolen plans are at a Breen facility. They want to send in two covert operatives disguised in Breen armor to destroy the plans and any prototype slipstream ship the Breen might have built. They choose Lieutenant Sarina Douglas and Dr. Julian Bashir for the job, because their enhanced physiologies enable them to react faster and endure more physical stress than other operatives.
The Aventine is assigned to transport them there and pull them out when they're ready. Captain Dax and her crew have to play cat and mouse with various Typhon Pact ships to stay in the area for a fast extraction. Meanwhile, Bashir and Douglas learn more about the Breen than anyone before them. Breen armor conceals at least a dozen different species
I enjoyed seeing in depth information about the Breen, Bashir and Douglas working together in a desperate attempt to keep slipstream away from the Typhon Pact and the Breen working with equal desperation to provide a working slipstream vessel before the other members of the Pact take over the process.
September 22, 2013
Having said I'm not particularly fond of the multi-series crossover books in the past, I still seem to have picked up the Typhon Pact books as part of my journey back into written Trek for 2013.
DS9 was my least favourite series (which is not to say that there weren't some great episodes), so I wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did. I know I keep complaining that I'm tired of the fate of the universe, or at least the Federation, hanging on the plot, and maybe that's why I enjoyed it as much as I did. This was a simple, straight forward covert operations mission. Find and infiltrate the enemy stronghold, get back the stolen plans, blow up the prototype, and get out.
The problem being that Dr. Bashir is one of those covert agents. Genetic enhancements notwithstanding, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to send a doctor on a mission to kill and destroy, regardless of how impressive his capabilities might be. Sure, we've paired him with someone who has the covert ops training, but that someone also happens to be a previous love interest who he's still in love with and it almost seems like he's just going along with everything in order to impress her. I never quite believe that he's into the whole secret agent thing, and I don't think he does, either.
Still, it's a quick read and helps push the envelope towards the next big war we're supposed to think is coming.
DS9 was my least favourite series (which is not to say that there weren't some great episodes), so I wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did. I know I keep complaining that I'm tired of the fate of the universe, or at least the Federation, hanging on the plot, and maybe that's why I enjoyed it as much as I did. This was a simple, straight forward covert operations mission. Find and infiltrate the enemy stronghold, get back the stolen plans, blow up the prototype, and get out.
The problem being that Dr. Bashir is one of those covert agents. Genetic enhancements notwithstanding, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to send a doctor on a mission to kill and destroy, regardless of how impressive his capabilities might be. Sure, we've paired him with someone who has the covert ops training, but that someone also happens to be a previous love interest who he's still in love with and it almost seems like he's just going along with everything in order to impress her. I never quite believe that he's into the whole secret agent thing, and I don't think he does, either.
Still, it's a quick read and helps push the envelope towards the next big war we're supposed to think is coming.
February 9, 2014
Loved the book, bit of a weak start to the Typhon Pact series, given how important it is to the Star Trek universe as a whole. Loved seeing Bashir back in action, though. He was always one of my favourite Deep Space Nine characters, and my favourite of the doctors of all the series (movie, series AND novels). Already reading Seize The Fire!
August 1, 2016
A fun read. Not one of the better Star Trek novels but it was fun to catch up with Bashir again. And learning so much about the Breen was interesting.
October 5, 2020
This book was well written, but I didn't care for the plot.
Things I liked:
-The look into Breen society was fascinating! All the details about the way they personalize their armor, why they wear the suits, the use of body language in their communication to make up for the lack of facial expressions...it was all really great to read and exactly the reason I read Star Trek novels.
-I love how competent Nar and Sarina are.
-I like the idea of Sarina joining Starfleet Intelligence. It's obvious she has fun doing it and enjoys the adrenaline rush of needing to think kn her feet and act quickly. It makes sense for her.
-The book almost, but not quite, addresses the depression Bashir has been struggling with since at least season 5. I wish they'd focused more on that, but I did like that the book explored how his shrinking support network was effecting his mental health.
-I'm glad the romance between Bashir and Sarina's seems to be a ruse on her part. Falling head over heels with someone he barely knows is in character for Bashir, but it wasn't believable for her to feel the same.
-How three dimensional and fleshed out Keer seemed. I was honestly hoping he'd survive somehow. He was made into such a sympathetic character, even naming his life's work after his lost daughter, that I expected more to happen with him.
Things I didn't like:
-The reason for recruiting Julian seemed forced; yes his genetic enhancements give him an edge over other humans, but they could have recruited a Vulcan, etc. Given the end scene I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say they had ulterior motives, but Bashir should have seen through that excuse.
-The way Bashir seems to look down on the "Jack Pack." I can understand him being uncomfortable, knowing how easily he could be in their situation, but the contempt seemed over the top and ableist.
-Bashir seems whiny and incompetent in some scenes. Whiny isn't entirely out of character, but it seemed excessive.
-The relationship between Bashir and Sarina was creepy and unethical in DS9 and I'm disappointed that it's back.
-The way Ezri treats her crew seems a bit callous at times. It would feel more honest from Jadzia, but given Ezri's training as a counselor I'd expect her to think more about how her words or actions effect her crew.
-The completely unnecessary sex scene.
-Nar's torture and death, and how it seems largely forgotten after the plot moves on.
-This book makes the Federation look kind of evil. That might have been intentional, but it was to the point where I was sort of rooting for the Breen. Putting out fake news reports, authorizing the deaths of civilians...it definitely doesn't live up to the lofty ideals Star Trek stands for. It maybe would have read better if the mission was to destroy a weapon, instead of a new type of ship.
-Bashir and Sarina get the Breen dissidents arrested, and some of them killed, and it doesn't come up again once the plot moves on. I'm hoping future books show what happened to them.
Things I liked:
-The look into Breen society was fascinating! All the details about the way they personalize their armor, why they wear the suits, the use of body language in their communication to make up for the lack of facial expressions...it was all really great to read and exactly the reason I read Star Trek novels.
-I love how competent Nar and Sarina are.
-I like the idea of Sarina joining Starfleet Intelligence. It's obvious she has fun doing it and enjoys the adrenaline rush of needing to think kn her feet and act quickly. It makes sense for her.
-The book almost, but not quite, addresses the depression Bashir has been struggling with since at least season 5. I wish they'd focused more on that, but I did like that the book explored how his shrinking support network was effecting his mental health.
-I'm glad the romance between Bashir and Sarina's seems to be a ruse on her part. Falling head over heels with someone he barely knows is in character for Bashir, but it wasn't believable for her to feel the same.
-How three dimensional and fleshed out Keer seemed. I was honestly hoping he'd survive somehow. He was made into such a sympathetic character, even naming his life's work after his lost daughter, that I expected more to happen with him.
Things I didn't like:
-The reason for recruiting Julian seemed forced; yes his genetic enhancements give him an edge over other humans, but they could have recruited a Vulcan, etc. Given the end scene I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say they had ulterior motives, but Bashir should have seen through that excuse.
-The way Bashir seems to look down on the "Jack Pack." I can understand him being uncomfortable, knowing how easily he could be in their situation, but the contempt seemed over the top and ableist.
-Bashir seems whiny and incompetent in some scenes. Whiny isn't entirely out of character, but it seemed excessive.
-The relationship between Bashir and Sarina was creepy and unethical in DS9 and I'm disappointed that it's back.
-The way Ezri treats her crew seems a bit callous at times. It would feel more honest from Jadzia, but given Ezri's training as a counselor I'd expect her to think more about how her words or actions effect her crew.
-The completely unnecessary sex scene.
-Nar's torture and death, and how it seems largely forgotten after the plot moves on.
-This book makes the Federation look kind of evil. That might have been intentional, but it was to the point where I was sort of rooting for the Breen. Putting out fake news reports, authorizing the deaths of civilians...it definitely doesn't live up to the lofty ideals Star Trek stands for. It maybe would have read better if the mission was to destroy a weapon, instead of a new type of ship.
-Bashir and Sarina get the Breen dissidents arrested, and some of them killed, and it doesn't come up again once the plot moves on. I'm hoping future books show what happened to them.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 18, 2021
I never would've guessed how difficult it is to find a Trek story arc that I could get behind right out of the gate. Don't get me wrong, Zero Sum Game (ZSG) isn't a bad book, and the concept of the Typhon Pact is quite interesting, but the series overall was little more than a blip on the ST radar, and while ZSG had its moments it's largely forgettable.
SPOILERS!! - ZSG is pretty straightforward; the Pact steals the slipstream drive plans and Starfleet wants it back before they can do anything with it. Since Bashir has undergone genetic enhancements he's teamed up with Sarina Douglas. While it was great to see her again, I don't at all buy that in the few years since we saw her last she's gone from a botched enhanced patient, to a researcher, and is now superspy on par with Jason Bourne.
Where this book shines is the look into Breen culture... a first (and possibly last?) in Trek. This was absolutely fascinating to me! It's just too bad none of it appeared in the shows or movies, and we can get some visuals. The way the mission went was also well done for the most part.
There's a fair number of reviews that mention the torture scenes, and a few pointing out the swear words. Torture isn't new to Star Trek. The mirror universe had the agony booths, Klingons had a few prison camps as well as the pain sticks, LaForge was tortured by Romulans, Picard by Cardassians... Although the first (of two) scenes could've been implied instead of detailed this didn't really bother me because it was a believable situation, offering more insight for the Breen. Cursing is also not new to Trek; however in ZSG it seemed ridiculously out of place. In the past swearing was used for laughs, here it felt like a kid just heard the words and is throwing them in wherever to sound 'cool'.
My main gripe is with the characters. None of them really feel genuine, and when did it become standard to have half acting sarcastic/snarky? Peter David pulled off sarcastic characters very well, but his books only had one or two people with that personality. It also doesn't make sense to have such a gruff Federation President who complains about ailments that should've long been treated/cured.
I like David Mack as an author, I've even read a few of his non-ST books. He does action and suspense quite well. Unfortunately his characters aren't that great, especially if they're pre-established. Somewhere along the line Mack seems to have been given carte blanche regarding Bashir and spy stories in Trek, and maybe it's just me but the tone of his books appear to be copied in modern ST. ZSG is largely just another move toward making ST less trek-like. I get making such a large franchise more accessible, but the cost is turning it into something unrecognizable.
SPOILERS!! - ZSG is pretty straightforward; the Pact steals the slipstream drive plans and Starfleet wants it back before they can do anything with it. Since Bashir has undergone genetic enhancements he's teamed up with Sarina Douglas. While it was great to see her again, I don't at all buy that in the few years since we saw her last she's gone from a botched enhanced patient, to a researcher, and is now superspy on par with Jason Bourne.
Where this book shines is the look into Breen culture... a first (and possibly last?) in Trek. This was absolutely fascinating to me! It's just too bad none of it appeared in the shows or movies, and we can get some visuals. The way the mission went was also well done for the most part.
There's a fair number of reviews that mention the torture scenes, and a few pointing out the swear words. Torture isn't new to Star Trek. The mirror universe had the agony booths, Klingons had a few prison camps as well as the pain sticks, LaForge was tortured by Romulans, Picard by Cardassians... Although the first (of two) scenes could've been implied instead of detailed this didn't really bother me because it was a believable situation, offering more insight for the Breen. Cursing is also not new to Trek; however in ZSG it seemed ridiculously out of place. In the past swearing was used for laughs, here it felt like a kid just heard the words and is throwing them in wherever to sound 'cool'.
My main gripe is with the characters. None of them really feel genuine, and when did it become standard to have half acting sarcastic/snarky? Peter David pulled off sarcastic characters very well, but his books only had one or two people with that personality. It also doesn't make sense to have such a gruff Federation President who complains about ailments that should've long been treated/cured.
I like David Mack as an author, I've even read a few of his non-ST books. He does action and suspense quite well. Unfortunately his characters aren't that great, especially if they're pre-established. Somewhere along the line Mack seems to have been given carte blanche regarding Bashir and spy stories in Trek, and maybe it's just me but the tone of his books appear to be copied in modern ST. ZSG is largely just another move toward making ST less trek-like. I get making such a large franchise more accessible, but the cost is turning it into something unrecognizable.
January 18, 2016
Star Trek: Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game is a spy novel. A very unusual spy novel. The premise is something which, adjusted to an Earth setting, could be the basis of a James Bond movie. The Typhon Pact (Soviets) have stolen the secrets of the Slipstream Drive (submarine plans) and are assembling their own prototype in a secret shipyards (unchanged). Julian Bashir (Bond) is recruited by Starfleet Intelligence (SIS/MI6) to sabotage this project.
Furthermore, because the Typhon Pact killed Federation citizens in their theft, Bashir (Bond) has carte blanche to use lethal force in the process. Bashir is even allied with a beautiful female agent for the duration of his mission. About the only thing which doesn't happen during this mission is Bashir sleeping with the beautiful silver-haired dissident.
One of the early misapprehensions of the Typhon Pact was that it was going to be the Legion of Doom or a kind of Reagan-era view of the Soviet Union. The Tholians, Tzenkethi, and Breen have been portrayed as nearly universally evil while the Gorn and Romulans have had some pretty solid roles as Federation antagonists. Given Star Trek Online's transformation of the Klingon Empire into an Axis of Evil (including the Orions, Nausicans, and Gorn), you will forgive me if I assumed there would be some nod towards this. Can you do write about an alliance of totalitarian dictatorships, murderers, and terrorists without making them villains?
Yes, yes you can. Because, that's where things get interesting. David Mack takes the stereotypical "us vs. them" spy story with all its moral certainties about its immoral activities necessity and turns them on their head. Star Trek has played around this before using Section 31 but, arguably, failed since so many fans embraced the evil organization as antiheroes as opposed to well-realized villains. Zero Sum Game, by contrast, takes a seemingly binary situation to illustrate why the Federation way is better.
Zero Sum Game is an interesting story about humanizing, for lack of a better term, the alien races gathered together in opposition to the Federation. What I liked about the book is it managed to keep the fact the Breen and Romulan governments are lead by vile people whose ideal world includes a boot on the face of humanity forever but more or less rebuttals a lot of the inherent xenophobia in spy fiction.
The Breen are a federation, themselves, consisting of many races formed together into a single body. Unlike the Federation, however, they enforce a mono-culture which attempts to stamp out diversity and dissent. They could have very easily been cast a communist parable but are, instead, depicted as the most capitalist group outside of the Ferengi.
The thing is, the Breen aren't a singular entity. We get a nice look at Breen civilians and they're more or less identical to the ones you'd find anywhere on Earth. The most powerful moment in the book for me is, unexpectedly, a scene where Bashir just sits down and listens to the Breen wandering around a marketplace. They talk about their jobs, kids, supervisors, and spouses. It's a powerful moment, reinforcing what Star Trek is all about.
Given I'd been thinking of the Breen as walking experience points from my time fighting them in Star Trek: Online, I was momentarily ashamed. Of course, even Star Trek: Online had a Breen officer disgusted by the actions of his crewmates. So, really, my treating them as walking experience points was my failure rather than the games' own.
Meeting Breen dissidents who don't want to necessarily overthrow their governments but, simply, want more freedom was another way of showing the Star Trek Novelverse's races aren't necessarily like Dungeons and Dragons species. There's no such thing as, "Always Chaotic Evil."
The Typhon Pact is everything I wanted out of the series when I heard it was first announced. A rip-roaring Cold War adventure between a twisted country which hates freedom, a heroic nation which loves it, dashing super spies, and a narrative which rips to shreds the binary dualism that usually underlines such stories.
The Breen and Romulan governments may be evil but their citizens are not, leading to the serious question as to who war would benefit should the Typhon Pact go to war with the Federation. The answer? Absolutely no one. Zero Sum Game is a ruthless deconstruction of the spy genre while remaining entirely a part of it. The best approximation I can think of is The Prisoner, by Patrick McGoohan, who wrote one of the seminal works of espionage by taking an utter **** on the Cold War's values. By recognizing the fundamental value of "our" enemies, we may defeat them more conclusively than through force.
This is one of the reasons David Mack remains my favorite Star Trek author alongside Christopher Bennett. While I don't always agree with their decisions in their books, I believe they have a strong grasp on at least one element of Star Trek that makes their books resonate with me. In David Mack's case, he manages to insert the fact peace and understanding are the forefront of all of the Federation's conflicts as a desired goal. This is not the case in Babylon Five, Star Wars, or other rival franchises. Victory is. Trek has peace being more desirable than victory, even if it means not getting everything you wanted.
Julian Bashir's characterization in this book is great and I would love to see David Mack do further spycraft adventures with him. I, honestly, prefer Secret Agent Julian Bashir over Doctor Julian Bashir. Still, both sides are always in play during this book. Seeing the conflict inside him over the necessity of killing is great and we get "necessary casualties" examined when the aftermath of his actions are examined by a Breen engineer.
Captain Ezri Dax was kind of underwhelming in this book because I am more invested in her relationship with Julian Bashir than her role as a badass starship Captain. She's become the Kirk-lite of the post-Destiny world and that's great for her but awesome starship tactics as well as radical plans just didn't really move me here. I suppose it's because I was one of Ezri's fans when DS9 was on the air and would have preferred more attention paid to the vulnerable side of her Julian brought out.
Another character from DS9 makes a surprise return this book, surprising me as a reader. I won't spoil their identity but their role in this story makes an excellent contrast to Julian. This character attempts to portray the "ends justify the means" spy role "straight" while Julian subverts it at every turn. The book was so effective at this characterization, a latter revelation made perfect sense.
I'm not sure if the Novelverse will use the ending of the book to its full effect but if they back off from it, I'll be disappointed. Thematically, David Mack has created Julian's ultimate nemesis who I would love to see him face in life-and-death struggle. This may be a contrast to my earlier praise of peace and understanding, but just because Captain Kirk made peace with the Gorn doesn't mean I don't like seeing him blow the reptile Captain up.
In conclusion, kudos to David Mack for creating this novel and his role in developing the Typhon Pact. You should definitely read this novel.
9.5/10
Furthermore, because the Typhon Pact killed Federation citizens in their theft, Bashir (Bond) has carte blanche to use lethal force in the process. Bashir is even allied with a beautiful female agent for the duration of his mission. About the only thing which doesn't happen during this mission is Bashir sleeping with the beautiful silver-haired dissident.
One of the early misapprehensions of the Typhon Pact was that it was going to be the Legion of Doom or a kind of Reagan-era view of the Soviet Union. The Tholians, Tzenkethi, and Breen have been portrayed as nearly universally evil while the Gorn and Romulans have had some pretty solid roles as Federation antagonists. Given Star Trek Online's transformation of the Klingon Empire into an Axis of Evil (including the Orions, Nausicans, and Gorn), you will forgive me if I assumed there would be some nod towards this. Can you do write about an alliance of totalitarian dictatorships, murderers, and terrorists without making them villains?
Yes, yes you can. Because, that's where things get interesting. David Mack takes the stereotypical "us vs. them" spy story with all its moral certainties about its immoral activities necessity and turns them on their head. Star Trek has played around this before using Section 31 but, arguably, failed since so many fans embraced the evil organization as antiheroes as opposed to well-realized villains. Zero Sum Game, by contrast, takes a seemingly binary situation to illustrate why the Federation way is better.
Zero Sum Game is an interesting story about humanizing, for lack of a better term, the alien races gathered together in opposition to the Federation. What I liked about the book is it managed to keep the fact the Breen and Romulan governments are lead by vile people whose ideal world includes a boot on the face of humanity forever but more or less rebuttals a lot of the inherent xenophobia in spy fiction.
The Breen are a federation, themselves, consisting of many races formed together into a single body. Unlike the Federation, however, they enforce a mono-culture which attempts to stamp out diversity and dissent. They could have very easily been cast a communist parable but are, instead, depicted as the most capitalist group outside of the Ferengi.
The thing is, the Breen aren't a singular entity. We get a nice look at Breen civilians and they're more or less identical to the ones you'd find anywhere on Earth. The most powerful moment in the book for me is, unexpectedly, a scene where Bashir just sits down and listens to the Breen wandering around a marketplace. They talk about their jobs, kids, supervisors, and spouses. It's a powerful moment, reinforcing what Star Trek is all about.
Given I'd been thinking of the Breen as walking experience points from my time fighting them in Star Trek: Online, I was momentarily ashamed. Of course, even Star Trek: Online had a Breen officer disgusted by the actions of his crewmates. So, really, my treating them as walking experience points was my failure rather than the games' own.
Meeting Breen dissidents who don't want to necessarily overthrow their governments but, simply, want more freedom was another way of showing the Star Trek Novelverse's races aren't necessarily like Dungeons and Dragons species. There's no such thing as, "Always Chaotic Evil."
The Typhon Pact is everything I wanted out of the series when I heard it was first announced. A rip-roaring Cold War adventure between a twisted country which hates freedom, a heroic nation which loves it, dashing super spies, and a narrative which rips to shreds the binary dualism that usually underlines such stories.
The Breen and Romulan governments may be evil but their citizens are not, leading to the serious question as to who war would benefit should the Typhon Pact go to war with the Federation. The answer? Absolutely no one. Zero Sum Game is a ruthless deconstruction of the spy genre while remaining entirely a part of it. The best approximation I can think of is The Prisoner, by Patrick McGoohan, who wrote one of the seminal works of espionage by taking an utter **** on the Cold War's values. By recognizing the fundamental value of "our" enemies, we may defeat them more conclusively than through force.
This is one of the reasons David Mack remains my favorite Star Trek author alongside Christopher Bennett. While I don't always agree with their decisions in their books, I believe they have a strong grasp on at least one element of Star Trek that makes their books resonate with me. In David Mack's case, he manages to insert the fact peace and understanding are the forefront of all of the Federation's conflicts as a desired goal. This is not the case in Babylon Five, Star Wars, or other rival franchises. Victory is. Trek has peace being more desirable than victory, even if it means not getting everything you wanted.
Julian Bashir's characterization in this book is great and I would love to see David Mack do further spycraft adventures with him. I, honestly, prefer Secret Agent Julian Bashir over Doctor Julian Bashir. Still, both sides are always in play during this book. Seeing the conflict inside him over the necessity of killing is great and we get "necessary casualties" examined when the aftermath of his actions are examined by a Breen engineer.
Captain Ezri Dax was kind of underwhelming in this book because I am more invested in her relationship with Julian Bashir than her role as a badass starship Captain. She's become the Kirk-lite of the post-Destiny world and that's great for her but awesome starship tactics as well as radical plans just didn't really move me here. I suppose it's because I was one of Ezri's fans when DS9 was on the air and would have preferred more attention paid to the vulnerable side of her Julian brought out.
Another character from DS9 makes a surprise return this book, surprising me as a reader. I won't spoil their identity but their role in this story makes an excellent contrast to Julian. This character attempts to portray the "ends justify the means" spy role "straight" while Julian subverts it at every turn. The book was so effective at this characterization, a latter revelation made perfect sense.
I'm not sure if the Novelverse will use the ending of the book to its full effect but if they back off from it, I'll be disappointed. Thematically, David Mack has created Julian's ultimate nemesis who I would love to see him face in life-and-death struggle. This may be a contrast to my earlier praise of peace and understanding, but just because Captain Kirk made peace with the Gorn doesn't mean I don't like seeing him blow the reptile Captain up.
In conclusion, kudos to David Mack for creating this novel and his role in developing the Typhon Pact. You should definitely read this novel.
9.5/10
January 21, 2019
I was looking forward to getting into another David Mack novel; the last of his Trek books that I read was the Destiny trilogy, which was easily the best Treklit reading I've ever experienced.
This novel retains much of what makes Mack one of the best authors of Treklit. His dialogue is smoother, crisper, and smarter than perhaps any other Trek author. He's good at making juicy plot points, such as in this James Bond-style covert operation story. But it was a bit of a letdown overall.
Basically, Dr. Julian Bashir starts out the story on Deep Space 9, where he is bored from having lost all his friends to reassignments after the Dominion War. But he gets approached to take on an undercover mission to ruin the Breen's (Typhon Pact race that fought on the Dominion side) slipstream project, which was jumpstarted by the stealing of Federation designs. His partner is Sarina Douglas, a canonical character who appeared on DS9.
There are some definite high points in the novel. The characters are mostly well-done, but Bashir and Douglas confused me. Bashir seems to be incompetent, perhaps understandable since he is a doctor, not a secret agent. But of course, several times he almost walks right into several big mistakes until Douglas holds him back. Why does he not seem competent at all until he and Douglas get separated, and then all of a sudden he's James Bond?
Further, the story seems to go by too fast, and seems too contrived. I don't want to reveal too much here, but the way Douglas escapes torture that should immobilize anybody, the way Bashir leaves the Breen planet by attaching himself (literally) to the hull of a ship, and the climax of the story- I found these a little too cartoonish, more so than you usually find in Trek literature.
Looking past that, it's a decent story. The Typhon Pact series definitely could have started off worse. At the very least, there are political implications to the Bashir/Douglas operation that Mack explored in the novel, and they should make for interesting reading down the road.
This novel retains much of what makes Mack one of the best authors of Treklit. His dialogue is smoother, crisper, and smarter than perhaps any other Trek author. He's good at making juicy plot points, such as in this James Bond-style covert operation story. But it was a bit of a letdown overall.
Basically, Dr. Julian Bashir starts out the story on Deep Space 9, where he is bored from having lost all his friends to reassignments after the Dominion War. But he gets approached to take on an undercover mission to ruin the Breen's (Typhon Pact race that fought on the Dominion side) slipstream project, which was jumpstarted by the stealing of Federation designs. His partner is Sarina Douglas, a canonical character who appeared on DS9.
There are some definite high points in the novel. The characters are mostly well-done, but Bashir and Douglas confused me. Bashir seems to be incompetent, perhaps understandable since he is a doctor, not a secret agent. But of course, several times he almost walks right into several big mistakes until Douglas holds him back. Why does he not seem competent at all until he and Douglas get separated, and then all of a sudden he's James Bond?
Further, the story seems to go by too fast, and seems too contrived. I don't want to reveal too much here, but the way Douglas escapes torture that should immobilize anybody, the way Bashir leaves the Breen planet by attaching himself (literally) to the hull of a ship, and the climax of the story- I found these a little too cartoonish, more so than you usually find in Trek literature.
Looking past that, it's a decent story. The Typhon Pact series definitely could have started off worse. At the very least, there are political implications to the Bashir/Douglas operation that Mack explored in the novel, and they should make for interesting reading down the road.
April 24, 2021
I'm very torn on this book. On the one hand, it's David Mack doing what he does best, which is writing this pulp-throw-away fiction that is so much fun. He has come to stand out amongst his peers as a Star Trek writer. On the other hand, well, it's been mis-labeled. This is a Section 31 novel, and I was coming in thinking this was going to extend what we read when we read the Destiny Trilogy (which was so, so, so good). I like it, a lot, but was ready for more about the Typhon Pact.
I love that Mack brought back the Jack Pack. That group is lovably silly, in that '90s Star Trek way. I think this is something that Discovery is sorely missing, which is those random standalone episodes that advance other aspects of the ST universe. The surprise ending, which is truly a twist of the knife, was great. However, I really do miss the other characters of DS9. This is my favorite ST series, and I enjoy coming back to it when I can, but since so many of those characters have moved on since the end of the TV run, it feels like a hollow return.
I couldn't go any lower than 4 stars, since Mack is good at writing ST. However, and it may not be his fault, it feels like an empty version of the ST I know and love. Maybe I'll enjoy the Section 31 novels I have found, since I know exactly what I'm getting with those. Hopefully, the rest of the Typhon Pact books will deal with the politics of having a new enemy, and not just one small aspect of it.
I love that Mack brought back the Jack Pack. That group is lovably silly, in that '90s Star Trek way. I think this is something that Discovery is sorely missing, which is those random standalone episodes that advance other aspects of the ST universe. The surprise ending, which is truly a twist of the knife, was great. However, I really do miss the other characters of DS9. This is my favorite ST series, and I enjoy coming back to it when I can, but since so many of those characters have moved on since the end of the TV run, it feels like a hollow return.
I couldn't go any lower than 4 stars, since Mack is good at writing ST. However, and it may not be his fault, it feels like an empty version of the ST I know and love. Maybe I'll enjoy the Section 31 novels I have found, since I know exactly what I'm getting with those. Hopefully, the rest of the Typhon Pact books will deal with the politics of having a new enemy, and not just one small aspect of it.
July 25, 2023
At first I was really loving this cold war spy thriller starring Julian and his random sidekick (unfortunately no romance with Ezri... they actually made out their connection to be kind of nothing which pissed me off. If both characters say "that was weird. That was a mistake" but they're both kind of lying to themselves, that's interesting. But no, we're meant to believe that Julian's actual soul mate is a cold boring murderer just because they're both smart. Ugh)
Why was I enjoying it? THE BREEN oh my gosh. What an excellent look at this species... truly truly so much fun. I love the idea they're all obsessed with hiding their faces and also their society is insanely commercialised and sort of a neon ad soaked blade runner vibe.
But then I started finding this fairly boring and apart from some cool moves from Ezri, I think this should have brought a bit more emotion and character moments. Also, it was written in the most clinical passive voice, and once I caught onto that I COULDNT FOCUS IT WAS SO DISTRACTING. It's a spy thriller!! Write it like one!
Why was I enjoying it? THE BREEN oh my gosh. What an excellent look at this species... truly truly so much fun. I love the idea they're all obsessed with hiding their faces and also their society is insanely commercialised and sort of a neon ad soaked blade runner vibe.
But then I started finding this fairly boring and apart from some cool moves from Ezri, I think this should have brought a bit more emotion and character moments. Also, it was written in the most clinical passive voice, and once I caught onto that I COULDNT FOCUS IT WAS SO DISTRACTING. It's a spy thriller!! Write it like one!
January 24, 2018
At points during this book I wonder who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Not your usual Trek saga. I think that was maybe the point.
David Mack books are usually well written and this one was no exception. I didn't find any reason to hate it except it doesn't make sense to send a Medical Doctor in where more than likely he would be forced to do things against his principles but that's kind of what it was all about. If there were a real Starfleet and they needed such an operation done, I'm sure they would not take such chances on sending in an untrained operative like that. His genetic enhancements didnt seem to help all that much except for picking up the Breen language quickly.
The Dax character doesn't really line up to what I remember from DS9 but that's OK. The character could have been any Starfleet captain for all it mattered to the story really.
David Mack books are usually well written and this one was no exception. I didn't find any reason to hate it except it doesn't make sense to send a Medical Doctor in where more than likely he would be forced to do things against his principles but that's kind of what it was all about. If there were a real Starfleet and they needed such an operation done, I'm sure they would not take such chances on sending in an untrained operative like that. His genetic enhancements didnt seem to help all that much except for picking up the Breen language quickly.
The Dax character doesn't really line up to what I remember from DS9 but that's OK. The character could have been any Starfleet captain for all it mattered to the story really.
May 21, 2020
This has been one of my favorite Star Trek novels, for the year. The story kept moving, with lots of twists, and beautifully described scenery. I could feel Julian's enormous awe as he looked at the carved out asteroid; the joy, and freedom of the Breen dissidents in their underground world, and the pain suffered by Sarina, at the hands of her torturers. We see another side of Sarina, and I know there is more to come in the next book, in the Typhon Pact series. I usually enjoy Mack's stories in the series, and this was no different. I rarely have the time to read a book twice, but this is worth keeping, in my personal library. Even though this was written 10 years ago, It seems like only yesterday, that the series was on TV, and the characters are still fresh in my mind, with all the reruns being played!
May 31, 2021
Det som denna bok mest bjöd på var den djupare inblicken i breenernas liv. Utan att avslöja för mycket kan man väl säga att de bakom sina masker har en långt mer djupgående hemlighet, en som kommer att förändra min syn på breenerna fortsättningsvis. Minuset var väl att de på många sätt var precis som oss människor, med i grunden samma önskningar och samma strukturer i relationerna mellan människor. Det hade varit spännande att se helt nya tankemönster som är främmande för oss människor - varför alltid hamna i samma bekanta mönster? Deras hemlighetsmakeri är dock ett relativt nytt tankemönster för mig, men inte tillräckligt för att skapa något helt nytt inom Star Trek.
Relationen mellan de två huvudkaraktärerna Bashir och Sarina Douglas är spännande och jag måste säga att upplösningen av boken är mycket intressant, rent storymässigt - snygg vändning!
Relationen mellan de två huvudkaraktärerna Bashir och Sarina Douglas är spännande och jag måste säga att upplösningen av boken är mycket intressant, rent storymässigt - snygg vändning!
September 9, 2021
I kinda went into this book thinking ugh, Section 31, I'm not going to enjoy this much - and was pleasantly surprised. The mission had a good amount of action, though I did find Julian a little ... submissive, perhaps? Not sure that's the right word, but he seemed to dejectedly follow Sarina around for most of their mission, even though as he points out himself, he's the senior officer. I (naively) didn't expect the dark twist at the end... poor Julian! I really liked the Breen society, and hope we get similar looks into the other TP societies in later books. I also liked the short chapters in this book, they made it a quick read.
It was interesting to see snippets of DS9 after a few years break. Very curious to find out what happens to both Kira and Vaughn. Overall I thought this was a good start to the Typhon Pact series, and am keen to read on!
It was interesting to see snippets of DS9 after a few years break. Very curious to find out what happens to both Kira and Vaughn. Overall I thought this was a good start to the Typhon Pact series, and am keen to read on!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2019
David Mack has written some great Star Trek books over the years. Too bad this one isn't quite one of them. It's slowly passed, which a spy novel really really shouldn't be. The subplots that SHOULD be a punch to the gut aren't. I mean it was cool getting the Breen mystery solved but something about the whole book didn't quite work.
Part of it might just be that I'm a die hard Ezri/Bashir shipper.
But on the other hand anyone who knew a certain character in the book's history and a certain groups predilections would have seen the cliffhanger than was supposed to be shocking coming a mile away.
However, the first and most of the middle act are pretty solid. It's just a bit of a let down having read Mack's Destiny trilogy not that long ago.
Part of it might just be that I'm a die hard Ezri/Bashir shipper.
But on the other hand anyone who knew a certain character in the book's history and a certain groups predilections would have seen the cliffhanger than was supposed to be shocking coming a mile away.
However, the first and most of the middle act are pretty solid. It's just a bit of a let down having read Mack's Destiny trilogy not that long ago.
March 3, 2021
Pretty good for the 1st book in this series. Might have been good to read the books before this one (but overall I was able to understand what's happening). Going into this book you have to understand it's more of a Bashir & Douglas book, even though Dax is in here, she's more like a filler (even if it's nice to see her) it could have easily been another ship and captain.
I seem to remember liking Brinkmanship alot better than this one.
One complaint....
I do wish they would stop doing characters from all series in a few books and or more, of course having them do a whole bunch of separate books for each crew/ship would send someone into bankruptcy....
Nice to see a different bad guy(s) besides the borg (they use them to much, just like the cybermen/Daleks on Doctor Who).
I seem to remember liking Brinkmanship alot better than this one.
One complaint....
I do wish they would stop doing characters from all series in a few books and or more, of course having them do a whole bunch of separate books for each crew/ship would send someone into bankruptcy....
Nice to see a different bad guy(s) besides the borg (they use them to much, just like the cybermen/Daleks on Doctor Who).
November 26, 2021
This was a great ride! The first post-Nemesis DS9 relaunch book, this book takes place several years after the last DS9 book, so obviously some things have changed.
Ezri is now a Captain. Vaughn is in a coma and unresponsive. Sisko is home on Bajor. Kira is… something else?
And, of course, Bashir is still practicing frontier medicine on DS9.
This book follows Bashir as he dives back into the world of Starfleet Intelligence to stop the Typhon Pact, a new collection of alien species, from developing their own slipstream drive.
The book is fun, fast, and surprisingly deep. There’s a really great twist at the end, and I loved learning about this deep dive into Breen culture, among other things.
Would highly recommend.
Ezri is now a Captain. Vaughn is in a coma and unresponsive. Sisko is home on Bajor. Kira is… something else?
And, of course, Bashir is still practicing frontier medicine on DS9.
This book follows Bashir as he dives back into the world of Starfleet Intelligence to stop the Typhon Pact, a new collection of alien species, from developing their own slipstream drive.
The book is fun, fast, and surprisingly deep. There’s a really great twist at the end, and I loved learning about this deep dive into Breen culture, among other things.
Would highly recommend.
July 1, 2017
I'd give it 2.5 stars, but only because I'm a big Star Trek fan, and that's what kept me going with this book. Parts of the action was pretty good, but other parts were hardly credible ... even for science fiction. The time frame for the mission and the "winging it" during the mission made it even more suspect, particularly the latter stages of the mission. The interpersonal stuff at the end was both unexpected considering what happened during the story and appalling (not to give anything away).
November 27, 2021
Bashir as a character receives a bit of fair criticism for his over-enthusiastic and often immature interactions with women but Mack has handled this wonderfully and with Zero Sum Game we revisit perhaps the least appropriate yet most believable relationship from his time on DS9. However, as you might have learned to expect from David Mack, there's something dark and sinister lurking here.
Some of Dr. Bashir's best stories are the Section 31 episodes but if I'm being honest, Bashir the intelligence operative always seemed a fanciful idea to me. Hard to swallow, but enjoyable nonetheless.
The story isn't all tragic love life and spy games, be prepared to meet face to face with the Breen, that's right, unmasked.... and to hang with lovely little Ezri Dax who is now a badass Captain on the USS Aventine (my personal favourite ship from all of Star Trek).
Some of Dr. Bashir's best stories are the Section 31 episodes but if I'm being honest, Bashir the intelligence operative always seemed a fanciful idea to me. Hard to swallow, but enjoyable nonetheless.
The story isn't all tragic love life and spy games, be prepared to meet face to face with the Breen, that's right, unmasked.... and to hang with lovely little Ezri Dax who is now a badass Captain on the USS Aventine (my personal favourite ship from all of Star Trek).
March 2, 2018
Excellent incite into an alien race we really haven't seen before - the Breen. Liked having Bashir back into the action, as well as Ezra Dax. Overall, a great start to a new series. Just wished they would have explained a little more about what the Typhon Pact is near the start of the book, but by the end you understand.
February 2, 2019
A good start to a sequence I plan to read my way through, the Typhon pact offer an interesting new adversary for Starfleet and whilst this offers standard action mission fare it was great to immerse myself in some actual star trek and not the awful nonsense we are getting served up on STD. I wish we could get a TV show with Captain Dax on the USS Aventine.
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