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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Mission Gamma #4
Lesser Evil
SINS PAST Chaos erupts aboard "Deep Space 9 (TM) " as the crew begins a desperate search for a killer in their midst, catapulting Colonel Kira Nerys on a dangerous chase into the heart of the Federation. But the crime she seeks to avenge is part of a plot more ancient and far-reaching than anyone suspects, and that secret, if exposed, could divide worlds throughout the Alpha Quadrant.
Meanwhile, as the "Starship Defiant" makes its way back toward the wormhole and home to DS9, a startling discovery shakes Commander Elias Vaughn to his core and brings to light the truth behind the most tragic mission of his long life. As the crew struggles with the implications of what they?ve found, their captain's judgment comes into question...and casts doubt on the final outcome of their historic voyage through the Gamma Quadrant.
LESSER EVIL
Meanwhile, as the "Starship Defiant" makes its way back toward the wormhole and home to DS9, a startling discovery shakes Commander Elias Vaughn to his core and brings to light the truth behind the most tragic mission of his long life. As the crew struggles with the implications of what they?ve found, their captain's judgment comes into question...and casts doubt on the final outcome of their historic voyage through the Gamma Quadrant.
LESSER EVIL
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
January 26, 2016
Wow that ending! Still going strong on the relaunch.
June 14, 2022
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Lesser Evil is the fourth book in the Mission Gamma Series. It was written by Robert Simpson, and was released by Pocket Books at Simon and Schuster in November 2002.
This is by far the shortest book in the series. It is so short that it is roughly ⅓-½ the length of the first book. The length of this book feels more like a remnant of the length of the Star Trek books in the 90s while the other three books feel more like the age of Star Trek in the 2000s.
Despite the short length, this is a highly entertaining story. I was hooked to both plots here, and for the first time, the Defiant plot was the most interesting plotline. Defiant notices a strange energy signature, which leads them to an uninhabited planet with not one but two life forms. What transpires is shocking and highly interesting.
The plot on Deep Space Nine actually reminded me a little of the plot of the later written book “Revelation and Dust”, although I will say that the plotline here moves incredibly quickly and leaves no superfluous material. As a result, this is by far the fastest paced book in the series. I think that is a serious positive.
This book is Robert Simpson’s debut novel…and his only Star Trek novel. I was very surprised that Robert Simpson was not given another novel after this, as I thought he handled all of the Star Trek elements, as well as the general novel elements really well. He nailed the “Feeling” of Deep Space Nine and also got the characters right.
This book put the Ro Laren/Quark relationship on the backburner and I really missed it. Maybe the room for more length could have been devoted to their character development. I certainly hope to read more about them in the future books.
The only major problem that I have with this book is that Kira would so easily leave (or be forced to leave DS9) when she is the commander. It would have made more sense to me to switch her job with Ro Larens, and it would have given Laren more time to shine in the second half of the book. Nonetheless, this isn’t a hugely major issue.
There was a slight sidestep into the storyline with O’Brian, Keiko, Joseph Sisko, and Judith Sisko. I didn’t mind this story, but it really felt out of place. It felt like Simpson was trying a “meanwhile” section to the book. It was a weird choice, but not one I would consider “bad”.
This book has quite a page turning epilogue and I was really interested in seeing who showed up. This book certainly sets up more DS9 books in the future, and I cannot wait to read them!
Overall, I quite enjoyed this book.I think that it is better than it’s predecessor Cathedral and David R. George’s Twilight, but is not as good as This Gray Spirit. Overall, I give this book a 4.5 out of 5. Well done Robert Simpson.
This is by far the shortest book in the series. It is so short that it is roughly ⅓-½ the length of the first book. The length of this book feels more like a remnant of the length of the Star Trek books in the 90s while the other three books feel more like the age of Star Trek in the 2000s.
Despite the short length, this is a highly entertaining story. I was hooked to both plots here, and for the first time, the Defiant plot was the most interesting plotline. Defiant notices a strange energy signature, which leads them to an uninhabited planet with not one but two life forms. What transpires is shocking and highly interesting.
The plot on Deep Space Nine actually reminded me a little of the plot of the later written book “Revelation and Dust”, although I will say that the plotline here moves incredibly quickly and leaves no superfluous material. As a result, this is by far the fastest paced book in the series. I think that is a serious positive.
This book is Robert Simpson’s debut novel…and his only Star Trek novel. I was very surprised that Robert Simpson was not given another novel after this, as I thought he handled all of the Star Trek elements, as well as the general novel elements really well. He nailed the “Feeling” of Deep Space Nine and also got the characters right.
This book put the Ro Laren/Quark relationship on the backburner and I really missed it. Maybe the room for more length could have been devoted to their character development. I certainly hope to read more about them in the future books.
The only major problem that I have with this book is that Kira would so easily leave (or be forced to leave DS9) when she is the commander. It would have made more sense to me to switch her job with Ro Larens, and it would have given Laren more time to shine in the second half of the book. Nonetheless, this isn’t a hugely major issue.
There was a slight sidestep into the storyline with O’Brian, Keiko, Joseph Sisko, and Judith Sisko. I didn’t mind this story, but it really felt out of place. It felt like Simpson was trying a “meanwhile” section to the book. It was a weird choice, but not one I would consider “bad”.
This book has quite a page turning epilogue and I was really interested in seeing who showed up. This book certainly sets up more DS9 books in the future, and I cannot wait to read them!
Overall, I quite enjoyed this book.I think that it is better than it’s predecessor Cathedral and David R. George’s Twilight, but is not as good as This Gray Spirit. Overall, I give this book a 4.5 out of 5. Well done Robert Simpson.
November 30, 2018
"So I now find myself wondering... which is the lesser evil? To complete what Shakaar started, when I know he acted ignominiously in his pursuit of it? Or to reject it, even though I know that a different evil may be attempting to pit us and the Federation against each other?"
3 1/2 stars. There's a lot going on in this novel, and it's one helluva ride. It's that kind of novel where you want to read "just" one more chapter before you put the book down.
The two main stories here are to figure out who murdered Bajor's First Minister Shakaar Edon and a mysterious mission for the Defiant crew on their way back from their explorations in the Gamma Quadrant. I found both of these to be really interesting and, from time to time, even shocking.
The murder investigation puts Ro Laren in a situation where she needs to go against her superiors. This is a case that's not only loaded in a political sense, but it also turns out to be way more complicated than that. Way more. I liked the twists and turns in all of this as I was trying to figure out what was really going on and why. Not to mention a comeback from an old, and really creepy, nemesis to the Federation...
The unplanned mission in the Gamma Quadrant also had its twists and turns with, to begin with, Commander Vaughn acting out of character going after an old transponder signal. Without letting the crew know what's going on. It made for some interesting discoveries, I can tell you that much. During all of this madness we also got some glimpses from Vaughn's past that I think really let us get to know him on a more personal level.
Hesitantly Vaughn reached out and put his arms around his daughter, pulling her close. "Oh, God," he wispered, unable to keep the laughter out of his voice. "You are so screwed up."
Holding her father tightly, Prynn echoed the laugh. "Chip off the old block, that's me."
The relationship between Vaughn and his daughter is so beautiful in this quote. It speaks to one of the many things that I love about getting to follow this crew through novel after novel, and that's to see how the characters and their relationships to each other evolve. You feel like you get to know them, and in the end the character's are the most important thing.
December 30, 2021
If you just want the review of the story because you’re up to date on all of the other books that follow the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine TV series, then skip ahead. However this book will make a lot more sense for those who aren’t up to date if they consider the following.
The book literally follows a number of others that continue after the series ends, so it may help you to remember the events in these episodes as most of the novels are not stand alone stories and they all feature the new crew introduced in ‘Avatar’.
Star Trek: The next Generation
Series 4
Episode 21 - Drumhead (We meet Simon Tarses, a half Romulan Medical Officer who has been transferred to Deep Space Nine)
Series 5
Episode 3- Ensign Ro (Ro Laren is introduced to the Trek universe)
Series 7
Episode 24- Pre-emptive Strike (Ro joins the Marquis)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Series 7
Episode 24 - The Dogs Of War (Rom becomes the Grand Nagus and leaves with Leeta for Ferenginar)
Episode 25 - What You Leave Behind (Sisko leaves to be with the Prophets/Worf is appointed Federation Ambassador to Qo’nos/Odo goes to live with the Founders/Chief O’Brien and Keiko move back to Earth to teach at the Academy/The end of the war with the Dominion and Nog’s promotion to Lieutenant, while Garak stays on Cardassia to help rebuild after the war and Kai Winn and Dukat are dealt with by the Pah Wraiths).
As a result of all these changes a new crew is introduced in the following books-
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Avatar (1&2) - (Commander Vaughan and the Jem Hadar, Taran ‘atar are brought in and we meet Prynn, Vaughn’s estranged daughter and Shar, an Andorian. We also find out that Ro Laren has been brought in as Security Chief having survived the Maquis liquidation by the Dominion. Ezri also decides to transfer to command from sciences and Jake ventures in to the Wormhole looking for his Dad. Kira becomes attainted by the Vedeks and may no longer pray in the temples, Etc).
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Section 31) Abyss - (We learn that Jake is struggling in the Wormhole and Bashir goes on a mission for Section 31 with Ro and Taran ‘Atar).
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Gateways) Demons Of Air And Darkness & What Lay Beyond - Kira and Taran ‘Atar are lost in the Delta Quadrant whilst helping to evacuate a planet in the Alpha Quadrant & Kira spends time in her cultures historical past as a result of the Gateway. It is not really necessary to read any of the other books in the Gateways serial.
The Jaradans from the Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 1 Episode 11 - The Big Goodbye are featured in this volume and at the beginning of Mission Gamma - Twilight.
Star Trek: S.C.E - Indistinguishable From Magic (Nog teams up with Scotty - I haven’t read it yet, but it doesn’t seem to affect things too much here)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Mission Gamma (1) Twilight – Vaughan takes a crew including Ezri, Nog, Prynn and Shar in to the Gamma quadrant. Ezri loses a crew member for the first time in her command role. We also learn what has caused the estrangement between Vaughan and Prynn. Shar is also having some issues with his Ambassador Mother and the mates that have been selected for him.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Mission Gamma (2) This Gray Spirit - Vaughan and Ezri separate to assist a planet in trouble in order to assist themselves, but there’s political upset and the Prime Directive to take into account.
Kira prepares for a big event on the station and Shar’s Mother and Family start to become a problem for Ro and the new Counsellor.
The Cardassians make an effort to bring about peace with Bajor.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Mission Gamma) - Cathedral - Ezri, Bashir and Nog encounter an ancient alien artefact that has an effect on their genetic differences. It is also a place of worship between two warring factions, which makes it difficult for them to correct the issues that arise from their initial visit. The Bajoran alliance with the federation proceeds, but takes a wild turn.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Rising Son - (This story runs alongside the Gateways and Mission Gamma stories, but doesn’t seem to affect them, however if you’ve read the others, you might want to find out what happens to Jake?) Up until now I would have said it’s not really important, but it does bare some relevance on ‘Lesser Evil’ and apparently the next book ‘Unity’ too.
**Please see my reviews for these individual books for other episodes that are necessary to remember certain elements from the series.
On top of these you may want to refresh yourself on these TV episodes too, as elements are featured in Mission Gamma – Lesser Evil -
Star Trek: The Next Generation -
Series 1
Episode 24 - Conspiracy (A coup is uncovered among Starfleet’s chief brass and brought to an end by Riker and Picard)
Series 4
Episode 12 - Wounded (Gul Macet, who looks suspiciously like Gul Dukat, works with Picard to stop Ben Maxwell from a murderous rampage. He has been quite prominent in the Mission Gamma series representing Cardassia).
Episode 23 - The Host (A weird looking Trill is fatally wounded on board the Enterprise, where Riker agrees to carry the symbiont and unusually survives the process)
Star Trek VIII: First Contact (Lieutenant Bowers reminisces about his time and numerous references are made back to the main battle featured in this film)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -
Series 1
Episode 1 - Emmisary (Ben Sisko arrives for his new assignment aboard DS9 with his son Jake and is met by Kai Opaka. He experiences an Orb for the first time and visits “The Prophets” in the celestial temple (Wormhole). Chief O’Brien transfers from the Enterprise with wife Keiko and daughter Molly.
Episode 12 - Battle Lines (Kai Opaka is killed on an alien world in the Gamma Quadrant)
Series 3
Episode 24 - Shakaar (The First Minister is a key figure in this book series. We also meet Lenaris Holem)
Series 4
Episode 10 - Homefront (Sisko visits his Father who looks like he must be related to Admiral Cartwright from Kirk’s time - He features prominently in this book after his brief appearance in the last one)
Series 5
Episode 10 - Rapture (The lost city of B’hala is found by Sisko. He also blesses a young Bajoran named Mika and tells Yevir to become a Vedek)
Series 7
Episode 4 - Take Me Out To The Holosuite (The Vulcan crew of the T’Kumbra and their captain Solok are featured here)
Episode 8 - The Siege Of AR-558 (Nog loses his leg as a result of a fight with the Jem Hadar)
Star Trek: Voyager
Series 6
Episode 10 - Pathfinder (The Pathfinder project is frequently mentioned as a source of information provided by Voyager including details on the Borg and Species 8472)
Commander Elias Vaughan is featured throughout the Trek universe in a number of books. A lot of it is explained in this volume and I didn’t feel that I needed to know any more, so I haven’t bought or read them yet, but other people may wish to look up his backstory before starting this mammoth task.
Review:
Unlike the other volumes in this 4 part series, I didn’t write any notes about what actually happened in this book, because I found myself speeding through it, so keen to find out what was going on. The fact that it is so much shorter than most made that even easier.
Alas, although there is a certain form of closure, to this book specifically, the ongoing issues surrounding Bajor, Jake’s Journey and even the upset between Vaughan & Prynn and Shar’s guilt, are not resolved. Yet again we the fans are asked to buy another book to find out more.
I actually don’t mind that as much as I did when I started tackling the Trek books, because I am enjoying these stories so much and I quite like that there is still plenty to come, meaning more time with characters that I enjoy and can still relate to in written form, because they’re so easy to recognise by the way the writer describes things and that’s a reason for me to keep buying them (And also to comply with my OCD that must have an ending).
This story gives everyone a chance to shine and it’s great to see more from these newer characters. Shar takes a bit of a backstep in this one, but I think that was necessary for his particular storyline, as there isn’t much that the writers could do about it anyway in this volume.
Kira is still kicking ass and Ro and Quark’s unstable future on the station, as well as Ro’s need to focus on her work makes for interesting reading. Even the Joseph Sisko storyline (Not his biggest fan - He betrayed the federation in Star Trek VI when he was somebody else) is going somewhere and I can’t wait to see where. I don’t think I’m going to like the outcome, because Ben and Jake, for me, are the weakest characters in the series and Joseph’s involvement can only lead to more chapters about the Sisko’s. However, with that said, the writing has generally been so good and the stories so well put together that surely their return won’t make me want to give up on the continuing adventures of the crew of DS9.
I liked the use of aliens we have already encountered, but perhaps forgotten and that new things are happening. I suppose you could call this book and maybe even the Mission Gamma series the “Empire Strikes Back” volumes as they bridge the gap to what is surely going to be an epic finale.
I am kind of hoping that ‘Unity’ wraps a lot of things up, but I do look forward to other books that keep the characters alive and kicking as the authors have done such a great job to continue a TV series that seemed to have wrapped everything up when it ended.
The book literally follows a number of others that continue after the series ends, so it may help you to remember the events in these episodes as most of the novels are not stand alone stories and they all feature the new crew introduced in ‘Avatar’.
Star Trek: The next Generation
Series 4
Episode 21 - Drumhead (We meet Simon Tarses, a half Romulan Medical Officer who has been transferred to Deep Space Nine)
Series 5
Episode 3- Ensign Ro (Ro Laren is introduced to the Trek universe)
Series 7
Episode 24- Pre-emptive Strike (Ro joins the Marquis)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Series 7
Episode 24 - The Dogs Of War (Rom becomes the Grand Nagus and leaves with Leeta for Ferenginar)
Episode 25 - What You Leave Behind (Sisko leaves to be with the Prophets/Worf is appointed Federation Ambassador to Qo’nos/Odo goes to live with the Founders/Chief O’Brien and Keiko move back to Earth to teach at the Academy/The end of the war with the Dominion and Nog’s promotion to Lieutenant, while Garak stays on Cardassia to help rebuild after the war and Kai Winn and Dukat are dealt with by the Pah Wraiths).
As a result of all these changes a new crew is introduced in the following books-
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Avatar (1&2) - (Commander Vaughan and the Jem Hadar, Taran ‘atar are brought in and we meet Prynn, Vaughn’s estranged daughter and Shar, an Andorian. We also find out that Ro Laren has been brought in as Security Chief having survived the Maquis liquidation by the Dominion. Ezri also decides to transfer to command from sciences and Jake ventures in to the Wormhole looking for his Dad. Kira becomes attainted by the Vedeks and may no longer pray in the temples, Etc).
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Section 31) Abyss - (We learn that Jake is struggling in the Wormhole and Bashir goes on a mission for Section 31 with Ro and Taran ‘Atar).
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Gateways) Demons Of Air And Darkness & What Lay Beyond - Kira and Taran ‘Atar are lost in the Delta Quadrant whilst helping to evacuate a planet in the Alpha Quadrant & Kira spends time in her cultures historical past as a result of the Gateway. It is not really necessary to read any of the other books in the Gateways serial.
The Jaradans from the Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 1 Episode 11 - The Big Goodbye are featured in this volume and at the beginning of Mission Gamma - Twilight.
Star Trek: S.C.E - Indistinguishable From Magic (Nog teams up with Scotty - I haven’t read it yet, but it doesn’t seem to affect things too much here)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Mission Gamma (1) Twilight – Vaughan takes a crew including Ezri, Nog, Prynn and Shar in to the Gamma quadrant. Ezri loses a crew member for the first time in her command role. We also learn what has caused the estrangement between Vaughan and Prynn. Shar is also having some issues with his Ambassador Mother and the mates that have been selected for him.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Mission Gamma (2) This Gray Spirit - Vaughan and Ezri separate to assist a planet in trouble in order to assist themselves, but there’s political upset and the Prime Directive to take into account.
Kira prepares for a big event on the station and Shar’s Mother and Family start to become a problem for Ro and the new Counsellor.
The Cardassians make an effort to bring about peace with Bajor.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Mission Gamma) - Cathedral - Ezri, Bashir and Nog encounter an ancient alien artefact that has an effect on their genetic differences. It is also a place of worship between two warring factions, which makes it difficult for them to correct the issues that arise from their initial visit. The Bajoran alliance with the federation proceeds, but takes a wild turn.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Rising Son - (This story runs alongside the Gateways and Mission Gamma stories, but doesn’t seem to affect them, however if you’ve read the others, you might want to find out what happens to Jake?) Up until now I would have said it’s not really important, but it does bare some relevance on ‘Lesser Evil’ and apparently the next book ‘Unity’ too.
**Please see my reviews for these individual books for other episodes that are necessary to remember certain elements from the series.
On top of these you may want to refresh yourself on these TV episodes too, as elements are featured in Mission Gamma – Lesser Evil -
Star Trek: The Next Generation -
Series 1
Episode 24 - Conspiracy (A coup is uncovered among Starfleet’s chief brass and brought to an end by Riker and Picard)
Series 4
Episode 12 - Wounded (Gul Macet, who looks suspiciously like Gul Dukat, works with Picard to stop Ben Maxwell from a murderous rampage. He has been quite prominent in the Mission Gamma series representing Cardassia).
Episode 23 - The Host (A weird looking Trill is fatally wounded on board the Enterprise, where Riker agrees to carry the symbiont and unusually survives the process)
Star Trek VIII: First Contact (Lieutenant Bowers reminisces about his time and numerous references are made back to the main battle featured in this film)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -
Series 1
Episode 1 - Emmisary (Ben Sisko arrives for his new assignment aboard DS9 with his son Jake and is met by Kai Opaka. He experiences an Orb for the first time and visits “The Prophets” in the celestial temple (Wormhole). Chief O’Brien transfers from the Enterprise with wife Keiko and daughter Molly.
Episode 12 - Battle Lines (Kai Opaka is killed on an alien world in the Gamma Quadrant)
Series 3
Episode 24 - Shakaar (The First Minister is a key figure in this book series. We also meet Lenaris Holem)
Series 4
Episode 10 - Homefront (Sisko visits his Father who looks like he must be related to Admiral Cartwright from Kirk’s time - He features prominently in this book after his brief appearance in the last one)
Series 5
Episode 10 - Rapture (The lost city of B’hala is found by Sisko. He also blesses a young Bajoran named Mika and tells Yevir to become a Vedek)
Series 7
Episode 4 - Take Me Out To The Holosuite (The Vulcan crew of the T’Kumbra and their captain Solok are featured here)
Episode 8 - The Siege Of AR-558 (Nog loses his leg as a result of a fight with the Jem Hadar)
Star Trek: Voyager
Series 6
Episode 10 - Pathfinder (The Pathfinder project is frequently mentioned as a source of information provided by Voyager including details on the Borg and Species 8472)
Commander Elias Vaughan is featured throughout the Trek universe in a number of books. A lot of it is explained in this volume and I didn’t feel that I needed to know any more, so I haven’t bought or read them yet, but other people may wish to look up his backstory before starting this mammoth task.
Review:
Unlike the other volumes in this 4 part series, I didn’t write any notes about what actually happened in this book, because I found myself speeding through it, so keen to find out what was going on. The fact that it is so much shorter than most made that even easier.
Alas, although there is a certain form of closure, to this book specifically, the ongoing issues surrounding Bajor, Jake’s Journey and even the upset between Vaughan & Prynn and Shar’s guilt, are not resolved. Yet again we the fans are asked to buy another book to find out more.
I actually don’t mind that as much as I did when I started tackling the Trek books, because I am enjoying these stories so much and I quite like that there is still plenty to come, meaning more time with characters that I enjoy and can still relate to in written form, because they’re so easy to recognise by the way the writer describes things and that’s a reason for me to keep buying them (And also to comply with my OCD that must have an ending).
This story gives everyone a chance to shine and it’s great to see more from these newer characters. Shar takes a bit of a backstep in this one, but I think that was necessary for his particular storyline, as there isn’t much that the writers could do about it anyway in this volume.
Kira is still kicking ass and Ro and Quark’s unstable future on the station, as well as Ro’s need to focus on her work makes for interesting reading. Even the Joseph Sisko storyline (Not his biggest fan - He betrayed the federation in Star Trek VI when he was somebody else) is going somewhere and I can’t wait to see where. I don’t think I’m going to like the outcome, because Ben and Jake, for me, are the weakest characters in the series and Joseph’s involvement can only lead to more chapters about the Sisko’s. However, with that said, the writing has generally been so good and the stories so well put together that surely their return won’t make me want to give up on the continuing adventures of the crew of DS9.
I liked the use of aliens we have already encountered, but perhaps forgotten and that new things are happening. I suppose you could call this book and maybe even the Mission Gamma series the “Empire Strikes Back” volumes as they bridge the gap to what is surely going to be an epic finale.
I am kind of hoping that ‘Unity’ wraps a lot of things up, but I do look forward to other books that keep the characters alive and kicking as the authors have done such a great job to continue a TV series that seemed to have wrapped everything up when it ended.
October 11, 2023
Summary: Prologue: Ben's sister Judith confides to Kassidy that her father Joseph won't come out of his bedroom; the loss of Ben and Jake is too much for him. Kassidy says she might know someone who can help. Shortly thereafter, the O'Briens and their 2 children arrive.
The mission to the Gamma Quadrant is 90% complete, and the crew of the Defiant are ready to be back home, especially since their encounter with the cathedral cost them the use of their replicators. One of their probes detects a Starfleet transponder signal on a narrow subspace band, which shouldn't be possible, since Starfleet has supposedly never been in the area. Dax takes Bowers' report to Vaughn, and he is incredulous; he immediately tells Dax to cloak the ship, get the Sagan shuttle back at 100% ASAP, and to not tell the crew. He recognizes the code as that of the Valkyrie.
Asarem is sworn in as the First Minister of Bajor, after Shakaar was assassinated by Hiziki Gard, the aide to the Trill ambassador.
The Defiant arrives at the planet Uridi'si, where the transport signal originated from. They find the wreckage of a Jem'Hadar ship--well beyond Dominion space. Vaughn briefs the senior staff for an away mission to check the wreckage, and tells them to keep the details from the crew.
During questioning, the Trill Ambassaor says that Gard was assigned to him from the Trill Diplomatic Corps out of the blue. Ro finds the assassin's actions strange; unless Gard is a rare, mismatched Trill, the murder couldn't have been a rogue action, but one with purpose.
First Minister Asarem convenes a meeting to say she's leaving DS9 to address the Bajoran people: she cannot accept the Federation's invitation to join at this time, and she will reevaluate the need for Starfleet on DS9. Ro says the assassin may still be on board, but a sensor sweep detects an energy trail consistent with a cloak heading towards the Trill system. Akaar assigns Kira--who, unbeknownst to her is still under commission as a Starfleet officer--to the Gryphon to track the ship, leaving Bajoran General Lenaris in charge of DS9 to work with Akaar himself. Asarem confides with Kira that she's unsure which path to take, since they're the only ones who knew Shakaar's true intentions.
The away team finds the crashed Jem'Hadar ship; scans indicate it's been there about 2 years. There's a lifesign inside, but it ends up being a bipedal bird. Inside are only dead Jem'Hadar and a Vorta; however, Nog feels that they're being watched. Suddenly their scans show a large sauropod nearby, and they realize it's likely a changeling from the crashed ship. They lure it into a trap, causing a phaser to fire, rendering the changeling into it's liquid form briefly, before it flies away. Vaughn signals them to come to his position immediately; he found a crashed Borg ship.
Taran'atar tells Ro that he was monitoring communications and noticed an echo, indicating there was someone else doing the same. She scans for places he could've been hacking the comms, and zeroes in on a location. Shortly thereafter, the power goes out in the wardroom where Akaar and Lenaris are conferring, and Ro beams in with a phaser in hand.
Nog inspects the Borg ship and realizes it was originally a Starfleet vessel; Vaughn says it was the USS Valkyrie. Inside they find 1 surviving Borg that is the source of the signal. Nog's scans indicate that there's no subspace signal being sent to the Collective; Bashir's scans find the lone drone is a female being kept alive only by the alcove. Vaughn tells them to beam the drone back to the Defiant and remove its Borg implants. He tells Bashir the drone's medical records can be found in a subsection of Ensign Tenmei's file--it's her mother.
Ro says the killer is above the main console in ops. Akaar calls for Ro to be arrested, but Lenaris says he'll grant her some leeway as the station's security officer. She fires a phaser into the alcove above, but no one is there; however shortly thereafter, a large dent appears in the table below, and Gard unshrouds. He's wearing a Federation isolation suit.
Vaughn knew the signal was Ruriko's immediately, because special ops transponders are wetwired into the operative's nervous system, and only cease sending the signal upon brain death. Bashir says she is in a coma, and that he can't remove the remaining Borg components until they return to DS9; Vaughn says he'll do it now, as he won't put the station at risk. Prynn walks in and Vaughn screams at her to get out, confining her to quarters. Bowers tells Dax that Vaughn is losing it; she says she'll talk to him.
The doctor finishes Shakaar's autopsy and reports that there was isoboramine in his blood--the chemical found in joined Trills--and symbiont DNA in Shakaar's wound. Akaar immediately recognizes this as one of the parasites that infiltrated Starfleet 12 years ago.
Akaar interrogates Gard, who tells him the parasites are essentially the same species as Trill. Shakaar had been infected for months. When Akaar asks about the cloaked ship, Gard is shocked, knowing nothing about it. He says Captain Mello of the Gryphon must also be infected and is heading to Trill to retaliate.
O'Brien tries to talk to Joseph Sisko, but he tells him to get the hell out of his bedroom and to mind his own business. O'Brien intentionally boils up some extra-stinky corned beef and cabbage, which offends Joseph's senses so much that he comes out to make the O'Briens a proper meal.
Captain Mello tells Kira she needs to sleep. First Officer Montenegro takes her to a luxury sweet, but she asks for something a little more utilitarian.
Dax confronts Vaughn about how he's putting his wife ahead of the crew, and though he screams at her at first, eventually he breaks down and tells her everything.
20+ years before, Vaughn is captured on a Cardassian planet while trying to help a renowned cybernetisist, Dr. Veruda, escape. The interrogator, a Cardassian woman named Kree Omiturin, helps him escape with the doctor in tow. He later finds out that she was his biggest rival in Starfleet Intelligence--Ruriko Tenmei. He is in love with her.
His Vulcan counterpart T'Prynn is killed in a transporter accident. Ruriko comes with him to the funeral on Vulcan, and they find they're still holding hands long after the ceremony.
Dr. Veruda's AI successfully neutralizes a Cardassian shipyard. Ruriko says sure wants to step away from SI for a few years... so she can have a child with Vaughn.
Vaughn gets called away on Prynn's 5th birthday, after having been gone for months already. Another mission prevents him from congratulating her on her entrance into Starfleet.
Ruriko and Vaughn finds themselves at the planet Uridi'si, where Dr. Veruda's AI is once again active, this time in the planet's magnetosphere. A Borg vessel pops out of a transwarp conduit nearby, apparently summoned by the AI. After disabling Vaughn's ship and chasing off the Valkyrie, it downloads the AI into it's system. Realizing there's no way they can let the Borg leave with control of the powerful AI virus, Ruriko and her team been aboard the Borg ship to deploy a nanite weapon they developed to neutralize the virus. The Borg ship enters into the transwarp conduit, and the Valkyrie follows.
Vaughn tells Dax he knows he made the wrong decision, but that for once in his life, he put himself first to save his wife. She says it's understandable, given the astronomical circumstances, and he says there's a good explanation for it.
Quark visits Treir in her quarters; Morn is just leaving. Quark tells her about his plans to run away with Ro, but thinks she's changed her mind since the Shakaar incident. Treir says that if he really loves her, he'll be happy no matter what she decides. They hear a noise in the hall and find Gul Macet clawing bloody streaks in his face, with smoke coming from his mouth, and a blue thorn-like creature wriggling in his neck.
Captain Mello pushes the warp engines too hard and an EPS conduit ruptures. The chief engineer and some other are badly injured, but the warp core doesn't fail. Montenegro tells Kira that the Captain has changed and that he doesn't know her anymore; she feels the same way about Shakaar, but tells him that he'll have to address his feelings with the captain. Later that night, Kira gets an encrypted transmission from Akaar detailing the parasite they found in Shakaar, and warning her that there is no cloaked ship. She remembers that Shakaar spent most of his time with Captain Mello, and goes to find Montenegro.
Vauhgn confronts Prynn; she has been surruptitiously modifying the sensor arrays to search for her mother's transponder signal on every ship she's been on since her mom disappeared. Vaughn thinks the whole reason they found her was because of the Orb. He takes her to see her mom, whose human physiology has begun reasserting itself thanks to Bashir's treatment. Prynn hums her mother's favorite song, and her eyes open; her mouth seems to be trying to say "Prynn".
Kira convenes a meeting with Montenegro and Dr. Xiang. The doctor doesn't believe the captain is compromised, but Montenegro found the program used to fake the cloaking-device reading that was uploaded from the captain's quarters. They plan to sedate the captain, turn the ship back towards DS9, and remove the parasite, if possible. They go to the captain's quarters and hold her at phaser point, but when the doctor checks her neck, there is no blue spike there. Montegro turns his phaser on Kira, locks them in the captain's quarters, and initiates a program.
Shar beams back down to the Borg ship to retrieve another Borg drone, so he can access its neuroprocessor to find out what its mission to the Gamma Quadrant was; Commander Tenmei's was destroyed when she was damaged. Nog and Bowers try to find the changeling so they can convince it to return with them. They find it back in the Jem'Hadar ship, and surprisingly they do not have trouble convincing her to come back with them at all.
Shar finds that the assimilated Valkyrie's mission was to find species desirable for assimilation as a prelude to a larger-scale incursion. When the Borg attacked the Federation 3 years prior, they learned of the Dominion and erected a transwarp conduit to the Gamma Quadrant, the end result of which was the crashed Jem'Hadar and Borg ships. They hear a scream and find the Borg corpse has come to life and is attempting to assimilate the changeling. It changes shape and color and shrieks wildly, but eventually reverts to humanoid form, having crushed the nanoprobes. They realize the Borg can still attempt to assimilate other life-forms even after the death of the drone's organic half. Realizing Prynn could be next, he rushes in, tells her to step back, and fires his phaser at Ruriko.
An alert blares that the Gryphon's warp core will breach in 2 minutes; Montenegro tells the crew to abandon ship. Mello tries to contact the bridge, but Kira says Montenegro has them locked down, explaining the entire situation. They see the escape pods being jittisoned, but when the countdown hits 0, the ship continues on towards Trill. Later, some crew that had remained aboard, certain there was nothing wrong with the warp core, free the captain from her quarters. They quickly formulate a plan to take back the ship. They arm themselves and easily break onto the bridge, but it's empty, control having been re-routed to engineering.
Kira and Mello try to enter engineering via Jeffries tube, but Montenegro fires a phaser at them, burning a hole through the captain's chest. Before she dies, she transfers control of the ship to Kira and hands her her combadge.
Joseph Sisko comes around to enjoying the O'Brien's presence quickly, especially Kirayoshi and Molly. Judith reminds him that Kassidy is due for a little one of her own, and is alone on Bajor. The next morning, he asks the O'Briens to take him there.
Dax tells Prynn that Dr. Bashir has ruled that the damage to Ruriko's brain was too extensive to bring her back, but she is still furious that her dad killed her mom a second time, even if she was about to assimilate Prynn. Vaughn later asks Dax why she lied to Prynn; she says because Prynn won't understand that he killed Ruriko so she didn't have to live with the horror of trying to assimilate her own child.
Kira finds Montenegro in engineering. He tells her that they plan to enter the Celestial Temple, and that the Trill are more dangerous than his kind are. They fight briefly, but he easily gets the upper hand. As he's about to kill her, she pulls Captain Mello's phaser from her boot and blasts him in the face. A six-legged creature with pincers crawls from Montenegro's mouth, and she stomps it to death. Kira transfers control back to the bridge, but 3 Federation ships arrive and begin attacking them. With the communications array slagged, Kira says to use the phasers to spell out "Manufactured triumph", hoping that the pursuing Captain Solok will remember using the phrase when Kira played baseball against the team of Vulcans on the holodeck a few years ago. With their shields gone, Solok and a team of Vulcan security officers beam aboard to offer assistance.
The Gryphon is restored, and the escape pods recovered. A Trill military transport arrives, with General Taulin Cyl of the Trill Defense Ministry aboard. He says they need to discuss the parasite's coming war of revenge against the Trill symbionts; humanoids aren't the targets, the Trill are.
Epilogue: An hour from the wormhole, they find that the subspace communication relay they left there has been destroyed, and that the space around the wormhole has been altered: the wormhole now opens at the Idran system, the whole of which has also moved. A Jem'Hadar ship approaches and hails them; it's the Vorta Weyoun, and he demands they return the Founder they have on board. Vaughn agrees, and says they would also like to arrange an information-exchange pact on the Borg; Weyoun says he'll pass it on to the Founders. The changeling tells Weyoun to thank the Federation for saving her life; Weyoun says as a thanks, they have an exchange for them as well. He beams 3 people aboard: Jake Sisko; a female named Wex, who Jake says is on a pilgrimage; and former kai of Bajor, Opaka.
Review: This book was so much shorter and faster-paced than the other 3 in the series; it was action-packed from start to finish. It brought back some unexpected old foes in the Borg and the parasites; Gul Macet is seemingly dead; Jake is back; we learned a lot more about Vaughn's backstory; etc. 5 stars.
The mission to the Gamma Quadrant is 90% complete, and the crew of the Defiant are ready to be back home, especially since their encounter with the cathedral cost them the use of their replicators. One of their probes detects a Starfleet transponder signal on a narrow subspace band, which shouldn't be possible, since Starfleet has supposedly never been in the area. Dax takes Bowers' report to Vaughn, and he is incredulous; he immediately tells Dax to cloak the ship, get the Sagan shuttle back at 100% ASAP, and to not tell the crew. He recognizes the code as that of the Valkyrie.
Asarem is sworn in as the First Minister of Bajor, after Shakaar was assassinated by Hiziki Gard, the aide to the Trill ambassador.
The Defiant arrives at the planet Uridi'si, where the transport signal originated from. They find the wreckage of a Jem'Hadar ship--well beyond Dominion space. Vaughn briefs the senior staff for an away mission to check the wreckage, and tells them to keep the details from the crew.
During questioning, the Trill Ambassaor says that Gard was assigned to him from the Trill Diplomatic Corps out of the blue. Ro finds the assassin's actions strange; unless Gard is a rare, mismatched Trill, the murder couldn't have been a rogue action, but one with purpose.
First Minister Asarem convenes a meeting to say she's leaving DS9 to address the Bajoran people: she cannot accept the Federation's invitation to join at this time, and she will reevaluate the need for Starfleet on DS9. Ro says the assassin may still be on board, but a sensor sweep detects an energy trail consistent with a cloak heading towards the Trill system. Akaar assigns Kira--who, unbeknownst to her is still under commission as a Starfleet officer--to the Gryphon to track the ship, leaving Bajoran General Lenaris in charge of DS9 to work with Akaar himself. Asarem confides with Kira that she's unsure which path to take, since they're the only ones who knew Shakaar's true intentions.
The away team finds the crashed Jem'Hadar ship; scans indicate it's been there about 2 years. There's a lifesign inside, but it ends up being a bipedal bird. Inside are only dead Jem'Hadar and a Vorta; however, Nog feels that they're being watched. Suddenly their scans show a large sauropod nearby, and they realize it's likely a changeling from the crashed ship. They lure it into a trap, causing a phaser to fire, rendering the changeling into it's liquid form briefly, before it flies away. Vaughn signals them to come to his position immediately; he found a crashed Borg ship.
Taran'atar tells Ro that he was monitoring communications and noticed an echo, indicating there was someone else doing the same. She scans for places he could've been hacking the comms, and zeroes in on a location. Shortly thereafter, the power goes out in the wardroom where Akaar and Lenaris are conferring, and Ro beams in with a phaser in hand.
Nog inspects the Borg ship and realizes it was originally a Starfleet vessel; Vaughn says it was the USS Valkyrie. Inside they find 1 surviving Borg that is the source of the signal. Nog's scans indicate that there's no subspace signal being sent to the Collective; Bashir's scans find the lone drone is a female being kept alive only by the alcove. Vaughn tells them to beam the drone back to the Defiant and remove its Borg implants. He tells Bashir the drone's medical records can be found in a subsection of Ensign Tenmei's file--it's her mother.
Ro says the killer is above the main console in ops. Akaar calls for Ro to be arrested, but Lenaris says he'll grant her some leeway as the station's security officer. She fires a phaser into the alcove above, but no one is there; however shortly thereafter, a large dent appears in the table below, and Gard unshrouds. He's wearing a Federation isolation suit.
Vaughn knew the signal was Ruriko's immediately, because special ops transponders are wetwired into the operative's nervous system, and only cease sending the signal upon brain death. Bashir says she is in a coma, and that he can't remove the remaining Borg components until they return to DS9; Vaughn says he'll do it now, as he won't put the station at risk. Prynn walks in and Vaughn screams at her to get out, confining her to quarters. Bowers tells Dax that Vaughn is losing it; she says she'll talk to him.
The doctor finishes Shakaar's autopsy and reports that there was isoboramine in his blood--the chemical found in joined Trills--and symbiont DNA in Shakaar's wound. Akaar immediately recognizes this as one of the parasites that infiltrated Starfleet 12 years ago.
Akaar interrogates Gard, who tells him the parasites are essentially the same species as Trill. Shakaar had been infected for months. When Akaar asks about the cloaked ship, Gard is shocked, knowing nothing about it. He says Captain Mello of the Gryphon must also be infected and is heading to Trill to retaliate.
O'Brien tries to talk to Joseph Sisko, but he tells him to get the hell out of his bedroom and to mind his own business. O'Brien intentionally boils up some extra-stinky corned beef and cabbage, which offends Joseph's senses so much that he comes out to make the O'Briens a proper meal.
Captain Mello tells Kira she needs to sleep. First Officer Montenegro takes her to a luxury sweet, but she asks for something a little more utilitarian.
Dax confronts Vaughn about how he's putting his wife ahead of the crew, and though he screams at her at first, eventually he breaks down and tells her everything.
20+ years before, Vaughn is captured on a Cardassian planet while trying to help a renowned cybernetisist, Dr. Veruda, escape. The interrogator, a Cardassian woman named Kree Omiturin, helps him escape with the doctor in tow. He later finds out that she was his biggest rival in Starfleet Intelligence--Ruriko Tenmei. He is in love with her.
His Vulcan counterpart T'Prynn is killed in a transporter accident. Ruriko comes with him to the funeral on Vulcan, and they find they're still holding hands long after the ceremony.
Dr. Veruda's AI successfully neutralizes a Cardassian shipyard. Ruriko says sure wants to step away from SI for a few years... so she can have a child with Vaughn.
Vaughn gets called away on Prynn's 5th birthday, after having been gone for months already. Another mission prevents him from congratulating her on her entrance into Starfleet.
Ruriko and Vaughn finds themselves at the planet Uridi'si, where Dr. Veruda's AI is once again active, this time in the planet's magnetosphere. A Borg vessel pops out of a transwarp conduit nearby, apparently summoned by the AI. After disabling Vaughn's ship and chasing off the Valkyrie, it downloads the AI into it's system. Realizing there's no way they can let the Borg leave with control of the powerful AI virus, Ruriko and her team been aboard the Borg ship to deploy a nanite weapon they developed to neutralize the virus. The Borg ship enters into the transwarp conduit, and the Valkyrie follows.
Vaughn tells Dax he knows he made the wrong decision, but that for once in his life, he put himself first to save his wife. She says it's understandable, given the astronomical circumstances, and he says there's a good explanation for it.
Quark visits Treir in her quarters; Morn is just leaving. Quark tells her about his plans to run away with Ro, but thinks she's changed her mind since the Shakaar incident. Treir says that if he really loves her, he'll be happy no matter what she decides. They hear a noise in the hall and find Gul Macet clawing bloody streaks in his face, with smoke coming from his mouth, and a blue thorn-like creature wriggling in his neck.
Captain Mello pushes the warp engines too hard and an EPS conduit ruptures. The chief engineer and some other are badly injured, but the warp core doesn't fail. Montenegro tells Kira that the Captain has changed and that he doesn't know her anymore; she feels the same way about Shakaar, but tells him that he'll have to address his feelings with the captain. Later that night, Kira gets an encrypted transmission from Akaar detailing the parasite they found in Shakaar, and warning her that there is no cloaked ship. She remembers that Shakaar spent most of his time with Captain Mello, and goes to find Montenegro.
Vauhgn confronts Prynn; she has been surruptitiously modifying the sensor arrays to search for her mother's transponder signal on every ship she's been on since her mom disappeared. Vaughn thinks the whole reason they found her was because of the Orb. He takes her to see her mom, whose human physiology has begun reasserting itself thanks to Bashir's treatment. Prynn hums her mother's favorite song, and her eyes open; her mouth seems to be trying to say "Prynn".
Kira convenes a meeting with Montenegro and Dr. Xiang. The doctor doesn't believe the captain is compromised, but Montenegro found the program used to fake the cloaking-device reading that was uploaded from the captain's quarters. They plan to sedate the captain, turn the ship back towards DS9, and remove the parasite, if possible. They go to the captain's quarters and hold her at phaser point, but when the doctor checks her neck, there is no blue spike there. Montegro turns his phaser on Kira, locks them in the captain's quarters, and initiates a program.
Shar beams back down to the Borg ship to retrieve another Borg drone, so he can access its neuroprocessor to find out what its mission to the Gamma Quadrant was; Commander Tenmei's was destroyed when she was damaged. Nog and Bowers try to find the changeling so they can convince it to return with them. They find it back in the Jem'Hadar ship, and surprisingly they do not have trouble convincing her to come back with them at all.
Shar finds that the assimilated Valkyrie's mission was to find species desirable for assimilation as a prelude to a larger-scale incursion. When the Borg attacked the Federation 3 years prior, they learned of the Dominion and erected a transwarp conduit to the Gamma Quadrant, the end result of which was the crashed Jem'Hadar and Borg ships. They hear a scream and find the Borg corpse has come to life and is attempting to assimilate the changeling. It changes shape and color and shrieks wildly, but eventually reverts to humanoid form, having crushed the nanoprobes. They realize the Borg can still attempt to assimilate other life-forms even after the death of the drone's organic half. Realizing Prynn could be next, he rushes in, tells her to step back, and fires his phaser at Ruriko.
An alert blares that the Gryphon's warp core will breach in 2 minutes; Montenegro tells the crew to abandon ship. Mello tries to contact the bridge, but Kira says Montenegro has them locked down, explaining the entire situation. They see the escape pods being jittisoned, but when the countdown hits 0, the ship continues on towards Trill. Later, some crew that had remained aboard, certain there was nothing wrong with the warp core, free the captain from her quarters. They quickly formulate a plan to take back the ship. They arm themselves and easily break onto the bridge, but it's empty, control having been re-routed to engineering.
Kira and Mello try to enter engineering via Jeffries tube, but Montenegro fires a phaser at them, burning a hole through the captain's chest. Before she dies, she transfers control of the ship to Kira and hands her her combadge.
Joseph Sisko comes around to enjoying the O'Brien's presence quickly, especially Kirayoshi and Molly. Judith reminds him that Kassidy is due for a little one of her own, and is alone on Bajor. The next morning, he asks the O'Briens to take him there.
Dax tells Prynn that Dr. Bashir has ruled that the damage to Ruriko's brain was too extensive to bring her back, but she is still furious that her dad killed her mom a second time, even if she was about to assimilate Prynn. Vaughn later asks Dax why she lied to Prynn; she says because Prynn won't understand that he killed Ruriko so she didn't have to live with the horror of trying to assimilate her own child.
Kira finds Montenegro in engineering. He tells her that they plan to enter the Celestial Temple, and that the Trill are more dangerous than his kind are. They fight briefly, but he easily gets the upper hand. As he's about to kill her, she pulls Captain Mello's phaser from her boot and blasts him in the face. A six-legged creature with pincers crawls from Montenegro's mouth, and she stomps it to death. Kira transfers control back to the bridge, but 3 Federation ships arrive and begin attacking them. With the communications array slagged, Kira says to use the phasers to spell out "Manufactured triumph", hoping that the pursuing Captain Solok will remember using the phrase when Kira played baseball against the team of Vulcans on the holodeck a few years ago. With their shields gone, Solok and a team of Vulcan security officers beam aboard to offer assistance.
The Gryphon is restored, and the escape pods recovered. A Trill military transport arrives, with General Taulin Cyl of the Trill Defense Ministry aboard. He says they need to discuss the parasite's coming war of revenge against the Trill symbionts; humanoids aren't the targets, the Trill are.
Epilogue: An hour from the wormhole, they find that the subspace communication relay they left there has been destroyed, and that the space around the wormhole has been altered: the wormhole now opens at the Idran system, the whole of which has also moved. A Jem'Hadar ship approaches and hails them; it's the Vorta Weyoun, and he demands they return the Founder they have on board. Vaughn agrees, and says they would also like to arrange an information-exchange pact on the Borg; Weyoun says he'll pass it on to the Founders. The changeling tells Weyoun to thank the Federation for saving her life; Weyoun says as a thanks, they have an exchange for them as well. He beams 3 people aboard: Jake Sisko; a female named Wex, who Jake says is on a pilgrimage; and former kai of Bajor, Opaka.
Review: This book was so much shorter and faster-paced than the other 3 in the series; it was action-packed from start to finish. It brought back some unexpected old foes in the Borg and the parasites; Gul Macet is seemingly dead; Jake is back; we learned a lot more about Vaughn's backstory; etc. 5 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2017
Lesser Evil marks the fourth and final entry in the Mission Gamma Deep Space Nine relaunch series, in addition to being the shortest volume in the collection.
On the home straight of the extended mission to the Gamma Quadrant, Vaughn and the crew of the Defiant track a mysterious transmission to a planet which marks the final resting place of crashed Jem'Hadar and Borg vessels. Meanwhile, Kira must thwart an insidious parasitic species' attempt to infiltrate the halls of power of Starfleet Command and the Federation.
Robert Simpson finally translates the hundreds of fan-fiction attempts to pit the Dominion and the Borg against each other into an official Star Trek novel - and the results are mixed. The initial sequence, where the away team encounter a Changeling masquerading as an alien dinosaur, verges on the overly indulgent side for me. Yet as the story weaves it's way around to the personal scenes between Vaughn and Prynn and the inevitable flashback to the mission which saw the loss of Ruriko Tenmei, I found myself enjoying it more and more. Nevertheless, I found it hard to quash the feeling that the Borg are simply not a good fit in the DS9 universe. Scenes involving the Defiant crew discussing the Collective felt foreign and forced.
The other main plotline here: Kira finally uncovers the real reason behind Shakaar's strange behaviour and his shocking assassination in Book 3. Yet by the time the revelation was spelt out, I'd already reached the same conclusion: The "Conspiracy" parasite aliens are back! I loved the insidious nature of their return, and although the answer to the "who's been possessed" mystery was pretty obvious from the outset by the time Kira boards the U.S.S. Gryphon, the subsequent race against time was enthralling to read. Simpson does a great job of maintaining pace throughout these scenes, and I enjoyed seeing Kira take on her Starfleet field commission again and get a piece of the action.
I'm glad the powers that be decided against nixing the Joseph Sisko character. He provides a nice connection to Ben and Jake, and there is some real emotional resonance to the scenes involving him and the O'Briens on earth. I particularly liked the call back to Molly's necklace - a gift from Kai Opaka - even though it did telegraph the ending scene to the novel somewhat. Speaking of which: Finally! Jake returns after an absence of 8 novels, and his traveling companion of Bajor's long lost Kai is sure to feed into a fascinating story in the next installment. Quite how that will connect with the relocation of the entire Idran system, I'm not quite sure at this point. Time will tell!
All in all, a satisfying conclusion to the Mission Gamma series. Faster paced than the previous novels, and that comes to the detriment of some of the character moments which worked so well in the other books. The Borg/Dominion scenes felt contrived and out of place at times, but time will tell if that feeds into a larger storyline further down the line. 3 stars.
On the home straight of the extended mission to the Gamma Quadrant, Vaughn and the crew of the Defiant track a mysterious transmission to a planet which marks the final resting place of crashed Jem'Hadar and Borg vessels. Meanwhile, Kira must thwart an insidious parasitic species' attempt to infiltrate the halls of power of Starfleet Command and the Federation.
Robert Simpson finally translates the hundreds of fan-fiction attempts to pit the Dominion and the Borg against each other into an official Star Trek novel - and the results are mixed. The initial sequence, where the away team encounter a Changeling masquerading as an alien dinosaur, verges on the overly indulgent side for me. Yet as the story weaves it's way around to the personal scenes between Vaughn and Prynn and the inevitable flashback to the mission which saw the loss of Ruriko Tenmei, I found myself enjoying it more and more. Nevertheless, I found it hard to quash the feeling that the Borg are simply not a good fit in the DS9 universe. Scenes involving the Defiant crew discussing the Collective felt foreign and forced.
The other main plotline here: Kira finally uncovers the real reason behind Shakaar's strange behaviour and his shocking assassination in Book 3. Yet by the time the revelation was spelt out, I'd already reached the same conclusion: The "Conspiracy" parasite aliens are back! I loved the insidious nature of their return, and although the answer to the "who's been possessed" mystery was pretty obvious from the outset by the time Kira boards the U.S.S. Gryphon, the subsequent race against time was enthralling to read. Simpson does a great job of maintaining pace throughout these scenes, and I enjoyed seeing Kira take on her Starfleet field commission again and get a piece of the action.
I'm glad the powers that be decided against nixing the Joseph Sisko character. He provides a nice connection to Ben and Jake, and there is some real emotional resonance to the scenes involving him and the O'Briens on earth. I particularly liked the call back to Molly's necklace - a gift from Kai Opaka - even though it did telegraph the ending scene to the novel somewhat. Speaking of which: Finally! Jake returns after an absence of 8 novels, and his traveling companion of Bajor's long lost Kai is sure to feed into a fascinating story in the next installment. Quite how that will connect with the relocation of the entire Idran system, I'm not quite sure at this point. Time will tell!
All in all, a satisfying conclusion to the Mission Gamma series. Faster paced than the previous novels, and that comes to the detriment of some of the character moments which worked so well in the other books. The Borg/Dominion scenes felt contrived and out of place at times, but time will tell if that feeds into a larger storyline further down the line. 3 stars.
July 7, 2023
2023 reads, #52-55. It's summer, which means I'm tearing through a bunch of summer reads these days, purposely easier reads that are often also called "beach and airport novels," which I've been deliberately doing for the last several years now as a nostalgic homage to my '70s childhood, when I would participate in my public library's summer reading challenge and tear through a bunch of easy reads in exactly this same spirit. And man, it doesn't get much more summery and easy than Star Trek novels, which longtime readers will remember is something fairly new to my life that I've gone back and forth about many times, regarding their relative cheesiness versus the relative enjoyment I get out of their cheesiness.
Thankfully I've had a chance to steer towards the higher end of these 800+ books, by concentrating on an astounding 100-book series called the "Relaunch Novels" that one can realistically call "semi-canon" books, in that soon after the end of the television run of the highly serialized Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Simon & Schuster asked for and remarkably received from Paramount permission to do a series of DS9 books that actually maintain a consistency to character and plot developments from one book to the next. This allows major characters to die and never come back, or new complications to be added to their milieu that are still there 20 books later, essentially turning these books into an unofficial "eighth season" of the show (or I suppose more like an unofficial eighth through twelfth seasons by this point, although the run was officially finally ended in 2021 with the three-book "Coda," so that the running storyline wouldn't clash with the just-released new TV show Star Trek: Picard).
That's amazing, because usually non-canon genre novels (no matter what TV or movie series you're talking about, whether Star Trek or Star Wars, Buffy or Supernatural) are deliberately meant to be disposable, meaning that they have to be written in a way so that you can pick up any random one at any random time at any random yard sale without needing to know even a single thing about what came before in the book series and what came after; that essentially traps most non-canon genre novels in amber like a fossil, where nothing of importance or permanence ever happens to the characters or their situations, which is a huge aspect of why so many people look at non-canon genre novels with disdain. So I'm glad to be reading these Relaunch novels, and was especially excited to get to the books I just recently completed, the four-book miniseries "Mission Gamma" that tells one big unified story over the course of 1,600 freaking pages, which I read right in a freaking row over the last six freaking weeks of my life without taking even a slight freaking pause between each of them, aaaaahhhhhhhh yiiiiiiiiisssss.
That's the best way to approach these four novels, to just read them all in a row without stopping, because they're all thematically connected through a fascinating turn of events: basically, now that the Dominion War is over, Starfleet decides to convert the DS9 warship Defiant into a science and exploration vehicle like the Enterprise, and then sends a collection of our cast members out through the wormhole and into the Gamma Quadrant to do the Federation's first-ever outreach to "new civilizations" and "strange new worlds" in this vastly distant section of the Milky Way Galaxy, one that's suddenly now within a moment's reach because of this cosmic hiccup known as the wormhole that played such a large role on the original television show. And that's basically why I wanted to do one long write-up for all four of these novels as well, because they're essentially like watching four episodes in a row of the TV show, with a familiar formula that doesn't really change from one to the next (basically -- discover new civilization, something about new civilization gets all fucked up, crew spends the rest of the book trying to fix the fuckup).
There isn't a lot to say about each individual "crisis of the week" here, but collectively they were exactly what I wanted from a summer reading project like this -- something exciting yet intelligent, something well-written but not too complex, something I can read on my front porch on a summer Sunday and perhaps fall asleep in the middle of but don't need to feel guilty about doing. That said, easily the most interesting crisis of the week here is in book #3, Cathedral, in which the Defiant crew stumbles across a doomsday weapon from a highly advanced civilization that destroyed itself more than half a billion years ago, basically a "quantum bomb" that takes any living creature that gets close to it and then tries to mesh that creature with the untold trillions of other versions of that creature that exist in the infinite alternative realities of the quantum multiverse, essentially the entire climax of Everything Everywhere All At Once but compressed down into a millisecond.
But don't worry, we still keep checking in on things back at the station during these four novels too! Among those developments is one of the more intriguing ones I've seen so far in these Relaunch novels, which is basically that it's looking more and more likely that there's going to be a Protestant Reformation soon on the deeply religious planet Bajor which serves as the space station's "home base" both on the show and in these books. In an earlier novel, series regular Kira Nerys had an opportunity to release a recently discovered holy book to the general population of her home planet, after their religious elite tried to hide the book's existence because of it seemingly teaching moral lessons that don't jibe with the traditional ethical rules their religion teaches. That essentially has started turning Nerys in the last couple of books into a sort of Martin Luther figure among her people; and one of the major "domestic" developments of this four-book series is a growing amount of Bajorans actually starting a brand-new sect of their religion, which may or may not eventually turn into a bloody civil war just like the real Protestant Reformation did in Europe back in the 1500s.
I have to admit, I've been eating this stuff up with a spoon, along with such other developments as the growing unlikely romance between slimy bar owner Quark and tough-as-fuck Bajoran security specialist Ro Lauren (an interesting addition to the novel series, in that in real life, Michelle Forbes' Ro from The Next Generation was actually meant to fill the role Kira eventually did on Deep Space Nine, but then the actress got cold feet right before making the seven-year commitment), or the growing embrace of humanity by the rogue Jem'Hadar named Taran'atar who now lives on the station, a race that was barely explored during the original TV run (they were essentially the Dominion's hired muscle) and that the novel authors are doing a great job expanding and complexifying here in the books. I'm finding this all very satisfying, and right now these books continue to deliver exactly what I want from them; so I'm looking highly forward to launching myself into yet more of them later this year, starting next with SD Perry's Rising Son, in which we FINALLY learn what Ben Sisko's son Jake has been doing the entire time he's been plunged into the wormhole in an attempt to track down his missing, ethereal father, which happened way back like six books ago. This is actually considered by many to be in the top 10 Star Trek novels in quality out of all 800 of them, so I suspect I'll be getting to this one soon!
Thankfully I've had a chance to steer towards the higher end of these 800+ books, by concentrating on an astounding 100-book series called the "Relaunch Novels" that one can realistically call "semi-canon" books, in that soon after the end of the television run of the highly serialized Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Simon & Schuster asked for and remarkably received from Paramount permission to do a series of DS9 books that actually maintain a consistency to character and plot developments from one book to the next. This allows major characters to die and never come back, or new complications to be added to their milieu that are still there 20 books later, essentially turning these books into an unofficial "eighth season" of the show (or I suppose more like an unofficial eighth through twelfth seasons by this point, although the run was officially finally ended in 2021 with the three-book "Coda," so that the running storyline wouldn't clash with the just-released new TV show Star Trek: Picard).
That's amazing, because usually non-canon genre novels (no matter what TV or movie series you're talking about, whether Star Trek or Star Wars, Buffy or Supernatural) are deliberately meant to be disposable, meaning that they have to be written in a way so that you can pick up any random one at any random time at any random yard sale without needing to know even a single thing about what came before in the book series and what came after; that essentially traps most non-canon genre novels in amber like a fossil, where nothing of importance or permanence ever happens to the characters or their situations, which is a huge aspect of why so many people look at non-canon genre novels with disdain. So I'm glad to be reading these Relaunch novels, and was especially excited to get to the books I just recently completed, the four-book miniseries "Mission Gamma" that tells one big unified story over the course of 1,600 freaking pages, which I read right in a freaking row over the last six freaking weeks of my life without taking even a slight freaking pause between each of them, aaaaahhhhhhhh yiiiiiiiiisssss.
That's the best way to approach these four novels, to just read them all in a row without stopping, because they're all thematically connected through a fascinating turn of events: basically, now that the Dominion War is over, Starfleet decides to convert the DS9 warship Defiant into a science and exploration vehicle like the Enterprise, and then sends a collection of our cast members out through the wormhole and into the Gamma Quadrant to do the Federation's first-ever outreach to "new civilizations" and "strange new worlds" in this vastly distant section of the Milky Way Galaxy, one that's suddenly now within a moment's reach because of this cosmic hiccup known as the wormhole that played such a large role on the original television show. And that's basically why I wanted to do one long write-up for all four of these novels as well, because they're essentially like watching four episodes in a row of the TV show, with a familiar formula that doesn't really change from one to the next (basically -- discover new civilization, something about new civilization gets all fucked up, crew spends the rest of the book trying to fix the fuckup).
There isn't a lot to say about each individual "crisis of the week" here, but collectively they were exactly what I wanted from a summer reading project like this -- something exciting yet intelligent, something well-written but not too complex, something I can read on my front porch on a summer Sunday and perhaps fall asleep in the middle of but don't need to feel guilty about doing. That said, easily the most interesting crisis of the week here is in book #3, Cathedral, in which the Defiant crew stumbles across a doomsday weapon from a highly advanced civilization that destroyed itself more than half a billion years ago, basically a "quantum bomb" that takes any living creature that gets close to it and then tries to mesh that creature with the untold trillions of other versions of that creature that exist in the infinite alternative realities of the quantum multiverse, essentially the entire climax of Everything Everywhere All At Once but compressed down into a millisecond.
But don't worry, we still keep checking in on things back at the station during these four novels too! Among those developments is one of the more intriguing ones I've seen so far in these Relaunch novels, which is basically that it's looking more and more likely that there's going to be a Protestant Reformation soon on the deeply religious planet Bajor which serves as the space station's "home base" both on the show and in these books. In an earlier novel, series regular Kira Nerys had an opportunity to release a recently discovered holy book to the general population of her home planet, after their religious elite tried to hide the book's existence because of it seemingly teaching moral lessons that don't jibe with the traditional ethical rules their religion teaches. That essentially has started turning Nerys in the last couple of books into a sort of Martin Luther figure among her people; and one of the major "domestic" developments of this four-book series is a growing amount of Bajorans actually starting a brand-new sect of their religion, which may or may not eventually turn into a bloody civil war just like the real Protestant Reformation did in Europe back in the 1500s.
I have to admit, I've been eating this stuff up with a spoon, along with such other developments as the growing unlikely romance between slimy bar owner Quark and tough-as-fuck Bajoran security specialist Ro Lauren (an interesting addition to the novel series, in that in real life, Michelle Forbes' Ro from The Next Generation was actually meant to fill the role Kira eventually did on Deep Space Nine, but then the actress got cold feet right before making the seven-year commitment), or the growing embrace of humanity by the rogue Jem'Hadar named Taran'atar who now lives on the station, a race that was barely explored during the original TV run (they were essentially the Dominion's hired muscle) and that the novel authors are doing a great job expanding and complexifying here in the books. I'm finding this all very satisfying, and right now these books continue to deliver exactly what I want from them; so I'm looking highly forward to launching myself into yet more of them later this year, starting next with SD Perry's Rising Son, in which we FINALLY learn what Ben Sisko's son Jake has been doing the entire time he's been plunged into the wormhole in an attempt to track down his missing, ethereal father, which happened way back like six books ago. This is actually considered by many to be in the top 10 Star Trek novels in quality out of all 800 of them, so I suspect I'll be getting to this one soon!
March 17, 2025
This was a perfect conclusion to Mission Gamma.
The Defiant is making its way home when the sensors pick up something startling- a Starfleet transponder code. Their investigation leads them to a crashed ship on a remote planet- a Borg ship.
Oh, and there's also a Changeling in the area.
Back on the station, Kira and Ro are trying to find Shakaar's murderer, Trill security officer Hiziki Gard. Admiral Akaar is convinced that the killer is on a cloaked ship heading back to his native Trill, Ro is convinced that the killer is still on the station hiding and wants to catch him before resigning her commission before the Bajoran militia is absorbed by Starfleet. When she does catch him, he and the autopsy performed on Shakaar reveal a major danger both to Trill and to the entire Federation
In the crash, Commander Vaughn finds the one thing he never expected: his former lover and Prynn's mother Commander Ruriko Tenmei assimilated by the Borg and near death following separation from the Collective. Dr. Bashir works on finding a way to restore Commander Tenmei's humanity while Nog and Lieutenant Bowers look for the changeling to convince her to accept a ride back to the Great Link instead of remaining stranded on that planet. With both her and the drone formerly known as Commander Tenmei on board, the crew has to figure 0ut whether or not either o both of them pose a threat to them- and what would be the cost of defending themselves
Col. Kira is reactivated as a Starfleet officer and assigned to the Gryphon, the ship following a warp trail to Trill. While aboard, Ro gets word to her about their findings. Shakaar was possessed by one of the parasite creatures that once attacked Starfleet headquarters, and another is aboard the Gryphon, intent on attacking Trill with the ships advanced weaponry.
While Kira fights to save Trill, Commander Vaughn finds himself facing a hard choice- continue trying to save Ruriko or protect Prynn from potentially be assimilated by killing her. His choice undoes all the progress he and Prynn had made in healing their fractured fahter/daughter relationship.
The Defiant encounters a Dominion ship, which comes to retrieve the changeling they recovered and to hand over some rescued Alpha Quadrant travelers whom they picked up: Jake Sisko (missing for months), an alien female named Wex and the last person any of them expected to see: former Bajoran kai Opaka Sulan.
I loved the shock ending and look forward to the next DS9 book to find out where Jake has been all this time and how he wound up on a Dominion ship
The Defiant is making its way home when the sensors pick up something startling- a Starfleet transponder code. Their investigation leads them to a crashed ship on a remote planet- a Borg ship.
Oh, and there's also a Changeling in the area.
Back on the station, Kira and Ro are trying to find Shakaar's murderer, Trill security officer Hiziki Gard. Admiral Akaar is convinced that the killer is on a cloaked ship heading back to his native Trill, Ro is convinced that the killer is still on the station hiding and wants to catch him before resigning her commission before the Bajoran militia is absorbed by Starfleet. When she does catch him, he and the autopsy performed on Shakaar reveal a major danger both to Trill and to the entire Federation
In the crash, Commander Vaughn finds the one thing he never expected: his former lover and Prynn's mother Commander Ruriko Tenmei assimilated by the Borg and near death following separation from the Collective. Dr. Bashir works on finding a way to restore Commander Tenmei's humanity while Nog and Lieutenant Bowers look for the changeling to convince her to accept a ride back to the Great Link instead of remaining stranded on that planet. With both her and the drone formerly known as Commander Tenmei on board, the crew has to figure 0ut whether or not either o both of them pose a threat to them- and what would be the cost of defending themselves
Col. Kira is reactivated as a Starfleet officer and assigned to the Gryphon, the ship following a warp trail to Trill. While aboard, Ro gets word to her about their findings. Shakaar was possessed by one of the parasite creatures that once attacked Starfleet headquarters, and another is aboard the Gryphon, intent on attacking Trill with the ships advanced weaponry.
While Kira fights to save Trill, Commander Vaughn finds himself facing a hard choice- continue trying to save Ruriko or protect Prynn from potentially be assimilated by killing her. His choice undoes all the progress he and Prynn had made in healing their fractured fahter/daughter relationship.
The Defiant encounters a Dominion ship, which comes to retrieve the changeling they recovered and to hand over some rescued Alpha Quadrant travelers whom they picked up: Jake Sisko (missing for months), an alien female named Wex and the last person any of them expected to see: former Bajoran kai Opaka Sulan.
I loved the shock ending and look forward to the next DS9 book to find out where Jake has been all this time and how he wound up on a Dominion ship
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 7, 2024
Star Trek: DS9 - Post-Nemesis: Mission Gamma 04 Lesser Evil by Robert Simpson
Adventurous, challenging, emotional, hopeful, inspiring, mysterious, reflective, sad, and tense.
Medium-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25 Stars
This almost...just almost matched the previous entry (Cathedral) in the Mission Gamma quartet, but fell short. The ending wasn't bad, but it seemed too convenient.
I don't want to give away ANY spoilers, but this story has been told before in TNG. Maybe not to THIS extent, or by THIS alien, but it wasn't what I was hoping that it was. This may just be me. I acknowledge that.
Following the final scene of Cathedral, we get the other point of view of the murder, and who actually was the murderer. That was a HUGE surprise, but then (ugh), it dove tails into the above frustration with the antagonists within this story. I feel it's been done TO DEATH, and wished the writer would've made a different choice. Again, it may just be a ME problem.
Love Kira Nerys' story in this book. She is such a powerful character, that I think I may enjoy her just reading the phone book (not really, but you know what I mean). Nana Visitor has given SO much to this character, that the author is able to put her in so many situations...that we buy in.
I really loved the backstory (and progression) of Commander Vaughn, his "wife" (Ruriko Tenmei). or birth mother to Prynn. I also loved the story behind Prynn's name. Well done.
The Ro Laren and Quark relationship, is one that I wouldn't have ever imagined would happen, and in a lot of ways...it is fun to read. Hey, you love what you love. Sheesh.
I really did enjoy reading this book. The action scenes were well paced, and the moments of tension were well done. Love the current crew of the USS Defiant, and what eventually was the USS Gryphon.
Now, the final reveal...which I did enjoy...leads directly into Rising Son, the Unity. I am supper stoked about where it is going to go...and cannot wait to read these two books.
Adventurous, challenging, emotional, hopeful, inspiring, mysterious, reflective, sad, and tense.
Medium-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25 Stars
This almost...just almost matched the previous entry (Cathedral) in the Mission Gamma quartet, but fell short. The ending wasn't bad, but it seemed too convenient.
I don't want to give away ANY spoilers, but this story has been told before in TNG. Maybe not to THIS extent, or by THIS alien, but it wasn't what I was hoping that it was. This may just be me. I acknowledge that.
Following the final scene of Cathedral, we get the other point of view of the murder, and who actually was the murderer. That was a HUGE surprise, but then (ugh), it dove tails into the above frustration with the antagonists within this story. I feel it's been done TO DEATH, and wished the writer would've made a different choice. Again, it may just be a ME problem.
Love Kira Nerys' story in this book. She is such a powerful character, that I think I may enjoy her just reading the phone book (not really, but you know what I mean). Nana Visitor has given SO much to this character, that the author is able to put her in so many situations...that we buy in.
I really loved the backstory (and progression) of Commander Vaughn, his "wife" (Ruriko Tenmei). or birth mother to Prynn. I also loved the story behind Prynn's name. Well done.
The Ro Laren and Quark relationship, is one that I wouldn't have ever imagined would happen, and in a lot of ways...it is fun to read. Hey, you love what you love. Sheesh.
I really did enjoy reading this book. The action scenes were well paced, and the moments of tension were well done. Love the current crew of the USS Defiant, and what eventually was the USS Gryphon.
Now, the final reveal...which I did enjoy...leads directly into Rising Son, the Unity. I am supper stoked about where it is going to go...and cannot wait to read these two books.
March 10, 2024
DS9: Mission Gamma #4: Lesser Evil by Robert Simpson
Damn, good way to keep the relaunch going! This book ties in several hanging plot threads that was hinted at in the Lives of Dax and other entries before this. Also it’s great to see Conspiracy, one of the best early TNG episodes get some sort of follow up. Tying it into the Trills is the most logical place to do it (even though Star Trek Online ties the Parasites into the Iconians). The Alpha Quadrant stuff was the best part of this book and it’s great to see stuff finally kick into gear.
The Gamma Quadrant wasn’t as strong as the Alpha Quadrant stuff though. The idea of the Borg intruding on the Gamma Quadrant is a great idea as we never got to see on screen the Dominon and the Borg fight. I didn’t seriously the point of bringing back Ruriko, Prynn’s mom just to kill her off again and then Vaughan FUCKING LIES about it. Jesus, it was bad. Vaughan is a major asshole in my books now. I also felt this book was too short and could have benefited from being another 100 pages like the rest of the volumes. The Weyoun cameo was funny and the bit with Morn and Trier made me laugh a lot. Overall, an ok book but the Gamma Quadrant stuff wasn’t very good.
7/10
Damn, good way to keep the relaunch going! This book ties in several hanging plot threads that was hinted at in the Lives of Dax and other entries before this. Also it’s great to see Conspiracy, one of the best early TNG episodes get some sort of follow up. Tying it into the Trills is the most logical place to do it (even though Star Trek Online ties the Parasites into the Iconians). The Alpha Quadrant stuff was the best part of this book and it’s great to see stuff finally kick into gear.
The Gamma Quadrant wasn’t as strong as the Alpha Quadrant stuff though. The idea of the Borg intruding on the Gamma Quadrant is a great idea as we never got to see on screen the Dominon and the Borg fight. I didn’t seriously the point of bringing back Ruriko, Prynn’s mom just to kill her off again and then Vaughan FUCKING LIES about it. Jesus, it was bad. Vaughan is a major asshole in my books now. I also felt this book was too short and could have benefited from being another 100 pages like the rest of the volumes. The Weyoun cameo was funny and the bit with Morn and Trier made me laugh a lot. Overall, an ok book but the Gamma Quadrant stuff wasn’t very good.
7/10
September 30, 2021
This was a very strong finish to the “Mission: Gamma” miniseries. While the first two books stumbled a bit - particularly the first book - the wonderful “Cathedral” and the excellent “Lesser Evil” really helped to make the series shine.
“Lesser Evil” was quite interesting. On DS9, we deal with the fallout of the death of Shakaar; in the Gamma Quadrant, we deal with a Borg (!) incursion and it’s relationship to Vaughn and Prynn; on Earth, we see the return of Miles O’Brien and Co. as they try to help the Sisko family return to normalcy; finally, Colonel Kira takes a trip on the U.S.S. Gryphon to avert a war.
If that seems like a lot to read, I can attest that it was so well-written that I finished the book in two days. There wasn’t a lot of filler here, and what was here mattered.
I’m vague on the whole concept, as I don’t want to get too involved in spoilers, but I can say that this book did a great job of carrying the relaunch forward, and the epilogue certainly helped me want to read the next book!
“Lesser Evil” was quite interesting. On DS9, we deal with the fallout of the death of Shakaar; in the Gamma Quadrant, we deal with a Borg (!) incursion and it’s relationship to Vaughn and Prynn; on Earth, we see the return of Miles O’Brien and Co. as they try to help the Sisko family return to normalcy; finally, Colonel Kira takes a trip on the U.S.S. Gryphon to avert a war.
If that seems like a lot to read, I can attest that it was so well-written that I finished the book in two days. There wasn’t a lot of filler here, and what was here mattered.
I’m vague on the whole concept, as I don’t want to get too involved in spoilers, but I can say that this book did a great job of carrying the relaunch forward, and the epilogue certainly helped me want to read the next book!
January 25, 2025
Well that was short and sweet and I think in a way slightly anti-climactic but I already read Rising Son accidentally before this series so maybe the impact of the ending wasn't as hard for me. Anyway, I liked the chase and what was happening with Shakaar although that was a sad ending for that character. The conspiracy of what was going on was an interesting if not a bid muddled of a twist but DS9 seemed an appropriate place for that kind of story. The Gamma Quadrant story with Vaughn and Prynn seemed to be almost rushed through and ended quite abruptly but definitely brings some interesting elements to where that all is going. These books do seem very serial so I do enjoy them but at times the books themselves feel incomplete as they are just leading into the next one. However, I enjoy the long game so I am all for it. This just seemed like a weird little book to tag on the end of the Mission Gamma series and the plot was more central in the Alpha quadrant this time around it felt. However, I did like it but it probably could have used more room to breathe.
September 8, 2018
This novel provides a satisfying conclusion to the sequence dealing with the Defiant's exploratory journey through the Gamma Quadrant. An unexpected Star Fleet transponder signal sends Commander Vaughan to a mostly deserted planet where he is forced to face up to a tragedy from his past that he's never been able to deal with - the guilt of having to order the woman he loved to complete a mission that would kill her.
There's also a young Founder stranded on this planet who is alone, all her Vorta and Jem Hadar having been killed when their ship crashed. She's been there a few years so she doesn't know the war is over.
Meanwhile on Deep Space Nine, everyone is trying to deal with the shocking murder of the Bajoran First Minister. Kira is manipulated into giving chase by a false trail so it's left to Ro to find the assassin. It turns out that an old enemy has reappeared and is making war on the Trill.
There's also a young Founder stranded on this planet who is alone, all her Vorta and Jem Hadar having been killed when their ship crashed. She's been there a few years so she doesn't know the war is over.
Meanwhile on Deep Space Nine, everyone is trying to deal with the shocking murder of the Bajoran First Minister. Kira is manipulated into giving chase by a false trail so it's left to Ro to find the assassin. It turns out that an old enemy has reappeared and is making war on the Trill.
May 10, 2024
Exciting Conclusion to the Gamma Saga
Spoilers for Book three. This entry hits the ground running after the death of Bajoran first minister Shakaar. Ro and the DS9 crew scour clues and hunt for the assassin. The book breathlessly continues from that cliffhanger keeping all the momentum and intrigue left by such a plot twist. What is uncovered is a satisfying and well deserved return of an old enemy. In the Gamma Quadrant the Defiant finds a signal that leads them to a crash site and what was found there was also interesting to the crew especially Commander Vaughn. After having read Rising Son before this and claiming that to be my favorite from the Relaunch series so far, I was not expecting to immediately be re-evaluating that claim so soon. Mission Gamma Lesser Evil is a fast paced, satisfying conclusion to this mini arc that plants seeds for the ongoing saga.
Spoilers for Book three. This entry hits the ground running after the death of Bajoran first minister Shakaar. Ro and the DS9 crew scour clues and hunt for the assassin. The book breathlessly continues from that cliffhanger keeping all the momentum and intrigue left by such a plot twist. What is uncovered is a satisfying and well deserved return of an old enemy. In the Gamma Quadrant the Defiant finds a signal that leads them to a crash site and what was found there was also interesting to the crew especially Commander Vaughn. After having read Rising Son before this and claiming that to be my favorite from the Relaunch series so far, I was not expecting to immediately be re-evaluating that claim so soon. Mission Gamma Lesser Evil is a fast paced, satisfying conclusion to this mini arc that plants seeds for the ongoing saga.
December 19, 2022
This finale for the 4-party novel storyline didn't at all end where I expected it too. There was more or less sufficient build-up for this across the books I suppose, but the big parasitic reveal at the end almost felt like a deep cut for Star Trek lore even though it is a memorable enough event for those who have at least watched The Next Generation.
When you get around the slight silliness of the reveal of our "big bad" for this arc, the potential for this story gets rather exciting. There are so many ways this story can go and they picked one heck of a ending to really get people excited over this.
I love Deep Space Nine as a TV series and I do love where the stories are going with this section of the novel universe.
When you get around the slight silliness of the reveal of our "big bad" for this arc, the potential for this story gets rather exciting. There are so many ways this story can go and they picked one heck of a ending to really get people excited over this.
I love Deep Space Nine as a TV series and I do love where the stories are going with this section of the novel universe.
May 27, 2021
Kärleken mellan Quark och Laren förstärks samtidigt som kaos härjar på Deep Space 9 efter att Shakaar blivit mördat. Laren är övertygad om att förövaren är kvar på stationen, men spår visar att han nu färdas i warpfart till Trill. Saker är dock inte så som de verkar vara, på någon plats. Det är en mycket spännande bok som också återintroducerar federationens två stora infiltrerande fiender, borgerna och en ytterligare ras som tidigare synts i TNG, en ras som av manusförfattarna var tänkta att bli det som borgerna sedan blev, nämligen den stora fienden i serien.
March 5, 2022
WOW still loving this series so much.
I don't even know how to deal with that ending.
Will fly into the next one.
More specifically I found that there was a lot going on in this, especially with the reintroduction of the Borg threat, the parasites from Conspiracy (I think it's the ones from that episode? Forgive me, it's been at least 7 years), Shar's bondmates causing drama, and a Quark and Ro romance that I still do not care about. But the story was balanced well and I really enjoyed the time we spent with Vaughn and Prynn. Can't wait for more!
I don't even know how to deal with that ending.
Will fly into the next one.
More specifically I found that there was a lot going on in this, especially with the reintroduction of the Borg threat, the parasites from Conspiracy (I think it's the ones from that episode? Forgive me, it's been at least 7 years), Shar's bondmates causing drama, and a Quark and Ro romance that I still do not care about. But the story was balanced well and I really enjoyed the time we spent with Vaughn and Prynn. Can't wait for more!
August 9, 2020
This book didn't really feel like a conclusion to the 4 book Gamma series as it sort of just ends with several loose story ends not resolved. The main A plot was interesting with a former TNG enemy coming back. The Defiant story definitely came across like a minor B plot with that resolved pretty fast. Overall the series was enjoyable even though several TV series characters aren't around anymore. New characters like Cmd Vaughn and the returning Ro Lauren fir in well. A thumbs up for any DS9 fan who wants to see the TV shows story continued.
August 13, 2017
a satisfying end to this quartet, exciting plots that setup intrigue for future books. interesting themes on identity -- people who have become someone they're not (through alien intrusion), characters choosing the person they want to be based on their choices, etc.
much better pacing than previous books in the series, almost made me care about vaughn which is a feat.
much better pacing than previous books in the series, almost made me care about vaughn which is a feat.
June 1, 2023
By rights this book should collapse under the weight of its many plot lines. Yet the shortest of the Mission Gamma novels successfully ties up elements of the first three books, while introducing the big components and events that will close out the next two DS9 novels. In theory this approach should have been declared mad...and yet here I am, satisfied and impressed.
January 23, 2022
Bajor/Federation intrigue = 8/1o
Trill/symbiont intrigue = 10/10
...sigh... Gamma quadrant/borg intrigue = 2/10
If nothing else in this book quite sticks with me, Joseph Sisko teaching Molly O'Brien how to ride a bike is now safely ensconced in my personal hall of fame.
Trill/symbiont intrigue = 10/10
...sigh... Gamma quadrant/borg intrigue = 2/10
If nothing else in this book quite sticks with me, Joseph Sisko teaching Molly O'Brien how to ride a bike is now safely ensconced in my personal hall of fame.
July 4, 2023
Overall, a bit of a mixed bag of a series. I liked seeing Joseph Sisko deal with the absence of his son, but I wish more time had been spent on that. I was pleasantly surprised about The Silmarillion being a character’s favorite book.
September 10, 2024
They… why? You were doing so well with the sociopolitical ramifications of a smaller state joining the Federation. Just a complete cop-out of a feeling with the culprits behind recent events revealed to be scifi trope #1789.
December 20, 2024
For being the shortest book out of the 4 installments it was the most enjoyable. It had the most happening in it. I mean.. what didn't it have? If you're yearning for a bit of excitement after the sporadic humdrum lesson-learning parts of the previous 3 books you'll be pleased.
September 26, 2017
Really good conclusion to this series. Definitely my favorite out of all four. It ended on a cliffhanger, so I can't wait to see what happens next!
March 7, 2018
What a hasty, chopped up conclusion to what had been an interesting series. 'Ends' with a lead in to another book. i won't read it on purpose! Lesser Evil is a well earned title.
October 13, 2019
Apart from one ill-advised goose chase of a chapter that attempted to make Vaughn into an interesting character, I thought this one was stellar. Absolutely swallowed it whole. 4.5 stars
November 28, 2019
Review forthcoming
June 21, 2020
Meh...#3 was BY FAR the best of the series. This one was just sort of average.
November 13, 2020
Fantastic story that kept me interested ! Indid not want to put the book down! Read it in two days !
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