Customer Reviews

The Badlands, Book 2 (Star Trek)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Some of these reviews are just to darn picky! I mean goodness... look, Book 1 was pretty good with the whole " menace " in the Badlands defeating the first Enterprise and then Picard and crew. Book 2 was even better. Why? Because it fills the gap in between critical Voyager and DS9 episodes! Now look, why exactly was Tuvok and the Marqui lost in the Badlands? You'll find out! Remember Odo and the baby changelling that died? Or the Bashir Changelling for half that season? They play a big role in this book as well! Janeway and the ORIGINAL Voyager crew with Commander Cavit and Dr. Bist search for Tuvok and the Marqui crew who was lost within the Badlands after destroying Opek Nor! The Menace as we saw in Book 1, hit the Marqui and the Cardassian vessel with Evek. Janeway and the Voyager assist Evek and his ship and soon she discovers the Menace and its origin which dates back to the days of James T. Kirk. Just as the Menace hits Voyager, the Caretaker does as well and so the Voyager adventure begins. This book explores Paris' lonliness more as well and the crew and Seska and simply everything. Now after that episode where Odo's baby changelling dies and gives Odo back his powers, the Defiant goes into the Badlands to put an end to the AQS in the Badlands. They also assist the Romulans who plan on defeating the Dominion ( heh... good luck! ) This book also explains the Dominion/ Cardassian alliance. So basically, just get the book! Don't let these others turn you off from this book. Give it a chance, I think you'll like it.

Again, I feel that the story would fare better if they were complete stories in their own right, that is, written in two books rather than halves.

The first story is more on the Marquis and Paris rather than on the Badlands itself. Nothing new is introduced. I would have loved a more detailed story of the hide and seek in the Badlands before the Voyager disappeared. I find it rather difficult to believe that Spock and Data were not able to come up with the explanation of the Badlands that Janeway could.

The explanation of the Badlands is quantum singularity. That's it. I really mean that's it. There is no further expansion on this matter to describe QS. Next Romulans are expert in QS and they can capture it. That's really stretching it. It's like capturing the whole universe. A capture went wrong and the QS is be passing through the federation. huh? I thought the Badlands is where is always is and if the QS is causing the Badlands, how can it move?

Sisko was able to use Romulan's technology and move the QS away from Federation territory. Huh? What happen to the Badlands now that the QS has disappeared or re-directed? Has it become the Goodlands?

I find this last story the weakest of all leaving so many holes and even for people like me who would like to stretch the imagination when reading scifi, I find the idea of capturing QS rather ridiculous.

Good book, but there are two cliffhangars in it: "There was a flash of white light. Then the Selva was gone." It's the same with Voyager. But since I'm a big fan of Deep Space Nine, I liked the Deep Space Nine part better. In it Dax and Worf are romanticaly involved. If I't didn't have those cliffhangers, I'd make it 5 stars.

Book two of the Badlands Star Trek series by Susan Wright is a much better book then the first one. The Badlands series consists of two books, each with two stories in them. The first has stories with Captain Kirk's Enterprise and Captain Picard's Enterprise. This book has a story for Voyager and the Deep Space Nine crew. This one is quite an improvement in both the writing and the storytelling.

The first improvement from the previous book is that the writing seems much better. I don't know if I had just gotten used to it, or if it actually improved, but I didn't get the feeling I was reading a young adult book in this one. The prose seems much improved, which is strange considering the book was probably written at the same time as the first book. Kudos to Wright for the improvement. It really added to my enjoyment of this book.

The characterization is also good, if basic. All of the characters we know and love from the two television series are on form in this one, with no major discrepancies as there was in the first book. There are a couple of notable ones. In the Voyager story, Wright adds a great deal of depth to Gul Evek, the Cardassian commander of the ship that gets disabled. He appeared in a couple of episodes of the various Star Trek series, but didn't get a whole lot of characterization. Wright adds a deepness to his character that I found really appealing. He's a poet and the story behind the romance between him and his wife is very good. Wright doesn't dwell on it too much, but when she does it's outstanding. The second piece of characterization I really enjoyed was Commander Dax in the Deep Space Nine story. In the television series she was always a bit flighty, a good and dedicated officer who didn't mind bringing a bit of fun to her job. She was a bit of a flirt as well. In this story, a Romulan officer is trying to drive a wedge between her and Commander Worf, her Klingon lover. Dax goes along with it in her flirtatious way, not realizing what the Romulan is trying to do. When it comes to light, her conversation with Worf is a great addition to her character. It adds some dimension to their romance that wasn't always there in the television series.

The plot continues to be intriguing, and when Janeway discovers what is really going on in the Badlands, it all ties together nicely with what's been going on in the first two stories. The book is a quick read and it certainly won't bore you. There's enough conflict between the various crews and the people they're interacting with (the Cardassians for Voyager and the Romulans for Deep Space Nine) to keep things interesting, and when you discover what the Romulans are really after, the tension starts to mount, especially when Sisko and company are outmaneuvered. The series is an intriguing look at an area of space mentioned quite often in the television series, and it was neat to find out more about it.

However, that does bring up one of the problems with the book, though you may not find it a problem. When I read a Star Trek book, I try to keep in mind what has gone on around it in the Star Trek timeline of the television series. This book, being slotted very deftly into some open spaces in that timeline, caused me to do it even more so. However, it does jar me a little bit when something so big happens that, if the book were included "officially" in that timeline (the books are not recognized as official by the Star Trek TV producers, allowing them to ignore anything that happens in them as far as television continuity is concerned), they should be mentioned and it seems strange that they weren't. In this case, all of the bad things that are happening in the Badlands really should have been mentioned in the episodes dealing with this area of space.

The second potential problem is that this book, even more than the first one, is only for the Star Trek fan. The stories are slotted so perfectly between certain episodes of the television series (the Voyager story actually takes place within the series premiere episode) that part of the story is very incomplete if you don't know what happens. In that series premiere, Voyager gets trapped by some cosmic rift and sent to the Delta Quadrant. That is basically how this story ends, as Janeway solves the problem of the Badlands but is caught before she can do anything about it. To the novice, it appears that this story ends completely unfinished. The Deep Space Nine story doesn't have this problem as much, but there do appear to be unresolved plot lines in it as well if you don't know the series. This isn't a problem for the fan, but new readers should be warned about this.

The final problem with the book is the offhand way Janeway solves the problem. It seems almost completely arbitrary, as if Wright just didn't want to have Sisko both figure out what is going on and do something about it. She has a sudden revelation about what must be going on, decides that must be the problem, and that's it. It all takes place in the space of four paragraphs and just seemed very sudden to me.

Still, that doesn't take away from the quality of this book. I found it a very enjoyable read, certainly better than the first book in the series. If you keep the potential problems mentioned above in mind, you should have a quick, enjoyable read. Just try not to grimace too much that you're paying for two books of about 260 pages each, which would have made one really neat book by themselves.

In the initial Badlands novel, the classic crew and then the Next Generation crew each explored the area of space called "The Badlands," and ran into a mysterious anomaly that caused serious illness. They treated the illness and moved on. In Badlands II, Voyager and Deep Space Nine get to tangle with this menace. Despite the fact that Kirk and Picard never figured out the answer in the first novel, Janeway figures it out in record time. Go Voyager!

Despite this, I found Badlands II an enjoyable read. The reader gets to follow Voyager as it is commissioned, and meet some of the officers (Doctor, First Officer, Helmsman) that never made it through the series pilot. The author Wright does an excellent job of writing Tom Paris and Harry Kim. It's interesting to watch this early version of the Voyager crew right up to their meeting with the Caretaker. Wright accomplishes this feat by having Voyager face this adventure after leaving Deep Space Nine and before beginning the hunt for the Maqui. Clever, and it works fine.

We also get to see Chakotay, Tuvok, and Seska as members of the Maqui. It's entertaining to watch Tuvok and Seska operate as double agents for the Cardassians and Federation respectively. Sadly, the Voyager part ended far too quickly, as Janeway figured out the Badlands anomaly with little flair.

The Deep Space Nine portion of the book also was quite good. Once again, Wright drops into the middle of the series and tells us about events that occurred in between episodes. This time, because the anomaly's radiation killed a baby shapeshifter, Odo persuades Sisco and friends to try and destroy the Badlands anomaly. This is possibly based on Janeway's earlier conclusions. The kicker on this one is that during this time period, Bashir was replaced by a shapeshifter and Wright does a great job of examining Odo's feelings about his people and their feelings about him. It's a creative angle, and well written.

Ultimately, the anomaly is solved. But the plot never seemed that important. It was just fun to see familiar characters in a different light.

Part 3

Star Trek Voyager

Part 3 takes place 2371, just prior to Voyager being torn out of the alpha quadrant to the delta quadrant by the Caretaker. This is another wonderful story giving us a brief back story for several events prior to the events in "The Caretaker." The author takes us there with Chakotay, B'Elanna, Seska and Tuvok as they begin a Maquis operation. Seska, being a Cardassian spy is trying her best to warn Gul Evek about an impending raid. She's desperately hoping to successfully foil the raid and be able to leave the Maquis. Unfortunately for her and Gul Evek, the Maquis raiding force is afflicted with the same type of damage that Captain Kirk's Enterprise and Captain Picard's Enterprise had taken. Chakotay's ship isn't as seriously damaged and Chakotay takes advantage of an unprotected Cardassian station. We follow Chakotay and crew right up to the point their taken by the Caretaker.

We catch up with Captain Janeway just as she's taking Voyager away from Deep Space Nine. She's on her way to the Badlands to find the Maquis ship with her Chief of Security, Tuvok aboard. Along the way the Voyager takes a small hit from this mysterious, sub space tetryon radiation. They then receive a distress call from Gul Evek, his ship took the brunt of the damage from the odd beam and he's preparing to abandon ship. Voyager of course picks the Cardassians up so they can rendezvous' with Gul Dukat to transfer the survivors. She puts Gul Evek into a particularly interesting light, where though he's the enemy, you truly feel sorry for him. Just after transferring the survivors, Captain Janeway has the ship in the Badlands searching for the Maquis and then the infamous coherent tetryon beam takes them to the gamma quadrant!

This third story in the series is exceptionally well written. A lot of the plot line for this one is seamlessly tied into canon from the episodes. Magnificent story!

Part 4

Deep Space Nine

Part 4 takes place in 2373. Captain Sisko has just finished closing off the Maquis base in the Terikof Belt. Odo has just gone through the experience of the baby changeling and its death, the baby consequently giving him his morphing ability back. Bashir has been captured by the Jem'Hadar and there is a changeling in his guise on Deep Space Nine. Odo determines to find out where the baby changeling had been injured by the tetryon radiation that killed it. Through his usually tenacious investigative process he finds out that the baby changeling had been discovered near the Badlands. Given Captain Janeway's discovery three years prior that the Badlands anomaly is in actuality a Romulan Artificial Quantam Singularity (AQS) that was released when the prototype Romulan Warbird was destroyed in part one of this great story, Odo enlists Captain Sisko's aid to track it down and remove the threat. Along the way, we're treated to a young Tal Shiar commander of a Romulan scout ship that itself is sent to capture the AQS and use it for their own little plan. We are also treated to Weyoun and a couple Jem'Hadar ships carrying out the pre invasion negotiations with Gul Dukat.

This is a stunningly well written story and closer for this great four part, two book series! Susan Wright has with these two book proven that she can write well for any of the four series! Of the four stories though, I would say that the Deep Space Nine is the best! Of no doubt, I would recommend these two books to any Trek fan!

The first half of this book is a telling of the events that led up to the beginning of the Voyager series in more detail than we have seen them told before; the second half is a new DS9 story. Unlike in book one of this series, these two stories meshed well and formed one continuing story that actually works well. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this book, given that I had been significantly UN-impressed with book one of the series.

The first two sections of the story were wonderful while the final 3rd one was readable even if it was a bit weak. While there are some interesting revelations a lot of the story was just rehashed from episodes of Voyager and DS9. I gave it four stars just because I am a hopeless sucker for star trek, but it is really not worth it.

I bought this for the Voyager novelette. The short and sweet length of the book makes for a quick read. I felt that some plot lines and character traits were invented especially for this book. Once again writers should know more about the characters before writing (we the viewers do). This is especially true when we are 6 seasons down the track with the characters. There's only so much backpeddling you can do. I've read better Voyager stuff but it beats staring out the window on a cold wet winters day. Enjoy (if you can).

Both "Badlands" books were a waste of time. I've just been catching up on my Star Trek reading and these were the last 2 of 7 books I had to read. It took me as longer to read them as the other 5. I can't put my finger on anything specific, it's just that they were very easy to put down.