Customer Reviews

Cathedral (Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Mission Gamma, Book 3)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is obvious that the powers-that-be behind the DS9 relaunch are working to make this the best-written set of Star Trek books to date. The "Mission Gamma" quartet continues to improve in quality of both writing and plot, and I, for one, can't wait for the next - and final - issue in teh quartet.

"Cathedral" continues the two major story arcs: the Defiant's exploration of the Gamma Quadrant, and the inception of Bajor into the Federation. The Defiant half deals with the apex of the trip through the Gamma Quadrant, where events conspire to force Nog, Bashir, and Ezri Dax to do some sincere soul-searching about the paths their lives have taken. The counterpoint of the various character's spiritual sides was quite an enjoyable reading experience, and as the summary gives away, watching Julian Bashir's genetic enhancing degrade was fabulous plot.

The Bajor-Federation half of the story was just as satisfying, and there are hints of some pretty dark things on the way - I've come up with a few theories as to what is going on, but the book was written so well that I'm not sure, which is the perfect result. Of interest is that Vedek Yevir's taking of centre stage for a good deal of this half of the book, and doing so in a very well characterized way. He's not as one dimensional as we've previously seen, something that is well received of this reader, at least.

Martin and Mangels also brought us the Section 31 Next Generation novel "Rogue," which showed their already fantastic characterization and writing skills, and it is with great pleasure that I see them as a part of the DS9 Relaunch.

You certainly won't see the ending coming, that's for sure. It'll leave you waiting for more.

'Nathan

During the first few seasons of DS9 on television, the Gamma Quadrant was *horribly* underutilized. Here we have Star Trek, this wonderful mythical universe that laid open the galaxy to human and alien explorers, and Deep Space Nine, a part of that rich universe, a remote outpost at the mouth of a galactic Nile River, the Gamma Quadrant wormhole.

The writers during the first few years of the show could only use this premise for "funny alien of the week" stories. Until they started dropping hints about The Dominion, and suddenly, the wormhole and where it led became scary, ominious, dangerous.

I think this illustrates some of the reasons DS9 has always been considered the 'problem' child of Trek mythos. DS9 doesn't really do the 'exploration' thing very well, but it does a fantastic job of putting good people in very bad places, and lets us see how they work things out. Their morals may get a little bruised, but for the most part, the Federation crew of DS9 is committed to exploring the most important part of the galaxy: the quest to find a way to unite sentient beings together in common cause. Cowboy diplomacy at its finest.

So, 3/4 of the way through the "Mission Gamma" series, I find myself rushing through the sections describing the Defiant's current mission of exploration in the Gamma Quadrant. All the *really* fun and meaty stuff is happening back on the station. From Andorians in dire straits, to Cardassians, Bajorans, and Federation members celebrating (finally ... maybe) Bajor's entry into the Federation, these sections of "Cathedral" are alive, snapping and crackling with all the conflict, tense moments, huge cast, interweaving plotlines, and "Oh my god, I can't believe they can do that on STAR TREK" moments I've come to expect and love from DS9.

As such, I found it very difficult to get "into" the experiences Bashir, Nog, and Ezri Dax have as a result with a mysterious alien artifact. The aliens who protect this artifact are one-dimensional, and are there only to provide artificial tension. Bashir's loss of his genetic enhancements reduces him pretty quickly to a gibbering idiot, yet log entries he makes are surprisinly lucid. It all just didn't mesh very well for me, and for the first time I felt the authors entrusted to carry on DS9 into an "eighth season" didn't quite have a full grasp on some of the characters they were writing. It's almost like one author wrote the Gamma Quadrant scenes in the book, and the other wrote the stuff back on the station. Perhaps that is indeed how the book was created, but unfortunately I found it jarring, taking me out of the story several times.

Nevertheless, the incredible drama unfolding on the station, not to mention an absolute STUNNER of an ending, have got me salivating in anticipation over the last entry in the series, "Lesser Evil". The stuff on the station is definitely what has kept me going throughout this series, and it's so good I find myself able to forgive myself for not liking the "exploration" stuff. From one cleric's decision to act in accordance with his faith and not his politics, to a betrayal so shocking I was shaking when I put the book down, the Alpha Quadrant's where the action is at. Originally gave this book three stars, but bumped it up to 4. That cliffhanger, if you're a true fan of DS9, will really leave your jaw hanging.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Mission Gamma: Cathedral Written by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels is the thrid book in a four series and the story continues from where book two left off.

This book is part of the relaunch of "Deep Space Nine" since the television series. Here again, this volume of the relaunch is very well-written the the characters go through a real soul searching. The book has two main themes as we read on... the Defiant is on an exploratory tour of the Gamma Quadrant when they come upon an artifact in their space exploration. We all know the Julian Bashir has been genetically enhanced when he was six years old on Adigeon Prime and has alway wonder what his life would have been like had his parents not had him genetically
altered. As Bashir is going through progressive neurological deggeneration, Dax is becoming an unjoined Trill, and Nog is reverting back to a true Ferengi. The detail of this story is wonderful as all of his unfolds.

The second theme of the book is back on Deep Space Nine with Ro Laren, a failing diplomacy between Bajor and Cardassia, and Vedek Yevir is no longer just a cardboard character. This story is filled with intrigue, tragedy and some true callings, making for one good tale.

"Cathedral" continues with the very richly written narrative of the first two books as this series brings excitement back into Deep Space Nine. "Lesser Evil" is the fourth book in this series and should wrap-up Mission Gamma. "Entrprise: What Price Honor?" will be out soon. See you around the galaxy...

This book was throughly engaging. All of the plots kept me turning the pages wondering what was going to happen next. The three plots which are Bajor, DS9 and the Gamma Mission has all of the elements of a good science fiction story, all of the intrigue of a political thiller and all of the character development and dialogue one would find in a good drama.

Bajor has long been a major focus in the Deep Space nine series but after the last installment of Mission Gamma I was losing interest in all of the politics involved. This book however has rekindled my interest and made Bajor one of my favorite plots to follow. Bajor's entry into the Federation is the primary focus, but other issues have to be delt with as well like Kira's attainer, the growth of a spliinter group and the Cardassian/Bajoran peace talks. All of these issues are delt with excellently. Garak even makes an appearance although his role is limited at the moment.

The drama on board DS9 evolves nicely. Quark and Ro still seem to get along well and things are going well in their relationship but Ro in particular gets more and more concerned about her future as Bajor moves closer to joining the Federation. Meanwhile, Quark seems more concerned about his relationship with Ro as opposed to what's going to happen to him after the Federation takes over the station. It brings up some interesting questions because the Federation I understand is a moneyless organization so Quark won't be able to make a profit after the Federation takes over. Ro on the other hand does not have a very good reputation with the Federation or Bajor. On another front, Taran'atar continues to observe and study humanity. Some interesting dialogue takes place between him, Vic Fontaine and another. There is still no sign of Jake, but Joseph (Sisko's father) makes an appearance.

The story of the Gamma Mission can be made into a full feature length movie by itself. It continues to impress me as the crew run into new alien species and artifacts. Everyone who has read about this installment knows that Dr. Bashir will lose his genetic enhancements somewhere along the line. The real meat of the story is not in him losing his enhancements, but in him and his crew's contact with an alien artifact. The alien artifact forces them to go back into their past and confront their most serious issues.

WARNING SPOILER:

A major player in one of the three plots is assassinated in the most dramatic ending to date in the series. It took me by complete surprise.

While this book doesn't shine the way Book Two (Heather Jarman's THIS GRAY SPIRIT) does, it's still one of the best of the DS9 novels. My biggest problem with it was that I couldn't figure out any possible scientific explanation for the "dimensional regression" caused by the Cathdral/Anathema, although the stories told of Julian's, Ezri's and Nog's past were well done and ultimately triumphant. Even if the latter two were more-or-less reiterations of DS9 shows, we learn more about Dr. Bashir "Jules" than we knew, and the denouement of that story is particularly satisfying.

If you decide to accept some suspicious science, however, the story moves right along, the characterization is top-notch, and I especially liked the authors' understanding of politics -- how do you tell the good guys from the bad guys? can you stop politics from constantly changing? how do you avoid being suckered by plausible protestations of a superficially apparent "good-guy"? A rich and deeply understood Realpolitik was always DS9's greatest strength -- one of reasons why I loved it far more than any other Star Trek series. Genuine DS9 fans will love this book. A warning to others: Don't look for Gene Roddenberry's rather simple-minded Federation that seems to run on stardust and permanent good-will. The Cathedral alien and the Bajoran-Federation-Cardassian conflicts are as confusing, fascinating, and dangerous as today's headlines.

Very well done indeed!

I finished Cathedral over the weekend. Man, this book has a great cliff-hanger. Easily the best ending of the Gamma series. Also, we get to see some familiar faces that we have not seen in a while. This book is worth reading for nostalgia alone, but wait, there's more. The Gamma stuff was very good, and actually, I think the Gamma part of this book was the best of the three so far. This time the conflict was focused on the people we know, instead of some aliens we've never heard of before. It made me care about what was going to happen to Bashir and Dax and Nog. Nicely done. All in all, I think this one was very good. I don't think I have anything negative to say about it at all, actually. The relaunch keeps getting better.

The previous Mission Gamma story, "This Gray Spirit" and "These Haunted Seas", ended with a tragedy involving Thriss, the Andorian fiancee' of ch'Thane and this novel, "Cathedral", picks up where the previous novel left off. There's also the parallel story of what is taking place among the Defiant's crew during their mission in the Gamma Quadrant. So far, both subplots are intriguing and worthy of the five stars that I've given these stories. I'll be completing the review of this novel as soon as possible given that I've begun reading it on Sunday, April 19, 2009.

Addendum:

I finished reading Cathedral on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 and I was floored by the cliffhanger!!!!!! I've begun reading Book 4, "Lesser Evil" to see how this cliffhanger resolves! WOW!!!!!!

There are two parallel storylines going here; one involving the Defiant and its crew as they explore the Gamma Quadrant, the other involving events back at the station. The first storyline was much more interesting and compelling than the second; I frequently found myself annoyed when we switched from plot A to plot B, and always was delighted when we switched back. In addtition, we got a nice conclusion to the first plot at the end of the book, while the second plot was left hanging on a cliff in a typical old movie serial style: "Tune in next week, to find out what happened." Still, even the second plot was good, just not as good as the first. Characterization was very strong in both of them, there was both enough action and enough food for thought to balance the story nicely. Definitely worth the read.

Authors Michael Martin and Andy Mangels have written another intriguing installment in the "Star Trek Deep Space Nine Mission Gamma" series focusing on diplomatic efforts between Cardassia and Bajor to establish a long-lasting peace via a treaty prior to Bajor's admission into the United Federation of Planets. Colonel Kira Nerys and her security chief, Lieutenant Ro Laren, have their hands full as they contend with the unexpected unraveling of Bajoran-Cardassian diplomacy. A Bajoran religious leader soon intervenes, joining forces with his Cardassian counterpart. Meanwhile the USS Defiant stumbles upon an ancient structure in space - a "Cathedral" - which is tapped to multiple dimensions of space and time; a nexus point of a multitude of universes. The away team's brief exposure results in some unexpected, almost dire, consequences for Chief Medical Officer Julian Bashir, Lieutenant Ezri Dax and the Defiant's Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Nog.

As I have been reading this re-launch, it occurred to me (duh) that my beloved characters are growing and changing - some, perhaps, in ways I would prefer them *not* to - but certainly none of them are at the place they were when we last saw Deep Space Nine on the tube.

I count this as a good thing, whether I agree with the changes or not. And that's the whole point of this effort, I believe: To lengthen and re-shape characters and situations, *not* to have them lie fallow in our memories, but to continue to move forward into events that might not have fit the mold a few years ago.

For one, the idea of Bajor actually becoming part of the Federation was like a pipe dream when the show was airing - a dream not everyone embraced. Now it's a reality, but this brings a new reality to people like Kira, Ro, and Quark, as well - and still, as you would expect, the idea of Bajor being part of the UFP has not been welcomed by everyone.

As for the Defiant's mission in the Gamma Quadrant, I can only say here is where the book's title really hits home. Three (well, four) crewmembers are decidedly changed after being scanned by an alien artifact, and what they must go through to return to their former selves involves leaps of faith and trust that you or I might never dare to attempt.

And throughout this novel are hints and whispers of things to come that tug uneasily at the heartstrings. Too sappy for you? Too bad! You're missing a good series if you're not reading this one.