Customer Reviews

Star Trek Dsn: Bloodletter

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

 

 

This 1993 novel, #3 in the series of DS9 novels is set early in the series, shortly after the discovery of the wormhole and long before the Dominion appears. If you don't have any idea what any of those things are you really won't enjoy this book at all.

The Cardassians are attempting to stake a claim to the far side of the wormhole, naturally the Federation and Bajor are opposed to this and so a race is on to establish the first outpost in the Gamma Quadrant. As if this is not enough a group of Bajorian fanatics had name Kira as a traitor to Bajor and targeted her for elimination. Naturally the two plot lines become entwined.

This is not an especially good Star Trek novel nor a particularly bad Star Trek novel (and bad ones do exist), it is just rather....blah. The characterizations just aren't quite right. Kira in particular is portrayed as rather inept, wimpy even. This Nerys would never have survived the Occupation. Many novels start a bit slow but at some point pick up making the reader anxious to finish. This one just stayed slow leaving this reader at least to wonder when it would end. If you are a DS9 fan, and why else would you be reading this, and really need a visit to DS9 then by all means read this one if you cannot find any of the better entries in this series.

I understand that a lot of these novels are written quickly, on tight deadlines and budgets. And I know I couldn't write a novel to save my life. But this novel is really bad.

The plot meanders along without, at any point, becoming interesting. The characterization of Major Kira seems really wrong.

I've read any number of Star Trek novels that were flawed. Interesting ideas that the author didn't quite execute on. And those kinds of books can still be a lot of fun to read. Bloodletter was not like this. At it's heart it was just tedious.

I found this author's writing style to be fairly good and the premise of this early Deep Space Nine story to be a sound one, however, the overall execution of the story more or less falls flat. Despite the fact that this is but the third in the Star Trek Deep Space Nine fiction series and the author probably had but one season or less of episodes to base his characterizations on, his characterization for Major Kira Nerys just doesn't wash. One would definitely think that if an author were going to set out to write a story in these series that they'd take an interest in learning the characters and failing that, the editor would catch these things and make corrections. This just doesn't seem to be the case with this novel though.

The cover art for "Bloodletter" can be counted among the standard fare of Star Trek novels of the time where minimal effort was involved.

The premise:

As stated above, the premise is a fairly interesting one in which Starfleet Command has learned that the Cardassians are planning to construct a base on the other side of the wormhole in order to have a presence there and claim as much of the unexplored territory as possible. Obviously this is well before the Dominion became a known factor! The Federation has opted to preempt the Cardassians by having the command crew of Deep Space Nine build a station there first. Coming from Major Kira's past though is a fanatic who will stop at nothing to destroy her, the fate of Bajor, the wormhole and possibly even the fate of the Federation.

While this novel is certainly not among the best of the Star Trek novels in print, it isn't the worst either. I would recommend it to help complete your Star Trek Deep Space Nine collection and as a somewhat viable read. {ssintrepid}

But the plot and characterization have holes you could drive a starship through. And I mean a big one, a galaxy-class ship.

The writing is pretty good, actually, so it's a shame to have to rate the book so low. The dialogue is better than fair, and the plot moves well until the end, when it completely falls apart.

I don't want to say TOO much about that, because it would give away too much. All I can really say is that the day that Major Kira can't handle one lone psychopath with a broken arm who's armed only with a knife one-on-one (to say nothing of with assistance from Dr. Bashir) without having to destroy an expensive and important piece of equipment, is the day that the author truly doesn't understand the characters s/he's writing about. Granted, this was an early book, but STILL...

Most of the second half of this book reads like a cheap slasher movie, with Major Kira playing the part of the terrified potential victim of the near-unbeatable slasher. Problem is, we've seen absolutely nothing to indicate that he really has the kind of semi-mystical invulnerability enjoyed by Freddie and Jason; Kira should have made mincemeat of him, without so much as mussing her hair.

I thought Bloodletter was more interesting in the beginning, with the evil villian's planning, but when Bashir and Kira go into space, it just turns into one endless confrontation after another, with fairly boring characterizations.

The characterizations are flat, and the novel is mostly just confrontation after confrontation with nothing to hold your interest. It was boring.