This Gray Spirit (Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Mission Gamma, Book 2) [Mass Market Paperback]

Heather Jarman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Star Trek Deep Space Nine (Unnumbered Paperback) | Publication Date: August 27, 2002

A four-book odyssey of space exploration, political intrigue, religious schism, deadly conspiracies and startling revelations, this is Deep Space Nine at its best. An alien species whose unique biology holds the key to another race's survival is torn by internal strife, and the Defiant crew is caught in the middle of a genocidal civil war. Meanwhile, back on space station Deep Space Nine, the political intrigue intensifies as Colonel Kira finds herself compelled to help the warlike people who ravaged her planet, and against whom she has fought almost her entire life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"After seven addictive seasons...the best sci-fi soap opera of them all" -- The Times "The best incarnation of Trek yet" -- Starburst

About the Author

Heather Jarman is a professional online Star Trek columnist and reviewer. THIS GRAY SPIRIT is her first novel.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 390 pages
• Publisher: Star Trek (August 27, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743445627
• ISBN-13: 978-0743445627
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #802,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ST-DS9: Mission Gamma: This Gray Spirit, October 14, 2002

By 

Joe Zika "Khemprof" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: This Gray Spirit (Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Mission Gamma, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine: Mission Gamma: This Gray Spirit written by Heather Jarman is a character-driven book with a deep rich narrative making this one of the better Star Trek book series to date.

What I liked about this book is how descriptive and detailed the character-driven narrative is, making an enjoyable entertaining read. The distinctive merit of this fascinating book lies in its lively portrayal of a varied and eccentric cast of characters along with the cast of the regulars in this series. This book is spiced just right for your reading pleasure and the story moves quickly, political intrigue escalates to a fever pitch as Gul Macet (Gul Dukat's brother) arrives on Deep Space Nine with an unexpected passenger. Now on a mission of peace and hope, old wounds seem to fester between the Cardassian's Ambassador Natima Lang and Colonel Kira Nerys, now in charge of Deep space Nine. There is also an interesting sub-plot between Ro and Kira as Ro is charged with more responsibility of Deep Space Nine as Kira tries to find herself in the path of the prophets.

The Starship Defiant is exploring the Gamma Quadrant and has a bout with some very interesting aliens with a rather unique biological makeup. As the balance of power in the Gamma Quadrant becomes unstable... Lieutenant Ezri Dax and Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane are in a gut check time to pull off a compromise preventing a genocidal civil war. All this action-packed adventure is written very well as you find youself reading till you find out what the result will be.

So far, the first two installments of this series is better than Trek has been in the past, as we read this book is a feast of information and insight working its way through the turbulent course known as Deep Space Nine.

This is well worth your time to read and enjoy this rich tapestry of descriptive writing. I'll see you for the Mission Gamma concluding adventures of Cathedral and Lesser Evil soon. It will be very interesting to see how this story will end... fascinating... indeed.

The characters are well fleshed out making for an interesting story that will captivate you.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Slow and steady, May 30, 2003

By 

Elim Garak (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Gray Spirit (Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Mission Gamma, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

I tried to really sum up this book in my subject line, 'Slow and Steady', because essentially that is how the book is. Heather Jarman has written a great 2nd novel in the Mission Gamma series, and considering that it is her first book, it is a commendable achievement.

The story begins with the Defiant exploring the Gamma Quadrant, and they become trapped in some sort of nanotechnology minefield. A friendly races arrives to help them, called the Yrthny, and the Defiant heads back to their homeworld for repairs. In their efforts to the repair the Defiant, the crew become drawn into the internal affairs of the Yrthny, which is an interesitng political situation.

On DS9, the political manouverings continue, and we mainly see them from Kira's perspective. Into the plot also enters the Cardassians, led by Ambassador Natima Lang and Gul Macet, a close relative of the late Gul Dukat. Some old wounds are reopened, but above all we see the two races trying their hardest to achieve peace, yet some individuals are trying to disrupt that peace, which makes for interesting reading. I found Jarman's treatment of the Cardassians particularly refreshing, considering what they did. All too often during the tv series, the Cardassians, Dukat in particular, got away with horrendous crimes. Gul Dukat himself was a murderer, war criminal, and a rapist, a man who lied, tricked and decieved people, especially when he wanted to have intimate relations with a woman. He had several illegitimate children, and was willing to kill them (and their mothers) just to protect his career. In this book, Jarman tries to show just what some of the other characters thought about this sort of behaviour, especially with regards to Ziyal.

The plot doesn't move with great leaps and bounds, in both the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. The book is also fairly light on the action, and while I didn't mind this, some readers may have other thoughts.

The story has a satisfying ending, but there is also a big shock on the way for certain characters.

While I found the story to be well written (Jarman is obviously well educated in both writing and Trek lore) it was verbose at times, especially when it came to details regarding the Yrthny. Often the Yrthny affairs were convoluted and confused, and I found them a little hard to make sense of, all the more so as they didn't contribute that much to the plot. The Andorian backstory was also a little dragged out, and while it was an interesting insight into their culture, it wasn't properly explained until much later in the book, which was frustrating.

In conclusion, I recommend this book to readers of the Mission Gamma series and DS9 series in general. If you're just a casual fan, this probably isn't the book for you.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is likely the best DS9 novel I've read to date., September 7, 2002

By 

Jonathan Burgoine "bookseller" (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: This Gray Spirit (Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Mission Gamma, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

When pocket books began its relaunch of the DS9 series, starting where the series ended, I was interested in seeing where they'd go with the cast of characters, and also who they would add in to cover the gaps left by the show's finale.

Including Lieutenant Ro as the new chief of security was a stroke of intelligence, but I'm begginning to think the two really strong moves of this new series were the transfer of Ezri Dax to the command branch, and the inclusion of an Andorian science officer, Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane. This is their novel, for the most part, though the continuing plot of Bajor's potential entrance into the Federation is given as much time.

ch'Thane's and Dax are contending with coming up with an objective third-party solution to an internal conflict with a people the Defiant crew have located in the Gamma Quadrant. The parallels that pop up in both their lives are wonderful: for ch'Thane, there is a biological riddle here that is similar to the one his own people are facing, to Dax, this is a chance for her to flex her diplomatic skills as Curzon and Lela did before her. Neither of their efforts result the way you'd think they would, and the turnaround is strong writing and a superb plot addition to the story arc.

For all that Dax and ch'Thane have centre stage, there is still a lot of good time devoted to Kira, and the increasingly snarled complications of Bajor-Cardassia-Federation politics are becoming a joy to read. This is plausible, enjoyable, conflict.

Quite frankly, I enjoyed this DS9 novel the most of all that I have read so far, and applaud that the inside of the book tells us that Heather Jarman will be writing Trek again soon.

'Nathan