Trill and Bajor (Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Vol. 2) [Mass Market Paperback]

Andy Mangels (Author), Michael A. Martin (Author), J. Noah Kym (Author)

Book Description

Series: Worlds of Star Trek | Publication Date: January 25, 2005

TRILL. The Trill are a combination of a symbiont and a host. The symbiont lives for hundreds of years in one host after another: each body is different, each personality is different, each life is different -- but all of them are one. The symbiont accumulates experiences, relationships, memories ...Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin have set their story on this most multi-layered and extraordinary of worlds. When Trill involvement in the assassination of an allied world leader comes to light, the reason lies in the terrifying and tragic origins of the Trill -- and the answers reveal unsuspected links to other regions of the Star Trek universe. BAJOR. Political intrigue and interpersonal conflict in the style of The West Wing dominate on Deep Space Nine's core world of Bajor. The future of Bajor and the new role of long-missing Captain Benjamin Sisko are linked as this tale lays the groundwork for a major new storyline in further Deep Space Nine novels.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Andy Mangels is the USA Today bestselling author and coauthor of over a dozen novels -- including Star Trek and Roswell books -- all cowritten with Michael A. Martin. Flying solo, he is the bestselling author of several nonfiction books, including Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters and Animation on DVD: The Ultimate Guide, as well as a significant number of entries for The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic-Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes as well as for its companion volume, The Supervillain Book.

In addition to cowriting several more upcoming novels and contributing to anthologies, Andy has produced, directed, and scripted a series of sixteen half-hour DVD documentaries for BCI Eclipse, for inclusion in the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe DVD box sets.

Andy has written hundreds of articles for entertainment and lifestyle magazines and newspapers in the United States, England, and Italy. He has also written licensed material based on properties from numerous film studios and Microsoft, and his two decades of comic book work has been published by DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse, Image, Innovation, and many others. He was the editor of the award-winning Gay Comics anthology for eight years.

Andy is a national award-winning activist in the Gay community, and has raised thousands of dollars for charities over the years. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his long-term partner, Don Hood, their dog, Bela, and their chosen son, Paul Smalley. Visit his website at www.andymangels.com.

Michael A. Martin's solo short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. He has also coauthored (with Andy Mangels) several Star Trek comics for Marvel and Wildstorm and numerous Star Trek novels and eBooks, including the USA Today bestseller Titan: Book One: Taking Wing; Titan: Book Two: The Red King; the Sy Fy Genre Award-winning Star Trek: Worlds of Deep Space 9 Book Two: Trill -- Unjoined; Star Trek: The Lost Era 2298 -- The Sundered; Star Trek: Deep Space 9 Mission: Gamma: Vol. Three: Cathedral; Star Trek: The Next Generation: Section 31 -- Rogue; Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers #30 and #31 ("Ishtar Rising" Books 1 and 2); stories in the Prophecy and Change, Tales of the Dominion War, and Tales from the Captain's Table anthologies; and three novels based on the Roswell television series. His most recent novels include Enterprise: The Romulan War and Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many.

His work has also been published by Atlas Editions (in their Star Trek Universe subscription card series), Star Trek Monthly, Dreamwatch, Grolier Books, Visible Ink Press, The Oregonian, and Gareth Stevens, Inc., for whom he has penned several World Almanac Library of the States nonfiction books for young readers. He lives with his wife, Jenny, and their two sons in Portland, Oregon.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Star Trek (January 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743483529
• ISBN-13: 978-0743483520
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #927,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just as good as the first one., January 27, 2005

By 

G. Marshall (Hyattsville, MD, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trill and Bajor (Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Vol. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

In fact, it's probably a wee bit better. When I was reviewing the first volume, I rated the Cardassia story as higher than the Andorian story because of the soap opera feel in that story, and gave that book a 4 star rating. This book is more between a 4 and 4.5 star rating. Before saying anything, i have to give kudos to all of the writers for incorporting the most random episodes from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the days of DS9 and TNG and parlaying them into important backstories for these new stories, both in this volume and in Unity and others. I'm impressed :) This version also follows the general thread of the first book, where the first story focuses more on the society than the personal characters (Trill and Cardassia) and the second one focuses on the interactions between the society and the characters (Andor and Bajor).

The Trill story is the better of the two by a nose, because it wraps up completely. It focuses on the upheavals on Trill after the events of Unity, the role of Trill in the parasite evolution and the reasons for the parasite's hatred, and it has a very strong ending with very strong repercussions for all Trill, unjoined and joined, as well as for Ezri and Julian. I liked the way the story was written and the implications of what happens to the symbiotes as they grow older (much older). I look forward to the aftermath of these events, and how it affects Trill and the Federation.

The Bajor story is a paradox. It is more interesting than the Trill story (to me) but is a cliff-hanger, and has about 3 or 4 different story threads, only half of which are resolved in this volume. While it plays a bit like the Andor story in the soap opera vein, Jake is a whole lot more sympathetic than Prynn Tenmei is. Call me biased :) The cliffhanger nature of the story reduced the enjoyment for me, 'cause now I have to wait for a while to find out what some of the loose ends were referring to, and it was a bit hard to follow all the threads, even interesting as each of them were. However, what was given was great, and it is a joy to see Capt. Sisko and his lovely baby girl, and family, and Jake and...read it and see. However, I think that this story should have been used as the basis of a novel a la Unity, rather than as a novella in this series.

All in all, I recommend it to all fans of DS9 Relaunch, and I look forward to the Dominion and Ferengrinar stories. What's after those???

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worlds in flux., February 6, 2005

By 

David Roy (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trill and Bajor (Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Vol. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

So far, the Worlds of Deep Space Nine books have been very good. Volume two, which contains "Unjoined" (about Trill) and "Fragments & Omens" (about Bajor) continues the strong showing from Volume 1. This time, though, both stories are extremely strong. "Unjoined" is by Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin, while "Fragments & Omens" is by newcomer J. Noah Kym (though that is a pseudonym, so maybe the author isn't that new?). As with Volume 1, one of the stories is fairly quiet while the other one has huge ramifications for the planet involved. Both are excellent, with only the Bajor story leaving me slightly wanting, but in this case that can be a good thing.

Both of these stories are powerful in their own way. "Unjoined" hits you in the gut and keeps doing it as you need to find out what's going on. As the violence escalates, we wonder if there will be a Trill society left for Dax to save. There's also a great deal of tension between Bashir and Ezri, and the authors handle this very deftly. All throughout the story, I was wondering if the tension was from what was going on around them or if it was internal to them. It was definitely interesting to watch.

Mangels & Martin show us an intriguing look at a world under siege by terrorists, though these terrorists have a point. The government *is* hiding something from them all, part of which has been established way back in the television series, but some other information that's just in the books as well. The story is very dark and downbeat, which is unusual for them. However, dark does not mean bad in this case. When the terrorists do something truly horrifying, I felt my gut clench a little bit. The finale, which is a harbinger for massive change on Trill, leaves any long-term reader of the re-launch (or even a fan of the television series) wondering what will become of this world.

The entire story is gripping, with the only real fault being that the sequence where Dax is trying to find the answers to what happened in ancient Trill history drags on a little too long (despite being interrupted by other, more interesting scenes). It's nothing major, but I do wish that Mangels & Martin had avoided using the "a character is in an environmental suit, so something has to go wrong with it" cliché. They do make good use of it, however, as in the process of being saved, she encounters the horror of what the terrorists have finally done. The story also starts in the middle of the action and then backtracks. While this can be annoying at times (and is overused in televised Trek), I think it was put to good use here. It draws us into the story and bridges what could have been a slow beginning otherwise. This story is definitely a keeper.

"Fragments & Omens" has a lot of pluses and minuses, mostly pluses. It sets up a large part of what is probably going to follow in the next sequence of books, with Ben Sisko warning about the coming of the Ascendents (a race of beings that even the Founders may fear). The tone of the story alternates between dark foreboding (Sisko's warning, not to mention the destruction of the village) and somewhat lighter fare (Jake's story). Kym handles this change in tone very deftly, however, never leaving the reader reeling.

Jake's story is very sweet, and told from the point of view of Rena, a woman that he meets in a Bajoran village. The romance is quite sweet, but the story does even more by giving us a layman's view of how Bajor is being integrated into the Federation. We see the common person's point of view, the worry about how all of a sudden there is no money, whether the Federation will rob Bajor of its core values and what life will be like within rather than as an outsider. There is nervousness there, understandable given the massive change that is coming.

What I found the most interesting part of the story, however, was the interaction between Ro and Cenn, a Bajoran major who is very leery of the Federation and what it represents. Thousands of Bajoran militia members are leaving to join Starfleet now that the opportunity is there, and he feels that Bajor may lose a lot of its uniqueness. He also doesn't like what Ro did, abandoning Bajor to the Cardassians to join Starfleet. The tension between them is very nicely done, and I see great things ahead for the Cenn character.

One major annoyance with this story, however, is that the story feels unfinished. The first three stories, while leaving vast changes in the worlds' societies that will have to be dealt with, actually finished the story they were telling. They just left a lot of room for the story to go afterward. This story seems entirely setup with no resolution (except Jake). The village destruction is left dangling (we don't even find out who the villain is in this piece, though we're given a very big clue), Sisko's story is made up entirely of "Omens" (though it was nice to see him trying to settle in on Bajor), and we are introduced to Cenn and what his status will be on the station, but without anything actually happening with it. I realize that this was intentional, as the relaunch stories have always been "continuing," and that this story is intended to be the launching pad for the next series of stories, but this story left too much hanging in my opinion. When you only resolve one of the four plots that you've introduced, it gets annoying. Still, that's no reason not to read the story. While it's mostly setup, it's *good* setup. It will hold your interest and keep you coming back for more.

David Roy

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another solid chapter in the DS9 saga, March 23, 2005

By 

Kevin G. Summers (Amissville, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trill and Bajor (Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Vol. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

I had not expected to like the story set on Trill, being that I've developed nothing but distain for Ezri and Julian during the past few books, but I found Julian to be incredibly sympathetic during this tale, and while Ezri was still annoying, the scene were she descended into the depths of the symbiot pools was fascinating. The movement on the Julian/Ezri relationship was, I think, a long time coming, but it still hit me like a shot in the guts. I'm looking forward to see where this storyline goes. This story (and most of the relaunch for that matter) has done a nice job on taking one of the lamest TNG episodes and making something interesting and entertaining out of it.

The Bajor story was probably my favorite so far in the mini-series. The continuation of Jake's story stood out as a high point, though I would have liked to have seen a longer courtship with his new love interest. Again, I find it interesting that these stories are going back to some of the older (and in some cases hokier) episodes and adding depth and meaning to those stories. I also LOVED the references to my story, Ha'mara.

All in all, this book was pretty solid. I can't wait to see where all this is going.