1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, involving ST:DS9 novel, July 19, 2004
This review is from: Warchild (Star Trek Deep Space Nine, No 7) (Mass Market Paperback)
"Warchild" is surprisingly good, not because of the author (Ms. Friesner is well known and I've always enjoyed her work in the past), but because of the subject matter. When I saw this book in the bookstore way back when it was originally published, I passed because it was dealing with the Bajorans, and at the time, I just didn't care about that.
However, after watching all seven seasons of DS9 and getting a better flavor for the Bajorans (and gaining more interest in them), I tried this novel, and was very pleasantly surprised. Ms. Friesner obviously "got" the Bajorans far sooner than I did, and wrote an excellent novel that combines elements of faith, philosophy and morality (along with the SFDS9 mythos) with adventure and gets more than the sum of its parts.
The quick synopsis here is, the Bajorans are in trouble (this book is between seasons one and two) due to how much the Cardassians nearly ruined Bajor before they were driven off. The Cardassians basically raped the world, and many of the people who've returned to Bajor from the refugee camps (or who never left) are tired, hungry, footsore and shellshocked.
They need a sign that things will improve, and the Provisional Government isn't giving them one.
Into this mix comes a message from the missing Kai Opaka -- one she wrote long years before -- about a child being the key to uniting Bajor again. Someone has to go after the child, but of course no one knows who she is (they do know the child needed is female), and the various religious factions are already fighting over the privilege of finding her (and some don't want the child found, too, making everything worse). Which is why a Bajoran monk goes to Commander Sisko and asks for help . . . .
Does he get the help? Of course, but it doesn't go quite as expected (if you're a fan of DS9, you're probably used to that by now) and there's lots of interested byplay between the various children and the officers, as well as some fun scenes between Jake, Nog and one of the Bajoran kids, Cedra. Ms. Friesner also managed to cram in a very credible, though understated, romance for Julian Bashir, not an easy task.
So, it's a coming of age story for Bashir, an adventure story, a mystery, and a race against time. Very good work.
Four stars, recommended.
Barb Caffrey
P.S. If you like this, you may enjoy Sandy Schofield's "The Big Game" and/or Daffyd ab Hugh's "Fallen Heroes," both also excellent stories.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This book was mediocre., April 24, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Warchild (Star Trek Deep Space Nine, No 7) (Mass Market Paperback)
Some parts were good, some were rather boring. The kids were kind of funny, but it's kind of unbelievable that that girl could get away with pretending she was a boy for so long, and would do it just so she wouldn't have to wear dresses. The plot was okay, but very predictable. And if Cedara was sighning to Dejana behind the back of whoever she was talking to, you would think someone else in the room would notice. Very good for a plot having to do with something lost and mystical from Bajoran sacred text believed to really exist.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
DS9 #7 Warchild - A rather decent early DS9 novel!, October 12, 2003
This review is from: Warchild (Star Trek Deep Space Nine, No 7) (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the first of only two Star Trek titles for author Esther Friesner, both of which, I thought were well thought out and rather well written novels. "Warchild" is set between the first and second season of Deep Space Nine and is very true to the type of stories being told on the show at that time. This was a time of course, when the series was fleshing itself out and hadn't quite kicked into its main theme of dealing with the Dominion and I believe the author captured that rather well.
If one pays attention to the plot of this story, you'll also see certain similarities to aired episodes, especially in Dr. Bashir's case, a character she captured with ease in this story. I found her writing to be fairly fluidic and the pacing of the book, though it slows in some areas, was set reasonably well! Overall, the premise for "Warchild" is a very intriguing and interesting one, but the pacing detracts from the overall experience.
The cover art for this title is, unfortunately, from a time when not an excessive amount thought went into the cover art for Star Trek books and it falls into the old, "slap some caricatures on there and an image of the station and everything will be fine."
The premise:
A message left behind by Kai Opaka gives Commander Sisko a fateful mission; find a young Bajoran girl who is destined to be a great a great healer and who can stop the warring between Bajoran factions. Jadzia heads for Bajor to find this young girl and at the same time, Dr. Bashir goes there to treat a rare disease that is killing Bajoran children in resettlement camps. Dr. Bashir goes absent without leave in his quest to find a cure for this disease and Jadzia finds the young girl, but she too, is suffering from this strange disease. Sisko must now find Bashir in order to save this girl who "may" be Bajor's last chance for peace...
What follows from there is definitely a fairly decent early Star Trek Deep Space Nine story that, as stated above, faithfully fits right in with the type of stories being told during the shows first couple of seasons. I would definitely recommend this title to any and all fans of the series. {ssintrepid}
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