Customer Reviews

What Lay Beyond

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Instead of one big novel involving characters from all six current Star Trek book series, this is a collection of six short stories, each one picking up from the cliffhanger ending of each of the Gateways novels from the individual series (if that makes sense). While this sounded like a cynical marketing ploy, I had hoped that the six stories would build on each other to present some sort of unified whole, bringing the whole adventure to one grand conclusion. How wrong I was!

The Star Trek (original series), Challenger, and Voyager stories could--and probably should--have easily been included as concluding chapters in their respective books. Each one is nothing more than an epilogue to the main story. The Deep Space Nine and New Frontier stories present somewhat separate adventures, but that doesn't make them much better. In both, characters get transported to significant locations (an important historical moment for Colonel Kira, a mythical afterlife for Calhoun and Shelby) where nothing of any real consequence seems to happen. Of course, since both series present ongoing adventures, it's possible that these tales plant seeds for upcoming stories. Even if that were the case, it doesn't make these stories any less inconsequential or any more satisfying.

The Next Generation tale, longer than the other five, does, indeed, wrap up the Gateways story. But, like the other five, there's no real reason (besides financial) that this story couldn't have been included at the end of Doors Into Chaos.

Because four of the stories are completely dependent upon what came before, there is a complete lack of tension or suspense. All the big events happened in the parent novels, and all the authors have left to do in What Lay Beyond is tie up the loose ends (even when there aren't really any loose ends that need tying up). Any opportunites for suspense that could have been sustained through the other two stories are completely ignored by their authors. Frustratingly, those two authors, Peter David and Keith RA DeCandidio, have done particularly good Star Trek work in the past, which makes their lackluster contributions here even more disappointing.

So, if you followed the Gateways saga so far and need to see what happens next, I recommend waiting for the paperback. Nothing of enough consequence happens to make this an immediate must-read.

The loud sucking noise is the $$ being sucked out of your wallet.

Once upon a time, Star Trek hardcovers were saved for truly excellent ST stories (e.g., Spock's World, Sarek, Prime Directive, Pathways). Then they slipped a notch, but were still *decent* reads (e.g., Best Destiny, Imzadi, Shadows on the Sun, Kahless). Then the quality slipped another notch, but the books were still worth buying used ... or borrowing from the public library (e.g., Genesis Wave (Books I and II), Imzadi II, I,Q., Warped).

And once upon a time, even the "series" books were pretty decent reads (e.g., Invasion, Millennium, Section 31).

But, now...a whole new low!

The editors really missed the mark with this finale to a rather interesting premise. They should have just added a few more pages to each of the other six books in the series (especially considering how much paperbacks cost these days!) and saved the hardcover (and my $$) for a really GOOD book, instead of engaging in this marketing ploy to part us from our hard-earned cash.

Borrow this one from the library (just to read the TNG part)...don't even waste money on it from the used book store, unless you can find it for less than a buck.

I used to just be disappointed in the way the novels are "slipping" in quality - but now, I'm really angry. Listen up, ST editors at PocketBooks: Here's one Star Trek fan who will be very wary of all of those "Book X of Y" series that seem to be all that you can publish lately. In fact, I will no longer buy a single one until after the whole "set" is released, so I can see what I'm getting first!

The book was a disappointment like many of the reviewers have stated here. I did enjoy the NF and DS9 stories. The DS9 in particular for me was excellent. I thought the weakest was the Challenger story and it seemed to be the one that had the least connection with the whole Gateway story. The other stories refer to each other a little but the Challenger one nothing at all. It's a separate universe bascially. I also felt that the ending really was lacking. Basically the book like the series had it's high point and low points.

The series Book 1-6 was promising, if annoying for having a cliffhanger ending that forced you to buy the next book, or specificially the Book 7 which contains all the endings.

Well after being built-up by books 1-6, wondering if the inconsistencies between those books would be tied together in ST Gateways Book 7, wondering if Book 7 "the grand conclusion of what lay beyond" would put forth a good explanation for the Iconian mystery, tie all the loose ends together and provide good conclusions for the cliffhanger endings of books 1-6...............it was most most most disappointing to see that this was not the case.

Book 7 creates more inconsistencies and the endings are [bad]. Oh some of the endings were ok, but the final ending...for the TNG book in the series...which was SUPPOSED to tie everything together, totally messed it up and failed, completely failed to deliver! I mean...first in books 1-6 they established that once activated a gateway cannot be destroyed no matter what they threw at it because it will simply absorb the energy. THEN in Book 7...suddenly Gateways CAN be destroyed by explosive force...no explanation given!!! Just a lazy author who didn't even read the previous book he wrote and ignored all stuff he established in the previous book! Once again, this is a MAJOR LETDOWN!

To be fair this is a rating of only one of the stories in the book. It is "Horn and Ivory", the conclusion of the DS9 Season 8 Relaunch book "Demons of Air and Darkness" (also book 4 of the Gateways septuplet).

I agree the marketing scheme of making dedicated readers buy the hardcover of this 7th book simply because it wraps up any (and every) one of the first 6 books is deceitful. Myself having read only the DS9 Gateway book as part of the relaunch, I was angered at the idea. Luckily, if you are reading this review, you no longer have to buy the hardcover, but can settle for the cheap paperback. Therefore, my review takes that into consideration.

I'll say that reading Book 4 and its conclusion in this book raised a few questions that I wonder as to whether or not they are solved/explained in the others Gateway books. I deem they probably are, and for that reason, perhaps buying this book simply for one book's conclusion rather than 6, is an incentive to go read the other books. Many have said the DS9 story is one of the best, and indeed I found it was excellent, but in time I may go back to read the other Gateway books. As it is, this is a review for "Horn and Ivory" by the marvelous deCandido.

At the conclusion of "Demons of Air and Darkness", Kira steps through a Gateway to be with what she believes are the Prophets. Where does it take her? Well of course it sends her back 30,000 years to a time of Bajor's past before the uniting of the world. At first, I did not realize that the entire sequel was only about Kira. By the time I had finished the short story, I was glad it was, because deCandido does the best job portraying Kira that I've read so far. You really start to understand her and feel what she feels. You get to understand Kira's nostalgia (of sorts) for the days of the Resistance, but more importantly you get to see her committed to being a good commander.

The plot. At first I was worried why we were in the old days, but slowly I got heavily involved into it and realized that where Kira had ended up had ties to her real life.
The book is about Kira rediscovering herself and understanding where she is in her life and coming to terms with what she's lost. At its base, the book asks: do you give up, or go on. The author certainly knows Kira well enough to answer the question for her, and I was glad watching her grow.

It was also wonderful getting to read about Bajor's fragile past before its unification and before the Prophets were worshipped by the majority of Bajor. Keith did an excellent job with this novel since to me it really didn't feel like a Trek novel or a DS9 novel, but more of a Medieval-type story with Kira thrust into it. Yet it works nicely somehow, and for that I give the book 4 stars. I couldn't give it 5 because though it does a good job, it deals only with Kira and none of the other DS9 crew. Only Garak's book, "A Stitch in Time" managed to pull off writing about one main DS9 character without becoming nostalgic for the other characters.

So there you have my brief review for what I consider to be Episode 6 of the DS9 Season 8 Relaunch novels. I read "Demons of Air and Darkness" in under two days, and immediately wanted to read the conclusion in this book. Thus my review is only for the DS9 Kira story, "Horn and Ivory" and not as a conclusion to the Gateway septuplet.

If you read "Demons of Air and Darkness" and tolerate or love Kira and want to know what happens to her at the end of that book, you'll want to read her conclusion. If you have not read "Demons of Air and Darkness", do not read "Horn and Ivory" as it does not stand well on its own (as it is not meant to!).

Gateways What Lay Beyond was a great disappointment as was the entire series. The individual novels were only loosely connected. Most people probably thought that this last book was going to draw the stories together in a grand finale. That it didnt do. The Challenger segment was at least related to what transpired in the novel as was the TNG story which was the best of the short stories here. The New Frontier story had absolutely nothing to do with the novel or the Gateways and could have easily been left out. Keith DeCandido's DS9 short story though well written didnt have the least thing to do with his DS9 novel nor the Gateways. Kira fans would like it. The Voyager story explains rather poorly the orgin of the Gateways. The TOS story is just about as weak as the novel but at least it dealt with the story that was set up in the novel. I did enjoy the Pocket Novel Timeline in the back of the book but then I am a bit prejudiced because I helped to construct it.

I suppose that when you are trying to squeeze the final chapters of six previous titles into a single 318 page book something has to give. Unfortunately, in the case of "What Lay Beyond," what gave was plot and character development.

Each of the previous stand alone titles ran roughly 300 pages. Each was a cliff hanger that dropped the reader off with each of the captains of the assorted starships stepping through a different portal in space, setting up the premise for each chapter of "What Lay Beyond."

This truncating of the story lines reduced what should have been a series of "amazing journeys" to six "Let's wrap it up!" vignettes. Almost all the these short stories has a "then he did such and such" construction that wouldn't survive most freshman composition classes. In fact, the short stories in the various "Strange New Worlds" collections shine much brighter than these toss offs.

In a move that has a "what were they thinking?" quality, several characters and storylines developed in the previous stand alone titles are never mentioned or resolved. With no indication that they will be in the near future.

This is really a shame. The newer stories featuring the crews of "Challenger" and "New Frontier" are fun and interesting to read. They deserved better.

Gateways What Lay Beyond is a compilation of the conclusions to all of the Star Trek Gateways series. Personally I only read "Horn and Ivory" which is the conclusion to the Deep Space Nine Gateways series.

There is nothing astounding to the conclusion. First of all, I will warn everyone that spoilers follow. So stop reading now if you want don't want to know what happens.

The whole story is focused on Kira, none of the other DS9 crew plays a role. In the last Gateways book, we find Kira stranded on a deserted planet in the Delta Quadrant dieing of theta radiation poisoning and Taranatar recovering from a brutal fight with a Hirogen. We also know that at the end of the last Gateways book, Kira staggers into a gateway that keeps flashing between two places. We would expect something to happen like her being returned to DS9 or Bajor but that's not quite what happens. After staggering into the Gateway, Kira is transported to a familiar planet 30,000 years in the past. The rest of the story has nothing to do with solving the mystery of the Gateways, it only opens up more questions. Not until the final chapter do we find out what happened with the evacuation.

It's a nice litte story, but you can easily skip it and go on to the Deep Space Nine Gamma series.

I was disapointed with this book. The writing was poor in many places. I have read better on free fanfiction sites. Most of the stories I could not even finish due to their poor quality. Very few of the stories were actually written at a halfway acceptable level. Buying this book was a waste of time and money.

This book was a serious disappointment. Previous reviewers have touched on many of the shortfalls but let me add that each of these stories is only around 40 pages long. We don't get a conclusion to the gateways series we get a summary ending. If you must read it, check the book out from the library or wait for the paperback.