Customer Reviews

Wrath of the Prophets (Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Book 20)

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

 

 

Over the years in Star Trek novels there have been several novels that were written by multiple top Star Trek authors that either worked very well or fell flat in the dialogue and overall story, "Wrath of the Prophets" can definitely be counted among the ones that worked extremely well. Of course, given the authors of this novel in Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger, this novel should have and does work well in bringing the characters and story alive, given the feeling of a well made show.

One of the better things about having read so many Star Trek novels by these great authors is that you can pretty much; with a fair amount of certainty tell which parts were written by which author. Overall, the plot setup and execution is done extremely well, the pacing of the novel is phenomenal and the characterizations are done extremely well, especially the "first time" pairing of Major Kira Nerys and former Starfleet officer Ro Laren.

The cover art for this novel, while still coveting the image of two major characters, is a pretty good one and much better than the majority of the novels that were published at the same time as this one.

The Premise:

A fatal disease starts ravaging Bajor and eventually spreads to Deep Space Nine itself. Captain Sisko finds that he must turn to former Starfleet officer, Ro Laren in order to find the source of the alien plague. What follows from there is an extraordinarily well written novel that involves the better part of the crew to solve to mystery as Dr. Bashir struggles to find the cure and somewhere in Dax's past one of her previous hosts has run into this virus. The dialogue between Kira and Ro in this novel is utterly phenomenal and completely believable as to what it might've been had they met on screen.

Overall, I highly recommend this Star Trek Deep Space Nine novel to any and all fans of Star Trek fiction as it is a highly imaginative and wonderfully intriguing story. {ssintrepid}

I am a BIG fan of Deep Space Nine, so I obviously love to read Deep Space Nine books. But this one, well, wasn't so good. The plot is OK, and the characters are OK, but it just didn't do it for me. The Ro/Kira thing was good, but I didn't think it was right that Ro and Kira took on a whole criminal ring and won. Plus, I didn't think that Sisko would ever let Quark pilot the Defiant, so that was pretty dumb, and why would Sisko leave Deep Space Nine without a crew???? It just doesn't make sense. I'm not a fan of Friedman, and I don't know who the other two people are, but I just hope that the two of you break off relations with Friedman, and write a new Deep Space Nine book.

I picked this book up for 2 reasons: Peter David and RO Laren. I'm a fan of both. I read anything written by Peter David because he mixes adventure and humor very well. RO was one of my favorite ST characters and Kira is just a pale imitation. I did enjoy the interplay between the 2 Bajorans and the fact that if it wasnt for RO joining the Marquis, she would have been the one assigned to Deep Space 9. The story was so-so but the characters are fun to read especially Quark and Rom. Needed a little more adventure but overall it was a pleasant read.

The Ro-Kira interaction was enjoyable. Same goes for the Sisko-Quark scenes. The story was just interesting enough to keep reading, but it was only mildly entertaining. It was informative on the Bajoran provisional government. It included alien species that we've encountered on previous missions.

It's been more than a year since I read this, but these worst bits are still quite fresh in my memory. 1. Appearently, the only way to get around on Bajor is by foot, otherwise Ro and Kira would have at least hailed a taxi, what with all the lives on the line. 2. Sisko and Quark taking the Defiant without a crew makes absolutely no sense. I can only assume that that part was written with the intention of using a runabout and they had to change it to the Defiant so that the ship would be in the novel at all. 3. Dax is reduced to a thinly veiled plot device (of the Greek variety).

Naturally, I now have to read reviews of novels Peter David merely co-writes, rather than just being able to buy and enjoy them like the majority of his works.

This book is about par for a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel; it's a bit better than mediocre, but not good enough to rate four stars. On the plus side, the combined writing effort was pretty seamless; I didn't notice stylistic changes that tipped me off to when one of the authors stopped and another one took over. Also, Ro Laren was handled well, and if the strained interaction between her and Kira was a bit overdone, it wasn't badly so. On the down side, the moral of the subplot involving Chief O'Brien was just WRONG; the idea that it would have been wrong of him to take time off from work in order to be with his possibly dying daughter is a moral that I am appalled by.

In general, though, most of the story was just "pretty good", a standard example of the genre that was not overly memorable but an interesting enough read.

Although a devoted follower of the TV series, I do not usually read DS9 novels. I was tempted on this occasion as I was an avid fan of Ro Laren from TNG. Despite certain flaws particularly with characterisation, the book was an enjoyable read. Worth at least the time and money, if nothing more.

One of the reasons I read this book was because I wondered if the strange "thing" behind DS9(on the cover) was an alien warship and DS9 was being invaded. Now I know that there is no such thing in the entire book, and that was a major disapointment. Overall, the book is enjoyable, it is fast-paced, but the storyline is rushed.Not one of these three authors' best efforts. If you want to read a good book by these three authors (writing together, like in this book), check out Star Trek TOS #59:"The Disinherited". Also, I'm hoping for a book featuring a "real" wrath of the Prophets.

I must be one of the only trekkies who likes Kai Winn, so I read this book. Boy, what a mistake. The plot was boring and Kai Winn was meek. I guess I'll have to wait for the new DS9 trilogy.

An interesting pairing of strong characters leads us through an almost textbook "find the cure" and "save the planet" novel.

Having 3 outhors may ad creativity to the storyline, but it does cause significant changes in the tone of chapters and the vocabulary used.