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Typhon Station is a very fastpaced PBeM RPG with skilled, experienced
players and a warm sense of bonding and community. We play at the
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We have three stations to post from, SB 185, USS Odyssey, and USS
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check us out. See if you want to make Typhon Station your home away
from home.
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Posted:
23:29:59 on October 07 2002
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: Reviews - Books | Divine Treasury forum
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
TWILIGHT: Book 1 of 4 of the MISSION GAMMA series
by David R. George III
Pocket Books Paperback, 2002
505 pages
The time has come for a new era of exploration. With the Dominion War behind
them, the crew of the U.S.S. Defiant journeys through the wormhole as
Commander Elias Vaughn leads a “corps of discovery” to blaze new trails into
the unexplored reaches of the Gamma Quadrant. The time has come for a
civilization to reach a crossroads. As political forces throughout the Alpha
Quadrant intersect at Deep Space Nine to determine the future of Bajor, the
planet’s theological unity threatens to shatter. And for Colonel Kira Nerys,
the path of the Prophets may become a road to ruin. The time has come for a
father and daughter to confront their past while a mother and son fight for
the future, for lovers to be tested and for friendships to transform, and for
worlds on opposite ends of the galaxy to face dusk... or dawn
Written for TrekWeb by Alexander Chase, edited by Steve Krutzler
Editor's Note: Difficult to navigate? We were certainly lost with an initial review that left many guessing. So Alexander Chase presents this revised review, reexamining the volume in light of its position within a larger series of novels, from the perspective of a new reader, and attempting to more adequately (and fairly) address the weight of prior installments.
Reviewer's Note: Allow me to apologize to readers and interested parties including the author for my initial, erroneous review posted yesterday. I was not fully informed as to the nature of TWILIGHT and was confused by the marketing of the book and this was a dereliction on my part. As I believe this revised review makes clear, I approach TWILIGHT from the point of view of a new reader. I believe this position is reasonable and the perspective of a new reader is uniquely qualified to assess this aspect of the novel.
The Deep Space Nine story continues with David R. George III’s TWILIGHT, the
1st book in the four-book MISSION GAMMA series from Pocket Books. In
TWILIGHT, as Bajor stands on the verge of Federation membership Quark faces
ruin and love (seems like you can never have one without the other), Kira
struggles with personal turmoil due to her excommunication by the Vedek
Assembly even as 8 years of effort comes to fruition in professional and
civic fulfilment, Kasidy Yates adjusts to her elevated status in Bajoran
society and the mysterious disappearance of Jake Sisko, and Bashir and Daz
are part of the crew which renews exploration of the Gamma Quadrant under a
former Starfleet special ops officer, Commander Elias Vaughn. Familiar faces
- such as fan favorite Ro Laren, Nog, First Minister Shakaar and the
Cardassian Gul Macet (of USS Phoenix fame) - step into the foreground of the
DS9 story surrounded by a cast of post-series characters including an Orion
dabo girl, a Jem’Hadar sent by Odo to observe life in the Alpha Quadrant, an
Andorian torn between duty to family and duty to Starfleet, and a daughter
still resentful about a mother’s death and a father’s abandonment. There is
even a “blast from The Original Series past” as readers get a glimpse of the
man one little Leonard James Akaar of Capella became, now a Starfleet admiral.
Reviewing David R. George III’s TWILIGHT represents a frustrating enigma to
unravel, and readers coming anew to the Deep Space Nine relaunch line of
novels with TWILIGHT will acutely feel that frustration. Clearly marketed as
the first book of a 4-part stand alone series set after the events of the DS9 series,
TWILIGHT veers dangerously close to being inaccessible to any reader not
intimately familiar with the previous DS9 relaunch novels. That readers
lacking that familiarity should still be able to enjoy the story TWILIGHT has
to tell is a credit to George’s abilities as a writer. However, both George
and Pocket Books bear responsibility for the maddening distraction that new
readers will experience. There are several actions the author and Pocket
Books could have taken to resolve this problem.
Pocket Books could have simply marketed this novel and the subsequent MISSION GAMMA books as a true serialization (part 6, for example). Instead, this book has been misleadingly marketed as a stand-alone and limited series (“Book One of Four” are the words
of the jacket). That Pocket Books is attempting to emulate the serialization
flavor of the DS9 series is clear but, in this reviewer’s opinion, it is a
fundamental error because a book is not a television episode; being broader
in scope and ambition and requiring a magnitude of commitment in time and
effort on the part of the consumer that a 1-hour episode once a week does not
and never will.
Also, when pursuing a serialization strategy several opportunities are
available - and need to be aggressively taken - to recount previous events to
readers in order to embed current circumstances and character demeanors with
meaning (if they are dependent). That TWILIGHT doesn’t exploit these
opportunities to the full is a failing, doubly so since the opportunities are
infinitely more flexible in novel form than in a television format. This is
needed by the reader whether they are coming to the material anew or already
familiar with it (what if it has been several months or years between
readings?). For a good example, see J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
where the author not only exploits the opportunity for a summary of events in
previous novels at the beginning of THE TWO TOWERS and THE RETURN OF THE KING
but also recounts events from previous novels through introspective
reflection of characters. Another esoteric and pedantic example can be found
in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle of operas where the story of each successive
opera pauses while a singer recounts previous events for the audience).
TWILIGHT does not have a summary at the beginning of the novel to bring
readers up to date in this manner, a decision of the publisher. When it comes to introspective
reflection of characters there are essentially three types of information an
author has to convey to the reader: a summary of preceding events in the
series itself, where relevant to current action; a summary of the
circumstances which set the premise for the character being in position to
experience these events; and a summary of events in the the distant past to
serve as a background to character development. So, for example, take Ro
Laren in TWILIGHT. We need the author to tell us through
introspective reflection - if a summary at the front of the book is not
helpful - - what happened to Ro in the previous novels of the series (since it seems relevant), what circumstances were set in motion to put Ro in this situation,
and what has happen in Ro’s past which helps us, as readers, to define her,
as a character. In TWILIGHT, George is very adept at the last in developing
characterizations of depth while very cursory with the first two, leaving the
reader with niggling gaps in knowledge that are a constant distraction.
Throughout TWILIGHT this reviewer was left
wondering three things: first, why was Ro Laren not killed with the rest of
the Maquis; second, since she is not dead, why is she not rotting in a
Federation prison; and lastly, what possible circumstances could have arisen
that warrant pardon for her actions in “Preemptive Strike” (putting aside
any feelings about whether or not this episode should ever had been filmed,
or even acknowledged)?
The author and others have conveyed to TrekWeb that
the answer to these questions were the subject of an earlier book but this
gap could have been easily summarized by the author himself with a single
paragraph of introspective reflection of these events on Ro’s part (“Ro had
always thought herself lucky. She knew she had been lucky to survive The
Dominion slaughter of her Maquis brethren in the demilitarized zone and luck
had certainly played a role in her being able to help (such and such) to
redeem herself in the eyes of the right people, and secure yet another
chance; this time in the Bajoran militia.”) Simple, direct, to the point and
everything that the reader needs but is never given in TWILIGHT and making
totally unnecessary the need to read a handful of earlier books. Plus, we get
some character development to boot, i.e. Ro believes she is lucky. There are
exceptions to this oversight in TWILIGHT (for example, the background of the
Vaughn and Shar characters are, for the most part, handled deftly by George).
On a broader scale, some readers will come to this
book and the Relaunch line of novels with some very strong ideas about how
their favorite Star Trek series should have been continued by Pocket Books in
terms of characters, story and timeframe. Would this reviewer had chosen the
direction Pocket Books’ has taken? Well, no. The Dominion has isolated itself
behind its own borders and Cardassia is no longer a threat, even supplicant
to the Federation and Bajor, so there is a noticeable lack of geopolitical
tension in TWILIGHT. This arises from the choice of “drawing the line” after
the war at the borders of The Dominion rather than the wormhole itself (a
line it is made clear has been drawn by Odo himself), and not at all between
Cardassia and the rest of the quadrant. It is a constraint on the
geopolitical tapestry of DS9 that George does his best to overcome by
concentrating on the Bajoran situation itself, for the most part
successfully. However, the effects of this constraint becomes very noticeable
whenever George’s story veers away from Bajor (their relations with
Cardassia, pending Federation membership, etc.). When this happens, TWILIGHT
becomes nothing more than a mildly interesting TNG-like story about the
explorations of a different captain and crew with three DS9ers throw into the
mix (Dax, Bashir and Nog). Tension is transferred from the broad canvas of
geopolitics to inter-personal characterizations (Commander Vaughn and his
daughter, Andorian Shar and his family, the demarcation between the personal
and the professional in Bashir and Dax’s relationship, an angry Nog and the
unremorseful Jem’Hadar soldier Taran’atar, Kira and a distant Shakaar). This
emphasis on character rather than story tension does, for the most part, work
in TWILIGHT (as it did on the series itself) but it is also pretty clear that
a rich layer of the DS9 fabric is missing and George is working only with a
partial canvas.
George’s writing of character nuances, dialogue and mannerisms in TWILIGHT is
spot-on across the board (for example, when Kira or Shakaar speak or react to
another character, the reader will believe it is the real Kira or Shakaar)
but, again, the decision to go in this particular direction in some instances
constrains the DS9 Relaunch with unoriginality; and George’s novel suffers
accordingly. For example, the Orion dabo girl Treir, Gul Macet and the
“outsider” Jem’Hadar Taran’atar are straight forward, like-for-like
exchanges within the established mould (“I’ll trade you one Leeta for one
Treir, one Odo/one Worf/one Garak for one Jem’Hadar soldier and one Gul Dukat
for one Gul Macet”; literally in the last case since Gul Macet is described
as the identical twin of Gul Dukat and the Bajoran government even requested
genetic testing from the Cardassians to ensure he was not Dukat). In these
cases, Pocket Books has opted for classic retread, fitting the Trek mould
rather than breaking it. In fact, Treir only really becomes interesting as an
character when she manipulates Quark into introducing a male dabo boy at
Quark’s (definitely a breaking of the mold and directly attributable, it
would appear, to George’s take on the material) However, once this is
completed, Treir becomes again a rather nondescript character. Of course, the
real problem with Treir is that she has replaced a character (Leeta) whose
role was largely visual (you know what I mean) rather than substantial (well
again, except in a visual sense).
Taran’atar, on the other hand, is rather
one-dimensional as an “outsider” to comment on the social mores of DS9
inhabitants, restricted to asking questions rather than making observations
and doing so totally devoid of humor (for example, contrast this with the
“outsider” viewpoint of the deliciously witty Garak). George seems aware of
the limitations of the Taran’atar character and makes him “disappear”
(shrouded but not forgotten) about halfway through the novel. Fortunately, in
the last case, George decides to make limited and temporary use of Gul Macet;
rightfully shying away from exploring or developing the character in any
depth. The reintroduction of the Gul Dukat character in this manner by Pocket
Books repeats the same mistake made by the DS9 producers when they didn’t
kill off the character once and for all at the end of the episode “Waltz.”
There is nothing quite so pathetic as a character continuing past their
expiration date (Jadzia Dax anyone?). How much of this characterization was
established in earlier Relaunch novels will be unclear to a new reader, but
George's treatment of sidelining the character suggests an attempt to
distance himself from what comes across here as a poor choice taken in
previous novels. Macet is touched upon but George gets it over with as
quickly as possible (no doubt fulfilling his obligations whilst ignoring the
spirit in which Pocket Books probably intended the Gul Macet character). How derivative can a character get before someone shouts
“stop”? George’s approach is correct, if outright avoidance of the character
is not an option.
However, the biggest problem George’s TWILIGHT has to deal with is the
direction fan favorite Ro Laren has been taken by previous authors; a direction which is simply
dumbfounding. How much of this is George's doing in developing something
hinted at in previous novels, or an explict development with which George is
burdened arising from these earlier novels, is a question only readers
already intimately familiar with that material will be able to answer. To
this reviewer and fan, it is unbelievable that Ro Laren - the proverbial
little girl lost looking for her father - would be attracted to, much less
fall in love with, a character like Quark. I don't believe it
and suspect that very few readers familiar with the Ro character will
believe it either. This leads to an awkward balance in this book where George
accurately captures the tone, mannerism and nuances of the Ro and Quark
characters but it is wrapped in an unbelievable situation which sits at the
core of the novel. It is, however, a joy to experience the real Ro again when
George has the flexibility to put her into believable circumstances,
especially in the scenes with Kira.
Putting aside the “path of the prophets” dictated to George, TWILIGHT shines
in its characterizations. The tension and eventual retrenchment between Elias
Vaughn and his daughter works extremely well and provides a significant
amount of character background so readers can sympathize with their
situation. The acclimation of Nog and Dax into their roles as part of the
command structure of the U.S.S. Defiant, as well as the interaction between
Bashir and Dax in maintaining distance between their personal lives and
professional roles, works extremely well. The adjustment of Kasidy to her
life on Bajor, her role as religious “figure” and mother to the child of the
Emissary, her longing for her husband and his son to be in her life, the
protective role Nog adopts toward her in their absence; all will ring true to
the reader. Even Quark’s demeanor and flirtations with Ro feel right even t
hough Ro reciprocating those flirtations seems totally out of character
(Ro and Quark’s “courtship” seems more like how it would have occurred if
Jadzia Dax had actually been interested in Quark. Ro’s flirtations come
across more like those one might expect from Jadzia rather than an isolated
Ro).
However, where TWILIGHT really shines is in tying up the loose ends of
Bajor’s application for membership to the Federation, and Kira’s role at the
center of the storm as this climatic event approaches. Her dealings with
Shakaar and Admiral Akaar remind us of the old Kira we all know and love
while giving us a glimpse of the more polished version to emerge after
serving under Benjamin Sisko, and on DS9 for 8 years. The most interesting
thread to be touched upon, principally articulated by Akaar, in this part of
the MISSION GAMMA story deals with the triad relationship between Bajor’s
coming role as a member of the Federation and the evolution of its relations
with the decimated Cardassians. This reviewer hopes that this thread receives
substantial development in subsequent novels without the Gul Macet character
descending into the cartoon villainy of Dukat in later seasons.
All in all, if the reader is able to put aside the distractions of some parts
of this novel that render it inaccessible and where the DS9 Relaunch is taking the series, there are enough interesting
story threads, intriguing characters interpersonal interactions, and tying
up of loose ends handled in a competent manner by George to make TWILIGHT worth the read.
TrekWeb’s Rating:
