preiman790's review
4.0
At first this one bothered me. I had to keep reminding myself that this was written back when only a few episodes of DS9 had aired. Once i could get past the things the show contradicted I found The Siege to be a really engaging read. Now i find myself wishing the show followed it's lead.
frakalot's review
4.0
A bit of a darker tale which I guess suits DS9s reputation as a series. Being the first original for this series I'd say the characters were done exceptionally well.
I very much love that the book universe gives opportunities for Odo to really shift his shape in a way that was never properly allowed for in the TV budget.
There are a few concepts in this book which you may recognise as having contributed to ideas for later episodes.
I very much love that the book universe gives opportunities for Odo to really shift his shape in a way that was never properly allowed for in the TV budget.
There are a few concepts in this book which you may recognise as having contributed to ideas for later episodes.
rosenectur's review
3.0
When I bought these books Star Trek DS9 was still on the air. I watched the show and read the books until the crew felt like family. Re-reading it was a little walk down memory lane. They still felt like family, just family you hadn’t seen in a long time, and had a lot of catching up to do. But instead of talking about how life was currently you just sit around and reminiscence. If you were a fan of DS9 then you’ll probably enjoy this book. If not then skip it because the sci-fi aspects don’t measure up to a good enough read if you don’t care about the characters.
emjeanmougin's review
3.0
The preface of this book warns that it was written only 5 episodes into the first season of DS9, meaning that the author only had 5 episodes worth of material to familiarize himself with the characters and put a plot together. This is why I give this book 3-stars instead of 2.
It isn't worth complaining about characters being out of character. Even in the tv show, most of them weren't well-established until the tail-end of season 1 and Peter David does alright at keeping each of them in their general lane. This is just one of those books you have to take with a grain of salt.
~~Spoilers~~
The wormhole is closed down, as it currently has a tendency to shred apart any ship that enters it. Because of this, many travelers are left stranded aboard DS9, waiting until such time as they can safely pass through to the Gamma Quadrant. Included among these is an extremely religious group of alien missionaries (known as Endemions), on a quest to spread the word of their deity. Oh and there's a Ferengi named Glav -an old associate of Quark's who Quark managed to legally double-cross in the past. This Ferengi is, bizarrely, attempting to purchase DS9 (but more on that later). O'Brien is trying to learn to do magic tricks for Molly's birthday. Jake is mad at Sisko. And Keiko hates living and teaching on DS9.
This is a lot of plot threads to start out with, especially considering that the central story of this book has only a little to do with any of that and is, in fact, about a murder investigation. Also, this is an Odo story. It just takes awhile find its way there.
In the meantime, Bashir discovers that one of the Endemions (a child named Rasa) is extremely sick and slowly dying. He tries to convince his parents to treat him, but it's against their religion. They say if he's going to die, it's the will of their god and there's nothing to be done about it. Bashir is understandably angry but Sisko won't allow to violate the prime directive, so it's really out of Bashir's hands.
Just kidding, he goes ahead and violates the prime directive. He just does it behind Sisko's back.
Now a full 60 pages into the book, one of the Endemions does the reader a favor by finally getting gruesomely murdered by a changeling. The changeling paints a #1 on the wall, indicating that it will kill again, and then slithers off.
Sisko declares a quarantine, stopping all traffic in or out of DS9 on the assumption that the killer might try to flee. At this point they don't know that the murderer is a shapeshifter, but they figure it out pretty quick. Not through investigative work or anything like that, but because the changeling messes up and shifts in front of a Bajorean woman and her daughter while a Cardassian is trying to rape her.
Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention Gotto, a Cardassian who, for some reason, is there. Why is he there? As a spy or something, I guess. Except he's not a very good spy because everyone knows he works for Gul Dukat. And he's not even going the Garek route and pretending to be anything other than a spy so uh...
Yeah, anyway. The changeling crawls inside of him and makes him explode. Once again, very gruesomely.
Odo intervenes and manages to chase the changeling off before it can murder the Bajoreans. Even though he's out of character a bit, Odo's pretty much the saving grace of this story. The lack of budgetary constraints allow the author to utilize his shapeshifting abilities in a way the tv show couldn't and the fight sequences between he and the other shapeshifter are entertaining, if a bit over-the-top.
Meanwhile O'brien keeps practicing magic tricks and Glav and Quark keep trying to buy the station. Another murder occurs off-screen and Bashir continues trying to convince the Endemions to treat their dying son before he shrivels away to dust.
The Endemions (I'm sure i spelled this wrong everytime, but the book is like on the other side of the room and I can't be bothered to retrieve it) want the killer to face justice on their home planet. Seeing as a Cardassian was murdered, Gul Dukat wants the killer to face justice on Cardassia. In order to demonstrate how serious they are about this, they both show up with warships and threaten to attack DS9.
This, for me, is where the credibility of these plot threads really starts to stretch. Dukat is a jerk by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems implausible that he would risk outright war over this. Also, in a society like this, one would think there would be some protocols about extraditing a criminal that didn't involve blowing up a space station.
Bashir shows up at Quark's and intrudes on he and Glav in the middle of a really gross holo-suite program, inadvertently rescuing Quark from the enemy changeling just as its about to cave his head in. Odo fights it off again and it manages to escape, this time to murder Bashir's nurse. Bashir is sad about it for... I dunno, like two pages?
Bashir figures Quark owes him a favor so he convinces him to mock up a holosuite program so that Rasa's mother can witness his slow death firsthand. Then he uses the program to ruthlessly, mentally and emotionally torture her into agreeing to let him treat her son.
I promised I wasn't going to complain about the characters being out of character so I guess I'll just let that one go.
O'Brien comes up with a plan to make it difficult for the changeling to move through the vents. While he's modifying the junctions, he and Odo once again discuss magic tricks and misdirection. And this is when Odo finally solves the mystery, realizing that the changeling is not just a psycho killer, but that it has an actual agenda.
On the Promenade, Glav is informed by Rom that Quark has sold him the bar for a song and escape from DS9. Glav races to catch him in his quarters, where Quark appears to be packing with the lights turned down low. Quark asserts that Glav has actually hired the changeling as an assassin, intending to get even for the time Quark double-crossed him many years earlier.
Glav admits it and his suitcase changes into the changeling, who promptly murders Quark.
Just kidding.
Because it's not Quark. It's actually Odo. The two changelings fight, murdering Glav in the process. The whole fight is way too much to go into to, but it's pretty entertaining and even though I find the presence of Dukat extremely implausible, he does add some good tension to the climax of the story.
Eventually the murderous changeling is killed (sort of) and Dukat and the Endemenions just sort of shrug their shoulders and go oh well and go on their merry way.
As for Dr. Bashir, he manages to save Rasa's life, but both he and his mother are exiled from their society for going against the will of their deity. Bummer.
Odo is sad because the only other changeling he's ever met has turned out to be a vicious killer. Double Bummer.
O'Brien never does learn how to do a magic trick, but Odo agrees to appear as a pony so that Molly can ride him around the Promenade, which is what she actually wanted anyway. Cute.
I didn't like this one as much as Peter David's other Star Trek books, but I didn't exactly hate it either. Usually I can get through one of these in a day, but this one took almost a week. Overall, the parts that are good are really quite good and the parts that are bad are mostly easy to ignore. One thing he does get right is Odo's single-minded pursuit of justice and boy oh boy does he throw all-in on that one. The end of the story comes together in a way where the reader is just a little ahead of the characters. But not TOO FAR ahead. There's at least enough twists and turns to stay entertained and have the occasional surprise. And Peter David is funny. As always.
I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone except die-hard fans of the Star Trek books. With that being said, I wouldn't try to dissuade someone from reading it either. It's one of those books that just sort of is. Could be better. Could be worse.
It isn't worth complaining about characters being out of character. Even in the tv show, most of them weren't well-established until the tail-end of season 1 and Peter David does alright at keeping each of them in their general lane. This is just one of those books you have to take with a grain of salt.
~~Spoilers~~
The wormhole is closed down, as it currently has a tendency to shred apart any ship that enters it. Because of this, many travelers are left stranded aboard DS9, waiting until such time as they can safely pass through to the Gamma Quadrant. Included among these is an extremely religious group of alien missionaries (known as Endemions), on a quest to spread the word of their deity. Oh and there's a Ferengi named Glav -an old associate of Quark's who Quark managed to legally double-cross in the past. This Ferengi is, bizarrely, attempting to purchase DS9 (but more on that later). O'Brien is trying to learn to do magic tricks for Molly's birthday. Jake is mad at Sisko. And Keiko hates living and teaching on DS9.
This is a lot of plot threads to start out with, especially considering that the central story of this book has only a little to do with any of that and is, in fact, about a murder investigation. Also, this is an Odo story. It just takes awhile find its way there.
In the meantime, Bashir discovers that one of the Endemions (a child named Rasa) is extremely sick and slowly dying. He tries to convince his parents to treat him, but it's against their religion. They say if he's going to die, it's the will of their god and there's nothing to be done about it. Bashir is understandably angry but Sisko won't allow to violate the prime directive, so it's really out of Bashir's hands.
Just kidding, he goes ahead and violates the prime directive. He just does it behind Sisko's back.
Now a full 60 pages into the book, one of the Endemions does the reader a favor by finally getting gruesomely murdered by a changeling. The changeling paints a #1 on the wall, indicating that it will kill again, and then slithers off.
Sisko declares a quarantine, stopping all traffic in or out of DS9 on the assumption that the killer might try to flee. At this point they don't know that the murderer is a shapeshifter, but they figure it out pretty quick. Not through investigative work or anything like that, but because the changeling messes up and shifts in front of a Bajorean woman and her daughter while a Cardassian is trying to rape her.
Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention Gotto, a Cardassian who, for some reason, is there. Why is he there? As a spy or something, I guess. Except he's not a very good spy because everyone knows he works for Gul Dukat. And he's not even going the Garek route and pretending to be anything other than a spy so uh...
Yeah, anyway. The changeling crawls inside of him and makes him explode. Once again, very gruesomely.
Odo intervenes and manages to chase the changeling off before it can murder the Bajoreans. Even though he's out of character a bit, Odo's pretty much the saving grace of this story. The lack of budgetary constraints allow the author to utilize his shapeshifting abilities in a way the tv show couldn't and the fight sequences between he and the other shapeshifter are entertaining, if a bit over-the-top.
Meanwhile O'brien keeps practicing magic tricks and Glav and Quark keep trying to buy the station. Another murder occurs off-screen and Bashir continues trying to convince the Endemions to treat their dying son before he shrivels away to dust.
The Endemions (I'm sure i spelled this wrong everytime, but the book is like on the other side of the room and I can't be bothered to retrieve it) want the killer to face justice on their home planet. Seeing as a Cardassian was murdered, Gul Dukat wants the killer to face justice on Cardassia. In order to demonstrate how serious they are about this, they both show up with warships and threaten to attack DS9.
This, for me, is where the credibility of these plot threads really starts to stretch. Dukat is a jerk by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems implausible that he would risk outright war over this. Also, in a society like this, one would think there would be some protocols about extraditing a criminal that didn't involve blowing up a space station.
Bashir shows up at Quark's and intrudes on he and Glav in the middle of a really gross holo-suite program, inadvertently rescuing Quark from the enemy changeling just as its about to cave his head in. Odo fights it off again and it manages to escape, this time to murder Bashir's nurse. Bashir is sad about it for... I dunno, like two pages?
Bashir figures Quark owes him a favor so he convinces him to mock up a holosuite program so that Rasa's mother can witness his slow death firsthand. Then he uses the program to ruthlessly, mentally and emotionally torture her into agreeing to let him treat her son.
I promised I wasn't going to complain about the characters being out of character so I guess I'll just let that one go.
O'Brien comes up with a plan to make it difficult for the changeling to move through the vents. While he's modifying the junctions, he and Odo once again discuss magic tricks and misdirection. And this is when Odo finally solves the mystery, realizing that the changeling is not just a psycho killer, but that it has an actual agenda.
On the Promenade, Glav is informed by Rom that Quark has sold him the bar for a song and escape from DS9. Glav races to catch him in his quarters, where Quark appears to be packing with the lights turned down low. Quark asserts that Glav has actually hired the changeling as an assassin, intending to get even for the time Quark double-crossed him many years earlier.
Glav admits it and his suitcase changes into the changeling, who promptly murders Quark.
Just kidding.
Because it's not Quark. It's actually Odo. The two changelings fight, murdering Glav in the process. The whole fight is way too much to go into to, but it's pretty entertaining and even though I find the presence of Dukat extremely implausible, he does add some good tension to the climax of the story.
Eventually the murderous changeling is killed (sort of) and Dukat and the Endemenions just sort of shrug their shoulders and go oh well and go on their merry way.
As for Dr. Bashir, he manages to save Rasa's life, but both he and his mother are exiled from their society for going against the will of their deity. Bummer.
Odo is sad because the only other changeling he's ever met has turned out to be a vicious killer. Double Bummer.
O'Brien never does learn how to do a magic trick, but Odo agrees to appear as a pony so that Molly can ride him around the Promenade, which is what she actually wanted anyway. Cute.
I didn't like this one as much as Peter David's other Star Trek books, but I didn't exactly hate it either. Usually I can get through one of these in a day, but this one took almost a week. Overall, the parts that are good are really quite good and the parts that are bad are mostly easy to ignore. One thing he does get right is Odo's single-minded pursuit of justice and boy oh boy does he throw all-in on that one. The end of the story comes together in a way where the reader is just a little ahead of the characters. But not TOO FAR ahead. There's at least enough twists and turns to stay entertained and have the occasional surprise. And Peter David is funny. As always.
I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone except die-hard fans of the Star Trek books. With that being said, I wouldn't try to dissuade someone from reading it either. It's one of those books that just sort of is. Could be better. Could be worse.
gannent's review
4.0
Really enjoyed this DS9 novel.
Highlights include: Odo battling it out with a shapeshifter like he never got to on the show's limited budget; Sisko telling dad jokes; Dax offering to kill Dukat; Odo's last thought before he thinks he's going to die is "who's going to look after Quark?"; an offhand mention of Garak as the station's gossip monger
Lowlights: Dax commenting about how she likes doing ~girly~ things now that she's a ~woman~ again; Bashir continuing to prove that he's never taken an ethics class in his entire goddamn life; Dax and Kira playing very minor roles
The tone of this story is waaay darker than any of the episodes I've seen, but I still enjoyed it. The topic was dark, but there was still series-typical humor so the serial-killing plot didn't seem so out of place. I was laughing out loud at several points and caught up in the drama at others. Glad that I read it.
Highlights include: Odo battling it out with a shapeshifter like he never got to on the show's limited budget; Sisko telling dad jokes; Dax offering to kill Dukat; Odo's last thought before he thinks he's going to die is "who's going to look after Quark?"; an offhand mention of Garak as the station's gossip monger
Lowlights: Dax commenting about how she likes doing ~girly~ things now that she's a ~woman~ again; Bashir continuing to prove that he's never taken an ethics class in his entire goddamn life; Dax and Kira playing very minor roles
The tone of this story is waaay darker than any of the episodes I've seen, but I still enjoyed it. The topic was dark, but there was still series-typical humor so the serial-killing plot didn't seem so out of place. I was laughing out loud at several points and caught up in the drama at others. Glad that I read it.
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