A review by lefthandedmatt
The Art of the Impossible by Keith R.A. DeCandido
3.0
This 'Lost Era' novel tells the story of the Betreka Nebula incident between the Klingons and Cardassians, and leads up to the Khitomer massacre which so defined Worf's life throughout 'The Next Generation'.
It starts out well but I can't help but feel that it petered out as it went on. It attempts to deal with a large cast of characters and in doing so doesn't really service any of them very well. There's very little chance to dig in as we flit around from planet to planet, character to character. The Cardassians are all just Cardassians, Klingons are Klingons and there's very little to differentiate each of them into separate people. For all that, DeCandido is pretty great with dialogue and manages to capture the actor's voices in your head.
It handles the human characters far better. I enjoyed seeing a younger Elias Vaughn - who will play a large role in later DS9 novels - and the story of Deanna Troi's father was quite a joy to read. Similarly, I liked seeing Curzon Dax in his prime. There are guest appearances from a large number of background characters who appeared throughout the film and TV franchise and it does an admirable job of tying everything together.
It starts out well but I can't help but feel that it petered out as it went on. It attempts to deal with a large cast of characters and in doing so doesn't really service any of them very well. There's very little chance to dig in as we flit around from planet to planet, character to character. The Cardassians are all just Cardassians, Klingons are Klingons and there's very little to differentiate each of them into separate people. For all that, DeCandido is pretty great with dialogue and manages to capture the actor's voices in your head.
It handles the human characters far better. I enjoyed seeing a younger Elias Vaughn - who will play a large role in later DS9 novels - and the story of Deanna Troi's father was quite a joy to read. Similarly, I liked seeing Curzon Dax in his prime. There are guest appearances from a large number of background characters who appeared throughout the film and TV franchise and it does an admirable job of tying everything together.