A review by bory
The Mist by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch
1.0
I really need to start learning from my mistakes.
At this point, I've read several of Dean Wesley Smith's Trek novels. The Escape was horrendous, Shadows was passable, and I legitimately liked Echoes, though he did work with two other authors on that one. I'm sad to say, The Mist, very much like The Escape, is atrocious.
I knew I was in for a rough ride when right off the bat we start with a very glaring mistake - the Bajoran wormhole is not between the Alpha Quadrant and the Delta Quadrant, but between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. It might appear a small thing to err on, but it shows a gross lack of attention to detail, and the fact that the mistake was made multiple times shows that it was not just a type in the beginning. Hell, we get a minor, unnamed cameo from Janeway at the very end of the book. Wouldn't she have loved to know that she could have just taken the wormhole and gotten her ship back home, instead of trekking through the Delta quadrant for seven years?
The story is nonsensical- it's not only a bad Trek story, but even a bad generic sci-fi story. The characters are poorly written. Sisko is the only character that gets any real "screen" time, and everyone else is just there for the dialogue. Hell, Odo only gets named dropped once, as does Quark. Even though Jadzia, O'Brien, Bashir, Worf, and Nog are part of the crew of the Defiant, they might as well have been completely different characters, for all they had in common with their show counterparts.
And do not get me started on the constant, unnecessary, infuriating interruptions. The constant shift between the in-story story and the bar scene was stupid and frustrating, and, worst of all, served no damn purpose. Diane Carey's Fire Ship, the follow up Captain's Table, was by no means a great book, but at least it didn't constantly yank you out of the story for irrelevant check ins with Janeway drinking and eating in the bar.
I'm done. This book is trash. I'm never picking up anything by this author again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice - your books get delighted to the bottom of the compost pile.
At this point, I've read several of Dean Wesley Smith's Trek novels. The Escape was horrendous, Shadows was passable, and I legitimately liked Echoes, though he did work with two other authors on that one. I'm sad to say, The Mist, very much like The Escape, is atrocious.
I knew I was in for a rough ride when right off the bat we start with a very glaring mistake - the Bajoran wormhole is not between the Alpha Quadrant and the Delta Quadrant, but between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. It might appear a small thing to err on, but it shows a gross lack of attention to detail, and the fact that the mistake was made multiple times shows that it was not just a type in the beginning. Hell, we get a minor, unnamed cameo from Janeway at the very end of the book. Wouldn't she have loved to know that she could have just taken the wormhole and gotten her ship back home, instead of trekking through the Delta quadrant for seven years?
The story is nonsensical- it's not only a bad Trek story, but even a bad generic sci-fi story. The characters are poorly written. Sisko is the only character that gets any real "screen" time, and everyone else is just there for the dialogue. Hell, Odo only gets named dropped once, as does Quark. Even though Jadzia, O'Brien, Bashir, Worf, and Nog are part of the crew of the Defiant, they might as well have been completely different characters, for all they had in common with their show counterparts.
And do not get me started on the constant, unnecessary, infuriating interruptions. The constant shift between the in-story story and the bar scene was stupid and frustrating, and, worst of all, served no damn purpose. Diane Carey's Fire Ship, the follow up Captain's Table, was by no means a great book, but at least it didn't constantly yank you out of the story for irrelevant check ins with Janeway drinking and eating in the bar.
I'm done. This book is trash. I'm never picking up anything by this author again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice - your books get delighted to the bottom of the compost pile.