Sandy Schofield

If I could, I think I'd rate this book about a 2.75. It's got an interesting concept, and parts of it would have made a fun DS9 episode, but somehow I felt like it never really gelled. The interesting guest characters weren't used to full effect, and I felt many of the storylines ended abruptly and anticlimactically. (The significant continuity errors around Odo also reflect very poorly on the editor.)

It's not a bad read--it was quick, light, and fun, and I smiled over a lot of the dialogue between the main characters. But there's certainly better Trek books.… (mais)

I am still trying to work out when I actually began to watch Deep Space Nine, and who it was that introduced me to the series. I have a feeling that I did begin watching it about the same time when it first aired on television. Looking back at the year of release (and remembering that Star Trek was generally released in Australia about a year after the US release) it puts me at adult re-entry college. So, this was after my time in the State Library and before the Fungus years (Fungus was the name of my church youth group). This means that DS9 was released in the time between when I knew the two Michaels (who are both big Trekkies), that is after I lost touch with the older Michael and before I met the younger Micheal. For some reason I also picked up and read a number of the spin-off books that were released (such as this one).
I vaguely remember watching the Babylon 5 pilot episode, and I suspect that it was leant to me by one of Stewart's friends. When I first watched it I thought it was okay, and then handed it back. Around the same time DS9 was released and I began to watch that, and for some reason became drawn to it. So, putting the start in 1993, the end would have come around 2000, meaning that I was watching, and being entertained by it, during the Fungus Years. As for the books, I do remember reading them, but I simply do not know how I got my hands on them. Maybe I simply bought them, and then tossed them a lot later when I was no longer interested in them.
Anyway, this book is about a poker game that Quark holds, and people come from all over the Federation (and beyond) to play. However, surprise, surprise, they simply could not help throwing another killer onto the station and have Odo track him down. Also throw in some subspace waves that are threatening the station, and you come up with a mediocre book designed only for die hard trekkies.
There are some things that I wonder though, and one of them is gambling. All of the sudden, outside of the Federation, we have money and we have gambling coming back into the mix. It is almost as if they had to reintroduce the concept so that they could create more interesting stories and adventures. In one I recently watched we had a auction with a bunch of very wealthy people coming to participate. But there is no wealth in The Federation, so what gives? These wealthy people no doubt have to come from outside.
One of the other things I noticed with the books (and I think this comes from The Seige) is that they are less restricted with how they run Odo. Odo shapeshifts in the series but that is about it. However, in the books he can turn his hands into mallets and swords. Something that the T1000 did in Terminator II, but not Odo in Deep Space 9. I do sometimes wonder how flexible he really is. I suspect in many cases they were limited by budget and special effects. The acting does get a little better, but in a way parts of the Dax character are quite annoying. Bashir is also somewhat annoying being a suave individual who seems like a nice guy, but in reality is little more than a sleaze with a medical degree (and I am sure that there are quite a few of them out there).… (mais)