Twist of Faith - By S. D. Perry & Weddle David & Jeffery Lang & Keith R. A. DeCandido Page 0,2

of Kira Nerys and Julian Bashir, of Jake Sisko and Ezri Dax, of Nog and Quark. Ro Laren, who had betrayed Captain Picard when she had abandoned her post aboard the Enterprise-D to join the Maquis, returned as well. I also met Commander Tiris Jast, a Bolian woman assigned by Starfleet as the station’s new first officer; Elias Vaughn, a centenarian with eighty years of experience in Starfleet Intelligence; Ensign Thirishar ch’Thane, a young Andorian and DS9’s new science officer; and a surprising arrival from the Gamma Quadrant: a Jem’Hadar elder.

All of these characters—along with still other familiar faces reappearing and even more new faces joining the saga—fit perfectly into S. D. Perry’s absorbing story. While some characters still deal with the fallout of the Dominion War, time and life have moved on. Deep Space 9 and its crew face new threats, military, political, and religious. So much of what invested Deep Space Nine as a riveting television series finds its way into S. D. Perry’s novels, where it is given even greater lease to engage the audience. Fans of the show could not have been better served by this accomplished writer.

As I read Avatar, I quickly realized that, as high as the dramatic potential had been for DS9 on television, the stakes had been raised in these new books. The limitations of sets and budgets no longer applied, nor did the restrictions imposed by the structure of a television episode. The availability of actors no longer mattered either; any character could be brought back to these new tales, or even resurrected for them. Anything that could be imagined could be included in these stories without regard to the practicality of filming it. Further, with the series off the air and no apparent prospects for a Deep Space Nine feature film, real-life production considerations no longer protected the characters. That is, an actor’s multiyear contract would not prevent their role from being written out of the show. Coupling all of that with Marco Palmieri and Paula Block’s commitments to publishing compelling Star Trek literature, I suddenly understood that Kira Nerys could quit her post on the station, perhaps chasing after Odo or going home to Bajor to pursue a spiritual life. She could find another love, suffer a debilitating injury, even die. I knew the professionalism and creativity of Paula and Marco, could see on the page what the talented S. D. Perry brought to the table, and it seemed clear that anything could happen, so long as it contributed significantly to the tale being told. Kira and all the rest of the characters were at risk in ways they hadn’t necessarily been during the run of the show.

It took almost no time at all to have such suspicions confirmed. Not every character survives S. D. Perry’s story, and of those who do, some confront major changes in their lives. As gripping as DS9 had been on television, it had become even more so in print.

I anxiously awaited the next book in the series. Just as Avatar had carried Deep Space Nine forward from the show’s last episode, when it arrived in bookstores, so too did Abyss pick up the baton from S. D. Perry’s two volumes. David Weddle, a former staff writer and executive story editor on DS9, teamed with Jeff Lang to bring back the nefarious Section 31. But while the secretive organization provokes all the DS9 crew to action, it is Dr. Bashir who must face his own demons when he meets the brilliant physician Ethan Locken, like himself a genetically enhanced genius. In a story that thrusts Bashir, Ezri Dax, and Ro Laren into harm’s way, readers are treated to deep explorations of each character. The nature of the chemical-dependent soldiers bred by the Founders to form an army, the lethal Jem’Hadar, is also put at issue. In Abyss, as in Avatar, the fates of the characters—who would live, who would die, who would change—remained fluid and uncertain.

From Locken’s laboratory on the planet Sindorin, Keith R. A. DeCandido then took readers in Demons of Air and Darkness to the world of Europa Nova. There, an ecological disaster threatens the independent human colony, and the crew of DS9 lead the rescue efforts. More new characters are introduced, including Andorian Councilor Charivretha zh’Thane, who also happens to be one of Ensign ch’Thane’s parents, and a woman named Treir, who long before the television series Enterprise premiered offers up a distinctive new take on Orion “slave girls.” As well,