Star Trek Dark Passions [Mass Market Paperback]

With this small duology, Susan Wright took the rather apropos approach of building upon the known and unknown characters in the Star Trek Deep Space Nine mirror universe episodes and created an extraordinary story that actually takes place prior to start of the series, giving her the advantage of having all of the characters to use and giving her the opportunity to create a much more original story to include killing certain characters off. This is an extremely powerful story that involves the majority of the female characters in the current Star Trek universe, proving their "mettle" so to speak and using them to perfection.

The only true complaint I would lodge about this duology falls more into place with the decisions of those at Pocket Books than with the author and that is the fact that this "novel" was broken into two books. Considering the rather standard sized text and the fact that the first book is only 232 pages and the second is 200 pages, this could've and should've been one novel instead of an obvious ploy to ply an extra $6.99 out of "passionate" Star Trek readers; bad on the powers that be at Pocket Books.

The cover art for this novel makes this and the second novel that much more intriguing considering the originality of the story.

The Premise:

As it might spoil the story a bit I won't delve too deeply into the premise of this wonderful story. Suffice it to say, this story involves the majority of the major female characters from "The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" in extremely enlightening roles carrying an extremely original story to fruition through healthy amounts of intrigue and action...

Overall, I highly recommend this and the second book in this small duology to any and all fans of Star Trek fiction and especially to those that thoroughly enjoyed the mirror universe episodes on Star Trek Deep Space Nine. {ssintrepid}

It would be hard to do better.

Book One really sets the tone with the mad rush for power in the former Terran Empire. In the beginning none of the charachters really came across as one of the "good guys" (or gals as the case may be) and it wasn't until about halfway through the story that it became clear who the protagonist was. There are lots of cameo's by charachters from NegGen, DS9, & Voyager who show up in some very unexpected places; I half expected Kirk or Uhuro to be thrown into the mix. In addition, there are also some very unlikely romantic pairings, which will keep the reader off balance - as one reviewer mentioned "this is not your father's Star Trek".

I can honestly say that the plots twists kept me guessing all the way through both books. Both of which are a quick read and lots of fun. Susan Wright left the door open for further books in this continuity, but these will be tough to top.