The Lesser Evil : Mission Gamma Book Four of Four : Star Trek Deep Space Nine [Mass Market Paperback]

And God forbid, they brought the Borg back in to assimilate what might otherwise have been a good novel. Haven't they learned? The Borg were the most snoring-boring of all Star Trek villains, among whom only Hugh on TNG and those semi-Borgs on VOYAGER remain somewhat interesting. I couldn't stand "Seven of Nine" and never again watched Voyager after Kes departed. The "Borg Queen" in the Star Trek movie FIRST CONTACT was downright embarrassing, the concept unworthy of intelligent life. As for Picard as a temporary Borg, give me TNG's THE INNER LIGHT any old time. The only good thing ever to result from the Borg was actress Alfre Woodard's comment in FIRST CONTACT: "Borg? Sounds Swedish." It cracked up the theater audience, including me.

Unfortunately there's nothing as impressive as that quip in this novel. The author's credentials are not given, and I am hoping he decides not to write any more DS9 novels.

The book continues from the previous books int her series, with the Defiant finally beginning to head home in this novel, yet even on their way home they are still passing through uncharted space.

There was also a rather large technical error at the beginning. The author claims that the Defiant and the probes it launched had charted over 1200 cubic light years of space. That figure is ridiculous, no ship the size of the Defiant could possible chart that much space in only 3 months. Even Voyager, which was faster than the Defiant, could only make 438 light years per year.

But to other things. The book launches into the Defiant picking up a strange signal in the Gamma Quadrant, a signal that the ship's commander, Elias Vaughn, has seen before, and he orders the ship to investigate the signal and also hides this form the rest of the crew.

Meanwhile in the Alpha Quadrant, we see two seperate story lines evolve, one centred on Joseph Sisko on Earth, and the other centred on the crew on Deep Space Nine. The first AQ (Alpha Quadrant) storyline shows Joseph Sisko settled into some sort of depression over the loss of both Ben and Jake, and the efforts of his daughter Judith to get him back into action. This plot line is fairly simple, yet the resolution involves an old series favourite, Miles O'Brien, and I found it to be the most enjoyable of the book.

The second AQ plot line is on DS9, and deals with the aftermath of the assassination of Shakaar and the hunt for the killer. At this stage, Colonel Kira leaves the station on a Federation starship following what they think is a cloaked vessel heading for Trill, which creates a third AQ storyline with Kira away from the station.

The Defiant storline in the Gamma Quadrant continues and shows the crew discovering the wreckages of both a Jem'Hadar and a Borg-assimilated ship crashed on a planet. The assimilated ship holds a link to Vaughn's past, which is interesting, and is later explained when Vaughn has a 'tell-all' session with Ezri Dax, revealing his full background and the devestating decision he made regarding Prynn's mother. While Vaughn's story is interesting, it is very simple and straightforward, and in some parts is very weak, although I did find the story of Prynn's namesake to be very touching. Personally, I was expecting something exciting, interesting and a downright throrough explanation of his past. Instead, we got a chapter with a very fast paced story showing the important points of Vaughn's life with regards to Prynn and Ruriko, which was disappointing.

The Defiant plotline quickly continues, and we see an incredible seen where a Borg drone attempts to assimilate a Founder. I found this scene both incredible and bizarre, even more so as it served no real purpose to the development of the story. In the end, Vaughn is forced to make a devestating decision all over again, totally destroying any development in the relationship between himself and Prynn.

The AQ plotlines continue, and the crew on DS9 make a startling discovery about an old enemy from TNG, the parasites from 'Conspiracy', which are in some way related to the Trill species. They also learn that the parasites have taken control over someone on the starship Kira is travelling on, leaving Kira to eventually save the day. Relating the 'Conspiracy' parasites to the Trill was a very nice twist indeed, probably th best in the book, a real credit to the writer(s).

The book finishes with the Defiat nearing the wormhole, Kira heading back to DS9, and Joseph Sisko heading to Bajor to be with Kasidy.

Several plotlines/characters developments didn't reach any meaningful conclusion, they were:

-The Andorian problems involving Shar, a big part of the 1st two novels, were forgetten about.

-The relationship between Quark and Ro was barely mentioned.

-Commander Mathias, station counselor, was nowhere to be seen. A shame really, I liked her character, and there was also supposed to be some mystery surrounding the Bajoran ancestral roots of her husband.

-The issues between Nog and Taran'tar didn't really come to a conclusion.

-Vedek Yevir was virtually non-existent during the plot, which was unfortunate considering the large part he'd played in the last book.

Overall, I found the book had been written in a very simple manner with very quick plot developments and resolutions, some of which seemed totally irrelevant to the story. This resulted in a very short book with large print, and the more I read it the more I got the impression that the whole thing had been a rush job. The book seemed closer to one of those 'junior' Star Trek books than anything else.

The Mission Gamma opening book, 'Twilight', was much slower and far more detailed, and yet the final book in the series is a rush job with very simple, very basic plot twists. All the work done by the previous books to mend the relationship between Vaughn and Tenmei is undone, and at the end the reader is left unsatisfied. I believe the authors may have been trying to set the scene for the next two books, but setting the scene for the next book at the expense of finishing the last book is not only bad writing, it also dishonours the rest of the series.

I was also interested to note that there was no 'about the author' section at the end of the book. Virtually every Star Trek book I have read contains one of these sections, and I enjoy getting some insight into the author and his/her interests and background. This is simply more evidence to a rush job.

If you've followed the Mission Gamma series so far, you may as well buy this book. If you're just a casual fan, forget about it, as this book just isn't worth reading.