Warchild (Mass Market Paperback)

However, after watching all seven seasons of DS9 and getting a better flavor for the Bajorans (and gaining more interest in them), I tried this novel, and was very pleasantly surprised. Ms. Friesner obviously "got" the Bajorans far sooner than I did, and wrote an excellent novel that combines elements of faith, philosophy and morality (along with the SFDS9 mythos) with adventure and gets more than the sum of its parts.

The quick synopsis here is, the Bajorans are in trouble (this book is between seasons one and two) due to how much the Cardassians nearly ruined Bajor before they were driven off. The Cardassians basically raped the world, and many of the people who've returned to Bajor from the refugee camps (or who never left) are tired, hungry, footsore and shellshocked.

They need a sign that things will improve, and the Provisional Government isn't giving them one.

Into this mix comes a message from the missing Kai Opaka -- one she wrote long years before -- about a child being the key to uniting Bajor again. Someone has to go after the child, but of course no one knows who she is (they do know the child needed is female), and the various religious factions are already fighting over the privilege of finding her (and some don't want the child found, too, making everything worse). Which is why a Bajoran monk goes to Commander Sisko and asks for help . . . .

Does he get the help? Of course, but it doesn't go quite as expected (if you're a fan of DS9, you're probably used to that by now) and there's lots of interested byplay between the various children and the officers, as well as some fun scenes between Jake, Nog and one of the Bajoran kids, Cedra. Ms. Friesner also managed to cram in a very credible, though understated, romance for Julian Bashir, not an easy task.

So, it's a coming of age story for Bashir, an adventure story, a mystery, and a race against time. Very good work.

Four stars, recommended.

Barb Caffrey

P.S. If you like this, you may enjoy Sandy Schofield's "The Big Game" and/or Daffyd ab Hugh's "Fallen Heroes," both also excellent stories.

I've never much cared for the aspect of DS9 that gives credence to fuzzy, new-age Bajoran mysticism, and this book had more than its share of that. But that's really my only objection; if you enjoy (or even don't mind) stories that center around Bajoran mysticism, consider this a five star rating.

If one pays attention to the plot of this story, you'll also see certain similarities to aired episodes, especially in Dr. Bashir's case, a character she captured with ease in this story. I found her writing to be fairly fluidic and the pacing of the book, though it slows in some areas, was set reasonably well! Overall, the premise for "Warchild" is a very intriguing and interesting one, but the pacing detracts from the overall experience.

The cover art for this title is, unfortunately, from a time when not an excessive amount thought went into the cover art for Star Trek books and it falls into the old, "slap some caricatures on there and an image of the station and everything will be fine."

The premise:

A message left behind by Kai Opaka gives Commander Sisko a fateful mission; find a young Bajoran girl who is destined to be a great a great healer and who can stop the warring between Bajoran factions. Jadzia heads for Bajor to find this young girl and at the same time, Dr. Bashir goes there to treat a rare disease that is killing Bajoran children in resettlement camps. Dr. Bashir goes absent without leave in his quest to find a cure for this disease and Jadzia finds the young girl, but she too, is suffering from this strange disease. Sisko must now find Bashir in order to save this girl who "may" be Bajor's last chance for peace...

What follows from there is definitely a fairly decent early Star Trek Deep Space Nine story that, as stated above, faithfully fits right in with the type of stories being told during the shows first couple of seasons. I would definitely recommend this title to any and all fans of the series. {ssintrepid}