Customer Reviews

Star Trek Dark Passions

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Over the years, Susan Wright has proven herself to be an extremely reliable author in the Star Trek universe and this "Dark Passions" duology is no exception to that. I found the entire story to be thoroughly intriguing, extremely well paced and the characterizations to be perfect for what one might expect of these characters in the mirror universe.

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}

this book is one of the best depictions of the mirror universe ive seen... it caugth me in the first few pages i read it (both volumes) in 3 days...

It would be hard to do better.

Initially when I found out this was a two book series I was annoyed b/c I felt that it was really one book broken into two to increase revenue. After reading both, I realize that although this is partially true, the two books each have a very different flavor to them.

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.

I went off in search of the "Dark Passions" books because of a friend who wanted to know if I had read the Star Trek books with the lesbian encounter. However, if you think I am going to give away who the happy couple are in the first of Susan Wright's two books, you are sadly mistaken. What we have in "Dark Passions" are the evil twins of the 24th-century women of Star Trek in the Mirror Universe where humanity has been enslaved by the Klingon, Cardassian, and Bajoran Alliance. Book One features: Kira Nerys, the Intendant of Bajor; Deanna Troi, the Intendant of Betazed and Imzadi to Worf, the Klingon Regent; and Annika Hansen, the trained assassin of the Obsidian Order. Sisko, O'Brien and Keiko are wandering around as supporting characters, but the emphasis is most definitely on the ladies.

Wright is providing the backstory on when Major Kira and Dr. bashir rediscover the Mirror Universe where Kirk encountered Mr. Spock with a goatee way back when. As such "Dark Passions" does not really intrude on any of the Deep Space Nine episodes where the two universes temporarily collide. Everybody is making a grab for power in the new order where the number one rule is not to trust anybody as the games within games are played out. Half of the fun is the way these familiar characters are twisted in the Mirror Universe. Sure a few things get forced--Annika Hansen is known as Agent Seven of Corps Nine for the Obsidian Order--but there always has to be well grounded ironic relationship between the known and alternative realities. Too bad we have to go to the Mirror Universe to see the ladies rule.

Susan Wright extends the Mirror Universe to Deep Space Nine and Voyager and crafts an interesting look at our favorite characters. I enjoyed the read, yet I was miffed that the story was broken into two short expensive books (no value here).

this book is about the alternate universe of deep space nine. it is really great to have all the characters that we come to know and love totally diffrent. it starts out with an assaisination of a high ranking klingon official by a deep cover cardassian who is disguised so that there is a lot of finger pointing trying to figure out who the cowardly assasin is. in the middle of all the confusion, the diffrent intendents have decided to vote for an overseer of the terran territories. gul

dukat thinks that he is an automatic shoo-in but when kira nerys wins the job he is beside himself. kira lets her presence as the new overseer be known almost immediately by upsetting a lot of contracts that the other intenents already have and this makes her a very unpopular person. several people get together to plan to assasin her and how that turns out is just too juicy for words. i won't ruin it by mentioning it, but this is a great read. all this happens in just the first book. imagine what happens in the second.

if she was never a borg how can her name is seven of nine ? I haven't red this book yet and I don't expect anyone to ruin it for me or anyone else I just want to know if it is explained or is it just an oversight

I loved it! We all adore Seven of Nine with her strong Borg identity but it is an even greater pleasure to read about her alternate character as an agent of the Cardassian Obsidian Order. And what an opening scene : to have her assassinate that Klingon in cold blood...immediately the tone is set for this series. Susan Wright is the next in line to write a very good novel about this merciless realm. It will certainly appeal to all readers who go for a little more "adult" adventures of our well known Star Trek characters. I am sure Susan had great fun in writing this story about the Mirror Universe and its wicked women who go boldly were no man has gone before! A Best-Seller!

I had such hope for this two-book novel, if for nothing else than the delicious cover art. Unfortunately, it fell short of the mark. The cover art was pretty much the best thing. Now, I *know* the story was about characters from the Mirror Universe, most of whom we hadn't ever met before, aside from Intendant Kira and Regent Worf, but I still could not get my head around the characters as written. This is not necessarily Susan Wright's fault. She is limited, like all the pro-novelists are, by canon. Some things just *cannot happen,* even in the Mirror Universe.

But still, the thing that disappointed me the most (and I guess this *is* Susan Wright's fault), the novel ultimately turned out NOT to be about "the strong women of the Mirror Universe," but was instead a thinly veiled story about Our Girl Not A Borg In This Universe But Still A Mighty Well-Stacked Terran Raised By Cardassians Member Of The Obsidian Order Seven-of-Nine. Sigh...even in the Mirror Universe, she gets top billing.

I thought the concept behind the 2 "Dark Passions" books was terrific--but the results were less than I'd hoped for.

Some of the characters were very well drawn--Seven of Nine, for example--while others were rushed or glossed over: why does the second novel's cover prominently feature Crusher and Janeway, when Janeway played a minor role in the text and Crusher was barely mentioned? The plot also wavered, with parts being brisk and exciting while others felt rushed and not very well thought out.

On the plus side, the author did a good job including characters from all three contemporary Star Trek series, and the relationships between them were, for the most part, believable (if occasionally thin).

All in all, not a bad pair of books, but not all they might have been.