When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine came to an end after seven seasons, it felt as though the overall story it was telling had been nicely tied up. However, the Star Trek universe is ever expanding and so it’s no surprise that the station’s plot thread would eventually be revisited in some form. Avatar is a novel originally released in two volumes, but still very much a singular story and feels like it’s the season-opener for a hypothetical eighth season.
You might think that without Sisko, Garak, Worf, O’Brien, and Odo, it might feel like it’s missing something – and yes, while I did miss these characters to some extent, S. D. Perry does an excellent job of giving the remaining characters a deeper level of focus and development, while expanding the cast with new additions too. I think, perhaps, the best example lies with Kira, who we see getting used to her position as commander (replacing Sisko) and dealing with Odo’s absence. You see the weight of the responsibility on her shoulders and understand how her experiences of the Dominion War and the Cardassian occupation of Bajor continue to weigh on her. It very much made me enthusiastic for more stories with her running the station.
Kira often runs up against Ro’Laren (the Bajoran crewmember from The Next Generation) who has joined DS9 as the new Chief of Security following Odo’s departure. She has quite an edgy relationship with Kira, partly because of her natural rebelliousness, and partly because of the fact that the two of them have very different views of the Bajoran religion. The relationship between the two of them makes an interesting point of contrast with Kira’s original relationship with Sisko and I particularly liked the fact that in their disagreements, I found myself agreeing with both of them at different times. Also, Quark has a crush on Ro, which is kind of funny and gives a bit of comic relief (and is very different to his relationship with Odo!)
Mirroring the very first episode of DS9, this episode also features Picard – and, in fact, his whole crew play a part in the storyline. At first, they’re off investigating an abandoned ship in some space “bad lands” in what feels like a very disconnected plot thread, but it all ends up tying together and we even get to see him reunited with Ro, which I was hoping would happen, since she betrayed him in DS9. The Enterprise stuff does feel a bit like it’s just there to create an excuse for those characters to appear in the book, but I enjoyed it, so I’m not complaining. They also introduce a distinguished, senior Starfleet officer who I found pretty cool – he’s an experienced man who avoided attaining too high a rank so he could continue to go on adventures, but carries an air of wisdom and distinction to him. I also look forward to reading more about him.
Over on DS9 the plot focuses on a murder and the looming fear that the war with the Dominion could start up again. A Jem-Hadar character named Kitana’klan arrives on the station, claiming to have been sent by Odo, but circumstances surrounding his arrival are suspicious and a lot of people (especially Nog) have a hard time trusting him. Amidst all that, there’s the whiff of another possible conspiracy from Bajoran religious leaders. You’ve also got an Andorian character named Shar in the mix who has joined as the new science officer on DS9 and I loved him because I feel he has provided the best insight into Andorian people that I have seen in Star Trek media thus far.
S. D. Perry had a tough job on her hands – she had to establish the new normal aboard DS9 and introduce a number of new characters, alongside giving a clear insight into what existing characters were doing after a small time-jump, while also telling a compelling story. There were a lot of balls to juggle, but I think she did an excellent job and I felt the whole thing had a lot of depth and respect for the source material (even working in a fun reference to the earlier Garak novel by Andrew J. Robinson). If you loved DS9 and want more, this is definitely a good place to start.
Rating: 8.9/10
