Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Prophecy and Change Book

Most of the material in this Deep Space Nine tenth anniversary collection is pretty typical Pocket Books Star Trek fiction.

That being said, the last two stories are well worth talking about. Una McCormack, who later wrote the brilliant Never-Ending Sacrifice, writes the first one, which tackles a few key characters from one of the closing moments of the series as they attempt to grapple with the drastically changed fortunes of their lives (that's the running theme of the whole collection, but it's only McCormack and the author who follows her who truly nail it). Kira Nerys, the fiery Bajoran first officer who spent most of her time serving under Benjamin Sisko, has returned to her roots as a resistance fighter, only instead of defending her own people she's now fighting for Cardassians (the very people who once oppressed the Bajorans before the start of the series). She has with her Damar, the leader of this new resistance, and Garak, the most intriguing character to come out of DS9, both representative of a Cardassia that for them no longer exists, which is why they're fighting for something new, attempting to shrug off the iron grip of the Dominion. Kira has every reason to distrust Damar, and, well, Garak is Garak.

Anyway, it's McCormack's very first professional work of fiction. Even if she's not at the top of her powers yet, she's still better than anyone else in the collection.

The last story belongs to Andrew Robinson, the actor who portrayed Garak in the series. He'd previously released the acclaimed novel A Stitch in Time, a further exploration of the character, as well as a play. This is to date his last mark on Garak, and it shows, because Robinson becomes fairly existentially expansive. If anyone else had written the story, it would have rung as hollow as the majority of the material in the collection. And yet he has such a command, a grasp of things, that you accept whatever twists come along even at their wildest.

It's ironic that the collection ends up being so kind to Cardassians, when the series itself sometimes seemed to go out of its way to ensure the audience had as low an opinion of them as the Bajorans did. But in literature, in truly exceptional literature, that's how it goes, isn't it?