Review/Summary by Tom Sharp
The same night I picked up Mission: Gamma – Twilight, I picked up a copy of Mission: Gamma – This Gray Spirit by Heather Jarman. The first time novelist has written the second of four Mission: Gamma books. It isn’t as long as Twilight - about a hundred pages shorter - but it does have the same small type. The cover also continues the “cast photo” with Ezri in a red collar uniform, a new look at Shar (last seen on the cover of Gateways – Demons of Air and Darkness), Colonel Kira and Gul Macet (introduced into the relaunch in Demons...).
The story opens with an excerpt from the Klingon bodice ripper that becomes a running joke throughout the book. Turns out that Nog is taking time out from his work to read the padd, and gets caught by Ezri. There’s a lesson there, folks; never ever read Klingon porn in a public place.
Shortly afterward, the Defiant gets snared in an alien trap, and the ship is pretty much dead in the water when another vessel shows up, and beams two aliens and a piece of equipment into engineering. After the first alien is stunned, the other is able to communicate with Vaughn and the others, and explains that they were there to help. Turns out these are the victims of the Cheka – the folks who set out the traps. The Yrynthy are the good guys rescuing the Defiant and offering their hospitality.
Back on Deep Space Nine, Gul Macet arrives with Cardassian Ambassador Natima Lang, first introduced in DS9 ‘Profit & Loss.’ She’s come to the station on behalf of the Ghemor government, and wants to make a peace treaty with the Bajorans before they become a part of the United Federation of Planets.
In the Gamma Quadrant, the senior officers are the guests of honor at a banquet to welcome them. While there, they learn of the Houseborn (upper crust) and the Wanderers (society scum and servents) and Ezri suggests that the tensions between the two could be settled by a neutral third party. Well, by coming up with the idea, the Yrynthy are convinced that Ezri was sent by the Other, which I think was supposed to be the folks who added a Turn Key to their DNA, jumping them ahead a few evolutionary steps from the fish that they once were. While Ezri and Shar work with the Yrynthy government (after a bit of bullying by the alien hosts), Vaughn and the others travel with the disabled Defiant to a traders’ market where they can get the material they need to defend themselves from the Cheka weapon.
Okay, here I have to say the crew’s poker game was the best part of the story. Read it, and you’ll see why.
Back on DS9, Shakaar asks Kira to play hostess for the Cardassians, and the talks between Bajor and Cardassia begin. An old character gets resurrected, in a way I never expected as I was reading, and even skipped a chapter just to know what Kira saw. Acts of vandalism and random bits of violence break out over the station, mainly directed towards the Cardassians. No surprise there, since Macet has such a striking resemblance to his late cousin, Dukat. Not to mention that whole occupation of the Bajor for five decades...
Okay, now for my opinion; the Alpha Quadrant portions of Mission: Gamma – This Gray Spirit were a lot more interesting than the Gamma Quadrant portions. There were highlights for the Starfleet crew and the Yrynthy – the Klingon bodice ripper and the poker game were neat. But the stuff going on with the station crew – Ro and Quark’s first date, the Bajoran/Cardassian talks, and all the stuff with Shar’s bondmates and his zhavey - was just a lot more interesting. Also, we get to meet two new relaunch characters – the station counselor and her Bajoran husband (and their young children)!
The book isn’t paced the same as Mission: Gamma – Twilight; the chapters are longer, and split by location, rather than character point of view. It was a bit slow in the beginning and kind of hard to get into. But the stories really began to pick up, and there was quite a lot going on by the final chapters. The big space battle at the end wasn’t much of a battle, and the Gamma Quadrant story really ended in an abrupt fashion, while the Alpha Quadrant story gets a “wow!” cliffhanger.
The characterizations were spot-on, with a couple of minor nits. First, the location Ro picked for the holosuite date with Quark. It didn’t quite go with her attitude in Section 31 – Abyss, I thought. The big difference there seemed to be that in Abyss she wasn’t expecting to get soaked, and she was complaining about it to Taran’atar, who doesn’t take crap from anyone. Two, I thought Ezir's storyline was a bit predictable - not necessarily what was going on around her, but her reactions to the events. And I thought Shar's big "ta-dah!" moment was way too convenient.
Oh, and there was a quick ENTERPRISE reference in This Gray Spirit, too. It’s a real “blink and you’ll miss it” kind of thing.
Overall, I liked This Gray Spirit, and I think Heather Jarman did a really good job with the novel, which manages to tell a contained Gamma Quadrant story while continuing the Alpha Quadrant story, and introducing new characters and a whole new alien species! The book also left me with about a dozen questions I want answered, and I hope the answers are there in the third book, Cathedral.
Deep Space Nine Mission: Gamma Novels
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