Review: The Badlands Book 2

Book two of the Badlands Star Trek series by Susan Wright is a much
better book then the first one. The Badlands series consists of two
books, each with two stories in them. The first has stories with
Captain Kirk's Enterprise and Captain Picard's Enterprise. This book
has a story for Voyager and the Deep Space Nine crew. This one is
quite an improvement in both the writing and the storytelling.

The first improvement from the previous book is that the writing seems
much better. I don't know if I had just gotten used to it, or if it
actually improved, but I didn't get the feeling I was reading a young
adult book in this one. The prose seems much improved, which is
strange considering the book was probably written at the same time as
the first book. Kudos to Wright for the improvement. It really added
to my enjoyment of this book.

The characterization is also good, if basic. All of the characters we
know and love from the two television series are on form in this one,
with no major discrepancies as there was in the first book. There are
a couple of notable ones. In the Voyager story, Wright adds a great
deal of depth to Gul Evek, the Cardassian commander of the ship that
gets disabled. He appeared in a couple of episodes of the various Star
Trek series, but didn't get a whole lot of characterization. Wright
adds a deepness to his character that I found really appealing. He's a
poet and the story behind the romance between him and his wife is very
good. Wright doesn't dwell on it too much, but when she does it's
outstanding. The second piece of characterization I really enjoyed was
Dax in the Deep Space Nine story. In the television series she was
always a bit flighty, a good and dedicated officer who didn't mind
bringing a bit of fun to her job. She was a bit of a flirt as well. In
this story, a Romulan officer is trying to drive a wedge between her
and Worf. Dax goes along with it in her flirtatious way, not realizing
what the Romulan is trying to do. When it comes to light, her
conversation with Worf is a great addition to her character. It adds
some dimension to their romance that wasn't always there in the
television series.

The plot continues to be intriguing, and when Janeway discovers what
is really going on in the Badlands, it all ties together nicely with
what's been going on in the first two stories. The book is a quick
read and it certainly won't bore you. There's enough conflict between
the various crews and the people they're interacting with (the
Cardassians for Voyager and the Romulans for Deep Space Nine) to keep
things interesting, and when you discover what the Romulans are really
after, the tension starts to mount, especially when Sisko and company
are outmaneuvered. The series is an intriguing look at an area of
space mentioned quite often in the television series, and it was neat
to find out more about it.

However, that does bring up one of the problems with the book, though
you may not find it a problem. When I read a Star Trek book, I try to
keep in mind what has gone on around it in the Star Trek timeline of
the television series. This book, being slotted very deftly into some
open spaces in that timeline, caused me to do it even more so.
However, it does jar me a little bit when something so big happens
that, if the book were included "officially" in that timeline (the
books are not recognized as official by the Star Trek TV producers,
allowing them to ignore anything that happens in them as far as
television continuity is concerned), they should be mentioned and it
seems strange that they weren't. In this case, all of the bad things
that are happening in the Badlands really should have been mentioned
in the episodes dealing with this area of space.

The second potential problem is that this book, even more than the
first one, is only for the Star Trek fan (which is not a problem here,
but this review was also posted elsewhere). The stories are slotted so
perfectly between certain episodes of the television series (the
Voyager story actually takes place within the series premiere episode)
that part of the story is very incomplete if you don't know what
happens. In that series premiere, Voyager gets trapped by some cosmic
rift and sent to the Delta Quadrant. That is basically how this story
ends, as Janeway solves the problem of the Badlands but is caught
before she can do anything about it. To the novice, it appears that
this story ends completely unfinished. The Deep Space Nine story
doesn't have this problem as much, but there do appear to be
unresolved plot lines in it as well if you don't know the series. This
isn't a problem for the fan, but new readers should be warned about
this.

The final problem with the book is the offhand way Janeway solves the
problem. It seems almost completely arbitrary, as if Wright just
didn't want to have Sisko both figure out what is going on and do
something about it. She has a sudden revelation about what must be
going on, decides that must be the problem, and that's it. It all
takes place in the space of four paragraphs and just seemed very
sudden to me.

Still, that doesn't take away from the quality of this book. I found
it a very enjoyable read, certainly better than the first book in the
series. If you keep the potential problems mentioned above in mind,
you should have a quick, enjoyable read. Just try not to grimace too
much that you're paying for two books of about 260 pages each, which
would have made one really neat book by themselves.

Dave Roy