Review: The Lives of Dax

One of the more interesting characters in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
is a Trill named Dax. Trills are humanoids who are hosts to slug-like
being called a symbiont. In a process called "the joining," Trills
have the symbiont implanted and they become not just the person they
were, but also a sum of memories that can go back hundreds of years.
There were two "Dax" characters in Deep Space Nine, with Jadzia Dax
being killed in season 6 and Ezri serving as an emergency host. It's a
great honour to be a host, but not everybody is anxious to be one.

I've always been fascinated by the Dax character, even when the
actresses weren't quite up to the part. The show would occasionally
have references to previous hosts through the centuries, and I often
wondered what some of their stories might be, especially during the
time of the original series and movies. Marco Palmieri shared this
feeling, and he decided to create a short story anthology addressing
this issue. He gathered some of the big names in Trek fiction and
created The Lives of Dax. Each of the previous Dax hosts gets one
story, showcasing their personality and a little bit of their history.
The stories are pretty good, though none of them are particularly
earth-shattering. It's a nice, cozy tome that will bring a bit of
nostalgia to any DS9 fan.

Some of the more interesting stories take place early in Dax's life,
before Trill became acquainted with the outside universe. The first
one (not counting the beginning of the framing story) is about Lela
Dax, a new member of the Trill council and one of the advocates for
opening Trill up for trade with other galactic races. A ship has
approached Trill and sent a message that the Trill are having trouble
translating. It appears that the ship is in trouble, and they are
ignoring all warnings from Trill that they must leave orbit. Lela
decides that she has to help, despite what the council says. She
discovers, and demonstrates to the rest of the council, that knowledge
is not only power, but that the lack of it can be deadly as well.
"First Steps" is by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and starts the anthology
off with a bang.

Once this story is off the ground, though, the book suffers from one
of my main criticisms of the Trek books (though I think many fans
disagree with me, which is why it will never change). Each story
brings in some known element of Trek lore (usually a character or a
race), ostensibly to give some sort of identification to the reader
(like we don't know already that it's a Trek book?). These elements
are usually contrived and really drag the book down in my estimation,
unless they're used well. Unfortunately, that's not usually the case
here. Tobin Dax's story ("Dead Man's Hand" by Jeffrey Lang) brings in
the Romulans. Emony Dax's story ("Old Souls" by Michael Jan Friedman)
has Dr. McCoy from the original series (though it is actually
established in the television series that Dax had an encounter with
him, so at least it's not coming out of left field), Audrid's story
("Sins of the Mother" by S.D. Perry) has Captain Christopher Pike, of
the old Enterprise. Finally, Torias's story ("Infinity" by Susan
Wright) has Captain Styles and Cadet Saavik, from Star Trek III.

While I applaud the fact that these aren't just name references but
actual characters used, they still feel shoehorned into the stories
for name recognition. There's no reason for Saavik to be in
"Infinity", as she's never shown any inclination for experimental warp
drives. The only one of the above stories where it actually makes
sense to include the character is Friedman's, and that suffers from
its own blandness.

That's not to say the anthology isn't worth reading. With the above
caveat, it actually is quite an entertaining read. The stories are
interesting (especially the Curzon story, "The Music Between the
Notes," by Steven Barnes) and the framing sequence is really good.
Ezri spent the entire final season of the television show very unsure
of herself and her role as a joined Trill (she never wanted to be
joined, and had no preparation) and her heart-to-hologram talk with
Vic Fontaine (the holographic lounge singer) is very well-done. His
holographic sentience gives him a unique perspective on her problems,
and it's a very good lead-in to the story of Dax through the years.
There was even an intriguing use of Verad, the Trill who stole the Dax
symbiont from Jadzia for a few hours.

There really isn't a bad story in the bunch, though a couple of the
stories suffer from being relatively uninteresting. It's a shame that
Friedman's story is one of those, as it had the most potential. Seeing
Dax's meeting with McCoy should have been wonderful, but instead it
was "ok." The writing was a bit stiff and it didn't really fit into
the conceit of Ezri telling a story to Vic. Instead, it was a lesson
for McCoy about dealing with interstellar species (this is in his
Academy days). Also, it is told from McCoy's point of view, going
directly against the concept of the anthology.

I greatly enjoyed The Lives of Dax, and I think it would be a
wonderful addition to a Trek book collector's shelf. If you've ever
wondered about Dax and her past lives, you owe it to yourself to pick
this one up. If you're thinking of starting some of the Trek books,
it's a good place to get a sampling of some of the big names in Trek
today and to see if their writing is your cup of tea.

My previous host's memories tell me that you'll like it.

David Roy