Twist of Faith

I received this book about a week before Christmas and finished reading it Christmas night. I was curious about the possibilities of what happened to the characters of DS9 after Season 7 concluded and this book appeared to pick up where the TV series left off. I enjoyed this book so much that I had difficulty putting it down. To avoid spoiling it for anyone else, I found that the book ended on a cliff-hanger and I'm now faced with the challenge of locating the book that picks up where "Twist of Faith" left off. I hope I can get my hands on the next book to find out what happened after "Twist of Faith" if only I can determine the title of that next book!

In the years following the finale of Deep Space Nine, I have often lamented the fact that Star Trek did not continue the series via feature films. DS9 was easily my favorite Trek series, and the finale, while it wrapped up everything quite well, clearly left open the possibility of further stories. It is with great admiration for the authors of these "post-finale," aka "relaunch" novels, that I say these books have relieved me of my post-finale sadness. The authors of these stories clearly know the characters in and out, and demonstrate a strong understanding of the events that took place in the series. The characters speak and act consistently with what we saw on television. I was skeptical about how good Star Trek novels could really be, and let's be clear: this isn't Dune or Stranger in a Strange Land. The books collected here are Star Trek adventures that fit seamlessly with the series. The prose is clear and direct, and the stories have the same kind of short-chapter rhythm that would work well on-screen (though the novels do have the advantage of giving us a direct look into the characters' thoughts without having to use "captain's log" voice-overs). Again, I really didn't think that Star Trek novels could be this good. But the authors here approach everything from the right perspective, respectful of the series and of its fans. Deep Space Nine deserves no less. I couldn't be happier that I gave this collection a chance.

This collection of stories is the direct continuation of the storyline of the series. Starting 3 months after the events of the show, these stories don't miss a beat. My favorite thing about these books, is how well they capture the characters. The perspective of the stories is ever-shifting, jumping from character to character. Many of these characters are well established from the Star Trek televion shows. They are very well represented, and very true to what you know about each of them. The new characters that get introduced are just as real and alive as the ones you know and love. The stories are compelling, especially for those who always wondered what the heck happened after Captain Sisko disappeared to join the Prophets. I would recommend this to any sci-fi fan, but with so much history on the station and with the characters, these stories are truly for the Star Trek fans. This collection of books lives up to the Star Trek name, and the DS9 brand as well, with darker and deeper ideals being explored.

Twist of Faith offers everything: *what a bargain! 660 pages of truly wonderful story-telling with enough action, variety, mysteries, and fun to give you hours of reading pleasure *a truly beautiful cover and binding. Not something I usually care about but the artwork on Twist of Faith is just fantastic. *Avatar, by S. D. Perry, is as rich and detailed a story as you will find in the Star Trek universe. Mind you, this is NOT an easy read - the book is painstaking in its detail, carefully building up characters and story until the book positively takes a life of its own (literally!). Most amazing of all, it brings utterly brand new characters completely alive, from an "old hand" Star Fleet officer to a young Andorian to a brand new take on the Jem'Hidar. And if that weren't enough, it takes backstory from the series to a remarkably vivid and logical extension, with the book filled with both heart-wrenching tragedy and great triumphs. *an action packed middle book (Abyss) which, while it can't keep up quite the momentum found in the first book, serves as effective action piece for our good Doctor. *a very well written 3rd and final book (Demons of Air and Darkness) which shows that a very simple and somewhat monotonous premise - catastrophe and rescue - can be greatly enhanced by skillful, amusing, and action-packed writing ability that neatly fuses races from not only Deep Space 9 but also Voyager in a way that makes sense and provides edge of your seat excitement. *and if that weren't enough, there's a special treat in the Horn and Ivory novella which is a different sort of story (more would spoil the fun) that is immensely enjoyable and remarkably entertaining, especially since it involves a series of characters and events which don't go beyond this single story. In short, this is a fantastic volume, attractively to view, wonderfully priced, and an absolutely stellar set of stories. They outdid themselves with this one! Kudos!!!

I've already read most of this book when the stories inside were published as individual novels. I still got it for 3 reasons. One, to get the Gateway stories at the end that I skipped initially and only skimmed through in the store. Two, just to have them all together in one fantastic volume. And 3 I got it for the new introduction by David R. George III. For anyone who hasn't read these books though, this is your chance to get started on the most fantastic continuation of Star Treks most epic series one could have hoped for. The final episode of DS9 wrapped up many of the important threads in the series. But there were enough things still left hanging that we fans knew there could still be many stories to tell. Marco Palmieri, editor at Pocket Books along with some fantastic writers answered a fan's wildest dreams with these stories, and many more to keep this epic still going today. First up is Avatar, by S. D. Perry, which had all the action, drama and exposition as a pilot episode, which this basically was for the post finale novel series. In addition to having its own fantastic story, it lays the groundwork for many of the novels to come, and sets up new and familiar characters to fill the vacancies left by several characters when the series ended. The other stories are more stand alone stories, one being part of the Section 31 series they did and the other 2 being part of the Gateways series they did, both being larger series spanning the entire Trek universe though only the DS9 installments are included here. The Section 31 and Gateway plots weren't my favorites, but both contained material that furthered the plot introduced in Avatar and would continue into future books. There is much to love about today's Star Trek novels. They are much more connected overall and far more ambitious than the mostly stand alone novels of the past. But among all the great novels I've read these past few years the DS9 post finale stories are my favorite. And these stories are your chance to read them from the begining if you missed your chance before. I hope they follow this with more omnibus editions of the stories that follow. They could do one for the "Mission Gamma" series, another for the DS9 10th anniversary novels, and another for "Worlds of DS9" and possibly "Warpath" unless that would be better suited to be included with the next few stories down the road.