Gateways #7: What Lay Beyond

Did not expect more than one story on this product. Was very pleased, because this was my first audio book in 7 years.

To be fair this is a rating of only one of the stories in the book. It is "Horn and Ivory", the conclusion of the DS9 Season 8 Relaunch book "Demons of Air and Darkness" (also book 4 of the Gateways septuplet).I agree the marketing scheme of making dedicated readers buy the hardcover of this 7th book simply because it wraps up any (and every) one of the first 6 books is deceitful. Myself having read only the DS9 Gateway book as part of the relaunch, I was angered at the idea. Luckily, if you are reading this review, you no longer have to buy the hardcover, but can settle for the cheap paperback. Therefore, my review takes that into consideration.I'll say that reading Book 4 and its conclusion in this book raised a few questions that I wonder as to whether or not they are solved/explained in the others Gateway books. I deem they probably are, and for that reason, perhaps buying this book simply for one book's conclusion rather than 6, is an incentive to go read the other books. Many have said the DS9 story is one of the best, and indeed I found it was excellent, but in time I may go back to read the other Gateway books. As it is, this is a review for "Horn and Ivory" by the marvelous deCandido.At the conclusion of "Demons of Air and Darkness", Kira steps through a Gateway to be with what she believes are the Prophets. Where does it take her? Well of course it sends her back 30,000 years to a time of Bajor's past before the uniting of the world. At first, I did not realize that the entire sequel was only about Kira. By the time I had finished the short story, I was glad it was, because deCandido does the best job portraying Kira that I've read so far. You really start to understand her and feel what she feels. You get to understand Kira's nostalgia (of sorts) for the days of the Resistance, but more importantly you get to see her committed to being a good commander.The plot. At first I was worried why we were in the old days, but slowly I got heavily involved into it and realized that where Kira had ended up had ties to her real life. The book is about Kira rediscovering herself and understanding where she is in her life and coming to terms with what she's lost. At its base, the book asks: do you give up, or go on. The author certainly knows Kira well enough to answer the question for her, and I was glad watching her grow.It was also wonderful getting to read about Bajor's fragile past before its unification and before the Prophets were worshipped by the majority of Bajor. Keith did an excellent job with this novel since to me it really didn't feel like a Trek novel or a DS9 novel, but more of a Medieval-type story with Kira thrust into it. Yet it works nicely somehow, and for that I give the book 4 stars. I couldn't give it 5 because though it does a good job, it deals only with Kira and none of the other DS9 crew. Only Garak's book, "A Stitch in Time" managed to pull off writing about one main DS9 character without becoming nostalgic for the othe

STAR TREKGATEWAYSWhat Lay BeyondAUTHORS: Diane Carey, Peter David, Keith R.A. DeCandidio,Christie Golden, Robert Greenberger, & Susan WrightPUBLISHER: Simon & SchusterREVIEWED BY: Barbara RhoadesBOOK REVIEW: The Gateways provide unimaginable distance travel in only a few seconds. Yet rather than just finding a new civilization, unwanted problems occur because people have gone through them. The builders of the Gateways, The Iconians, are back but do they come in peace or do they want something more. Read Gateways - What Lay Beyond to find the answer.My suggestion would be to read this ONLY after reading the previous six that sets up everything that happens in this, the seventh book. So order all of them-One Small Step (Star Trek: Gateways Book One)Chainmail (Star Trek Challenger: Gateways Book Two)Doors into Chaos (Star Trek: The Next Generation: Gateways Book Three)Demons of Air and Darkness (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Gateways Book Four)No Man's Land (Star Trek : Voyager : Gateways Book Five)Cold Wars (Star Trek: New Frontier--Gateways, Book Six)--and settle in for a good reading session.The reader, David Kaye, is very good. The added sound effects detract from the stories to the point that sometimes you cannot hear what David is saying for sure. Notwithstanding, this is good ending book for the whole series. The only drawback I found to the whole series is that they did not interact with the others.

I'm not too fond of the Trek editors' current penchant for crossovers, but so far, they've managed to keep things from getting too irritating. This book ends the six stories started in the previous volumes of the series, but doesn't connect them; each adventure is a separate novella. All of the stories were interesting enough to keep my attention, but the Kirk story dragged on for a while, and provided absolutely no backstory beyond the jacket type. Since this story opens the volume, it may cause readers who didn't pick up all the previous books (like myself; I only bought the TNG and New Frontier volumes) to turn away. The other stories lacked both these faults, so the enjoyment you take from them is pretty much proportionate to your preference for each series. I knew nothing about Voyager, DS9, or Challenger but the basic concepts, but since each story followed only the captain (or Kira, in the DS9 case), it worked out. In fact, the Challenger story was interesting enough to convince me to pick up the original volume. A warning: the Voyager story involves a somewhat gratuitous cameo from a famous guest star, and the ending is irritating, as we watch Janeway say goodbye to every friggin' ship in the caravan. And, of course, there's the unconvincing explanation to why they didn't use the gateways to get home. I worship Peter David as a god, so I'll leave the New Frontier review to someone less biased. The TNG story comes last, and serves as an ending. I won't give away any details, but suffice it to say we do get a definite resolution to the crisis, as well as an explanation to just where the Iconians went, along with a really neat Picard story. One problem: there is a painful TMI moment between Troi and Riker in the last chapter; thankfully, it's brief. I gave the book 4 stars because all the stories but one were above average, and Burgoyne's one-liner justified the hardback price (you'll now it when you see it).

I must say that this was an acceptionally good ending to an awsome series that I have collected the entirety of. I recommend to all Star Trek fans, wether you read New Frontier or The Original Series, to read all these books. I own them all. The only thing that I would recommend to this Gateways finale is: Longer! Otherwise, good job to Peter David, Christie Golden, Diane Carey, and Susan Wright! Thanks for all your wonderful works of art!