Star Trek Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game ~David Mack
–published 2010
–Pocket Books
–336 pages
–4/5 stars
You know how it is–a friend comes over and starts telling you about a book they started reading, their excitement becomes infectious, and before you have had time to weigh the consequences you find yourself at the bookstore counter, exchanging cash for adventure between the covers of a brand new book. The consequences being that said adventure could be grand, or could be a complete bust. In this case it was nearly a foregone conclusion that I would have a good time, especially given the fact that a few days prior I had been contemplating revisiting Deep Space Nine beginning with episode one.
Zero Sum Game is the first book in a four book series that will be released the last week of four consecutive months, October 2010 through January 2011. I am given to understand that this series picks up after the events of the last Borg conflict, a series of books that brought the Deep Space Nine storyline up to the current storyline with Next Generation and Voyager. A group of races hostile to the Federation has formed the Typhon Pact. One of those races,the Breen–featured on the DS9 television series–has stolen the plans for Starfleet’s latest technological advantage, the slipstream drive. Dr. Bashir and his fellow genetically engineered “one that got away”, Sarina Douglas, are tapped by Starfleet Intelligence to conduct a covert search and destroy mission in Breen space. It is a race against the clock, and impossible odds, to stop the Breen before they develop their own slipstream drive and tip the balance of power.
Other than a brief flirtation with Voyager novels when they first began being released, my Star Trek reading has always been firmly entrenched in the original series time line, and by and large I have really enjoyed that reading, the latest being another David Mack novel, Harbinger, the first novel in the Vanguard series. But when Jeff came over and started talking about this book, the urge to spend time with the DS9 characters I grew to care about so deeply became irresistible. The selling point for me was his description of the way David Mack, through the character of Dr. Julian Bashir, expertly weaves the whereabouts of the rest of the DS9 cast into the opening of the story. And he was right. In a brief passage early on in the story, Mack brings you up to speed so effortlessly while orienting you to the current mindset of Dr. Bashir, making this a four book series that one can easily pick up and enjoy irregardless of whether or not a person has kept up with Star Trek‘s adventures in print.
Part covert espionage, part science fiction, Zero Sum Game is a quick and enjoyable read. As with each of the television series, there are times when you have to suspend disbelief, particularly in the case of two genetically enhanced humans decked out in the very best gear Starfleet Intelligence can provide. Despite some suspenseful moments, the story occasionally felt like a television episode in that time constraints (and in this case page constraints…336 pages doesn’t sound like a constrained amount of pages, but believe me, it was) dictated that trouble would be fairly easy to avoid thanks to Starfleet wizardry. Despite this minor criticism, I really had a good time getting back into the Star Trek universe. David Mack has a good reputation in the Star Trek community and after reading two of his books, I must say that I am looking forward to reading more of his work. Even more so because he cleverly gives the reader a nod near the end of the book that acknowledges and embraces what would have otherwise seemed too implausible.
Sarina Douglas and three other genetically-engineered humans (Jack, Patrick and Lauren) were featured in the DS9 episodes Statistical Improbabilities and Chrysalis. In addition to Dr. Bashir, the only other familiar DS9 member who has any significant part to play in this novel is Ezri Dax, now captain of the starship U.S.S. Aventine. Though she only had a brief time on the television series, Ezri Dax quickly became one of my favorite DS9 characters and it was a thrill to be able to spend time with her again. I hope she has some part to play in the remaining three novels of this series. The story goes back and forth between the cat and mouse game the Aventine crew plays with Breen and Romulan forces just outside of Breen space and a similar cat and mouse game that Julian and Sarina play with Breen security forces planetside. This structure keeps the story moving forward at a steady clip and helps create an atmosphere of suspense. The entire time I was reading this I couldn’t help but wish that it had been, or was being made, into a story arc for several television episodes or a feature film. I really do enjoy reading about the various Star Trek characters and crews that I cherish, but I miss seeing them on the small screen. Early on in the novel I took a break and actually did watch the opening episode of DS9 again (and the love came back with the intro music). I followed that up with a re-read of my gushing All Good Things… post, crafted back in February 2009 when the series ended for me, before continuing on with the story.
After the fun of Zero Sum Game, it is safe to say that Typhon Pact reading will be a part of my life over the next four months. I look forward to it.
If you have read this book and want to discuss it, I am certainly game to do so. Please remember to preface your comment with the words “SPOILER ALERT”, or something to that effect. And of course I am always game to discuss Deep Space Nine or any of the various Star Trek series.
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This book is a selection for the 42 Challenge, 2010.
“and of course I am always game to discuss Deep Space Nine or any of the various Star Trek series”…
Wow… what a surprise this is to me! ROTFLMFAO!!!! :O)
Deslily: Yes, I am quite the enigma. 🙂
Ezri Dax and the Aventine play a big role in Mack’s Star Trek Destiny books. Those are just flat out fun. I’m looking forward to the Zero Sum Game.
JD: Yes, although I have some inkling of what happened in those books after reading this and catching up on a few things in conversations with friends and on the internet, I still do need to pick those up and read them since I like Ezri, and Mack, so much.
Is there an official authority that decides what writers can write about in the Star Trek universe? Are plotlines and characters stretched all out of shape from book to book?
And do you need a thorough knowledge of the series to appreciate these books? I watched DS9 just the one time. I stuck faithfully to it every year till it was over, but I’ve never tried to go back and watch them on DVD. I can’t even remember much about them now.
You make the story sound interesting, and the cover brings back memories.
Jim: Jeff could answer this much better than I, and no doubt will as soon as he finishes the book and heads over here. My understanding though is that the series are approved by editors, most of which were let go over the last few years because of the economic state of affairs…anyway, there is definitely planning going on regarding continuity, etc. My understanding from Jeff is that the DS9 series of novels were always well behind the continuity of the other series until just recently when they did a series to get all the novel series up to the same time period.
So, I say all that to say that this current 4 book series is set at a time when DS9, Next Gen, and Voyager are all in continuity together and there will be characters from all of these series in these four books. I haven’t kept up with any of these novels at all and I had no trouble at all diving right in. I know there are side characters, for example a patient that is in the infirmary at DS9, who are carryovers from the last series but I didn’t feel like not being aware of what happened before made much of a difference at all.
What I did to jog my memory was to look up Sarina Douglas so that I could recall what she looked like, and read about her two episodes on DS9, and that was all I needed. And I only did that just to help my visual memory of the character.
I’d recommend you give it a try.
I went and looked up this subject at Wikipedia, and the entry for Star Trek Novels is massive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_novels
This just boggles my mind.
Jim: It does. This television franchise has certainly spawned a lot of literary efforts. Kind of amazing what the passion of a relatively small group of science fiction fans can ultimately lead to.
Next time I’m at a bookstore I’m going to look at these books. I’ll read a bit and see if I get sucked in. I’m curious to try one, but I’m not sure if I will like them. I think I’d do better by getting DS9 on Netflix and playing it again first. I’m afraid if I did like Star Trek books I’d feel addicted and have to track them all down and read them.
By the way, I have a weird feeling about Star Trek. In the waking world I don’t think about Star Trek that much anymore. But I’ve had these dreams where I catch an episode of Star Trek on TV and the dream is filled with an immense sense of nostalgia. So in the dream I struggle to find more of these old ST shows by flipping through the channels and I can’t. It’s very frustrating. By the way, the dream ST episodes are not real ST episodes or even from a particular ST series. It’s like all the characters exist in one dream TV show, like its a ST show from another world.
Jim: That sounds like an equally fun and annoying dream! I certainly think it is a good idea to give this a try in the bookstore. I would recommend reading the first part where it sets up the story and then the next chapter/section where Bashir first comes on the scene as it is at that point I think that you will be either hooked or not.
I’m definitely wanting to watch DS9 again from the beginning, and it hasn’t been that long since I’ve seen the series.
To Jim Harris. Yes. The Star Trek book line used to be split up with series under different editors. With the layoff’s though of multiple editors over the last two years I believe one or two editors are now over all the series. The book editor also works closely with Paula Block in Paramount licensing for approval over storylines and the general direction of each of the series book storylines. Bottom line there is organization to all of the books.
SPOILER ALERT !!!
I finished the book today myself. I will say I was very excited to see this book finally come out and did talk it up to Carl. I’m glad he enjoyed it and he surprised me by picking it up. It’s weird though now that I’m done reading it I would not have recommended it to him. It’s not a bad book it’s just not great to me. I’ve read atleast 50 Trek books over time and I would rate this book in the bottom half of what I’ve read of ST books. I would only rate it a 2 and half out 5 stars myself. The reason being is I’m a huge fan of the ST writing of David Mack but I found this to be the worst novel of his that I have read. The story was much too contrived for me. I didn’t like the sex scene he included in the book. That was the first one I’ve ever read in a ST book and I hope it’s the last. It was competely out of place. I really do like Captain Ezri unfortunatelty her ship and crew were the “B” storyline when I wished they had been the main one. I felt the Bashir and Sarina storyline was just too unbelieveable for me. I know, I know. It’s a ST novel how can I say that but this story just made every challenge for them way too easy to over come. Also I thought that Bashir behaved to out of character with the ease and amount of killing he did. I realize that in the end that is what the author was going for and trying to show but I just couldn’t buy in that Bashir would give up his core beliefs so quickly. As for the last few pages all I can say is “Ugh”. Can no one let this man have any sense of normallcy in his life. Sarina is aSection 31 agent? Come on. Really. I hope the other novels in this serious are much better but man what a weak start.
Sorry Carl those are just my honest feelings. I really am glad you enjoyed it though I just wish I would have enjoyed it half as much as you did.
SPOILERS
I’m sure I was much easier on this book simply because it was a jump back into sci fi and into Star Trek. If I stepped back a bit it would be easy to point out all kinds of problems with the book, but I ended up automatically giving most of those a pass as I read it simply because I am already invested in Star Trek. The book definitely had some problems and as time has passed I too am less excited about reading the other books in the series, particularly as I don’t feel a big urge to read Next Generation stories.
I didn’t have as big a problem with Bashir abandoning his beliefs so easy as I felt it was somewhat consistent with the fact that his character was so easily led around by his ‘little head’ during the series. Still, I do see your point…more because I felt like Sarina was kind of manipulative of him and did not really exhibit the kind of personality that I find attractive in a long term partner.
Anyway, I had fun with it and enjoyed reading it even though it wasn’t as good as it potentially could have been.
I hate Ezri Dax, I can not buy her as a captain espesially after watching her in a ds9 episode whinning about her space sickness. She was a counsel and a bad one in my opinion since all she ever did was whinning