[.ca] Mission Gamma Book Two: This Gray Spirit (ISBN 0743445627)

read it for the sake of keeping up with the series:
I didn't like this installment nearly as much as I liked part one. This book continues the stories on DS9 as well as what's going on with the crew of the defiant exploring the gamma quadrant. I wasn't particularly fond of this one partly because of the writer's style and partly because I think there was too much politics involved. All of what takes place with the defiant crew has to do with the crew trying to act as an intermediary between two alien races. I found it for the most part boring. I felt as if the author could have made the aliens more interesting and the story line less dry. There is some action, but it just doesn't pack too much of a punch. The DS9 drama I think is the best part of the book. Some interesting things take place on different fronts. Shar's bondmates struggle to deal with problems which largely has to do with him not being there. A delegation of Cardassian and Bajorans push to normalize relations, but things get more complicated before they get better.

The Best in this 4-Book Series:
Welcome to the ranks of outstanding sci-fi writers, Ms. Jarman, and I will be looking for your novels from now on. It's a great day when a brand-new writer performs as well as you have in this deeply thought-out book. I very much enjoyed Books One and Three of the series, too, and did not like Book Four at all. But this one, printed in tiny print, satisfied from beginning to end. Others have covered the plot and characters, so I don't intend to do so. I only want to plead for good character development any day over brainless slam-bang action. Now that we've lost Charles Sheffield, I can see that someone is ready to step into his hard-to-fill shoes! Keep writing, Heather!

Slow and steady:
I tried to really sum up this book in my subject line, 'Slow and Steady', because essentially that is how the book is. Heather Jarman has written a great 2nd novel in the Mission Gamma series, and considering that it is her first book, it is a commendable achievement. The story begins with the Defiant exploring the Gamma Quadrant, and they become trapped in some sort of nanotechnology minefield. A friendly races arrives to help them, called the Yrthny, and the Defiant heads back to their homeworld for repairs. In their efforts to the repair the Defiant, the crew become drawn into the internal affairs of the Yrthny, which is an interesitng political situation. On DS9, the political manouverings continue, and we mainly see them from Kira's perspective. Into the plot also enters the Cardassians, led by Ambassador Natima Lang and Gul Macet, a close relative of the late Gul Dukat. Some old wounds are reopened, but above all we see the two races trying their hardest to achieve peace, yet some individuals are trying to disrupt that peace, which makes for interesting reading. I found Jarman's treatment of the Cardassians particularly refreshing, considering what they did. All too often during the tv series, the Cardassians, Dukat in particular, got away with horrendous crimes. Gul Dukat himself was a murderer, war criminal, and a rapist, a man who lied, tricked and decieved people, especially when he wanted to have intimate relations with a woman. He had several illegitimate children, and was willing to kill them (and their mothers) just to protect his career. In this book, Jarman tries to show just what some of the other characters thought about this sort of behaviour, especially with regards to Ziyal. The plot doesn't move with great leaps and bounds, in both the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. The book is also fairly light on the action, and while I didn't mind this, some readers may have other thoughts. The story has a satisfying ending, but there is also a big shock on the way for certain characters. While I found the story to be well written (Jarman is obviously well educated in both writing and Trek lore) it was verbose at times, especially when it came to details regarding the Yrthny. Often the Yrthny affairs were convoluted and confused, and I found them a little hard to make sense of, all the more so as they didn't contribute that much to the plot. The Andorian backstory was also a little dragged out, and while it was an interesting insight into their culture, it wasn't properly explained until much later in the book, which was frustrating. In conclusion, I recommend this book to readers of the Mission Gamma series and DS9 series in general. If you're just a casual fan, this probably isn't the book for you.

Series is losing drive.:
I suppose I should review this book based upon it's own merits and NOT in relation to the rest of the series. But I won't. This book when compared to the first book of the Mission: Gamma series is simply put: kind of boring. I found myself wanting to skip chapters to get away from the aimless cruising of the Gamma quadrant (even if they do hang out on a planet nearly the whole time) to get back to the events on DS9 itself. Though I do appreciate the desire to tell the events of both locations, I do wish that they had chosen to write two completely different stories, as the two together dilute one another. Still, the story in the Alpha quadrant is a fun read, and I would recommend this book on that merit alone. But I only recommend it if you can get it from the library.

Fine Literary Debut For A Star Trek Novel:
Although Heather Jarman isn't nearly as skillful a writer as either Diane Duane or Peter David, her first novel, "Star Trek Depp Space Nine Mission Gamma: This Gray Spirit" bodes well for her future literary career as well as diehard Star Trek fans. This was an intriguing, occasionally engrossing look, at Deep Space Nine in the aftermath of Captain Sisko's disappearance. Now in command of the Federation starbase, Bajoran Militia Colonel Kira Nerys must contend with a disastrous peace conference between Cardassian and Bajoran diplomats and an unexpected personal tragedy affecting the station's Andorian science officer Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane. Meanwhile Ensign ch'Thane, Lieutenant Ezri Dax, Doctor Julian Bashir and Lieutenant Nog continue in their ongoing exploratory mission to the Gamma Quadrant, aboard USS Defiant, now in command of a Starfleet veteran, Commander Elias Vaughn. Soon they become involved in a tense political conflict between the underclass and rulers of a civilization that holds the balance of power in its corner of the Gamma Quadrant, threatening to become an all out genocidal war.