Tales of the Dominion War

Star Trek: The Dominion War

by Keith R.A. DeCandido (Editor)

For two seasons, Star Deep Space Nine® chronicled the intense struggle of the Federation, fighting alongside the Klingons and the Romulans against the overwhelming forces of the Dominion in some of the most exciting hours of television ever produced. Now, for the first time, see how the Dominion War affected the entirety of the Star Trek universe. From the heart of the Federation to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise™. From the front lines of Klingon™ space to the darkest recesses of the Romulan Empire. From the heroic members of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers to the former crew of the U.S.S. Stargazer. From the edge of the New Frontier to the corridors of station Deep Space 9™. Some of the finest Star Trek novelists have been gathered to provide a dozen new tales from this seminal period in galactic history. Heroes from three generations -- Sisko, Picard, Spock, Kira, Calhoun, Klag, McCoy, Gold, and so many more -- brought together in these... Tales Of The Dominion War Greg Cox • Peter David • Keith R.A. DeCandido • Michael Jan Friedman • Dave Galanter • Robert Greenberger Heather Jarman & Jeffrey Lang • David Mack • Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels • Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz • Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore • Howard Weinstein

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Ebooks, Anthologies, Star Trek Deep Space Nine

386 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2004

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of these stories are fairly middling, with the standouts including "Twilight's Wrath" by David Mack, chronicling a Dominion/Romulan battle led by a pre-Nemesis Shinzon, which proves key in his early rise. Also, "Eleven Hours Out" by Dave Galanter, which mostly follows Picard during a surprise attack on Earth by the Breen during the war. The scenario, while seemingly quite implausible, makes for a compelling and action packed story. Several of the stories are epistolary, mostly in the form of log entries, and those seem to fall particularly flat and in my opinion often feel a bit like lazy storytelling.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories based around the dominion war. Spock is on Romulus, Scotty gets stuck at a neutral outpost, and the Breen attack earth among others. There is some really good stories here, and surprisingly it does include every star trek series. I particularly liked the Spock one, and the New Frontier one. But all were very well written, character based and engaging. A very good read.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

a mixed bag, like any short story collection and with a couple I straight up skipped (wow do I not care about anything from Nemesis). my favorites were: about the Breen attack on Earth, the one with secret Romulan + all the doctors (they didn't forget Phlox!), and the one with Scotty and McCoy

[SamB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really strong collection of short stories. The authors portray the horrors of war really well (arguably better than the series did, in many cases), and have selected some particularly interesting characters and side-stories to highlight.

Pretty much all of the stories here rank at least a 4/5 (the only exception is the Peter David story, which is a bit 'will this do?', though still contains a powerful message), with the standouts being "Mirror Eyes" by Heather Jarman & Jeffrey Lang, "Twilight's Wrath" by David Mack and "Safe Harbors" by Howard Weinstein.

[Frank Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very rich collection of tales. This work adds a great deal to the star trek universe. I enjoyed every story in the collection and was quite satisfied with the variety of perspectives presented.

[Erick M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Está fue definitivamente una colección genial!!

Me encantó lo dinámicos que fueron la mayoría de los relatos, contando algo único y efectivo dentro de un escenario con tantas posibilidades como la guerra. Felicitaciones al editor por colocar cada relato de forma que se sienta como un avance en tiempo real de los eventos del conflicto, desde eventos que suceden en el 2373 hasta 2375. Y esa línea de tiempo al final de todo el material televisivo, de películas y novelas sobre la Guerra del Dominio fue simplemente perfecto!!

Haciendo una review corta de cada relato sería:

- What Dreams May Come por Michael Jan Friedman. Estuvo ok. Se siente que pudo haber sido una historia más larga que acabó siendo cortada. Demasiado corto.

- Night of the Vulture por Greg Cox. Me encantó!! Disfruté el punto de vista del soldado cardassiano. Es macabro leer como la criatura los tortura, pero luego recuerdo qué piensan conquistar la galaxia y se me pasa. El final casi que es justicia poética jaja.

- The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned por Keith R.A. DeCandido. El mejor relato de la colección!! Cada momento de Lwaxana es oro puro. Cómo reflexiona sobre su hija fallecida, siente la muerte de sus amigos y como se arma de valor para hacer frente a los cardassianos. Ella es genial!!

- Blood Sacrifice por Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz. Me gustó. Fue un vistazo entretenido a la política romulana. Siento que no tenía mucha relación con Pale Moonlight, pero estuvo interesante.

- Mirror Eyes por Heather Jarman & Jeffrey Lang. Me gustó el formato en que estaba escrito y la situación en que se encontraba la protagonista, pero creo que se alargó mucho.

- Twilight's Wrath por David Mack. No puedo creerlo, David Mack hizo que el villano de Nemesis fuera genuinamente interesante! Dónde estaba este hombre cuando escribieron esa película??

- Eleven Hours Out por Dave Galanter. Me encantó la enorme carga dramática del evento y como, pese a todo, Picard y varios cadetes supieron sobreponerse y enfrentar la situación.

- Safe Harbors por Howard Weinstein. Spock y Scotty vagando solos en un runabaout ayudando a la gente? Eso es canon para mí!!

- Field Expediency por Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore. Creo que estuvo bien. Me habría beneficiado mucho más conocer a los personajes de SCE, pero creo que se las arregla para mantenerse solo.

- A Song Well Sung por Robert Greenberger. Un Klingon sin un brazo se chinga a un escuadrón completo de Jem'hadars. Simplemente perfecto.

- Stone Cold Truths por Peter David. Se siente como un capítulo de una novela más grande. Me hubiera gustado que durase más.

- Requital por Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels. Siento que tenías 2 buenas ideas (la de Reese y la de Sisko), pero que, al acabar mezclandose no terminan por desarrollarse completamente. Eso sí, acabar el libro con Sisko cerró el círculo de la guerra de gran forma.

[A.J. Blanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Tales of the Dominion War has been out for a while, I've only somewhat recently heard about it. We got a mostly one-sided glimpse into the war during DS9, so this book tries to flesh out some of the other perspectives during that near-galactic event.

There were twelve short stories contained within, if memory serves, and they all ranged from good to great. I don't want to get into too many specifics, because I think every Trek fan should read this, so for the most part I'll just say that there's a story for everyone here.

Having said that however, I have a couple of minor criticisms. While still good reads, a few of the short stories left me wondering why those particular plot lines were chosen for this publication, not to mention the need for another once-over by the editor(s). There's a massive war going on! I for one want to read about battles from the viewpoint of new and/or minor characters, not of architecture on Betazed or the fate of a long-forgotten entity from TOS, but maybe that's just me.

Secondly, the main reason I picked up this book was because I heard of a story that gave more background to Shinzon, the primary antagonist in ST: Nemesis. There was indeed such a tale, but my expectations to make this contrived caricature into a well-rounded character was not met. Extremely little surrounding Shinzon in the movie made sense, and I was hoping to put at least some of that to rest, but sadly all it did was tell us where he learned he and B-4 were created to be doppelgangers, and how he obtained the thealaron(?) generator; that's it. The story was authored by David Mack, so it was at least well written, but why Shinzon wasn't killed when the program ended; how he became so adept at warfare (other than one sentence regarding education when he was a child); how he was able to create the Scimitar without a lack of engineering knowledge and the Romulans finding out; why the Remans were so devoted to him; why enslaved cannon fodder was allowed such free reign of Romulan technology... none of that (and more) was covered to any satisfying degree.

Despite those nitpicky points, I would still highly recommend this book to Trekkers, particularly fans of DS9. As I mentioned in the title, we need more volumes of these types of tales!

[Luke Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was never much of a Trekkie but my wife got me into Deep Space 9 while we were dating, and the Dominion War was probably one of the most compelling plot threads running through that series, and hearing about this short story compilation from an array of characters' perspective piqued my curiosity enough to delve into Star Trek literature...

With tales from the perspective of familiar faces (Jean-Luc Picard battling to defend Starfleet Academy during the Breen attack on Earth, Spock attempting to persuade the Romulans to join the war, Leonard "Bones" McCoy and Montgomery Scott racing to get back to Earth as it comes under attack) and original tales (the sole survivor of a Klingon Bird of Prey hunting down the Jem'Hadar who shot down his ship, or the crew of the USS da Vinci in a race against time to acquire enemy technology), there's a great array of perspectives (including ones from the Vorta and Cardassians): my favourite was Twilight's Wrath by David Mack, giving much needed backstory to the villain of Star Trek Nemesis that was sorely lacking in the film, showing how Shinzon made his name in the warm...

A compelling collection of short stories that flesh out one of the most destructive conflicts in Star Trek lore...

[Nicholas Keene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read with some really interesting and compelling stories told. In most of the stories, you were not seeing the events of the war from any of the main characters of ST:TNG nor DS9, so the world building was definitely expansive. That said, there are several stories told through the eyes of Captains Picard and Sisko. You are not in the stories alone, as they have familiar side characters from the show or stories told from the expanded Star Trek beta cannon. For instance the fall of Betazed was told through the eyes of Lwaxana Troi. How the Romulans saw the war unfolding before their entry was told through Spock. These were some of the most powerful stories. And then there was “A Song Well Sung” about a lone Klingon survivor against 7 Jem'Hadar on a deserted planet.

Overall, this is a great read for anyone that likes Star Trek during the Dominion War and is curious about the expended universe.

[Maurice Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed these stories- they all added depth to stories I've already read or provided a short sequel.

I particularly enjoyed the Commander Klag story- now we know how he lost his arm and got on the path away from serving under Captain Kargan on the Pagh to his own command. I should have known it happened during the Dominion War. I also enjoyed seeing the run-up to the book Battle of Betazed. We only ever heard that the planet was conquered, but to see it through Lwaxana's eyes was chilling.

From those to the whereabouts of the Beta XII-A entity to the SCE ship Da Vinci to Scotty and Admiral McCoy's whereabouts when the Breen attacked Earth and other compelling tales, I loved it! More depth to the already complex Dominion War? Give me more of that :-)

[Christopher Lutz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. The Dominion War is one of the most interesting events in Star Trek. Surprisingly little has been written about in the literary universe however. As a result, this a short story collection goes a long way to adding depth to the conflict and telling cool stories beyond what was on screen. My favorite absolutely has to be the tale of the Breen attack on Earth and Starfleet HQ from Picard and Troi’s POV. Great stuff.

[Matthew Kindzerske · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a hopeless devotee to TNG until fully embracing the DS9 original series and the diverse and detailed plot arcs. After Andrew Robinson’s “A Stitch in Time” I still had an appetite. Tales of the Dominion War is a great collection of in between stories, and I really appreciated each story prefaced by the different authors’ background.

[Vic · Rating 3 out of 5]

This cover for a collection of short stories makes me deeply uncomfortable. Beyond that, I really have to look at the publication year of 2004 to try and understand why they thought this would be a good idea. It may be intriguing to see what various characters were doing during the Dominion War arc of Deep Space Nine, but this book’s jingoism is rough.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a few good gems in here
The SCE story was great
Though the Romulan spy was not so great
And I thought was burnout on Klingons, but the one-armed Klingon against the Dominion was good
The Picard solo was ok, but a bit contrived?
Overall, like most collections of short stories, it's a mixed bag

[Dom King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some short stories in this are amazing, but like with all antholgies there will be weak links. I could have done without knowing what the yawn inducing villain from the movie Nemesis did in this time period for instance.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun anthology of short stories in the Trek universe, weaving in characters major and minor from many of the series. Read it because Peter David wrote one of the stories. Enjoyed imagining different perspectives of the Dominion War, all treated with canonical respect.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some anthologies can be a mixed bag, and this is no exception. Even though I despise Star Trek: Nemesis, I kind of appreciate the big swing of inserting a Shinzon story that acts as a prequel to that film. We actually get characters from both DS9 and TNG. Some stories better than others.

[Peter Lowry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall decent book!
Some stories should have been prequels to other books, some stories we're just filler, & a few stories were excellent pieces that filled in some real blanks left open, my favorite being the story about Shinzon during the war.

But overall, not a bad Star Trek book!

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me realize I've been away from Star Trek way too long. These stories were a lot of fun, and their depictions of the desperation, fear, survival struggles, loss, trauma, and moral ambiguity inherent to war are something you don't often see in Trek's idealistic universe (outside DS9, anyway). My favorite was "The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned," by editor Keith DeCandido, about the invasion of Betazed.

[Fresno Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you think DS9 is the best trek, you'll like this

[Craig Kirkwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good collection of short stories detailing what different ships and individuals (e.g. the Enterprise, Original Series characters) did during the Dominion War.

[Max S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Star Trek, the Dominion War story arc, and anthologies. This book includes all three and is very well done with each story being unique and standing on its own.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of great stories with the last three being fantastic.

[Kirby Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more of what I was wanting from the other books, and is a fine read on its own. A very good anthology hitting all the favorites.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War
Edited by Keith R. A. Decandido
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published In: New York City, NY, USA
Date: 2004
Pgs: 370

Summary:
The Dominion War. Here are the untold tales beyond and within Deep Space Nine: from Klingon space to the Romulan Star Empire, from Betazed falling under occupation to a time space rift, from the Original Series to Deep Space Nine.

What Dreams May Come - Michael Jan Friedman
Night of the Vulture - Greg Cox
The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned - Keith R. A. DeCandido
Blood Sacrifice - Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz
Mirror Eyes - Heather Jarman & Jeffrey Lang
Twilight’s Wrath - David Mack
Eleven Hours Out - Dave Galanter
Safe Harbors - Howard Weinstein
Field Expediency - Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
A Song Well Sung - Robert Greenberger
Stone Cold Truths - Peter David
Requital - Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels

Genre:
fiction, science fiction, militaria, cross media, television, short stories

Why this book:
This is a Star Trek book. And a war book. I am hoping that its flavor, since it is a war chronicle, is more Deep Space Nine than The Next Generation or Original Series.

This Story is About:
How the Star Trek universe in the DS9-TNG era survives a general and widespread war with the Dominion.

Favorite Character:
Field was filled with interesting characters. I haven’t read any of the CoE Star Trek stuff, but this was a bit of excellent. Loved the characters of Kieran Duffy and Fabian Stevens. Wish we had gotten a better look at the Breen either in this one or in Eleven. Klag from Song is a great character, very Klingon in all the best ways.

Least Favorite Character:
In the story Vulture, the Vorta Methras , they are always presented as such sycophants and ass kissers. At least that’s consistent.

Character I Most Identified With:
Surprisingly, Lwaxana Troi as she confronted the unthinkable and was buffeted before rising to the occasion in Ceremony. The stoicism of Lt. Commander Rondon in Field resonates with me.

The Feel:
Through the early stories, the feeling that I most feel is the rush. Not the rush, but as if the authors were hurrying their stories to fit the number of words/pages instead of writing the story to fit or writing the story as it needed to be written. Though that feeling was broken with the Fall of Betazed story, Ceremony. The Picard on Earth during the Breen sneak attack, Eleven, feels very similar to the episode of TNG where he and the children were trapped in a largely disabled Enterprise. Even with the similarity, the story is well done.

Favorite Scene:
In Vulture, on the bridge of the Solanco, when the Cardassian spy turns on his Founder conspirator. It was brutal, ultimately pyrrhic, but brutal..
When Lwaxana Troi discovers her will to go on during Ceremony.
Loved the McCoy callback to Phlox in Mirror Eyes.
Field plays out like one long scene, the only break being the short bridge scene and communicator interruption sequences when the da Vinci is communication with the away team.

Settings:
This one covers a lot of space.

The conquered world of Illrath. The bridge of the freighter Solanco. The Betazed home of Lwaxana Troi. Romulus. The Firefalls of Gal’gathong. Tal Shiar base on the planet Golgoroth in the Romulan Neutral Zone. Starfleet HQ in San Francisco. The Enterprise. Starbase 1. The Colombia. The Golden Gate Bridge. Deep Space 9. Bridge of the da Vinci. Lamenda III and the moons of Lamenda IV. Marcan V. The crashed interior of the Klingon IKV Pagh and the Jem’Hadar ship that crashed along with it. Brikar.

Pacing:
The pace seems good through the first few stories. By and large, they are very short, one act stories.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
In Twilight, Shinzon referring to B-4 as brother doesn’t ring well based on his interactions with the android in Nemesis.

Last Page Sound:
Glad I read it.

Author Assessment:
There are some good stories here. And some, not bad, but mediocre stories. By and large, I’d say that I wouldn’t use this anthology as my needing to seek out more stuff by these authors.

Editorial Assessment:
Some of the stories could have went back through the polisher a time or three. And a few have an almost fanfic feel to them and I know that the authors involved in this had better work in them. But, all in all, I’ve enjoyed the book, but I see the potential where it could have been better.

Disposition of Book:
Half Price Book stack

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Dreams could have been an episode of ST:TNG.
Blood Sacrifice could have been an ep as well.
Field would have made an excellent ep of whichever series was lucky enough to have it.

Casting call:
As many of the characters have appeared on television or in movies, I will refrain from making alternate casting suggestions for roles that have already been filled well by current actors. I would take this moment to suggest that Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard McCoy was genius. Just wish we had more samples and long form action with him in the role.

Would recommend to:
Star Trek fans

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin, and does it very solidly.

[Amber Colored Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me forever to finish this book, probably almost a year but that should in no one be a testament to the quality of this piece.

This collection of short stories is probably one of my favorite Trek books I have ever read. Not only because it finally covers what I have been wishing for since watching the last few seasons of Deep Space Nine, namely an explanation of what every other crew and character we love was doing during the war. It's also so ridiculously well-written by the masters of Star Trek novels that more then half the stories in this collection left me with tears in my eyes.

I was surprised there wasn't a single story in this collection that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. I of course liked some more then others but I wasn't bored or put off by a single piece in this work. Even a couple of stories written in the universes I was not familiar with (namely the Corp of Engineers novels and the New Frontier novel series) even going into those two stories blind to who the characters were, they were still compelling enough that I was able to like reading them.

My favorite to my surprise was "Safe Harbors" which was what McCoy and Scotty were doing, during the Dominion War. The ending of the piece so perfectly patriotic and beautiful brought me to tears. I also really enjoyed DaCandido's piece in this collection "The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned". Which was to my surprise not about the Klingons (I love his Klingon stories!) but instead about Betazoid, chilling and beautiful.

If you are a fan of Trek and have watched most of the series I think you well really enjoy this. I would wait until you finish Deep Space Nine to read it of course because you don't want to ruin the last few seasons of that fantastic show for yourself. But this is a great companion to pick up when you finish it!

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read but satisfying. Several different stories but that was to be expected. Most of the stories deal with characters from other books and ships rather than DS9 or the Enterprise.

I recommend this book for anyone not wanting a deep read

['Nathan Burgoine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically, this was a collection of short stories that filled in some of the blanks during the Dominion War, which we saw from a totally DS9 point of view. Some of the various stories were quite good, some not-so-much (always the case with short story collections), and, to be honest, a whole lot of these filled in gaps which were already known (ie: the attack on Betazed story was good, but we already knew everything that had happened - we merely got to read it in detail). I would have been happier with tales that were mentioned even more tangentially than that.

I did enjoy a revisit to the soldiers from the very gritty episode on DS9 where the soldiers had been holding a tactically important planet for a very long time, where Nog lost his leg. The tale picked up one of the surviving soldier's tales, and moved him right through to the end of the war and a bit further. Well done.

An enjoyable diversion.

[David Palazzolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stone Cold Truths by Peter David, a short story in the Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War anthology is the 32nd--and perhaps final--chapter of the Star Trek: The New Frontier series. I primarily bought the book for the NF story, but as I love all things Deep Space 9, I will eventually come back to this book. The story takes place some time years and years after Lt Kebron has retired from Starfleet and decided to start a family. He recounts a story from the USS Excalibur's experiences in the Dominion War as a part of a debate on the "virtues" of war. Unfortunately because the story is so short the debate is a little hackneyed and overly simple, yet it still is a somewhat enjoyable read--probably because I tend to sympathize with Kebron's viewpoint. I really wish there was space to more fully develop the other person's point of view. Had the story been just a couple of pages longer I think it would have been more satisfactory.