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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Rebels #3
The Liberated
Major Kira and the ambitious Kai Winn have never seen eye to eye, but when Cardassian renegades invade Deep Space 9, determined to capture one of the sacred Orbs of the Prophets, the two women must work together to preserve both the Orb and the safety of everyone aboard the station.
Captain Sisko and the crew of the USS Defiant cannot come to Kira's aid; they are too busy teaching an entire world how to fight back against a vicious invasion – even if it means breaking the Prime Directive!
Captain Sisko and the crew of the USS Defiant cannot come to Kira's aid; they are too busy teaching an entire world how to fight back against a vicious invasion – even if it means breaking the Prime Directive!
238 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 1, 1999
About the author
Dafydd ab Hugh
27 books47 followersDafydd ab Hugh (born David Friedman) is a U.S. science fiction author.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 6, 2022
I tried...but I failed. After giving the previous two books the benefit of the doubt, I simply lost patience with this mini-series about something I just don't recognize as representative of my favourite Trek series. If I were using hashtags on twitter, I'd say: #NOTmyDS9.
April 4, 2024
It's 3 stories wrapped into 1. It does get confusing sometimes of where we are but overall it was OK.
July 20, 2015
I liked this 3-story arc in theory better than in execution.
Strictly middle-of-the-road as Star Trek fiction goes.
Strictly middle-of-the-road as Star Trek fiction goes.
May 19, 2026
Granted, this was the best book of the trilogy, but if you’ve read my reviews of the first two, you know that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s great. The part of the story that deals with Kai Winn at the station is the best part—this should have been pulled out of this trilogy and made into a single book rather than dragging it out over 3 parts. The storyline with the Defiant at Sierra-Bravo 112-II continued to disappoint, with its explanation for the natives’ behavior falling short.
I also continue to struggle with some of the writing choices. Some examples:
“A passel of Cardassians broke through the knots…”. A passel? Really?
The spelling choice of “Foetal position.” Why that spelling?
Referring to land as “the deck”. Why?
“Bajoran kilometers.” I find it hard to believe that the Bajorans used the term kilometers such that it had to be differentiated from Earth kilometers.
“So why don’t I rejoice? Kira asked herself … but answer came there none.” Umm…What?
And finally, the discontinuity with canon still irks me. Dax is still acting out of character, and then, in the 30-years-ago section, the prophets speak to Kai Winn. The problem? It is well established in the series that the prophets never spoke to Kai Winn, which ultimately led her to turn to the Pah-wraiths.
So, better than the other two, but still flawed.
P.S. This book also kept up the trilogy’s tradition of having a cover image with no relation whatsoever to the story. 🥴
I also continue to struggle with some of the writing choices. Some examples:
“A passel of Cardassians broke through the knots…”. A passel? Really?
The spelling choice of “Foetal position.” Why that spelling?
Referring to land as “the deck”. Why?
“Bajoran kilometers.” I find it hard to believe that the Bajorans used the term kilometers such that it had to be differentiated from Earth kilometers.
“So why don’t I rejoice? Kira asked herself … but answer came there none.” Umm…What?
And finally, the discontinuity with canon still irks me. Dax is still acting out of character, and then, in the 30-years-ago section, the prophets speak to Kai Winn. The problem? It is well established in the series that the prophets never spoke to Kai Winn, which ultimately led her to turn to the Pah-wraiths.
So, better than the other two, but still flawed.
P.S. This book also kept up the trilogy’s tradition of having a cover image with no relation whatsoever to the story. 🥴
February 1, 2021
This was the best of the Rebels trilogy by Daffydd ab Hugh. It’s a shame it took two books of middling plot to get here.
Most of the story is wrapped up in a neat and orderly bow, yet there are some big plot holes that I wish were wrapped up better.
It seems as if Hugh was contracted into writing three books and stretched them out so much that he ended up not telling the story he wanted to. This novel could have easily been slotted into one 350 page book with nothing lost.
Instead, we saw a lack of character development. Why were the ensigns on the Defiant suddenly ignored and never really heard from again in this novel? More importantly, what actually happened to Gul Ragat both before his appearance on the Gamma Quadrant planet and after he was marooned in the desert? There was a huge missed opportunity to feature him. And in the past narrative, he gave Kai Winn an opportunity to escape, yet in the present narrative, he seems to base his entire current debasement upon anger toward her. Some narrative to fill this in would be ideal.
Kai Winn’s story ended with a whimper, despite being the most interesting part of the previous two novels.
Overall, I’m very glad to see this trilogy completed. I loved Hugh’s other DS9 books and considered them some of the strongest in the Pocket Series. It’s a shame to see this as his finale here.
Most of the story is wrapped up in a neat and orderly bow, yet there are some big plot holes that I wish were wrapped up better.
It seems as if Hugh was contracted into writing three books and stretched them out so much that he ended up not telling the story he wanted to. This novel could have easily been slotted into one 350 page book with nothing lost.
Instead, we saw a lack of character development. Why were the ensigns on the Defiant suddenly ignored and never really heard from again in this novel? More importantly, what actually happened to Gul Ragat both before his appearance on the Gamma Quadrant planet and after he was marooned in the desert? There was a huge missed opportunity to feature him. And in the past narrative, he gave Kai Winn an opportunity to escape, yet in the present narrative, he seems to base his entire current debasement upon anger toward her. Some narrative to fill this in would be ideal.
Kai Winn’s story ended with a whimper, despite being the most interesting part of the previous two novels.
Overall, I’m very glad to see this trilogy completed. I loved Hugh’s other DS9 books and considered them some of the strongest in the Pocket Series. It’s a shame to see this as his finale here.
June 7, 2017
Amazingly enough with its final volume, long after I'd given up any such hope, this terrible mess of a trilogy actually improved a little to the point where I occasionally found myself slowing down enough to properly pay attention to what I was reading rather than just skimming through the text to get it over with. The book finally sheds some light on questions that had been hovering in the background since the beginning (such as, what does Kai Winn's newly made up backstory have to do with anything and how the hell did the clueless natives on the planet of technological marvels and supreme weirdness happen?) and even though the plot still has more holes than substance, some parts of it, like Julian and Jadzia's adventure and Kira's experiences on the now once again occupied station (seeing her have to suck it up and in lieu of any other options go ask Garak of all people for help was a nice touch, as were Garak's little machinations at the end) had me interested enough to want to follow those storylines more closely. Still not one of the better DS9 books by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely the best part of this trilogy. 2.5/5
May 29, 2020
I kind of was disappointed in this series. I REALLY wanted to like this but in the end it was kind of an underwhelming trilogy. There seemed to be two books here as the events of one had little to do with another other than a name drop...unless I missed something. Anyway, to me it seemed they just tied the whole Winn story into the book because the author wanted to write about Winn I guess but everyone hates that character so no one would have bought the book on that merit alone. The Quark moments seemed stronger in the other book so in the end it did become a confused mess and I was disinterested.
I was hoping for a little more payoff with the Winn story but to me it just seemed to contradict her character on the show. To my recollection, the Prophets never spoke to Winn because they saw her heart and they knew that she only desired power. I see this in direct contrast to the character in this series and perhaps I would have liked Winn's backstory if I did not know the person that she turned into. Perhaps I just let my expectations of the series cloud my judgement but I was hoping for something a little different from a DS9 novel.
I was hoping for a little more payoff with the Winn story but to me it just seemed to contradict her character on the show. To my recollection, the Prophets never spoke to Winn because they saw her heart and they knew that she only desired power. I see this in direct contrast to the character in this series and perhaps I would have liked Winn's backstory if I did not know the person that she turned into. Perhaps I just let my expectations of the series cloud my judgement but I was hoping for something a little different from a DS9 novel.
June 8, 2020
Story improves
The storyline got much better in this book even though much of it was implausible. What wasn’t hard to swallow was against everything I’ve seen or read on Star Trek. And the ending is so dissatisfying I almost tossed my phone. I want to know what happens to DS9? What about the strange aliens, both on the station and on the planet. So all in all I should have stopped at book one but I guess I’m a glutton for punishment. Save yourself don’t start this series at all those are hours you will wish you had back!
The storyline got much better in this book even though much of it was implausible. What wasn’t hard to swallow was against everything I’ve seen or read on Star Trek. And the ending is so dissatisfying I almost tossed my phone. I want to know what happens to DS9? What about the strange aliens, both on the station and on the planet. So all in all I should have stopped at book one but I guess I’m a glutton for punishment. Save yourself don’t start this series at all those are hours you will wish you had back!
April 20, 2020
Best of the trilogy... nice wrap up to both storylines. I enjoyed the flashbacks to Kai Winn during the resistance (wish the Terok Nor trilogy would have been more like this)
December 25, 2020
Last book of Dafyyd ab Hugh’s Rebels series. The ending just fizzled - no cliffhanger, no big battle, no dramatic end to this three book series. Meh.
December 28, 2022
Rebels, Book 3: The Liberated is crawling into bed after a long night bus ride.
June 24, 2023
A disappointing end to a disappointing trilogy
October 27, 2025
Man. I was really excited to dig into this trilogy. But it didn't quite live up to what I knew of its premise.
May 15, 2013
This is the third and final book in the Rebel series. It's also the best book in the series.
There are two plotlines in this series. The first involved Kai Winn taking over Deep Space Nine as a prelude to handing it over to the Bajorans, but only for a trial run. However, the station is attacked by aliens from the Gamma Quadrant and in this book they've seized the station and are looking for one of the Bajoran's Orbs. Winn appears to be cooperating with the aliens, which infuriates Kira, used to resisting the Cardassians at all costs. The second plotline involves Sisko on a planet being invaded by Cardassians because it contains advanced technology, even though the locals don't appear to know how to use it. Sisko has taken that technology away from the locals, trying to force them to learn on their own and resist the Cardassian invasion.
The best plotline is the one involving Winn and Kira and it comes to a great conclusion here, with Kira resisting the alien invasion in her up-front, brutal way, while Winn resists in a more passive way. This plotline is by far the more interesting and involving one. And in this book it takes a slightly darker turn as the author pushes some of the violence as well as the treatment of the hostages by the aliens. The payoff on this plotline is worth the small misgivings I had about it earlier on in the series.
However the other plotline isn't as good. I had major issues with the decisions the crew was making regarding this planet and the locals, mostly dealing with violations of the Prime Directive. If you set aside my problems with that, and with the way the culture was portrayed in the first two books, though, the plotline was much better here. Much more believable. Sisko has turned off the power, so to speak, and woken the locals up. They begin to resist the Cardassian invasion, instead of being passively slaughtered. Sisko and crew begin helping them in their resistance, while finding out exactly how the planet came to this situation. While the plotline was MORE believable than the setup in this book, I still had problems with the culture advancing so swiftly. They went from people that didn't know how to use a rope, to building their own fighter jets (basically). Granted they have dormant tech sitting all around them, but the advancements were far, far too swift to be acceptable. In my opinion.
That said, both plotlines still made for an interesting story in this book, better than the first two books anyway. Not the best of the Star Trek books out there, but OK reads in the end.
There are two plotlines in this series. The first involved Kai Winn taking over Deep Space Nine as a prelude to handing it over to the Bajorans, but only for a trial run. However, the station is attacked by aliens from the Gamma Quadrant and in this book they've seized the station and are looking for one of the Bajoran's Orbs. Winn appears to be cooperating with the aliens, which infuriates Kira, used to resisting the Cardassians at all costs. The second plotline involves Sisko on a planet being invaded by Cardassians because it contains advanced technology, even though the locals don't appear to know how to use it. Sisko has taken that technology away from the locals, trying to force them to learn on their own and resist the Cardassian invasion.
The best plotline is the one involving Winn and Kira and it comes to a great conclusion here, with Kira resisting the alien invasion in her up-front, brutal way, while Winn resists in a more passive way. This plotline is by far the more interesting and involving one. And in this book it takes a slightly darker turn as the author pushes some of the violence as well as the treatment of the hostages by the aliens. The payoff on this plotline is worth the small misgivings I had about it earlier on in the series.
However the other plotline isn't as good. I had major issues with the decisions the crew was making regarding this planet and the locals, mostly dealing with violations of the Prime Directive. If you set aside my problems with that, and with the way the culture was portrayed in the first two books, though, the plotline was much better here. Much more believable. Sisko has turned off the power, so to speak, and woken the locals up. They begin to resist the Cardassian invasion, instead of being passively slaughtered. Sisko and crew begin helping them in their resistance, while finding out exactly how the planet came to this situation. While the plotline was MORE believable than the setup in this book, I still had problems with the culture advancing so swiftly. They went from people that didn't know how to use a rope, to building their own fighter jets (basically). Granted they have dormant tech sitting all around them, but the advancements were far, far too swift to be acceptable. In my opinion.
That said, both plotlines still made for an interesting story in this book, better than the first two books anyway. Not the best of the Star Trek books out there, but OK reads in the end.
November 24, 2014
The 3rd and last in the series (thankfully). It was slightly better than the first 2 books, which were bizarre, long-winded and generally hard to read. The only story line that was interesting at all was the Kai Winn section of the 3 books. While the first 2 books poked at that story line, this one put quite a bit of effort into it, which made it a more interesting book. Still, I would have greatly preferred that all 3 books were condensed into 1 book about Kai Winn's story instead.
The Tiffnakis story line was bizarre and almost entirely uninteresting; a caricature people that never really belonged in the Star Trek universe. The explanations given for their current state were generic and unimaginative, and the consequences of the Federation's manipulation on their society was almost entirely looked over. I am not a fan of the Prime Directive, but it was almost entirely dismissed, which removed this series another step from the universe it was suppose to inhabit.
The resolution as to who occupies DS9 in the end and how they got rid of the invaders really didn't float as a concept for me. I don't intend to ruin it for any reader that wants to take on this challenge of a series, but I saw the retaking to be far too far fetched and the politics involved in the turnover to be entirely unbelievable. In Kai Winn's story line it's stated repeatedly that if one Gul is removed from power there is an endless supply that will take his place, yet that doesn't apply to Bajoran political figures as well? Isn't that a universal truth with politics?
Another gripe I have is with the cover art. It's absolutely gorgeous! However, it's entirely misleading. When I started the series, I didn't even bother to read the back blurb; I was convinced that a book called "Rebels" with (clearly) Bajorans would be about "Rebel Bajorans" fighting the good fight. However, the cover art has no relation to the story at all! I get the feeling that the publisher found wonderful artwork and just tried to "make it work." I don't see how you can please a reader, even if you had a good story, if you mislead them from the beginning.
I suggest readers pass on this series, unless you are a fan of the author. The 3 books are bloated, hard to read, and the characters are often unbelievable. I can't recommend reading 3 books worth of fluff just to read the Kai Winn filler story, which was the only thing worth reading.
I would have given it 3 stars if it were a stand alone novel, but the other 2 books dragged it down, and I feel it's only fair to rate them as a whole.
The Tiffnakis story line was bizarre and almost entirely uninteresting; a caricature people that never really belonged in the Star Trek universe. The explanations given for their current state were generic and unimaginative, and the consequences of the Federation's manipulation on their society was almost entirely looked over. I am not a fan of the Prime Directive, but it was almost entirely dismissed, which removed this series another step from the universe it was suppose to inhabit.
The resolution as to who occupies DS9 in the end and how they got rid of the invaders really didn't float as a concept for me. I don't intend to ruin it for any reader that wants to take on this challenge of a series, but I saw the retaking to be far too far fetched and the politics involved in the turnover to be entirely unbelievable. In Kai Winn's story line it's stated repeatedly that if one Gul is removed from power there is an endless supply that will take his place, yet that doesn't apply to Bajoran political figures as well? Isn't that a universal truth with politics?
Another gripe I have is with the cover art. It's absolutely gorgeous! However, it's entirely misleading. When I started the series, I didn't even bother to read the back blurb; I was convinced that a book called "Rebels" with (clearly) Bajorans would be about "Rebel Bajorans" fighting the good fight. However, the cover art has no relation to the story at all! I get the feeling that the publisher found wonderful artwork and just tried to "make it work." I don't see how you can please a reader, even if you had a good story, if you mislead them from the beginning.
I suggest readers pass on this series, unless you are a fan of the author. The 3 books are bloated, hard to read, and the characters are often unbelievable. I can't recommend reading 3 books worth of fluff just to read the Kai Winn filler story, which was the only thing worth reading.
I would have given it 3 stars if it were a stand alone novel, but the other 2 books dragged it down, and I feel it's only fair to rate them as a whole.
April 8, 2013
The 3 book story is finally over. The Defiant crew help the natives, Kira is made a slave and Winn remembers more of her past. The Defiant storyline is the highlight of this book, the other bits just seem added on, or that they should have been a book in themselves. A good read.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews