Bloodletter

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #3

by K.W. Jeter

Starfleet Command has learned that the Cardassians are planning to construct a base on the other side of the wormhole to establish a presence and claim the rich unexplored territory. Now, it falls to Commander Sisko, Major Kira, and the crew of Deep Space NineTM to set up a Federation station there immediately. Before Major Kira can deliver the new base, a fanatic from her violent past appears. Kira must engage in a life and death struggle with an enemy who will stop at nothing to destroy her, as the fate of Bajor, the wormhole, and possibly the entire Federation hangs in the balance.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Media Tie In, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 1993

About the author

Kevin Wayne Jeter (born 1950) is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters. He is also credited with the coining of the term "Steampunk." K. W. has written novels set in the Star Trek and Star Wars universe, and has written three (to date) sequels to Blade Runner.

Series:
* Doctor Adder

Series contributed to:
* Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
* Alien Nation
* Blade Runner
* Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars
* The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror
* The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

Reviews

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a Star Trek fanboy geek, and Deep Space Nine is my favorite of the shows. Consequently, it is impossible to maintain objectivity when reviewing the novels. I make no apologies but provide this caveat. No matter how much perspective I try to have, I admit that for this property (DS9) in particular, it is an impossibility. As a single father, Commander / Captain Sisko speaks to me. He has the awesome responsibility to administer the Federation facility while simultaneously attempting to raise a kid. The Bloodletter is the third DS9 novel. The narrative involves a plot to establish a Cardassian presence in the Gamma quadrant. In order to protect Bajoran concerns, Kira and Bashir attempt to get a foothold ahead of the Cardassians by flying through the wormhole, ahead of Cardassian competing interests. The problem lies in the fact that a Bajoran charismatic leader has decided to perform a terrorist attack that will threaten both the Federation and Major Kira, herself. I found the novel to be well-constructed. The characters are not written correctly, but this is not the writer’s fault. The novel was written during the first season before the characters were fleshed out. In spite of that this is a strong, enjoyable, early addition to the series.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Back in the late 90's, early 2000's, whatever, I read the Star Wars Bounty Hunter series. It haunted me. Not with a great story (although it wasn't bad), unfortunately. No, it's because Jeter only knows how to write people in relation to their spines. As I read the Bounty Hunter books, I was regaled with descriptions of people's spines twisting, tensing, shaking, leaping, cracking, clapping. . .whatever. It was pretty annoying. I didn't hate the book, but the spine thing irritated the heck out of me.

So here I am, nearly 20 years later, and I'm reading some Deep Space 9 novel on my phone because I'll never accept that it's off the air and dead and gone. Right away, I don't like the writing style of this author. He uses ellipses far too liberally. His sentences are short and choppy, and the overall tone of his work is way too dramatic. And, you know, it's a book about a serial killer on the loose in the station and the last book was about that too, so, uh, yikes. But I'll try to power through, I guess.

I should have known earlier in the book, when someone's spine does something weird (I think it suddenly became alert or something), but no warning bells went off then. No, I didn't make the connection until a few chapters later, when Sisko's spine twitched nervously at something. The realization was like someone poured freezing water over my head, or my spine. THE SPINE GUY. I had to look up who the author of the Bounty Hunter novels were, but once I saw it, I knew I couldn't finish this book. So here I am. Bored, pissed, and traumatized by K.W. Jeter's weird hard-on for spines.

[Christian Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as DS9 books go thus far, this one was middling. Interesting to see that it was written by the same author as "Warped," my other least favorite DS9 book. Come to find out, he only wrote two DS9 novels (and as a cool bit of trivia, also invented the term, "steampunk").

Well, like his other book, "Bloodletter" was very esoteric. In fact, Dr. Bashir at one point in the novel, wishes he had time to wax metaphysics more with the Prophets of the Celestial Temple. That got a chuckle out of me.

In the end, the villain is a bit lame, and the Cardassians, as much as we expected them to play a big role, were reduced to background nuisances. At the same time, other characters like Dax and O'Brien played second fiddle to what was arguably a Kira/Bashir story. In fact, even Sisko was not prominently featured, and I can barely recall any appearances of Jake and Nog. Kai Opaka made her obligatory appearance in a scene that I did enjoy.

But it wasn't all middling. The scenes on the substation where Kira and Horen played cat-and-mouse were very exciting. They reminded me of scenes from the film, "Alien," fighting back and forth, drawing blood, and moving back into the shadows. These scenes were truly fun and filled with suspense. They also, quite ably, took up the majority of the book while Dr. Bashir was stuck in the middle of a slowly moving plot.

I didn't mind the book. In fact, I read through every page, unlike Jeter's "Warped." It was a decent read, but it wasn't as fun as any of the other numbered DS9s thus far.

[Patrick Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second original DS9 novel is an interesting read.

The characters are still being developed on the show during its first season, so the characters in this aren't as fleshed out as one would expect: Kira is always angry, Bashir is always flirty, Sisko is tired because of his position, Dax barely appears, O'Brien is inventive in how to fix things, but Odo is Odo--justice not matter what.

The premise is a Cardassian ship has gone through the wormhole to establish legal precedent in owning the other side of the aperture, thus making travel through it impossible for all whom they deem unfit. DS9 realizes they can drag an uninstalled portion of the sickbay on the other side and claim it to be Bajoran, stopping the spoon heads' drive. This becomes complicated because there is a radical Bajoran group on board that wants the government of their world broken down and they'll resort to murder to do so.

I was bored by the radical Bajorans, but their threat and tactics became interesting as the book progressed. I really enjoyed Bashir who speaks with the aliens within the wormhole, something I don't think ever happened on the show. The rest of the book is fairly predictable, with Kira on the run and those on the station grasping at straws to save her and the doctor.

Not bad, just not great.

[Mikael Kuoppala · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well constructed and nicely thrilling political story from the very early days of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. It basically serves as a coda to the first season episode "Past Prologue" and begins in a situation where Commander Sisko feels he can't trust Major Kira's political neutrality and loyalty and is limiting her jurisdiction on the station. This is actually a wonderful point in the series to built on and one that the writers of the show didn't explore deeply enough.

I assume that this early novel was actually written in large part before the show itself had aired, at least not for many episodes. That is maybe why the characterization feels slightly off at times; K.W. Jeter was probably counting on the series' bible which emphasized the "darker" feel of the setting and the characters as opposed to The Next Generation. The characters are very openly selfish and ambitious as opposed to how they ended up being in the series, but not in a too emphatic way. After all they are still strangers to each other at this point and none of the rapport that carries the series through the seven magnificent seasons has yet materialized.

"Bloodletter" isn't the most impressive example of plot building or politically relevant sci-fi speculation, but it works inside the initial setting of Deep Space Nine and captures a face in the saga's beginning that was left behind after only a few episodes. Solid, ambitious and smart, and only slightly "off" for a die hard fan.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this wasn't the worst DS9 book I read, it wasn't my favorite. I give the book 3.25/5 stars because the book was written around season 1 and I cannot fault the author for the character mannerisms that were in the book versus what we know by watching the show.

[John Walkenford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of grumpy readers leaving reviews but I enjoyed it knowing it was written in the early days of the series when we didn't know exactly how the characters would evolve

[Mario · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't want to fault the book too much for what it gets wrong. Ideas like ships needing impulse buffers before entering the wormhole were discarded early, but the book was written too early to know that would happen. Some of the characters act a little weird, Odo apparently drinks... these are just things that happen when you write a book before the show airs. It's not a big deal.

My problem with the book is more fundamental to the plot. For one, while the book is ostensibly about Kira, it's really Bashir that does most of the heavy-lifting, with a little deus ex machina thrown in for good measure. The idea that space needs to be, or can be, formally claimed is dubious, but that's not as bad as suggesting that one government would "have a legal case" (with whom?), but a "vote" would go against them, because the "rest of the world" (c'mon, this is basic space stuff) wouldn't be happy if they won (I'm sorry if that doesn't make too much sense, I tried to keep it vague for spoiler reasons). Then there are strange technological issues, like how they can apparently communicate with the Gamma Quadrant even when the wormhole doesn't exist, or just how they completely forget about transporters.

The book just doesn't have the kind of focus necessary to tell a good story. It could have followed Odo more and his solving of the mystery, or followed Kira and had her and the villain discuss their issues rather than ignore them and punch her way to victory in useless fight scenes, or even just followed the villain, or the Cardassians, or something. Just not O'Brien, I don't like this guy's O'Brien.

[Shelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Hello and welcome to Star Trek, where everyone has a beef with everyone else." Someone should remind this author that Roddenberry's vision was about a future where people worked together amiably to accomplish their goals and create a better universe, because he seems to have missed the memo.

Many DS9 novel authors get Kira's characterization wrong and completely miss her complexities in favor of just making her a brash, violent hothead without the ability to be calm or considerate. As this author did. But he also made all the other characters as rough and unbending as she is so often depicted. And it seemed like they could all barely stand each other!

I'm giving a lot of leeway here because this was such an early book, but even then, so many of the elements of the book are a bit much to accept for someone who should have an even passing knowledge of this show or the previous ones. Not so much little ideas like Odo drinking liquid and this concept that ships have to have special buffers to protect the wormhole aliens from harm. I could breeze over those things if the story made sense for the Star Trek universe. But then everyone acts OOC, there's very very little working together to accomplish goals, and we have glaring plotholes like-- how the author thought communication between DS9 and the Gamma Quadrant would be possible? Even if the show hadn't addressed it at the point of this publication, wouldn't it make more sense for the author to assume subspace messages couldn't travel to the Gamma Quadrant, especially once the wormhole collapsed?

And wasn't it established right from the start that the Bajorans viewed the wormhole with religious aspects? The author completely ignored the connection between Bajor and the wormhole, and Kira treats the wormhole aliens as if they are any other race in the show. It was so very odd.

I also found it strange how much effort the author went to explain why Sisko wasn't in the book very much. There were entire early chapters devoted to Sisko trying to find something to do, and then visiting the Kai, and then being told the age-old adage "sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing." It seemed like all those early chapters were just excuses to explain why he wasn't going to be in the second half of the book, which we didn't need at all. It was obvious the plot would focus on Bashir and Kira, and I was happy about that, I didn't need to be led around and told why Sisko would be sitting the second half of the book out.

All in all, there were a few gems of ideas in here buried under terrible execution. I liked the idea of Kira and Bashir on a solo mission in the Gamma Quadrant. I liked how their characters could play against each other (which is why I was so disappointed they split up fairly early in the adventure). I liked how the wormhole aliens presented themselves to Bashir as an image of Kira but with a starscape for eyes. I liked Bashir's battle between wanting to help Kira and trying to understand the wormhole aliens. But that's about it. So much of the rest of it was just too far from what Star Trek is and should be.

And, look I'm sorry I'm not trying to be nitpicky but combining the words "redemption" and "terrorist" to make "Redemptorists" is about the stupidest idea I've ever heard... It's clunky and awkward, and should not exist.

[Jonathan Lee B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bloodletter is a flat, empty highway.

[RougeMyst · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like, for a book where the author knew basically nothing about the characters, they shine, but a mentally augmented Bashir could’ve made this a lot easier.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Constable Odo has noticed something very strange about the Cardassian freighter docked with Deep Space Nine. Despite its identification as an utterly harmless freighter, dangerous only to the subspace version of bugs splattered on the windshield, there are subtle tells that the ship was created for exclusively military purposes. In fact, the Cardassians mean to establish an outpost on the far end of the Wormhole connecting the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants, compromising Bajor's own control of the etheral tunnel. While Commander Sisko has expected this kind of move, he's using it to force Starfleet to ...er, increase funding to Deep Space Nine. A quick mission to establish Starfleet's own permanent outpost on the Gamma side will also get Kira out of his hair, because (1) this is season one and he hasn't adopted the awesome-bald look, and (2) Major Kira is a Major Pain. No sooner did she let a bunch of Bajoran Wahhabis onto the station than did people start mysteriously dying, and she's so stubborn that he's been forced to assume every aspect of station management.

Most of Bloodletter's oddities are the result of being written in the show's infancy, back when writers were still relying on the rough-outline series bible to give them general ideas. ("Kira used to be a terrorist, and now she's an authority figure. Discuss.") Consequently, to use Kira as an example, her relations with Sisko are a lot more rough than they ever were in the show: she actually interupts and argues with him during staff briefings, which is probably why he's willing to send her into the gamma quadrant on her lonesome to establish an official Bajoran presence there. She's not the only one acting not just out of character, but grossly unprofessional: Bashir actually asks Kira out on a date while IN HER QUARTERS. She walks in, ready for a night of listening to fundamentalist Bajoran preachers threatening to purge Bajor of foreigners and red-headed majors, and there's the doc waiting for her and poking through her bookcases. Other aspects of the book are simply weird: Odo catches wind of the Cardies' plan because they've stopped at DS9 to have 'impulse buffers' installed. Starfleet demands that every ship passing through the Wormhole have these buffers installed, because otherwise the ships might kill the beings who live inside the portal. To borrow from Kirk, "Why do the gods need protectionfrom starships?" I'm guessing that was a bit of speculation that went the way of TNG's 55 mph warp speed limit.

Jeter used plot elements later employed in the show "Past Prologue", in which Bajoran jihadists test Kira's loyalty and their plot involves rudely exploding things near the wormhole. Frankly, I found the odd character-and-plot elements more enjoyable than the actual plot, since obviously Odo would get his man. Bashir receive a bit of odd character background here: he's a 24th century hipster, rebuilding an old audio system because the sound is sooooooo much better than digital, man. Really intense. It's not just a quirk, of course; his experience playing with audio helps him with the plot later on.

[Dianah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst Star Trek books, of any series, I've ever read. I can't even let the author use the excuse that the book was written after only a handful of episodes were made. The characters are completely wrong. It is so far off on the nature of the wormhole and it's relation to Bajor I was tempted to dig out my old copy of the DS9 Writer's Bible to see if they had misexplained it. Something as simple as the Wormhole Aliens being the Prophets and the Prophets being the central beings in the Bajoran religion is completely missing.

Even setting this aside, the story is poorly written. Some action sequences are difficult to follow. Long passages about an original character and Kira's back story are so boring I ended up glazing over them.

The idea that Bajor and the Federation needs to establish control of the Gamma Quadrant side of the wormhole is interesting, but the story quickly falls apart. What should be a sub plot quickly takes over the story. Oh, and because it would be a recurring theme, there's a killer on the station and Odo has to find him. Yep. Second original novel in the series and the second time that chestnut pops up.

I wish I remembered what I thought about this book when I first read it back in 1993. I did remember the cover so I suppose that is saying something for it.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's so much I enjoy in this book...but it's brought down by the characterization of Kira. She is simply too strident, too angry, too bitter, and too jumpy. Her issues and complications are extrapolated accurately from early DS9 episodes, but they're played up too harshly; where is the gentle, self-doubting Kira of "Past Prologue", who talks to Odo...the same Odo who then reconciles her with Sisko? This gets in the way of an otherwise solid early DS9 story, where certain characters (Sisko, O'Brien, Odo) are spot on, where Bashir is forcibly taken down a peg in a way that fits into his eventual development, and where details that were eventually contradicted by the TV series (communication through the wormhole, Odo drinking liquids) still find gentle ways to reconcile themselves with later/wider DS9 continuity (the ambiguous nature of Kai Opaka, for example...which is brilliantly followed up in season 4's "Accession"). Of all the early DS9 novels, this is one of only three that truly hold up.

[Henrik Havighorst · Rating 3 out of 5]

This DS9 novel is pleasant enough with plenty of fan-service when it comes to the setting and characters. I love the banter that is generated when Bashir is in the fold. Yet, the "psycho killer" motif has been done with "The Siege" (The previous novel) and is also the premise of the next one (The Big Game). Figures, since the "psycho killer" trope is very easy to integrate into any setting without too many political implication that would touch upon the lore, which - at this point - was not fully developed for DS9. It still feels a tad repetitive. The showdown is muddled in lots of philosophical (the wormhole inhabitants vs. Bashir) and technical (the sequence etc.) mumbo-jumbo which watered down the overall enjoyment I got out of this. Still enjoyable for fans.

[Nabil Hussain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrilling and exciting story which is compelling to read!!

This book was well written and composed. It features an original storyline of drama and of scientific descriptions of sci fi elements as is the case with many of Deep Space Nine books. There were wonderful explanations of the substation for instance. It was a great story of typical Deep Space Nine adventures. It was lively and interesting to read. I would recommend this book to any of the multitude of Deep Space Nine fans.

[Adam]

It all starts with the tepid plot that feels quite borrowed from the Season 1 episodes "Past Prologue" and "In the Hands of the Prophets." The antagonist was a caricature of a religious zealot whose hatred of Kira was never really explained in any adequate way. Moreover, the story was wrapped up far too neatly, complete with wormhole shenanigans. One big shoulder shrug of a read.

[Kosar7480 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two great premises: Cardassians try to set up a station at the other end of the wormhole and a Bajoran fanatic targets Kira. First 80 pages move very briskly with great set-up, then the Cardassian plot goes away for most of the book and the focus shifts squarely to Kira, who should have been able to kick the guy's butt in two pages. Becomes tedious.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprisingly good read, managed a level of antagonist menace that worked even if it was a little one dimensional. Lost a star because of the inaccuracies about DS9 but it was the third novel after the show aired.

[Alexander Milwaukee-Thien IV · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ay yo, it wasn't too bad for early DS9 books. Though the author had a unique-unique to them-writing style I just imitated that was distracting. And I sure didn't care about the conflict and the main villain was boring as hell.

[Kerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

way too much detail, and i absolutely did not understand bashir's interaction with the wormhole aliens.

[Samantha L'Esperance · Rating 1 out of 5]

Got over halfway through but couldn't finish it. Too much descriptive monologuing of characters thoughts and not enough interesting plot.

[Chad]

This had promise but ultimately I think it ends up being more of a miss than anything else. There is some potentially gripping storytelling with a kind of Cold War thriller atmosphere to it as the Federation and Cardasdians compete for control over the wormhole.

Ultimately though, the moving parts of the story just don’t feel quite in line with the DS9 universe.

I am the first to point out that early books like this should be given a pass when it comes to continuity since they were published so early in the shows run, before even the most basic plot lines had begun to form.

But in this case, the severity to which the book veers away from the canon is just too jarring for me. We have Odo having the thought that at some point he considered deputizing Quark. The mechanics of the wormhole and the wormhole aliens feels off, with the change that apparently ships going through causes pain for the aliens if they don’t use a particular technology to prevent it from happening? Sisko and Dax’s relationship is nowhere close to the friendly rapport they are supposed to have as close friends and Bashir has an encounter with the wormhole aliens?

I know that these early authors had to engage in a lot of speculation based on where they thought the show was going. But these examples go against basic notions in the universe which were established from the beginning. I can’t help but wonder if maybe the author didn’t take as much as advantage of the show bible as they could have. Everyone is going to react to this issue differently. It just didn’t work as well for me.

The story is decent but the characters needed work.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Religion, politics, and the backdrop of the crew still fixing the station and learning to work together makes Bloodletter fit in quite well with Season 1 despite the usual divergences. In fact, it's hard to believe the show never used this plot with the Cardassians. Of course, the stuff with the Redemptorists WAS done and more than once, though this was written before the Circle, before Kai Winn and before the Pah-Wraiths. It tends to drag in the thriller sections, but the characters' voices are surprisingly well captured and the featured characters all get to shine (that's everyone but Dax, Quark and the absent Jake). Jeter writes an especially sassy O'Brien, and fills in Kira's character with flashbacks to her youth and resistance days. Odo's excellent as well. Just a couple fixes and this thing could easily be canon.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Besides having a good plot, the show usually depicted some or most of the characters in a likable light. Jeter does not. He appears to have the characters down well, knows the series situation to a tee, has mastered the background. The main problem with his book is that none of his character portrayals is of a character I'd like to have a beer with, much less am able to find any admirable qualities in. The second problem is that the story isn't about much. Some Bajoran religious fanatic hates Major Kira and wants to do her in because of some interaction between the two that took place before Starfleet's arrival. This premise was used during the series once or twice to produce equally unremarkable episodes, so perhaps the sterility of the plot is not Jeter's fault. The unlikability of its main characters is though.

[Jesse L · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay....so it's another murder mystery! A murder mystery is already a weird thing that is not very Star Trek-y and to have it as the first original DS9 book was bizarre....and to repeat it in the 2nd book? Terrible idea. This book was also..........A SLOG. DS9 has so many great characters and this one focused heavily in on Bashir (who come on, he's the worst character just because he's the only one that is unlikable) and on Kira, which should be cool with her complicated Bajoran past but instead of making some difficult complex political situation the villain is just a craaaAAAaaaAAAaazy terrorist! Way to simple, too stereotypical, SUPER repetitive writing and plot, just a bad book all around. The last half was painful to read through but I managed it!

verdict: skip it

[Jeremiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

After having just rewatched the series and read the first two entertaining books in the series, book three, Bloodletter is a complete and utter let down. The prose doesn't flow easily like in the previous books, the long descriptions aren't interesting at all, the villain is completely one dimensional, the plot is overly simplistic and ends like a bad action film. Even the characters thoughts, feelings and actions seem a bit more than off. I could go on, but it's not worth my time (or yours). Overall, this book is not one I can recommend. My advice is to skip to book number four in the series, The Big Game. You can thank me later when you buy me a cup of raktajino at Quark's.

[Frank Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much attitude! I felt like almost every character had an opportunity to flip out on every other character at some point during this story.

The basic premise is good and familiar with Sisko trying to deal diplomatically with the arrogant and audacious cardassian empire, while religious extremism, assassination attempts and wormhole instabilities plague our beloved space station and its inhabitants.

[Darnoc Leadburger · Rating 2 out of 5]

A father of cyberpunk and creator of the term steampunk writing Star Trek... Oh boy.

And I was kind of right to be nervous. There's lots of crappy characterization and weak villains, albeit with some interesting wormhole and Sisko-Smarts stuff thrown in there.

That said... I can't blame Jeter for the character works. He likely had to write the book before every seeing any of the series, which shows. But that's because of real world production timelines, not a matter of his writing.

[Reesha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just fine. It could have made an okay, somewhat tense early seasons episode, though there was a lot in here that understandably doesn't fit with the canon that came later.

I liked the focus on Kira in the latter half, but found the story forgettable overall. There's nothing really bad here but nothing truly excellent either. 2.75 stars.