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A review by clockless
Bloodletter by K.W. Jeter
2.0
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.
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.