Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Gamma: Original Sin Book Review
3 min read
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Gamma – Original Sin
by David R. George III
The Story:
“At the end of 2385, in a significant shift of its goals from military back to exploratory, Starfleet sent Captain Benjamin Sisko and the crew of the USS Robinson on an extended mission into the Gamma Quadrant. Tasked with a yearlong assignment to travel unknown regions, they set out to fulfill the heart of Starfleet’s charter: to explore strange new worlds, and to seek out new life and new civilizations.
“But now three months into the mission, their first contact with an alien species comes in the form of an unprovoked attack on the Robinson. With the ship’s crew suddenly incapacitated, seventy-eight of the one thousand-and-three hundred aboard are abducted — including Sisko’s daughter, Rebecca. But Rebecca had already been kidnapped years earlier by a Bajoran religious zealot, part of a sect believing that her birth fulfilled the prophecy of the arrival of the Infant Avatar. Does her disappearance now have anything to do with the harrowing events of the past? And for what purposes have these enemies taken Sisko’s daughter and the rest of the missing?”
The Review:
Here is another compelling Deep Space Nine story. The story switches back in forth in time between 2380 and 2386, covering the two kidnappings of Rebecca Sisko. The first kidnapping was caused by a mentally-ill Bajoran but the second kidnapping was not directed at Rebecca alone; she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The segments detailing the first kidnapping show how the young Rebecca (and her parents) dealt with the ordeal. Rebecca is strangely calm for such a young child and in the end is instrumental in her own survival.
The second kidnapping segments feature the Glant, a new race of aliens, who have good reasons (in their own eyes) for taking the children. Sisko and the crew of the Robinson have to first free themselves from the after-results of a new weapon employed by the Glant, and then find the children and rescue them. Sisko has to lead this rescue effort while dealing with the fact that his daughter has *again* been kidnapped and with his worry about his wife’s well-being after her daughter was taken.
We don’t get as much of Rebecca’s viewpoint on this kidnapping in the 2386 segments, but as with her first kidnapping, Rebecca is not going down without a fight!
The Verdict:
As with many Trek books, while this can be read as a standalone, the experience will be richer if one has read previous DS9 books. But the author does a good job providing enough information so that first time readers can follow the action without becoming lost.
The Glant were interesting and their reasons for doing what they did were logical (for them) if horrifying for readers. At first, the Glant put me in mind of the Borg, but it turned out they were nothing like them.
Rebecca was the star of this book. Even though she was still a child at the end (aged ten), readers will be in no doubt that she is different than most children and that Ben and Kasidy may have some trouble ahead. I look forward to hearing more about her in future.
Book Information:
Author: David R. George III
Publisher: Pocket Books
Publication Date: September 26, 2017
ISBN-13: 9781501133220
ISBN-10: 1501133225
Pages: 400
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Gamma – Original Sin is available as a mass market paperback for $7.99 ($6.47 on Amazon) or as a Kindle eBook for $6.99. To order, head to the link located here.
About The Author
