Now, I know I run the risk of sounding like a complete psychopath, especially since all you have to do is scroll down and see that I just gave one of the best reviewed movies of last year a “C” – but here goes: this is a really good book. And I don’t mean a really good “Star Trek” book – I mean a good book. No, it isn’t particularly well written (it isn’t poorly written, the prose is smart enough to stay out of the way) but the clever tale on display is, no bullshit, a remarkable and timely solid piece of work.
James Swallow was tasked to create “Book 1” of a trilogy filling in the back story of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor for us dysfunctional Star Trek nerds who need all the cracks of the timeline filled in. What he’s done is created a world, much like Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America that both mirrors our current treacherous administration, but also doesn’t. In Swallow’s Bajor, the first contact with the Cardassians is seen by some as a business opportunity, by others as an affront to nationalism, by others as a rally to patriotism or religion or just something going on as their marriage falls apart. There are about sixteen different factions at play in the ten years between first contact and occupation day, as the Obsidian-led Cardassian “Big Lie” lets itself filter through the population. There are Reichstag fires and Toby Keiths in this story, too.
I don’t know if I can expect this level of socio-political commentary in the next two books – they are written by different authors and they include characters from Deep Space Nine. I’ve found that “expanded Universe” lit can sometimes be a little freer when it isn’t so tethered to the characters we know from the show. Anyway, my psychosis aside, Day of the Vipers is also a ripping good yarn.
