Another anthology - this time the common factor is the Dominion War... and what practically every crew ever shown in TV or TrekLit was up to in that time.

Michael Jan Friedman's What Dreams May Come focuses on Gilaad Ben Zoma, Picard's former first officer on the Stargazer... rather unmemorable, maybe because it's been so very long since I've read the Stargazer books.

Night of the Vulture by Greg Cox follows up on the entity which thrived on dissent and conflict, first shown in TOS' Day of the Dove. Nice idea, but ultimately also not exactly memorable.

Keith R. A. DeCandido's The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned is set on Betazed right at the moment of the Dominion invasion. Usually I'm not really a fan of Lwaxana, but this story rang true, all the emotions, the terror, the incredulity that the Dominion would take such a daring step (and the Federation's being caught ill-prepared)... It also fits in with "The Battle of Betazed", a novel about the occupation and liberation of Betazed. Well done.

Blood Sacrifice by Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz shows Spock on Romulus during In the Pale Moonlight...a Romulus that still contemplates an alliance with the Dominion until the Emperor suddenly dies. A fine glimpse back into the worldbuilding the 2 authors did with their "Vulcan's (noun)"-series.

Mirror Eyes by Heather Jarman & Jeffrey Lang is about the outbreak of a disease on Bajor... and only a nurse, presumed Vulcan but actually a Romulan sleeper, can provide the cure. Not exactly exciting.

Twilight's Wrath by David Mack highlights Shinzon, turning a suicide mission into success. Actually very good - Mack-like bloody and violent, but also an intriguing tale of oppression, hatred and revenge.

Eleven Hours Out by Dave Galanter focuses on Picard and Troi during the Breen attack on Earth... immemorable.

Safe Harbors by Howard Weinstein takes place at the same time when Scotty and McCoy are stuck on a semi-hostile planet, reluctant to help with repairs, with a damaged ship when contact to Earth breaks up. Better... but a bit contrived. Or is it really believable that these 2 are on the same ship just at that moment?

Field Expediency by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore has SCE's Duffy and Stevens on a planet to retrieve some Dominion gadget from a downed ship when the Jem'Hadar attack. Good read, but still not too different from the early SCE... in short, doesn't tell us anything new about the characters.

Haven' read Robert Greenberger's A Song Well Sung - if not absolutely necessary, I won't voluntarily read about Klingons.

Zak Kebron tells his son the "heroics" of the Excalibur during the Dominion War in Peter David's Stone Cold Truths... nice tale, definitely one of the highlights, and a nice ring back to a time when I still liked TNF (i.e. up to Dark Alles).

Michael A Martin & Andy Mangels' Requital focuses on one of the soldiers in AR-558 who can't just forgive and forget, and is recruited by an equally disillusioned Cardassian to assassinate the Founder after the war's end. Interesting and quite disturbing - especially the apparent lack of psychological aid.

Overall, a couple of highlights, the rest mediocre, unfortunately. Still, it was nice to read stories of authors that I haven't seen in modern TrekLit for a decade or so. So much has changed in the production line since the early 2000s when this anthology was published...

This is an anthology, framed by an alternate version of "The Visitor" (i.e. without the desperate struggle to save his father) where Jake shows his visitor his new book, a collection of short stories set on and around Deep Space Nine.

Ha'mara by Kevin G. Summers is set right after "Emissary". Sisko, Jake and Kira visit Bajor and the Kai, all not really sure (or even resentful) of Sisko's new role in Bajoran society. Sisko and Kira are stuck underground after a resistance ammunition depot blows up and learn to work together. Quite a nice story, but doesn't actually tell us something the series didn't (as Kira and Sisko still continue to struggle and antagonize right till the end of season 1).

The Orb of Opportunity by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels continues on from "Life Support" and involves Nog into Winn's mission to retrieve another orb of the prophets. Nog begins to see that there's more to life than just business and greed - and thus starts his way to Starfleet. And it's nice to actually see a more positive side to Winn, especially after Bareil's death.

Broken Oaths by Keith R. A. DeCandido shows Bashir and O'Brien's reconciliation after the events of "Hippocratic Oath". Also nicely done, but not quite memorable.

Didn't finish Christopher L. Bennett's ... Loved I not Honor more - don't like his writing style, and have never liked Grilka or Quark.

Three Sides to every story by Terri Osborne is set during the first 6 episodes of season 6. Jake tried to get a story for the FNS approved by Weyoun and decides to do a feature on Ziyal. What starts out as professional interest turns to friendship and a glimpse into the mind of a girl who's not welcome on either of her 2 homeworlds. Nicely done. I have to say, Ziyal was a part of the DS9 family for so short a time, but she's left an impact... actually more of an impact characters starting with Kira, to Garak, Damar and of course Dukat. And these turned out to be the most interesting characters of the whole series to be honest.

The Devil You Know by Heather Jarman has Jadzia face her demons when she and a Romulan scientist start to work on a genetic weapon against the Jem'Hadar. Not sure how believable this story is, to be honest. Granted, the war drags on and Jadzia sees ever more friends on the missing or KIA-lists. But to have her almost construct a weapon of genocide? That's a bit too farfetched.

Foundlings by Jeffrey Lang confronts Odo with the former Cardassian chief of security of Terok Nor when he comes to investigate the disappearance of a freighter - which turns out to be the first step in establishing a route for Cardassian refugees out of Dominion space. Well written, but not really memorable, either.

Chiaroscuro by Geoffrey Thorne has Ezri face the survivor of a mission gone horribly wrong back when Jadzia was just out of the academy. Frankly, I didn't really get what the machine was all about. Reminded me a bit of V'Ger in Star Trek TMP in the device's wish to connect with some kind fo master - a device that's designed to sort of restart the universe when the energy of the Big Bang's kind of burned itself out. One of the worse stories in this anthology.

Face Value by Una McCormack is set on Cardassia during the final episodes of the series. Damar, Garak and Kira all have to face old prejudice (positive and negative), deal with betrayal and loss - and form mutual respect. Easily the best story of this collection, and it shows (even in this early work of hers) why McCormack is the specialist on the Cardassian mindset.

I was especially looking forward to The Calling by Andrew J. Robinson, a follow-up to his "Stitch in Time". But quite honestly, I was disappointed. First of all, it's kind of the sequel to a stage performance he and Siddig played on conventions, so makes references to events that aren't available in written form. And it's a bit too esoteric for my taste, reality and some sort of vision (when he searches out Palandine's daughter with the Oralian Way) getting mixed up. So, as I said, a major downlet.

Overall, a rather average anthology.

This final review covers the third story, Honor in the Night, by Scott Pearson.

Nilz Baris's, former Undersecretary of Agriculture, President of the Federation and Ambassador to the Klingon Homeworld, final words were, "Arne Darvin". A reporter investigates why the name of an aide dead for over a century, might have been on the mind of the great former President in his last moments.

Here, the deviation from the known universe is that Darvin wasn't exposed as Klingon on K-7, and the poisoned grain was planted on the colony world of Sherman's Planet - leading to the loss of the colony and thousands of lives, and pitching Baris against the Klingons. It's not the only colony where the conflict gets heated, a couple of years later, earthquakes devastate the cities on Benecia... and instead of revealing Klingon culpability in causing the earthquakes, Baris and Klingon liaison Kamuk strike a deal to cooperate - the first of many which lead to Baris's rise in ranks.

This is an intriguing tale about alternate Klingon and Federation relations. And it's an intriguing tale about what motivates people to cooperate: Baris is driven by contempt, guilt for covering up genocide, but also by wanting to avoid violence - and Darvin... well, he was the one who was ordered to poison the grain, killing countless colonists in a, for Klingons, utterly dishonorable way, just for the sake of expansion despite the Organian treaty. So, for a 100 years he tried to redeem himself (and the Klingon honor in general), and to improve the relationship between Klingons and the Federation, and to show that Klingon expansion can yield benefits for colony worlds. But history is going to be the judge of that - at least, if his actions ever see public light.

And this is perhaps the most interesting facet of this story: How much does the public need to know? Who makes that decision? And when? Interestingly, this issue reminds me a bit of Voyager's excellent "Living Witness". But I have to admit that this story, based on "The Trouble with Tribbles" which never has been one of my favourite TOS-episodes, while well written and reasonably entertaining, didn't engage me on a deeper level, simply because I have never cared about Baris or Darvin.

About Shattered Light in general:

Review of The Embrace of Cold Architects by David R. George III - 3 stars

Review of Tears of Eridanus by Michael Schuster and Steven Mollman - 1.5 stars

Overall, this makes for a 2.5 star average - rather low for the Myriad Universes-series, I'm afraid.

This review is about the 2nd story in this collection of short novels, Tears of Eridanus by Steven Mollman and Michael Schuster. And that it took me 5 years to pick up this book again to finally finish that story (after having read the first one, Cold Embrace of Architects, back in 2011), says much about its quality.

In this universe, Vulcan never found its way towards logic, being stuck in a civil war that's threatened to destroy the planet. The Interstellar Union (Andor, Earth, Tellar, just to name a few) established an outpost on the desert world that gets attacked by the locals who take the crew, among them Demora Sulu, hostage, demanding weapons in exchange for their release. Meanwhile Hikaru Sulu and his ship, the Kumari, patrol the border to the Klingon Empire which is on the verge of invading the Interstellar Union. When he learns of the events on "Vulcan" he volunteers his ship for the rescue operation - but his commanding officers focus more on possible trade than on rescuing the hostages. It becomes ever more obvious that the outpost wasn't there for mere observation, but for exploring the locals' telepathic weapons, the Stone of Gol.

This is by far the weakest of the Myriad Universes-stories that I've read. The prose doesn't flow, Demora Sulu is portrayed as some kind of wonder woman who, as a young, newly commissioned officer, doesn't bat an eyelash, having a telepathic presence in her brain and making one wise-crack after another, and the resolution is much too quick and simple. I think in the hands of other authors the main premise could have worked really well, and maybe it suffered from the short-novel format - but it, as indicated before, was a real chore getting through this story.

So far, both stories didn't meet my admittedly high expectations for the Myriad Universes-series - maybe the third one will.

PS: Review of The Embrace of Cold Architects

This is an anthology of stories set within the various seasons of TNG and the movies. Overall a good reading experience, even if the quality of the stories differs.

I read the framing stories, Meet with Triumph and Disaster/Trust Yourself When All Men Doubt by Schuster & Mollmann, as one story - I didn't quite know what to make of the first story until I read the conclusion, got the hint about Tapestry and of course Wolf 359. It's still not one of my favourite stories but it ultimately worked well enough for me.

Acts of Compassion by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore is a good story, but unfortunately not the extraordinary one I'd have liked to read. Maybe it was just too straightforward, no twists in loyalties, no surprises... but it was nice to "see" Tasha once again.

Redshift by Richard C. White is an average story - the downside is that Pulaski's mannerisms were a bit over the top for my taste. At least she got some slap on the wrist until, of course, her ideas about the drills save the day... but throughout season 2 she was the odd one out, she just didn't fit in - and this story does nothing to remedy or explain that fact.

Among the Clouds by Scott Pearson absolutely reminded me of the Temeraire books, the living ships, the aerial battles - a very interesting premise, superbly executed, a definitely fitting contribution to a TNG-anthology.

Thinking of You by Greg Cox... Well, at first I thought "Urgh, Lwaxana *and* Barclay?!?" I never cared too much for either character but Cox managed to play on all the eccentricities of both characters, the duo just works, and add Ro to the mix - and set the whole thing on a holodeck with frogs as opponents, lots of bugs etc, stir well and you get a real page turner. Definitely one of my favourites here.

I also enjoyed Turncoats (by Susan Schwartz) quite much although I have to admit that I quite forgot all the Romulan characters Schwartz and Sherman introduced in their Vulcan's XY books (and I so far haven't even read the Vulcan's Soul trilogy) - so I liked the follow-up to "Face of the Enemy" which is my favourite Troi episode, but I couldn't appreciate all the nods to her created miniverse, something I'll remedy once I had the time to read Vulcan's Soul.

Ordinary Days by James Swallow: I admit to once upon a time watching TNG also because of Wesley - granted, he was badly written, but then I could simply relate to him in a way I couldn't to any of the other characters. Of course, that changed when I grew older and I always hoped to see more of him in the light of "First Duty"... trying to fit in, getting into the wrong group, peer pressure etc. So I very much appreciated this little glimpse into an alternative universe where he's not the genius who lives up to his promise, but rather someone who desperately tries to fit in, to be ordinary, to find his way on a path that's not so clearly defined and makes some poor choices. While the setting intrigued me, I have to agree with Trent that this story ultimately missed the opportunity to actually show the impact of Wesley's decisions. Perhaps the focus shouldn't have been so much on Wesley himself, but on the crew dealing with his choices, questioning themselves perhaps why Wesley made his choices of leaving everything behind, and why Picard and Data die (just because Wesley wasn't there doesn't mean no one else is brilliant enough to come up with ideas that work after all)... I'd have loved to see an Enterprise where Wesley isn't expected to live up to promises of geniality but allowed to be an ordinary adolescent without being forced in a certain direction. One doesn't exclude the other, after all. That's what I, now as a grown-up, criticize most about his treatment in TNG and to a lesser degree in this story. There has to be some sort of middle way between the boy-genius and the rebellious/ostracized Wesley of this story. And I also agree that the ending seemed a bit abrupt, though I really enjoyed reading the way the Traveler influenced Wesley's life up till Dorvan. All the criticism aside, I actually liked "Ordinary Days" quite much... and given the restraints of 30 pages it tells an interesting and gripping story. But I think the premise would have warranted a story of the likes of Myriad Universes.

'Twould ring the Bells of Heaven by Amy Sisson was a bit too predictable a story to me. I thought it obvious that those rings were a lifeform. Troi's angsting didn't quite grip me but at least I wasn't annoyed by it, either - though some of her decisions were a bit too random to actually make sense at the time she made them. And Data's monologue/PoV was a bit too reminiscent of Geordi's of just a few stories before.

Usually, Christopher L. Bennett's writing style doesn't really agree with me - but Friends with the Sparrows was a phenomenal exception. I loved going back to the Tamarans and their language, the use of Data and his emotion chip - and the way some still see him more as a tool than a sentient being... Well, there's nothing to criticize about this story at all. Along with "Thinking of You" definitely the highlight of this anthology.

Suicide Note by Geoff Trowbridge worked well enough for me - but like "Turncoats" I guess I'll appreciate it even more once I've rewatched the relevant TNG-episode.

Four Lights by Keith R. A. DeCandido is a bit the opposite to "Friends with the Sparrows", a story that I was very much looking forward to, but that then didn't quite work for me as well as I had hoped for - perhaps it's the "stylistic quibble"... I'm not fond of a 1st person PoV, neither of present tense used in stories which both distracted me a bit too much of the confrontation between Picard and Madred. Oh, I absolutely loved Madred's mind games, and Picard's obsession but somehow I'd have wished for - well, more of a defeat of Madred's at the hand of Picard, not just Picard's common sense once again reasserting itself. Of course, rationally I realize that Picard practically had no other choice than to step back from the interrogation in order not to lose himself once again, and recognizing that was Picard's victory - but it did feel as though Madred's won again... Ultimately that ambivalence came across in a very poignant manner, but still I found that this story somehow lacked KRAD's usually easy style that just sucks one into the story and doesn't let up till the finish.

'Til Death by Bob Ingersoll & Thomas F. Zahler... well, the picture of Riker running around with a gaping hole in his chest has some merit, but somehow it reminded me a bit too much of Spock missing his brain. But I, too, loved Riker's final message and the way he ultimately defeated his opponent. I have to admit that Riker's not my favourite character, he's too much overshadowed by Picard and, especially in the movies, Data - but I always loved his ability to think beyond the obvious and to turn disadvantages into advantages... as he does here. And kudos to the writers for not going down the most obvious road and pair him up with Deanna on this mission but with Crusher. And so, a story that I had lost all hope for right at the beginning turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.

I enjoyed On the Spot by David A. McIntee quite a bit - definitely not because of the little plot to destroy the Enterprise, but... well, it's a simple story, set in the aftermath of Data's death, and it actually deals with this aftermath. Worf lost a friend (and 2 others with Riker and Troi's transfer), he's suddenly dealing with a job that he never wanted... and then there's Spot, a cat that finds itself on loose ends. Both, Spot and Worf are creatures of habit - and both find themselves in new situations and don't quite know how to deal with that. Spot's, of course, only the focal point, the real development's with Worf - and I have to say that I definitely find this development credible and well told.

~~

review originally written in 2009