Book Review: Star Trek The Next Generation: The Battle of Betazed
Battle of Betazed, The by Susan Kearney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book isn't a challenging or long read. The writing isn't fantastic, either. It is good, just not fantastic. However, I give it high marks for exploring a part of the Dominion War that was only mentioned on screen. In DS9, the writers wanted to suggest that the war was going badly for the Federation by saying that a major member-planet had been taken by the Dominion. They chose Betazed.
This book follows up on this idea with Deanna Troi and the Enterprise recruited for a special mission by Starfleet in an attempt to liberate Betazed from Dominion control. The book includes cameos by the Defiant, Worf and O'Brien from DS9 and really ties in well with a lot of the events and story elements of the Dominion War as seen on the show. It bothered me when watching the show that we never heard what the Enterprise was doing during the war. This and some of the other Pocket Books fill in that bit.
I particularly like the ethical dilemma the story presents Deanna and other characters in the story. Is victory worth any cost? Like the best episodes of DS9, the characters have to balance the needs of the war against their high ideals and the fun in the story is finding out which one wins out this time.
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