DS9 Relaunch Appreciation

[Arpy]

I want to take a moment to appreciate what the DS9 Relaunch did with these characters. I remember being blown away by the Avatar duology and these earlier books in the series back in the day. (I remember rage-quitting after the Ascendants storyline that had been building for a dozen books all of a sudden went nowhere, but let's keep these happy vibes in this thread.)

I love that the book series didn't immediately bring back all the characters from the television series. Or take the small-universe memberberry route and bring in leads from TNG, VOY, TOS, and whatnot to replace the missing DS9 crew. The two familiar faces in the image above are Gul Macet, Dukat's cousin, played by Marc Alaimo, and Ro Laren, who was Kira before there was Kira. It's not a clean break from the rest of the franchise, but a damn fine one. Okay also Dr. Simon Tarses from TNG and Admiral Akaar from TOS, but these are again a lighter touch with supporting characters than where I felt the books and comics went after with main ones.

For most part instead the DS9 Relaunch created wholly new and interesting characters and dared us not to love, or at least be intrigued by, immediately. The centenarian Commander Elias Vaughn, his estranged daughter and hotshot pilot Prynn Tenmei, the beautiful Orion dabo girl Trier, the problematic Vedek Yevir Linjarin (ingeniously a character we didn't know we "knew"), the Jem-Hadar Observer Taran'atar, tactical officer Sam Bowers, Counselor Phillipa Matthias, Andorian Thirishar ch'Thane, his mother Federation Councillor Charivretha zh'Thane, and others. So many new interesting new characters and opportunities to explore interpersonal dynamics and alien cultures. It was like creating a new show.

This was one of those moments in Treklit history where I think they did something truly special. Introducing us to new friends and blowing the doors open on the Star Trek universe in a way that I really miss. Heady days. Here's to them!

 

[ryan123450]

Couldn’t agree more. Even the Ascendants rage quitting part!

 

[Cyfa]

I totally agree that this was a special point in Trek history - certainly to me, anyway. The ongoing adventures at DS9 (or the DS9 Relaunch as it's better known) was my favourite Trek series - eclipsing even DS9 itself!
I loved how the remaining DS9 characters were handled and being introduced to the new characters (both main and supporting cast, so to speak). Ezri was a favourite - especially with her first tentative steps towards command. So was Thirishar ch'Thane and 'his' bondmates and mother (for a long while, anyway - I did start to tire of their drama after a while). Quark's relationship with Ro was surprising, but nicely handled.

I think I'm going to have to start a re-read!

 

[Daddy Todd]

I think I'm going to have to start a re-read!

Me too!

 

[Christopher]

The ongoing adventures at DS9 (or the DS9 Relaunch as it's better known)

Better but not necessarily more accurately. Marco Palmieri intended the term "relaunch" to refer specifically to, well, what the word usually means in business and marketing, the process of starting the series back up again and the promotional hype calling attention to its new beginning. It wasn't expected that fans would keep using the term "Relaunch" for years after the actual relaunching was over. I think Marco's own preference was just to call it the post-finale DS9 series.

 

[Tosk]

I didn't always like the direction they took elements of the Relaunch books, but it was still a hell of a ride and I'm glad I took it.

Still salty about having to buy the Gateways hardcover book just to get the DS9 part of it though. That was a dirty move.

 

[Arpy]

I loved that the cover of the Gateways book Demons of Air and Darkness used that fantastic promotional image of Thirishar. The last time we saw an Andorian had been, what, that low-cost and bizarrely green one in “The Offspring”? This one was amazing on multiple levels. And juxtaposed with a Hirogen (liked the makeup and costuming there) and that glowing gateway crystal. Super cool.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Still salty about having to buy the Gateways hardcover book just to get the DS9 part of it though. That was a dirty move.

So you didn't want to take...one giant leap?

 

[KRAD]

Still salty about having to buy the Gateways hardcover book just to get the DS9 part of it though. That was a dirty move.

I get why some folks are salty about it, but I tried to take advantage of it to tell a nifty story. I made sure that you got a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end in Demons of Air and Darkness, and I made sure that "Horn and Ivory" was its own thing, focused on Kira.

 

[Tosk]

I get why some folks are salty about it, but I tried to take advantage of it to tell a nifty story. I made sure that you got a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end in Demons of Air and Darkness, and I made sure that "Horn and Ivory" was its own thing, focused on Kira.

As I recall, I had no problem with the storytelling in Demons. I was only ever miffed at the "buy the HC for the rest of the story!" situation.

And I should clarify, I'm not actually still angry about it all. The bad taste in my mouth lasted a fair while, but it wore off eventually.

 

[Reanok]

I was glad when we got a a ds9 relaunch book series. I like Horn and Ivory and was glad to get the story .I miss not getting new Ds9 books.I wish we could get a new Captain Sisko story someday.

 

[JD]

We've been getting new Captain Sisko stories almost every month since October of 2022, he's the main character of the current no subtitle Star Trek comic series from IDW. Sadly it's ending in a few months, so once it's over it might be a while before we see him again.

 

[Krupp]

The DS9 "post TV series continuation" (the relaunch...) was increadibly exciting when it began. It was a great period in Treklit in general. Just casting an eye over the books in the series and their publication dates highlights what high gear we were in - from Avatar Book 1 we got a tremendous rate of books published generally and for DS9 specifically - I count 13 between Avatar in May 2001 and Unity in November 2003. Then we had to wait until April 2006 for Warpath and July 2008 for Fearful Symmetry... and so on.

Unfortunately I just felt that of the three main post-TV 24th century arcs, DS9 fizzled the hardest. Between background changes, the time jump, the ascendents arc. And then the necessity of wrapping it all up inside the effectively nihlistic story of Coda... There's good stories there that stand on their own and weave into the wider narrative of some of the best Trek we got.

I'd say if you wanted to go back over it, there are some good reading lists / suggestions that let you take the very best from it and follow some of the best resolved threads in the whole thing.

 

[NStephenH]

As someone relatively new to Trek I read all the ds9 novels up to destiny over the last couple years, then started the tng ones and just got through the destiny trilogy. I have enjoyed nearly everything so far, and am excited to keep going. I hope to get back to more ds9 characters soon but I'm catching up with voyager now.

 

[DonIago]

I loved "Avatar" through "Unity", and much of what came after. For awhile there I was a regular Trek novel reader.

My recollection is that after "Unity", and especially after "Warpath", it started to become a bit harder to keep track of everything, and then there was the arc with the Ascendants, and a time-jump where suddenly that was all in the past. I was really happy when the novels filled in that gap, but by then the DS9 novels specifically had kind of lost the thread for me.

There were and are still plenty of great Trek novels out there though, DS9 and non-DS9 alike, including the later "A Time To..." books, the "Destiny" trilogy, the S31 novels (YMMV)...

I haven't really read any more recent Trek novels, but that's mostly because for the last couple of years my time has been consumed with editing.

 

[Daddy Todd]

Thanks to this thread, I decided to re-read the DS9 "relaunch". I'm about halfway through "Avatar Book 1" and am loving it. I remember enjoying the relaunch a quarter-century ago, and it really holds up. I rewatched DS9 during the COVID lockdown, so I'm relatively fresh, but S.D. Perry does such a great job introducing everyone, I think I could've gone into it "cold" without any issues.

 

[Cyfa]

Thanks to this thread, I decided to re-read the DS9 "relaunch". I'm about halfway through "Avatar Book 1" and am loving it. I remember enjoying the relaunch a quarter-century ago, and it really holds up. I rewatched DS9 during the COVID lockdown, so I'm relatively fresh, but S.D. Perry does such a great job introducing everyone, I think I could've gone into it "cold" without any issues.

~ Me, too! (I thought I'd better seeing as I said I should further up thread.) Now that Lower Decks has finished (), the ongoing adventures of DS9 is scratching my Star Trek itch.

 

[Arpy]

~ Me, too! (I thought I'd better seeing as I said I should further up thread.) Now that Lower Decks has finished (), the ongoing adventures of DS9 is scratching my Star Trek itch.

I’m reading Una McCormack‘s The Crimson Shadow now and have Babel by R. F. Kuang next, but I think I’ll do the same!

 

[VDCNI]

I loved the Relaunch. Avatar to Warpath is the best run of Trek novels ever.

Unfortunately then we got bogged down in that terrible mirror universe storyline, then the time jump and the ridiculously stupid Sisko and Kira choices. There were still some decent DS9 books after that but nothing that really matched the quality of that first relaunch run.

 

[Arpy]

Yeah I didn’t much care for the Mirror Universe detour. Just seemed to distract from the main event….that we never got to. I thought about picking up the Ascendants follow-up novel a year or two ago but got distracted and never went back. Was it a satisfying conclusion to the story, for those of you who read it? Did it fulfill the promise of the lead-up to back at the start of the Relaunch?