[Buecher] Star Trek Terok Nor: Night of the Wolves (Spoiler)

Baerbel Haddrell
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Dies ist meine Besprechung des zweiten Bandes der Terok Nor Trilogie:
Night of the Wolves von S.D. Perry und Britta Dennison


S P O I L E R

After reading the excellent book “Day of the Vipers” I was looking
forward to the next Terok Nor book. The first book felt a bit more
polished to me and has a stronger impact because it felt like one big
story. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book very much, too. I understand
that this book and also the next one are more about filling gaps the TV
series left than the first book which changes the nature of the story
telling somewhat. I think the two authors definitely succeeded doing
that. I haven`t watched DS9 for quite a long time and when reading I
often wondered what is actually new and what has been shown or just
mentioned on screen. But what counts is that I never felt lost and had
no trouble to follow the story or better, stories in this book.

Also this book looks at the occupation from various perspectives. I
think it was important to point out that the Bajoran resistance fighters
are not all heroes worth admiring. It is true that extreme circumstances
bring out the best in people but also in some cases the worst and there
is a lot of grey area in between. I found the difference between Ro`s
story and Kira`s very interesting. I had the feeling that I heard about
the plan to blow up Terok Nor before but I could be wrong. Anyway, Ro
showed a lot of strength of character when she did the right thing at
the end and sabotaged her own work. After reading this book I understand
very well why she left Bajor. Contrary to Ro at least Kira was lucky
enough to spend her teenage years in a resistance cell with a leader and
members who could give her support and guidance.

I liked the story about Opaka very much. I could see again what a
remarkable woman she is and for someone like me who has a lot of
problems with organized religion it felt good to read about people like
her in DS9, who are strong believers but able to look past old ways of
thinking. It is good to see that liberals like her are getting more and
more the upper hand compared to the traditionalists. But this book also
added in general to my feeling of great respect I have for this lady and
I find her very likeable, too.

As I said, it has been a while, but I remember how much I loathed Damar
in DS9 for a very long time. The Damar in this book is definitely how I
remember him from that time. His relationship between him and Dukat felt
like master and devoted servant to me. Maybe I would feel better about
it if the mindless devotion would feel worthy of the master but that is
certainly not the case. What started in the first book also continued
here: Dukat is definitely a full blown villain. With this book I can
understand the roots of the current multiple Kira storyline better, for
example Dukat`s interest in Kira.

The story about Natima was interesting on some level but I must admit, I
never managed to find this part of the book as captivating as the rest
of it. I barely remember her from DS9 on TV. Maybe it was the fault of
the actress, the way she was written or a combination of things – for
some reason Natima never even reached some of the potential she could
have and should have shown. Seeing her name in the book already put me
off from the start and I never managed to overcome my irrational
feelings. More interesting will be to find out how the tory about
Miras/Astraea and the Oralian Way will continue.

I am very much looking forward to read the next book but soon the
Destiny saga will start. It will be quite a while but I am determined
not to forget to finish reading the Terok Nor novels eventually.

Baerbel Haddrell
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