Simpson packs a lot into a very tiny package, and I think it suffers for it a bit. The Borg storyline feels incredibly simple, and while I enjoyed reading about Vaughn and his daughter's reaction to what they find, it all seemed to end almost as soon as it began. The situation down on the planet where they find the Borg is over quickly and it seems like it was there only to set up the conclusion of the book that leads into Rising Son. It's certainly not that interesting by itself. The only thing that saves this story at all is the strong characterization of Vaughn and finding out more about why he came to Deep Space Nine and the orb vision that sparked his decision. While we have known that the conflict with his daughter was because of what happened to his wife, we never knew exactly what did happen to her. That was neat to see. I just think it called for a bit more story than we actually received.

Once again, the Bajoran story is the highlight of the book. We finally learn the secret behind what's been happening for the last three books, and it's a doozy. Of course, as I've said, I already knew it, but I didn't know the details. When I discovered them, it was still a bit of a shock. The sequence where Kira has to try and regain control of the ship is riveting, and it's full of even more twists and turns. In hindsight, one of the twists is obvious, but I admit that I was fooled. Unfortunately, the climax of this story (or should I say this part of the story, since it does continue in Unity) reads very much like the concluding scene of the episode that introduced this villain (and I won't say which one as that will, obviously reveal who it is). It would have been nice to see a little more originality. Thankfully, Simpson nails Kira's characterization, and he also does a good job with the crew of the Gryphon. Kira shows the battle smarts that got her through the Occupation when she has to come up with a way to keep the other ships on her side from firing on them. It makes wonderful use of continuity and it's little dashes like this that give me hope for the Star Trek books.

The main problem with the book is that it just seems to be treading water waiting for the first hardcover of the new Deep Space Nine series. At the end of Cathedral, the whole Joseph Sisko problem was introduced, and this story spends a lot of time with him as he's slowly coming to terms with what's happened to his son and grandson. It brings back some familiar faces, which is nice, and the story is very sweet. The characterization of Joseph is great, as is the characterization of the guests. So while it gave me a pleasurable feeling, I couldn't help the feeling that it was all just included to get Joseph to Deep Space Nine for Unity.

Thus, the "Mission Gamma" series comes to an end, not with a blast, but with a "to be continued." However, the series itself can still be judged, as the Gamma Quadrant portion of the story is over. Ultimately, I found the Gamma Quadrant stories to be weaker in all four books. Some of that may be my interest in Bajoran politics taking precedence, but I think part of it is also my feeling that the stories just weren't that substantial. I realize that the exploration of the Gamma Quadrant was to be more of an exploration of the characters who went on the mission, but does that mean that we couldn't be given any interesting external elements? The only interesting species were the Yrythny in This Gray Spirit, and we weren't given any good characters within that species to really make us sit up and take notice.

The series itself was quite good, just not as good as it could have been, saved by the Bajoran political angle. Unfortunately, Lesser Evil ends the series on a bit of a fizzle, forcing us to look to the intriguing Unity to bring it out of its doldrums.

David Roy

I have nothing but praise for this book, its starts off at warp and keeps on going. Truelly the icing on the cake for the Mission Gamma series.