Book 36: Saratoga

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Saratoga by Michael Jan Friedman was a treat. It was a rediscovery on my bookshelves which quickly went from being in a purge pile to being kept all over again.

Going through my bookshelf for old Star Trek books that I was looking to swap out at a recent Star Trek convention, I found this book.  I knew it survived my first Star Trek book purge back when I graduated from Drexel but for the life of me, I couldn't remember anything else. So I decided to reread this book to make sure this was one I would want pass onto a new reader.

I wasn't expecting to fall in love with the book all over again. Although I should have known this was a Michael Jan Friedman book. I'm a terrible sucker for his book since I love how uses DS9 and TNG characters with a good mix of plot and characterization. I've been known to try and purchase one of his other books four times and counting since it's one of the few books from him on my local Barnes and Noble store.

Saratoga is book 18 in the original DS9 book series and was published in 1996. This book took place right as DS9 was hitting it's stride on TV. Unlike the last old DS9 book, this book used the characters in a way that I found to be completely believable.

The book is a book that unifies Sisko with his old shipmates from the Saratoga so they could go to the commissioning  of the new Saratoga. Along the way, there is evidence of sabotage from one of the shipmates and to make matters worse, they are caught along the edge of a black hole nexus. So if they can't get the Defiant moving, the whole ship will perish.  Plus just like on DS9, there was great use of the b storyline involving the rest of the crew where they had to negotiate for some new power coils for Bajor.

This book has a lot of action, red herrings and great use of characters. I was very pleased by the whole book. There were two things that I didn't like, sending the doctor unconscious so early and how many of the Saratoga crewmates didn't seem to realize their science officer's other passion besides women.