In the darkest hours of the Dominion War, as the Federation's downfall seemed ever more certain, Jem'Hadar and Cardassian forces conquered Betazed, the homeworld of Deanna Troi. Their victory sent shock waves through the Alpha Quadrant, and put the Dominion within striking distance of Vulcan, Andor, Tellar -- and possibly Earth itself.
To secure their position in the very heart of the Federation, the Cardassians begin constructing space station Sentok Nor in orbit of Betazed. The station is to serve as both the seat of the Dominion occupation and the site of horrific experiments by Cardassia's foremost exobiologist, the infamous Dr. Crell Moset.
With Starfleet's forces spread too thinky in the ongoing struggle to retake Betazed outright, the U.S.S. Enterprise™ along with some old and new friends, is deployed to carry out a dangerous and desperate plan. But no matter what the outcome, the consequences could alter Betazed irrevocably, forcing Deanna Troi to choose between her world's survival and its very soul.
One of the best TNG booksMay 18, 2009 Sean Flaherty I am overall a Voyager fan- I bought this book along with "Tales of the Dominion War", and the Dominion War numbered novels 1-4 that involved the DS9 and TNG crew. I was curious to see what was boiling in the Alpha Quadrant, during Voyager's mission away from it. This book is set in the year 2375/Voyager's 5th season, and the last year of the war, after events in Star Trek Insurrection. Overall, the book is action packed, devestating, and perhaps the most interesting book that takes place during the Dominion War. Betazed was one of the only Federation planets occupied during the war, and its people subject to Dr. Crell Moset's cruel experitments. This book actually has somewhat of a sequel to Dr. Crell Moset- set 3 years later in 2378 after Voyager's return in Christie Golden's relaunch of the Spirit Walk duology- "Old Wounds" and "Enemey of my Enemey". This book showed the Enterprise-E really in action. The cover of the book shows a different side of Deanna as she tries her best to defend her homeworld, and throw off her counselor persona. Overall this book is the best one set during the Dominion War.
Not bad, not great.March 24, 2008 James Yanni(Bellefontaine Neighbors, Mo. USA) As an action-packed Dominion War story, this book works well. As a subtle story dealing with difficult ethical questions and psychological crises (which it aspires to be) it fails pretty thoroughly. If you're looking for a quick, exciting read, it'll do nicely. Just don't let it get your hopes up for more. And the solution to the primary ethical dilemma was a real deus ex machina copout.
What happens when you bring a planet of telepaths together?July 14, 2005 David Roy(Vancouver, BC) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
One of the many questions Star Trek fans were asking during the long Dominion War arc of "Deep Space Nine" was "What was the Enterprise doing during all of this?" Some of those questions were answered in a couple of other novels, as well as the movie Insurrection. But what about Counselor Deanna Troi's homeworld of Betazed? I remember the astonished feeling when I heard that it had been taken over by the Dominion, and I knew there had to be a story there. This brings us to Charlotte Douglas and Susan Kearney's The Battle of Betazed, where Counselor Troi is forced to come to terms with what her people may have to become in order to rid their world of the Dominion. Unfortunately, the book has horrible pacing and is quite pedestrian all the way around.
Betazed has fallen to the Dominion and the Cardassian forces, and a new space station is being built in its orbit, similar to Deep Space Nine. The Resistance movement on the planet is running dangerously low on food and resources and isn't causing much damage. They are in desperate need of relief, but an entire fleet of Federation ships is destroyed in an attempt to retake the planet. Why is the Dominion investing so many resources into protecting it? What horrible crime is one Cardassian, Crell Moset, committing in the name of scientific discovery? The Enterprise is sent on a desperate mission to free a man who may do more harm to Betazoid culture than the Dominion is doing, even as they discover what the horrible result of Moset's experiments might be. If he succeeds, it may spell the end of the Federation and the beginning of ultimate Dominion victory.
Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Ok, maybe my description doesn't do it justice. However, the back cover blurb does make the book sound very interesting. Unfortunately, Douglas and Kearney don't succeed in making the *book* interesting. It takes forever to get going (at least as a percentage of its very short length). We get a lot of Troi angst, as she has to decide whether to go through with a mission that could bring down the Betazoid culture she's trying so desperately to save. After a while, the angst just got tedious. We spend a lot of time getting to know Elias Vaughn. Even if this is his first appearance (I'm not up on the publishing dates of all the books he has appeared in), we spend way too long learning about him. There's also the predictable friction between the Cardassian in charge of the occupation and the Vorta who oversees everything. Add to this Moset's insanity, which gets demonstrated way too often, and it all boils down to a lot of set up.
When the action finally does start, the authors do a decent job of describing it. The starship battles are kind of interesting, though not exactly logical at times. The Enterprise and its support ships go into battle vastly overmatched, with all parties wondering if *anybody* will get out alive, but then everything suddenly becomes too easy. Meanwhile, the action down at the prison, where Troi, Vaughn, Crusher and Data are, is also illogical. The party happens upon a Jem'Hadar patrol and manages to talk them into letting them go despite not having their identification cards. The Jem'Hadar *I* know would have just shot them on sight if they were the least bit out of line. My last complaint has Troi managing to stun somebody holding Data prisoner by firing *through* Data. I'm sorry, but if your phaser shot burned a hole through an android, there's no way it's going to only stun the target behind him.
While the prose and characterization is somewhat pedestrian (Moset is very stereotypical of the single-minded scientist), there are a few nice scenes here and there that seem to set up what happens in the Insurrection movie. Riker and Troi seem to grow closer together as he helps her deal with the weight of what her people might have to do to survive. Especially nice is the final scene between them (though I can't go into detail, because of spoilers). The plot itself is fairly interesting (despite the logic flaws in some cases). There's only one major coincidence, and while it's a doozy, it's still forgivable given everything else. The final solution doesn't come out of left field and is, in fact, quite good. It's not a perfect solution, unlike a lot of plot resolutions. It has its price. Unfortunately, the price that we expect that Troi will have to pay after what happens doesn't come to pass, as she's let off the hook by developments. It's a shame when that happens, as that really would have grown her character.
One final compliment to the book. The characterization of Lwaxana Troi (Deanna's mother, for those of you not in the know) is actually very nice. She's one of the leaders of the local resistance cell, and while she is not unrecognizable, all of the changes that the invasion and four months of occupation have wrought have taken their toll on her. She still has a couple of bantering comments with Picard, but you can tell they are just old habit and her heart's not in it. It's wonderful stuff, and unfortunately she is underused (and anybody who knows my Trek reviews knows how much I hate the character, so that's really a compliment).
Ultimately, I'm glad I read The Battle of Betazed, as it's good to know what happened (it's referred to in some subsequent books, especially Articles of the Federation). It's a very quick read, so you won't waste much time on it. I just wish it had been as interesting as the description promised it would be. A missed opportunity for sure.
David Roy
Battle Misses PotentialJune 16, 2003 M.A. 2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm almost embarassed to admit that what first attracted me to this Star Trek tie-in was the cover. I've never been a big fan of Deanna Troi, especially in her turquoise dress days, but when she shifted to a uniform and actual Starfleet responsibilities, I kinda warmed to her character. The cover, depicting Troi, armed and ready, above a trio of Jem 'Hadar, with a swirling blue star background, caught my eye one day when I was browsing at the bookstore. I hadn't bought a Trek book in years -- the last one was The Captain's Daughter by Peter David, one of the better Trek authors (although Imzadi II still leaves me bitter) -- because of the decreasing quality and my own detachment to the series... so I was understandably reluctant to shell out good dollars. I kept looking for The Battle for Betazed at my local bookstore, but then I received it as a gift... and the book languished on my shelf until I pulled it down recently and thought, "Start reading... if you hate, it goes in the bin next to Chosen."
The Battle for Betazed is set during the Dominion War, a time when shapeshifting beings and their hearty, genetically created army have invaded Federation space. In this particlar story, they've conquered the peace-loving Betazoids, a telepathic culture devoted to harmony. While horrific experiments occur on the new space station, built by the Dominion's allies, the Cardassians, the Betazoid resistence seeks Starfleets help to bring a dangerous serial killer back to their homeworld. Why? Because he can kill with a mere thought, and he could teach others how and then they might defeat the Dominion on their planet.
As with most Trek books, this is not the sole plot. There are two others, both complimentary to the primary story. Commander Riker leads a strike team into the heart of the space station, intent to destroy it from within, while Captain Picard commands the Enterprise and a few other starships to distract the enemy ships. Some Deep Space 9 characters appear including Worf, commander of the Defiant, and Chief O'Brien, whose intimate knowledge of Cardassian space stations (DS9) makes him an ideal participant in the raid. Troi's mother returns as well, but in a much more subdued role as resistence leader and it was nice to envision a calmer, darker Lwaxana. There are some new characters including a steely Starfleet special ops expert, a ruthless Cardassian commander, and Tevren, the killer himself... none of these characters are, thankfully, Mary Sues.
The writing, by Charlotte Douglass and Susan Kearney, is rather plain and somewhat expositive at times. There's not much in the way of character development that doesn't occur in a sort of passive sense. I was frequently distracted by Trek background material, inserted obviously to familiarize non-Next Gen readers with the setting and its characters. If a reader is picking up this book, chances are s/he's already aware that Riker and Troi were once a serious item or that LaForge has optical implants. Far better to invest writing effort and creativity in the emotional sides of these characters and breathe life into their actions. Admittedly, there's not much depth in Star Trek unless one injects it into the writing or performances, but it's no excuse for avoiding the potential.
Having said that, however, the book does not completely fail its promise. The story itself is intriguing and offered bare hints at what the authors could have done to create a rich, conflicting situation. The novel could have easily doubled in length without much effort, focusing deeply on primary characters, particularly Troi, who once interned at the prison where the killer has been kept for 17 years. The potential for a creepy Lector-Starling interaction was ripe for exposure, but the authors barely touched on the relationship, Troi's later reaction to Tevren's role in the war, or what happens once she's face to face with him again. The authors occasionally touch on the Riker-Troi dynamic, which would have further enriched the psychological plot.
I suppose I'm expecting too much of a Trek novel. After reading The Battle for Betazed, I picked up Immortal Coil, a Data-centric novel that also caught my eye because of its cover, and already I'm impressed with the detail and quality of writing. This is not to say that I'm going to start reading Trek novels again or rebuild my fannish collection. The few books I have left, now in storage, are novels that I truly enjoyed and hope to read again... I'm not sure where The Battle for Betazed falls. I almost feel as if it should be rewritten -- properly as a stand-alone, non-Trek world, and then I'd probably keep it.
The Battle for Betazed is a harmless read for a lazy, rainy afternoon. I read it quickly without worrying about missing stuff and the story was compelling enough to retain my attention for the two days it took (between work and home obligations) to finish.
Glad Troi finally got a good writing as a characterMarch 31, 2003 Omni 0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Troi suffered a lot in the series/show/movies. Her empathy making her more of a subtle character than a brash one of gizmos and ideas like Data. I'm thrille dthat in this book she finally got to shine and hopefully now she'll get a better treatment in the books than she ever did acted on screen.
