Book Review: ‘Plagues of Night’ by David R. George III

December 8, 2022 at 9:20 am | Posted in Books, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Star Trek | Leave a comment
Tags: david r. george iii, typhon pact

Star Trek: Plagues of Night is the fifth novel in the Typhon Pact series. It was written by David R. George III and was published by Simon and Schuster’s Pocket Books in June of 2012. 

The Typhon Pact has been really hit or miss thus far. Some books have been great, while other books have been mediocre or downright bad. David R George has been the primary DS9 writer for Pocket Books before and during the Typhon Pact, and here he proves why he earned that mantel.

I did not really care for Sisko’s storyline in Rough Beasts of Empire, I thought it really dragged down the book. What worked for the book was the political storyline with Spock and the Romulans. Here, ironically, I think that the character storylines for Sisko as well as the crewmembers of DS9 was significantly better than the action and political storylines with the Typhon Pact and the Next Generation crew. 

It feels like David R. George had WAY too much to do in this one book, so everything feels rushed. First he has to catch up the DS9 storyline to the Next Generation storyline, an insurmountable task anyway. He also has to provide much more character development for all of the characters. He also has to create a massive climactic event to occur at the end of the book.

This climactic event really should have been saved for another book. It comes in too quickly and doesn’t give the audience enough time to process it or prepare. It seems like the editorial team had a mandate to do certain things to keep the story exciting and David had to meet their demands. 

The standout character for me in this book was Ro Laren. She never gets enough time in any book that she’s in and David has really mastered how to write for her. I loved her looking back on her journey, her banters with Quark, and her leadership of DS9. I hope to read more books about her in the future. 

If there was one thing that didn’t really fit in this book its the Enterprise crew (Next Generation) showing up. This book should have focused on the Robinson and on the various segments of the DS9 crew. Because the Enterprise is present for a significant portion of the story, it feels too big and not focused enough. I also think David is just better at writing for DS9 and should have focused on it anyways. 

This book isn’t the worst Trek book that I’ve read this year, and its not even the worst in this series, I just feel kind of bland about it. It never captured me like my favorite books did, and I didn’t feel hatred for it like I have for some books. Overall, I feel like this book has earned a 3 out of 5 Stars. Ok, but not good or bad.

Reviewed By: Jonathan Koan for Roqoo Depot.