Star Trek Deep Space Nine Mission Gamma #3: Cathedral by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels
This 2002 entry in the ‘DS9’ relaunch is embarrassing. Someone is dead due to Shar’s selfishness and spiteful treatment. Nog, Ezri and Bashir visit an alien artefact and have unfortunate reactions to it. There is calm acceptance of the bizarre. This was dull, plodding, boring and ‘Abyss’ is a better examination of Bashir’s uneasy perfection. This book was not necessitated.
Best Lines:
“Gods help any other alien crew who happen to blunder into it.”
“A child who will now never come to be.”
~
Shadows Fall by Simon R. Green
This 1994 novel is about a small town where magic and legends go to die. This is like a kid’s book with excessive violence. This was dull, boring and with a stupid ending.
Best Lines:
“Tended to glare at everyone menacingly.”
“In Shadows Fall mothers tell their children to be good, or Jack Fetch will come for them. And sometimes he does.”
“Believes people like me should be banned on general principles.”
“Mirren screamed for a long time, and then he died. And then the screaming began again.”
~
And The Ass Saw The Angel by Nick Cave
This is as vile as ‘The White Hotel’. This is a tale of violence, filth, incest and death that is not bleak, witty, twisty or sharp. It’s written in bizarre patois and this rural despair is horrid and wretched. How did this get published?
Best Lines:
“Hill-pox.”
“Crazed with the effects of mountain liquor and pilfered petrol sniffed from jam-tins.”