Picard and Garak on the cover? The Enterprise-D docked at Deep Space 9 Terok Nor too?! Oh, this is going to be gooood! [Spoiler Alert: It. Is. Great!]
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Pliable Truths
Author: Dayton Ward
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Published: May 21, 2024
Publisher: Gallery Books
View on Goodreads
Date Completed: May 13, 2024
My rating: 
To be clear, I wasn’t able to be on this podcast episode, but it is so worth a listen!
Thoughts
The book is marketed as a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, which it is, very much so. But it takes place just before the events of the first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and features some familiar characters from that show. The tone of the two shows were quite different. However, the author was able to seamlessly enmesh the tones to make a story that would fit in either show.
What Dayton Ward has done here was give us a story that we didn’t know we needed. The main story is about the transition and change-over of control to the Cardassian space station orbiting Major – Terok Nor. The U.S.S. Enterprise is called in to assist in the transition. Picard and crew split up to do their jobs without trampling all over the canon that we fans hold so dear. In fact, certain things are set up like giving some thought as to why Miles O’Brien transferred to Deep Space 9.
Major Kira is a prominent figure in this story and she’s portrayed wonderfully. She’s got a great mix of someone who just finished being a resistance fighter and is now a major in the Bajorian militia. She’s equal parts gruff (like we saw her at the beginning of Deep Space Nine), compassionate, and all the other things we’ve come to love about the character. She’s written so she fits into this era, but is still the same Kira!
There is an interesting subplot in this novel about a labor camp that receives orders to shut down, but it doesn’t. At least not right away. The idea here is that there’s a planet that the Cardassians are using that’s not on any maps. No one knows its there. And the Cardassians are up to something here – something big. So although they need to shut the place down and move out, they can’t let the Bajorans get away with knowledge of anything they may have seen or heard while at this labor camp.
This subplot really smacks of something that would have happened during the Holocaust. And it was really a chilling little sub-story in this book.
I loved this book and flew through it over the course of a couple days. Every chapter leaves you wanting to explore more. I give this book and emphatic 5 out of 5 stars!
