The Badlands: Book Two

Susan Wright

Jan 2000 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Located perilously near the Cardassian border, the turbulent region of space known as the Badlands has been an interstellar hazard to navigation for at least two generations. Many starships have been lost amidst its violent plasma storms, but the true danger may only be beginning!

Before she began her historic sojourn in the Delta Quadrant, Captain Kathryn Janeway led the U.S.S. Voyager™ into the Badlands in pursuit of a renegade Maquis vessel. There she encountered the same threatening and inexplicable phenomena that had previously endangered both Kirk and Picard. Now, detoured from her mission by an urgent Cardassian distress call, Janeway finally uncovers the origin of the hidden menace!

Armed with Janeway's hard-won knowledge, Captain Benjamin Sisko must deal with the exposed threat once and for all. But first the U.S.S. Defiant must battle both the Dominion and the Romulan Empire for control of an unleashed power source that could devastate the entire Alpha Quadrant!

Ratings and reviews

The third story is interesting in that it is written as sort of a backstory to the Voyager series. In the pilot episode, Caretaker, viewers were allowed to see how Voyager came to get transported to the far reaches of the Delta quadrant. But we got precious little of the backstory of Chakotay, B'Lana, Tuvok and Seska as they were at the Maquis base and on the Maquis ship that Voyager was eventually chasing when both ships were transported. Wright gives us that backstory, plus throws in the troublesome microsingularity to boot. Just the sort of thing fans love in their fiction. The fourth story is set during the portion of DS9 when the Dominion is about to align with Cardassia and invade through the wormhole. In addition, the Romulans are in the story. It has dramatic irony in that the readers know both the DS9 crew and the Romulans are after the microsingularity. Sometimes it is fun how Wright weaves it all together, sometimes it feels a little contrived (but one tends to forgive her). So over the two books, one has a complete story arc regarding the microsingularity: how it got loose, the havoc it caused in the Badlands over the years, and what happened to it (although one thinks its disposition is less than perfect, and might even set up another story for someday down the road). Wright is to be commended for getting the voices of so many characters from so many series down correctly. She gets the atmosphere of the four series right. Well done, ma'am.

About the author

Susan Wright is the spokesperson for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. In that capacity she has appeared on the Fox Network’s The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes, as well as on various programs such as NBC’s Dateline, and others on CNN, CNN Headline News, ABC, NBC and FOX affiliates in New York, St. Louis, Chicago, and more.