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The stories (I read TNG, DS9, NF, and VOY) are great with TNG's being the best. However there was ABSOLUTELY NO reason for this last book. Every one of the conclusions in this book could have been added to the end of their original books. Being each ending was only about an extra couple of chapters.

One thing I was quite disappointed about upon receiving the book was that I originally thought that the last book would be some kind of compilation story where somehow the different crews interact in some manner. Instead the book is not one story to be read from cover to cover, but a compilation of a bunch of endings to the previous stories.

One thing readers should know about Gateways is that if you don't plan to read more than 2 of them you probably shouldn't read any of them unless you are comfortable with throwing away your money on the last book simply for two more chapters.


can be skipped without losing continuity   April 19, 2004
Gateways What Lay Beyond is a compilation of the conclusions to all of the Star Trek Gateways series. Personally I only read "Horn and Ivory" which is the conclusion to the Deep Space Nine Gateways series.

There is nothing astounding to the conclusion. First of all, I will warn everyone that spoilers follow. So stop reading now if you want don't want to know what happens.

The whole story is focused on Kira, none of the other DS9 crew plays a role. In the last Gateways book, we find Kira stranded on a deserted planet in the Delta Quadrant dieing of theta radiation poisoning and Taranatar recovering from a brutal fight with a Hirogen. We also know that at the end of the last Gateways book, Kira staggers into a gateway that keeps flashing between two places. We would expect something to happen like her being returned to DS9 or Bajor but that's not quite what happens. After staggering into the Gateway, Kira is transported to a familiar planet 30,000 years in the past. The rest of the story has nothing to do with solving the mystery of the Gateways, it only opens up more questions. Not until the final chapter do we find out what happened with the evacuation.

It's a nice litte story, but you can easily skip it and go on to the Deep Space Nine Gamma series.


DS9: "Horn and Ivory": Kira's conclusion.   February 5, 2004
To be fair this is a rating of only one of the stories in the book. It is "Horn and Ivory", the conclusion of the DS9 Season 8 Relaunch book "Demons of Air and Darkness" (also book 4 of the Gateways septuplet).

I agree the marketing scheme of making dedicated readers buy the hardcover of this 7th book simply because it wraps up any (and every) one of the first 6 books is deceitful. Myself having read only the DS9 Gateway book as part of the relaunch, I was angered at the idea. Luckily, if you are reading this review, you no longer have to buy the hardcover, but can settle for the cheap paperback. Therefore, my review takes that into consideration.

I'll say that reading Book 4 and its conclusion in this book raised a few questions that I wonder as to whether or not they are solved/explained in the others Gateway books. I deem they probably are, and for that reason, perhaps buying this book simply for one book's conclusion rather than 6, is an incentive to go read the other books. Many have said the DS9 story is one of the best, and indeed I found it was excellent, but in time I may go back to read the other Gateway books. As it is, this is a review for "Horn and Ivory" by the marvelous deCandido.

At the conclusion of "Demons of Air and Darkness", Kira steps through a Gateway to be with what she believes are the Prophets. Where does it take her? Well of course it sends her back 30,000 years to a time of Bajor's past before the uniting of the world. At first, I did not realize that the entire sequel was only about Kira. By the time I had finished the short story, I was glad it was, because deCandido does the best job portraying Kira that I've read so far. You really start to understand her and feel what she feels. You get to understand Kira's nostalgia (of sorts) for the days of the Resistance, but more importantly you get to see her committed to being a good commander.

The plot. At first I was worried why we were in the old days, but slowly I got heavily involved into it and realized that where Kira had ended up had ties to her real life.
The book is about Kira rediscovering herself and understanding where she is in her life and coming to terms with what she's lost. At its base, the book asks: do you give up, or go on. The author certainly knows Kira well enough to answer the question for her, and I was glad watching her grow.

It was also wonderful getting to read about Bajor's fragile past before its unification and before the Prophets were worshipped by the majority of Bajor. Keith did an excellent job with this novel since to me it really didn't feel like a Trek novel or a DS9 novel, but more of a Medieval-type story with Kira thrust into it. Yet it works nicely somehow, and for that I give the book 4 stars. I couldn't give it 5 because though it does a good job, it deals only with Kira and none of the other DS9 crew. Only Garak's book, "A Stitch in Time" managed to pull off writing about one main DS9 character without becoming nostalgic for the other characters.

So there you have my brief review for what I consider to be Episode 6 of the DS9 Season 8 Relaunch novels. I read "Demons of Air and Darkness" in under two days, and immediately wanted to read the conclusion in this book. Thus my review is only for the DS9 Kira story, "Horn and Ivory" and not as a conclusion to the Gateway septuplet.

If you read "Demons of Air and Darkness" and tolerate or love Kira and want to know what happens to her at the end of that book, you'll want to read her conclusion. If you have not read "Demons of Air and Darkness", do not read "Horn and Ivory" as it does not stand well on its own (as it is not meant to!).


Spectacularly Disappointing!   February 20, 2003
The series Book 1-6 was promising, if annoying for having a cliffhanger ending that forced you to buy the next book, or specificially the Book 7 which contains all the endings.

Well after being built-up by books 1-6, wondering if the inconsistencies between those books would be tied together in ST Gateways Book 7, wondering if Book 7 "the grand conclusion of what lay beyond" would put forth a good explanation for the Iconian mystery, tie all the loose ends together and provide good conclusions for the cliffhanger endings of books 1-6...............it was most most most disappointing to see that this was not the case.

Book 7 creates more inconsistencies and the endings are [bad]. Oh some of the endings were ok, but the final ending...for the TNG book in the series...which was SUPPOSED to tie everything together, totally messed it up and failed, completely failed to deliver! I mean...first in books 1-6 they established that once activated a gateway cannot be destroyed no matter what they threw at it because it will simply absorb the energy. THEN in Book 7...suddenly Gateways CAN be destroyed by explosive force...no explanation given!!! Just a lazy author who didn't even read the previous book he wrote and ignored all stuff he established in the previous book! Once again, this is a MAJOR LETDOWN!


ST-Gateways: What Lay Beyond   November 26, 2002
Star Trek-Gateways: What Lay Beyond written by Diane Carey et.al.is the culmination of a seven part series including all of the different genre of the Star Trek Universe.

Now, I'll be up front about this series... I'm not a fan of shelling out money for poor marketing and the way this series was presented to the reader was a downright travisty. I really do NOT understand the reasons why they (Paramount/Simon and Schuster) did this, save but one, to dig into the readers wallet.

Enough said, now, here is the contents:

Star Trek: One Giant Leap by Susan Wright
Star Trek Challenger: Exodus by Diane Carey
Star Trek DS-9: Horn and Ivory by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Star Trek Voyager: In the Queue by Christie Golden
Star Trek New Frontier Death After Life by Peter David
Star Trek TNG The Other Side by Robert Greenberger

Found in this volume are the conclusions to the above stories, but the hook is you have to buy the first six volume in order to make sense of these conclusions. This is why people believe they've been ripped off... and I can't blame them. I this was my idea, I'd expect a pink slip with my last pay check.

The only saving grace in this book is The Pocket Books STAR TREK Novels Timeline written by the Timeline Gang; Robert Bowling, Johan Ciamaglia, Ryan J. Cornelius, James R McCain, Alex Rosenzweig, Paul T.Semones, and Corey W. Tacker... with David Henderson and Lee Jamilkowski.

After you read the first six books you'll see what I mean, you really lose the flow of the story. But, now that all seven are available in paperback the contenuity should be easier to follow.