Star Trek Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game
{4.5/5} “‘In Simon Says, the losers don’t get shot in the head.’ ‘They do in the original Klingon version.'”
Dr. Julian Bashir has been recruited for a dangerous mission — infiltrate the Breen and sabotage their development of the slipstream drive. His accomplice is Sarina Douglas, who works for Starfleet Intelligence — Bashir has met her before and still has strong feelings for her. Ezri Dax is now captain of the Aventine — her job is to extract Bashir and Douglas when their mission is done. But the many Breen and Romulan ships blocking her path will make that difficult.
Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game by David Mack was published in 2010.
Zero Sum Game is the first novel in the Typhon Pact miniseries, a set of Star Trek books continuing the adventures of characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In the last few years the Star Trek books set in the 24th century have taken place after the TV and movie series finished. I haven’t kept up with all of of the Deep Space Nine and Voyager books (yet) but I have read all of the Next Generation books that take place after Nemesis, as well as all of the Titan books (Riker is now captain of the starship Titan so he gets his own series). These books have been, on average, great — significantly better on average than books set during the series. In particular, the Destiny miniseries by David Mack was absolutely brilliant.
The Typhon Pact is an alliance that has set itself against the Federation — it includes the Romulans, Tholians, Gorn, and Breen. The Breen were seen in several Deep Space Nine episodes — at that time they allied themselves with the Dominion. We get to find out more about the Breen in this book — including why they wear a suit of armour all the time.
Just to warn you in case you’re expecting a Deep Space Nine reunion, very little of this book takes place on Deep Space Nine and only two main characters from that show are main characters here — Bashir and Dax. Most of the other characters have gone their separate ways, although there are a couple of cameos.
Nanietta Bacco, the President of the Federation, shows up — as she often does in the recent books. Her scenes give an interesting alternative perspective on the events taking place.
I prefer Star Trek stories where they’re exploring strange new worlds rather than waging a cold war. But given that’s what they’re doing this is a great book with interesting details on the Breen culture and the pitfalls of covert missions. It’s a serious mission but there are moments of humour.
David Mack is the author of the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy — those 3 books are on my list of the best 7 Next Generation books.