Prisoners of Peace

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Young Adult #3

by John Peel, Lisa Clancy (Editor), Todd Cameron Hamilton (Illustrator)

Life suddenly gets interesting on Deep Space Nine when a new student turns up in Jake and Nog's class: Riv Jakar, a Bajoran boy whose parents were killed by Cardassians. Riv thinks school and hanging out on the Promenade are a waste of time. Instead he is determined to join the Bajoran freedom fighters in their battle against the Cardassians. When Jake, Nog, and their friends Ashley and T'Ara are investigating some mysterious incidents on the station they discover a stowaway, a Cardassian girl named Kam. She is the daughter of a high-placed Cardassian official who has just shown up at Deep Space Nine with eight warships, demanding the return of his daughter.

But Riv has other plans for Kam, and it's up to Jake and Nog to save her before Riv starts a new war.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Childrens, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Media Tie In, Young Adult

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

About the author

John Peel is the author of Doctor Who books and comic strips. Notably, he wrote the first original Doctor Who novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, to launch the Virgin New Adventures line. In the early 1990s he was commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations of several key Terry Nation Dalek stories of the 1960s after the rights were finally worked out. He later wrote several more original Daleks novels.

He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).

Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..

Reviews

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young Bajoran joins the school on DS9, he has a major problem with Cardassians. In fact, he wants to see them all dead and is quite happy to make that happen himself.

This is an interesting story about prejudice, and is written well for children. A good read.

[Taaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das Ende versöhnt ein bisschen. Aber über die Hälfte des Buches wird ignoriert, dass ein Kind psychologische Hilfe braucht - obwohl es sogar zwischendurch beinahe Leute umgebracht hätte, absichtlich. Trotzdem wurde nur mit den Schultern gezuckt.
Und warum müssen die Probleme unbedingt von Kindern gelöst werden? Okay, ja, das sind Jugendbücher, insofern müssen die Kinder die Hauptpersonen spielen. Aber dann schreibt man doch lieber einen glaubhaften, kindgerechten Plot. Und ja, das kann auch beinhalten, dass jemand mit dem Trauma eines Völkermords zu leben lernt. Sowas muss es auch für Kinder und Jugendliche geben. Aber nicht auf diese Art. Nicht, wenn der Plot nur funktioniert, wenn ALLE Erwachsenen, von Sicherheitskräften, über Lehrer*innen bis hin zur Administration in ihrem Job versagen.

[Alvaro Zinos-Amaro · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was a definite step down from the first two books in this series.

For one, the story is considerably slighter.

More importantly, the writing is a) at a considerably lower level; almost middle grade rather than young adult 2) repetitive (e.g. p 7 "Jake felt his face burning"; p. 20 "Jake felt his face get hot"; p. 53 "Jake felt his face burning.") 3) padded with information we obviously don't need, like a description of who the Ferengi are or who Jake's father is, and so on.

And finally--this isn't the author's fault--but the cover literally gives away the book's climax in the final chapter. Boo.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the best of the Star Trek kids books that I've read so far - mostly, I think, because while the kids are having adventures and getting into trouble they're not doing ridiculously dangerous things while the nearby adults essentially shrug it off. (Ben Sisko would never.) I like that the other kids from DS9's school are involved too. The resolution of the conflict between the Bajoran and the Cardassian children is pretty obvious and quickly tied up, but the focus on how war causes trauma in kids is effective.

[Morals · Rating 5 out of 5]

This very father leaves you a lot of suspense.

[Christopher Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good little morality tale about not assuming everything you hear about someone is true. I liked it, and am looking forward to my son being old enough to read it.

[nx74defiant · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Bjorian boy who needs to let go of his hate. A young girl running away from her harsh father. A cute little story. Everything ends happily.

[Scott Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one has a lot of anachronistic technology issues and the story was kind of already dealt with on the series. There is a great illustration of Major Kira on page 98.