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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #16

Time's Enemy (Star Trek Deep Space Nine, #16)

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Millenia ago, an apocalyptic battle was fought in the Alpha Quadrant. The losers were banished, but what became of the victors?

The Federation is threatened by this ancient mystery when a battered and broken version of the Defiant is found, frozen for five thousand years, in an icy cloud of cometary debris. Captain Sisko and the crew of Deep Space NineTM are summoned to answer the most baffling question of their lives: how and when will their ship be catapulted back through time to its destruction? And does its ancient death mean that one of the combatants in a primordial battle is poised now to storm the Alpha Quadrant? Only the wormhole holds the answer -- and the future of the Federation itself may depend on the secrets it conceals.

338 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 1996

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About the author

L.A. Graf

25 books40 followers
L.A. Graf reportedly stands for Let's All Get Rich and Famous. Its a pseudonym used by authors Karen Rose Cercone and Julia Ecklar.

They have co-written some eleven Star Trek novels. Their first Star Trek novel came out in 1990.

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273 (27%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
Profile Image for Alejandro.
1,284 reviews3,773 followers
July 4, 2017
The Furies' invasion takes a twist!


This is the third book in a series of four, featuring the Star Trek "Invasion!" event.


FEAR AND MISTERY

Seventy years ago, the Furies tried to invade the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, and Captain Kirk was barely able to repel the attack, but hardly was the first time that these demonic-like villains were in our realm, centuries ago, way before that any civilization would be able to stand, the Furies were hellish rulers of all...

...but something happened and they were expellled into other dimension.

What really happened?

This mystery is in the hands of Captain Sisko, Major Kira and the USS Defiant when they are called to investigate something astonishing...

...the frozen remnants of the USS Defiant with more than five thousand years of antiquity!!!

This sole discovery is quite stressful to look at, but things got worse when it seems to be connected with the powerful Furies that have been determined to invade the Federation twice!

While, Captain Picard is facing the second wave of the Furies, it's up to Sisko to learn about the very roots of the Furies' original reign.

The Invasion! continues!
Profile Image for Jamie.
1,424 reviews217 followers
April 12, 2023
A bit long perhaps and heavy on the technobabble yet a thrilling and action packed, if not slightly overcomplex plot combining a time travel paradox involving the Defiant getting caught in a time rift inside the wormhole and an implacable, ancient enemy sweeping the galaxy like a plague, driven to literally consume every bit of sentience everywhere. Not unlike the hive minded Borg, this is a remorseless, highly adaptable enemy, yet far more creepy and terrifying. A bit of Alien or perhaps the protomolecule from the The Expanse meets Star Trek. The story revolves primarily around Dax, Bashir, Sisko and Major Kira, with brief appearances by the rest of the pre-Worf DS9 crew. There is quite a lot of detail concerning Jadzia and her relationship with Dax, her Trill symbiont, that I found interesting. I haven't read the previous Invasion series books, but this seemed to standalone quite well.
Profile Image for Brandon Roy.
273 reviews1 follower
August 23, 2025
I have read the whole Invasion crossover before but this is my first reread since fully completing DS9 and Voyager shows start to finish.

This is the biggest book in the crossover and may be the only one where you don't really have to had read the first 2. The Furies we meet in the first two books were driven out of our quadrants and this story finally shows the other side, the actual aliens they battled.

it is a bit more complicated, shock for DS9 I know but it is a interesting look at the other side and a different tale with no Furies this time. The aliens are also pretty unique.
Profile Image for Sarah.
81 reviews
October 31, 2012
I recall never really enjoying any of the crossover series Pocketbooks attempted, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this installation of the *Invasion!* series. I suspect part of the reason is that for the DS9 book, they (editor, writers, planners, whomever) took the idea at the heart of the series--this invading, unstoppable, ancient species looking to reclaim its territory that now makes up a big part of the Federation--and turns it on its head by having the DS9 folks have to deal with said unstoppable, ancients species' archenemy (or something like that). In a way, that's why I enjoyed DS9--it took the Trek concept and sort of turned it on its head and made it its own thing (which is why I strongly suspect I'm not so much a Trek fan as I am a DS9 fan).

I also appreciated that the writers had a much stronger grasp of the world of which they were writing than other writers of DS9 books: It's obvious they'd watched more than "Emissary" before getting to work. They display a strong understanding of the conceptual layout of the station and the space around it.

Best of all, at least for me, the writers seem to be character-driven; that is, they write stories that focus on characters, that develop those characters. I've read one too many books, particularly of the relaunch line, that focus on battles and technology and more sterile ideas. Bonus: the writers have a good grasp of who the characters are that they've been given to play with.
Profile Image for Daniel Kukwa.
4,713 reviews123 followers
May 23, 2011
It seems almost cliche to expect that the DS9 entry in a story-arc would feature the most depth, the best characterization, and push the limits of epicness. "Time's Enemy" does this in spades, by taking a fresh approach to the "Invasion" story arc and adding some mind-bending timey-wimey terror to the mix. Utterly superb storytelling.
Profile Image for Justin Rees.
77 reviews1 follower
June 8, 2011
This is by far the best novel of the invasion series! L.A Graf delivers a fantastic, dynamic plot line that keeps you turning pages. Love the temporal aspects of it, as well as the command of the characters. It should have been made into a series episode it was so good. A must, must read!
Profile Image for Brayden Raymond.
553 reviews13 followers
December 26, 2022
It's Dark, it's heavy and it's totally DS9. This is some great character work for the entirety of the DS9 crew barring those who haven't arrived yet (sorry Worf). If only the other books in this series were at the level of this one. Superb.
Profile Image for Tomislav.
1,157 reviews98 followers
January 21, 2016
This is book three of the four-part crossover series "Invasion!"
Star Trek #79: First Strike
Star Trek: The Next Generation #41: The Soldiers of Fear
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #16: Time's Enemy
Star Trek: Voyager #9: The Final Fury

L.A. Graf (Let's All Get Rich And Famous) is the pseudonym for a team of Star Trek writers. It was not a surprise to me, to find that this is the pivotal and expository novel in the overall arc of the crossover series - probably the one around which the other novels were written. The sophistication of each of the books corresponds roughly to that of the four television series on which it is based. DS9 always had a somewhat more multidimensional band of characters and array of cultures, and that is true in this novel as well.

However, let's be clear that this is still a media tie-in, where the outcome is never in real doubt, and the characters cannot evolve in any permanent life-changing way. The "science" is little more than meaningless technical-sounding terms - like that rare transperiodic element of Diflourine. And while the action is continuous and parallel lines of suspense are maintained, it was really hard to overlook how some of the story problems could have been easily overcome if the characters (and writers) had thought more about the set-up. For example, .
Profile Image for Don Incognito.
315 reviews9 followers
October 24, 2017
Time's Enemy might well be the best Star Dreck novel ever written. Even better than my favorite, Chain of Attack.
A starship, nearly torn to pieces, is found hidden in a comet. After study, Starfleet finds it to be an alternate version of the Defiant...nearly five thousand years old. The Deep Space Nine crew (most of them) are brought in to solve the mystery of how their ship was thrown into the distant past and wrecked in battle.
Profile Image for rivka.
906 reviews
August 28, 2011
8/27/2011: Have now read #2 as well. This one still really does better as a stand-alone. The connection to #2 is not very strong.

11/14/2009: Book 3 of 4; I have not read the others, but this one works well as a stand-alone.
Profile Image for Jenny Clark.
3,225 reviews121 followers
June 24, 2016
I actually enjoyed this more then I thought I would, considering I am not really a fan of DeepSpace Nine the show, this book may just make me rewatch the show. I found the concept quite interesting, though the Jadiza/Dax coukd be a little confusing
Profile Image for Octavia Cade.
Author 94 books135 followers
November 29, 2021
This is the third in the "Invasion" mini-series, this time focusing on events at DS9. It seems a bit like an odd addition to the series, but that's not entirely a criticism. Indeed, being so very different from the first two volumes helps to set this one apart, and avoids repetition. That being said, with only a few very minor tweaks it could have been a completely standalone story, so I'm not entirely sure how well it has balanced being part of a mini-series. That said, I still enjoyed it. Bashir, especially, is done very well here, and his work as a doctor highlighted by his caretaker relationship to the Trill symbiont Dax (as opposed to the host Jadzia). I do enjoy Trek stories that focus on the doctors, and how their work intersects with often wider concerns, so points for that.

I honestly considered giving this four stars, but the fact is... I'm not sure I'd ever want to read it again, Bashir storyline notwithstanding. It's been an enormously slow read. Sometimes, when you read a book, the pacing is just right and you can skim through it, or linger in it, as the case may be. Here, I was constantly feeling bogged down, and I'm not sure why. I suspect it has something to do with the overuse of technobabble. I don't consume Trek for technobabble, I like it for the characters and sense of wonder and general optimism about the future, and technobabble stops that cold. As it did here, I think. Which is a bit of a shame.
Profile Image for Chad.
621 reviews6 followers
January 28, 2019
I was torn on how to rate this. If I were to look at the book on its own and judge its merits, I might rate it higher. The story is pretty entertaining and for as often as Trek likes to play with time travel I thought this tale was clever and nicely done. I haven’t read any DS9 books before and this could make me read more - as good a compliment as I think a book like this can ask for.

All this aside however, looking at this as the third of a four part series I didn’t feel like it really held up the larger narrative. The Furies are rarely present, save for some passing mention here and there. There is some interesting historical information on the Furies that shed some light on their story but it all just felt like Easter eggs, not an important part of the plot. I think there was a good opportunity here for this story to run alongside Soldiers of Fear, the TNG installment in this series. This could have interacted with events, leading a different perspective and making it feel like a larger piece of the overall journey.

The book is good, it just feels out of place.
Profile Image for Christian Hamilton.
324 reviews3 followers
November 17, 2020
Full disclosure: This is part of an overarching crossover, of which I’ve only read the DS9 novel. With that being said, from what I’ve read, I do believe they are all stand-alone.

So... I just really didn’t enjoy this novel. It started out interesting, with an overarching mystery about the Defiant and its crew involving time travel, but I just don’t think much of the points were hit properly.

The subplot involving the Vulcan seemed out of character, and don’t get me started on the other Dax symbiont.

In all fairness, the enemy invaders were actually genuinely creepy, and this marks the first appearance of the Jem’Hadar in a DS9 novel.

The novel was about 40 pages too long, and I just wanted it to be over. I haven’t felt that way since reading “Warped” at the very get-go of my DS9 reading.
Profile Image for Lukáš.
43 reviews
September 29, 2017
While the first half of the book was not able to amaze me (some inconsistences, confusing storylines that I felt were forced so that the story would conclude the way it did), the second half did a good job to boost my rating to 4 stars. While I still think the first book of this series was the best, this one started to reveal the Furies mystery in a way that was still entertaining (even though this was a third book about them) and I am looking forward to how this all ends.
Profile Image for Shawn Hussell.
7 reviews1 follower
July 7, 2018
What was the point of this book? Its an alright, I’d rate it a bit higher but it feels extremely shoehorned into the “Invasion!” series. The story felt like it came to its natural conclusion at the end of book 2.
The revelation at the end doesn’t feel worth the time spent on it, maybe it would have been better if they cut it in haft and paired it with whatever comes in “The Final Fury”.
Hopefully there’ll be a bigger pay off next book!
Profile Image for Mark.
874 reviews10 followers
August 19, 2022
Starting as a mystery, this differs significantly from the others in this series as it barely mentions "The Furies". Dealing more with a creepy invasion force reminiscent of the film "Aliens", that threatens the entire Alpha Quadrant.
Like the other books in the series, it would appeal to those already familiar with the Star Trek characters that it uses, in this case, the crew of Deep Space Nine.
As a Trek fan, I enjoyed it and look forward to completing the series.
Profile Image for Robert Sparrenberger.
883 reviews8 followers
November 16, 2017
A friend gave me this to read. I never could get into ds9 and he said this would help. It didn’t. I don’t like ds9. I find the characters boring and the thought of the space station and the wormhole just never interested me. My critique is more of the series than this book. That’s probably why I couldn’t get into it because I don’t really know the characters.

Profile Image for Peter Rydén.
262 reviews
May 27, 2021
Denna bok innehåller det bästa av mycket: rejäl spänning, ödesmättnad, tidsparadoxer och personporträtt. Denna bok och del 1 i serien är jämförbara i det mesta, men eftersom jag kände till karaktärerna bättre här så väger det nog över i betyget. 7/10 blir mitt slutliga besked.
Profile Image for Nathaniel Boan.
15 reviews
May 29, 2019
very very good best of the invasion series. dont be shocked that it is only vaguely related to the other 3 books in the series.
153 reviews1 follower
June 25, 2021
Started slowly, the pace picked up towards the end.
Profile Image for nx74defiant.
492 reviews2 followers
August 12, 2024
Enjoyed it. I remember how Julian kept Dax alive and how he felt about it.
Profile Image for Andrew Still.
18 reviews
March 12, 2025
The first time I read this book, I had never actually seen Deep Space Nine. That meant I enjoyed the story but I was not really connected with the characters. Now that I'm coming back after having seen the show through several times, I was much more familiar with the entire cast. I still enjoyed the story this time through. It still doesn't really feel like it connects with the rest of the books in the Invasion series because the Furies never made an appearance and are only referenced on a handful of occasions. I think that makes the story a weird fit in the context of the Invasion series, but it holds up pretty well on it's own. Now that I am very familiar with the DS9 characters, it's a lot easier to see when their actions in the book don't really line up with their on-screen performances. Everything in the book seemed a little bit more unfriendly and severe than the show. I still enjoyed revisiting this book. And even though it didn't fit in with the rest of Invasion, it had a much more unique and interesting story.
Profile Image for Shane Amazon.
170 reviews5 followers
October 12, 2013
I have read my fair share of Star Trek books, some have been great like Star Trek: Prime Directive and some have been horrible like Warped, but its been a long time since I read a book that conveyed such an incredible connection to the show. L.A. Graf, who has written four Star Trek books in all, proves that he is not just a hired gun to push out a book but a fan of the show as well. Graf, through his writing provides a deep and rich environment for the characters to flourish. The story itself is very deep and very well written. There can be no doubt that Graf studied every detail of the characters and their lives before undertaking such a task.

]]]Some plot spoilers ahead[[[

In the book Graf paints us a picture of coming war. He begins by bringing the DS9 crew of Sisko, Dax and Julian to Starbase One to meet with a high ranking Admiral that has stunning news to reveal to the three. Found is a copy of the Federation Battleship, USS Defiant in an icy cavern. After it is deemed to be thee actual Defiant the three are ordered to find the enemy that has pushed the defiant five-thousand years back in time. Returning to the station aboard a science ship captained by a Vulcan, Sisko must chase after the Sreba after it enters the wormhole against orders.

After chasing the Sreba into the Gamma quadrant, Sisko and the crew of the Defiant find her destroyed by an enemy they have never encountered before and by means unknown. Following a couple of Jem'Hadar ships to a local space station they are confronted by the enemy and engage them in battle. If Sisko can't stop the enemy then the future of the wormhole and of the Alpha quadrant itself is in risk.

Back on the station Kira is tasked with stopping an old Bajoran resistance group from destroying the station after they too come in contact with the unknown enemy. Her and Odo are forced to fight off the resistance cell and the new enemy as well. Some come out unscathed but others are deeply effected and horribly injured by the confrontations.

Those who know the show well may wonder where this book falls into the DS9 timeline, but this book is considered non-canon as it has no effect on the actual show. But if you are wondering I would put the book somewhere after the Jem'Hadar war.

Some of us who are familiar with the show called Stargate SG-1 already know that both that show and DS9 have borrowed from each other over time. Some fans of SG1 will see quite a few similarities between this book and that show, but I'm not sure which came first. The enemy is both familiar in name and characteristics and those who enjoyed the Replicators and the joke of the Furlings in SG-1 will have fun with this book too.

L.A. Graf has done an amazing job with this book. If you are a fan of the show then this is a must read for you. I look forward to reading the other Invasion books and L.A. Grafs other books as well. If his others are as good as this one then count me in.

Highly recommended.
Profile Image for Stacy.
93 reviews
November 18, 2022
This was my favorite book in the "Invasion" series, which I read as they each were published. I remember waiting for my Waldenbooks to get them in and sitting on the floor in the science fiction section to start reading the first one until my mother was done shopping. While I find the Furies an interesting society, I was somehow more curious about those who had cast the Furies out of heaven. So, this was definitely the book for me in the series. I am not a scientist of any sort, so I cannot speak to the accuracy (or lack thereof) on any of those matters. However, I found the writing engaging, the villain unique, and the characters in my favorite Trek series acting like themselves. There is a particularly fun scene between Quark and Kira.

My typical book club style musings are ahead, so they are under a spoiler tag for those who have not yet read the book.


So, if you enjoy Star Trek, and particularly if you enjoy Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, definitely give this book a try. If you enjoy all Star Trek, then give the whole Invasion series a try. I think that non-Star Trek fans should give this a pass.
Profile Image for Dianah.
71 reviews2 followers
July 21, 2010
The phrase that comes to mind when I read this book was "word density". Long, aimless sentences pour into rambling paragraphs that choke out any joy of language that might have been found here. Luckily there are some saving graces.

The story, without any spoilers, is hard to explain. Suffice it to say Starfleet finds a 5,000 year old artifact they think Sisko will be very interested in seeing. There is some clues left behind that make them believe the mysterious Furies are involved.

The big plus of this story that keeps it from dropping to two-stars is the Bashir/Dax moments. Forget Jadzia. Forget Ezri. The real love story is Bashir and the worm. I loved that idea!

Many of the Deep Space Nine books feel like they were abandoned novellas retooled into a Star Trek shape. This one feels like a regular Deep Space Nine novel retooled to fit into the Invasion! sub series. The result is an extra 50 pages and that familiar tacked on feeling. I don't want to give the plot away, but if you read the first two books in the series and expect to see more of the nightmarish Furies you will be disappointed.

Overall, it wasn't bad, but it was...dense. Since I enjoyed the first two books in the mini-series I might have had too high of expectations for this book since DS9 is my favorite of the Trek series.
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