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"Now begins the final battle of the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths within the nightmarish realm of nonlinear time -- as the greatest epic adventure in the saga of" Deep Space 9tm" -- reaches its staggering conclusion...." As predicted in ancient Bajoran texts, the Celestial Temple has been restored, ending normal space-time existence for all except Captain Benjamin Sisko and those trapped on the "Starship Defiant" and the Klingon warship "Boreth." But as apocalyptic war rages between the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths, one last chance for survival beckons -- a return to "Deep Space 9."
Yet, in the realm of nonlinear time, it appears that there are "two" possible times at which Sisko and his allies can turn to the station: on the day of the Cardassian Withdrawal, or on the day six years later when "DS9" Was destroyed. But which choice will lead to the triumph of the Prophets? And which to eternal victory for the Pah-wraiths? With time literally running out and the fate of the universe in his hands, Sisko now must confront his own personal inferno-in order to change the past and restore the present, he must be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice ... his future....
Yet, in the realm of nonlinear time, it appears that there are "two" possible times at which Sisko and his allies can turn to the station: on the day of the Cardassian Withdrawal, or on the day six years later when "DS9" Was destroyed. But which choice will lead to the triumph of the Prophets? And which to eternal victory for the Pah-wraiths? With time literally running out and the fate of the universe in his hands, Sisko now must confront his own personal inferno-in order to change the past and restore the present, he must be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice ... his future....
464 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 7, 2021
Yo, this was shit.
I started out this series having a skeptical good time, but by the time I made it to the third book I had fully lost the plot (s?). There is time travel and lots of it and none of it makes sense and this is coming from someone who watched and enjoyed the movie Primer which yes, makes me an asshole, but more importantly lends weight to my critique of this earbuds-at-the-bottom-of-your-purse level of convoluted timelines, fake time travel rules, and warmed over TNG plots.
I started out this series having a skeptical good time, but by the time I made it to the third book I had fully lost the plot (s?). There is time travel and lots of it and none of it makes sense and this is coming from someone who watched and enjoyed the movie Primer which yes, makes me an asshole, but more importantly lends weight to my critique of this earbuds-at-the-bottom-of-your-purse level of convoluted timelines, fake time travel rules, and warmed over TNG plots.
November 17, 2008
I've often wondered just how novels based on television shows can go for the whole epic, "world shall be destroyed" theme and have things fit in with the continuation of the televised stories later on. Of course therein arises the world of canon, to which the Star Trek novels do not belong. however from what little I know of Deep Space Nines history, these texts go a long way to enforcing in-universe integrity.
it is clear that the amount of research put into them is great indeed. Minor things evident in the first novel only now resolve themselves, and as with most time travel jaunts, do so in a spectacularly mind-bending way. that's not to say that a reader is left confused, by any means; everything that happens is clarified and explained by the conclusion of the trilogy.
I can still never quite shake off the yoke of "its time travel, and was erased from time, therefore it never happened". it's not a Star Trek thing per se (although Voyager's "year of hell" was one example), but it does crop up from time-to-time in fiction. Even so, this series takes DS9 from its very first on-screen showing, to years before, to decades after and back again, all from a post "what you leave behind" POV. I would recommend that if you are a serious fan and do care to know the ins and outs of everything, watch the end of the TV series first. Although you're probably two-thirds of the way through the trilogy or something by the time you're reading this, so alas I shall shut up.
it is clear that the amount of research put into them is great indeed. Minor things evident in the first novel only now resolve themselves, and as with most time travel jaunts, do so in a spectacularly mind-bending way. that's not to say that a reader is left confused, by any means; everything that happens is clarified and explained by the conclusion of the trilogy.
I can still never quite shake off the yoke of "its time travel, and was erased from time, therefore it never happened". it's not a Star Trek thing per se (although Voyager's "year of hell" was one example), but it does crop up from time-to-time in fiction. Even so, this series takes DS9 from its very first on-screen showing, to years before, to decades after and back again, all from a post "what you leave behind" POV. I would recommend that if you are a serious fan and do care to know the ins and outs of everything, watch the end of the TV series first. Although you're probably two-thirds of the way through the trilogy or something by the time you're reading this, so alas I shall shut up.
March 5, 2019
I thought first two books in the series were pretty good. This one seemed convoluted with a bit too much filler for my liking. At some point it started to become a chore to read and I lost interest in the outcome. I didn't bother to finish it.
November 3, 2023
I'll award it 3.5 because I think there are some very standout moments throughout however I don't think it is quite on the level with book 2. I think there may be just a little too much going on and to borrow a phrase perhaps a little too much "Timey wimey" happening. After checking some of the other reviews I'm definitely not the only one who feels this way.
So to rank the trilogy which altogether I think is a very solid 4. The second book is the best of the bunch, this comes in the middle and the first is unfortunately the weakest.
So to rank the trilogy which altogether I think is a very solid 4. The second book is the best of the bunch, this comes in the middle and the first is unfortunately the weakest.
January 29, 2024
Best part of the trilogy - this one actually had me hooked. Still a bit heavy on the religious theme for my liking, but entertaining nonetheless.
February 22, 2019
Inferno wraps up the Millennium trilogy in a more satisfying manner than I honestly expected. Some readers will certainly be put off by the very complex and interweaving plot twists and turns, but the Reeves-Stevenses have obviously worked very hard to make everything line up correctly. This is a novel (and a trilogy) that requires the reader to pay close attention, as even the smallest plot details end up being significant and play out in unexpected ways. However, even if all aspects of the story aren't completely understood by the reader, I was left feeling that Inferno was a satisfying conclusion to the overall story.
Full review:
Full review:
August 1, 2010
It's hard to explain how this book fails without spoilers. What I will say is Bashir is given information in Book 2 of the series, , that he choses to never divulge to anyone even after that knowledge would not change the timeline. Why? Because it's a cute, fun little scene in book 2 and I can only guess the authors forgot about it.
Much of this book takes place back and forth in time, but it doesn't feel like it was well plotted out before they wrote it. The entire book feels unedited. It's as if the effort to refine the first 2 books exhausted everyone involved to the point they didn't have the strength for this one.
The characterizations are still good with the exception of the opening chapters where I think the characters could have come up with much more frightening images. The unanswered events from the first book are finally, if not in a satisfying manner, resolved. Anyone who starts reading the series will want to stick it through to the end, but don't expect a high impact ending.
Much of this book takes place back and forth in time, but it doesn't feel like it was well plotted out before they wrote it. The entire book feels unedited. It's as if the effort to refine the first 2 books exhausted everyone involved to the point they didn't have the strength for this one.
The characterizations are still good with the exception of the opening chapters where I think the characters could have come up with much more frightening images. The unanswered events from the first book are finally, if not in a satisfying manner, resolved. Anyone who starts reading the series will want to stick it through to the end, but don't expect a high impact ending.
February 16, 2017
A pretty solid ending to a very fun time travel story. We finally got more Garak, which made me really happy and almost pushed this to 5 stars, but things did get a little convoluted at points. Wasn't super keen on the "personal hells" section, as it felt a bit off for some characters, and didn't seem to have any real impact on the story as a whole. However, I felt the resolution of the rather difficult premise to be satisfactory, and that is after wondering all through the second book whether it were even possible to fix the mess they'd gotten into. I definitely enjoyed the series and will be tackling some more of the DS9-related Star Trek novels this year, I think.
August 4, 2019
Wow, things really came together for this book and really wrapped up this trilogy pretty well. A lot of the setup from the first two books finally came together in this one and it created a very complicated narrative puzzle that the characters had to navigate their way out of. But really, we knew there would a big time travel related resolution to things and the book did not disappoint in this manner. And given the constraint of limiting the nature of what changes can be made to the timeline while still avoiding erasing one's future strongly defined the tone of the story in a unique manner.
May 18, 2023
Ugh, ball dropped right at the end zone. Sorry I didn't like this finale. To me it was a mess with too many timelines and characters all over the place that I couldn't follow anymore. Visions of hell, alternate timelines, it was just a little too much. I couldn't put the first two down in this series but I struggled to finish this one and that probably affected my understanding of the events as well. Wanted to like it but couldn't. Will hopefully read it again one day and maybe make more sense the 2nd time.
September 1, 2020
This book is good, but I don’t enjoy it as much as the first two. The plot is convoluted, and not every unanswered event in book 1 is resolved adequately. The story is often encumbered with excessive time travel technobabble nonsense, and I find certain elements, like the personal hell thing, insipid and cliche. The characterization is still neat, though Garak can be infuriating rather than endearing.
May 30, 2021
Be prepared to wrap your mind around all the shifting timelines. This was the last book in the series, and for me it kind of fizzled out at the end. I was like, this is the ending?! The first two books I gave 5 stars to, but this was weaker by far. It wasn’t a page turner like the previous books. Still glad I read the series though.
June 29, 2021
This one might have been the best of the 3. I particularly enjoyed how Jake and Nog were written. However, I have the same complaints from this one that I had from the first two. I also expected and was disappointed by the Prophets Deus Ex Machina ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 9, 2017
A whole novel after the end of the multiverse!!!
Fantastic story!!
Fantastic story!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2023
Gave up 200 pages in. The first two books in this series were really great, particularly the second one. This was a boring, convoluted mess. Pass.
August 8, 2024
The conclusion of the trilogy. I'm not real fond of this time travel, will we change the time line, has it already changed stuff.
January 12, 2025
As confusing, boring, and convoluted ending to an otherwise stellar series.
February 25, 2020
All the time travelling first gets annoying, then boring.
February 27, 2017
"I did everything I could," Sisko cried into the silence that engulfed him.
But everything he had ever done was for nothing.
Everything that had ever been was for nothing.
Zero seconds.
It was over. (p. 366, The War of the Prophets)
Well, it's over. The universe is kaput. The two Bajoran wormholes have collided and the very fabric of existence winked away, just as the Bajoran prophecies foretold. But the competing gods of Bajor, the Prophets and the Pah-Wraiths, are still fighting -- and while their cosmic struggle tarries for just a little while longer, hope lingers for what few survivors there are. In the final moments of the universe's existence, two ships entered the Bajoran wormholes, and were thus sheltered from oblivion. Aboard them are the crew of the Defiant, three 'emissaries', and a scattering of civilians. As surprised as most of them are to learn that the Bajoran prophecies came to past, the wormholes -- now, truly, the Celestial Temple -- also carry within them the space station Deep Space Nine, protected -- as with the ships -- inside a bubble of existence. Deep Space Nine still exists -- though in what timeframe, no one can be sure -- and by returning home, Sisko and his crew hope to change history and prevent the end of everything.
This is truly a wild series. The first novel contained an intriguing mystery that partially buds off the station's history, while the second throws the reader into a kind of fantasy/political drama. Inferno is another beast all together: a science fiction novel in which our characters try to figure out a way to restore existence from the past without actually changing the past: every timeline, every 'universe' is like one face of a diamond which is the multiverse, and if the multiverse itself is destroyed, nothing else matters. I like time travel stories, and this novel forces Sisko, Kira, O'Brian, Jadzia Dax, Worf, Jake Sisko, Quark, Garak, and others to scurry around the station while constantly shifting to various timeframes, trying to figure out some way of preventing history from repeating itself while being harried by two madmen, the Pah-Wraith possessed Gul Dukat and Kai Weyoun, infested by nanites that make him a loyal servant of the other Pah-Wraiths. Though this has been a series deep in Bajoran mythology, here it takes a backseat to temporal mechanics and a race against....well, time. True to form for a book about time travel, quite a few plot developments are counterintuitive and resolve -- or create -- some of the mysteries seen in the first book. The ending shocks even the characters. While this series isn't notable for the kind of intense character drama seen in say, David Mack's work, there are some golden scenes in here -- most notably, between Sisko and his son.
This series was written after the television show's end, and is set before "Tears of the Prophets", in which a canon Pah-Wraiths v. Prophets storyline erupts. (Jadzia Dax is killed there, while she's still alive and kicking here.) Foreshadowing for the rest of the sixth season and the whole of the seventh season abound, though they tend toward the depressing -- the writers allude to Jadzia's future death on several occasional throughout the series.
As good as I remembered. Though a different kind of epic story than Destiny, Millennium is grand storytelling in its own class.
But everything he had ever done was for nothing.
Everything that had ever been was for nothing.
Zero seconds.
It was over. (p. 366, The War of the Prophets)
Well, it's over. The universe is kaput. The two Bajoran wormholes have collided and the very fabric of existence winked away, just as the Bajoran prophecies foretold. But the competing gods of Bajor, the Prophets and the Pah-Wraiths, are still fighting -- and while their cosmic struggle tarries for just a little while longer, hope lingers for what few survivors there are. In the final moments of the universe's existence, two ships entered the Bajoran wormholes, and were thus sheltered from oblivion. Aboard them are the crew of the Defiant, three 'emissaries', and a scattering of civilians. As surprised as most of them are to learn that the Bajoran prophecies came to past, the wormholes -- now, truly, the Celestial Temple -- also carry within them the space station Deep Space Nine, protected -- as with the ships -- inside a bubble of existence. Deep Space Nine still exists -- though in what timeframe, no one can be sure -- and by returning home, Sisko and his crew hope to change history and prevent the end of everything.
This is truly a wild series. The first novel contained an intriguing mystery that partially buds off the station's history, while the second throws the reader into a kind of fantasy/political drama. Inferno is another beast all together: a science fiction novel in which our characters try to figure out a way to restore existence from the past without actually changing the past: every timeline, every 'universe' is like one face of a diamond which is the multiverse, and if the multiverse itself is destroyed, nothing else matters. I like time travel stories, and this novel forces Sisko, Kira, O'Brian, Jadzia Dax, Worf, Jake Sisko, Quark, Garak, and others to scurry around the station while constantly shifting to various timeframes, trying to figure out some way of preventing history from repeating itself while being harried by two madmen, the Pah-Wraith possessed Gul Dukat and Kai Weyoun, infested by nanites that make him a loyal servant of the other Pah-Wraiths. Though this has been a series deep in Bajoran mythology, here it takes a backseat to temporal mechanics and a race against....well, time. True to form for a book about time travel, quite a few plot developments are counterintuitive and resolve -- or create -- some of the mysteries seen in the first book. The ending shocks even the characters. While this series isn't notable for the kind of intense character drama seen in say, David Mack's work, there are some golden scenes in here -- most notably, between Sisko and his son.
This series was written after the television show's end, and is set before "Tears of the Prophets", in which a canon Pah-Wraiths v. Prophets storyline erupts. (Jadzia Dax is killed there, while she's still alive and kicking here.) Foreshadowing for the rest of the sixth season and the whole of the seventh season abound, though they tend toward the depressing -- the writers allude to Jadzia's future death on several occasional throughout the series.
As good as I remembered. Though a different kind of epic story than Destiny, Millennium is grand storytelling in its own class.
August 17, 2016
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
This was a huge epic and enjoyable. I spent almost all of it not understanding how Sisko was going to solve anything at all, if he had to sacrifice one or all of the time-castaways. I got very anxious reading parts... I almost wished the universe would just end and that they could not have saved it... and then... it did end...
Everyone was absolutely spot on. The Reeves-Stevens did a great job bringing such a mighty cast to life. And, if there's a MVP player, it's got to be be Garak. Everything from his point of view was outstandingly portrayed.
I have new respect for this tailor.
This was a huge epic and enjoyable. I spent almost all of it not understanding how Sisko was going to solve anything at all, if he had to sacrifice one or all of the time-castaways. I got very anxious reading parts... I almost wished the universe would just end and that they could not have saved it... and then... it did end...
Everyone was absolutely spot on. The Reeves-Stevens did a great job bringing such a mighty cast to life. And, if there's a MVP player, it's got to be be Garak. Everything from his point of view was outstandingly portrayed.
I have new respect for this tailor.
December 22, 2024
Rating this harshly because of how good the first two parts in this trilogy were. This story did the classic trope of going back to the pilot episode (think TNG: All Good Things, VOY: Relativity) which I always love. Unfortunately, there was too much book for not enough story, and by the third part everything was just spinning in place for 400 pages which was a chore to read.
The Reeves-Stevenses completely nail the characters and their voices though, and I will take any opportunity to hang out with Jadzia again, always.
The Reeves-Stevenses completely nail the characters and their voices though, and I will take any opportunity to hang out with Jadzia again, always.
February 10, 2014
This book was incredibly confusing. I don't mean in the normal "I don't know what's going on" sort of way, but in an "Oh, my brain has completely leaked out of my ears and I can't follow what is going on anymore". Having said all that, it was obvious in hindsight that was going to happen, given how the last book ended. I could not put it down, I had to see how it was going to end, and what was going to happen next. Or before. Still confused.
June 10, 2015
A convoluted mess of time-travel dictation. The first book of this series is the best, the second not so bad. This one, the third, is just dookie...the premise begins to tire...I skipped about the first hundred pages of filler about nightmare nonsense and the characters' personal Hells which had no affect on the story at all. Even after that it was tough to continue. I refused to finish about half way through.
Read
November 5, 2010There are some less than stellar review of this book and while, I agree, it is not as good as the first one or even the second, I didn't feel let down after reading. I let myself enjoy the story for what it was rather than nit-pick at the details. I have to say, I probably enjoyed it more for that reason. The bottom line is, it is a good read if you let be.
August 15, 2013
The trilogy continues with everybody now in limbo and trying to save the universe. Do not read this without reading the other books because it will make no sense at all to you. It does answer all questions from the first 2 books, and you do get a conclusion. It's not as edge of your seat as the others in the series. A good read.
January 4, 2016
I'd read these ones a long time ago, so I don't recall all the exact details, but I still remember bits of the series vividly and I can only say that I was enthralled by it. We had new plots, new enemies, and old characters driven to the brink of desperation. I definitely need to reread it at some point in the future.
August 13, 2016
This series has its flaws and I'm convinced it's not actually possible to completely follow the timey-wimey aspects of the story. And yet, I reread it periodically, because it provides such an interesting take on so many characters and, well, I'm always up for a good AU apocalypse.
May 27, 2012
A very solid ending to an epic trilogy. Lots of fan service, but it's included in a smart and meaningful manner.
June 21, 2017
orb of this, orb of that, orb of the other thing...and soem orbs of what? that we forgot about.
April 26, 2015
A decent end to a great trilogy.
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