By BWilliams / 12:44, 5 August 2005 / Reviews - Books

"Tell me, my friend, have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? I've always asked that of all my prey. I just like the sound of it." - the Joker to Bruce Wayne, BATMAN

Blame it all on Peter Allan Fields and Michael Taylor. They presented such a marvelous episode of DEEP SPACE NINE, entitled "In the Pale Moonlight", that was not only unconventional in its presentation but also emotionally complex to the point of forever scarring Benjamin Sisko to the core of his very being. In order to seek the Romulans' assistance in their war against the Dominion, Sisko turned to the duplicitous Elim Garak, former member of the Cardassian Obsidian Order turned 'simple"� tailor, to help falsify documentation of the Dominion's attempt to sabotage Romulan relations with the Federation. The death of Romulan senator Vreenak appeared to be the work of the Dominion, and as far as everyone else knew, that was enough to convince Starfleet and the Romulans to join forces. Sabotage, fraud, and death, all at the cost of Sisko's soul, morality, and conscience. But such costs are not heavily paid, nor are they easily absolved or comfortable to live with. With HOLLOW MEN, written by Una McCormack, the guilt finally catches up to Sisko, and it's time for him to face the music.

When Sisko is summoned to Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco to give a summary report of the incident, he brings Garak with him to attend the conference. Their uneasy journey from DS9 to Earth puts them at odds once again, and in the hands of other writers, this alone would make for such a compelling hour of television. But this is just the start of a tale that takes them straight to the heart of the Federation - talk about bringing the devil into the Garden of Eden "" where Sisko must not only answer up to his conscience, but a secret group of Starfleet operatives hope to use Garak for an even more sinister plot: assassinate a top-level Starfleet officer who has become outspoken against Starfleet's involvement in the Dominion War.

McCormack suitably captures the essences of Sisko and Garak throughout this novel, and had this been solely their story, this would have been a winner. And her development of the main antagonist at hand, Tomas Roeder, is equally multifaceted. But at times it seems the dialog and character thought is a bit lacking in its availability, and instead McCormack gives us a lot of locale and description that could have easily been trimmed without losing touch of the action at hand.

To balance the novel, McCormack creates a B-plot that has absolutely nothing to do with the main story at hand. If this were an episode of BONANZA, this would fall under the heading, 'Meanwhile, back at the ranch."�"� Back on Deep Space Nine, Odo has his hands full in monitoring the activities of an alien auctioneer whose presence the constable suspects as less than kind and up front. What starts out as an honest auction of rare goods from the far corners of the galaxy soon develops into a plot to rob not only the auctioneer but also his ship, as well as the entire station, of its gold-pressed latinum. While the B-plot nicely builds and keeps its action going, to me it had absolutely no relevance to the main and far more interesting story at hand.

HOLLOW MEN has a lot going for it with its main plot, but the B-plot just simply does not connect with Sisko and Garak's story. At 356 pages it's a bit bulky to balance out with a hodgepodge combination of two plots that have no connection to each other, where only the main plot seemed more than enough to satisfy the fans.

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