Sacraments of Fire: It has the unfortunate necessity of being the middle part of a large story (that will be hopefully resolved in December) But it puts a lot of pieces in play. 

There’s two settings for this Novel: 2377 (so pre-destiny, pre-Nemesis pre-Voyager returning home) and 2385 (starting days after the Assassination of Nan Bacco and running a few months after). Let’s do 77 first

Sacraments of Fire brought back to the centre a character that has not been seen in a few years: Taran’atar, the Jem’Hadar Odo sent to watch over Kira back at the beginning of the post-series novels. It does many things well for those who haven’t read Rising Son, Warpath and The Soul Key in some time, like reintroducing us to the crew of the Even Odds, reestablishing just who was Iliana Ghemor and new role (and how terrible Dukat was to her and he never ever was a good guy even when he was pretending to be one), and with a promise to finally see what happened with the Ascendants a growing threat that then wasn’t when the DS9 storyline jumped ahead a few years. We might also see what happened to turn Captain Kira in Vedek Kira (and Vedek Kira’s current role as the Prophet’s Hand so far has been to make sure things happen the way they are supposed to, her arrival on the Even Odds set all of this in motion). The last scene also made me realize that this series has made me care over the years about Elias Vaughn, a novel-only character introduced way back in Avatar as DS9′s new XO under then-Colonel Kira, a fit centenarian with a shady past in Starfleet Intellligence (who was also in a couple of the Lost Era books). Anyhoo over the years his arc was well developped but his last few appearances he was either comatose, a spirit guide and finally dead. So seeing him back on the old DS9 was nice.

Iliana Ghemor’s revenge story is about what you’d expect, she’s pretty much focused solely on that but patient and smart enough to use the Ascendants for her purposes, she appeared as they prophecied and is ready to rain down destruction on Bajor. The Ascendants remain interesting but Iliana’s lost some characterization (but then single-minded focus on revenge will do that).

The 2385 one has several plotlines going: Odo learns of a Starfleet facility that is holding something that might be a changeling, but they aren’t sure and he’s more than eager to find out. whatever it is it’s big and that plot, after the Ascendant fleet comes tearing through the Wormhole, the the most immediate in needing a resolution (my bet is that it’s a piece of the Progenitor but we’ll see). Odo is still very much a being without a nation, there’s no Great Link and he’s unsure as to whether any of the reforms he’s tried to do in the Dominion are taking hold but he’s getting to a point where he wants to find out.

Sisko, Kasidy and their now 9 yo daughter are in a good place. After some rumbling from the Tzenkethi Sisko’s ship is finally going on its two-to-three year exploration mission he’s been pushing for. Kasidy’s working with the diplomatic team btw and they’ve worked hard to repair their relationship. Sisko still has some PTSD that cracks through, 20 years later after losing Jennifer, and it’s addressed nicely here.

Ro meanwhile has to deal with bringing the new DS9 to full operational status after the assassination and with the arrival of an unexpected guest from the last novel, who came through an orb and is from deep in Bajor’s past (but still a doctor, gotta remember that Bajoran civilization stretches some 50K years). There’s meaty stuff about keeping him locked up for more than three days since he wasn’t charged with a crime but he appeared right after the assassination with a weapon similar to the one the killer used. He’ll eventually earn their trust but. Blackmer, Cenn each have their own issues and failings to deal with in the meantime, one coming out of his while the other going down to a crisis of faith (was it abrupt on the latter? yes. Could it happen like that? you betcha.)

The novel’s moving ahead of three months is a double edged sword, the plot gets to move forward and we get to see Altek Dans assmiliating to his new environment. But the novel has to also spend some time what’s happened in the meantime with Bashir, the Federation and where it works with the 77 segmentsit does so less here, but just maybe because I read those much more recently. 

In short (and there’s many more little subplots like Quark searching for Morn, Nog trying to bring Vic Fontaine back online) The novel sets out to bring back a dropped storyline and incorporate it into the current novelverse and makes it work. Eagerly awaiting Ascendance.