- For other uses, see Revenant.
Revenant is a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel by Alex White. It was released in December 2021, with an audiobook adaptation released the same year. It is set during the DS9 television series, with a focus on Jadzia Dax.
Description
- An all-new novel based on the landmark TV series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from the acclaimed author of A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe!
Back cover text
- Jadzia Dax has been a friend to Etom Prit, the Trill Trade Commissioner, over two lifetimes. When Etom visits Deep Space Nine with the request to rein in his wayward granddaughter Nemi, Dax can hardly say no. It seems like an easy assignment: visit a resort casino while on shore leave, and then bring her old friend Nemi home. But upon arrival, Dax finds Nemi has changed over the years in terrifying ways… and the pursuit of the truth will plunge Dax headlong into a century's worth of secrets and lies!
Summary
An old friend of the Dax symbiont, Commerce Commissioner Etom Prit, visits Deep Space 9 on a Trill trade mission. He invites Jadzia Dax to dinner and tells her of a bad situation with Jadzia's old friend Nemi Prit, Etom's granddaughter. Nemi washed out of the initiate program for joining and ran away. Dax initially declines, but reconsiders after she has a disturbing vision of Nemi and her old wayward host, Joran Dax. Julian Bashir recommends she take some time off because of problems with her isoboramine levels, which might be related to the visions. Dax takes shore leave and follows Etom's information to find Nemi in a casino on Argelius II. Nemi declines Dax's invitation to talk about why she ran away, and Dax forces the issue by playing against her at the gambling tables. Nemi retreats to her rooms, and Dax follows, climbing up to Nemi's accommodations. The two struggle and Dax, fearing she injured Nemi, scans her body and finds she is dead, but has signs of having been joined with a symbiont. Nemi strikes back with symbiont electricity, paralyzing Dax and escaping Argelius.
Dax must follow the trail of her friend's body to find a horrifying intrigue of murderous symbionts…
References
Characters
- Julian Bashir • Bentis Brac • Rae Burx • Dax symbiont (Audrid Dax • Curzon Dax • Jadzia Dax • Joran Dax • Torias Dax) • Seval Gep • Colin Hart • Lowan Hoq • Aia Keteel • Kira Nerys • Lindros • Bani Moxern • Olome • Nemi Prit • Etom Prit • Renhol • Keisha Rush • Benjamin Sisko • Jake Sisko • Sisson • Vess symbiont (Elta Vess, Vess revenants) • Worf • unnamed Andorians (tongo player) • unnamed Grazerites (tongo players) • unnamed Argelians (Luminoxi) • unnamed Ferengi (tongo dealer) • unnamed Trill (the trade mission, Trill guard, Trill police, Path of Sky Institute guests, Prit Mansion security, Vess revenants)
- Referenced only
- Emony Dax • Sameron Hoq/Sameron Vess • Koal • Keet Lynketa • Noodles • Ansendella Nyfeh • Nyfeh symbiont • Odo • Illia Sobel • Quark • Yonet Ru'xol • Enina Tandro • Ardelon Tandro
Worf.
Starships and vehicles
- Amity (commercial cruiser) • USS Rio Grande (Danube-class runabout) • USS Sandpiper (science vessel) • Steadfast (Trill starship) • yacht
- Referenced only
- CDS Ravinok • star freighter
Locations
- Deep Space 9 (Denorios Belt, Bajor system, Bajor sector, Beta Ursae sector block, the galaxy's Alpha Quadrant)
- Avendawn & Marble Hill Plaza (Luminox, Argelius II, Ciatella star system, Argelius sector, Tau Ceti Quadrant, Regulus sector block, the galaxy's Beta Quadrant)
- Trill (Trill system, Sector Trill, the galaxy's Alpha Quadrant)
- Referenced only
- Earth
Planetary locations
- Trillius Prime capital cities Leran Manev/Mak'ala
- Caves of Mak'ala • Trill Central Archives • Trill Symbiosis Commission • Prit's mansion • Starfleet science outpost
Pools at the Caves of Mak'ala.
Station sections
Races and cultures
- Andorian • Argelian • Bajoran • Bolian • Ferengi • Grazerite • Human • Klingon • Trill • Trill symbiont
- Referenced only
- Cardassian • Vulcan
States and organizations
- Bajoran Militia • Bajoran Provisional Government • Kael'tach • Path of Sky institute • Starfleet • Trill Shipwrights' Council • Trill Symbiosis Commission • United Federation of Planets
- Referenced only
- Klingon Defense Force • Klingon Empire
Science and classification
- anatomy • biomatter matrix • biomedicine • communications • electricity • energy • geography • LCARS • lifeform • light • matter • medicine • space • star • star system • statistics • subspace • subspace disruption • technology • time • universe • warp dynamics • weapon
Geography
Lifeforms
Anatomy
Materials and substances
- alcohol • benzocyatizine • biomatter • blood • cobblestone • drink • food • glass • hallucinogen • isoboramine • kemocite • latinum • salt • tissue paper • water
Food and drink
- Argelian sweet bun • bloodwine • butter • chutney • cordial • dough • fruit • grain • gumbo • honey • lida • lidashk • liquor • meat • pizza • sugar • tea • Vulcan port
Measurement
Technology and weapons
- arcsuit • biobed • bat'leth • combadge • drill • fountain • grill • holosuite • isolinear rod • lamp • lantern • makra machine • PADD • phaser • sail • sensors • space station • spaceship • sunglasses • sword • transporter • tricorder • warp drive
Occupations and titles
- captain • chef • chief medical officer • chief science officer • commanding officer • commerce commissioner • commissioner • docent • doctor • double agent • Federation Starfleet ranks • Federation Starfleet ranks (2370s-2380s) • field docent • first officer • initiate • liaison officer • lieutenant • lieutenant commander • major • medic • medical officer • nurse • officer • rank • science officer • strategic operations officer • trade commissioner
Other references
- art • bar • baseball • book • boot • business • café • camping • candle • cards • casino • casino chips • chemise • chief city • city • clothing • clutch • college • commerce • cooking • corridor • credit • cryptochit • dancing • death • dice • dinner • diplomacy • duffel • economy • emotion • espionage • flower • foot • gambling • game • garden • ghost • government • gown • hair • homeworld • hull • initiate program • journal • jumpsuit • Klingon martial arts • law • leaf • literature • lunch • martial arts • memory • money • murder • music • mystery • nation-state • outpost • pier • poetry • quarters • races and cultures • ribbon • school • science • security • sheets • shore leave • smuggler • starbase • Starfleet uniform • Starfleet uniform (2373-2380s) • swinsuit • therapy • time ghost • title • tongo • torture • towel • trade • trade mission • Trill host • t'Sang • uniform • vine • World Series • zhian'tara
Chronology
- 1959 World Series
- A baseball World Series game of this year was recounted by Benjamin Sisko at dinner.
- 2368/2369
- Jadzia's last encounter with Nemi. (Three years prior)
- 2371
- Jadzia Dax learns of the Dax symbiont's failed bonding with Joran. (DS9 episode: "Equilibrium")
- 2372
- Jadzia Dax's dinner with Etom Prit aboard his ship.
Appendices
Related media
- DS9 episode & novelization: Emissary (DS9 season 1)
- DS9 episode: "Dax" (DS9 season 1)
- DS9 episode: "Playing God" (DS9 season 2)
- DS9 episode: "Equilibrium" (DS9 season 3)
- DS9 episode: "Facets" (DS9 season 3)
- DS9 episode & novelization: The Way of the Warrior (DS9 season 4)
- DS9 episode: "Field of Fire" (DS9 season 7)
- TOS episode & Star Trek 8 novelization: Wolf in the Fold: Dax considers the easygoing nature of Argelians compared to their barbaric past (and the justice system that carries forward from that past).
Background
- This novel was announced in late 2020, along with the TNG novel: Shadows Have Offended. An excerpt was published on StarTrek.com on 21 October 2021.
- This is the first novel to be set during the DS9 television series era since Hollow Men in 2005.
- The Historian's Note of Revenant places the story in 2372, during DS9 season 4 between the DS9 episode & novelization: The Way of the Warrior and DS9 episode: "Indiscretion".
- Comments from the author:
- "It was funny because I'd often told my agent like, 'I don't think I could write for Star Trek, there's just so much to know and so much canon.' When he called and was like, 'Yeah, they want you to write for Star Trek,' I was like, 'I don't know about this because I really only know about Dax in Deep Space Nine and I don't think they're still making those books.' And he said, "Good news, they're totally making those books and that's exactly what they want you to write." [1]
- "From there, it was like, if I'm going to do a Dax book, first of all, we wanted to go watch a list of all the greatest hits of Dax. I really loved seeing her evolve, Jadzia was my first Dax. When you have a character who's Trill, you can't resist doing a multi-life storyline and I think that's something that I would've enjoyed seeing a lot more exploration done on in the series. Unfortunately, I think they killed off a character that a lot of us really appreciated, but I love that kind of stuff. I love Dax going on trial for murder from a previous life and things like that. I always thought those were really cool questions to ask. One of the things I like about her is that she's a really positive character, but she's not a pushover in any way. She's so smart that you have to work harder as a writer to be as smart as she is, which is great because I have unlimited time to come up with one-liners, right? I can sit there and stare for a long time, but it's difficult because a lot of characters rely on cynicism or betrayal or sort of these darker, more negative emotions to generate their interests. Jadzia is an interesting character because she's so unequivocally good and friendly and cool and helpful, but she's still not perfect. Trying to balance that is tough because she's really not like other characters. She's the kind of person I think a lot of us would really like to know". [2]
- "One of the things that I like about Kira is that she is a resistance fighter. When I was just getting out of high school, I worked at this place where there was a woman who had fought in a revolution. I didn't know that at the time, but she was this very cool, awesome, professional woman that I really looked up to and then one day it came up that she'd been in a revolution. And I completely recontextualized her. I feel like there's a lot of that same energy with Kira for me where everybody thinks of her as, 'Oh, you're station operations, you keep the trains running, and all this other stuff.' And it's like, yeah, there's a lot though that's going on. She's been through some things, man. So it's funny because her attitude, I think, towards the world is a lot more… the rules are more malleable for her than for other characters. I really appreciate having her around for when those rules need to be broken a little bit". [3]
- "Absolutely, I would love to write more Trill stories because they're so interesting and the implications in them are so interesting, but I've always enjoyed all the different cultural perspectives in Star Trek. And I think that you can really just point to any of the myriad colorful worlds that have been created and say “what happens there” and you can find a novel pretty quickly. So, my two cents is it would be pretty easy to write some more Star Trek books." [4]
- "That's one of the greatest stories, the Jadzia-Worf love story. I set the novel at the beginning of that, right before that, because I love that tension… And it was also really great to make references to the budding relationship between her and Worf [5]
- "You can’t write about the Trill with any seriousness without seeing the cracks in what they’re doing with the Joined. While it appears benevolent, there is a state organization choosing who gets to be prized as part of the Trill cultural memory, and who is excluded. Curzon Dax proved that the system was fully corruptible, and how could it be anything else? I see this as being really similar to the American educational system, which canonizes so-called “Western” cultural contributions while minimizing the involvement of everyone who fails to match the narratives of power. I was raised in the American South, where I was given a propagandist education that lionized slavers and whitewashed our history. Revenant’s truly heavy topic is this, however: If you want something more than anything else in the world, and a predator understands that about you, they can subvert your will. We see this behavior in film and television, in publishing, in corporate life, in academia, and more, and it makes me sick. I think of the creators who sleep with their starstruck fans, of agents and editors who target aspiring authors, and I want to warn people. Everyone in Revenant is used for their ambition–Jadzia, Joran, Curzon and even the villain are tricked by predators who take advantage and consume them. Revenant exists because I felt that Deep Space Nine didn’t go far enough litigating what Curzon did to Jadzia. I think those issues are pretty timeless, sadly" [6]
Images
Connections
Timeline
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous novel: The Long Mirage |
DS9 unnumbered novels | Next novel: The Peacemakers |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous Adventure: Hippocratic Oath |
Deep Space Nine Adventures | Next Adventure: Indiscretion |
External link
- Revenant (novel) article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
