Cute children's story. The field trip leads to danger. The Cardassian's are the cause of the trouble of course. Jake and his friends save the day. They meet and befriend a new race. ( )

John Peel’s Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Field Trip is the sixth young adult novel featuring Jake Sisko and Nog. The series ran from 1994-1998 and is analogous to the Starfleet Academy series published under the Star Trek: The Next Generation banner from 1993-1998, under the Star Trek: The Original Series banner in 1996, and under the Star Trek: Voyager banner in 1997. Unlike those series, which explore the backstories of the series’ main cast for the young adult market (sometimes contradicting other books or later episodes of the respective television series), this work takes place concurrent with the second season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, when the Cardassians were a recurring vague antagonist and the Dominion War had not yet begun.

Field Trip focuses on Keiko O’Brien taking her students on a camping trip through the Wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. There, a Cardassian raider shoots down their runabout. It’s up to Jake, Nog, and the other students to hold out while awaiting rescue and defend themselves against the Cardassian search party, using the resources available to them from the crash and the unique plant life on the planet. There, the class meet a species called the Trofar, whom the Cardassians bonded with technology in order to use them as spies and saboteurs. When they meet the first, Lek, he says, “Trofar I am… A planet far, far away our home is” (pg. 82). In this reverse syntax and early theft of technology, one cannot help but compare the Trofars to another science-fiction franchise experiencing a resurgence in popularity in the mid-1990s. The story features illustrations from Todd Cameron Hamilton that perfectly capture the main characters’ likenesses and are works of art in their own right.

If Field Trip is representative of the series, the Deep Space Nine young adult books are well-crafted stories that both accurately capture the tone of the first two seasons of the show and offer something entertaining for readers. At 12 books, this series was second only to the Star Trek: The Next Generation: Starfleet Academy series’ 14 numbered novels, with both far exceeding the other two Starfleet Academy series’ respective three each. Though this book is now twenty-three years old, it will still entertain younger readers watching the 1990s-era Star Trek series for the first time. ( )