aceman67

Since the image uploading script for the review section is currently broke, I am unable to post this review there, so I picked my journal.


Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Never Ending Sacrifice
Pocket Books Mass-market Paperback
Written by Una McCormack

Introduction & Opening Summary

Some of you who have known me for a little while know that I'm a little bit of a Star Trek fan. I've been one for about as long as I can remember, long before I found this little thing called ‘Anime’.

I have a pretty expansive Star Trek book collection (40+ novels), and I’ve seen every episode of Star Trek The Next Generation and the four series that have been released since then. My favorite series out of all of them, is of course, the setting of the book I am reviewing now, Star Trek Deep Space Nine. This series stood apart from the others because they dared to do something different: Instead of Boldly Going, they boldly stayed. The series showed for the first time, that the utopian universe that Gene Roddenberry created wasn’t perfect. It shows that the Federation wasn’t invincible (i.e. The Dominion War), Captains were human, and thus prone to failings that accompany being human. It showed that Humanity, even in the 24th century, was still selfish, still capable of greed and violence, and the rest of the universe wasn’t so much different from us.

This book really needs an introduction into the entirety of the series of Deep Space Nine, since it covers a time period from the show’s second season (The episode “Cardassians” specifically.) all the way up too and beyond the series’ end in its seventh season. It’s also primarily a multi-faceted love story. It’s about the love for country, for family, for heritage, for meaning, and lastly, for the things we desire, but just seem to be over the horizon, just out of reach. Not many novels can get me hooked to the point that I finish it in under ten hours. That being said, it’s unlike any Trek novel I’ve read to date. I’ll touch more on this later.

Deep Space Nine (DS9) has three main story arcs: Bajor recovering from a 50 year occupation by Cardassia and preparing for admittance into the Federation, The Emissary (Captain Benjamin Sisko) and the prophet’s (wormhole aliens) plan for him, and the Dominion and the threat they pose to the Alpha Quadrant.

The Cardassian occupation of Bajor was brutal and bloody. For 50 years, the Cardassians attempted to strip the planet of its resources, and it wasn’t until the Bajoran resistance caused enough damage to them that it was finally untenable for them to continue, so they left. The occupation left millions dead, and many children orphaned, Bajoran and Cardassian alike.

And so enters the main Character of “The Never Ending Sacrifice”: Rugal, a Cardassian boy adopted by an elderly Bajoran couple who had lost their only child to the occupation. Since the Cardassians brutally oppressed the Bajoran, the idea of a Bajoran adopting a Cardassian child wasn’t something highly thought of. This caused troubles for Rugal’s adoptive parents, who had trouble holding down jobs, and having to move place to place because of it.
Father and Son decide to go to Deep Space Nine to see if they could make a fresh start on the station, thinking that since it was Cardassian built, but Bajoran/Starfleet run, their odd family would be able to fit in.
In Quark’s bar, the only other Cardassian on the station, Garak, decided to introduce himself to Rugal, having not had much contact with his own people since his exile from Cardassia Prime. He placed his hand on his shoulder, and the young boy, having been raised on a planet that hated Cardassians and around the results of the occupation, came to hate everything Cardassian. So he bit him.

The unwanted attention brought about by this raised questions as to whether or not the adoptive father was fit to raise the boy. Then it came to light that Rugal’s father was still alive, and he was a prominent political councilman on Cardassia Prime. Naturally Rugal’s natural father wanted to bring the boy home with him. This lead to a custody hearing, and during this, it came to light that night Rugal’s mother was killed on Bajor, Gul Dukat secretly arranged the attack that killed his mother, and for Rugal to be kidnapped while making it appear that the boy had died. He did this so that he could cause pain to his political rival, Rugal’s father. Ultimately, it was ruled that Rugal would return to Cardassia with his father.

Conclusion

The rest of the novel follows the life of Rugal as he attempts to fit on a planet that he doesn’t know and doesn’t fit in, and gives a very detailed look into what being Cardassian really is like. It touches on every major event throughout the Deep Space Nine and how it personally affected Rugal, since his father was in the center of Cardassian politics, so was he.

As I stated above, this is unlike any Trek novel I’ve read to date, and I can plainly say that its one of the best.

The way Una McCormack wrote the book, from the perspective of someone relating a story to someone else, is what I like the most. I love character driven tales, and the amount of passionate attachment that she brought to the whole host of characters throughout the book was amazing and incredibly detailed.

This isn’t a novel for people who like battles, who love ‘Trek-no’ babble. This is a novel about Love, injustice, political intrigue, family feuds, and the grim realities of war and oppression, and destruction and sadness it leaves in its wake.

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Zev

You know, the book doesn't sound as appealing as the show was. I'd better not read it or I might be disappointed, because Deep Space Nine is my favorite out of the many Star Trek shows.

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beast

I have never read any of the novels. I think the star wars expanded universe destroyed my taste for the expanded universe thing, but I might give it another try now.

aceman67

I loved DS9 and this book only added to it. It expanded the DS9 universe for me by showing just what it was to be Cardassian, the main 'villians' from the show. It answered alot of questions for me as well, like why Cardassians did the the things they did, why they acted the way they did. Other then using DS9 and some of its characters as a backdrop, it largely stands on its own, with its own characters and its own story. Trust me, you'll enjoy the book.

There are some novels that Would agree with you on, Peter David's "Before Dishonor" being one of them, which is really disappointing since David is one of my favorite Trek Authors.

But if you want to get into reading the Trek Expanded universe, here's a list of novels to get started on, in the best chronological order I can put them in:
Star Trek Voyager
• Homecoming
• The Farther Shore
• Sprit Walk Part 1 & 2
Star Trek TNG (This set of 9 books is possibly the best out of all of them, and is the most important to read as well. It sets up the entire political back drop for the rest of the books to follow, As well as setting up the crew for Star Trek Nemesis, and actually gave me a better understanding on the events that took place in the film)
• A Time To be Born
• A Time To Die
• A Time to Sow
• A time to Harvest
• A Time to Love
• A Time to Hate
• A Time to Kill
• A Time to Heal
• A Time for War, A Time for Peace
Articles of the Federation (this book and the first Titan book can be switched if you want)
Star Trek Titan
• Taking Wing
• The Red King
• Orion’s Hound
• The Sword of Damocles
Star Trek TNG
• Death in Winter
• Resistance
• Greater than the Sum
• Before Dishonor
Star Trek Destiny
• Gods of Night
• Mere Mortals
• Lost Souls
Star Trek A Singular Destiny

Star Trek Voyager
• Full Circle
Star Trek Titan
• Over a Torrent Sea
Star Trek TNG
• Losing the Peace

The Deep Space Nine novels don't really 'need' to be read to understand. The series really stood apart from the rest. If you want to read them, I would suggest picking up the two Omnibus' currently released which covers Avatar Book 1 and 2, Section 31: Abyss, Gateway: Demons of Air and Darkness, Horn and Ivory, and Twilight, then follow that up with Cathedral, Lesser Evil, Rising Son, Unity (This novel covers Bajor being admitted into the Federation), Worlds of DS9 Volumes 2 and 3 (Volume two especially, the story about Trill had vast impact on the Political structure of the quadrant)

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