(no subject)
Dear Internet,
Where does one go to say "This random Star Trek franchise novel I picked up at the airport and just read was AMAZING"?
When I picked up The Never-Ending Sacrifice I assumed it was a very risky proposition, but I was actually completely wrong about what it was. I flipped through the book in a cursory fashion and didn't really read the back, and so I assumed that someone had published a version of the Cardassian classic, which seemed like the worst idea ever. So naturally I had to buy it.
But instead it's this poignant novel about Cardassia, spanning from the episode "Cardassians" from the second season of Deep Space Nine to a year or so after the end of season seven.
The first several chapters seemed pretty short and cursory, but it really settled in as Rugal, the little boy from the episode, learns to accept, and even love Cardassia, in the begrudging way of someone raised on Bajor.
The book's been tugging at my brain a little bit all week, but I still wasn't completely bought in until Rugal gets enlisted in the Dominion War, about halfway through. The rest was breathtaking--life as a Cardassian soldier, the growing realization that the Cardiassians aren't the Dominion's allies but its servants, and then the heartbreaking reconstruction efforts after the war ends.
I already have an ongoing obsession with post-war Cardassia fic, and although Rugal spends very little time on Prime after the war ends, this book definitely fed it as much as or more than my favorite fics in the genre (Letters from the Northern Continent for instance.)
The Cardassians are my favorite set of Trek aliens. They start out full stop as villains and never stop, but they're understandable villains, driven by insecurity and paranoia and ego, and the desire to subsume all those things to the state. Even when they're at their worst they are never an alien threat, but a completely human one (it's pretty appropriate that the book eventually puts the Cardassian embassy on earth is in the old Nazi headquarters in Paris). For all the time that Garak and Bashir spend talking about how different humans and Cardassians are, its the fact they're human in a terrifying way (completely different from the farce of the Ferengi) that makes them so intriguing.
And wow, this book gets that. Rugal's youthful rebellion against the state, Kotan's failed attempts to work through the bureaucracy to overcome political corruption, the fear of abandonment and enmity against one's neighbor that take over the entire quadrant after the war--they're all entirely recognizable.
And the bright spots are recognizable too--the dissident artwork cleverly disguised as government propaganda. The camaraderie of the soldiers even as they realize that their government has sold them out and they've been left to die. The slowly-aggregating trust between the families on Ithic despite their racial differences.
Um, and also I LOVE ELIM GARAK. But I think you already knew that.
In other news I am on a ferry between Ireland and England. It is James Joyce-themed.
This entry was originally posted at http://epershand.dreamwidth.org/5888.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Where does one go to say "This random Star Trek franchise novel I picked up at the airport and just read was AMAZING"?
When I picked up The Never-Ending Sacrifice I assumed it was a very risky proposition, but I was actually completely wrong about what it was. I flipped through the book in a cursory fashion and didn't really read the back, and so I assumed that someone had published a version of the Cardassian classic, which seemed like the worst idea ever. So naturally I had to buy it.
But instead it's this poignant novel about Cardassia, spanning from the episode "Cardassians" from the second season of Deep Space Nine to a year or so after the end of season seven.
The first several chapters seemed pretty short and cursory, but it really settled in as Rugal, the little boy from the episode, learns to accept, and even love Cardassia, in the begrudging way of someone raised on Bajor.
The book's been tugging at my brain a little bit all week, but I still wasn't completely bought in until Rugal gets enlisted in the Dominion War, about halfway through. The rest was breathtaking--life as a Cardassian soldier, the growing realization that the Cardiassians aren't the Dominion's allies but its servants, and then the heartbreaking reconstruction efforts after the war ends.
I already have an ongoing obsession with post-war Cardassia fic, and although Rugal spends very little time on Prime after the war ends, this book definitely fed it as much as or more than my favorite fics in the genre (Letters from the Northern Continent for instance.)
The Cardassians are my favorite set of Trek aliens. They start out full stop as villains and never stop, but they're understandable villains, driven by insecurity and paranoia and ego, and the desire to subsume all those things to the state. Even when they're at their worst they are never an alien threat, but a completely human one (it's pretty appropriate that the book eventually puts the Cardassian embassy on earth is in the old Nazi headquarters in Paris). For all the time that Garak and Bashir spend talking about how different humans and Cardassians are, its the fact they're human in a terrifying way (completely different from the farce of the Ferengi) that makes them so intriguing.
And wow, this book gets that. Rugal's youthful rebellion against the state, Kotan's failed attempts to work through the bureaucracy to overcome political corruption, the fear of abandonment and enmity against one's neighbor that take over the entire quadrant after the war--they're all entirely recognizable.
And the bright spots are recognizable too--the dissident artwork cleverly disguised as government propaganda. The camaraderie of the soldiers even as they realize that their government has sold them out and they've been left to die. The slowly-aggregating trust between the families on Ithic despite their racial differences.
Um, and also I LOVE ELIM GARAK. But I think you already knew that.
In other news I am on a ferry between Ireland and England. It is James Joyce-themed.
This entry was originally posted at http://epershand.dreamwidth.org/5888.html. Please comment there using OpenID.