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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The Never Ending Sacrifice
Continuing the post-television Deep Space Nine saga, this original novel shows the fall of the Cardassian empire as seen through the eyes of a young man with a foot in two worlds.
Rugal is an orphaned Cardassian who has been raised by the people his race once conquered, the Bajorans. Reluctantly repatriated to Cardassia as a teenager, Rugal becomes the living witness to the downfall of the proud people to whom he was born, first by the invading Klingons, then during the Cardassians’ unholy pact with the Dominion—a partnership that culminated in a near-genocide. Through it all, Rugal’s singular perspective illuminates the choices that brought the Cardassians to their ruin...even as he learns that the Cardassian soul is not as easy to understand as he imagined.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 2009
About the author
Una McCormack
91 books334 followersUna McCormack is a British writer and the author of several Star Trek novels and stories.
Ms. McCormack is a New York Times bestselling author. She has written four Doctor Who novels: The King's Dragon and The Way through the Woods (featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory); Royal Blood (featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara), and Molten Heart (featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham). She is also the author of numerous audio dramas for Big Finish Productions.
Ms. McCormack is a New York Times bestselling author. She has written four Doctor Who novels: The King's Dragon and The Way through the Woods (featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory); Royal Blood (featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara), and Molten Heart (featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham). She is also the author of numerous audio dramas for Big Finish Productions.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
November 17, 2018
Review can also be found at Dana and the Books.
The Never Ending Sacrifice is definitely one of — if not THE —best Star Trek novel out there. It's also one of my favourite books I've read in 2018.
I will be honest though, I wouldn't have read The Never Ending Sacrifice had it not been the September Trek Book Club selection. Even so, I was a bit weary going into it because it focused on Rugal, a one-off Cardassian character from early on in Deep Space Nine. How exciting could that be?
Holy crap was I wrong
The Never Ending Sacrifice is a goddamn masterpiece.
It's an historical epic that just so happens to be set on another planet.
Everything about this book breaks the mould of what you'd expect from a Star Trek novel. It takes place over years instead of just a few days or weeks. The main character appeared in just one episode ("Cardassians" from season two), though we do get cameos from the characters we know and love. Even the cover isn't a typical Star Trek book cover featuring a starship or floating heads of a recognizable Trek characters. This one is bleak and alien, featuring the cityscape of Cardassia Prime.
The plot ties in nicely with the events of the Dominion War. We get mentions and glimpses of things that happened on the show, but it doesn't overshadow or cheapen Rugal's plight. These bits could have felt unnecessary and included just for the sake of name dropping, but it feels genuine and enhances his story rather than take away the focus.
You don't have to be a Star Trek fan to love this book
You will care about Rugal and his journey regardless of your prior knowledge of Star Trek. At it's core, it's a fantastic coming of age story following the struggles of a young man brought up by "the enemy" and finding his place in a war torn Cardassia. To top it all off, it's beautifully written and plotted.
This is my first Una McCormack book and is most certainly not going to be my last (excuse me while I devour everything she's ever written).
I also had the pleasure of meeting Una at Destination Star Trek! She and James Swallow were fantastic panelists on the Star Trek Book Talk. Afterwards I got my copy of Enigma Tales signed while I awkwardly gushed about how much I loved The Never Ending Sacrifice.
She also has a Star Trek Discovery book featuring Tilly which comes out January 2019.
Honestly, I can't harass you enough to read this book. Please read it!
Book Links: Book Depository | Amazon US | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
The Never Ending Sacrifice is definitely one of — if not THE —best Star Trek novel out there. It's also one of my favourite books I've read in 2018.
I will be honest though, I wouldn't have read The Never Ending Sacrifice had it not been the September Trek Book Club selection. Even so, I was a bit weary going into it because it focused on Rugal, a one-off Cardassian character from early on in Deep Space Nine. How exciting could that be?
Holy crap was I wrong
The Never Ending Sacrifice is a goddamn masterpiece.
It's an historical epic that just so happens to be set on another planet.
Everything about this book breaks the mould of what you'd expect from a Star Trek novel. It takes place over years instead of just a few days or weeks. The main character appeared in just one episode ("Cardassians" from season two), though we do get cameos from the characters we know and love. Even the cover isn't a typical Star Trek book cover featuring a starship or floating heads of a recognizable Trek characters. This one is bleak and alien, featuring the cityscape of Cardassia Prime.
The plot ties in nicely with the events of the Dominion War. We get mentions and glimpses of things that happened on the show, but it doesn't overshadow or cheapen Rugal's plight. These bits could have felt unnecessary and included just for the sake of name dropping, but it feels genuine and enhances his story rather than take away the focus.
You don't have to be a Star Trek fan to love this book
You will care about Rugal and his journey regardless of your prior knowledge of Star Trek. At it's core, it's a fantastic coming of age story following the struggles of a young man brought up by "the enemy" and finding his place in a war torn Cardassia. To top it all off, it's beautifully written and plotted.
This is my first Una McCormack book and is most certainly not going to be my last (excuse me while I devour everything she's ever written).
I also had the pleasure of meeting Una at Destination Star Trek! She and James Swallow were fantastic panelists on the Star Trek Book Talk. Afterwards I got my copy of Enigma Tales signed while I awkwardly gushed about how much I loved The Never Ending Sacrifice.
She also has a Star Trek Discovery book featuring Tilly which comes out January 2019.
Honestly, I can't harass you enough to read this book. Please read it!
Book Links: Book Depository | Amazon US | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
May 18, 2020
The Never Ending Sacrifice is a huge departure from typical Trek fiction and an unexpected delight. It tells the deeply touching and personal tale of Rugal, a character who appears on only one episode of the DS9 series, which served to highlight some of the difficult personal tragedies resulting from the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. A few of the recurring characters from the series do make brief appearances - Garak, Miles and Keiko O'Brien, Dukat and his daughter Ziyal - but the focus is really on Rugal and his own experiences apart from DS9.
At the outset, Rugal, an adolescent Cardassian boy who was born and orphaned on Bajor and adopted by Bajoran parents, is forcibly returned to Cardassia Prime to his biological father. Rugal brings an outsider's perspective to life on Cardassia. In many ways he is unable to adjust, chafing at the rigid, hierarchical society and the secretive nature of its people who embrace obfuscation over openness, and who exploit and compete with others rather than share resources and work together for the collective good. In many ways it is the opposite of the Bajoran society that he longs to return to. The story follows Rugal's trials and tribulations against the backdrop of some major political and cultural upheaval, including the Dominion war and resulting devastation.
The Never Ending Sacrifice is both a touching story and an intriguing look at harsh Cardassian society from the inside. In some ways, this is a coming of age tale, as Rugal matures and slowly comes to both embrace as well as detest aspects of his heritage. It's one of the best pieces of Trek literature out there, certainly on par with Enigma Tales, another excellent book from McCormack focused on the rebuilding of Cardassia after the devastation of the Dominion war.
At the outset, Rugal, an adolescent Cardassian boy who was born and orphaned on Bajor and adopted by Bajoran parents, is forcibly returned to Cardassia Prime to his biological father. Rugal brings an outsider's perspective to life on Cardassia. In many ways he is unable to adjust, chafing at the rigid, hierarchical society and the secretive nature of its people who embrace obfuscation over openness, and who exploit and compete with others rather than share resources and work together for the collective good. In many ways it is the opposite of the Bajoran society that he longs to return to. The story follows Rugal's trials and tribulations against the backdrop of some major political and cultural upheaval, including the Dominion war and resulting devastation.
The Never Ending Sacrifice is both a touching story and an intriguing look at harsh Cardassian society from the inside. In some ways, this is a coming of age tale, as Rugal matures and slowly comes to both embrace as well as detest aspects of his heritage. It's one of the best pieces of Trek literature out there, certainly on par with Enigma Tales, another excellent book from McCormack focused on the rebuilding of Cardassia after the devastation of the Dominion war.
August 9, 2016
(I'll be waxing poetic about DS9 as a series in this review and I apologize for that, but I would like it understood as to why I loved this book so very much)
I won't mince words--my fascination with Cardassians stems from the complicated portrayal of them in DS9. Garak at the forefront, but Damar (Dukat's 2nd in command), Tain, Ghemor...even Dukat, they were by far one of the more intriguing races. This book, which serves not only as a (mostly canonical) continuation to DS9, but a direct sequel to the season 2 episode "Cardassians" as well, offered a chance to see Cardassia differently. Not the romanticized version Garak spoke of or the Dominion's puppet that Dukat was in power over, but the average life of a Cardassian youth living through the troubled times of the Empire.
THE NEVER ENDING SACRIFICE is also one of the very few novels I've read that has shown the direct consequences of a decision made by a commander while explicitly stating it was the WRONG choice. Reading this I forgot how early in the show's career the episode aired. Seasons 1-3, while they built towards the Dominion Threat, focused very much on Bajor and how it handled being freed from the Cardassian Occupation.
Much of this was represented through the struggles that Kira - a former Bajoran Terrorist/Resistance Fighter (depending on who you asked) turned Bajoran representative/Sisko's first officer - and the struggles she had adjusting to peace times with the Cardassians. By in large we didn't see the struggles that Cardassia itself went through...which makes sense as really the show wasn't about that.
But they were struggles I cared to know more about. I mean as a child it sort of floated in and out of my mind that every Cardassian we meet sees Cardassia (and the Bajoran Occupation) so differently and then you have characters like O'Brien or Odo who see it MUCH differently (especially as outsiders). Yet none of those characters were...well for lack of a better word civilian. Military, militia, politician, spy, enemy, terrorist...not a single one was just a bystander.
Then they introduced Rugal. A Cardassian orphan adopted and raised by Bajorans who was, as he admits later in the book, biased against his genetic race from the start not only because his adoptive parents obviously hated his race, but also because he saw first hand (and suffered because of) the devastation his race wrought. He's in only one episode, though he is mentioned later on I believe, but that one episode was enough to light the fires of my young imagination (so interested in ancient civilizations and cultures, so enamored with fictional worlds and peoples).
This book could have very easily felt...contrived I think. McCormack takes a plot point from an episode almost 15 years old (at time of publication of this book), about a character who represented one of the few times (on screen) we see a Starfleet main cast member make a morally wrong, but legally correct decision about. Rugal represented a decision that on paper sounded right--Sisko returned him to his blood family, to a father that wanted him (ostensibly, Cardassian pride in family and lineage is a murky business) and fixed a wrong that should never have happened. Except it did happen and Rugal very clearly felt like he was betrayed by everyone involved.
McCormack takes us from just after that decision to about a decade or more later when Rugal sits down to speak with the Cardassian who thought he was helping him (Garak) all those years ago on the station. They are both very different men, tempered by lost, wistful of their memories and cautiously hopeful that maybe they had helped create a better future for everyone. Its not an...easy or comfortable conversation in all honesty. They've both been alternately exiled and welcomed to their home planet, both have fought to restore it to what they thought was "ideal", both lost family and friends to a fight that should never have happened to begin with.
But that conversation, more than anything else, encapsulated what I love about DS9 and why it remains my favorite Trek and universe and character playground. Rugal spends a lot of the early part of the book cursing Garak (and to an extend Starfleet) for their interference. He's young, early teens, and the species he is thrust into is not a forgiving one. He lashes out when he should try diplomacy, yells when a simple word would do. His early days back on Cardassia are the easiest he has however. Soon the Dominion begins to exert control, and through them Dukat plays his games. Games that while not directed at Rugal, affect him all the same.
Because again, Rugal is a bystander, an outsider to this conflict. His father--a failure by Cardassian standards as he has neither the cunning nor the backbone to be ambitious, though he genuinely cares for Rugal--isn't politically important enough to bother with after all. He was discredited after deciding to stand with Rugal (to the immense disappointment of his mother). Rugal meanwhile could care less and almost relishes the chance that Cardassia would burn, would pay for its sins finally. Its not until its too late he understands and feels remorse.
Interestingly enough this is partially due to his meeting and befriending, albeit briefly, Ziyal--Dukat's half Bajoran/half Cardassian daughter (that ultimately leads to his downfall when he stands with her against the wishes of his family and the better judgement of his ambitions). Like Rugal Ziyal grew up on Bajor and like Rugal she suffered for her genetics. Its debatable who had a rougher time of it, but in the end that doesn't matter because they are kindred. Unlike Rugal however Ziyal doesn't despise her Cardassian heritage.
Where Rugal is the extreme cynical end of the spectrum, Ziyal is the optimistic, trusting end. Where Rugal has nothing but contempt for Dukat and Garak's machinations in his life, Ziyal has only hopeful and positive feelings towards both for their part in her life. Indeed as part of Garak and Rugal's last conversation, Rugal mentions that Ziyal thought very highly of him and Garak wistfully replies that she only ever saw the good in him.
More later.
I won't mince words--my fascination with Cardassians stems from the complicated portrayal of them in DS9. Garak at the forefront, but Damar (Dukat's 2nd in command), Tain, Ghemor...even Dukat, they were by far one of the more intriguing races. This book, which serves not only as a (mostly canonical) continuation to DS9, but a direct sequel to the season 2 episode "Cardassians" as well, offered a chance to see Cardassia differently. Not the romanticized version Garak spoke of or the Dominion's puppet that Dukat was in power over, but the average life of a Cardassian youth living through the troubled times of the Empire.
THE NEVER ENDING SACRIFICE is also one of the very few novels I've read that has shown the direct consequences of a decision made by a commander while explicitly stating it was the WRONG choice. Reading this I forgot how early in the show's career the episode aired. Seasons 1-3, while they built towards the Dominion Threat, focused very much on Bajor and how it handled being freed from the Cardassian Occupation.
Much of this was represented through the struggles that Kira - a former Bajoran Terrorist/Resistance Fighter (depending on who you asked) turned Bajoran representative/Sisko's first officer - and the struggles she had adjusting to peace times with the Cardassians. By in large we didn't see the struggles that Cardassia itself went through...which makes sense as really the show wasn't about that.
But they were struggles I cared to know more about. I mean as a child it sort of floated in and out of my mind that every Cardassian we meet sees Cardassia (and the Bajoran Occupation) so differently and then you have characters like O'Brien or Odo who see it MUCH differently (especially as outsiders). Yet none of those characters were...well for lack of a better word civilian. Military, militia, politician, spy, enemy, terrorist...not a single one was just a bystander.
Then they introduced Rugal. A Cardassian orphan adopted and raised by Bajorans who was, as he admits later in the book, biased against his genetic race from the start not only because his adoptive parents obviously hated his race, but also because he saw first hand (and suffered because of) the devastation his race wrought. He's in only one episode, though he is mentioned later on I believe, but that one episode was enough to light the fires of my young imagination (so interested in ancient civilizations and cultures, so enamored with fictional worlds and peoples).
This book could have very easily felt...contrived I think. McCormack takes a plot point from an episode almost 15 years old (at time of publication of this book), about a character who represented one of the few times (on screen) we see a Starfleet main cast member make a morally wrong, but legally correct decision about. Rugal represented a decision that on paper sounded right--Sisko returned him to his blood family, to a father that wanted him (ostensibly, Cardassian pride in family and lineage is a murky business) and fixed a wrong that should never have happened. Except it did happen and Rugal very clearly felt like he was betrayed by everyone involved.
McCormack takes us from just after that decision to about a decade or more later when Rugal sits down to speak with the Cardassian who thought he was helping him (Garak) all those years ago on the station. They are both very different men, tempered by lost, wistful of their memories and cautiously hopeful that maybe they had helped create a better future for everyone. Its not an...easy or comfortable conversation in all honesty. They've both been alternately exiled and welcomed to their home planet, both have fought to restore it to what they thought was "ideal", both lost family and friends to a fight that should never have happened to begin with.
But that conversation, more than anything else, encapsulated what I love about DS9 and why it remains my favorite Trek and universe and character playground. Rugal spends a lot of the early part of the book cursing Garak (and to an extend Starfleet) for their interference. He's young, early teens, and the species he is thrust into is not a forgiving one. He lashes out when he should try diplomacy, yells when a simple word would do. His early days back on Cardassia are the easiest he has however. Soon the Dominion begins to exert control, and through them Dukat plays his games. Games that while not directed at Rugal, affect him all the same.
Because again, Rugal is a bystander, an outsider to this conflict. His father--a failure by Cardassian standards as he has neither the cunning nor the backbone to be ambitious, though he genuinely cares for Rugal--isn't politically important enough to bother with after all. He was discredited after deciding to stand with Rugal (to the immense disappointment of his mother). Rugal meanwhile could care less and almost relishes the chance that Cardassia would burn, would pay for its sins finally. Its not until its too late he understands and feels remorse.
Interestingly enough this is partially due to his meeting and befriending, albeit briefly, Ziyal--Dukat's half Bajoran/half Cardassian daughter (that ultimately leads to his downfall when he stands with her against the wishes of his family and the better judgement of his ambitions). Like Rugal Ziyal grew up on Bajor and like Rugal she suffered for her genetics. Its debatable who had a rougher time of it, but in the end that doesn't matter because they are kindred. Unlike Rugal however Ziyal doesn't despise her Cardassian heritage.
Where Rugal is the extreme cynical end of the spectrum, Ziyal is the optimistic, trusting end. Where Rugal has nothing but contempt for Dukat and Garak's machinations in his life, Ziyal has only hopeful and positive feelings towards both for their part in her life. Indeed as part of Garak and Rugal's last conversation, Rugal mentions that Ziyal thought very highly of him and Garak wistfully replies that she only ever saw the good in him.
More later.
March 28, 2012
There aren't enough superlatives. At least, none that I can use without causing the reader to assume that I'm some callow reader who is quick to throw out the "best book evah!" response to any book that I've enjoyed. I don't; this is the first time I've ever been tempted to do so, and I won't even do it here. But while this may not be the best book I've ever read, it is unquestionably the best Star Trek book I've ever read, and I suspect that I've probably read in excess of three hundred at this point.
The book is based on an episode from the Deep Space Nine series, one of the early episodes in which a Cardassian boy is found who has been adopted by Bajoran parents; it turns out that his Cardassian father is still alive, had thought him dead, and shows up on Deep Space Nine to reclaim him. The episode is well-handled, giving fair play to both sides of the argument as to whether the boy belongs with the only parents he remembers (he's sixteen, and has been with them since he was two) or his biological father, who did not abandon him and was crushed when he thought his son died in the same bombing that his wife did, and who is delighted to find him still alive, even though it will be a political inconvenience that his opponents can exploit. But in the end, Commander Sisko is chosen as an arbitrator of the case, and being a father himself, rules in favor of the boy's biological father.
I've always considered that to have been a terrible decision, possibly the worst thing that Sisko ever did, and it was pleasant to see that this author agreed with me. But beyond that rather shallow sense of satisfaction, this book (which follows the young man's life from that point until the "present", well after the end of the series) does an absolutely fabulous job of making plausible extrapolations to the story line, and a wonderful job of character development. It is an extremely powerful story, and one that everyone, Star Trek fan or not, should read. It touches on so many issues -- war, revolution, democracy, family, loyalty, friendship, kindness, cruelty -- and handles all of them with a very adept, touching evenhandedness.
If I was allowed to rate this book at more than five stars, it would definitely get six. Maybe seven.
The book is based on an episode from the Deep Space Nine series, one of the early episodes in which a Cardassian boy is found who has been adopted by Bajoran parents; it turns out that his Cardassian father is still alive, had thought him dead, and shows up on Deep Space Nine to reclaim him. The episode is well-handled, giving fair play to both sides of the argument as to whether the boy belongs with the only parents he remembers (he's sixteen, and has been with them since he was two) or his biological father, who did not abandon him and was crushed when he thought his son died in the same bombing that his wife did, and who is delighted to find him still alive, even though it will be a political inconvenience that his opponents can exploit. But in the end, Commander Sisko is chosen as an arbitrator of the case, and being a father himself, rules in favor of the boy's biological father.
I've always considered that to have been a terrible decision, possibly the worst thing that Sisko ever did, and it was pleasant to see that this author agreed with me. But beyond that rather shallow sense of satisfaction, this book (which follows the young man's life from that point until the "present", well after the end of the series) does an absolutely fabulous job of making plausible extrapolations to the story line, and a wonderful job of character development. It is an extremely powerful story, and one that everyone, Star Trek fan or not, should read. It touches on so many issues -- war, revolution, democracy, family, loyalty, friendship, kindness, cruelty -- and handles all of them with a very adept, touching evenhandedness.
If I was allowed to rate this book at more than five stars, it would definitely get six. Maybe seven.
July 15, 2021
4.5 stars.
I am not finding much stamina for eye reading these days. It took me nearly a month to read this, where normally it would be about a week.
Anyway, this was a very satisfying story of a young boy then man who was a pawn of the Cadassians and shunted here and there without real agency fir himself. But despite the adversity this angry boy becomes a balanced and admirable young man just trying to live his best life and do some good.
I am not finding much stamina for eye reading these days. It took me nearly a month to read this, where normally it would be about a week.
Anyway, this was a very satisfying story of a young boy then man who was a pawn of the Cadassians and shunted here and there without real agency fir himself. But despite the adversity this angry boy becomes a balanced and admirable young man just trying to live his best life and do some good.
June 12, 2016
Amazing Cardassian story about Rugal- loved it!
June 15, 2021
More evidence that Una McCormack is brilliant in her understanding of Cardassia and Cardassians post Occupation (of Bajor). Garak, who rivals two other characters as my favorite of all time, makes a small cameo at the end of the book, but he's so spot on that I would be impressed solely based on the single chapter he appears in.
The Never Ending Sacrifice doesn't read like fan-fiction or spin-off fiction - it reads like literary fiction, with incomparable attention to detail to the world building begun in a science fiction television series, putting it at the top of its genre, and more probably several levels beyond it.
The story centers around Rugal Pa'Dar/Proka Rugal, a Cardassian child born on Bajor and abandoned when Cardassians left Bajor after 60 years of Occupation. Subsequently adopted by a Bajoran couple who unconditionally loved him and considered him their son despite their personal prejudices against a society which had ruined their homeland, the DS9 episode "Cardassians" tells the narrative in which we're introduced to him, where Commander Sisko rules in the favor of Rugal's biological father, Kotan Pa'Dar's right to take him back to Cardassia after having believed him dead for fifteen years.
Once Rugal goes to Cardassia with Kotan Pa'Dar his destiny becomes a much more complicated and tragic one than it would have been had he remained on Bajor. He is subjected to much of the pain Cardassians experience after their retreat from Bajor, a pain that readers are able to empathize with, pain Una McCormack makes us feel keenly despite Cardassia's role as (deservedly) Trek villains. Rugal is profoundly changed because of what he experiences; his biases are challenged, his character is deepened, and his experiences come full circle in such a satisfying way by the end of the book that I'd be tempted to point a finger and say "contrived!" in any other author's hands.
Dealing with poverty, race, war, reparations, bias in multiple directions, irony, politics, the consequences of evil actions and the limits to which blame and hatred are justifiable are all extremely tricky to write well, and compellingly - most especially through the eyes of characters that most stories consider to be the oppressors. Instead we have profound insights about life, consequences, depression and redemption. Is a society capable of - and guilty of - great evil worthy of redemption? (This theme is also explored in McCormack's Enigma Tales, my review of which is here.) Is a character whose life was damaged by an entire society able to redeem his past? Yes, indeed, if you believe Una McCormack.
None of the events that occur seem anything but natural. The characters actions are believable and frustrating and graceful and heartbreaking and realistic. All the characters we loved watching on the series and would love to see play parts in the story or in cameos include: Gul Dukat in multiple appearances, Legate Tekeny Ghemor ("Second Skin"), Tora Ziyal and Elim Garak. Natima Lang is an influence on Rugal in the same way that she is an important influence on the whole of her culture far beyond the episode we meet her in from Quark's point of view ("Profit and Loss"). We even learn that there's a statue erected of Gul Darhe'el on Cardassia Prime, the atrocious commander of the Gallitep concentration camp on Bajor, whose identity was assumed by the file clerk Aamin Marritza in the amazing episode "Duet" from DS9 season two.
It is impossible to praise this book too much. Telling too much about it would ruin the pleasure for the reader who is a DS9 fan and who appreciates a well-thought-out and well-written extension of any world they love. Suffice it to say that this is a worthy book to have on a bookshelf - if you're lucky enough to pick it up in a library you'll probably end up wanting to own it.
The Never Ending Sacrifice doesn't read like fan-fiction or spin-off fiction - it reads like literary fiction, with incomparable attention to detail to the world building begun in a science fiction television series, putting it at the top of its genre, and more probably several levels beyond it.
The story centers around Rugal Pa'Dar/Proka Rugal, a Cardassian child born on Bajor and abandoned when Cardassians left Bajor after 60 years of Occupation. Subsequently adopted by a Bajoran couple who unconditionally loved him and considered him their son despite their personal prejudices against a society which had ruined their homeland, the DS9 episode "Cardassians" tells the narrative in which we're introduced to him, where Commander Sisko rules in the favor of Rugal's biological father, Kotan Pa'Dar's right to take him back to Cardassia after having believed him dead for fifteen years.
Once Rugal goes to Cardassia with Kotan Pa'Dar his destiny becomes a much more complicated and tragic one than it would have been had he remained on Bajor. He is subjected to much of the pain Cardassians experience after their retreat from Bajor, a pain that readers are able to empathize with, pain Una McCormack makes us feel keenly despite Cardassia's role as (deservedly) Trek villains. Rugal is profoundly changed because of what he experiences; his biases are challenged, his character is deepened, and his experiences come full circle in such a satisfying way by the end of the book that I'd be tempted to point a finger and say "contrived!" in any other author's hands.
Dealing with poverty, race, war, reparations, bias in multiple directions, irony, politics, the consequences of evil actions and the limits to which blame and hatred are justifiable are all extremely tricky to write well, and compellingly - most especially through the eyes of characters that most stories consider to be the oppressors. Instead we have profound insights about life, consequences, depression and redemption. Is a society capable of - and guilty of - great evil worthy of redemption? (This theme is also explored in McCormack's Enigma Tales, my review of which is here.) Is a character whose life was damaged by an entire society able to redeem his past? Yes, indeed, if you believe Una McCormack.
None of the events that occur seem anything but natural. The characters actions are believable and frustrating and graceful and heartbreaking and realistic. All the characters we loved watching on the series and would love to see play parts in the story or in cameos include: Gul Dukat in multiple appearances, Legate Tekeny Ghemor ("Second Skin"), Tora Ziyal and Elim Garak. Natima Lang is an influence on Rugal in the same way that she is an important influence on the whole of her culture far beyond the episode we meet her in from Quark's point of view ("Profit and Loss"). We even learn that there's a statue erected of Gul Darhe'el on Cardassia Prime, the atrocious commander of the Gallitep concentration camp on Bajor, whose identity was assumed by the file clerk Aamin Marritza in the amazing episode "Duet" from DS9 season two.
It is impossible to praise this book too much. Telling too much about it would ruin the pleasure for the reader who is a DS9 fan and who appreciates a well-thought-out and well-written extension of any world they love. Suffice it to say that this is a worthy book to have on a bookshelf - if you're lucky enough to pick it up in a library you'll probably end up wanting to own it.
August 7, 2013
The very best Star Trek fiction I've ever read. Period.
The difference between this book and every other Star Trek book I've ever read (and I've enjoyed a few) is the author's approach. Instead of writing fairly generic genre material and sticking Star Trek characters into it, Una McCormack writes the way the best of the screen material has always approached Gene Roddenberry's vision, as an examination of the human condition.
This is not just great Star Trek literature, but reflective of the best literature you'll ever find. Another thing that has always plagued other authors in this sub-genre is that they've all intended to write their own version of the Star Trek universe, sometimes increasingly united in ways that contradict the screen canon. McCormack's subject matter builds on screen material, in a number of ways, but still doesn't limit or compromise itself with such worst tendencies. And McCormack's writing itself is better than the norm.
The main character first appeared in a second season Deep Space Nine episode entitled "Cardassians." Cardassians themselves had been introduced earlier in The Next Generation, and had been a key component of the DS9 mythos from the start. "Cardassians" was itself not originally a terribly important episode, and maybe that's why it was so easy for McCormack to turn it into such transcendent material. She weaves every known element from Cardassian lore (and yes, sometimes uses things created in other books), ending up with an epic that would have been fit for the much-vaunted Cardassian arts themselves, and is wise enough to leave the one Cardassian any true fan would have been begging to see from the very start. And he's there, too, but doesn't actually speak until the end. And when he does, a great book somehow becomes something greater. That Cardassian is Garak, whose story could very easily have been the subject of this book, too (although Andrew Robinson, the actor behind the grey makeup and ridges, had already written that book, A Stitch in Time, which perhaps I will have to read).
The main character is Rugal, a Cardassian who was raised by Bajorans but sent back home when his existence becomes known to Benjamin Sisko (the lead character of DS9 who is wisely kept off the stage here). He struggles a great deal with his birth father, and this leads him well off the expected path, although Cardassians as a whole end up with one crisis after another, enabling Rugal to thrive in his own way, and periodically discover misfits similar to himself. In the hands of a lesser writer, all of this would have been terrible. But McCormack is a great writer indeed. And yes, she's written other Star Trek books, and perhaps in time I'll read those, too. But I sincerely hope she'll branch out with her own material, so that more readers will discover her. No matter how much praise I lavish on this book, what are the chances that those who don't already like Star Trek, much less DS9, will give it the benefit of the doubt? But not only this books deserves it, its author does as well.
Sometimes you struggle recommending books like this, which appear to cater most naturally to a very specific audience. But I think plenty is done within The Never-Ending Sacrifice that you can thoroughly enjoy it even without knowing a Cardassian from a Klingon, much less the episodes where a lot of the material is derived, even though the whole thrust ends up entirely McCormack's own. She does indeed own the material. That's what all great writers do, and what's evident in all great books. If I had it my way, this would very much end up listed as a perennial classic, no matter its original audience.
The difference between this book and every other Star Trek book I've ever read (and I've enjoyed a few) is the author's approach. Instead of writing fairly generic genre material and sticking Star Trek characters into it, Una McCormack writes the way the best of the screen material has always approached Gene Roddenberry's vision, as an examination of the human condition.
This is not just great Star Trek literature, but reflective of the best literature you'll ever find. Another thing that has always plagued other authors in this sub-genre is that they've all intended to write their own version of the Star Trek universe, sometimes increasingly united in ways that contradict the screen canon. McCormack's subject matter builds on screen material, in a number of ways, but still doesn't limit or compromise itself with such worst tendencies. And McCormack's writing itself is better than the norm.
The main character first appeared in a second season Deep Space Nine episode entitled "Cardassians." Cardassians themselves had been introduced earlier in The Next Generation, and had been a key component of the DS9 mythos from the start. "Cardassians" was itself not originally a terribly important episode, and maybe that's why it was so easy for McCormack to turn it into such transcendent material. She weaves every known element from Cardassian lore (and yes, sometimes uses things created in other books), ending up with an epic that would have been fit for the much-vaunted Cardassian arts themselves, and is wise enough to leave the one Cardassian any true fan would have been begging to see from the very start. And he's there, too, but doesn't actually speak until the end. And when he does, a great book somehow becomes something greater. That Cardassian is Garak, whose story could very easily have been the subject of this book, too (although Andrew Robinson, the actor behind the grey makeup and ridges, had already written that book, A Stitch in Time, which perhaps I will have to read).
The main character is Rugal, a Cardassian who was raised by Bajorans but sent back home when his existence becomes known to Benjamin Sisko (the lead character of DS9 who is wisely kept off the stage here). He struggles a great deal with his birth father, and this leads him well off the expected path, although Cardassians as a whole end up with one crisis after another, enabling Rugal to thrive in his own way, and periodically discover misfits similar to himself. In the hands of a lesser writer, all of this would have been terrible. But McCormack is a great writer indeed. And yes, she's written other Star Trek books, and perhaps in time I'll read those, too. But I sincerely hope she'll branch out with her own material, so that more readers will discover her. No matter how much praise I lavish on this book, what are the chances that those who don't already like Star Trek, much less DS9, will give it the benefit of the doubt? But not only this books deserves it, its author does as well.
Sometimes you struggle recommending books like this, which appear to cater most naturally to a very specific audience. But I think plenty is done within The Never-Ending Sacrifice that you can thoroughly enjoy it even without knowing a Cardassian from a Klingon, much less the episodes where a lot of the material is derived, even though the whole thrust ends up entirely McCormack's own. She does indeed own the material. That's what all great writers do, and what's evident in all great books. If I had it my way, this would very much end up listed as a perennial classic, no matter its original audience.
May 26, 2012
Not just good for a Star Trek novel, this is honestly one of the finest novels I have ever read.
October 22, 2023
A very good entry into the ST:DS9 canon with some minor characters from the TV series being nicely fleshed out and given their own stories, and a couple of the main characters popping up for cameos. It's not a flash-bang story full of space battles, but traces the faltering steps of Cardassia into civilian government, military takeover, and the devastation of war for all sides.
January 19, 2022
A very impressive tale, continuing the life of Rugal after Sisko insisted he should return to Cardassia with his biological father.
His struggle to settle in his father's homeland is well-written. Given the fact he considers himself Bajoran rather than Cardassian, it was never going to be easy. His efforts to fit in and make a career for himself are patchy and fraught with problems.
Overall I enjoyed the story and the inclusion of several familiar characters from the TV episodes made it even more so. Perhaps it was somewhat contrived that he would come into contact with the Ghemors, Professor Lang, Tora Ziyal, Elim Garak and the O'Briens, but I can give a pass for that, because it helps keep a link with the TV show. It didn't spoil the story for me (quite the opposite) and it probably won't for many Star Trek fans. Garak's appearances were magnificent and he made a huge impact despite only having a minor role to play in this story.
Some of the passages seemed a little rushed, like summaries rather than part of the story. I suspect this is because the author had to fit her story in around the chronology of established events from the TV show and she probably had constraints on the length of this book. These TV tie-in novels tend to be written to a formula and this probably inhibited her from writing in a more expansive manner.
His struggle to settle in his father's homeland is well-written. Given the fact he considers himself Bajoran rather than Cardassian, it was never going to be easy. His efforts to fit in and make a career for himself are patchy and fraught with problems.
Overall I enjoyed the story and the inclusion of several familiar characters from the TV episodes made it even more so. Perhaps it was somewhat contrived that he would come into contact with the Ghemors, Professor Lang, Tora Ziyal, Elim Garak and the O'Briens, but I can give a pass for that, because it helps keep a link with the TV show. It didn't spoil the story for me (quite the opposite) and it probably won't for many Star Trek fans. Garak's appearances were magnificent and he made a huge impact despite only having a minor role to play in this story.
Some of the passages seemed a little rushed, like summaries rather than part of the story. I suspect this is because the author had to fit her story in around the chronology of established events from the TV show and she probably had constraints on the length of this book. These TV tie-in novels tend to be written to a formula and this probably inhibited her from writing in a more expansive manner.
December 28, 2017
I would consider this a must-read for Deep Space Nine fans. I've read a lot of popular-media tie-in novels over my lifetime, and this is by far the most thoughtful and exploratory. Yes, and I'm including "Spock's World" in that.
This is "Spock's World" for Cardassia, and with a more modern, polished narrative style.
If you are like my hubby and can't remember what happened in an episode you just re-watched less than a month ago (srsly we are actively re-watching this portion of the show and I could NOT talk to him about it) you'll not have the sense of horror and dread I had, knowing how the Dominion War and Gul Dukat's arc play out. Still it's a real tear-jerker, and manages to be meta-fictive about a fictional novel! (The titular "Never Ending Sacrifice" is a supposed Great Work of Cardassian literature mentioned on the show by Garak. We are treated not only to glimpses of the work, but a critical analysis by a dissident and the main characters arguing about the work. NO! Stop looking bored! All this stuff is GREAT!)
So yes, I felt it was a moral story with a philosophical payload that didn't feel like it was preaching, and that alone is a great accomplishment, tying in ten different episodes of a TV series notwithstanding.
This is "Spock's World" for Cardassia, and with a more modern, polished narrative style.
If you are like my hubby and can't remember what happened in an episode you just re-watched less than a month ago (srsly we are actively re-watching this portion of the show and I could NOT talk to him about it) you'll not have the sense of horror and dread I had, knowing how the Dominion War and Gul Dukat's arc play out. Still it's a real tear-jerker, and manages to be meta-fictive about a fictional novel! (The titular "Never Ending Sacrifice" is a supposed Great Work of Cardassian literature mentioned on the show by Garak. We are treated not only to glimpses of the work, but a critical analysis by a dissident and the main characters arguing about the work. NO! Stop looking bored! All this stuff is GREAT!)
So yes, I felt it was a moral story with a philosophical payload that didn't feel like it was preaching, and that alone is a great accomplishment, tying in ten different episodes of a TV series notwithstanding.
February 22, 2017
Una McCormack has such a deft hand for writing Cardassian characters and it is a total delight to read her exploration of the cultural and political scene of war-time Cardassia. Although Rugal is a character she makes entirely of her own, her characterizations of the canon characters are similarly spot-on. I was honestly surprised by just how irresistible I found her original characters to be: Erani and Tekis in particular, as well as the rest of their band of student revolutionaries, were unique and vibrant characters whose only flaw was that I wanted to know so much more.
On top of that, Rugal's story itself has a beautiful symmetry to it. His meeting with the orphaned human girl, Hulya, appropriately mirrors his first appearance in Star Trek: DS9, complete with cameos by some cherished characters from the show. And in the end, the events of Rugal's life seem to have come full circle, giving both him and the reader the closure and satisfaction of having seen this story through. Would definitely recommend this novel to anyone with an interest in Cardassian culture or the behind the scenes political manoeuvring that was never fully explored in DS9.
On top of that, Rugal's story itself has a beautiful symmetry to it. His meeting with the orphaned human girl, Hulya, appropriately mirrors his first appearance in Star Trek: DS9, complete with cameos by some cherished characters from the show. And in the end, the events of Rugal's life seem to have come full circle, giving both him and the reader the closure and satisfaction of having seen this story through. Would definitely recommend this novel to anyone with an interest in Cardassian culture or the behind the scenes political manoeuvring that was never fully explored in DS9.
December 8, 2020
While I am generally a Star Trek fan I've never been able to get into DS9. But that didn't stop me enjoying this book. It was phenomenal. Easily the best book I've read this year. I lost track of how many times it made me cry. I read the whole thing in a day. It's been years since I was able to do that with a book. (Thank you menopause!)
The book starts as fix it fic. You have the rather stereotypical episode of Star Trek Ethics. Where a Cardassian boy is adopted and raised as Bajoran. And then Sisko in his infinite wisdom decides to tear him away from his Bajoran family and send him to live with his "real" dad on Cardassia. Una takes this flimsy premise and turns the characters in to fully fledged people and outlines the very real impact the decision has on everyone's lives. It also looks at the changes Cardassia went through with revolution, war and various take overs. It is all handled utterly brilliantly. Thinking about it again now weeks after I finished it and I start to tear up again remembering some of the lines.
Read this book!
The book starts as fix it fic. You have the rather stereotypical episode of Star Trek Ethics. Where a Cardassian boy is adopted and raised as Bajoran. And then Sisko in his infinite wisdom decides to tear him away from his Bajoran family and send him to live with his "real" dad on Cardassia. Una takes this flimsy premise and turns the characters in to fully fledged people and outlines the very real impact the decision has on everyone's lives. It also looks at the changes Cardassia went through with revolution, war and various take overs. It is all handled utterly brilliantly. Thinking about it again now weeks after I finished it and I start to tear up again remembering some of the lines.
Read this book!
May 19, 2020
I could quibble that Rugal's story through the Dominion War went a little too quickly for my liking, but that would be picking nits. Una McCormack has proven she is the master of all things Cardassian in "Star Trek" literature, and all things Garak in particular. This was one of her earliest showcases, and I'm glad to have finally inhaled it in one sitting. Her characterization of the Cardassians, and her world-building of Cardassian culture -- are second to none, and the story of Rugal (from the 2nd season DS9 episode "Cardassians") was obviously too good for Ms McCormack to pass up. Kudos for not only writing a magnificent sequel to a story that was begging for one...but also to all the delightful surprises she throws into the mix, particularly the depths & layers she reveals in Rugal's father, Kotan.
June 15, 2021
This is one of the best Star Trek novels written, full stop.
July 19, 2022
Una McCormack...we need to talk... Okay, honestly, I'm astonished. I put off reading this book for YEARS because I was worried about being disappointed by it. I read the Memory Beta summary of it back when I was doing my thesis on DS9 and was kind of just okay with it? And I'm always wary of tie-in novels being too much fan service and not enough substance. But this... Oh my gosh. Una McCormack. She managed to make this sad little story from the margins of Star Trek canon into something beautiful. The way she wove Rugal's life so deftly into the events of the later seasons of DS9, and the way she worldbuilt down to the minutiae of the Union--enough to make me empathize with Cardassians! Which is saying something!--was just amazing. I also loved the way she tackled how Rugal feels about his heritage, both Bajoran and Cardassian, and how he is never just one. There were so many times I wished I had page flags or a highlighter while I was reading. Though in an ideal world (and I think every character in this book would agree by the end), I would have preferred Rugal to go home to his parents on Bajor, I understand why that became a pipe dream and I'm happy with where Rugal ended up. I'm happy that it was the decision that taking him away from his Bajoran parents was wrong that earned him his happiest possible ending. His life really is such a long series of tragedies. I loved the meta angle titling this "The Never-Ending Sacrifice" gave the book. Really, Rugal's is the perfect perspective from which to take a critical look at Cardassian society, and I'm so happy that this novel got written. I feel like it deserves to be up there with the best of the best books that use science fiction as a lens through which to think about empire. It's certainy one of my favorites.
August 11, 2019
This is what Star Trek is capable of. This book takes a character who appeared briefly in one episode of Deep Space Nine and weaves their story throughout the events of the Trek universe both on screen an on page.
It's the sort of thing which shouldn't work but does due to the rich material available. We follow Rugal as he is torn away from his adopted Bajoran parents and forced to live with his biological father on a harsh world where nobody can be trusted. Cardassia is one of the most fascinating cultures created for the Star Trek universe and it's no wonder that any story featuring them tends to end up on my favourites list.
This is an epic tale that spans 8 years of storytelling and is deep with themes of family, war, sacrifice, love, loss and identity. I can't quite give it full marks because there were points where I felt like Rugal became an unrecognisable character (he's somehow super intelligent and able to escape from/survive any situation).
It's the sort of thing which shouldn't work but does due to the rich material available. We follow Rugal as he is torn away from his adopted Bajoran parents and forced to live with his biological father on a harsh world where nobody can be trusted. Cardassia is one of the most fascinating cultures created for the Star Trek universe and it's no wonder that any story featuring them tends to end up on my favourites list.
This is an epic tale that spans 8 years of storytelling and is deep with themes of family, war, sacrifice, love, loss and identity. I can't quite give it full marks because there were points where I felt like Rugal became an unrecognisable character (he's somehow super intelligent and able to escape from/survive any situation).
August 17, 2017
This had promise as a story of a struggle of someone in a foreign land and not fitting in, but it just couldn't seem to hold the thread for long. Then as it progressed through time, the tie-in to DS9 (which I'm unfamiliar with) must have been more pronounced as there were time-shifts and reference to large events (wars, deaths, etc.) with little backstory. Also, there is an apparent expectation that you will know the races of people involved because they are rarely given any description or background. This makes sense given that it is a DS9 novel, but doesn't work for someone unfamiliar with the Star Trek franchise.
June 27, 2012
( Actual review with images and proper formatting found here http://kiddywonkus.blogspot.com/2011/12/never-ending-sacrifice-by-una-mccormack.html )
It's really hard to talk about this book in a professional manner with things like proper grammar and punctuation because all I really want to do is this:
)*$%HGOFUGHO#&$%YTG
*STAR TREK FAN GIRL FLAIL*
But I need to calm myself. Though, I'm not really sure how to do that when the last twenty pages or so are almost completely Elim Garak.
You know... THE BEST CHARACTER IN THE SERIES EVER.
asdfagtaert jfgng'aksdjfa'ksfj
*ELIM GARAK FAN GIRL FLAIL*
Okay. It's fine. I'm fine. Let's do this.
So...
The Never-Ending Sacrifice follows that really annoying boy we meet in the episode Cardassians, which doesn't really bode well for the book. I mean, that last thing anyone really wants to do is follow one of the whiniest characters of the second season around on a planet doomed by civil war, famine, and then genocide. It just sounds like the whinging is going to be multiplied threefold.
But then again, people do read Twilight... which is fully of nothing but whiny people...
.... as much as that confuses me... and George Takei.
What you sort of expect to see when consider this concept is Rugal moping around, slamming doors, and announcing how much he hates his dad.
But McCormack did the most amazing thing. She almost completely ignored how angsty and teenagery he was in the episode Cardassians and made him a throughly likable character in the course of even just a few chapters. And she did it beautifully, because I'm not really sure how she did it and still managed to keep him in character. It turns out, when Rugal isn't being in the process of being ripped away from the only parents he knows and given to the one man he sees as the absolute abandoner, he's really an intelligent boy who is very aware of concepts of identity and social justice. The story then, instead, becomes a journey of self-discovery for a boy who isn't Bajoran, and isn't Cardassian and forced to survive in world that absolutely relies on those distinctions. You put in a lot of political intrigue, war, and spies and what you have is a damn fine novel.
AD"JFKJS"DJF"SJAL:DJlkjL:KJSDKFj;klj;
*POLITICS FAN GIRL FLAIL*
Ahem. Excuse me.
Let's face it, Star Trek, whether it wants to be or not, is a bit racist against its fictional species, and the Cardassians are almost universally painted as lying bastards who rape everything in the name of the Union. Which is all fine and good, except we know that's not the case in real life, let alone Star Trek. It never is. The novel, in combination with A Stitch in Time (an EXCELLENT BOOK), starts to let you see how a society like that actually functions, that they aren't all mindless drones, and people like Dukat are really the worst products such a political configuration can offer, but people like Rugal's exceedingly kind father can still survive and try to follow what they think is right. Even Rugal's love interest, while sweet, is absolutely Cardassian in her way of thinking and yet he falls in love with her despite being raised (not by his parents, necessarily, but by the Bajoran society) to hate everything a Cardassian is.
It's beautiful. It's poignant. And it speaks to reality on so many levels, which is exactly what I expect when I read a good science fiction novel.
I'd like to think that this book can be read without knowledge of Star Trek, or Deep Space Nine, but it's hard to say that since I know the universe so well. Of course I think the whole thing makes sense! I've seen the series a million times! But given the title is reference to a fictional novel in the series, it's hard to say if that's true. Honestly, divorced from the context of the series, the title The Never-Ending Sacrifice makes the whole story sound a bit too melodramatic. Well, yes, there is drama in the book, it is never overly melo.
However, take this conversation in mind:
GARAK: I can't believe that I'm having lunch with a man who thinks The Never-Ending Sacrifice is dull.
BASHIR: I just thought the story got a little redundant after a while. I mean the author's supposed to be chronicling seven generations of a single family, but he tells the same story over and over again. All of his characters lead selfless lives of duty to the state, grow old and die. Then the next generation comes along and does it all over again.
GARAK: But that's exactly the point, Doctor. The repetitive epic is the most elegant form of Cardassian literature, and The Never-Ending Sacrifice is it's greatest achievement.
BASHIR: None of his characters ever really come alive, and there's more to life than duty to the state.
GARAK: A Federation viewpoint if ever I heard one.
and suddenly, there is a hint of delicious irony to the whole affair. Rugal tries to read The Never-Ending Sacrifice numerous times throughout the novel, but finds himself put off by the prose and the philosophy. And yet, what he doesn't realize is that he's living the tale himself. The pains of each generation are handed on to the next, and Rugal comes to grips with just how hard it is to break the cycle and still stay loyal to one's self.
aspodijPOFIJ$#%)(J#)EIJFN
*FUCKING AWESOME BOOK FAN GIRL FLAIL*
To summarize:
READ THIS BOOK.
It's really hard to talk about this book in a professional manner with things like proper grammar and punctuation because all I really want to do is this:
)*$%HGOFUGHO#&$%YTG
*STAR TREK FAN GIRL FLAIL*
But I need to calm myself. Though, I'm not really sure how to do that when the last twenty pages or so are almost completely Elim Garak.
You know... THE BEST CHARACTER IN THE SERIES EVER.
asdfagtaert jfgng'aksdjfa'ksfj
*ELIM GARAK FAN GIRL FLAIL*
Okay. It's fine. I'm fine. Let's do this.
So...
The Never-Ending Sacrifice follows that really annoying boy we meet in the episode Cardassians, which doesn't really bode well for the book. I mean, that last thing anyone really wants to do is follow one of the whiniest characters of the second season around on a planet doomed by civil war, famine, and then genocide. It just sounds like the whinging is going to be multiplied threefold.
But then again, people do read Twilight... which is fully of nothing but whiny people...
.... as much as that confuses me... and George Takei.
What you sort of expect to see when consider this concept is Rugal moping around, slamming doors, and announcing how much he hates his dad.
But McCormack did the most amazing thing. She almost completely ignored how angsty and teenagery he was in the episode Cardassians and made him a throughly likable character in the course of even just a few chapters. And she did it beautifully, because I'm not really sure how she did it and still managed to keep him in character. It turns out, when Rugal isn't being in the process of being ripped away from the only parents he knows and given to the one man he sees as the absolute abandoner, he's really an intelligent boy who is very aware of concepts of identity and social justice. The story then, instead, becomes a journey of self-discovery for a boy who isn't Bajoran, and isn't Cardassian and forced to survive in world that absolutely relies on those distinctions. You put in a lot of political intrigue, war, and spies and what you have is a damn fine novel.
AD"JFKJS"DJF"SJAL:DJlkjL:KJSDKFj;klj;
*POLITICS FAN GIRL FLAIL*
Ahem. Excuse me.
Let's face it, Star Trek, whether it wants to be or not, is a bit racist against its fictional species, and the Cardassians are almost universally painted as lying bastards who rape everything in the name of the Union. Which is all fine and good, except we know that's not the case in real life, let alone Star Trek. It never is. The novel, in combination with A Stitch in Time (an EXCELLENT BOOK), starts to let you see how a society like that actually functions, that they aren't all mindless drones, and people like Dukat are really the worst products such a political configuration can offer, but people like Rugal's exceedingly kind father can still survive and try to follow what they think is right. Even Rugal's love interest, while sweet, is absolutely Cardassian in her way of thinking and yet he falls in love with her despite being raised (not by his parents, necessarily, but by the Bajoran society) to hate everything a Cardassian is.
It's beautiful. It's poignant. And it speaks to reality on so many levels, which is exactly what I expect when I read a good science fiction novel.
I'd like to think that this book can be read without knowledge of Star Trek, or Deep Space Nine, but it's hard to say that since I know the universe so well. Of course I think the whole thing makes sense! I've seen the series a million times! But given the title is reference to a fictional novel in the series, it's hard to say if that's true. Honestly, divorced from the context of the series, the title The Never-Ending Sacrifice makes the whole story sound a bit too melodramatic. Well, yes, there is drama in the book, it is never overly melo.
However, take this conversation in mind:
GARAK: I can't believe that I'm having lunch with a man who thinks The Never-Ending Sacrifice is dull.
BASHIR: I just thought the story got a little redundant after a while. I mean the author's supposed to be chronicling seven generations of a single family, but he tells the same story over and over again. All of his characters lead selfless lives of duty to the state, grow old and die. Then the next generation comes along and does it all over again.
GARAK: But that's exactly the point, Doctor. The repetitive epic is the most elegant form of Cardassian literature, and The Never-Ending Sacrifice is it's greatest achievement.
BASHIR: None of his characters ever really come alive, and there's more to life than duty to the state.
GARAK: A Federation viewpoint if ever I heard one.
and suddenly, there is a hint of delicious irony to the whole affair. Rugal tries to read The Never-Ending Sacrifice numerous times throughout the novel, but finds himself put off by the prose and the philosophy. And yet, what he doesn't realize is that he's living the tale himself. The pains of each generation are handed on to the next, and Rugal comes to grips with just how hard it is to break the cycle and still stay loyal to one's self.
aspodijPOFIJ$#%)(J#)EIJFN
*FUCKING AWESOME BOOK FAN GIRL FLAIL*
To summarize:
READ THIS BOOK.
October 26, 2018
I liked this book. It told an interesting story about the results of things which happened on DS9. It also told things from a different perspective about the Cardassians. The book had it's flaws. The use of exposition was at times clumsy. Also it was at times hard to tell if the book was a story about Cardassia or about Rugal. However, it tells a nice story which is enjoyable. Fans of the TV series will like it, and it's worth a read.
September 25, 2023
A Star Trek masterpiece! It starts off slowly, but its payoff is tremendous. A great addition to the great DS9 series.
June 16, 2021
it's incredible to read a whole novel about cardassian society. and it retroactively improves the episode it's based on.
May 29, 2023
Wavering between four and five stars for this one, actually. Very, very well-crafted, not just as a Trek novel, but as a novel. I'd be interested to have someone who didn't know anything at all about the setup read it and tell me what they thought. A must-read for all my fellow niners, and of interest to anyone with any taste for SF that explores character and culture.
No, we aren't taking Ursula LeGuin here, but McCormack's prose is solid and her handling of character deft*. The plot, on one level, is simple: a young teenage boy is torn from his adoptive parents and sent to live with the birth father he cannot remember, on a world in turmoil. The boy, Rugal, never forgets his adoptive parents and longs to return 'home'. But he gradually comes to respect, and then to love, the decent man from whom he was taken as a small child. As he grows to young manhood, he lives through revolution, war, and a wary peace. His quest is twofold - for family and for integrity. As a young man, he finds an unexpected way to achieve that quest.
Rugal is a very sympathetic character. Fans of DS9 will be delighted to meet and learn more about other regulars (including the Ghemor family, Tora Ziyal, the O'Briens, and Elim Garak.) The new characters are good, too - I fell in love with both Penelya and Hulya, among others. Fans of the show will know that Rugal, being Cardassian, has to bear almost too much grief and loss for anyone to endure. The terrible events aren't skirted over, but they aren't graphically presented, either, and Rugal's reactions always seem completely in character.
It's realistic that we never find out what happened to a few very lovable characters, but still a bit frustrating. *And, every now and then, the switch in POV from Rugal to his birth father, or to other characters, is confusing. But, in general, this is a well-written, well-thought-out, and gripping story. I had a hard time putting it down.
Note: I just reread this, oddly enough as a comfort book. It’s good to know that—as this story shows—love can overcome many barriers, and people can survive absolute horrors and still be human—or Cardassian, as the case may be. McCormack does age Rugal up from the TV show—he’s 13 or so there; 16 at the start of the book. But I found that a reasonable change. Five stars, because the book holds up extremely well to a second read. It’s haunting.
No, we aren't taking Ursula LeGuin here, but McCormack's prose is solid and her handling of character deft*. The plot, on one level, is simple: a young teenage boy is torn from his adoptive parents and sent to live with the birth father he cannot remember, on a world in turmoil. The boy, Rugal, never forgets his adoptive parents and longs to return 'home'. But he gradually comes to respect, and then to love, the decent man from whom he was taken as a small child. As he grows to young manhood, he lives through revolution, war, and a wary peace. His quest is twofold - for family and for integrity. As a young man, he finds an unexpected way to achieve that quest.
Rugal is a very sympathetic character. Fans of DS9 will be delighted to meet and learn more about other regulars (including the Ghemor family, Tora Ziyal, the O'Briens, and Elim Garak.) The new characters are good, too - I fell in love with both Penelya and Hulya, among others. Fans of the show will know that Rugal, being Cardassian, has to bear almost too much grief and loss for anyone to endure. The terrible events aren't skirted over, but they aren't graphically presented, either, and Rugal's reactions always seem completely in character.
It's realistic that we never find out what happened to a few very lovable characters, but still a bit frustrating. *And, every now and then, the switch in POV from Rugal to his birth father, or to other characters, is confusing. But, in general, this is a well-written, well-thought-out, and gripping story. I had a hard time putting it down.
Note: I just reread this, oddly enough as a comfort book. It’s good to know that—as this story shows—love can overcome many barriers, and people can survive absolute horrors and still be human—or Cardassian, as the case may be. McCormack does age Rugal up from the TV show—he’s 13 or so there; 16 at the start of the book. But I found that a reasonable change. Five stars, because the book holds up extremely well to a second read. It’s haunting.
July 3, 2017
This was everything I could have hoped for in a Star Trek novel. This book manages to take several characters we see in only one episode and expand on their lives and character to the point where it feels like Rugal and his family always existed as fully realized characters in the Star Trek universe. It also effortlessly ties in other existing characters from the show without that making the world seem smaller-- in contrast the new characters and settings it introduces serve to make the Star Trek universe larger and more sweeping in scale. Gracefully incorporating characters and settings/events from the show with new world-building, the novel creates insight and meaning that transcends both. While I'm not sure if it would work on its own as a book (without setup in the existing franchise), this novel does exactly what science fiction (and Star Trek) does best; it uses richly developed, fantastical alien worlds to say something meaningful about the human experience today.
Cardassia is one of the alien cultures from ST that most fascinates me-- they are complicated by nature (it's a recurring character trait just as Vulcans are logical), which casts them both as recurring villains and as complicated people doing their best to do right by their species. This book takes an insider view of the culture, through the eyes of an outsider-- Rugal is Cardassian by birth and appearance, but culturally Bajoran and therefore something entirely unique. Over the course of his story, we come to sympathize, understand, and recoil from various aspects of Cardassian culture, just as Rugal does, while realizing that no one action can define an entire people or prevent them from taking a new course for their history in the future.
What ties bind us to each other-- blood, culture, shared experience-- and how do we navigate our differences? Who do we owe loyalty to and when? How do we live our lives without hindering the happiness and survival others?
Cardassia is one of the alien cultures from ST that most fascinates me-- they are complicated by nature (it's a recurring character trait just as Vulcans are logical), which casts them both as recurring villains and as complicated people doing their best to do right by their species. This book takes an insider view of the culture, through the eyes of an outsider-- Rugal is Cardassian by birth and appearance, but culturally Bajoran and therefore something entirely unique. Over the course of his story, we come to sympathize, understand, and recoil from various aspects of Cardassian culture, just as Rugal does, while realizing that no one action can define an entire people or prevent them from taking a new course for their history in the future.
What ties bind us to each other-- blood, culture, shared experience-- and how do we navigate our differences? Who do we owe loyalty to and when? How do we live our lives without hindering the happiness and survival others?
November 18, 2018
I always wondered what happened to Rugal after he left Deep Space Nine. So when I saw that there was a book about just that, I had to read it. I love this book so much. I enjoyed reading about Rugal, how he lived on Cardassia, and how he survived all the insanity that comes with that. I also enjoyed getting to see other characters like the professor who was in the sci-fi version of Casablanca episode, and Ziyal. Garak shows up and is wonderful as ever. The story itself is well told. I think this book is approachable for people who haven't seen the show, but having seen the show definitely helps. McCormack doesn't always give a lot of description concerning character appearance. I didn't have a problem with this since I've seen the show several times. But others might find it a bit confusing or hard to follow if they aren't as familiar with the characters. I don't think there are any major problems with the book. It's a well done novel. If you are a fan of Star Trek, then check this one out.
February 11, 2015
This boook starts off a bit slow, with a lot of exposition. But the main character is quite likable, and some of the characters he interacts with even more so.
The novel has a satisfying conclusion, but with tons of loose ends. I think this was deliberate. It's a war story, and so you just don't know what happens to certain characters.
On the whole, I was impressed with how well the story was written, and how thoughtfully it was plotted.
I'd say it's a must-read for DS9 fans (especially those who like Elim Garak and/or have a taste for intrigue), and other readers could enjoy it as well. I really think it's a good book.
September 18, 2015
Easily one of the best and also the most depressing Star Trek book I've read -- but it ended with hope. This is the story of Cardassia from the Occupation through the end of the Dominion War, through the eyes of Rugal, a Cardassian raised by Bajorans (whom we met in one very memorable DS9 episode).
March 15, 2016
when i picked this up at the library i didn't read the summary - i assumed somebody had written up the cardassian classic, and i was thrilled to death to read it. but i liked this a lot better.
July 7, 2017
Finished this today. Enjoyed it and gave it 4 of 5 stars, meaning above average, and Star Trek books are generally average.
A few notes on it, deliberately written to leave out spoilers.
Things I liked:
Hearing the full story of what happened to Rugal after he was ripped away from his adoptive Bajoran family (“Cardassians”)
Getting a glimpse of the dissident movement that existed in connection with Tekeny Ghemor and Natima Lang
Seeing Rugal adapt to all the various situations he’s thrust into as well as they people he meets. You see him learn that there’s more to some people than there may seem and that people can change, especially after grief or hardship.
Learning about Cardassian cultural concepts through Rugal’s eyes – for example the extreme gratitude of an orphan towards an uncle who adopted them, even though they’re being badly treated. To Rugal this makes no sense, to feel such obligation, but it makes absolute sense to a Cardassian. There are many other examples involving family loyalty, treatment of the environment, conquering people, the keeping of secrets, etc. It’s not that he ever learns to accept it, but he understands it; I think by the end he feels sorry for them and above all wants to see them learn to change.
Description of the disintegration and chaos in various outer colony plants following the end of the war, the various events that unfolded, how various races slaughtered one another or managed to get along.
Rugal’s complicated relationship with his (Cardassian) father and grandmother.
The couple of scenes with Rugal and Ziyal.
Things I didn’t like:
Ambassador Garak, who shows up toward the end, is way too glib and cheerful, like, I don’t know, a queeny uncle, with nary a care in the world, and it doesn’t suit him. I can see him being an ambassador but with a different demeanor, after the war, at least some of the time. Yes, he’d hav a front, he’s Garak, but still, it was just off. Other people have remarked on McCormack’s Garak, so I’m not the only one. (I did like him in The Crimson Shadow.)
Never, at any point, is it explained how anyone is speaking to anyone. Universal translators? Everywhere? Implanted? After the war? Asking because I kept wondering if Rugal knew Cardassian, or later when he meets Bajorans, why he didn’t speak it to show he could. Later I wondered if he was speaking Standard with Federation people and human colonists. There’s a Romulan in the story too – what do they speak? Not that I buy the translator concept (it’s always had logical flaws), but usually authors at least make a cursory reference and also have scenes where people aren’t using a translator, so it struck me as odd.
Some of the ending plot on Ithic seemed kind of rushed. Like things started to build, characters were built, but then it was abandoned, I guess because of length.
The final scene. Come ON. (People who’ve read it know what I mean. Just: Jeez.)
A few notes on it, deliberately written to leave out spoilers.
Things I liked:
Hearing the full story of what happened to Rugal after he was ripped away from his adoptive Bajoran family (“Cardassians”)
Getting a glimpse of the dissident movement that existed in connection with Tekeny Ghemor and Natima Lang
Seeing Rugal adapt to all the various situations he’s thrust into as well as they people he meets. You see him learn that there’s more to some people than there may seem and that people can change, especially after grief or hardship.
Learning about Cardassian cultural concepts through Rugal’s eyes – for example the extreme gratitude of an orphan towards an uncle who adopted them, even though they’re being badly treated. To Rugal this makes no sense, to feel such obligation, but it makes absolute sense to a Cardassian. There are many other examples involving family loyalty, treatment of the environment, conquering people, the keeping of secrets, etc. It’s not that he ever learns to accept it, but he understands it; I think by the end he feels sorry for them and above all wants to see them learn to change.
Description of the disintegration and chaos in various outer colony plants following the end of the war, the various events that unfolded, how various races slaughtered one another or managed to get along.
Rugal’s complicated relationship with his (Cardassian) father and grandmother.
The couple of scenes with Rugal and Ziyal.
Things I didn’t like:
Ambassador Garak, who shows up toward the end, is way too glib and cheerful, like, I don’t know, a queeny uncle, with nary a care in the world, and it doesn’t suit him. I can see him being an ambassador but with a different demeanor, after the war, at least some of the time. Yes, he’d hav a front, he’s Garak, but still, it was just off. Other people have remarked on McCormack’s Garak, so I’m not the only one. (I did like him in The Crimson Shadow.)
Never, at any point, is it explained how anyone is speaking to anyone. Universal translators? Everywhere? Implanted? After the war? Asking because I kept wondering if Rugal knew Cardassian, or later when he meets Bajorans, why he didn’t speak it to show he could. Later I wondered if he was speaking Standard with Federation people and human colonists. There’s a Romulan in the story too – what do they speak? Not that I buy the translator concept (it’s always had logical flaws), but usually authors at least make a cursory reference and also have scenes where people aren’t using a translator, so it struck me as odd.
Some of the ending plot on Ithic seemed kind of rushed. Like things started to build, characters were built, but then it was abandoned, I guess because of length.
The final scene. Come ON. (People who’ve read it know what I mean. Just: Jeez.)
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