Customer Reviews

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Never Ending Sacrifice (Star Trek Deep Space Nine (Unnumbered Paperback))

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Never Ending Sacrifice was one of the best Star Trek books I've read. The story line was captivating. I couldn't put it down. Una McCormack should get an award for this one. The main character, Rugal, steals your heart from the very beginning. He's journey from childhood on Bajor, back to Cardassia with a father he never knew. He takes you through the Dominion War from a different perspective. I can't say enough about this book and I don't want to give anything away. A must read and enjoy!

This novel is based on the Deep Space Nine episode "Cardassians". To summarize, an orphaned Cardassian boy named Rugal is adopted by a Bajoran couple. It is discovered that Rugal is not an orphan but is the son of a prominent Cardassian government official. He is sent back with his Cardassian family by Cmdr Sisko. This novel is the aftermath of this repatriation.

This novel like A Stitch in Time (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) is more of a culture/character novel than a plot driven novel. The author did a fine characterization by not making Rugal too human. Many SciFi and futuristic fantasy writers have their alien characters as modern day projections. The situations are metaphors for modern day problems. In Star Trek Deep Space Nine they were able to break away from this with the creation of the Cardassians. They have morality, values, and a soul but they aren't of the human variety. Andrew Robinson and Marc Alaimo both did superb jobs in Deep Space Nine portraying this. This novel built on "A Stitch In Time". Rugal returns to his Cardassian family and doesn't even want to adjust. His attitude persists throughout the years. He finds that Cardassians are not all butchers, yet he persists in trying to find a way back to Bajor. This highlights his non-human characteristic.

Any drawbacks? The novel follows the plot arc of Deep Space Nine. The developments such as the Maquis and the Dominion War are told from the perspective of Rugal and not the regular Star Trek characters. This isn't a minus for myself. Rugal's Cardassian father, Pa'dar seems a model of forbearance not only with Rugal but his imperious mother, Geleth(another interesting character). Pa'Dar seems almost too much of a saint.

This book is overall a good light read.

Wow! I too was captivated by Rugal's on-going story, although I (sort of) agreed watching the DS9 episode that he should go home to Cardassia. I was kind of irritated when, though realizing his birth father loved him unconditionally, he still wanted to go back to Bajor. But was so into the storyline, and it fits the teenage emotional level.
U.M.'s writing is excellent. It sweeps along from one believable happening to another. It was so satisfying to see him mature, and stop thinking about his own issues,though heart-wrenching, to care for his grandmother, and then his neighbor during the war. I would have loved to have seen some type of reconciliation between Rugal and his father. But like the title says, there were never ending sacrifices--Rugal's, his father's, his adoptive parents, the Bajoran people's, the soldiers, the Cardassian people's, their brain washed children, the survivors of all the ravaged planets, and even the ones that weren't touched. I'll bet when you read this book you'll be able to find evidence of more. U.M. shows how families can be destroyed by cruel ambitions and bigoted people. Then we get to watch in triumph as they rally to survive, and even prosper. How beautiful for Rugal to create one family after losing two. I highly recommend this book. Hats off to U.M. for her fine writing.

McCormack's writing focuses on what made DS9 so successful - it's great characters.

Pros:
-The dialogue is so well written, it felt like watching a new DS9 episode.
-The characters are incredibly detailed and surprisingly good for a standalone novel.

Cons:
-Some portions, it takes a long time for a simple sub-plot to be tied into the main plot.
-The ending is slightly melodramatic.

First Hollow Men, and now this. I can't wait for McCormack's next book!

The episode of DS9 that featured Rugal, was not one of my favorites, mainly because of the bratty way Rugal was portrayed. Rugal was supposed to be 16 but he was written and acted like an 8 year old. The Never Ending Sacrifice redeems him in my eyes. Una McCormack is a very descriptive writer. This was the first Star Trek book I've read that focused solely on Cardasians. So I really appreciated her descriptive details of what life on Prime was really like. It gave more of an understanding about what kind of people the Cardassians are that the series really didn't portray. My only beef with the book was that the last couple of chapters seemed rushed. It was as if the manuscript was way past deadline, and the last couple of chapters were added just to wrap it up. I did however really enjoy Garrack's cameo. It had me laughing out loud because I could picture Andrew Robinson as Garrack, acutally acting out those scenes and being way over the top as usual with it. Overall, I am going to have to add Una McCormack as one of my favorite Star Trek book authors, along with David Mack and Andy Mangels.

I generally dont like Star Trek novels that dont feature prominately the major characters in the given series an as a result it took me several attempts to get started with this book and while it is Star Trek pretty much in name only the story was engrossing and it was an excellent read. If you want a story thats a bit different for Star Trek I recommend this book. If youre looking for a good Star Trek story involving major characters try it anyway you will not be disappointed.

One of the things I really like about Star Trek books nowadays is that they have a wide range of possible subject matter, and CBS/Paramount will let them have free rein to develop these ideas. They can take a one-shot character from one of the television series and develop that character, making it important to subsequent plots. Una McCormack takes full advantage of that opportunity in The Never-Ending Sacrifice. In the book, she tells the tale of Rugal, a Cardassian child adopted by Bajoran parents who was then taken away from them and returned to Cardassia when it was discovered that he was the son of a prominent Cardassian official. The story is an excellent one, as she uses Rugal's time on Cardassia to show us a planet in turmoil during the tumultuous events of the DS9 series through the eyes of a boy (and later, a man) who doesn't really want to be there.

Rugal is from the episode "Cardassians," a boy who has grown up with Bajoran parents but whose father, Kotan Pa'Dar, long believed he was dead in the bombing that killed his wife. Once it's discovered he's alive, and the separation was part of a political game instigated by Gul Dukat, Starfleet Commander Benjamin Sisko ultimately makes the ruling that he must return to Cardassia with his father. Thus begins an odyssey for Rugal on a planet he doesn't want to be on, with people he can't stand, and he must live far away from the people he loves. He tries to stay in touch with his Bajoran parents as they try to get him home, but that ultimately proves futile. So he scrapes out a life that he can at least tolerate, finding a young Cardassian woman who is also not happy with her current status, and does the best he can. Events move from the fall of the Cardassian military rule to an unholy alliance with the evil Dominion and then the catastrophic war between the Dominion and most other Alpha Quadrant states. All the while, Rugal tries to make something of his life on Cardassia, trying to become a man who proves that not all Cardassians are evil thugs, and to resist being absorbed into a Cardassian society that spits out its people in the never-ending sacrifice.

The Never-Ending Sacrifice starts extremely slowly, and for a while there I was wondering whether I was going to be able to get through it. She starts with a bit of a summary of the episode that introduced Rugal, with thoughts going through Rugal's mind as he first sets foot on Cardassia. Rugal initially resists liking anything about Cardassia, determined to remain unhappy and sulky as he expects his stay on Cardassia to be short-lived. His Bajoran parents are trying to get somebody in the Bajoran government to intervene on his behalf and set him free. This stage of the book isn't as interesting as the rest of it.

Rugal never really does settle in, though he does become more comfortable with actually living on Cardassia, and once he sort of comes to terms with that (despite never giving up the determination that he will return to Bajor), the book gets much more interesting as he begins to build a life there. He meets Penelya, a young orphan girl who has been taken in by her aunt and uncle to be groomed to take over the family estates back on her home colony, and their relationship develops very nicely throughout the book.

I also liked his relationship with his father, Kotan. It's never easy, and Kotan often gives in to him because he just wants Rugal to be happy to be his son, but Rugal is determined to hold his grudge against his father. As the book moves on, their relationship changes in a very logical, and beautifully told manner. Whether or not he can grow to love his father, he does grow to respect him, especially in regards to both of their relationship with Kotan's mother, Geleth. She's the best character in the novel, spiteful and dismissive of her son's ability even as she drives him to move even higher in the government. She treats Rugal horribly, but, underneath, there appears to be some kind of respect or some other type of feeling, culminating with her choosing him to make her traditional Cardassian death-bed confession speech to.

As interesting as the characters are in the book, however, what's really neat for the Trek fan is seeing all of the galaxy-spanning events of the television series from the Cardassian side. Before, we only saw things when they impacted the crew of Deep Space Nine, but Rugal and Kotan give us the Cardassian view of things. The timeline jumps forward occasionally, with McCormack having to then summarize what happened in the months between the time periods (a device I really don't like, but understand why it has to be used) and we see the devastation that's caused by the end of the Dominion War and how it affects Rugal.

McCormack is widely considered in Trek circles to be the expert on Cardassia, having written a couple of books that highlight the society, and the atmosphere she portrays in The Never-Ending Sacrifice is almost overwhelming in its oppressiveness. Life on Cardassia is hard, with the land being almost grey from overuse; with security cameras monitoring everything, making it so you can't even make dissident statements in your own home without first sweeping for listening devices. When Rugal eventually gets to a colony world where both humans and Cardassians lived, the dissonance between the way both races lived is almost palpable.

The Never-Ending Sacrifice is a wonderful book overall. The book is marred with a slow beginning and a seemingly incessant need to have Rugal (or somebody in the book) meet and deal with almost every major Cardassian character from the series, but otherwise, this is a book that most Trek fans (and certainly any DS9 fans) will be unable to put down once you get past the opening few pages.

It takes a book like this to show you how full and rich the Star Trek universe has become. The story is clearly set in the DS9 milieu, ranging from Bajor to DS9, Earth and Cardassia, but it really could have been told anywhere. However, what the Star Trek backstory brings to the overall tale provides such a layer of richness to it, that you're left with a memory of how good the world is.

The story centers around a young Cardassian, who was orphaned on Bajor, and raised by Bajorans as one of their own. When he travells to Deep Space Nine, and his true identity is discovered, Sisco feels he has no choice but to uproot him from his current life, and change the boy's future forever.

For his part, the young man doesn't go away willingly, but he feels he has little choice. His new family is cordial enough, and they bring a certain history and opportunity that he finds difficult to turn away from. He spends the next few decades planning to find his way back to his family on Bajor, but things keep getting in the way. Eventually, the young man finds a cause to believe in, and follows it with all his heart, and even most of his life.

This is a story about changes, and how we all have to adapt, some times several times to radical changes in our lives. For most of us, what we do along the way is what matters.

I'm sure there are going to be complaints that this wasn't really a Star Trek book. While the story existed in the universe, and followed the timeline of Cardassia's history pretty solidly, it really could have been told anywhere. I agree, the story could have happened anywhere, and could even have been set in modern day. But it truly is the layers of understanding and complexity that the Star Trek history brings that makes this book something special.

I don't truly recommend this book for fans of traditional, monster-of-the-week type Star Trek stories. But for those of us for whom DS9 was the best of the series, this book will be satisfying and enjoyable, and remind you how good it was.

A very different DS9 novel, focusing on a character who only appeard in one episode. When I first heard about this book, I was worried about it, I didn't think Rugal was a strong enough character to carry an entire book. I was wrong.

The Never Ending Sacrifice is an amazing coming of age story, and one all ST or DS9 fans should read.

When I first started the novel I was not sure what to make of it. I was looking for a quick, uncomplicated read. What I found was a "series novel" that was written with more intelligence and skill than I had expected. This novel, like A Singular Destiny, introduces us to non-core Star Trek characters, and provide us valuable insight into the challenges faced by "the other citizens" of the Federation.

Very enjoyable.