(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. ( )

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. ( )

This one takes a "life story' of a minor character who appeared in one episode of the show. The story of Rugal is of a Cardasian boy whose was orphaned during the Occupation, raised by Bajorrns and on a trip with his adoptive dad to DS9 he was kidnapped and brought back to Cardassia wher his birth father was a politician. He fights with his own mortality, identity, tries to just fit in, tries to over though the state, starts a terrorist group and eventually joins the military, while trying to navigate his new country. I can't do this one justice with a simple review, if you love anything about Star Trek, pick this one up. ( )

A franchise novel based almost entirely around a character who appears only in one episode has to be really good to meet this mark. 'The Never Ending Sacrifice' meets that mark.
It follows the life of Rugal, a Cardassian boy brought up by a loving Bajoran couple who adopt him during the Occupation. When they visit Deep Space 9, the commanding officer decides that Rugal's interests would be best served by returning him to Cardassia with his biological father who had been tricked in believing Rugal was dead (Cardassian feuds and politics can get really nasty).

That decision is to change Rugal's life, landing him on a strange world among a people he regards as enemies.

The title of the book refers to a classic Cardassian novel which looks at the demands Cardassia makes of its citizens, again and again. Service to the state is part of the culture, spontaneous help to your fellow citizens is not.

As Cardassia becomes involved in war after war, betrayal after betrayal, its citizens as well as Rugal continue to make sacrifice after sacrifice.

This is not an easy book, or a happy one, yet a few good things do do emerge. Rugal's background leads him to question and mistrust everything is he is told and to develop his own philosophy of life. His ability to relate to people from other cultures and backgrounds gives him a flexibility that most Cardassians lack and will lead him to some genuine friendships.

The characters are well-drawn, particularly Rugal's grandmother who despises him, but whom he comes to love and loathe in equal measure. ( )

En riktigt stark berättelse som följer en ung cardassier (Cardassia är en nation som krigar med omkringliggande territorier), Rugal Pa'Dar, genom sex års historia, en personlig historia som berättar en persons liv mitt i de stora händelserna. Rugals liv berättar alltså om en medborgares upplevelser, när krig, revolter, räddningsprojekt och läkanden sker i hela samhället. När man i TV-serierna får se händelser ur de centrala personernas liv (alltså statsledare, etc) får man här se en enskild persons vy och det ger en hissnande tanke om alla de många miljarders olika öden. På så sätt blir berättelsen episk, för bredden och djupet i en persons historia är lika stort som den om staternas och samhällenas förehavanden.

Det är sällan som jag drabbas av en bok så hårt som jag gjorde med denna bok. Den senaste gången i Star Trek-sammanhang var nog Destiny-trilogin. The never ending sacrifice är en bok som gjorde att jag höll andan och hela tiden ville veta mer. Relationerna känns äkta och utgångspunkten i en enskild persons liv var djärvt och härligt. Jag vet inte hur en Star Trek-ovan tar sig an berättelsen, men är det något som är universellt så är det just relationerna. Una McCormacks författarskap gav mersmak. Betyget för boken blir inte oväntat 10 av 10.

Recensionen är ursprungligen publicerad på Star Trek Databas. ( )