Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Never Ending Sacrifice Book

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.