Reviews for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Never Ending Sacrifice

The average rating for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Never Ending Sacrifice based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-09-29 00:00:00 Peter Rontogiannis 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

Review # 2 was written on 2020-05-16 00:00:00 Frederick Miner 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.