The Never-Ending Sacrifice

The Never-Ending Sacrifice is a Pocket DS9 novel by Una McCormack. Part of the Deep Space Nine relaunch, and released on, the novel focuses on the Cardassian people.

Summary

 * From the back cover
 * ''A boy looks up. He sees a Cardassian's hand on his shoulder and knows that this is usually a prelude to a beating or, if he is fortunate enough, arrest. The boy knows how many disappeared during the Occupation of Bajor. So he does the one thing he can think of: he bites the Cardassian. Then the nightmare begins.


 * He is ripped from the family that took him in as an orphan, clothed him, fed him, always loved him unconditionally. And no matter how earnest, how caring the commander of Deep Space 9 is, the boy knows this is all a horrible mistake. How can someone from Starfleet judge him by what he looks like, not by what he is? He prays to the Prophets; he is Bajoran. They all keep telling him that the test proves the large Cardassian man is his father, that the other Cardassian – that oily gul – took him away from his father. But the boy keeps telling them that he is Bajoran, he only wants to go home with his father. So they send Rugal home - to Cardassia.


 * On the homeworld of the Cardassian Union where sacrifice and devotion to the state are surpassed only by the government's need to keep its people in check, one very lonely boy discovers that if he doesn't resist, his life – like those of so many others – will be added to the tally of the never-ending sacrifice.


 * Solicitation blurb
 * 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.

Characters
(Referenced only)
 * Rugal Pa'Dar
 * Kotan Pa'Dar
 * Skrain Dukat
 * Tora Ziyal
 * Tekeny Ghemor
 * Proka Migdal
 * Elim Garak
 * Miles O'Brien
 * Keiko O'Brien
 * Benjamin Sisko
 * Jake Sisko
 * Corat Damar
 * Natima Lang
 * Iliana Ghemor
 * Enabran Tain
 * Darhe'el

Background information

 * The title is a reference to the Cardassian literary work, The Never Ending Sacrifice, as referred to in.
 * The novel was announced at the Shore Leave convention on.
 * The novel's main character, Rugal Pa'Dar, was introduced in the DS9 episode.
 * An extract from the novel appeared in Star Trek Magazine issue 147.
 * receives an from the author.

Reception

 * Robert Lyons of TrekMovie.com described The Never-Ending Sacrifice as "unlike any Star Trek book I have ever read before".
 * Jens Deffner of Unreality SF gave The Never-Ending Sacrifice a review score of 90%. He commented "The Never-Ending Sacrifice is not only a very strong Star Trek novel, but simply an outstanding coming-of-age novel, since even if you stripped it of everything Star Trek-related, it would work just as well".
 * In March 2010, The Never-Ending Sacrifice won the Unreality SF story of the year poll 2009/2010 with 19% of the votes.

External link


The Never-Ending Sacrifice Das Ewige Opfer (Roman)