Oooh Natima Lang would be a great choice. That's right, I remember now! Ghemor gets assassinated sometime soon according to The Calling by AJR. Which reminds me... Are we EVER going to get to see The Dream Box outside of convention performances? The Calling was easy enough to comprehend once I understood that the apples were now being called pears, but It'd still be nice to have even a transcript to read some day. If there is another Cardassian Book, Una should be first in line to write it.
I would also love to see something from "The Dream Box"--a script, a short story, SOMETHING! Not all of us can afford to go to cons.
Nerys, why do you consider Migdal a bad guy? I'm curious about why a Bajoran raising a Cardassian child, and being loved by said child, constitutes him being a bad guy.
Well, in the episode we never have conclusive proof one way or the other of the allegations against Proka--at least, that we see on screen. Also, it is never resolved to what degree there may have been verbal abuse against Rugal: was he indeed taught to hate himself for being Cardassian? Did Proka deliberately fail to teach Rugal that he cannot carry the sins of an entire people? Do we know for certain what Proka's motivations were for adopting Rugal? Or did that trauma come strictly from outside the family? We don't know--to my view, this was handwaved after the allegations of physical abuse were dismissed. Based on what we see onscreen, as far as I am concerned, Una's interpretation and mine both have just as much ground to stand on, since we never get an answer to the psychological abuse that was obviously inflicted by someone or several someones, given the extreme nature of biting in a teenager. Personally, I say that if we go strictly on canon evidence without bringing in our own character-building, the verdict becomes "not proven." It could be either, but what I saw onscreen was the state (well, Starfleet) failing to adequately make a case--which we do not know whether it's due to lack of evidence to be found, or due to failure to find evidence that was out there. In the end, though, this is one of those cases where no matter what, Rugal loses. Rugal has lost because he's obviously spent a LOT of time being tormented for his species, and guilt over the Cardassians' actions on Bajor has turned into an unhealthy self-loathing, and he's lost the connection he should have had to his natural father, Pa'Dar. And Pa'Dar has lost too, because he's had his son torn away from him and Dukat has effectively seen to it that any love from Pa'Dar will be returned with hate, which is one of the most painful things any father could endure. The self-loathing and any maladjustment Rugal experiences on Cardassia will also be a knife in Pa'Dar, too. In a lot of ways, Rugal has been brought up now to love someone that to Pa'Dar, undoubtedly feels like an accessory to kidnapping. It doesn't matter that Proka is Bajoran, even--I'm sure if it were another Cardassian (imagine Dukat raising the child himself...YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK!!!) it would hurt just as badly. Seeing that...well, like I said, you might want to read the case I linked to earlier in the thread. It's pretty distressing when this sort of stuff happens, and it does IRL.
I see where you're coming from and yes, I believe that there would have been Bajorans who would have made sure that Rugal knew he was Cardassian and perhaps even made sure he hated himself for it, which would be a clear case of emotional abuse, but I don't believe for one second that Migdal was responsible for that--except in the way he may have let it continue by doing or saying nothing against it. Rugal clearly was an unhappy teenager, but I would say it stemmed from his lack of clear identity. A Cardassian on Bajor or a Bajoran in a Cardassian's body? Our environment shapes us more than our genetics do, but although Migdal might be to blame for not getting Rugal help, he may have wanted to keep Rugal away from anything which might make it worse. Sisko was wrong to send Rugal back to Cardassia, as the hearing stated, and played right into Dukat's twisted hand. But all we know for certain is that Dukat is the one directly responsible for Pa'Dar's and Rugal's suffering, and indirectly for Migdal's suffering.
Failure to act is just as bad as a direction action taken--if Migdal said nothing against the abuse, either in private to Rugal or in public to his school, then he's sending a message that it's OK. That's what a child/young teenager is going to get from it, anyway. I can tell you that in my case, I suffered abuse in school due to a variety of factors and my parents DID stand up for me. And even though the abuse continued because of certain teachers, I at least knew my parents were fighting on my behalf and that went a long way. (It also cemented my decision, though, to see that my children are educated in a different setting, should I have kids, because I only first got respite the year we moved and I attended a private school where there was actual discipline since they didn't have their options limited by the state.) If you do NOT know that your parents are firmly in your court when it comes to things that are absolutely unjustified, like racially-based abuse, then the parents are in effect aiding and abetting the enemy. So even if Migdal was simply LETTING abuse go on, then he is an accessory. Also..are we so sure he was wrong to send Rugal back to Cardassia? If you read Una's take on it, I can definitely see where it was a major disservice: the boy had no memories whatsoever of Pa'Dar or of Cardassia, and the culture shock was enormous. However...I think if there was any chance of memories becoming salvageable (which I believe to be more possible than with a human due to early Cardassian mental training--but that's my personal interpretation), you might have been looking at a different scenario--or at least one where there was a chance of things coming out better: maybe in that case, even if Cardassia was difficult, you could've at least gotten some sort of connection back between the Pa'Dars. It would've felt like Kotan and Rugal versus The World and a good bit of the time The World would win (just like it did in my own case)--but at least he'd know for sure that he had another fighter in his corner. The way Dukat engineered this, though--he wins no matter what. Returning to Cardassia Prime causes Pa'Dar and Rugal anguish, to be sure. BUT--so would leaving him on Bajor! We saw how it tore up Tekeny Ghemor to send away what he believed was his adult child (more capable of fending for herself, of course, than Rugal)...to leave a child below the age of maturity on an enemy world, to be raised to hate you and your world...you know what? Even if you as a Cardassian agreed with the idea that Cardassia had sinned badly, that would STILL hurt. After all, you can live in a place and even love it in spite of its sins...and that can motivate you to want to FIX it instead of spit upon it. So I don't think you can argue that one course is better or worse when it comes to defeating Dukat. He wins no matter what; all you can do is rebuild after the fact. BTW...here's that link again that I was talking about before. I swear, this woman was like a female Dukat! And when you hear the dad talk, he sounds just like Pa'Dar. This kid loses no matter what: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528481,00.html
I did wonder if Cardassia had a kind of re-indoctrination centre where displaced people might be sent to re-learn what Cardassia is. Though in their case it would probably be more like brainwashing.
I dunno...entirely possible, unless they do like in 1984 and let a certain amount of "crazies" run around so they can net others...
Bloody love this book. A good companion to Stitch in Time and Day of the Vipers. Even liked the military bits that others seemed to have a problem with.
Just finished this, finally. Absolutely outstanding, an incredible job all around. One of my favorite DS9 novels, and that's really saying something. My review: Every once in a while, a book comes along in Trek that is somehow substantially greater than the sum of its parts. The best example I can think of is Once Burned, which in 200 pages tells one of the most moving tragedies in Treklit, and that’s the closest comparison I can give to this. We know the major thrust of the background story already, we’ve met all the major players before, and this moves the Relaunch plot essentially nowhere at all; really, it’s somewhat odd – and extremely awesome – that this was ever published. And even on its own, the book has a fairly counterintuitive structure – the first two thirds on Cardassia, then wandering and meeting a whole new cast of characters, not to mention an unusual storybook omniscient narrator that feels very different from the normal Trek novel. But then in execution, this is something magnificent, something outside the usual Trek set of conventions and unique and powerful in an unexpected way. We see the best of Cardassians, and the worst, often in the very same character (Rugal’s grandmother is a fantastic piece of work). We see the best of humans, and the worst. We even see some darker sides to Bajorans. Rugal himself is sometimes a saint, and sometimes a flawed and angry man. And all together, it means something; it uses every situation to subtly and without overt comment mirror a similar one, including the beautiful parallelism of having Rugal, an adoptee, then adopt a human, and puts it all together to create a humble but powerfully conveyed message that no one is any better than anyone else. Cardassian culture – no, not ideal, certainly, but with its high points. Federation culture – pretty awesome, but with its low points. We watch Rugal see so many parts of the Trek universe from the opposite side from the one we've experienced that the book by itself balances almost anything that could be called an excess in the Cardassia or Dominion stories so far. And yet it never feels like an epic. It’s just a story. A story unexpectedly moving and worth telling. The book’s only real problem, I think, is that about 15% of the scenes come from a POV that isn’t Rugal’s, and it’s not enough to balance it into a larger-scale story but too much to be a minor aside, and doesn’t sit very comfortably. But Rugal’s tale is a worthy one, and Una McCormack has found a new fan in me.
I finished this last week, and I can't really think of much new to add other than to say that I thought the book was absolutely amazing. One thing I've always loved about Trek (and Star Wars) novels, is how they can take a one off character, like Rugal, and give them a complete and intersting story, and this book did that incredibly well. But now only did it develop Rugal, it also added more depth to Cardassian culture, and many of the other characters we saw over the years like Kotan, and Ziyal. I really hope this is not the last we see of Rugal, this book really turned him into a fascinating character. RATING: 9/10
I feel somewhat bad to break the string of high praise with my own review -especially since I adored Una McCormack's previous books so much - but I'm afraid this one wasn't quite my thing. There were several things that really bugged me - almost all of them connected to Rugal. My biggest gripe was that his age was changed. I commented on this in the thread about the excerpt and because of the answers I got ("maybe it's just the difference between human and Cardassian years"), I tried to ignore it but it kept bugging me. And I just couldn't figure out WHY you changed him from a twelve year old, when the hand biting was so much more in character with a scared kid than with a teen (at least IMO). I checked again and both the episode's script and Memory Alpha call him twelve. Then I had the idea to check "Terok Nor volume 3" and there it was. Seems like you have fallen victim to an error made in that book when Kotan and his aide speak about searching for an eight year old yet the script says: That incident was eight years ago but Rugal was four at that time, thus making him twelve at the time of the episode! I don't know about you but this age makes much more sense to me both because Rugal claims he can't remember Kotan and in the way he's acting. Another thing that doesn't fit in with the episode is how you dismiss Zolan as someone they had nothing to do with, when you see him walking into the replimat with Rugal and Proka Migdal. He's the one who shows them to their table and then leaves, apparently to get food for all of them. If the only contact Zolan ever had with them was ages ago, why does he seem to plan to eat with? I'm sorry to say that but did you have a good thorough look on the episode before writing or did you just base your information on previous books? Maybe I'm a bit picky here, again I'm sorry, but this was one of my favorite episodes, so I'm a bit touchy about it. I guess that's the reason why Rugal keeps annoying me like hell. I just saw him rather differently in the episode (probably because to me he was a scared kid and not a confrontational teen) and Rugal's self-righteousness and heartless behaviour towards Kotan made me in essence indifferent to his plight. What I did like was how you portrayed Cardassian culture, from Geleth's background to the artworks of Prekeny. And Garak was wonderful as always.
I finished this a few weeks ago and am still thinking about it. That's always the mark of a great read in my opinion. And you got to write scenes with Garak!, how much fun was that? Una, you did a great job on this. I'm looking forward to more of your work.
Is there any particular reason Rugal shouldn't behave self-righteously or heartlessly towards Kotan? He was essentially a victim of state kidnapping.
Kotan was the person who instigated the kidnapping. Rugal's adoption was legal under Bajoran law; he was a Bajoran citizen. And his Bajoran parents were all Rugal remembered or wanted. I'm not saying that Kotan's a bad guy or that his reasons for doing it weren't understandable. But he was wrong for doing so; he had engaged in an act of kidnapping, and got the Cardassian and Federation states to be his accomplices.
The only reason the Bajoran adoption took place was because Dukat did something WILDLY illegal. Kotan was setting right what Dukat did. Let me remind you again of this real-life case. Are you suggesting the father has lost his claim because of the illegal thing that his wife did? Those who use the emotional damage done to the boy by his illegal and immoral separation from his father as justification to CONTINUE the separation are way out of line. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/03/new.jersey.brazil.custody/index.html Read up.
Which doesn't change the fact that Rugal was a Bajoran citizen who had been legally adopted by Bajoran citizens. The Cardassian Union and the Federation had no right to abduct a Bajoran citizen from Bajor and send him off to Cardassia against his legal parents' will. No, he was kidnapping Rugal from the only family he knew or wanted and sending him off to a world where his son would be raised in tyranny. He had no right to do that; it was fundamentally damaging to Rugal and his developmental health. That's a poor parallel for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the person raising him did had something to do with the child's initial abduction, and because the U.S. and Brazil have normal diplomatic relations and can resolve this diplomatically. On top of that, that child remember his biological father; Rugal did not. Cardassia and Bajor did not have normal diplomatic relations. Rugal was the victim of intra-Cardassian kidnapping, and his Bajoran parents had had nothing to do with that, thus rendering his adoption legal under Bajoran law. Cardassia and the Federation had no right to interfere with Bajoran sovereignty by trying to de facto render that adoption void by sending Rugal back, as the Federation judge at the end of The Never-Ending Sacrifice determined.
And when did Dukat or any other Cardassian official terminate Kotan's parental rights or determine that he could not be a fit parent? That did not happen. For a parent's claim to be totally annulled in that manner is something that the Bajorans and Starfleet had no right to do without a proper and very thorough investigation, which we have no proof, based on the episode, was actually undertaken (on behalf of either side, sadly). Some sort of joint custody or visitation rights might have been a scenario I could accept. Hell, it might have even been possible to convince Kotan to move permanently to Bajor for this purpose; I know if I were in Kotan's shoes, I would choose exile for the sake of my child if that were the choice presented to me. I would give up EVERYTHING for my child...my home, my position, my status, everything. These would've been the optimum outcome, perhaps, and I think the episode failed for not examining those options (in addition to other things it failed to examine properly). But for you to suggest his parental rights should be completely brushed off--that is really disturbing. The idea that Rugal had no memory of his biological father that could ever be retrieved is a conjecture that Una McCormack made. Certainly in the episode Rugal showed no signs of remembering, but in the end we're left to conjecture two different possibilities as to what could happen. One is the scenario that Una went with, which is that he had no memories save the memory of the abduction. The other is that there WERE memories that could have been awakened over time. I also find myself very suspicious of Proka Migdal here--I do not put it past him to have deliberately induced Rugal to forget, or to have convinced him that any memories he DOES have did not happen. This certainly fits with the self-loathing attitude Proka has fostered in him. Unlike Una, I am not convinced of the purity of Proka's motives; we never had conclusive proof either way on the charges against him, simply a handwave by Sisko after a very minimal investigation. And if Proka has done this, then he is guilty of brainwashing--which is quite ironic considering that the Cardassians are often accused of such things, and almost certainly have done them. One more point. If you read the case I mentioned again, you will note that the Brazilian authorities are NOT complying with their treaty obligations as regards international kidnapping and have stonewalled the father and US authorities. This obstructionism makes the parallel quite appropriate indeed. And Kotan still has a legitimate challenge to the adoption. It may have been legal before the existence of a biological father was known, but after that, there is no excuse for said adoption trumping Kotan's parental rights, unless Kotan is an unfit parent. As far as I'm concerned, we had potential evidence in the episode (which was given a handwave) that Proka was unfit on grounds of verbal abuse towards the child, fostering self-hatred in Rugal as his revenge against the Cardassians. (This claim was never properly answered, even though the physical abuse charges were likely vacated based on medical examination.) That right there would've been grounds to break the adoption--if the allegations of psychological abuse had been adequately investigated. In contrast, we had no reason to suspect Kotan would do that sort of thing to Rugal. (Even though it's not canon and I therefore do not count this in the debate, it's quite interesting to note that Una depicts Kotan as unconditionally loving despite the fact that HE is on the end of the verbal abuse all the time.) A far more thorough investigation of Proka's AND Kotan's abilities to be fit parents is something I would've ordered if I'd been in charge of adjudicating this case, make no mistake. If any evidence showed up that Kotan was going to be an abusive parent, I would look for other options. If the verbal abuse Proka was suggested to have committed were proven, this would also be a factor I would take into account. If Sisko and Starfleet failed, it was for lack of thoroughness in their investigation and for not providing incontrovertible evidence to back up their decision. And if you go strictly by canon, it COULD have turned in a direction where said evidence could appear. It could also have turned the other way where the Bajoran adoption should have been left alone. But since we don't know what the results of that investigation would have been--I'm going to come down on the side of parental rights.
I liked it. I picked this up because I enjoyed the Lotus Flower and Hollow Men. At first I had trouble believing that 'Rugal in the episode' would do or say some of the things in the first parts of the book, but later as I got more into it, I changed my opinion of 'Rugal in the episode' into 'Rugal in the book' and it changed my view of the episode 'Cardassians.' I hope to see more DS9 stuff from you in the future as you have the best vision of the Cardassians yet.