[rfmcdpei]

WarsTrek1993 wrote:

---

Wow, that was fast!
I can't wait to read your review. The Tzekethi version of The Romulan Way, huh?

To a certain extent.

Duane's The Romulan Way and McCormack's Brinkmanship both feature anthropologically-trained spies, surgically altered by the polities they serve to resemble the local species closely, and sent to work in low-level positions so as to get a participant's-eye perspective. Terise and McCormack's Neta each fall in love with the isolationist culture they're sent to and, when given the choice, each eventually choose to stay. Moreover, both these narratives of a foreigner's coming to feel at home in a foreign culture are embedded in a wider astropolitical context, with the Federation-Romulan disputes of the Rihannsu-verse and the Typhon Pact, respectively.

The critical area where they differ is in what I can only call Brinkmanship's harder situation. Much of the difference likely comes from the differing origins of the characters. Terise Haleakala-LoBrutto came from a 23rd-century Federation that was a stable and progressive culture, while Neta Efhany was an agent of a Cardassia only recently converted to democratic pluralism and still recovering from the Dominion War. More of the difference has to do with the nature of the cultures they were sent to: the Romulans, whether in Duane's original version of the Rihannsu, Trek literature's current consensus, or the sparser detail provided by TV and film, are a much more pluralistic and less xenophobic culture that the Tzenkethi. A case can be made that Romulan culture, while still laced with all kinds of terrible things, is compatible with Federation culture in that both cultures share many of the same norms. The terrible xenophobic claustrophobic terror of the Tzenkethi, coupled with the police state that is intrusive to the level of reproduction and cares not one whit for person freedom, isn't nearly as sympathetic.

The way Terise and Nefa reconcile themselves to their new homes is noteworthy. Terise opts of her own free will to remain attached to Rihannsu culture while retaining in secret her own identity, becoming an actor in Rihannsu civilization and even making allies with another deep-cover agent. Nefa opts to assimilate fully into Tzenkethi society without keeping her identity, welcoming her dispatch to a reconditioning facility that will strip away her identity and leave her perfectly happy with her place in a Tzenkethi society that has no room for individuality. More gruesomely, Nefa's discovered fellow agent isn't nearly as helpful as Terise; Andy instead blackmails Nefa and her friend, and in the end probably would have killed her had Nefa not won and bashed the Federation agent's head in with a rock on a cold hillside.

The thing is, despite the deeply unattractive picture of Tzenkethi civilization painted in Brinkmanship, I can still see why the Tzenkethi would like it. It's stable, it's peaceful, and it's protective of its compliant members.