TP: Brinkmanship by Una McCormack Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[rfmcdpei]

dodge wrote:

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A question for those who have read it...

I've picked this up today but haven't read Plagues of Night/Raise the Dawn yet. My local bookshop didn't have them so I've ordered them online, but it'll take a week for them to get here. How spoilery is Brinkmanship regarding the plot of PoN/RtD? I already know that

DS9 gets destroyed

, but that's the only thing I know.

So, should I wait till PoN/RtD get here, or can I dig in now?

I think you should be safe. DS9 and Bajor don't feature in any way. The presence of the Enterprise-E is the possible point of contact, but no spoilers from that end, either.

[Edit_XYZ]

dispatcher812 wrote:

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Yes and that's what I find I like about it. No responsiblility outside what you are supposed to do, no hard decisions to make. No coworkers not pulling there weight or complaing about the job. In my line of work by the time I get home my head is fried. Sometimes a mindless job would be a blessing.

'home'? Where did this come from?
Perhaps you're talking about family, too?

Home, family, friends, interests, etc - All these things are irrelevant to a mindless slave; they involve abilities that it already forwent.
That's what the tzenkethi civilization is.

[Markonian]

Hello,

I've just begun to read Brinkmanship and so far, I like it a lot. However, I was wondering: Are there any pictures of the Tzenkethi? Their description is vivid, so they are among the easier-to-imagine species but maybe it would be a good idea to put one/some of them on a novel cover.

Not that I don't like seeing the main characters on the cover but it would be cool, Imho, to see specimens of the important aliens, too.

[dispatcher812]

Edit_XYZ wrote:

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'home'? Where did this come from?
Perhaps you're talking about family, too?

Home, family, friends, interests, etc - All these things are irrelevant to a mindless slave; they involve abilities that it already forwent.
That's what the tzenkethi civilization is.

SPOILERS BELOW

Yes Home, as in where I go after work. Even Efheny went 'home' after her shift. It may not be what we consider home but they have then and from what I was able to get out of it they can and do have relationships. The E class are not all together mindless. Cory was able to make a friend, make her own decsions to follow Efheny. I would not call that minless. EE class, now thats a different story.

My point was that sometimes, for me, that would be refreshing. Just like Efheny found in the end.

[Edit_XYZ]

dispatcher812
Efheny went in a cubicle after her shift in order to 'recharge', physiologically speaking. If you think that has any resemblance to the concept of 'home'... ookay.

Cory, unlike Efheny, wanted freedom, to look around her and see what's there. She did not forgo her 'humanity' (insert alien species name+ity), as Efheny did.

[Ronald Held]

Just started an hour ago. Nothing special so far.

[Astraea]

I really enjoyed this - both the Venetans and the Tzenkethi were interesting, and I do enjoy the more overly political books. If you don't like the political side of Treklit you're probably not going to enjoy this. This and The Never-Ending Sacrifice are probably my two favorite McCormack books, and I'd look forward to any of her future outings.

I understand why Elfheny would find the Tzenkethi civilization appealing, as awful as I think it would be to live in that civilization (at least at the E or EE levels that we see.) I think that section of the story worked because it was a Cardassian spy and not a human. I could understand why Elfheny wanted to stay - her own civilization is devastated, and Tzenketh is comparatively resource-rich. As other posters have pointed out, the totalitarian Tzenkethi system is something that Cardassians could only aspire to, so it makes sense that some Cardassians like Elfheny would see it as the fulfillment of an ideal instead of a totalitarian nightmare. Elfheny herself seems happy with her life as an E-grade worker - she has the internal monologue where she thinks about losing herself in the work - and I understood her choice to stay, especially when given the choice between giving herself over to a system she admires versus turning a friend over to that same fate.

If anything is frustrating, it's the intentional ambiguity of things but that's rather the point. How unbalanced is Alden? Is he going to find the extra meaning he needs in helping Cory? Who planted the bomb? But not getting definitive answers to those things is rather the point of the book; everybody ends up unsatisfied. Even Elfheny's early speculations - are all Tzenkethi unhappy underneath a mask of contentment? - stays unanswered, as the only Tzenkethi we really meet are Cory and the enforcers. Of those, Cory is obviously not entirely satisfied, and Artamer seems prone to question things but not terribly discontent.

I do have to wonder if Alex and Neta are relatively incompetent spies, given Cory's comments about them and the enforcers' confirmation that Alex was under suspicion the entire time he was there. If they're representative of the typical operatives in Tzenkethi space, I have to wonder how they haven't all been discovered yet. There's even speculation - I believe by Alden - that Alex wasn't in that great a danger of discovery when we know from the enforcers that he was already under suspicion and had been warned about reconditioning once already. (I also have to wonder how you insert spies into such a closed society in the first place.)

I'd like to see more of the Aventine crew, and hope we get an eventual book or two that actually features different crewmembers and more character development for them. I enjoyed seeing Ezri as captain, but I'd love to see more of the Aventine as a whole.

I did enjoy the look at the Tzenkethi, and would love to see an illustration. I always like having some sort of visual reference for alien species. I think a comparison to the showcase on the Breen in Zero Sum Game is more apt than to the Cardassians in Never-Ending Sacrifice: this gives us a closer look at a Typhon Pact member through a lens of espionage.

This is really minor, but I could've lived without the updates at the beginnings of later chapters about the Venetans' preparations for conflict - the warnings about fear, need for water collection, etc. I didn't feel it provided much of an extra insight to the Venetans, and the text did a better job of building suspense and a possible lead-up to conflict than those little pre-chapter summaries.

[Paris]

Just got it the mail, and I'm through the first chapter. Enjoying it so far

[CaptainDonovin]

I really liked this one, gave it an outstanding. A fun ride that kept me guessing, great narrative style (Today, XXX was going to make a mistake that would change three lives forever). I kind of figured what would happen to the characters on Ab-Tzenketh but the rest of it had me going till near the end. I thought the book was nicely split between the Enterptise & Aventine, Ezri was shown (at least in my opinion) to being on the cusp of breaking out as one of Starfleets best captains, a little rough around the edges but shehas that advantage of her previous lives. She's one of my favorites, I just wish a better photo could be used, hell I could make one.

Can't wait to see where this leads to next in the Typhon Pact series.

[Rush Limborg]

^Indeed. I'm very pleased at how Ezri's characterized in the book. I found myself smiling at a particular moment when, while briefing the senior staff, she throws up her hands and says, "I know, I know, it's crazy! But..."

Just to name one moment, but--through and through, Ms. McCormack has her down pat. We can believe, though she clearly is worthy of her command...she's still the Ezri Dax we know and love.

(Aside from the brief "colorful metaphors"...it's how I'd want to write for Ezri.)

Also--at last, we see Ezri going through an emotional arc. We know not just what she's thinking, but feeling. She's a flesh-and-blood character, in this book. As great and awesome a writer as Mack is--I felt something of a distance from Ezri when reading Destiny and ZSG. Ms. McCormack doesn't do that--we know Ezri, in this book.

Oh...and I didn't take Bowers's remark about Alden being a "fox" as meaning he's attracted to him, or anything. It struck me as Sam teasing Ezri on what he sees as her possibly having feelings. I doubt she does, but Sam's probably taking "My friend dated him" to mean "I (but I won't say it's me) dated him."

[Gul Re'jal]

SPOILERS!



I finished reading a moment ago and I enjoyed it a lot. What I liked was that not anyone was presented as infallible and perfect. Even the Federation, which usually is "superior" in everything compared to the others, has its darker moments: keeping a former Obsidian Order agent as their ambassador (hehehe), or having not so skilled spy on Ab Tzenketh. I'm also glad to see Ferengi treated seriously and not as a comic relief as they so often are presented.

I'm not so surprised by Nata's choice, though. A strictly hierarchical Tzenkethi society had to be appealing to a Cardassian with strong hierarchical instincts. In spite of all disadvantages, Nata found the thought of staying there comforting and I can see why. I also found it touching how she cared about Cory.

I don't read all new Trek books anymore, but Ms. McCormack's books will always be on my "to read" list

[WarsTrek1993]

Wow, I haven't read this yet, but on Amazon.com, it's getting a downpour of negative reviews. (Not that that's preventing me from reading it soon).

[Sho]

IMHO "downpour" is overstating things. Right now there are only five reviews: One five stars, one four stars, two three stars and one two stars. That's a fairly even distribution and too early to call out a trend in terms of sample size.

Add to that the two star review frankly makes my brow go Klingon ("it's an election year, you should only publish escapism, not politics" - what's next, "I hate that I have to get up early in the morning, did the book have to involve time travel?" on the next DTI?).

[WarsTrek1993]

Sho wrote:

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IMHO "downpour" is overstating things. Right now there are only five reviews: One five stars, one four stars, two three stars and one two stars. That's a fairly even distribution and too early to call out a trend in terms of sample size.

Add to that the two star review frankly makes my brow go Klingon ("it's an election year, you should only publish escapism, not politics" - what's next, "I hate that I have to get up early in the morning, did the book have to involve time travel?" on the next DTI?).

LOL, very true. I don't agree with people who grip simply because it's too realistic or when the author puts his beliefs in the novel.

[Rush Limborg]

Personally, I've only read the Aventine parts of it. However...from what I've read of that, it's actually pretty balanced. I don't see Ms. McCormack as imposing anything (unless it's in the Picard parts, maybe?). She delves into a grey area.

Ezri's not being a dove by any means--and Alden's not being a caricature of a hawk.

Ezri has the same suspicions Alden does, and is struggling to find the best solution for the Federation and the Venetians. She wants to prove the Tzenkethi's hostile intent, just as Alden claims she is. She just thinks Alden is putting his own interests over the defense of the Federation. It's not theory, but methods that are the issue.

Their scene at the end emphasizes that there were no easy answers to what had happened.

BTW...I sincerely hope that, if Alden ever shows up again--and I hope he may...

I sincerely hope he doesn't turn out to be Section 31. The last thing we need--another lame excuse of "Oh, he has to be 31, because Starfleet wouldn't dare go so grey!"

Please. Linking Admiral Dougherty to 31 was bad enough. If they do that to Alden...and by extention, Admiral Akaar--I won't be the only one letting out a loud, prolongued groan....