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

[Una McCormack]

Thought people might be interested in this Q&A I did for the folks at the Priority One podcast; Q&A is after the review:
http://priorityonepodcast.com/wordpr...-brinkmanship/

[Enterpriserules]

Thanks for the post Una! I am finishing my review for Trek.Fm but I will say that this book was great. There is a lot going on under the surface and I'll post the full review when I am done.

[DS9forever]

I'm quite far into the novel; I'm enjoying it more than I thought.

I was wondering if there is an explanation as to how a Human and a Cardassian can be cosmetically altered to look like a Tzenkethi, given that earlier books said Tzenkethi could twist their bodies in several directions and walk easily on ceilings?

[Kertrats47]

DS9forever wrote:

---

I was wondering if there is an explanation as to how a Human and a Cardassian can be cosmetically altered to look like a Tzenkethi, given that earlier books said Tzenkethi could twist their bodies in several directions and walk easily on ceilings?

Well, I think the ceiling-walking thing is due to Tzenkethi technology, specifically their ability to manipulate gravitational fields in order to utilize every available surface. A Human or a Cardassian would be able to walk on a Tzenkethi ceiling regardless of any cosmetic alterations or lack of same.

[DS9forever]

Just noticed Trekmovie have posted a review of the novel:

http://trekmovie.com/2012/10/23/book...-brinkmanship/

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

^And predictably, none of the comments have anything to do with the book

I finished Brinkmanship last night. I thought it was slow going until Picard's speech 2/3 of the way through. Then it got good.

[star trek]

I gave it an above average. It was better than some Typhon Pact novels but it didn't blow me away.

Not bad.

[Kertrats47]

Finally published my review of this novel! I really enjoyed it. I'm really growing to love the Tzenkethi. I hope we get to see more of them in future novels.

[Enterpriserules]

Kertrats47 wrote:

---

Finally published my review of this novel! I really enjoyed it. I'm really growing to love the Tzenkethi. I hope we get to see more of them in future novels.

Excellent review! Sorry mine is still coming

[Kertrats47]

Enterpriserules wrote:

---

Excellent review! Sorry mine is still coming

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Looking forward to yours!

[Enterpriserules]

My review is up at Trek.fm

[Kertrats47]

Enterpriserules wrote:

---

My review is up at Trek.fm

Hmm.... your link seems to take me to a "page not found" error.

[Enterpriserules]

Kertrats47 wrote:

---

Hmm.... your link seems to take me to a "page not found" error.

Sorry about that. Trek.FM

[WarsTrek1993]

Okay, I just finished, and here are some of my thoughts:

1. The Tzenkethi-I like how well-developed they are here, and how we learn about their ranks. (Which David R. George III also addressed). Interesting how they have this letter-grading system. Haha.

2. Spies-Another poster on here compared this segment to Duane's "The Romulan Way", and that's actually a pretty good analogy, not just because of the spy plot, but because of how much insight we get on the homeworld.

3. Beverly Crusher- It's really nice to finally see her shine! I always kinda felt she never really got the chance to be the central character in the novels as of late, so it was good to have her as the speaker.

It was great to have Ezri shine as well, I liked her better here than in Zero Sum Game. I did feel that Peter Alden was a little underdeveloped and there wasn't really any point to him.
On a more positive note, I did love the parallels between this novel and the Cold War, well done, Una McCormack. Well done.

I rate "Above Average".

[Jarvisimo]

I really liked this novel, and how much it played with the idea of perspective: a theme highly suitable for a novel about espionage, certainly, but more so a text with a heavy emphasis on gender politics and identity.

Since the reader only encounters other characters mainly through four points-of-view, they are entrusted with a heavily claustrophobic perspective. Consider the figures of Gardner, Allen and the Cardassian negotiator. Each is subject to disconcerting shifts in character: one of these is explained to the reader, that is the latter, when it is revealed she was enacting a political game to unsettle the Tzenkethi. However until that point we are simply told 'trust me' through Dygan. Confined as we were to limited perspectives, it was not simply that we couldn't get into their head, but that their contradictory elements of character (or different parts of personality) could not be explained. This felt very much a literary realist tool, emulating our highly limited perspectives of people: especially people not seen in years or newly encountered. Our interpretations are prone to how little we know about a given person, and it felt like McCormack was challenging a general trend of over-explanation for the audience. Therefore Neta's, Ezri's and Dygan's views on these characters were subject to changes that rarely were given clarity to the audience (for the example the aforementioned negoticiator), and which only enhances the text.

This was most fruitfully done with the confusing behaviour of the spies, of course. Consider the shifts of how Ezri interprets, Allen, her old friend. The spy becomes the more opaque to the reader, more unknown, just as most people in life are to one another. He is wonderfully positive and charming in his introduction, and then hours later, something entirely different, yet entirely explicable by the novel's end, oscillating between different identities. And of course, in reverse, he was equally disconcerted by this new other, this Dax too.

The terrible senses of disenpowerment and enpowerment that perspective allows the viewer/self, be this in social interaction, or within academic discussion of gender studies, feminism and social interaction, were such fundamental elements of this wonderfully subtle novel.