I sort of have to second this.
@Lynx , if you are getting your information about Garak’s fate just from a Memory Beta article, and have not actually read the book (sorry, I can’t recall whether you said you read it or not), then you are robbing yourself of not only context, but the emotional impact the story provides.
These stories aren’t just clinical character biographies that list facts about a person’s life. They are a tapestries woven together to hopefully immerse you in a world, and become emotionally invested in the characters’ struggles and triumphs. It’s been a while since I’ve read it, and my memory is not always the greatest, but I recall really enjoying Garak’s story in this book. Is it specifically what I would have done with him if I was writing something that brought Garak’s into the Picard timeframe? Probably not. But that’s part of the beauty of it, reading someone else’s take and being so moved by it, even if (or especially if!) it took a direction other than what you expected.
So you just might want to try the book first, before casting judgment. You can seldom go wrong with an Una McCormack book. You said yourself that you enjoyed some of her previous works, so maybe a little benefit of the doubt may not be out of line? You may find that you are moved in ways you weren’t expecting. If you’re worried about the cost of a novel that you may not end up liking, there is always the library. Or depending on where you’re located, you could wait for it to come up again on the 99-cent ebook sales.
That being said, if your preferred way of interacting with the stories is through Memory Beta articles, well, that is certainly your choice, and you can do as you wish. But I just think you may be shortchanging yourself… not only with the emotional connection, but even regarding spoilers. Garak’s involvement in this story was supposed to be a surprise, although admittedly many figured it out early.
And I do get that it can be disheartening if you were heavily invested in the novelverse’s depiction of post-series events. I miss the novelverse too, and I’m not trying to downplay that. But the reality is that the novelverse wasn’t going to be allowed to continue. Instead, we get different stories, and it’s interesting to see the characters end up in different places than we saw originally. And no, not everyone is going to agree with every choice made, but hopefully the stories are engaging enough that one can enjoy the journey, even if it’s not what they originally expected or wanted.
OK, here's the way it is:
I haven't been that happy with some of the different Star Trek Relaunch books. Too many good characters missing for different reasons and very few attempts to write them back in the stories again (here I have to give credit to Una MacCormack for writing in O'Brien in a more likable position in The never Ending Sacrifice than he got after the last DS9 episode).
Then I bought the masterpiece
A Stitch In Time which I saw was written about one of my favorite characters.
While studying some comments about this books, I found that there were more books in which Garak was a prominent character so I bought
The Crimson Shadow and
The Never Ending Sacrifice which I highly enjoyed, especially
The Never Ending Sacrifice because I've often wondered what happened to Rugal.
So I think: "Finally! Here are books that I really enjoy!" So I write some over-potimistic nonsense about Una McCormack has given me the faith in Star Trek books back again.
I should have known better.
After re-reading those books which I bought a year ago, I get the idea to look for similar books. I go to memory Beta where it's easy to find books and also find some sort of synopsis for them which I think is necessary since I'm not that inerersted in lnding inn some book about how Romulus was destroyed.
So I find
The Enigma Tales but there were some disturbing comments about Bashir on Memory Beta so I continued to search and find that Garak had been killed off!
Then I find what
Second Self is about and I have to admit that I wasn't that happy over that information.
I can actually agree with you that it's not the smartest thing to dismiss a book which I haven't read.
But on the other hand, woudn't it be even more stupid to pay a nice sum for something which I know I won't like?
Wouldn't it be smarter of me to start search for older books in which some of my favorite characters are stillalive and well and active? Unfortunately, the prices of older Trek books have seen significant increase in prices on Ebay or whatever to be found but I think it would be smarter to spend some money on such stuff.
it's actually sad that the Relaunch books weren't allowed to exist any longer because despite whatever flaws there were, it could at least be something interesting to read here and there.
Now the focus sems to be set on
Picard when it comes to books with stories set in the 24th century and that's not a good scenario as I see it.
Except that neither of those things remotely qualifies as dystopian. "Dystopian" doesn't just mean "bad stuff happening." A dystopia is specifically a political or social system that is openly oppressive, unjust, or harmful to its inhabitants, including a collapsed or post-apocalyptic society. The Mirror Universe is a dystopia. Cardassia under the Union or the Dominion was a dystopia. Beta III under Landru was a dystopia masquerading as a utopia. The chaotic quadrant in the wake of the Burn was a dystopia, at least in certain parts.
The only dystopian threads we've ever seen in the Federation, the only instances where an oppressive or destructive element came from the state or social structure itself rather than an external threat, were Section 31 and the synth ban. Well, and the ban on genetically engineered people. Often a society can be dystopian for some groups but not for others, depending on how the law treats them. But those are flaws in a mostly beneficial system.
I can see that you are unhappy with my use of the word "Dystopian" when it comes to describing the scenarios in later Star Trek books, series and movies and also when it comes to describing the charming decade we live in and the previous one which have spawned most of the scenarios we see in movies, series and books.
OK, I admit that it can be a mis-use of a word which doesn't really fit what I'm describing.
But is there a better word for descibing a decade in which almost all movies, series and books are full of.......what should I call it? Let's say, dark scenarios.
I mean, back in the days we had movies, series and books about space exploration and a bright future ahead. Now we have movies, series and books where "space exploration" is about getting away from a destroyed Earth to some gloomy future without real hope. OK, that's not exactly for Star Trek but even Star Trek has been affected by current doom-and-gloom.
Back in the days we had seires like CSI and NCIS with action, good characters and even some humor. Now we have series with lousy characters, blood splattering torture scenes, a lot of doom-and-gloom and a dark future and downright boring characters and lousy stories. The same for books and movies.
All that in a decade in which the music sucks, the movies, TV series and books sucks and too many people are utterly convinced about everything is gonna go straight to hell.
If "Dystopian" isn't the right word for that, then what word can and should I use?
I'm not arguing, just asking.
