The Assassination Game

[BritishSeaPower]

Just as a point of order, Astraea, the rape gangs are not an element of The Assassination Game and is from one of the earlier two novels. It was mentioned as part of the reason as to why TAG has some more mature themes and language.

 

[Christopher]

IIRC (I can't pull my copy of The Assassination Game right now, but I think I would remember an explicit rape) It was at the beginning of the book, and the idea of rape gangs on Earth in the TOS era was...more than a bit disconcerting and unappealing, really, but there wasn't anything graphic.

I thought it was in the first book in the series, not the latest one.

I did a Google Books search, and I found something in The Delta Anomaly about a gang -- not specifically called a "rape gang," just a gang -- accosting Kirk and a woman named Hannah and threatening to "take" her. There was also a bit in The Gemini Agent where they were concerned about the safety of a very drunk Gaila when they were out on the town, but I don't know how that scene ended.

So I'm not sure if the things I've heard on this board about the books depicting Turkana IV-style "rape gangs," and actually using that phrase, are accurate. As for the existence of street gangs who might occasionally commit rape as well as other crimes, remember this isn't the paradisical 24th century where all human crime was a thing of the past; TOS gave us humans guilty of smuggling and fraud (Harry Mudd), ecological negligence (Cyrano Jones), attempted rape (Larry Marvick), attempted murder (Ben Finney), torture and mind control (Tristan Adams), serial murder (Lenore Karidian), mass murder (Kodos, Ron Tracey), and whatever you might want to call the crimes of R. M. Merik and John Gill. So I don't find it out of the question that there could still be some degree of gang violence on 23rd-century Earth.

But I'm re-reading Survivors right now, and I can say definitively that it confirmed Tasha was raped (and is probably the most explicit that any of the books in description save maybe New Frontier and Soleta's mother); the book talks about how the rape gangs caught Tasha, "forced her to submit," and "took their turns at her." The whole description constitutes maybe a long paragraph or two.

I thought so. I subtly referenced that part of her backstory in The Buried Age, and I recall that I re-read at least those portions of Survivors in my research. The book isn't quite compatible with later TNG canon (it was written before it was decided that Data was completely emotionless, and Tasha's birthworld is given a different name), but I still assume that the book's description of Tasha's past is pretty close to the truth. After all, it's not like we have any conflicting sources on the subject.

 

[Astraea]

Just as a point of order, Astraea, the rape gangs are not an element of The Assassination Game and is from one of the earlier two novels. It was mentioned as part of the reason as to why TAG has some more mature themes and language.

Thanks. (I know that you mentioned you thought it was either The Edge or The Delta Anomaly above; the passage in The Delta Anomaly that Christopher referenced must be the sum total of "[possibly rape] gangs" in the YA novels, since The Edge somehow escaped storage and I did check that one.)

I remember seeing a thread on this before and dug it up to see if it had any pertinent quotes, and found a bunch of relevant posts from KingDaniel .

Kirk and Hannah are confronted by the Mongol Saints, "the most violent gang in the Bay Area", who attempt to take Hannah. Kirk has her beamed to safety then whups the (human) gangsters.

[...]

Here's what the book says (p.143)....

The two fellows on the outside laughed, but the guy in the middle just leered dangerously at Hannah.
Kirk knew the branding. These guys were part of the Mongol Saints, the most violent gang in the Bay Area. Based in Oakland, Saints often travelled in threes, looking for easy marks.
He grinned and looked stud-head in the eye. "I'll buy you a peppermint latte."

"No thanks, mate," he said. "We'll take your girl, though."
A small group of people popped out of the fog and passed them heading in the other direction, but Kirk knew it wouldn't matter to the Saints. They enjoyed brutal public beatings.

"Jim, I'm scared," whispered Hannah.

"Don't be. You are safe with me. I promise." He tightened his grip around her slender shoulders.

Behind him, he heard the metallic ssshing! of razor-knives sliding open.

So apparently I mixed up Gaila and Hannah, but that does seem to imply the gang was going to rape Hannah without it specifically being a "rape gang." Not that a gang that commits rape/murder/major acts of assault and violence is going to be any better than a gang specifically devoted to rape, but at least that passage should clarify exactly how graphic the book is.

As for Survivors not being entirely canon-compliant, a lot of the early books aren't: from my recent re-reads, Masks referred to "J.G. Worf" as if those were his initials and not his rank, Eye of the Beholder features Selar adopting an Andorian daughter and leaving the Enterprise, and Guises of the Mind has Worf promising to instruct Data in the ways of Klingon gods and implies that there are House-specific gods. I don't mind the little blips in canon; the books are still quite enjoyable. I would imagine that the major problem with Survivors vs. the episode where we met Tasha's sister would be that Survivors omits a sister who Tasha was supposed to be taking care of (for obvious reasons - Ishara hasn't been invented yet!) But, again, I really don't mind - in fact, a typo can be more distracting in terms of taking me out of the story than a minor conflict with canon.)

 

[JRoss]

Yeah, my first reaction was "barely survives a rape gang" meaning "is raped and lives through it."