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52+ Works 2,764 Members 104 Reviews 3 Favorited

About the Author

Includes the names: Altariel, Una McCormack

Series

Works by Una McCormack

Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Volume One (2004) — Author — 273 copies
The King's Dragon (2010) 249 copies
The Last Best Hope (2020) 247 copies
The Way through the Woods (2011) 202 copies
Hollow Men (2005) 190 copies
The Never-Ending Sacrifice (2009) 177 copies
The Fall: The Crimson Shadow (2013) 144 copies
Doctor Who: Royal Blood (2015) 127 copies
Typhon Pact: Brinkmanship (2012) 123 copies
Carnival (2021) 84 copies
The Missing (2014) 81 copies
Enigma Tales (2017) 80 copies
The Way to the Stars (2019) 76 copies
Molten Heart (2018) 64 copies
The Undefeated (2019) 57 copies
Second Self (2022) 53 copies
Wonderlands (2021) 46 copies
The Baba Yaga (2015) 43 copies
Firefly - Coup de Grâce (2023) 36 copies
The Star of the Sea (2016) 20 copies
Breaking Bubbles and other stories (2014) — Author — 14 copies
Gallifrey: Time War, Volume One (2018) — Author — 12 copies
Gallifrey: Time War, Volume Two (2019) — Author — 11 copies
Red Planets (2018) — Author — 8 copies
Doctor Who - The Twelfth Doctor Chronicles (2020) — Author — 6 copies
Blake's 7 - 4: Crossfire Part 3 (2018) — Author — 4 copies
Torch Song [short story] (2006) 2 copies
Infidel Places (2022) — Author — 2 copies
Dr Who 3 book set (2006) 1 copy
In Tauris 1 copy

Associated Works

The Exile Waiting (1975) — Afterword, some editions — 464 copies
Prophecy and Change (2003) — Contributor — 177 copies
The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who (2015) — Contributor — 122 copies
Doctor Who: The Target Storybook (2019) — Author — 68 copies
Space Opera (2007) — Contributor — 53 copies
Dark Currents (2012) — Contributor — 51 copies
Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership (2008) — Contributor — 39 copies
80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin (2010) — Contributor — 37 copies
Best of British Science Fiction 2016 (2017) — Contributor — 29 copies
Best of British Science Fiction 2019 (2020) — Contributor — 29 copies
Subterfuge (2008) — Contributor — 24 copies
Conflicts (2010) — Contributor — 21 copies
Once Upon a Parsec: The Book of Alien Fairy Tales (2019) — Contributor — 15 copies
Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Chronicles (2017) — Author — 14 copies
Requiems for the Departed (2010) — Contributor — 13 copies
Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield (2014) — Contributor — 12 copies
Gallifrey V (2013) — Contributor — 12 copies
Clarkesworld: Issue 108 (September 2015) (2015) — Contributor — 11 copies
Uncanny Magazine Issue 12: September/October 2016 (2016) — Contributor — 8 copies
Digital Dreams: A Decade of Science Fiction by Women (2016) — Contributor — 7 copies
The Crafty Sod: The Wife in Space, Volume 8 (2019) — Foreword — 6 copies
Bernice Summerfield: The Story So Far, Volume Two (2018) — Contributor — 5 copies
Typhon Pact: The Khitomer Accords Saga (2013) — Contributor — 4 copies
Doctor Who: The Complete History Volume 27 (2017) — Original Production Notes — 3 copies
Doctor Who: The Complete History Volume 39 (2018) — Original Production Notes — 2 copies
Torchwood: Among Us Part 1 (2023) — Author, some editions — 2 copies

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The Never Ending Sacrifice in Star Trek Books (March 2011)

Reviews

"The Undefeated" is an interesting piece of speculative fiction that has a unique premise and a slowww story. If this was much longer I would have lost interest early on but it manages to hold just enough interest to keep the pages flipping. I think the story needed a little spice, a little more action here and there; it became a bit more like a quasi-memoir, and that didn't really work because the reader doesn't have enough time to get to know the main character, Monica, before being thrown back in time. I just felt like I was being held at a distance from the whole story.
That being said, again, the overall premise is interesting! The idea of the jenjer uprising and coming back for justice provides a constant source of stress and excitement for the reader, and the story does a good job at letting you know what happens after the pages run out - there is such a solid sense of inevitability. I would have liked to see Monica in a longer story, but this was a decent afternoon read as it is.
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deborahee | 5 other reviews | Feb 23, 2024 |
(I'll be waxing poetic about DS9 as a series in this review and I apologize for that, but I would like it understood as to why I loved this book so very much)

I won't mince words--my fascination with Cardassians stems from the complicated portrayal of them in DS9. Garak at the forefront, but Damar (Dukat's 2nd in command), Tain, Ghemor...even Dukat, they were by far one of the more intriguing races. This book, which serves not only as a (mostly canonical) continuation to DS9, but a direct sequel to the season 2 episode "Cardassians" as well, offered a chance to see Cardassia differently. Not the romanticized version Garak spoke of or the Dominion's puppet that Dukat was in power over, but the average life of a Cardassian youth living through the troubled times of the Empire.

THE NEVER ENDING SACRIFICE is also one of the very few novels I've read that has shown the direct consequences of a decision made by a commander while explicitly stating it was the WRONG choice. Reading this I forgot how early in the show's career the episode aired. Seasons 1-3, while they built towards the Dominion Threat, focused very much on Bajor and how it handled being freed from the Cardassian Occupation.

Much of this was represented through the struggles that Kira - a former Bajoran Terrorist/Resistance Fighter (depending on who you asked) turned Bajoran representative/Sisko's first officer - and the struggles she had adjusting to peace times with the Cardassians. By in large we didn't see the struggles that Cardassia itself went through...which makes sense as really the show wasn't about that.

But they were struggles I cared to know more about. I mean as a child it sort of floated in and out of my mind that every Cardassian we meet sees Cardassia (and the Bajoran Occupation) so differently and then you have characters like O'Brien or Odo who see it MUCH differently (especially as outsiders). Yet none of those characters were...well for lack of a better word civilian. Military, militia, politician, spy, enemy, terrorist...not a single one was just a bystander.

Then they introduced Rugal. A Cardassian orphan adopted and raised by Bajorans who was, as he admits later in the book, biased against his genetic race from the start not only because his adoptive parents obviously hated his race, but also because he saw first hand (and suffered because of) the devastation his race wrought. He's in only one episode, though he is mentioned later on I believe, but that one episode was enough to light the fires of my young imagination (so interested in ancient civilizations and cultures, so enamored with fictional worlds and peoples).

This book could have very easily felt...contrived I think. McCormack takes a plot point from an episode almost 15 years old (at time of publication of this book), about a character who represented one of the few times (on screen) we see a Starfleet main cast member make a morally wrong, but legally correct decision about. Rugal represented a decision that on paper sounded right--Sisko returned him to his blood family, to a father that wanted him (ostensibly, Cardassian pride in family and lineage is a murky business) and fixed a wrong that should never have happened. Except it did happen and Rugal very clearly felt like he was betrayed by everyone involved.

McCormack takes us from just after that decision to about a decade or more later when Rugal sits down to speak with the Cardassian who thought he was helping him (Garak) all those years ago on the station. They are both very different men, tempered by lost, wistful of their memories and cautiously hopeful that maybe they had helped create a better future for everyone. Its not an...easy or comfortable conversation in all honesty. They've both been alternately exiled and welcomed to their home planet, both have fought to restore it to what they thought was "ideal", both lost family and friends to a fight that should never have happened to begin with.

But that conversation, more than anything else, encapsulated what I love about DS9 and why it remains my favorite Trek and universe and character playground. Rugal spends a lot of the early part of the book cursing Garak (and to an extend Starfleet) for their interference. He's young, early teens, and the species he is thrust into is not a forgiving one. He lashes out when he should try diplomacy, yells when a simple word would do. His early days back on Cardassia are the easiest he has however. Soon the Dominion begins to exert control, and through them Dukat plays his games. Games that while not directed at Rugal, affect him all the same.

Because again, Rugal is a bystander, an outsider to this conflict. His father--a failure by Cardassian standards as he has neither the cunning nor the backbone to be ambitious, though he genuinely cares for Rugal--isn't politically important enough to bother with after all. He was discredited after deciding to stand with Rugal (to the immense disappointment of his mother). Rugal meanwhile could care less and almost relishes the chance that Cardassia would burn, would pay for its sins finally. Its not until its too late he understands and feels remorse.

Interestingly enough this is partially due to his meeting and befriending, albeit briefly, Ziyal--Dukat's half Bajoran/half Cardassian daughter (that ultimately leads to his downfall when he stands with her against the wishes of his family and the better judgement of his ambitions). Like Rugal Ziyal grew up on Bajor and like Rugal she suffered for her genetics. Its debatable who had a rougher time of it, but in the end that doesn't matter because they are kindred. Unlike Rugal however Ziyal doesn't despise her Cardassian heritage.

Where Rugal is the extreme cynical end of the spectrum, Ziyal is the optimistic, trusting end. Where Rugal has nothing but contempt for Dukat and Garak's machinations in his life, Ziyal has only hopeful and positive feelings towards both for their part in her life. Indeed as part of Garak and Rugal's last conversation, Rugal mentions that Ziyal thought very highly of him and Garak wistfully replies that she only ever saw the good in him.

More later.
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lexilewords | 5 other reviews | Dec 28, 2023 |
I've been a Spock Girl most of my life. When first introduced, I was about 2 years old and he terrified me. Some 10 years later, watching reruns after school, I was fascinated. He has been a character in my mind for the nearly 50 years since then.
This is a wonderful way to see him again.
 
Flagged
Murphy-Jacobs | 2 other reviews | Dec 17, 2023 |
The first part is a blatant rip-off of Charles Portis's "True Grit", which was irritating and unnecessary, but then it settles down into a story of off-world meddling, local bad-guys, and our Big Damn' Heroes wading in on the side of the little guys. It felt a bit rushed and confused in places, and the voices of the crew weren't as convincing as her previous work in the 'verse "Firefly - Carnivale", but definitely worth a read.
 
Flagged
SChant | Nov 2, 2023 |

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Lisa Bowerman Director
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Erica Moore Contributor
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Maureen O'Brien Performer
Sophie Aldred Performer
Max Bollinger Narrator
Matt Hills Contributor
Sylvester McCoy Performer
Peter Purves Performer
Andrew Pixley Foreword
Lisa Kerrigan Contributor
Antony G. Keen Contributor
Robert Hands Narrator
Chris Dale Narrator
Jacob Dudman Performer
Emily Redpath Narrator
Mandi Symonds Narrator
John Banks Narrator
Stephen Greif Narrator
Joseph Kloska Narrator
Ingrid Oliver Narrator
Tom Webster Cover Design
Ken Bentley Director
Rowena Cooper Performer
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Chris McGrath Cover artist
Christine Foltzer Cover designer
Luke Pietnik Composer
Steven Pacey Performer
Susie Riddell Performer
Alistair Lock Performer
Jan Chappell Performer
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Malcolm James Performer
Michael Keating Reader, Performer
Lee Johnson Cover artist
Hugh Fraser Performer
Bruce Alexander Performer
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Statistics

Works
52
Also by
36
Members
2,764
Popularity
#9,280
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
104
ISBNs
133
Languages
4
Favorited
3

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