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Title: A Stitch in Time by Andrew J. Robinson ISBN: 0-671-03885-0 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 May, 2000 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 (54 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: good, but not quite what I expected
Comment: The life story of Garak written as a letter to Dr. Bashir on DS9 starts out at a very good pace and keeps the reader's interest. Later however, one will either love the rest of the content or consider it average to good at best.
The beginning of the book has Garak talking about what he's doing now to help rebuild Cardassia and his experiences at a prestigious intsitute called Bamarren. Bamarren is a place that trains a select group of Cardassians to become intelligence operatives. I found the initial discussion about Bamarren interesting because I was eager to find out more about the harsh training. The more I read however, the more my interest dwindled. Andrew Robinson is undoubtely a very good writer, but I simply found some of his descriptions at the intelligence institute rather vague and inconsistent. For example, "the pit" is mentioned but I still don't know exactly what it is and exactly what was done there and how. At first, I thought it was just a place where the Cardassians fight one another, but it was stated that many of them are in the pit at once just standing doing nothing until they start passing out. Another thing about the pit was that its heat was supposed to be part of the training, but I always thought that Cardassians had a very high threshold for enduring heat. The author's description of the so-called martial ways of the Cardassians were very vague. It would have been better if he didn't even mention anything about martial arts in the first place.
Much of the book is character driven and centers around Garak's love interest, his relations with Enabrain Tain, his feelings towards others and his interpersonal relations. How Garak deals with betrayal, unspoken love and deceit are given good treatment.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excelent, Plain and Simple...
Comment: A Stitch in Time, by Andrew J. Robinson...
I recognized the character Garak, the Cardassian "taylor" of Deep Space Nine, from the title of the novel as much as from the cover art depicting him in a pensive mood holding an Edosian Orchid. So far as I was aware when I picked the book up, I had never heard of Andrew J. Robinson, though in fact I had... more about the author later.
A Stitch in Time is set up as a sort of Barbourian diary, if you will. It begins in the present with a letter to Garak's friend, Dr. Bashir, sojourns alternately between two different points of Garak's "fateline", each progressing generally forward. Time and all its permutations is very much woven into the fabric of the book. I suspect that the title, having its base in reference to a popular saying related to tayloring, ("a stitch in time saves nine", for those who somehow missed this lesson at Gramma's knee), is also a metaphor for a short span of time... or perhaps Garak's life.
During the time that the television series was still in production, Garak's past, and indeed present, were somewhat of a mystery. This novel fills in the gaps of his earlier life and gives a vivid picture of what life in a militaristic society must be like. Reading this, I was very much reminded of George Orwell's 1984, though it ends on an upnote rather than the despair of the future that permeates Orwell's novel and the outlook of his character Winston, though I suspect that if Winston were a Cardassian... well, I digress.
The tone of the novel is somewhat somber, and one can easily envision "plain and simple Garak" at his keyboard in a ruined Cardassian city amid pots and sherds with orchids, sewing machines, thread, fabric, and such littered around him as he puts the final touches on his narrative and the cover letter to Dr. Bashir he is sending along with it.
I found much to reflect on in this story.
A Stitch in Time is currently available as an ebook or in paperback, #27 in the Star Trek Deep Space Nine series. Buy this book. It is the best Star Trek novel I have ever read, though, My Enemy, My Ally is a close second.
Oh.... the author? Andrew J. Robinson? He is the actor who so brilliantly potrayed Garak on the television series where he was introduced.
Very, very well done, Sir!
Rating: 5
Summary: Garak - Outside Looking In
Comment: I remember hearing word that Andrew Robinson was going to write a DS9 novel, and experienced a very mild reaction. Thoughts of an actor just trying to earn an extra paycheck by letting someone else fill in every piece for him except for some creativity here and there filled my head. I picked up this book at the bookstore, read the back cover, and my emotions still didn't overflow with anticipation.
But there was something that snatched me and persuaded me to buy it. Call it curiosity, call it Deep Space Nine withdrawal, whatever it was gave me the needed "oomph" to purchase it. And it was one of the biggest surprises in not only Star Trek history for me, but fiction writing in general.
Plain and simple Garak evolves in this novel, and fills in all the pieces of Garak's past and personality like a well-placed collar. You can feel Andrew Robinson's connection with this exiled and lonely man, and in watching Deep Space Nine episodes after reading this book - particularly "Improbable Cause," "The Die is Cast," "In Purgatory's Shadow," "By Inferno's Light," and "Empok Nor," it causes a ripple of understanding and fascination with Garak, even stronger than by watching the series alone.
All in all, this book was fantastic. From Garak's childhood, through his adolescent years, his relationship to Enabran Tain as both protege and son, his experiences with love, politics, death, and heartbreak, and the reasons behind his exile from Cardassia, this book will have you latched onto it like a vole on an electrical conduit.
The VERY few negative comments I could even possibly make are just some omissions. A lack of character interaction between Garak and Gul Dukat slightly hurts the explanation for their series-long feud and leaves that area too unexplored, and references to the Romulan/Cardassian fleet that attacked the Dominion in "Improbable Cause"/"The Die is Cast" were nearly non-existent to provide some more insight to the Tain/Garak relationship.
These points pale in comparison to the elaborate and perfectly designed situations Andrew creates for Garak's tapestry; you can truly see how his experiences and adventures correlate to the personality you see on the screen in the series. The reasons and foundations for Garak's mysterious ways, blind ambition, thirst for acceptance and companionship, fondness for philosophy and vicious circles, are all explored and presented here. What you read is what you get in the timeline of things. The one thing that's hard to do is mentally visualize the fictional Cardassian characters, and Garak as a young man. But other than that, Andrew does a beautiful job of utilizing explosive and vivid imagery in his descriptions.
I can say little more to persuade you, you will just have to do yourself a favor and purchase this one as soon as you can. Don't be hesistant on the actor/author situation, Andrew Robinson brings Garak to life one stitch at a time.
"A stitch in time saves nine...."
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Title: The 34th Rule (Star Trek Deep Space Nine, No 23) by David R. George III, Armin Shimerman ISBN: 0671007939 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: The Lives of Dax (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) by Marco Palmieri ISBN: 0743456823 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 31 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Left Hand of Destiny, Book 2 (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) by J. G. Hertzler, Jeffrey Lang ISBN: 0671784943 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Left Hand of Destiny, Book 1 (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) by J. G. Hertzler, Jeffrey Lang ISBN: 0671784935 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Unity (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) by S.D. Perry ISBN: 0743448405 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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