Reviews

Cardassia and Andor by Una McCormack, Heather Jarman

vingilot's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

brom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Two interesting stories that give a lot of insights into the titular cultures. 
While the first story mainly deals with politics, the second one is about more personal matters and very heavy at times. Mind the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Suicide

Minor: Kidnapping, War, and Self harm

skyelerbear's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

jazzypizzaz's review against another edition

4.0

Cardassia -- Completely underwhelming in both story and world-building, although that may be because I can't help but compare it to Una's later works which are my favorite of Trek. The stakes of the bomb threat are high, but not as high as what Cardassia has already gone through with the Dominion War, which results in a "worlds of ds9" story that doesn't shake things up as much as other ones. 2.5/5

Andor -- INCREDIBLE. There's very little about Andor, or Andorian characters, in canon (although this does ignore Enterprise...), and the author uses the full opportunity presented her to create a memorable, thrilling, sensual alien world with its own distinct alien cultural perspectives/practices and mythology. I enjoyed getting to know Prynn apart from any plot involving her dull father, as well as Shar who is the most interesting OC in beta canon so far. Also I appreciated the female characters (in both quantity and quality) and overall female perspective infused throughout -- Star Trek needs more women writers for sure. 5/5

markmtz's review against another edition

4.0

The saga of DS9 continues in this first volume of a series set on the homeworlds of various characters. Una McCormack follows the new careers of Garak and the O’Briens on Cardassia while Heather Jarman takes us to Andor where we learn more about Shar and Prynn Tenmei. Both are satisfying reads and I look forward to new volumes.

Published in paperback by Pocket Books.

navithefairy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

jecamp86's review against another edition

2.0

The cardassian parts of the book were terrific especially if you like the spy and espionage parts of DS9. The Andor stuff was a hard pass and took forever to get through. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the author but it was a real chore (and bore) to get done.

olegx's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

cami5ado's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

tara77's review against another edition

4.0

The first story on Cardassia was a bit slow but the one on Andor was really good.