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A review by marthmuffins
A Stitch in Time by Andrew J. Robinson
5.0
A Stitch in Time - 5/5
The insidiousness of fascism, and of capitalism, is how it becomes every part of you, how it co-opts your mind and your actions until all you are, all you can ever be, is encapsulated by its tenets: a never-ending sacrifice to rotting corruption that sees you as little more than a replaceable part in an ever-grinding machine. It ties you to it with ideals that are antithetical to its own existence, be they family or duty or purity, that the biggest cogs in the machinery refuse to meet themselves but who will gladly discard those that do not fit perfectly without a care, turning the land to desert as the faceless machine burns away all it can to make way for greater accumulations of wealth and power.
Throughout his time on the show Deep Space Nine Garak has constantly struggled with his relationship to the machinery of fascism. He was, once, an integral component of the machine, an anti-viral agent who ensured the machine's components were never infected by the ideals of the Federation, or by those homegrown heresies that lurk at the fringes of Cardassian society to corrupt wayward citizens of the Union. But by the time of the show he was isolated, apart from his species and abandoned on Deep Space Nine to live under Federation law. This book explores both why that is the case but, more importantly, how throughout his life Garak has struggled with Cardassian society, how he flowed from the diseased heart of Cardassia out to it's fringes through the clogging arteries and veins that feed it's power.
That journey, that never-ending sacrifice which makes up his life, is central to the book. 3 narrative strands make up the book, one detailing Garak's life leading up to season 1 of DS9, the second focusing on Garak a few weeks before his return to Cardassia in the show's 7th season, and the last on Garak picking through the ravages of Cardassia post-war. Throughout we see his struggles with the ideals of Cardassia, his rise in the ranks of the secret service, the anger at Federation smugness and arrogance at their own perceived righteousness and moral surety, and how he deals with it all crumbling away in the book's 3rd plot thread.
There's also, at least in my reading, a very strong undercurrent that acknowledges Garak's queerness. Whilst all the explicit romances and sexual attraction involving Garak here are with women there are many points when he is interacting with men that read, to me, like repressed attraction, as if he is struggling with his romantic or sexual feelings for these men and does not know how to express them, or does not have the tools to in the society he finds himself in. I am aware that Andrew Robinson played Garak as attracted to Doctor Julian Bashir in the show, and that later books in this Star Trek Lit-Verse continuity make Garak's bisexuality explicit, so I feel fairly confident that it may well have at least been on Robinson's mind when writing this book.
Another recurring thread is Garak's joy of gardening, inherited from the man he thought was his father, and the growing of the temperamental Edosian orchid. It's one of many sustained bits of metaphor and symbolism that's maintained throughout the book and serves as a beautiful representation of Garak's escape from the hold that Cardassia's fascism has over him, that he must nurture and maintain it at all times, a constant vigil so it can grow big and strong beyond the confines of Cardassian society. As much as it may seem impossible, that the systems around us are here forever and are unalterable, another world is possible with one's own never-ending sacrifice.
The insidiousness of fascism, and of capitalism, is how it becomes every part of you, how it co-opts your mind and your actions until all you are, all you can ever be, is encapsulated by its tenets: a never-ending sacrifice to rotting corruption that sees you as little more than a replaceable part in an ever-grinding machine. It ties you to it with ideals that are antithetical to its own existence, be they family or duty or purity, that the biggest cogs in the machinery refuse to meet themselves but who will gladly discard those that do not fit perfectly without a care, turning the land to desert as the faceless machine burns away all it can to make way for greater accumulations of wealth and power.
Throughout his time on the show Deep Space Nine Garak has constantly struggled with his relationship to the machinery of fascism. He was, once, an integral component of the machine, an anti-viral agent who ensured the machine's components were never infected by the ideals of the Federation, or by those homegrown heresies that lurk at the fringes of Cardassian society to corrupt wayward citizens of the Union. But by the time of the show he was isolated, apart from his species and abandoned on Deep Space Nine to live under Federation law. This book explores both why that is the case but, more importantly, how throughout his life Garak has struggled with Cardassian society, how he flowed from the diseased heart of Cardassia out to it's fringes through the clogging arteries and veins that feed it's power.
That journey, that never-ending sacrifice which makes up his life, is central to the book. 3 narrative strands make up the book, one detailing Garak's life leading up to season 1 of DS9, the second focusing on Garak a few weeks before his return to Cardassia in the show's 7th season, and the last on Garak picking through the ravages of Cardassia post-war. Throughout we see his struggles with the ideals of Cardassia, his rise in the ranks of the secret service, the anger at Federation smugness and arrogance at their own perceived righteousness and moral surety, and how he deals with it all crumbling away in the book's 3rd plot thread.
There's also, at least in my reading, a very strong undercurrent that acknowledges Garak's queerness. Whilst all the explicit romances and sexual attraction involving Garak here are with women there are many points when he is interacting with men that read, to me, like repressed attraction, as if he is struggling with his romantic or sexual feelings for these men and does not know how to express them, or does not have the tools to in the society he finds himself in. I am aware that Andrew Robinson played Garak as attracted to Doctor Julian Bashir in the show, and that later books in this Star Trek Lit-Verse continuity make Garak's bisexuality explicit, so I feel fairly confident that it may well have at least been on Robinson's mind when writing this book.
Another recurring thread is Garak's joy of gardening, inherited from the man he thought was his father, and the growing of the temperamental Edosian orchid. It's one of many sustained bits of metaphor and symbolism that's maintained throughout the book and serves as a beautiful representation of Garak's escape from the hold that Cardassia's fascism has over him, that he must nurture and maintain it at all times, a constant vigil so it can grow big and strong beyond the confines of Cardassian society. As much as it may seem impossible, that the systems around us are here forever and are unalterable, another world is possible with one's own never-ending sacrifice.