The Never-Ending Sacrifice

The Never-Ending Sacrifice is a Pocket DS9 novel – part of the – written by Una McCormack. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in . The novel focuses on the Cardassian people, detailing the events between and the relaunch timeframe.
== Summary ==
;From the book jacket
:A boy looks up. He sees a Cardassian's hand on his shoulder and knows that this is usually a prelude to a beating or, if he is fortunate enough, arrest. The boy knows how many disappeared during the Occupation of Bajor. So he does the one thing he can think of: he bites the Cardassian. Then the nightmare begins.
:He is ripped from the family that took him in as an orphan, clothed him, fed him, always loved him unconditionally. And no matter how earnest, how caring the commander of Deep Space 9 is, the boy knows this is all a horrible mistake. How can someone from Starfleet judge him by what he looks like, not by what he is? He prays to the Prophets; he is Bajoran. They all keep telling him that the test proves the large Cardassian man is his father, that the other Cardassian – that oily gul – took him away from his father. But the boy keeps telling them that he is Bajoran, he only wants to go home with his father. So they send Rugal home – to Cardassia.
:On the homeworld of the Cardassian Union where sacrifice and devotion to the state are surpassed only by the government's need to keep its people in check, one very lonely boy discovers that if he doesn't resist, his life – like those of so many others – will be added to the tally of the never-ending sacrifice.
== Background information ==
* The title is a reference to the Cardassian literary work, The Never Ending Sacrifice, as referred to in and the novel's main character, Rugal Pa'Dar, was introduced in the DS9 episode . The author commented: "It was Marco Palmieri's idea. He rang me up and said, 'I think you should do a book about the boy from Cardassians…' and I said, 'My God, yes, you're right, I should'. The outline took no time to write; it was as if the story had been waiting for me". 
* The author built on earlier novels: "I certainly tried to make The Never-Ending Sacrifice fit with what we saw in A Stitch in Time and the Terok Nor trilogy". The author read Fearful Symmetry for details on Legate Ghemor and his family. 
* The novel was announced at the Shore Leave convention on . An extract from the novel appeared in .
* receives an from the author.
* Cover art by Nicolas Bouvier from a design by Alan Dingman.
=== Reception ===
* The author commented: "My two favourites of my own books are The Never Ending Sacrifice, which tells the story of the Dominion War and afterwards from the perspective of an unusual young Cardassian living unwillingly on Cardassia Prime. And there is The Crimson Shadow, in which Picard and the Enterprise visit post–war Cardassia Prime, where Garak is fighting the good fight against the rise of nationalism and an unpleasant demagogue. Stories like these are always sadly timely". 
* Robert Lyons of TrekMovie.com described The Never-Ending Sacrifice as "unlike any Star Trek book I have ever read before". 
* Jens Deffner of Unreality SF gave The Never-Ending Sacrifice a review score of 90%. He commented "The Never-Ending Sacrifice is not only a very strong Star Trek novel, but simply an outstanding coming-of-age novel, since even if you stripped it of everything Star Trek-related, it would work just as well". 
* In March 2010, The Never-Ending Sacrifice won the Unreality SF story of the year poll 2009/2010 with 19% of the votes. 
* Bookriot.com ranked the novel among as one of the best Star Trek novels. 
=== Cover gallery ===
File:The Never Ending Sacrifice solicitation cover.jpg|Solicitation cover
== Characters ==
;Rugal Pa'Dar
;Kotan Pa'Dar
;Skrain Dukat
;Tora Ziyal
;Tekeny Ghemor
;Proka Migdal
;Elim Garak
;Miles O'Brien
;Keiko O'Brien
;Benjamin Sisko
;Jake Sisko
;Corat Damar
;Natima Lang
;Iliana Ghemor
;Enabran Tain
;Darhe'el
== External link ==
* 
cs:The Never-Ending Sacrifice
de:Das Ewige Opfer (Roman)
Never Ending Sacrifice, The