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This is epic. No doubt one of the best Trek stories I've ever read or watched. But it is also intense. Very intense. I am exhausted.

Especially book 2 had me in pieces. I cried, with tears running down my face, about the heartbreaking events around Hernandez and her crew, especially in their later years. I cannot imagine how Hernandez lived through this massive guilt she must have felt, and with the disappointment her crewmates felt towards her all those decades. Or how the other women endured their lives in Axion, some of them coping better than others.

In book 3 we then learn about Mantilis and the rest of the Columbia away team. I had a hard time reading those chapters. How did the Columbia deserve this fate? Reading their story I remembered that I had read about that book before, and that the origin of the Borg were survivors of the Columbia on a planed they crashed down on. I never liked that. I didn't want our heroes to be the origin of a people like the Borg. But Mack found the right words to tell that story. I was heartbroken and felt compassion for them all the way.

And that's why I loved the solution at the end to liberate the Borg drones and to bring them back to the Caeliar. To offer them a new kind of collective, one where they are still connected, but also free. It reminded me very much of the Borgati collective of season 2 of Picard. I was not happy with that when I watched it. Especially because I wanted something else for Jurati, who's a character I can identify a lot with. But seeing Hernandez choosing a similar place for herself made me appreciate the Borgati solution so much more. It's all in the way you tell a story. Or rather: in how you perceive or experience a story. (I am very well aware of the restrictions of a tv show compared to a novel.) To see Picard and Seven be finally liberated is beautiful. I'm curious to find out how that affects later stories. (I also like that on tv we can see a different path. It's always fun and interesting to think through some "what if" scenarios.)

As a big fan of both Jadzia and Ezri Dax, I loved seeing Ezri becoming and being a captain of her own ship here. I had this (small but not insignificant) revelation while reading the scene with her and Worf in the transporter room, that is a bit too personal to share here. But I want to say that it brought me a step forward on this path I'm walking. I absolutely need to read all the books she's in from here on out (maybe minus Coda 🫣).

I enjoyed all the stories around the crew outside of the main plot. Getting to know them may not be important for the plot but it makes them feel more real and alive. And it's always nice to get a little breather between all the heavy stuff. I especially love when minor characters on screen make the jump to the page, as e.g. here with Melora Pezlar and Simon Tarses, and get bigger stories that way. The only big minus point for me here is that I didn't get enough Tuvok. Though I loved his scene on Deneva with his wife. To see the old fashioned way of the man as the cold and strong one and the woman as the emotional and weak one to be reversed here was good. It just shows that how a person copes with tragic events like loosing a child has nothing to do with gender. (It also doesn't mean that just because a person isn't showing emotions, they in turn don't have any.)

This book is, even if it is not hard canon, but who cares anyway, a very important one for the whole of Star Trek. I mean, it gives us the origin story of the Borg and ends them for good! And it was a woman who did it. Again. 💪

I'll continue with "A Singular Destiny" soon. But first I need some lighter reading. 😅

David Mack talked to Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson on Literary Treks about this book and the trilogy as a whole. As always, this is absolutely worth a listen. Alone for Mack talking about the techniques of story telling. Thumbs up!

PS I know that I gave the individual books 4 stars each and that would not calculate to 5 stars for the whole trilogy. But I don't care. This story is so epic and fundamental it deserves nothing less than 5 stars.

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I love visualising Seven in a mosh pit. LOVE IT! I love how several Trek shows are woven into this book. I love seeing some familiar characters of those shows. I love the scenes between Janeway and Seven. They truly are like mother and daughter. I love seeing Seven finding a purpose, a reason to carry on. I love seeing Seven learn and grow as a human. I love getting to know the Rangers, both as a whole and the individuals we meet. At the beginning of season 3 of Picard we shortly meet the Rangers and I didn't like how they were portrayed there, but after this book it makes sense now. Thank you, Mr. Mack for that.

The ending... what can I say without spoiling anything? Let's just say if you have seen the show you know what's going to come. [insert appropriate emoji]

January LaVoy is the queen of audio book narration and making characters sound like their actors. Thank you, Ms. LaVoy!

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After another long break I powered through the last 4 1/2 hours today.

What a fantastic book! Robinson is as good at writing Garak as he is at playing him, both on screen and for this narration. He tells a life's story so full of heart break it was at time almost unbearable for me to listen. I took quite a few breaks and some of them of several weeks or even months. And yet, or exactly because of it, I say this is an absolute must read for any Garak fan. You may want to keep some tissues nearby. I love when Star Trek novels stray from the classic form of here's a problem and our heroes are going to solve it, including a space battle or two -- happy ending. This book is such a different novel: It is a memoir, and therefore a collection of incidents in Garak's life that lead him to Terok Nor, have him stay on Deep Space 9, and finally allow him to return to Cardassia. It's the tale of how he so desperately tries to earn his father's love and his peers' and superiors' respect, but only gets their despisement, and of how he endures it all. His observations about humanity and the Federation are spot on of course. How does the Federation survive? LOL

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