Order from amazon.com! A Stitch in Time Rating: Series: Deep Space 9 #27 Author: Andrew J. Robinson Published: May, 2000 Review by: CL6 Kali D'or Elim Garak has been stuck on Deep Space 9 for ten years. And, the entire time he is there, two things are perfectly clear - 1. He wants to go home to Cardassia; 2. He won't tell anyone why he can't. I was always fascinated by this character, he was a total contradiction to everyone and everything else on the station. As a viewer, none of us knew when he was lying or telling the truth. Never knew what he would do in a given situation, what his true motives were, whose side was he on. And the only person on DS9 that seemed to be able to see beneath the walls that he put up was Dr. Julian Bashir. So, I was not surprised when, on opening the book, I find a letter from Garak to Julian, written from Cardassia following the end of the Dominion War. It is, to say the least, unsettling. Elim Garak's description of the total devastation of Cardassia Prime, the cities, the government, the people and the culture of this proud race is told with detail that conjures up visions of Berlin after the Allies finished with it. The writing is suberb. Garak has decided, after realizing his wish to go home, and despairing of what he finds, that he needs to explain his actions, his feelings and his past. And the only person he can trust is Dr. Bashir. So, in a series of letters to Julian, Elim Garak takes the reader back to his early years, his education, and his family. Garak has alot of skeletons in his closet and they are all revealed. The insights into the Cardassian way of life, how they think, and how they are raised explains a great deal and the reader slowly begins to understand how they fell so far from grace, why they were so open to the Dominion Alliance and why it failed. Andrew J. Robinson has written an excellent book! He writes it exactly like Elim Garak talks. The sarcasm and smart remarks, condescending attitude to the uninformed, self-importance and self-denial are all here, open at last to the one friend he hopes can understand. He is torn, as is his homeworld, and there are, now, very serious questions he must ask himself, and then act on the answers he finds within. I really hope he writes another one of these - I want to know what Garak decides!

Title: A Stitch in Time
Author: Andrew J. Robinson
Review by: CL6 Kali D'or

4-25-05