The Nasat reviews Brinkmanship

The first of my reviews to be uploaded here - my response to the recent novel Star Trek: Typhon Pact: Brinkmanship by Una McCormack.

My review is a short and not at all rambling piece and who I am kidding, it's the usual mass of speech, almost Dukatian in its weight and breadth:

Brinkmanship was a far “lighter” novel than I was expecting. It wasn’t a heavy-hitter with a particularly wide scope, for all that it involved high-stakes politics between four major powers; it was more intimate and tightly focused. It explored the new status quo, did a lot of interesting things with the established pieces, and did it without transitioning into a new new status quo by forcing further Big Developments. That was a welcome relief in one sense, given all the changes and surprises that the other Typhon Pact books have featured. Don't get the wrong idea, I like that we had those changes and surprises – I’m eager to push the boundaries at the bleeding edge of the Trek timeline. But this once it was more rewarding to explore what we’ve got rather than changing the shape of the board.

It was wise to explore the expanded Khitomer Accords, showing how the upgraded relationships committed to in preceding novels are going to function. The Federation’s new “complication of Cardassians” trick hits just the right note between cynical and genuinely uplifting. This alliance is going to work, even if it’s as much about steering your friend into the path of someone pushy while having to grudgingly go along with their occasional demands to keep them happy as it is enjoying each other’s company. The story also built further on the Tzenkethi, who continue to be a worthy addition to the alien societies of Trek lit and were handled well here.

Thematically, the story appealed to me. One of the reasons I love Trek lit is the variety of stories it tells regarding individuality and membership; tales of individuals, races and organizations dancing around each other, seeking a balance between self-determination and inclusion/subsumption. Finding their comfort zones with one another, looking for a level of contact or exchange they feel safe with, and also searching for a balance between their own conflicting desires. Issues of acceptance, belonging, responsibility; all resonate with me greatly. This is a novel about conformity and the search for belonging, but more specifically about the price of full self-awareness and moral agency, the appeal of having none of that, and the uncertainty that comes with having to second-guess everything. Most of all, it seems specifically to be about the luxury, or the trap, or the sympathetic desire, or the terrible selfish urge, of seeking a life free from self-responsibility. Without ever really stressing that this is the issue up for discussion (save a strong opinion piece from Alden near the end, but he's already established as a character with definitive viewpoints on certain subjects and a hard time keeping an objective distance from his impulses) the novel explores the range of potential ways in which we could relate to this state of affairs – a life where our tolerances, comfort zone, moral duty and sense of place were mapped out so completely we don’t have to worry about them. Subsuming oneself into a system of absolute trust and freeing oneself from the strain and mental anguish of full self-awareness.

A peace that comes from a certainty of position and an absence of self-analysis is a most appealing one, especially for those caught between conflicting truths or identities. Efhany finally seeks this state, even knowing that in her case it’s a form of oblivion, because it’s the easiest way out and (so it’s hinted) because her Cardassian social instincts leave her vulnerable to its lure. Alden could probably do with being a bit closer to that state than he is, but thinks it’s a terrible, unconscionable thing that he’d never inflict on anyone. That wistful appeal of saying “do my thinking for me, nurture me and know what’s best” is very powerful, and was captured very well here, for the most part.

In a sense, the Venetans too have arrived at this blissful state and have genuinely prospered in it, while remaining relatable. However, it’s a false bliss in some regards because their peace is crippling to their development, a fact which becomes apparent when they finally decide to step out into the wider galaxy and can’t handle the complexities and harshness of it; indeed their leading citizen is rendered physically ill by the stress of what she has to confront. Something I was very much sympathetic to, by the way. In all, the Venetans were an interesting addition to the Trek universe. I enjoyed their blend of patient wisdom and stroppish child-like attachment to their own comfort (and they are stroppish, for all their patience and gentle understanding. When people won’t play nice and do things in their carefully-mannered way they become judgemental and, by their standards, harsh. They were amateurs in the field of alien contact and it showed). A fascinating picture of a mature and rightly self-assured people who yet have no real capacity for understanding the world around them; it was an intriguing set-up that could use further development.

We’re given more than one angle on it thanks to the comparison/contrast with Dax, who also exhibits a blend of youth and settled wisdom, only far more functional. The equivalency between Dax and the Venetans is alluded to several times, of course, – interestingly usually in the form of Dax reflecting on the knowing, directed-for-her-alone looks the Venetans are giving her (that’s another thing the Venetans do that I’m not sure they realize they’re doing; they divide and target just as well as any of the more political races. They're not as totally non-hierarchial as they might seem). In all, a paradoxical lack of maturity defines the inhabitants of the old and comfortably prosperous Venette Convention. Perhaps because they’ve developed in isolation, with little in the way of challenging perspectives to encourage growth? Unlike Dax, who by Trill nature must balance and integrate a range of strong and difficult perspectives and experiences. But like the lower Tzenkethi grades, who know only what makes them comfortable because it's when comfortable, happy and ignorant that they best perform their function for the whole.

As for Dax herself, while her friendly relationship with Alden was a little underdeveloped for my tastes, it did give us the “I am Dax” speech, which I agree was a great moment. No lengthy fretting over something she must have long ago become fully comfortable with, but acknowledging her journey and the conclusions she had to reach over the course of it. Nicely played. Between her non-relationship with Bashir in the earlier Typhon Pact books and that scene here, I feel like Captain Ezri Dax has finally finished establishing herself as a character distinct enough from Still Not Really Sure Who I Am Ezri Dax of old. Nice too that the answer to her queries on identity is now firmly “I am Dax” - but this isn't her surrendering to the symbiont or subsuming herself to previous identities, but full acceptance of her status as a worthy host. It’s Ezri saying “I am Dax”, not Dax saying it, if that makes sense. And that’s pleasing. I liked too that Dax and Bowers were written as trusting friends within the limits imposed by their professional relationship. They’ve known each other for 7 years, and been Captain and First Officer on the Aventine for almost 3. They should be at ease with each other by now.

On the subject of characters, Ilka also contributes to what I've decided is the central theme – as a modern Ferengi female, she has (in this case eagerly) moved out of that situation I’ve been talking about, where everything she needs to know is determined for her and “growing up” is discouraged (in this case, until recently prohibited) and has embraced (been able to embrace) a position where she has the capacity to function as a fully responsible being. But there are always drawbacks, for here she must wrestle with multiple conflicting wrongs, betray an ideal here to do what must be done there, face the knowledge of the self-doubts and compromises that come with full self-awareness and the social space given to exhibit it in. Notably, Ilka is more comfortable with it than people like Alden or Crusher – understandable given that, for a Ferengi female seeking a role in the wider galaxy, self-responsibility - warts and all - is something to strive for and a goal eagerly pursued against much resistance. Another example of how different characters suggest different means of relating to this theme, and an example of how these perspectives make sense in the context of the character.

Other notes:

I liked seeing the Federation strengthen its ties with the Ferengi and Cardassians. And I was so, so pleased that Dygan has integrated easily into the Enterprise crew as a friend, rather than being their “problematic Cardassian”.

It was actually fascinating to consider the Tzenkethi in comparison to the Breen, as described in Zero Sum Game. One society is about hiding your biology, consigning your genetic heritage to the shadows while your random talents define who you are, accepting a sea of variants behind an outward conformity, celebrating diversity but morally opposed to exhibiting it openly, and its people are all walking around in identical full-body suits. Yet this society is difficult to infiltrate. The other society is ordered and structured entirely on the basis of biology, where your genetic heritage determines who you are, where a form of diversity is celebrated precisely because all the myriad variants know their function and place, and where they advertise that function - and thus their biology - openly through visual cues. Yet this society is relatively easy to insert operatives into. Akaar even explicitly says that Tzenkethi counterintelligence isn’t the best.

It's interesting to have a book featuring Enterprise and Picard in which Picard is not the focus or a POV character. I liked what we saw of his relationship with Dygan. The idea of Picard as a respectable leader of Cardassians is interesting and not, I find, too unexpected. I hope we see more of this relationship in The Cold Equations.

Alizome’s back! I hoped she would be at some point. I’ve expressed interest in seeing her become a recurring trouble-maker and she’s in a position to make that plausible. I was glad to see her.

The urge to write a “Garak and Bacco” book must be strong indeed; I commend McCormack for having just the one scene rather than littering the novel with them, which would have been awesome but probably counter-productive.

Finally: If the Venetans are serious about interacting with other spacefaring nations in the long-term, it would be interesting to see them realize how their fully open society could in itself be a means of destabilizing foreign representatives. Undermining the nerve of political opponents would be quite easy, if they learned to understand themselves in that way, to see their remarkably honest and inclusive ways as a "weapon". It might allow them to reconcile their current and long-standing sense of identity with the shocking realization (that surely must now be dawning on them) that they can't trust most outsiders to act like Venetans. Perhaps they can regain a sense of stability if they learn to find security and comfort in the fact that they're playing by different rules than everyone else, and that this gives them the advantage - on their home turf at least - if they can just learn to grasp the shape of the board and see things in terms of advantage and disadvantage. It would be a difficult transition, I'd imagine, but perhaps a more acceptable one than the alternatives, e.g. becoming more manipulative themselves. They don't have to surrender who they are, they can continue playing by different rules, so long as they come to understand the shape of the game. They might realize they already have the means to play this game of politics and prosper in it, without having to become something distasteful to their sensibilities.

After all, through no intention of the Venetans, the Federation, Ferengi and Cardassian delegations were reduced to a game of "where's my chair?" as soon as they entered the meeting space, causing quiet uncertainty and minor distress . (That was rather amusing to me, by the way - the Venetans being set up as an "elevated" society of noble, cultured beings with a highly orderly society, only for our first look at them to be something that throws the protagonists - and the reader - off balance by suggesting the sort of cheerful chaos that doesn't seem to befit noble statesmen and "space elf" societies). If the Venetans ever realize that they throw people off balance simply be being who they are, then they might come to see that they have choices other than "stick your head in the sand" or "betray yourselves by acting distastefully". Hmmm. I hope we do see the Venetans again. They're slow to change and insular, and might as likely just fold back in and become isolationist than actually work through their recent upsets toward a new set of assumptions, but I think there's great potential in them....

PS: Crusher's friend with the bag of sweets was another nice touch.