You won't believe it. Una McCormack blocked me on Twitter. After four bans from Star Trek message boards this is hardly a surprise, but it reveals the mentality of the mainstream fandom.I told her that her books though technically very well written did not take into account the Cardassian loss of pride and the sense of resentment stemming from it. I doubted that the average Cardassian would embrace the Federation values wholeheartedly, and hypothesized that huge parts of Cardassian society, though not openly hostile, would remain guarded and sceptic towards the pro-Federation political course that Cardassia adopted after the Dominion war.
I pointed out that Rugal , the protagonist from "The Never-Ending Sacrifice", was an angry teen who was determined to dislike Cardassia and to spite his father so he was hardly a representative sample for how the average Cardassian felt in the eve in the Dominion war. After the war, Rugal becomes a Federation citizen because he does not like Cardassia . So one of the most influential novels about Cardassia shows us a character who does not want to be a Cardassian . Really!? I also told her that totalitarian societies have compulsory conscription, especially with a major military conflict pending, so Rugal can't join the military voluntarily and bargain for his father's life.
In fact, she disregards huge strata from Cardassian society and concentrates on several dissidents and pro-Federation characters. She does not explore the "authoritarian bargain" which is the Cardassian form of social contract, and how it affected the military, the civilians, the Cardassians from the colonies, the drama of the ordinary people who worked within the system and saw their efforts ruined and nullified. I really expect more depth from a person who boasts about a PhD degree in Sociology and BA in History and Social and Political Science.
After all this is fanfiction so if two fans can't have a candid discussion on a piece of fanfiction and its relationship to canon what does it say about the Cardassian fandom? That such a fandom does not exist or it is just an unwanted fringe group? I invited her to discuss Cardassia but she just tried to hush me up by telling me she was sorry her novels did not work for me. As a Cardassian fan I feel obliged to read everything that has to do with Cardassia and I believe I can express my opinion on it. For me, this is a chickenshit reaction.
I am a Cardassian fan and I often comment on Cardassia-related topics. On the plus side, unlike her, I never run out of fucks so everyone is welcome. 
