If you’re a fan of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, you’ll be very aware of the mysterious character of Garak. He’s supposedly “just a tailor,” while again and again he hints that there’s much more to the character than meets the eye. Andrew J. Robinson, who portrayed Garak in the series, created a backstory for the character to help him in this portrayal with the blessing of the show developers. He has turned that backstory into this book, which is truly excellent.

For the audiobook, he also narrates, which makes it all the better. Garak was telling Garak’s story, something that doesn’t often happen. Robinson knew what emotion to put where since he had written and developed the story. I enjoyed A Stitch in Time far more than many audiobooks, as well as more than most Star Trek books. It’s told as a series of letters Garak sends to Doctor Bashir following events at the end of the series.

The narrative takes place in two timelines. The “present” one is Garak on Terok Nor, or Deep Space Nine as we Earthlings know it. From there, it flashes back to how Garak ended up in this place. Garak’s story begins on Cardassia, of course, and this also gives readers deeper insight into the Cardassian race. Robinson does a terrific job explaining why the Cardassians are the way they are. It’s part culture, part biology, part circumstance. Garak is sent off to a military school that normally wouldn’t be an option for someone like him, the son of two servants in a politician’s house. From there, he learns quite a bit and is driven to achieve a higher status than would normally be open to him. His parents’ employer appears at the school at various times, as it appears Garak is a special project of his.

Following those events, Garak is recruited to join the Obsidian Order, the Cardassian version of the CIA. He falls in love, has some adventures, and grows up to learn that things are not always what they appear. Some of the secrets of his background I could guess at early on; others were revealed near the end as Garak prepares to rejoin the survivors of the Dominion War on Cardassia to rebuild.

Robinson manages to show us why Garak is the way he is. At times, he has seemed so angry to be where he is on Deep Space Nine. The reason why makes his character all the more astonishing. He was once someone so loyal to Cardassia that he would have done anything asked of him, but there were conspiracies he didn’t know about against him. As he learned more and more about what was really going on, he became bitter, and this caused his eventual banishment to Deep Space Nine. At the same time, I could see where on the show he’s trying to figure out his place in this new world where he doesn’t seem to really belong anywhere.

I think A Stitch in Time is one of the best Star Trek books I’ve read/listened to. Robinson is an excellent writer and narrator. I can’t recommend the audiobook enough. If you enjoyed this character from the series and have wondered more about where he came from, you can now have it straight from Garak’s mouth.