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Title: The Final Reflection (Star Trek, No 16) by John M. Ford ISBN: 0-671-03853-2 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: August, 1999 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.77 (43 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Kai kassai klingon!
Comment: Years ago, in "Best of Trek", I read a fan's amateur reviews of pro Star Trek novels. Her critique of The Final Reflection: "I don't like any book that I have to read three times just to understand what's going on." I believe her comment says a LOT about the simplistic drivel which comprises most Star Dreck, compared with the richness of this novel. Author Ford, a respected science-fiction writer, gives us a fascinating vision of a very alien species, whose culture is based on a bushido-style code of honor and a chesslike Perpetual Game of personal advancement and power. This definitive novel about the Klingons is presented as a book within a book, and takes place some forty years before the famous five-year mission of Captain Kirk. The protagonist is an Imperial-race Klingon. An orphan raised in a militarily-structured Lineless House, six-year-old Vrenn makes his first sentient kill -- an adult Human male -- in the arena of the Years End Games. A skilled fighter in the klin zha kinta, the Game With Living Pieces, Vrenn is noticed by Thought-Admiral Kethas, who adopts him into his Line. He joins the Navy, and through battle-prowess and political maneuvering, rises quickly to the rank of Captain. He begins to make his Name in the service of Empire. Then Krenn is chosen for a mission of great secrecy and delicacy... This is a meticulously-developed novel of strategy, conspiracy, subtrafuge, diplomacy, betrayal, vengeance, and above all, honor. The plot is so intricate, the prose so precise, that the story can be read again and again, and can seem fresh each time. Even people who hate Trek will enjoy this one. By the way, this book also provides the reason why the Original Series Klingons look different from the ones in the modern series.
Rating: 5
Summary: The must-have book for students of Klingon culture
Comment: One of the few truly good STAR TREK novels with any appeal to a non STAR TREK audience. Ironic since the novel does not deal with the familiar STAR TREK cast of characters at all, but is set approximately 40 years before the time of the original series.
The story focuses on Krenn, a young Klingon Commander who is a practitioner of "that least Klingon of arts...strategy" and his relationship with Emanuel Tagore, an ambassador sent to the Klingon Empire to represent the United Federation of Planets.
Skillfully crafting the interactions between these two characters, Ford allows for an exploration of human nature on a general level, as Krenn struggles to understand the alien concepts of morality and humanism while Dr. Tagore tries to assimilate the Klingon's more Darwinistic philosophies and conception of honor.
The novel builds to a suitably satisfying climax where Krenn must think several moves ahead of events in order to secure himself, Dr. Tagore and their two respective Empires.
All in all, a tight, fascinating exploration of what the Klingons refer to as the Komerex Zha (The Perpetual Game) that represents life itself wherever it thrives in the universe.
Rating: 5
Summary: Calling it a good Star Trek novel....
Comment: Does this book an injustice. It is an excellent novel in it's own right, and would stand alone as a superior work without the extended Trek universe to support it. I stopped reading Trek novels years ago when it became apparent that they all pretty much followed the same formula. One in which the author used the story to insert themself into the Trek universe. This work is nothing like that.
Apparent from reading the book is that it was the source of much Next Generation Klingon lore (houses,lines, a quasi-feudal society, a "privateer" style military) and many plot lines. (Worf's dead or dishonored line, Worf being the son of a Klingon commander, killed by a Romulan massacre, he and his brother's adoptions, the character of General Martok.) John M. Ford's name should have been listed somewhere in the series' credits for creative contributions.
If Paramount ever decides to take another trip to the Well of Trek, this book should be the vehicle for that series.
Exciting, captivating, and just hard to put down. It is a rousing good tale true to the Horatio Hornblower, Jack Aubrey mold.
John M. Ford wrote this book in 1984 I think. What I find particulary interesting is that some of the Klingon ship's systems he describes, are now actually used in modern weapons systems like the AH-64 Apache Longbow and the M1A2 Abrams tank.
In the last 20 years I've kept only one Trek novel---The Final Reflection.
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Title: How Much for Just the Planet? (Star Trek, No 36) by John M. Ford ISBN: 0671038591 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: Yesterday's Son (Star Trek, No 11) by A.C. Crispin ISBN: 0671038516 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: Ishmael (Star Trek, No 23) by Barbara Hambly ISBN: 0671743554 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 September, 1991 List Price(USD): $5.50 |
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Title: Firestorm (Star Trek, Book 68) by L.A. Graf ISBN: 0671865889 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 January, 1994 List Price(USD): $5.50 |
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Title: Dreadnought! (Star Trek, No 29) by Diane Carey ISBN: 0671038524 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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