Spoilers IKS Gorkon: Klingon Empire: A Burning House by KRAD Review Thread
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Re: IKS Gorkon: Klingon Empire: A Burning House by KRAD Review Thread
That sounds like praise a Klingon would give. :-)
Read the whole series years ago and very much enjoyed all of them.
I'm almost done with The Klingon Art of War and it's reminding me how much I miss the days when KRAD was writing more Trek.
That sounds like praise a Klingon would give. :-)
Read the whole series years ago and very much enjoyed all of them.
I'm almost done with The Klingon Art of War and it's reminding me how much I miss the days when KRAD was writing more Trek.
Re: IKS Gorkon: Klingon Empire: A Burning House by KRAD Review Thread
Unfortunately, German publisher Cross Cult is not inclined to release the IKS Gorkon Series. I don´t like ebooks. And the paperbacks are out of stock on amazon.de and the the used novels too expensive. But I´m currently busy with other stuff, and I´m biding my time.
I could easily read A burning House without the Gorkon novels, because I was familiar with Klag and his fellows.
Unfortunately, German publisher Cross Cult is not inclined to release the IKS Gorkon Series. I don´t like ebooks. And the paperbacks are out of stock on amazon.de and the the used novels too expensive. But I´m currently busy with other stuff, and I´m biding my time.
I could easily read A burning House without the Gorkon novels, because I was familiar with Klag and his fellows.
Re: IKS Gorkon: Klingon Empire: A Burning House by KRAD Review Thread
I wrote A Burning House to be able to stand on its own. There are references to the events of prior books, but you're filled in on that.
And if CrossCult's edition of The Klingon Art of War does well, maybe they'll reconsider reprinting the Gorkon titles.....
I wrote A Burning House to be able to stand on its own. There are references to the events of prior books, but you're filled in on that.
And if CrossCult's edition of The Klingon Art of War does well, maybe they'll reconsider reprinting the Gorkon titles.....
. It may take some time, but I will drum up business for Gorkon!.
Re: IKS Gorkon: Klingon Empire: A Burning House by KRAD Review Thread
I know there is a pretty considerable Klingon fandom in Germany. In terms of the more diehard klinfolk, there's Khemorex Klinzhai, who hold biannual Qetlop camps, and then there's the Quvar, the Klingon teacher from Germany, who's active on the convention circuit and hosts his own Klingon language meetups. I believe Quvar also works as a Klingon language consultant for Cross Cult.
There have also been at least a handful of Klingon metal bands from Germany, such as Kosmic Horrör.
They're currently planning a German release of The Klingon Hamlet. If they can find a market both for that and for The Klingon Art of War, I'm sure they can find one for the IKS Gorkon series.
I know there is a pretty considerable Klingon fandom in Germany. In terms of the more diehard klinfolk, there's Khemorex Klinzhai, who hold biannual Qetlop camps, and then there's the Quvar, the Klingon teacher from Germany, who's active on the convention circuit and hosts his own Klingon language meetups. I believe Quvar also works as a Klingon language consultant for Cross Cult.
There have also been at least a handful of Klingon metal bands from Germany, such as Kosmic Horrör.
They're currently planning a German release of The Klingon Hamlet. If they can find a market both for that and for The Klingon Art of War, I'm sure they can find one for the IKS Gorkon series.
Re: IKS Gorkon: Klingon Empire: A Burning House by KRAD Review Thread
I've always been a little shocked that the IKS Gorkon books didn't sell better. I would have thought that as popular as Klingons seemed to be during the shows' runs that the books would have been big sellers.
I've always been a little shocked that the IKS Gorkon books didn't sell better. I would have thought that as popular as Klingons seemed to be during the shows' runs that the books would have been big sellers.
Re: IKS Gorkon: Klingon Empire: A Burning House by KRAD Review Thread
I have a Klingon Avatar in the Cross Cult Forum and it rubbed off on me
I have a Klingon Avatar in the Cross Cult Forum and it rubbed off on me
THE BURNING HOUSE is disappointingly the last of the Klingon Empire/I.K.S Gorkon novels and while it ends on a satisfying note, I can't help but think of the New Frontier novels by Peter David which lasted for a decade. It's perhaps better to quit while you're ahead but the fact there are "only" four books in the series disappoints me greatly. I am almost never lacking for Klingon content and thus will have to turn to other sources in order to get my fix.
The premise for this book is Captain Klag has returned to Kronos for some much needed R&R and to explain why he got the Klingon Empire in another war where they got heavily pounded despite the fact the aliens had no contact with other species. The other Klingons go to visit their families and deal with the fact life in the Klingon Defense Force is not all there is to be a child of Kahless.
Really, the big appeal of this book is the fact we get to see the Klingon Empire is not completely composed of soldiers and meet members of their race who are involved in manufacturing, opera, and farming. This has both good and bad points because: A. Obviously there are Klingons who are not warriors. B. It makes them a bit too human as Klingon society really starts to look like human society with just a dueling and professional fighting culture.
There's also a subplot about medical taboos and the fact the Klingon Surgeon General is hopelessly retrograde. I am both back and forth on this. I love plots about reforming cultures to be better but I never actually thought the Klingons were going to be bad at science or medicine. As one friend of me said, "The trick to playing Klingons is they're not stupid. They just act that way." I generally follow the view their blood knight philosophy ends generally whenever when it would make victory harder.
In short, I would think the Klingons would have great medicine rather than the opposite as you'd think they'd want to get their soldiers patched up quickly to send back in the field. Even orcs have great medicine in the Peter Jackson films as while they're cannon fodder, you don't want to waste a good tool and I wonder how many Klingons would want to live as invalids. Oh well, the issue was a source of decent intrigue throughout. Transplants were also very taboo in Japan so it's not an unheard of sentiment.
One thing the book does deal with that I appreciated was the handling of the "Kurn" plotline which I felt was resolved in an insane manner on DS9. For those unfamiliar with the episode, Worf's brother is suicidal after his discommendation so they wipe his mind and have him adopted by another house. The character became Rodek and served on the Gorkon without his memories of being a Son of Mogh. The ending to said plot is satisfying as it doesn't go all roses and sunshine.
In conclusion, it has been a long and fascinating ride that I'm sorry has ended here.
9/10
The premise for this book is Captain Klag has returned to Kronos for some much needed R&R and to explain why he got the Klingon Empire in another war where they got heavily pounded despite the fact the aliens had no contact with other species. The other Klingons go to visit their families and deal with the fact life in the Klingon Defense Force is not all there is to be a child of Kahless.
Really, the big appeal of this book is the fact we get to see the Klingon Empire is not completely composed of soldiers and meet members of their race who are involved in manufacturing, opera, and farming. This has both good and bad points because: A. Obviously there are Klingons who are not warriors. B. It makes them a bit too human as Klingon society really starts to look like human society with just a dueling and professional fighting culture.
There's also a subplot about medical taboos and the fact the Klingon Surgeon General is hopelessly retrograde. I am both back and forth on this. I love plots about reforming cultures to be better but I never actually thought the Klingons were going to be bad at science or medicine. As one friend of me said, "The trick to playing Klingons is they're not stupid. They just act that way." I generally follow the view their blood knight philosophy ends generally whenever when it would make victory harder.
In short, I would think the Klingons would have great medicine rather than the opposite as you'd think they'd want to get their soldiers patched up quickly to send back in the field. Even orcs have great medicine in the Peter Jackson films as while they're cannon fodder, you don't want to waste a good tool and I wonder how many Klingons would want to live as invalids. Oh well, the issue was a source of decent intrigue throughout. Transplants were also very taboo in Japan so it's not an unheard of sentiment.
One thing the book does deal with that I appreciated was the handling of the "Kurn" plotline which I felt was resolved in an insane manner on DS9. For those unfamiliar with the episode, Worf's brother is suicidal after his discommendation so they wipe his mind and have him adopted by another house. The character became Rodek and served on the Gorkon without his memories of being a Son of Mogh. The ending to said plot is satisfying as it doesn't go all roses and sunshine.
In conclusion, it has been a long and fascinating ride that I'm sorry has ended here.
9/10
I think that's the issue, really; they're really good at patching up, but they were generally uninterested in medical technology beyond that. Their combat medics are probably great at getting someone in a position where they can get back into the fight with a quick turnaround time, it's anything more than that, it's noncombat medicine, that they were uninterested in.
The general domination of the warrior caste is probably also a huge factor; when being in the field and not being a warrior is seen as so shameful, you're going to have a general dearth of people becoming doctors in the field. Even though other facets of society are necessary to support the warriors, that support still isn't near as well-respected by a lot of their society because it's not directly being a warrior. It's like teachers in the US: they're important and necessary for society as a whole, and we highly view quite a few jobs that require someone to be well-educated - doctors, nurses, scientists, engineers, architects. And yet it's not seen as an innately respectable profession by vast swathes of society either explicitly (sneering at teachers for being demanding, the general distaste for the teacher's union, etc.) or implicitly (low pay, little governmental support, etc.), and so despite how much society respects those positions that require education, we have much fewer people interested in becoming teachers because they themselves aren't among those highly-respected jobs. Societies are just sometimes hypocritical like that.
Well, as recent real-world events have shown, even if people in general aren't stupid, it's possible for them to end up being governed by extremely stupid people who enforce extremely stupid and counterproductive policies. The Klingon political system puts people in authority based on whether they can win a fight or whether their ancestors were rich and important. That's not exactly a system that's likely to put competent, educated decision-makers in charge. In fact, I'd say it's pretty much guaranteed to put stubborn, inflexible idiots in charge, people who would do things like discouraging medical research that didn't fit their ideologies about strength and weakness. After all, we in the US have a government that's actively trying to worsen our health care system for the sake of scoring political points and giving billionaires a tax cut. So there's real-world precedent for a society's health care policy being hobbled by stupidity.
Eh, I suppose it's the question of mine that a Klingon Empire which is meant to be functional requires a knowledge of how exactly to support those soldiers. "Kurak" for example is a character I both love and loathe in equal measure in these books because she's a character who designs starships for a living and gets drafted into the military as an engineer. Except, for the Klingons to be able to stand toe to toe with the Federation, they'd need plenty of engineers like her and people who would be part of the military to be able to keep parity with the Federation.
You'd need soldier medics, soldier engineers, and soldier chefs (well not with replicators but you know what I mean).
You can get around this if the Klingons had people filling in the menial jobs from other races so everyone could be a soldier or at least a substantial chunk but we only see one or two of those.
It's why I think JUDGEMENT from ENT could have been more than just the Court Scene from Final Frontier as I was more interested in the idea the Klingon Empire USED to be a lot smarter than they were now. The idea they've become something of a parody of themselves intrigues me.
While you raise the point "Make Kronos Great again" might as well have been Gowron's slogan toward the end of his term (and seems to be a running theme with many of the Klingons), I also point out my main issue is there has to be something of a balance of these things because while the Klingons are clearly inferior in the sciences with the Federation and I have no doubt about that from what we see on screen, they also are able to keep pace with the Romulans and Federation to be the 2nd or 3rd of the predominate powers in half of the galaxy.
You can't say it's because they're the toughest warriors because knives and bat'leths aren't going to win conflicts involving starships and proton torpedoes. So, really it becomes a question of who is their Sergei Korolev or Wernher Von Braun. The guy who makes their extremely advanced starships.
Which you'd also think would extend to the medical.
Oh well, I didn't dislike the process and the book did a good job of showing Klingon HONOR AND GLORY only go so far--to which I'm grateful.
I just remember an obvious one that I'm shocked that I forgot and that no one else mentioned, Hidden Universe Travel Guides: The Klingon Empire. It even uses stuff from the Novelverse, just flipping through it I saw a little about an in universe version of The Final Reflection, the Krennla section has a bit about the hit opera "The Battle at San-Tarah", there is a bit about Battlecruiser Vengeance, and at the end is an add for a holographic BV attraction.
I loved this novel! So sad to see the end of the series with this book. I just published my review, and as I'm sure you can tell by the previous two sentences, it's glowing.
Thanks for the review, Dan. If it makes you feel any better, there are two more short stories and two more (really three more) novels you can read:
The Brave and the Bold duology (Klag and the gang are in the second half of Book 2)
A Singular Destiny (there's a subplot that involves Klag and the gang)
Tales of the Dominion War (Robert Greenberger's "A Song Well Sung" tells the story of Marcan V)
Tales from the Captain's Table (my "loDnIpu' vavpu' je" is a story of Klag and Dorrek)
The Brave and the Bold duology (Klag and the gang are in the second half of Book 2)
A Singular Destiny (there's a subplot that involves Klag and the gang)
Tales of the Dominion War (Robert Greenberger's "A Song Well Sung" tells the story of Marcan V)
Tales from the Captain's Table (my "loDnIpu' vavpu' je" is a story of Klag and Dorrek)
Well, I now have completed the "Gorkon" series as I just finished with A Burning House. Like the first 3 there was much to enjoy here. KRAD does a good job giving some background on Klingon society, not just from a military or political standpoint, but particularly enjoying was the civilian aspect in this novel. You get to see the regular, everyday Klingon folks. Some, like those on Pheban III are painted in a more positive light. While those in the Krennla district on the homeworld less so. KRAD also ties up a number of lose ends. Klag's brother is dealt with once and for all, the relationship between Leskit and Kurak is formalized, Wol makes peace with herself, Rodek/Kurn is more or less resolved and we see new story elements developed. We also get a little more in depth with many of the characters from the Gorkon series.
This book actually has a number of stories going on at the same time. That can be risky if you don't strike a balance, but KRAD does a good job here of giving each story line it's due. I never felt any stories were dominating or any were being dominated. Each story line, I thought, was given the attention that the story required. That doesn't mean equal time to every story. But more the appropriate time that each story required. For instance. the Kurak/Leskit storyline probably covers one of the least amount of pages overall, however, that was enough for that story. I didn't feel any more was necessary.
There's also a number of nods to other stories, for instance Morjod's attempted coup from The Left Hand of Destiny
is mentioned, along with the Klingon aspects of a number of the Lost Era novels. Dr. Bashir makes a cameo appearance as well on Deep Space Nine. Ambassador Worf also makes a couple of appearances.
What's sad is this is the last book of the series. Klag does make an appearance again in A Singular Destiny as KRAD noted above, but that novel is about so much more. It's a series that certainly has room for more stories, but, sadly, I don't see that happening. I'm also saddened because I've now read the last KRAD Star Trek novel that I haven't read.
It's amazing to think I've overlooked the Gorkon novels when they first came out. Reading TNG: Diplomatic Implausibility helped get me interested in visiting the Gorkon novels and I'm glad I did. I still remember seeing the novels at the store and thinking that Klingons were a bit overdone in the Star Trek universe, I still had tons of Star Trek novels to catch up on and I just didn't feel like reading about Klingons. But better late than never. I'd highly recommend them. It was nice reading a Star Trek novel from a non-Federation perspective, yet they still fit very well in the relaunch universe.
I should add I gave the book an outstanding rating. There was really nothing I could say it was missing or could have been better.
This book actually has a number of stories going on at the same time. That can be risky if you don't strike a balance, but KRAD does a good job here of giving each story line it's due. I never felt any stories were dominating or any were being dominated. Each story line, I thought, was given the attention that the story required. That doesn't mean equal time to every story. But more the appropriate time that each story required. For instance. the Kurak/Leskit storyline probably covers one of the least amount of pages overall, however, that was enough for that story. I didn't feel any more was necessary.
There's also a number of nods to other stories, for instance Morjod's attempted coup from The Left Hand of Destiny
is mentioned, along with the Klingon aspects of a number of the Lost Era novels. Dr. Bashir makes a cameo appearance as well on Deep Space Nine. Ambassador Worf also makes a couple of appearances.
What's sad is this is the last book of the series. Klag does make an appearance again in A Singular Destiny as KRAD noted above, but that novel is about so much more. It's a series that certainly has room for more stories, but, sadly, I don't see that happening. I'm also saddened because I've now read the last KRAD Star Trek novel that I haven't read.
It's amazing to think I've overlooked the Gorkon novels when they first came out. Reading TNG: Diplomatic Implausibility helped get me interested in visiting the Gorkon novels and I'm glad I did. I still remember seeing the novels at the store and thinking that Klingons were a bit overdone in the Star Trek universe, I still had tons of Star Trek novels to catch up on and I just didn't feel like reading about Klingons. But better late than never. I'd highly recommend them. It was nice reading a Star Trek novel from a non-Federation perspective, yet they still fit very well in the relaunch universe.
I should add I gave the book an outstanding rating. There was really nothing I could say it was missing or could have been better.