Star Trek: Day of Honor: Treaty's Law by Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch

[Damian]

I just completed this novel. I started several months ago and just got done. But that doesn't mean it was a poor book. I'm usually reading two to three novels at a time, one during lunch/breaks at work, one in the summer when I go to the camper, and one at home. This one I read at home and the ones I read at home usually take me the longest because it's hard to find time to read at home.

Anyway, this is the 4th novel of the Day of Honor series, based on the original series, and it features Commander Kor from "Errand of Mercy." It also features the captain and crew of the Farragut as featured in the author's previous Star Trek novel "The Rings of Tautee" which I read several months ago. Captain Bogle is much more agreeable here, probably after working with Kirk in the previous story.

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from a Klingon farm planet, a planet the Klingons had won from the Federation under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty. It's being attacked by an unknown alien race. Kor also responds, and initially accuses the Enterprise of the attack, but soon realizes they are not responsible. Kirk offers his assistance and the Farragut is called in to help as well (it takes them a few hours to arrive) along with other Klingon vessels. There are a few odd things about the attacks. For one the aliens use plasma weapons, two they only seem to be attacking the Klingon crops, leaving the native plants intact. And one of the officers who previously worked on the planet, Lt. Rathbone when the Federation was still competing for it had noted the native plants aren't exactly native.

They soon learn the identity of the aliens as the Narr, and find the Narr had already started converting the planet to their needs years before and feel the Klingons are invading on their turf and attack accordingly. Kirk, McCoy, Sulu, Rathbone and a landing party attempt to help the colonists on the planet repel the attack and the Klingon colonists, represented by Kerdoch, are surprised at the bravery and even honor shown by the Starfleet officers. They realize that enemies can have their own code of honor as well.

It's a decent enough book. The main issue I had is I'm not incredibly fond of siege type stories. The landing party is trapped on the planet for much of the book and are intermittently attacked with long periods of nothing as they try to come up with a strategy. It's only a few days on the planet but it felt like weeks. I think the authors got Kor pretty well. Even in "Errand of Mercy" there was a bit of grudging respect for Captain Kirk, and just a bit of that honor Klingons would be later known for. And I liked Kerdoch, the Klingon farmer. He's a no nonsense kind of guy who is not afraid to fight for his home. It was a nice look at a non-military Klingon society. Not all Klingons are soldiers and it was good to have a story about some other elements of Klingon society.

I'd rate the book average to above average. It kept my attention, was fine to read, but maybe got bogged down a bit too long.

 

[Christopher]

I felt it made Kor too agreeable, too quick to accept working with Kirk. I also felt it was too small-universe that this important Klingon holiday was commemorating something Kirk was involved in. Let somebody else be important sometimes!

 

[Damian]

I felt it made Kor too agreeable, too quick to accept working with Kirk. I also felt it was too small-universe that this important Klingon holiday was commemorating something Kirk was involved in. Let somebody else be important sometimes!

Maybe. Kor did have a certain respect for Kirk so maybe under the circumstances he felt Kirk could be a help. I'll admit the Klingons in general in this particular novel are a bit more similar to their TNG versions that original series versions. Very concerned with honor and all (these same authors also seemed to portray the Prime Directive in a TNG-ish short of way in "The Rings of Tautee" as well--though they straddled it there by having Captain Bogle be the one that was more hawkish about the PD and suggesting he may have had something to do with the tightening of how it's viewed...but I digress).

Now in complete fairness, the book was written in 1997, when DS9 and Voyager were still on the air and before Enterprise. So the authors may have felt compelled to portray Klingons in the way they were being portrayed at the time on the then currently running shows. There were some nods to the original series portrayal, such as the surprise of Kerdoch that humans could have honor when they were always told they had none.

One thing I've found with all 4 of the Day of Honor original novels is other than the first book by Diane Carey, they don't seem to have a whole lot to do with the Day of Honor itself. This one seems to have the least to do with the Day of Honor of them all. Only the framing sequence of Kerdoch telling the tale to his grandchildren really references it at all. Otherwise this could have just been any original series novel. I have to admit I was a bit surprised by that. I thought the Day of Honor would play some major part in the various stories, but it really doesn't...except for Carey's book.

I still have the novelization of the TV episode to read by Friedman and then there is a shorter story at the end of my omnibus--it looks like it might be one of those teen oriented novels they released around the same time.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Kor liked Kirk.

Which is why he wanted to kill him so much. Because Klingons.

Mind you, I always felt the Original Series portrayal may have never mentioned honor but Errand of Mercy is all about Kor talking about the glories and awesomeness of war. The whole concept of honor pretty much comes from cultures that venerate it that way. The fact the Klingons were dishonorable tricksy assholes wasn't actually repudiated by TNG as Worf learned the hard way that "honor" is what you're perceived as having--not what you actually possess.

 

[Christopher]

Maybe. Kor did have a certain respect for Kirk so maybe under the circumstances he felt Kirk could be a help.

It's not about whether it can be explained, it's about whether it was the best choice for the story. I felt the story lacked tension because Kor came around too easily. It would've been more interesting if he'd been harder to convince. Heck, look at "Day of the Dove." It took Kirk until the final scene to win Kang over. That episode had a lot of tension and suspense.

 

[Damian]

It's not about whether it can be explained, it's about whether it was the best choice for the story. I felt the story lacked tension because Kor came around too easily. It would've been more interesting if he'd been harder to convince. Heck, look at "Day of the Dove." It took Kirk until the final scene to win Kang over. That episode had a lot of tension and suspense.

Yeah, ok. Maybe. I think the authors wanted the focus of the enemy to be on the Narr and probably didn't want to spend too much time on convincing Kor to come around. And Kor was absent due to his injuries for a significant time in the book. I'm sure they wanted to use one of the 3 familiar Klingons from the original series. It probably could just have easily been Koloth or Kang.

This novel was tense in other ways because of the constant siege they were under. The Enterprise couldn't get close enough to the planet to rescue them or provide them aid so Kirk's party was completely cut off, save for communications. My main complaint is that siege seemed to go on too long. Quick, intense battles with long interludes in between.

Another sort of complaint I had about the novel was the quick resolution. They're getting ready for another battle, Kirk pulls a rabbit out of his hat and problem solved basically in one chapter. I won't give away how it ends, but it was a complaint I had about a few of the Bantam novels. It's almost like they realized they were running out of pages and had to tie things up. Now, that's not to say I thought it was a bad solution, just that maybe it should have taken a bit longer, and there should have been a bit more suspense there.

Mind you, I always felt the Original Series portrayal may have never mentioned honor but Errand of Mercy is all about Kor talking about the glories and awesomeness of war. The whole concept of honor pretty much comes from cultures that venerate it that way.

I never minded the honor bound Klingons of TNG era. Part of it I'm sure was TSFS with Kruge's single line "You will be remembered with honor". But I think Klingons needed something more if they were going to be seen more frequently. Otherwise they would have become one dimensional villains. Originally according to "The Making of Star Trek" it was said they looked at honor with disdain. They were supposed to be crooked, devious, sneaky killers. But there's only so far you can take that. There had to be some order in Klingon society or it would degenerate into anarchy.

I think the authors in this novel were thinking of Klingons more in terms of the later TNG versions. I don't really blame them for that. Later, when Enterprise came around, we got a bit more explanation as to why Klingons during the original series era (and earlier) were more brutal and lacked a strict code of honor. Particularly the episode where Archer is sent to Rura Penthe (I forget the episode name offhand) and his lawyer is imprisoned with him and bemoans how Klingons have lost their way. And later books dig a little deeper into that. There would be a profound change in Klingon culture when they rediscovered the philosophy of Kahless after the original series timeframe. But when this novel was written there was none of that yet. So I don't fault them really for taking the track they did. They were just using what information they had at the time.

Like I said, I found it to be an average to somewhat above average novel. The biggest thing for me is does it hold my interest. Can I get into it and visualize it as I'm reading it. And yeah, I would say so.

 

[Christopher]

I never minded the honor bound Klingons of TNG era. Part of it I'm sure was TSFS with Kruge's single line "You will be remembered with honor". But I think Klingons needed something more if they were going to be seen more frequently. Otherwise they would have become one dimensional villains. Originally according to "The Making of Star Trek" it was said they looked at honor with disdain. They were supposed to be crooked, devious, sneaky killers. But there's only so far you can take that. There had to be some order in Klingon society or it would degenerate into anarchy.

It was because TNG turned the Klingons into Federation allies. So they had to be given positive qualities to justify that, and the oldest trick in the book for portraying a warrior culture in a positive way is to make them "honorable." They're still killers, but they only kill the right people in the right way, so that makes it okay, yeah, sure. Kruge's line about honor in ST III (a result of the script originally being written for Romulans with "Romulan" then crossed out and "Klingon" penciled in, essentially) provided a foundation for that.