I just completed book 2 of this series and like book 1 found it to be an enjoyable read. The first part of the book is based on Voyager. It takes place during Voyager's shakedown cruise and features the initial reason Tuvok went undercover with the Maquis. It also features Sisko's friend Cal Hudson and a preview of Lt. Eddington's secret work for the Maquis before he formally defected. In this story one of the Maquis, an Andorian, finds the Malkus artifact that affects weather and he goes on a vendetta against Cardassians and even a human settlement in the DMZ as he has gone mad with vengeance over the loss of his family. Chakotay and Hudson, with the help of Tuvok undercover, they decide to stop the Andorian. And in Chakotay and Hudson even make a sensible decision that if they found the device they would turn it over to Starfleet, realizing the device is far too dangerous to hold on to. While they don't approve of Starfleet and the Federation's actions regarding the Treaty, they do realize Starfleet is best equipped to handle a device like the artifact. Not your average terrorists I guess. It also features Captain Desoto from the USS Hood. Book 2 brings everything to a conclusion and is considered a TNG/IKS Gorkon story and includes Ambassador Worf, as well as Ambassador Spock, Dr. McCoy, Colonel Kira, and Captain Desoto, all who had been previously exposed to the artifacts, bringing everything full circle. The story takes place between Insurrection and Nemesis--early on in the DS9 relaunch era. On Narenda III an excavation exposes the final artifact, the mind control device, and we learn Malkus' consciousness was incorporated into this device. He wants to rebuild his empire and he needs all 4 devices to make his plan work. Klag and Picard must work together to stop Malkus. I've really come to enjoy the Gorkon stories. The only issue I had was since I read the first two actual Gorkon novels before this one, I had to remember some of the changes in the characters at this early stage. Not a huge deal by any means, I just had to remember where some characters were before the Gorkon novels started. Somehow I missed this duology when it was first released and just found out about them when picking up the Gorkon novels. So it was a pleasant happenstance that I found I still had these to read. I always enjoyed KRAD's novels and was glad to find there are still a few I hadn't read. I plan on reading the last 2 books of the Gorkon series, then sadly I think that's it for KRAD books I haven't read. In some ways his books remind me just a bit of Peter David, particularly in their sense of humor and in their ability to take characters that we maybe only saw once or twice on screen and creating an entire backstory and life for them. They both can make little seen characters interesting to read about.
Do you read tie-ins for any other franchises? He's written for a lot of different tie-in lines, and has quite a few of his own original novels too. He's written novels for Buffy, Farscape, Xena, Spider-Man, Andromeda, World of Warcraft, Young Hercules, CSI: NY, Supernatural, Command and Conquer, Starcraft, Stargate SG-1, Sleepy Hollow, Thor, Sif, and The Warriors Three. He's also written novelizations of Serenity, the Resident Evil movies, and a couple others I'm not familiar with.
Thanks, Damian. I have to say that the Spock-Worf mind-meld scenes are among my favorite things I've written ever.
Yeah. And I hope someday to have time to read some other stories by some of my favorite Star Trek authors. I'm still playing catch-up on some of my older Star Trek books, and basically Star Trek is the only fiction I read right now. I should have clarified that the Gorkon books are the last KRAD Star Trek novels I have left to read--unless he wrote one of the several numbered Voyager novels I have to read yet. One can hope--I found a surprise on the one I just pulled that happened to be written by Greg Cox (I never realized he wrote any Voyager books so that was a pleasant surprise). Someday I hope to get to other works. But I really like what he did with Klag. A Klingon in the Martok/Worf mold. And I liked that after a bit of friction Klag and Worf are on friendly terms. An honorable Klingon would find a kinship with Worf so it makes sense.
I didn't write any of the numbered Voyager novels -- you just read my first piece of Voyager fiction, in fact. After that, I've just got a short story in Distant Shores and the Voyager Mirror Universe short novel in Obsidian Alliances.
(Oh, and Voyager shows up in my alternate history short novel A Gutted World in Myriad Universes: Echoes and Refractions.)
That's another old Star Trek series of books I have to get my hands on. Every time I think I'm almost done completing my collection I discover another I don't have. And I really enjoyed the Mirror Universe Saga--and I always love alternate timeline stories. So it's something I have to rectify.
Have you read the IKS Gorkon stories in Tales of the Dominion War and Tales from the Captain's Table?
I haven't on the first, but I did read the story in the "Captains Table" (that was maybe about a year and a half ago and that was what reminded me that I needed to pick up the Gorkon series as a whole). It's kind of funny in a way because I read Diplomatic Implausibility just a few months ago and I didn't even realize until I started reading it that was basically a pilot for the Gorkon series. It was just a TNG I hadn't read yet and I picked it up at random.
The Tales of the Dominion War story tells the story of how Klag lost his arm. If you haven't read it yet, the whole book is worth checking out. Oh year, I just remembered, there's also a IKS Gorkon Mirror Universe story in Shards and Shadows.
Just FYI, Bob Greenberger wrote the Klag story in Tales of the Dominion War at my request, as I wanted to write the fall of Betazed story. How-some-ever, I did write the Klag MU story in Shards and Shadows.
Ok, good to know. I had wondered if that battle was the subject of another story or book that I missed, since it's such an important part of who he is. I'll definitely have to add Tales to my reading list.
Wow sorry it took so long to get back to this thread. Tales of the Dominion War is a great anthology, I really enjoyed all of the stories in it.