Spoilers IKS Gorkon: A Good Day to Die by KRAD Review Thread
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I love the crew of the Gorkon. It's such an engaging cast of characters.
Is the Battlecruiser Vengeance based on the Star Trek Animated series?
Is the Battlecruiser Vengeance based on the Star Trek Animated series?
No, it's from The Final Reflection, where it was basically the Klingons' version of Star Trek, a popular fictional series about a starship seeking out new civilizations and conquering them.
Yeah, and it was great to follow up on some other characters we saw in TNG and DS9 like Toq, and learning what became of Kurn/Rodek, and Leskit. The only character I find annoying is the engineer (I forget her name off hand)---but then that captures her essence I thought from her appearance in TNG so it's not a problem with the 'writing' as KRAD captured the character well. She's just an annoying character. I find myself hoping at some point she has some life changing event that causes her to change her attitude a bit. We'll see
.I just started reading "Honor Bound". I'll be interested to see how the "Order of the Bat'leth" responds to Krag's summons and ultimately what Martok thinks of Krag's actions (which I imagine we'll learn much later in the book).
After that I hope to have "The Brave and the Bold" so I can read those next and catch-up on the missing story between Diplomatic Implausibility and the first Gorkon book.
Oh yes,
When I first picked up these books I didn't remember a lot of these characters because it had been a long time since Birthright and other episodes so I just took them on their own terms. Re-reading them after a viewing of TNG allowed me to appreciate all the references. While not as continuity heavy as some Star Trek novels, I felt it was quite a lot of mileage from a disparate cast of minor characters.
It's kind of a shame that Klag never got to find out Toq's actual origins (at least as I remember) because it would have been interesting to get his perspective on such similar origins for themselves. Klag's father, after all, was kept from committing suicide after/during his capture while Toq was the child of Klingons who had lost their fangs.
I loved the competition, the Children of San Tarrah (the aliens in this series are very alien), and the fact Klag is offended his failure to conquer them is not being respected (since he gave his word).
I'm a little nonplussed that Klingons are still going on wars of conquest in TNG era but we wouldn't have a book if the Federation or someone else was ticked about that.
When I first picked up these books I didn't remember a lot of these characters because it had been a long time since Birthright and other episodes so I just took them on their own terms. Re-reading them after a viewing of TNG allowed me to appreciate all the references. While not as continuity heavy as some Star Trek novels, I felt it was quite a lot of mileage from a disparate cast of minor characters.
It's kind of a shame that Klag never got to find out Toq's actual origins (at least as I remember) because it would have been interesting to get his perspective on such similar origins for themselves. Klag's father, after all, was kept from committing suicide after/during his capture while Toq was the child of Klingons who had lost their fangs.
I loved the competition, the Children of San Tarrah (the aliens in this series are very alien), and the fact Klag is offended his failure to conquer them is not being respected (since he gave his word).
I'm a little nonplussed that Klingons are still going on wars of conquest in TNG era but we wouldn't have a book if the Federation or someone else was ticked about that.
One thing I like about KRAD's books (and one reason I miss his novels) is he has a good attention to detail and he doesn't write in black and white. What I mean is there's a tendency a lot in stories to paint characters in one corner and another.
I started reading Honor Bound and there are some characters that are in one corner and the other of course--which is normal. But KRAD also adds some gray. For instance, Talak, the general who wants to take San-Tarah despite Klag's promise, is very much a gray. He fully supports Martok as chancellor for instance--when he's musing about how much he despises Klag for what he feels is his supplanting Kargon's honor--he feels Martok can bring honor back to the Empire and he seems to despise the politicization of the High Council in the past and past chancellors.
I like that KRAD does that. It would have been easy to make Talak a conniving character who's secretly trying to undermine Martok at the same time. But he doesn't.
And the commanders who answered Klag's call are a mix as well. Two are all in, one is doubtful but is willing to at least consider it, and another is half in--but seems to need a bit more convincing.
It's too bad KRAD hasn't been called upon to write a current Star Trek novel (and Peter David--both are two authors I miss). And I always point out that isn't a complaint about our current authors--I'd miss Greg Cox, Christopher, David Mack and all the other current authors as well.
I know KRAD via Crossroad Press and enjoy just about anything by him.
After the last few non-ebook New Frontier books, and Before Dishonor, I do not miss Peter David.
KRAD, I do miss though.
I recommend everyone check out his Super City Cops and SCPD books for some fun superhero stuff.
I say that as a superhero book author.
Eh, everyone's entitled to a few duds.
Yeah, Peter David's got plenty of good books out there that he's earned a little leeway. I don't recall "Before Dishonor" in any great detail--though I don't remember hating it or anything like that (I usually recall something awful---like M&C's Phoenix novels). And I actually liked all the New Frontier novels--though I do agree there was some drop off after the time jump. They lost a bit of the early magic. But unlike others I actually kind of liked "The Return" NF e-books that came out a few years ago. Enough that I'd love to see the story continue--and PD left enough threads that could be picked up on. And with Peter David I always liked his sense of humor in his books. BUT, that being said I'm not counting on any 24th century books in the future not related to the new Picard show (except of course Voyager "To Lose the Earth" which is tentatively due out in a year).
And yeah, it's not like KRAD, PD or other previous Star Trek writers just stopped writing when their Star Trek books stopped--as far as I know they've all stayed busy (I believe some are involved with Star Trek in other ways even). And even our current Star Trek authors have other works as well.
As I finally catch up on my older Star Trek collection someday I'll have to check some of that out---plus it's starting to look like S&S isn't going back to releasing a book a month (it's looking like an average of every other month) eventually I'm going to run out. Though I keep finding older Star Trek novels I'm somehow missing. I completely forgot about "The Brave and the Bold" for instance. And I recently picked up a "Mere Anarchy" omnibus.
I guess one major plus for me is that there are still a few KRAD Star Trek novels I have yet to read---so it gives me something to look forward to
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Sure, but it becomes a problem when after a certain point every book you release in a specific series or genre is a dud.
Indeed, as I'd have starved to death were that the case.
Also gonna put this here:
https://decandido.wordpress.com/2019/08/06/the-compleat-bibliography-of-keith-r-a-decandido-5/
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