Hello everyone,
I only just found and ordered a copy myself, but it was still a surprise that this doesn’t seem to have been mentioned on the trekbbs before (although my search was quick rather than exhaustive, so I could be wrong about that).
You may remember that there was the first opera entirely in Klingon performed a while ago, called “u”. This book, paq’batlh (“Book of Honour”) is the libretto of the opera re-worked into a long(ish) poem, in both English and Klingon. The Klingon version was worked on directly by Marc Okrand, who (as I hardly need to say) created the Klingon dialogue used in the “Star Trek” films. It’s supposedly the traditional Klingon tale of the life and many feats of Kahless the Unforgettable. From my rather quick leaf through (it only arrived in the post yesterday) it seems to be very thoroughly researched and covers all the main events hinted at in various “Star Trek” episodes.
There’s a very straight-faced scholarly foreword, placing the tale in its context in Klingon culture, and illustrations of ancient Klingon music scores, along with a handy table explaining the phonetics of Klingon.
The book itself is a bit pricey (even on Amazon), being both print on demand and published in Europe, but I liked the idea, and the execution. Of course, I can’t claim any great knowledge of Klingon culture and the “established” Kahless story, and what seems quite ingenious and accurate to me might be annoying and hopelessly wrong to other readers. I confess the “Klingon Dictionary” and the “Klingon Hamlet” appealed to my sense of fun, and this book is an excellent companion to them on its own merits, not just for completeness’ sake.
Any direct mention of “Star Trek” is studiously avoided, so I wasn’t sure whether this was “Trek Literature” or “Fan Fiction”. I went for “official” due to the involvement of Mr Okrand. He’s the last word on Klingon, so if nothing else, the Klingon vocabulary in the book is “canon”. Other stuff is more dubious: Klingons have two hearts?
As you might have spotted, I’m pleased with my purchase, but I can see it might not appeal to everyone.
Timon (and I still can’t believe I’m the first one on the board to mention this, so sorry if I’m just re-hashing something that was discussed to death ages ago)
I only just found and ordered a copy myself, but it was still a surprise that this doesn’t seem to have been mentioned on the trekbbs before (although my search was quick rather than exhaustive, so I could be wrong about that).
You may remember that there was the first opera entirely in Klingon performed a while ago, called “u”. This book, paq’batlh (“Book of Honour”) is the libretto of the opera re-worked into a long(ish) poem, in both English and Klingon. The Klingon version was worked on directly by Marc Okrand, who (as I hardly need to say) created the Klingon dialogue used in the “Star Trek” films. It’s supposedly the traditional Klingon tale of the life and many feats of Kahless the Unforgettable. From my rather quick leaf through (it only arrived in the post yesterday) it seems to be very thoroughly researched and covers all the main events hinted at in various “Star Trek” episodes.
There’s a very straight-faced scholarly foreword, placing the tale in its context in Klingon culture, and illustrations of ancient Klingon music scores, along with a handy table explaining the phonetics of Klingon.
The book itself is a bit pricey (even on Amazon), being both print on demand and published in Europe, but I liked the idea, and the execution. Of course, I can’t claim any great knowledge of Klingon culture and the “established” Kahless story, and what seems quite ingenious and accurate to me might be annoying and hopelessly wrong to other readers. I confess the “Klingon Dictionary” and the “Klingon Hamlet” appealed to my sense of fun, and this book is an excellent companion to them on its own merits, not just for completeness’ sake.
Any direct mention of “Star Trek” is studiously avoided, so I wasn’t sure whether this was “Trek Literature” or “Fan Fiction”. I went for “official” due to the involvement of Mr Okrand. He’s the last word on Klingon, so if nothing else, the Klingon vocabulary in the book is “canon”. Other stuff is more dubious: Klingons have two hearts?
As you might have spotted, I’m pleased with my purchase, but I can see it might not appeal to everyone.
Timon (and I still can’t believe I’m the first one on the board to mention this, so sorry if I’m just re-hashing something that was discussed to death ages ago)
