The Final Reflection by John M. Ford (Star Trek #16, 1984)

It's a departure, a "concept book" of sorts, that was a bit of a risk for Pocket to publish. This book does not focus on the Enterprise crew, but instead the protagonist is a Klingon, and the book set some 40 years before the time of the original series. Spock appears in a scene as a child, and Dr. McCoy is mentioned briefly as a baby (his grandfather, Dr. Tom McCoy, is a minor character in the novel) but other than that, the familiar crew is only in the five-page prologue at the beginning, and the two-page epilogue at the end. The rest is purportedly a fictional novel, telling about actual events, and the circumstances of the first Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire.

The main character is one Vrenn, a Klingon without family, and thus with no place in society. He is a member of a team in the "games," an analog of chess played sometimes with live pieces. One day a Klingon admiral who plays this game adopts Vrenn, and brings him into his home, then arranges for him a naval training spot.

Vrenn, by now renamed Krenn, distinguishes himself and soon captains a ship of his own. In this capacity, he is sent on a secret mission to Earth, to pick up the first Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire, one Dr. Tagore, termed a "Thought Master" in Klingonaase. Krenn and Tagore become friends, and when Tagore is recalled to Earth a few years later, Krenn again is called on to provide the transport.

The main draw of the novel is the look inside Klingon culture, including a look at the language, how they relate to others, and the views of the society. The book is very well-written, although it gets off to a somewhat slow start. Despite the focus on Klingons, this is not a big action story, although there is action in it. It is more of a slowly-developed character study, with a lot of attention paid to developing the main characters into fully realized beings. Ford accomplishes this quite well.

The author, John M. Ford, would also write another Trek book, How Much for Just the Planet?, #36 featuring the original crew. Ford was a veteran writer of short stories for s-f magazines such as Asimov's, and had three previous published novels. One, released the same year as this one, would win the World Fantasy Award for best novel of 1984: "The Dragon Waiting: A Masque of History." He continues to write today, with many more books and short stories. A list can be viewed at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/John_M_Ford.htm.

The book contains information about the Klingons that would later be contradicted in the movies and the Next Generation series, although they would have done well to use Ford's material. The character of Worf would have been much more fully fleshed out from the beginning of the series if Ford's material had been put into his background. As it was, it took time, good writing, and a strong performance by actor Michael Dorn to give Worf his final three-dimensional nature.

One confusing thing about the book is the cover painting. Apparently, artist Boris Vallejo has depicted the scene from the book where the young Spock plays chess with Captain Krenn. However, Spock in the painting looks too old for the "8 or 9" that Ford describes in the text. Also confusing is the spectral figure in the background. It has Vulcan/Romulan ears, but I can't think of who in the story the image would correspond to, though perhaps I am just being obtuse. It doesn't make sense to me.

Overall, it's a good book, and a nice read for a quiet time.