Review/Summary by Tom Sharp
After nine novels and a short story, the Deep Space Nine Relaunch takes a step back to the three months between DS9 ‘What You Leave Behind’ and DS9 Avatar, Book One. When I first heard of The Left Hand of Destiny, J.G. Hertzler was the only author, and I thought about how cool a novel by Martok himself would have to be. And then somewhere along the line, it was announced that Jeffrey Lang was being added as a co-author and I couldn’t wait for these books to hit the shelves. How could ya loose with the chancellor and the guy who wrote TNG Immortal Coil and ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ in The Lives of Dax? I almost paid full price for ‘em, which is something I haven’t done since the first two Mission: Gamma novels came out last summer. But, I was able to find them at Wal-Mart instead.
So, last month, I read The Left Hand..., Book One and I just finished The Left Hand..., Book Two the other day. So, despite reading a few other Star Trek novels between ‘em, the events from both are pretty clear in my mind.
Book One has Martok and Worf en route to the home world of the Klingon Empire. No sooner do they enter into orbit than everything pretty much goes to hell. The Great Hall gets destroyed and some young punk declares war on Martok, the puppet of the Federation, and Worf, the puppet master. Not too much longer after that, Martok’s ship comes under attack, and a handful of survivors make it to the surface thanks to Worf’s ingenuity.
And that’s just in the first few chapters. Sounds cool so far, huh?
Let’s not forget the stuff going in the First City. Alexander Rozhenko, son of Worf, member of the House of Martok winds up running for his life. There’s a Ferengi named Pharh who gets caught up in all the Klingon madness, and a hooded stranger who comes to the rescue when he’s most needed.
As Book One ends with a daring rescue of the Lady Sirella and a cryptic message from Worf, Book Two opens with Ezri Dax coming close to dying on the bridge of the Rotarran, with only Worf and Alexander still alive. The story then backtracks to how the three got in that predicament. Book Two has a lot of exposition in the beginning, not just to catch everyone up from Book One, but to give the characters a chance to make sure everyone is on the same page. We even get a look at young Lieutenant Martok!
The action in the second novel is pretty much set on Boreth, the same planet where the Kahless clone was created (for those who don’t remember the events of TNG ‘Rightful Heir’) – don’t worry, it took me a bit to place the planet name, too. Every now and then, there’s a look at what Worf and Ezri are up to, but the man focus is on Martok and his shield bearer Pharh as they encounter a group of warrior scholars and fight against Morjod and his forces on the surface.
And the big finish is pretty much given away on the cover, for those who recognize what Martok is holding.
Now, for my two cents on this duology...I liked it. Both books were fun to read, and the interactions between Worf and Martok are perfectly written. The other characters – Drex, Sirella, Darok and Ezri – feel right when ya read ‘em, and there’s a lot of fun to be had when Pharh says that the relationship between members of the House of Martok and Dax are more complicated than they seem. The story is well told, even if they play up the hooded stranger bit for too long. And the two writers are able to break a few rules that Pocket Books has in place for first-time authors – ya can’t reveal a familial connection not introduced in the series. They do. You can’t kill off a character seen onscreen. They do that, too. And they do it a lot. And they make connections with other Star Trek novels, which is something that’s been going on for awhile now, but still cool to see mentions of the IKS Gorkon (a ship & crew introduced in TNG Diplomatic Implausibility) there towards the end.
More than anything, The Left Hand of Destiny reads like a Star Trek novel turned fantasy more than science fiction. As I was describing it to a co-worker the other night, we have a general coming home from battle to assume his mantel as ruler only to have to deal with a power-hungry bastard son. The novel also has the characters experiencing visions of the afterlife and heroes of the past. The bad guys even have demons from the past on their side.
So, if you haven’t gotten them already, you need to hurry up and go to wherever you buy your books at and pick ‘em up.
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