Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyable Trek novel
Review: After winning the first Strange New Worlds short story contest and publishing two other Trek short stories in the subsequent volumes, Dayton Ward turns his attention to his first full-length Star Trek novel. In the Name of Honor is set between Star Trek V and Star Trek VI and attemtps to examine the shift in Kirk's attitude toward the Klingons as well as to answer a few questions of how the Klingons evolved from their portrayal on the original series to the time of Next Generation. For a first time author, Ward does an admirable job of creating a page-turner of a novel. The book weighs in at well over 300 pages but it never feels long or as if it were being padded. If anything, at the end of the novel, you'll feel the book is too short because of the attention and care Ward has given to each of the plotlines. Ward takes the original series cast and runs with them, giving each character something to do and pairing them with another Klingon who is equally interesting and brings a lot to the novel. It's to Ward's credit that his secondary characters that he created himself are both interesting and memorable--I've read far too many Trek Klingon tomes where the secondary Klingon characters tend to jumble together. This is not the case here. Ward also litters the storyline with nice references to the Original Series and TNG. There's even a reference to Enterprise as well! In my mind, there are three types of Trek books: 1. The type that tells a story that is a good sci-fi story but may not necessarily fit the Trek universe.
2. The type that tells a good Trek story with the characters acting the way we've come to expect based on the series but doesn't try and break any new ground.
3. The type that has the characters acting like they should but also tries to answer some unanswered questions and may draw upon several episodes of one series or attempt to try together some strings from various series into a coherent book. Wards first effort falls into the category of the third novel, something that is, at times, extremely rare in today's Trek fiction. In a lot of ways, this book had me thinking of one of my favorite older Trek novels, The Final Reflection for what it attempts to do with the backstory of the Klingons. And Ward pulls off the transition between the end of the original crews days and the beginning of TNG with remarkable wit and style. Finally, the book is just plain fun to read. The writing style is light and accessible and never heavy-handed. Ward has a sense of humor--and while it's not as broad as Peter David's it still works well. All in all, a good start to the Trek publishing year.
Rating: 
Summary: Impressive and Satisfying
Review: Any fan of either TOS or the Klingons will find this book extremely satisfying. Set between the 5th and 6th movies this book fills a perfect nitch in the Star Trek universe. "In the Name of Honor" finds Kirk and his old foe Koloth working together to free a group of Federation prisoners from a Klingon prison. With a well balanced and skillfully paced plot the story is wonderful. The characterizations of the familiar characters are spot on and the various Klingon personalities interesting three dimensional characters. As the story unfolds it not only fills in the gaps left by the series and movies about that era of Klingon history, but helps explain the dramatic change in Kirk's attitude toward his long time adversaries. Pick up a copy of this book today. It is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive and Satisfying
Review: Any fan of either TOS or the Klingons will find this book extremely satisfying. Set between the 5th and 6th movies this book fills a perfect nitch in the Star Trek universe. "In the Name of Honor" finds Kirk and his old foe Koloth working together to free a group of Federation prisoners from a Klingon prison. With a well balanced and skillfully paced plot the story is wonderful. The characterizations of the familiar characters are spot on and the various Klingon personalities interesting three dimensional characters. As the story unfolds it not only fills in the gaps left by the series and movies about that era of Klingon history, but helps explain the dramatic change in Kirk's attitude toward his long time adversaries. Pick up a copy of this book today. It is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure.
Rating:
Summary: You CAN quit your day job, Ward!!
Review: As a "Geeser Treker" I found this an excellent read. Very smooth and well written. I read most of it in one night. I did not want to put it down. I have now added Dayton Ward to my All Time Star Trek Favorite Authors, Diane Duane, Peter David, Christie Golden and a few more. I have also added "In the Name of Honor" to my List of books I do read more than once, including "Uhura's Song, Dr.s Orders, and Vulcan's Forge." Way to go Dayton! Not bad for an old guy!
Rating:
Summary: Great Debut
Review: As many reviewers have pointed out this is Mr. Ward's first full length Trek novel. He wrote two stories in the SCE series that was excellent. Dealing with the Defiant from TOS. You can tell from that two stories he knew his Trek well. When I heard about this novel I knew I had to get it. I wasn't disappointed. Excellent story with Kirk and Sulu doing a covert operation with Koloth from the episode Trouble with Tribbles. They have to rescue Starfleet prisoners before they are eliminated. As some have pointed out it has humor and action. The ending is pretty impressive when Kirk explains his feeling about his son's death. Very strong stuff. Once again great novel and they should have let Dayton Ward write the TOS edition of Gateway!!
Rating: 
Summary: No Honour In This Retread
Review: As someone who has read a lot of Star Trek novels over the years, and reviewed quite a few, I find it sad that the same old criticisms still have to be said. Anyone who is writing in this genre needs to be fully aware of the history of Star Trek and must write within the established character and event guidelines. Speculative stories that are clearly at odds with 'real' Star Trek are almost worthless. As evidence I offer the horrendous prequel "Enterprise", which has more holes than mouldy Swiss cheese and stinks almost as bad. Here we have a novel that claims to be set between STV and STVI, but for all intents and purposes is just a [bad] rehash of STVI. Doesn't it strike anyone as odd that if Kirk and his crew had been through an adventure like this they might have reacted just a tad differently in "The Undiscovered Country" ?!!! Of course they would have, which highlights what a pointless rehash this is. The irony here is that Dayton Ward is quite a good writer, but he should have enough faith in his abilities to write an original adventure, not ride on the coat tails of other authors' ideas.
Rating:
Summary: A great new ST writer
Review: Dayton Ward wrote some great short stories for the first three Strange New Worlds collections. I was very excited to see his first full length novel come out and I was not disappointed after I finished it, which is more than I can say about the Gateways series debacle. I can't wait to see more of Dayton's work, he seems to have a real affinity for making the "bad guys" come to life, with a rich and varied history of their own. Gene Roddenberry would have liked Dayton's style I think.
Rating:
Summary: Star Trek in the Name of Honor
Review: Finally the untold story of the Klingons of the original Star Trek series appear different from the Klingons of the later Star Trek television shows.
Rating:
Summary: Klingons and more Klingons!
Review: I've been out of the Star Trek novel business for awhile. I used to buy them religiously, but they just never seemed to be worth the money to me. I was at the library recently, though, and there were a bunch of more recent Star Trek books there, so I checked them out. The first book I looked at was In the Name of Honor, by Dayton Ward. The first thing that struck me was the dynamic cover. The Klingon war ship swooping over the canyon, firing away, was just beautiful. The insides were pretty good, too. I think you should probably be a Star Trek fan, or at least follow the series a bit, before you pick this up. The book just wallows in continuity. The basic plot is that there is a peace conference going on between the Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. They have been hostile toward each other since before the time of the original Trek series. About six years ago, a Federation ship was attacked by a Klingon cruiser. Prisoners were taken, but it was done secretly. Only a few high-ranking people knew about them. The Federation thought the ship was destroyed with no survivors. Now, with the peace talks happening, word has reached other Klingons that these prisoners exist. The Empire is undergoing some radical philosophical changes (in series terms, they're moving from the evil-doers of the Original Series to the honourbound Klingons of the Next Generation TV series), and the taking of these prisoners and holding them secretly is not honourable. The original higher-ups would make the problem go away if it was ever discovered. Koloth, one of Kirk's Klingon enemies from the episode 'The Trouble with Tribbles,' brings this information to Captain Kirk, at the request of Councilor Gorkon. He wants a full disclosure to the Federation, but realizes that the original conspirators would have the prisoners killed if it was brought up. So Koloth brings the information to Kirk and they hatch a plan to launch a daring rescue of the prisoners. Meanwhile, opponents of the peace talks (including these conspirators) are trying to disrupt the conference. Kirk and Sulu go on the rescue mission while Spock and the rest of the crew deal with the crisis at the peace talks.
This book takes place between the movies Star Trek V and Star Trek VI. If you follow the Star Trek mythos, then this is important because it helps you place the personalities of some of the characters, as well as some of the events. Gorkon is the Klingon Chancellor in Star Trek VI, but he's a relatively new councilor in this book, for example. The book tries very hard to set everything up for the beginning of the sixth movie. For awhile, I was wondering how he was going to do that in Kirk's instance, because Kirk seemed to be learning to tolerate Klingons, and at the beginning of the sixth movie, he was virulently anti-Klingon. However, Ward does do a good job of setting that up so it makes sense. Circumstances occur that make it logical. As I said earlier, though, the book just oozes continuity. I counted references to at least 10 original series episodes (Koloth and another Klingon are from one episode, and Commander Garrovick is from another episode). Unfortunately, the book grinds to a halt every time Ward has to give a short plot summary of that episode. It's especially annoying when you already remember the episode and get the reference without the explanation. Many of these references are just off-hand remarks, which makes them even more avoidable. I'm not even going to get into Ward's hinted explanation for the differences in appearance between the Original Series Klingons and the Movie/Next Generation Klingons (i.e. the ridged foreheads), because I'd never be able to do it justice in this limited space. Let's just say that the hinting was a bit too cute for my taste. Unfortunately, given the story, it was unavoidable. It would have been nice, at the very least, to not have to deal with why Koloth changed in appearance from an Original Series Klingon to a Movie Klingon. The book does have its good points, though. It's well written for a first book (Ward has been previously published in the three fan anthologies published by Pocket Books). It's not standout writing, but it's certainly readable and not annoying. The story is interesting and the regular characters are well done. There are no glaring characterization problems, which can sometimes be a hazard with TV tie-in fiction. I definitely enjoyed my time reading it, but then I'm a Trekkie at heart. If you don't follow the series, however, I can't see that much in this story that would make you want to change that.
Rating:
Summary: Good read ¿ if not a little dissatisfying in the end¿
Review: In an episode that foreshadows the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the Federation and the Klingons engage in a historic meeting aimed at burying the hatchet between once determined adversaries. In an effort to facilitate the peace, Klingon High Council Member Gorkon (in the years prior to his ascendancy to Chancellor) dispatches an old nemesis of Captain Kirk to enlist Kirk & Co. on a mission. The mission: to free Starfleet officers considered MIA by the Federation but who are actually being held as POW's by the Klingons after they were taken captive years ago at the behest of the incumbent albeit corrupt Klingon regime. The author, a former military officer does an outstanding job of capturing the camaraderie and loyalty inherent in personnel who serve together. The POW camp scenes are done extremely well. In the end though, I was left wanting more and I felt a little cheated that more was not divulged concerning the mysterious differences between the two types of Klingons. I would have appreciated more information on how one group overcame the other and vice versa and how once "Original Series" Klingon characters are changed into the more current "Movie/Next Generation" Klingons with the pronounced forehead ridges. The author's inability or unwillingness to address these matters more fully - especially when he tap dances around these issues throughout the story - flaws an otherwise commendable entry.
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