Rating: 
Summary: Worlds Apart Book I
Review: "The Final Reflection" is an extremely interesting addition to your Star Trek collection. I had originally picked this one up more as a completist/collector's item. It's one of "The Original Series" books I planned on getting to sooner or later. At the advice of another fan/reviewer I pulled this one off the shelf. To no surprise at all, this was extremely sage advice. This is an excellent "TOS" novel that I would suggest, if you've not read it yet, do so immediately.The premise: the "Enterprise" is at Starbase 12 for shore leave and several of the crew members have started reading a recently released book called "The Final Reflection." Dr. McCoy gives a copy to Captain Kirk. After getting settled back into his quarters, he begins to read it. What follows is a tale covering the time period of approximately twenty years past the federation's "first contact" with the Klingons and later. The primary character being a young Klingon named Vrenn, whom shall later become Krenn. We are afforded the opportunity to see him go from being a lineless orphan to the Captain of a warship. His honorable actions put him in place to carry out the mission which inspires this novel. He truly becomes, in the end, a "Thought Admiral." In this aging, yet very well written Star Trek novel, we see a very well thought out and structured idea of the Klingon culture. Of course, Star Trek novels being non canonical, much of the author's perceptions on Klingon culture were later disproved by the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek The Next Generation. This is not to say though that the Klingon culture wasn't like this at the supposed time this "novel" was written that Captain Kirk is reading. As Commander Worf stated in "Trials and Tribbleations, when asked by Chief O'brien about the difference between twenty third century and twenty fourth century Klingons, "We don't like to talk about it." Once again, an excellent, well thought out, well written novel. I would recommend "The Final Reflection: to any and all Star Trek fans. Many thanks to Chapulina R for the reading suggestion.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of Trek
Review: "The Final Reflection" by John Ford represents the very best of "Trek"-based writing. The best Trek novels are so much better than anything that comes out of the television shows that Paramount's cry that it cannot require writers to become familiar with all of the written works rings very, very hollow. John Ford's Klingons, Diane Duane's Rihannsu, Peter David's Q novels, and anything by Judy and Gar Reeves-Stevens...these people write characters and Empires as they should be, not limited by the range of skill of the actor and screeenwriters portraying them in the limited media of television and motion pictures.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: "The Final Reflection" would have won every award there was, if it hadn't been written about Star Trek. John M. Ford's book is just as relevant today as the day it was written; it talks of love, honor, passion, pain, glory and death in ways that transcend the Star Trek universe. Maybe they even transcend the science fiction universe, for all I know. Vrenn Khemara is a stranger in a strange land; he's Klingon, but has been adopted into a new House from the Houses of Lineless Youth. His new father, Thought Admiral Kethas, is a brilliant war strategist who's also unsurpassed at the game of klin zha, the Klingon board game which is similar to, but not exactly like, chess. Kethas schemes to get Vrenn into the Academy, and sends him off. While Vrenn's on a ship, he gets promoted two ranks due to bravery in combat. Just as he's about to enjoy some well deserved shore leave, he's taken aside for "questioning" by security officers. It seems his father, the Thought Admiral, was a traitor. Or so they say. The rest of the book mostly deals with Vrenn (turned Krenn after he makes Captain) and how he finds out the truth about his parentage, how he forges a friendship with the first Ambassador to the Klingon Empire, Emanuel Tagore, and how he finds his own style of happiness and love -- which isn't that close to human style happiness and love at all. This was written far before the Next Generation series; Krenn isn't a Next Gen Klingon. He's not even that close to an original series Klingon, except for the passing resemblance between him and Captain Koloth ("The Trouble with Tribbles"). But Krenn is honorable, even if he's not human, and the frame story Mr. Ford came up with around Krenn's story is astonishingly original. It's not just one frame story (that of Kirk and company reading the novel about Krenn), it's _two_, as John M. Ford himself explains _why_ he wrote this novel, and about how he's afraid the Federation might just try to stop publication due to sensitive stuff he found out in the researching of the novel. Very, very well done. This, without a doubt, is the best Star Trek novel of all time -- and it's also one of the best science fiction novels _ever_ about an alien culture, and how tough it'd be for a "first contact" to work even if all parties want it. I've read other stuff by Mr. Ford, and it's uniformly excellent; this, however, transcends it all, and is one of the truly classic novels of the twentieth century in my opinion. Five stars plus, and with the highest recommendation possible.
Rating:
Summary: Quintessential Star Trek novel . . . and more
Review: "The Final Reflection" would have won every award there was, if it hadn't been written about Star Trek. John M. Ford's book is just as relevant today as the day it was written; it talks of love, honor, passion, pain, glory and death in ways that transcend the Star Trek universe. Maybe they even transcend the science fiction universe, for all I know. Vrenn Khemara is a stranger in a strange land; he's Klingon, but has been adopted into a new House from the Houses of Lineless Youth. His new father, Thought Admiral Kethas, is a brilliant war strategist who's also unsurpassed at the game of klin zha, the Klingon board game which is similar to, but not exactly like, chess. Kethas schemes to get Vrenn into the Academy, and sends him off. While Vrenn's on a ship, he gets promoted two ranks due to bravery in combat. Just as he's about to enjoy some well deserved shore leave, he's taken aside for "questioning" by security officers. It seems his father, the Thought Admiral, was a traitor. Or so they say. The rest of the book mostly deals with Vrenn (turned Krenn after he makes Captain) and how he finds out the truth about his parentage, how he forges a friendship with the first Ambassador to the Klingon Empire, Emanuel Tagore, and how he finds his own style of happiness and love -- which isn't that close to human style happiness and love at all. This was written far before the Next Generation series; Krenn isn't a Next Gen Klingon. He's not even that close to an original series Klingon, except for the passing resemblance between him and Captain Koloth ("The Trouble with Tribbles"). But Krenn is honorable, even if he's not human, and the frame story Mr. Ford came up with around Krenn's story is astonishingly original. It's not just one frame story (that of Kirk and company reading the novel about Krenn), it's _two_, as John M. Ford himself explains _why_ he wrote this novel, and about how he's afraid the Federation might just try to stop publication due to sensitive stuff he found out in the researching of the novel. Very, very well done. This, without a doubt, is the best Star Trek novel of all time -- and it's also one of the best science fiction novels _ever_ about an alien culture, and how tough it'd be for a "first contact" to work even if all parties want it. I've read other stuff by Mr. Ford, and it's uniformly excellent; this, however, transcends it all, and is one of the truly classic novels of the twentieth century in my opinion. Five stars plus, and with the highest recommendation possible.
Rating: 
Summary: It Might Have Been Perfect...
Review: ... if 'Mike' hadn't said [in Gene Roddenberry's presence, no less!] that he'd *always* wanted to write a novel in which the Vulcans were the villains! Thus ended John M. Ford's career as a Star Trek novelist [which i agree with, BTW: he's too good for Trek]. In this 'Turnabout Alien' story, the Klingons are the heros and the Federation comes off as very vile indeed. With the addition of two slight encounters - one isn't even on-screen! - Mike disposes of Trek characters and gets to the real meat of his tale. The Klingons here come off as noble, honorable, and duplicitous only when pressed - all *long* before Worf was a gleam in anyone's eye. The villain lives - suprpise! - in Atlanta [Ford has a Thing about Atlanta & evidently Ted Turner] where only the virtuous Klingons have a chance of stopping him. Highly recommended for Klingons [true & otherwise]!
Rating:
Summary: superior Trek
Review: As a Star Trek fan my favorite alien race is the Klingons. This is a superior Trek novel about their warrior culture which is a bit like the Samurai of ancient Japan. John Ford created a complex and believable culture of the type of Klingons which were seen only briefly, in the early motion pictures. For some reason, Krenn is depicted in the cover art as a fusion-style Klingon from the original series, but a careful attention to the physical descriptions in the book reveal the characters to be the ones from The Motion Picture. Lt. Cdr. Kelly is the only Human Fusion in the story. This book is extraordinarily well written, and is an example of truly excellent science fiction. You truly believe these aliens exist! A lot of the concepts in Next Generation were based on Ford's creativity. As are many of the novels inspired by "The Final Reflection" such as Jeffry Hertzler's "The Left Hand Of Destiny" and Kat Ramo's "Citizen Of The Empire". In fact, the whole subculture of the Star Trek Klingon fandom is patterned after "The Final Reflection".
Rating: 
Summary: A fun and interesting read.
Review: As near as I can tell, this is the first book in the Star Trek series to treat Klingons sympathetically. It is intereresting, and has a viable plot and worthwhile characters, and does something I've always thought more Star Trek books should do: focus on new characters, rather than the Enterprise crew (who make only cameo appearances in this book.) So why is it only three stars? Well, its portrayal of Klingons and Klingon culture, while interesting, do not seem to fit particularly well with other depictions of Klingons as we've seen them, either as fearsome enemies (as in most of the original series) or as honorable warriors (as in much of Next Generation and later portrayals.) They almost seemed more Romulan than Klingon to me. Further, I admit that I'm just enough of an original-series purist that I really don't care much to see Klingons as the good guys; my alien race of choice is Vulcans, and there's a limit to how much enthusiasm I can work up for Klingons. An emotional bias, I admit, but nonetheless a real one. And, just for an added reason to lower the evaluation, we have once again the overused plot-device of the Starfleet Admiral gone rogue, attempting to create a war or at least undercut peace negotiations. What happens to Starfleet folks when they get a promotoion to Commodore or Admiral? Do they automatically get programmed to be nut-case war-hawks? Don't sane, stable captains ever get promoted to Admiral? All in all, the book was good, and I admit I enjoyed reading it. But it's definitely not without major flaws in concept.
Rating:
Summary: A must-read read, must-have book!!
Review: As you can see from the other reviews, this is an excellent book from beginning to end. If your a Klingon fan, then this a must-read, must-have book. Klingons aren't the scum as protrayed in earlier books, because we get a detailed look of Klingon culture. The story focuses on a Klingon from as a boy to an adult as captain of a Klingon ship, and to his eventual confrontation with humans. Read this book and own it. It's a classic! Russ
Rating:
Summary: fantastic
Review: Buy this book or die of disappointment. Kai the Final Reflection.
Rating:
Summary: Calling it a good Star Trek novel....
Review: Does this book an injustice. It is an excellent novel in it's own right, and would stand alone as a superior work without the extended Trek universe to support it. I stopped reading Trek novels years ago when it became apparent that they all pretty much followed the same formula. One in which the author used the story to insert themself into the Trek universe. This work is nothing like that.
Apparent from reading the book is that it was the source of much Next Generation Klingon lore (houses,lines, a quasi-feudal society, a "privateer" style military) and many plot lines. (Worf's dead or dishonored line, Worf being the son of a Klingon commander, killed by a Romulan massacre, he and his brother's adoptions, the character of General Martok.) John M. Ford's name should have been listed somewhere in the series' credits for creative contributions.
If Paramount ever decides to take another trip to the Well of Trek, this book should be the vehicle for that series. Exciting, captivating, and just hard to put down. It is a rousing good tale true to the Horatio Hornblower, Jack Aubrey mold.
John M. Ford wrote this book in 1984 I think. What I find particulary interesting is that some of the Klingon ship's systems he describes, are now actually used in modern weapons systems like the AH-64 Apache Longbow and the M1A2 Abrams tank.
In the last 20 years I've kept only one Trek novel---The Final Reflection.
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