John M. Ford (1957–2006)

I don’t normally write reviews, but after some of the reviews I read here I was compelled to add my voice. This is two books, The Final Reflection and The Hand of Kahless. I was taken aback by this being two books being included under one title, I am not sure why the publisher made that choice, these two stories are only linked by their focus on the Klingons and the writer John M. Ford.
When reading The Final Reflection one has to remember this was written in 1984, the same year the movie The Search for Spock was released. Much of the backstory of the Klingon culture was still “An Undiscovered Country”. And you just have to view that story as a portrayal of the Klingon culture from a different creative viewpoint. Taken in that context this is actually one of the better Star Trek books I’ve read. You just have to get around these aren’t the Klingons we get to know in The Next Generation. There are some brilliant ideas in this portrayal of a warrior race, and some do make an appearance in later stories of Klingons, but not many. But the story is interesting and in the same spirit of most Star Trek stories.
The second book in this saga is the namesake of this review. This also was a good story, written in 2004 and set in the TNG timeline. These are the Klingons we know from the later series and movies. The author did a good job of staying true to the feel of the later television series. I enjoyed this story as well, I could clearly picture Picard and Worf and others speaking these words, and the plot was logical within the setting.
I can recommend both these stories, even though they’re different stories written at different times of both the author and the stories themselves.… (mer)

A teen living on the Moon plays role-playing games with his friends, feels mildly resentful toward his father, and goes interrailing.

This is a cult sci-fi classic, and after reading it, I don't...entirely understand the hype. I think the subtlety of the plot is the thing that appeals to its die-hard fans, and I'll concede that I probably missed some of the clues that illuminate the water-sacrifice dilemma that consumes the adult characters in the background. There's rel="nofollow" target="_top">another review on Goodreads that praises the book as an example of "anthropology of the future," which strikes me as a good descriptor: Growing Up Weightless is absolutely low-stakes slice-of-life sci-fi.

But it left me cold.… (mer)