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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Left Hand of Destiny #2
The Left Hand of Destiny, Book Two
"The true test of a warrior is not without...it is within." Sins of the past collide with hopes for the future as Martok fights for the right to lead the Klingon Empire. With the secret of his usurper exposed, the ousted chancellor and his ragtag band of followers embark on a desperate plan to retake the empire.
But while Worf, Ezri Dax, and the crew of the IKS Rotarran go in search of the Klingons' most revered icon of power, Martok is dealt the most crushing blow of all -- driving him to make his final stand on the ice-strewn cliffs of sacred Boreth. As that frozen world reverberates with the song of armies and bat'leths clashing, the mystery of Martok's past, and the future of the Klingon Empire, is revealed.
But while Worf, Ezri Dax, and the crew of the IKS Rotarran go in search of the Klingons' most revered icon of power, Martok is dealt the most crushing blow of all -- driving him to make his final stand on the ice-strewn cliffs of sacred Boreth. As that frozen world reverberates with the song of armies and bat'leths clashing, the mystery of Martok's past, and the future of the Klingon Empire, is revealed.
328 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 2003
26 people are currently reading
414 people want to read
About the author
J.G. Hertzler
4 books10 followersJohn Garman "J.G." Hertzler is an American actor, well known in the Star Trek community for his role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) as the Klingon General (and later Chancellor) Martok. He is presently a Resident Professional Teaching Associate at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
June 6, 2023
Absolutely epic follow-up to book one. Lang and Hertzler deftly weave in a number of compelling elements of fantasy and myth, including a quest for the ancient lost sword of Kahless, as Martok, beset by doubt and experiencing increasingly more strange dreams and visions, seeks to defeat the deranged Gothmara and her usurper son Morjod and reforge the empire. It is decidedly more fantastical than any other Trek story I've seen or read, and I love the fact that the authors don't try to explain away these elements using pseudo-science as so often is the case. The story is brimming with glorious Klingon-on-Klingon battle scenes, both close quarters and in space. Ezri Dax joins the party in a major way, to wonderful effect, and Worf, Alexander and the Ferengi Pharh all continue as superb supporting characters, with Pharh providing more excellent comic relief and a magnificent foil to Martok. Without question this two part series has earned its place in Sto-vo-kor!
November 28, 2014
When these novels first came out, I remember being a little wary. At this point in the Deep Space Nine relaunch, I was eager to get back to what was going on on the station, with the parasites from TNG's "Conspiracy" making a dramatic return and the crew of the Defiant returning to the Alpha Quadrant with Jake and Kai Opaka. I felt that taking a break from that and going back in time for a Klingon story would be a mistake. However, when I saw that it was J.G. Hertzler who co-wrote the novels, I changed my mind somewhat. What really sold me was when I finally read them. This duology is an incredible read, and there are moments while reading it that I actually became quite emotional. The story is an epic one, and the characters are very memorable. Hertzler and Lang draw you in and leave you absolutely emotionally invested in this story. The Left Hand of Destiny has gone on to become one of my favorite Star Trek stories of all time, and this re-read was nearly as rewarding as when I first read it over a decade ago.
Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2014/11/L...
Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2014/11/L...
April 3, 2016
The characters in this 2 book series are incredibly well done. As much as I want to see whats happening elsewhere, this Klingon story is amazing!
June 1, 2025
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; The Left Hand of Destiny by J.G. Hertzler, Jeffrey Lang
challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense
Medium-paced
Plot or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes
4.25 Stars
The sequel was better than the previous novel. There are still things that I liked about the first in the duology, but feel that the story itself is better in the sequel.
This is not a perfect book, but one that I grew to enjoy better, with each turning page.
The heroes of the story are Chancelor Martok, Ambassador Worf (and Alexander, who's become a man of honour, himself), Kahless II is as enigmatic as ever, and Lt. Ezri Dax is growing into the leader we know she'll come to be.
The losses in this story are impactful. I will not reveal those, but well done...in my opinion.
The bad guys are not are figure out...especially if you've read the first book in the duology.
How the reveals occurred were satisfying to me, but that might vary with each reader.
The bleakness of Boreth was visceral. It effected the narrative (to me), and carried forth the starkness of the fight and eventual conclusion.
I look forward to reading the next novel in the Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Flowchart. For me, I will be reading the first IKS Gorkon novel, Diplomatic Implausibility by Keith R. A. DeCandido. Should start on it...in early June. That's the goal, at least.
challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense
Medium-paced
Plot or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes
4.25 Stars
The sequel was better than the previous novel. There are still things that I liked about the first in the duology, but feel that the story itself is better in the sequel.
This is not a perfect book, but one that I grew to enjoy better, with each turning page.
The heroes of the story are Chancelor Martok, Ambassador Worf (and Alexander, who's become a man of honour, himself), Kahless II is as enigmatic as ever, and Lt. Ezri Dax is growing into the leader we know she'll come to be.
The losses in this story are impactful. I will not reveal those, but well done...in my opinion.
The bad guys are not are figure out...especially if you've read the first book in the duology.
How the reveals occurred were satisfying to me, but that might vary with each reader.
The bleakness of Boreth was visceral. It effected the narrative (to me), and carried forth the starkness of the fight and eventual conclusion.
I look forward to reading the next novel in the Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Flowchart. For me, I will be reading the first IKS Gorkon novel, Diplomatic Implausibility by Keith R. A. DeCandido. Should start on it...in early June. That's the goal, at least.
August 18, 2021
THE LEFT HAND OF DESTINY, BOOK TWO is the second half of the epic story about how Martok became the legendary successor to Kahless as well as saved the Klingon Empire. We get some more insights into the Morgana Le fey and Mordred analogs of the book as well as their history with Martok. Some of the revelations were ones that I was surprised by but actually thought would have made the book better. There's some tragic losses around the way, a lot of violence (it's Klingons after all), and some mystical scenes that I felt better illuminated their culture. We also get the return of Ezri Dax but, sadly, she just gets a very small role when I was hoping the book would analyze her "I don't actually like Klingons" contrast to Jadzia Dax.
The book is a bit too straight forward in plot and the villains are a bit one-dimensional after hints they'd be more in the first book but it's still a very entertaining read. There's a reason that Klingons are my favorite race in Star Trek and this book does them well.
The book is a bit too straight forward in plot and the villains are a bit one-dimensional after hints they'd be more in the first book but it's still a very entertaining read. There's a reason that Klingons are my favorite race in Star Trek and this book does them well.
August 6, 2014
Disclaimer #1: Star Trek… exists in its own continuum of quality. Some might say a particular work of Star Trek might be ‘poor’ by most standards yet ‘good’ by the standards of Star Trek. The opposite can be said as well, in that the new Star Trek reboot films are ‘good’ by most standards and yet poor by Star Trek standards.
Disclaimer #2: I have met one of these authors personally, and I delighted in their company. I have reviewed authors I know previously, and I do my best to be honest.
Deep Space 9, to me, was by far and wide the best Star Trek has ever offered. Perhaps it is because in the franchise’s nearly 50 year run, it was the Star Trek of MY generation and it reflected MY political and ethical conflicts. Either way, it was a great show and it left several threads unbound by the time it finished its run. Left Hand of Destiny addresses these threads with a final tale that feels like a fresh two-parter episode that is both fulfilling and fun, especially by Star Trek standards.
I’ve always felt that the Klingons were a blend of Russian and Viking culture, allowing Star Trek the Next Generation to emulate a fascinating analogous tele-play regarding the Cold War. Here we see that the Klingons are still the same, but since their civilization has grown so vestigial and bogged down in its perceived traditions, it can barely function. Akin to the Tea-Party and other anti-growth and anti-intellectual political factions, a radical fascist Klingon movement strikes just as Martok is accepting the Chancellor’s robes.
If the words ‘radical fascist Klingon’ made your eyebrows shoot up, just stop this review and go read the book. Trust me, it delivers.
This Star Trek story doesn't reside in Rodenberry’s ‘utopia’ box, but it is instead part political commentary and part swashbuckler. The writing style reflects this as well, in that nearly everything is personified. Star ships buck and quake under the feet of the crew, blades bite, and disruptors snarl. The verbs here deliver action and hazard and throughout the entire story Martok and his weary drag themselves through assault after assault until they can finally deliver counter blow after counter blow. It is a war by attrition, and nothing is left uncharred. There are some fantastic set pieces here including cities built of trash and frozen plains filled with white-out combat conditions between two armies. The real standout set piece involves Ezri trying to dislodge an item from the hide of a comet while a ship to ship battle is happening just over her head. It’s an awesome scene, and I doubt the show could ever pull off anything like this given technological and budgetary constrictions.
Speaking of Ezri, if you felt the TV show just didn’t have the time to explore her character, this book makes intentions of doing so. Characters like Sirella, Kor, Kahless, and most of all Alexander are delved into and fleshed out in considerable fashion but the real standout character here is the Ferengi, Pharh. Any scene with either he or Alexander were compelling and grounded, and they made a perfect offset for characters that were larger-than life such as Sirella and Kahless.
The novel enters guns blazing, and aside from a considerable lull in the beginning of book four that stumbles in regards to pacing, it is a quick read. Take note that I mentioned ‘novel’ in that you cannot read book one without reading book two and vise versa. These works might as well be one volume, but much like Noble House they appear split for the sake of readership convenience.
A great, fun read. It is a very fulfilling end-cap for Deep Space 9’s characters, especially those that got too little light during the show’s run. Both of these authors delivered us a dark, Klingon tale that felt strangely politically relevant and demanding.
Disclaimer #2: I have met one of these authors personally, and I delighted in their company. I have reviewed authors I know previously, and I do my best to be honest.
Deep Space 9, to me, was by far and wide the best Star Trek has ever offered. Perhaps it is because in the franchise’s nearly 50 year run, it was the Star Trek of MY generation and it reflected MY political and ethical conflicts. Either way, it was a great show and it left several threads unbound by the time it finished its run. Left Hand of Destiny addresses these threads with a final tale that feels like a fresh two-parter episode that is both fulfilling and fun, especially by Star Trek standards.
I’ve always felt that the Klingons were a blend of Russian and Viking culture, allowing Star Trek the Next Generation to emulate a fascinating analogous tele-play regarding the Cold War. Here we see that the Klingons are still the same, but since their civilization has grown so vestigial and bogged down in its perceived traditions, it can barely function. Akin to the Tea-Party and other anti-growth and anti-intellectual political factions, a radical fascist Klingon movement strikes just as Martok is accepting the Chancellor’s robes.
If the words ‘radical fascist Klingon’ made your eyebrows shoot up, just stop this review and go read the book. Trust me, it delivers.
This Star Trek story doesn't reside in Rodenberry’s ‘utopia’ box, but it is instead part political commentary and part swashbuckler. The writing style reflects this as well, in that nearly everything is personified. Star ships buck and quake under the feet of the crew, blades bite, and disruptors snarl. The verbs here deliver action and hazard and throughout the entire story Martok and his weary drag themselves through assault after assault until they can finally deliver counter blow after counter blow. It is a war by attrition, and nothing is left uncharred. There are some fantastic set pieces here including cities built of trash and frozen plains filled with white-out combat conditions between two armies. The real standout set piece involves Ezri trying to dislodge an item from the hide of a comet while a ship to ship battle is happening just over her head. It’s an awesome scene, and I doubt the show could ever pull off anything like this given technological and budgetary constrictions.
Speaking of Ezri, if you felt the TV show just didn’t have the time to explore her character, this book makes intentions of doing so. Characters like Sirella, Kor, Kahless, and most of all Alexander are delved into and fleshed out in considerable fashion but the real standout character here is the Ferengi, Pharh. Any scene with either he or Alexander were compelling and grounded, and they made a perfect offset for characters that were larger-than life such as Sirella and Kahless.
The novel enters guns blazing, and aside from a considerable lull in the beginning of book four that stumbles in regards to pacing, it is a quick read. Take note that I mentioned ‘novel’ in that you cannot read book one without reading book two and vise versa. These works might as well be one volume, but much like Noble House they appear split for the sake of readership convenience.
A great, fun read. It is a very fulfilling end-cap for Deep Space 9’s characters, especially those that got too little light during the show’s run. Both of these authors delivered us a dark, Klingon tale that felt strangely politically relevant and demanding.
September 14, 2024
2024 reads, #52 and 53. I’m behind on my attempt to read all 134 titles of the Star Trek “Relaunch” novel series, in which for twenty years (2001 to 2021) Paramount gave Simon & Schuster permission to create an entirely new persistent serial universe for the Roddenberry-era Star Trek shows that supposedly starts the day after the Deep Space Nine television show ends, one in which major characters are allowed to grow, change and die, when usually these kinds of franchise novels are all supposed to be standalone tales so that someone can just find a random one at a yard sale and not have to read twenty novels before it just to understand what’s going on. That’s generally been fantastic for someone like me, who was a big fan of the Roddenberry-era shows but can’t stand any of the 21st-century ones, and who turned to these novels in the first place in order to get more stories from these characters and situations who I miss and wished I could spend time with again. But after 14 novels so far that I’ve found anywhere from okay to great, I’ve finally come across one for the first time that wasn’t just mediocre but outright terrible, the two-volume super story The Left Hand of Destiny by JG Hertzler and Jeffrey Lang.
The main problem here is with the first book of the two, a 300-page story whose events last only over a single 24-hour period, and whose entire plot can be summed up with the single sentence, “OH EM EFF GEE, KLINGON COUP ON QO’NOS!!!!!!!!!!1!!!” That essentially makes the entire first book nothing but a 300-page action scene; and as I’ve said plenty of times in the past, the one element of genre thrillers I find most tedious over everything else is when an action scene is written out as literary prose, which from a plot and character standpoint (the main two things about literature I care about) can be entirely summed up with, “The battle began, then 300 pages later the battle finished.” And while volume 2 is a bit better than this -- at least it unfolds over several days this time, and involves other characters besides just a bunch of Klingons all trying to murder each other -- it’s not much better, making this a 600-page exercise in intolerable tedium that almost broke me.
I suspect that a lot of the problems here boil down to the fact that the books’ co-author was JG Hertzler, the actor who actually played the Klingon named Martok who’s the hero of these two volumes; and stunt-hiring like this rarely goes well, in that most actors wouldn’t be able to write their way out of a paper bag, so I suspect some of the more groan-inducing moments of these books come directly from Hertzler picking scene ideas based on how badass an image of Martok it might produce in the mind’s eye (“OH EM EFF GEE, A POSSE OF KLINGONS ON SPACE HORSES!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!”). The problems are just compounded, then, when you add the other co-author here, Jeffrey Lang, who here suffers very, very badly from what I like to call “Joss Whedon Syndrome,” which is when your characters talk and behave in such an intolerably twee and cutesy way that you almost can’t get through the book because of all the vomiting you’re doing from your stomach rebelling against all the sugary treacle that author is trying to cram down your throat. (Then again, these books were originally published in 2003, right at the height of Whedonmania -- Buffy was just ending that year, Firefly just starting, Angel in the middle of its run -- so I suppose it’s only natural that a bunch of other genre writers would adopt the same winking, TikTokky style of prose in these years.)
That creates double problems that combine powerfully to make these books much bigger stinkers than either of these problems on their own -- not only is barely any story actually being told here (“I’m the rightful ruler of Qo’noS!” PEW! PEW! PEW! “No, I’M the rightful ruler of Qo’noS!” PEW! PEW! PEW!), but the little bit of story that is being told is being told terribly, all cheesy one-liners and adults talking like children, hammy stereotypes belting their lines out to the back row, one bazillion references to “Today is a good day to die!,” and a whole lot of other literary crimes against humanity. The irony is that almost nothing happens here that one needs to know in order to keep the events of the larger “Relaunch” universe straight in one’s head (); so unless you’re a particular fan of 600 pages of PEW! PEW! PEW!, let me assure you that you can skip straight over these and go directly on to the next book in the series.
And speaking of that, my next read will be an interesting one, because I’ll be veering off from the main line of Deep Space Nine novels with the next volume; for it was right in these years that the related Star Trek show Voyager ended its own TV run, and the executives at Simon & Schuster (mostly Marco Palmieri, the main puppetmaster of this entire 134-book run, who went on afterwards to become a senior editor at Tor) decided at that point to enfold the USS Voyager’s crew into this main “Relaunch” universe as well, and start writing adventures for them that tie into and affect the things going on with both the DS9 characters and our buddies on the USS Enterprise. I was originally only going to read the DS9 books, but I learned the hard way that lots of things happen in these other books that affect the events in the DS9 novels; so at that point I spent an exasperating eight-hour day online one day finally tracking down the titles of every single one of these 134 Relaunch books and the exact month and year each was published (click here to see the list yourself), and will now be reading all the rest of them in chronological order by their publishing date, no matter which corner of the Star Trek universe each are set in. That makes my next read the first of the Voyager Relaunch novels, 2003’s Homecoming by Christie Golden; and since I’m behind on these Relaunch novels, I’ll be getting to this one sooner rather than later. As always, I hope you’ll have a chance to join me here again for that one.
The main problem here is with the first book of the two, a 300-page story whose events last only over a single 24-hour period, and whose entire plot can be summed up with the single sentence, “OH EM EFF GEE, KLINGON COUP ON QO’NOS!!!!!!!!!!1!!!” That essentially makes the entire first book nothing but a 300-page action scene; and as I’ve said plenty of times in the past, the one element of genre thrillers I find most tedious over everything else is when an action scene is written out as literary prose, which from a plot and character standpoint (the main two things about literature I care about) can be entirely summed up with, “The battle began, then 300 pages later the battle finished.” And while volume 2 is a bit better than this -- at least it unfolds over several days this time, and involves other characters besides just a bunch of Klingons all trying to murder each other -- it’s not much better, making this a 600-page exercise in intolerable tedium that almost broke me.
I suspect that a lot of the problems here boil down to the fact that the books’ co-author was JG Hertzler, the actor who actually played the Klingon named Martok who’s the hero of these two volumes; and stunt-hiring like this rarely goes well, in that most actors wouldn’t be able to write their way out of a paper bag, so I suspect some of the more groan-inducing moments of these books come directly from Hertzler picking scene ideas based on how badass an image of Martok it might produce in the mind’s eye (“OH EM EFF GEE, A POSSE OF KLINGONS ON SPACE HORSES!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!”). The problems are just compounded, then, when you add the other co-author here, Jeffrey Lang, who here suffers very, very badly from what I like to call “Joss Whedon Syndrome,” which is when your characters talk and behave in such an intolerably twee and cutesy way that you almost can’t get through the book because of all the vomiting you’re doing from your stomach rebelling against all the sugary treacle that author is trying to cram down your throat. (Then again, these books were originally published in 2003, right at the height of Whedonmania -- Buffy was just ending that year, Firefly just starting, Angel in the middle of its run -- so I suppose it’s only natural that a bunch of other genre writers would adopt the same winking, TikTokky style of prose in these years.)
That creates double problems that combine powerfully to make these books much bigger stinkers than either of these problems on their own -- not only is barely any story actually being told here (“I’m the rightful ruler of Qo’noS!” PEW! PEW! PEW! “No, I’M the rightful ruler of Qo’noS!” PEW! PEW! PEW!), but the little bit of story that is being told is being told terribly, all cheesy one-liners and adults talking like children, hammy stereotypes belting their lines out to the back row, one bazillion references to “Today is a good day to die!,” and a whole lot of other literary crimes against humanity. The irony is that almost nothing happens here that one needs to know in order to keep the events of the larger “Relaunch” universe straight in one’s head (); so unless you’re a particular fan of 600 pages of PEW! PEW! PEW!, let me assure you that you can skip straight over these and go directly on to the next book in the series.
And speaking of that, my next read will be an interesting one, because I’ll be veering off from the main line of Deep Space Nine novels with the next volume; for it was right in these years that the related Star Trek show Voyager ended its own TV run, and the executives at Simon & Schuster (mostly Marco Palmieri, the main puppetmaster of this entire 134-book run, who went on afterwards to become a senior editor at Tor) decided at that point to enfold the USS Voyager’s crew into this main “Relaunch” universe as well, and start writing adventures for them that tie into and affect the things going on with both the DS9 characters and our buddies on the USS Enterprise. I was originally only going to read the DS9 books, but I learned the hard way that lots of things happen in these other books that affect the events in the DS9 novels; so at that point I spent an exasperating eight-hour day online one day finally tracking down the titles of every single one of these 134 Relaunch books and the exact month and year each was published (click here to see the list yourself), and will now be reading all the rest of them in chronological order by their publishing date, no matter which corner of the Star Trek universe each are set in. That makes my next read the first of the Voyager Relaunch novels, 2003’s Homecoming by Christie Golden; and since I’m behind on these Relaunch novels, I’ll be getting to this one sooner rather than later. As always, I hope you’ll have a chance to join me here again for that one.
February 11, 2021
This book elucidated much of the ground work that led to the events which started in book one. We also learn much more of the history of the main characters and the empire.
I think it is a respectful continuation of the efforts that Worf had been working for, from early in his TNG days right through to when he raises up Martok in DS9. This story gives a lot of credit to those efforts.
Ezri plays an interesting role. I tend to like her more in the books than I did in the final season. As it was noted by our new Ferengi friend Pharh, Ezri's friendship with Worf is confusing.
Pharh really is a great addition to the Trek universe. I love a well rounded Ferengi and this character gives us another look into the diversity of the species. Which is something that the diversity of characters in this book also does for the Klingon species. On screen we often get a rather one dimensional view of the alien cultures that we meet.
I'm afraid to say that there was at least one death that I should have seen coming but didn't. There were also many that I didn't think were necessary but whatever (After a howl to the sky I'm just going to mourn this privately).
Qapla'.
I think it is a respectful continuation of the efforts that Worf had been working for, from early in his TNG days right through to when he raises up Martok in DS9. This story gives a lot of credit to those efforts.
Ezri plays an interesting role. I tend to like her more in the books than I did in the final season. As it was noted by our new Ferengi friend Pharh, Ezri's friendship with Worf is confusing.
Pharh really is a great addition to the Trek universe. I love a well rounded Ferengi and this character gives us another look into the diversity of the species. Which is something that the diversity of characters in this book also does for the Klingon species. On screen we often get a rather one dimensional view of the alien cultures that we meet.
I'm afraid to say that there was at least one death that I should have seen coming but didn't. There were also many that I didn't think were necessary but whatever (After a howl to the sky I'm just going to mourn this privately).
Qapla'.
January 3, 2021
The Once and Future Klingon, featuring: Gothmara Le Fay, her son Morjod, and Ezri Of The Lake. Starring: Martok Oakenshield, Kahless the White, and of course, my boy Pharh, The Bravest Little Ferengi of Them All.
Could have used more Alexander (as could literally every Star Trek novel), but this was a good fucking time and very, very silly.
Could have used more Alexander (as could literally every Star Trek novel), but this was a good fucking time and very, very silly.
September 21, 2024
Volume 2 gets a strong 4.5 stars. There is still some action writing that becomes a bit of a prose smear, but the epic nature of the conversations, the power plays, and the desire for revenge decades in the making turn this into a Klingon epic worthy of their culture. Extra kudos for the characterization of Ezri Dax, who takes her place as a worthy yet different successor to Jadzia in her role inside the House of Martok. Excellent work.
January 26, 2024
Summary:
PART 1
The Future: Ezri Dax is aboard the Klingon ship Rotarran. It is under attack, and it's plummeting towards the icy surface of planet Boreth.
The Present: Ezri intuits that Worf's message "now" means that House Martok needs her immediately, so she rents a shuttle, takes emergency leave, and heads towards Klingon space. After waiting for hours at the specified coordinates in an asteroid field, Ezri blindly hails Worf, who decloaks immediately and tells her to put on an EVA suit to come aboard the Rotarran.
Once aboard, Dax is taken to a conference room where she is greeted by Martok, and Sirella--after meeting her challenge. Martok recaps recent events, including their theory that Morjod is using a subsonic neural carrier wave to influence the population, to an extent; and also that he controls the Hur'q--but Martok says Gothmara is the true enemy.
Kahless II says he dug into Morjod's background during the Dominion War and found his birth certificate was forged; Morjod also has ties to Boreth, the very place where Kahless himself was cloned--facilitated by Gothmara, one of the greatest Klingon scientists of the last century.
Martok served aboard Gothmara's father Kultan's ship, the Gothspar, where she was chief science officer. He fell in love with her before discovering that Kultan was selling illegal bioweapons. When Martok found out, he confronted Gothmara, but she used the voice to seduce him. Pain clears his head, and he is able to restrain her. When he looks around her lab, he realizes she was the one developing the bioweapons. She fires at him with a gun implanted in her head, but misses and hits a canister, releasing a deadly pathogen. Kultan arrives and Martok says he knows about the bioweapons. An explosion rocks the lab, killing anyone nearby, including Kultan. Martok orders all hands to abandon ship.
Gothmara somehow escaped the Gothspar's destruction, and devoted her life to destroying Martok's. Her first attempt was to undermine the Empire by cloning Kahless. When that was thwarted by Worf, she resurrected the Hur'q and played the long game with Morjod.
Kahless reads aloud from Gothmara's logs. She found a partial frozen Hur'q on Boreth in a cave, but could not recreate one from the ancient DNA alone--so she combined it with Klingon blood using her mutagenic virus. With Boreth being central to Gothmara's plans, they decide it will be their next target.
Martok assigns Worf, Alexander, and Dax to the Rotarran, Sirella to the Orantho, Drex to e Ya'Vang, and takes the Ch'Tang for himself. After everyone leaves, Sirella chastises him for trying to rescue her and their children instead of thinking first of the empire, and tells him to start acting like the chancellor.
Afterwards, Kahless tells Martok he found a document on Boreth about Martok's father, referring to him as Katai Urthog, an honorific he has never seen before.
General Ngane's flagship, the Chak'ta, arrives, but it's apparent something is wrong when it doesn't slow on approach. The viewscreen reveals Ngane's decapitated head, held by Morjod. Other ships decloak and attack the Ch'Tang, leaving it without warp. Martok is about to ram Morjod's ship when Lady Sirella rams the Orantho into the attackers, doing massive damages but being destroyed itself. Martok calls for retreat, but then decides they should search for survivors. A wounded Kahless says no; Sirella is dead, and she would not want him to waste her sacrifice.
Captain B'Tak is killed, and Drex takes command of the Ya'Vang. Martok is surprised at his composure, and tells Drex to find the rest of Ngane's fleet, who did not join Morjod. Martok takes a shuttle and heads to Boreth. A ways out, Pharh reveals himself and says he's coming along as Martok's good luck charm.
Morjod's ship detects the bearing of a cloaked ship, the Rotarran.
Martok enters the dream space again and sees Lukara--Kahless's wife of legend, though she says they never wed. She offers him an earthen-ware bowl and says he needs a warm meal and rest, then asks how Kahless is. Martok says he had become more than what he originally was; she says he is a Katai, explaining that the ancient word means "fire bringer", but evolved to mean teacher or builder--a great man. He hugs her and awakens.
Martok and Pharh arrive at Boreth to find 3 Klingon war ships in orbit. Sensors detect massive damage to the monastery; Pharh says Gothmara was shredding ledgers before the auditors arrived. Martok says he's going to beam down because it's the last thing they'd expect, and asks Pharh to wait on the ship.
Martok finds nothing but destruction and a dying cleric in the monastery. While he tends to the man, Gothmara appears with her 2 pet Hur'q. She says she's playing a game to figure out who will kill Morjod; he is merely a tool that will inevitably be killed--but he can be quite persuasive with his augmented voice. Her only goal is to see Martok lose everything before she kills him. He attacks, spilling the oil of a wall lantern to cover his retreat. An old woman's voice tells him to make his last stand under the open stars, so he heads outside, finding himself at the edge of a cliff. He monkey flips one of the Hur'q off the edge when if attacks, though it punctures his lung and re-fractures his leg. The other howls for backup, and Martok slices it's throat. As it's bleeding out, it grabs him and the cliff gives way. He survives the fall by landing on the Hur'q, and he hears 2 voices talking about rescuing him as he blacks out.
PART 2
4 years ago, Worf, Jadzia, and Kor found the legendary sword of Kahless, but Worf decided it was not yet destined to be found, and left it adrift in Klingon space. Deciding that now is the time, they search for it for days, and eventually find it in an Oort cloud. They can't get a transport lock on it, so Ezri says someone will have to go get it.
Martok dreams of Kahless the Unforgettable, who wields Martok like a spear, using him to crack a boulder in two. He proclaims that this is the line that divides the old from the new.
Martok awakens 2-3 days later with Pharh looking over him; he seems rejuvenated. Pharh says the katai performed a healing ceremony on him; his spine was broken in several places.
Ezri dons an EVA suit to try and retrieve Kahless's sword from the tail of a comet. She nearly has it when 3 ships appear nearby, including the Chak'ta. The Rotarran takes a beating, and loses shields right as Ezri frees the bat'leth with a laser torch--igniting a pocket of gas and sending her spiraling in the process. Alexander beams her aboard and they go to warp just in time.
After finding footprints in the snow, Gothmara sends 3 waves of Klingons and Hur'q to track Martok down, but all are slaughtered, save 1 dying Klingon and 1 Hur'q. The soldier tells her they were all killed by 1 man.
Kahless finds Ngane's fleet of 17 ships, and they attack Gothmara's 7 ships in Boreth's orbit. However, she orders most of the troops to beam to the planet, so they can attack Kahless's force once they beam down to search for Martok. Darok realizes this immediately, but they still need to find Martok before she does, so they beam down an assault force anyway.
Martok is taken to see the Master Katai Okado. He and the other katai tell Martok that they are the last true disciples of Kahless; their order is older than written history. They carved their temple into the mountain to escape the original Hur'q invasion and have lived amongst three Klingon people since. They tell Martok that the Klingons have lost their way, only paying lip service to honor; Martok says they need to stop fighting the battle without and start fighting within. He hears Sirella's voice tell him that he needs to be the leader they can follow; he will be the embodiment Kahless.
Gothmara's troops outnumber Kahless's by 3:1, though he has no way of knowing. She finds the hidden katai cave and sends troops in to find Martok.
The katai sense the invading horde. Katai Angwar takes them to the armory, where Pharh finds a shield that fits his arm perfectly, and Martok a helm with the left eye patched out. As they run up the tunnels toward the surface, the first line of invaders catchers up to them; a single katai woman effortlessly kills Klingons and Hur'q alike, allowing the rest the chance to escape.
On the surface, Kahless's troops start to beam down. The Hur'q are half-frozen from exposure, making them easier to fight.
The katai take them to a stable area filled with large beasts called jarq. Okado senses that the woman has fallen and goes to make his last stand. Martok mounts the lead jarq, and Pharh jumps on behind him.
Alex beams Ezri aboard, with the sword of Kahless in tow. He says Morjod is coraling them towards Boreth.
Kahless and Darok realize they're winning the battle--too easily. They call for retreat just as the disruptor cannons are revealed from the mountain walls. Not long after, Darok hears Martok charging into battle and a renewed fire surges through his blood. Martok's beast leaps over the cannon and Martok decapitates the gunners. He tells Pharh to help him drag it out so they can destroy the other guns.
Morjod calls his mother to tell her he's arrived in the system. She gives him coordinates to beam down backup troops where Martok won't see them. He says he'll do it as soon as he finishes off the Rotarran. He doesn't tell her that he killed the main navigator, and the backup is having trouble tracking their quarry, but they do score a hit and it starts going down.
The katai tell Martok that the battle is fairly even, but a half frozen Darok stumbles into the cave with a tricorder, and he tells Martok that another force of equal size is beaming in. Martok and the katai rush to intercept.
Morjod beams down with his troops, and Gothmara tells him to take over; she wants Martok killed. She asks about the other ship, and he says it's not destroyed, but in a decaying orbit. She realizes he is scheming, and decides she needs to kill him after the battle.
With their options limited, Worf decides they're going to have to crash land the Rotarran to get the sword to Martok.
Darok convinces Pharh to leave him and go join Martok in battle. A few minutes later, Darok dies.
Drex is shot in the arm by Hur'q coming through the narrow pass. As he and Kahless are about to die, Martok and the katai arrive on their mounts. Kahless leaves Drex to go find more soldiers to join the secondary battle. A Hur'q fires aimlessly and hits a cache of mortar shells, blowing the narrow ravine wide open--and killing Martok's jarq. He jumps on a katai's mount and retreats.
The Rotarran comes bursting into the atmosphere, and everyone scrambles to get out of its path. It makes a crash landing right in the middle of the frozen lake that the battle is taking place on, and quickly sinks into the water. A figure in Klingon armor (Ezri) comes out of the water and hands Martok the Sword of Kahless, which shines brilliantly as he holds it up and roars a battle cry.
Morjod fires his disruptor rifle at Martok, but from seemingly out of nowhere, Pharh lives up to his destiny as kr'tach and uses his shield to protect Martok from the shot--suffering a mortal wound in the process. He gives Martok back his chancellor's ring. His dying request is to be granted passage to Sto-Vo-Kor; Martok holds open Pharh's eyelids and bellows a roar of grief and rage. He commands his troops to attack Morjod to grant Pharh passage to the afterlife.
Angwar reports to Martok that all the Hur'q have been slain; however, Morjod killed 3 of the katai himself, and is calling for Martok from a cliff. Martok goes to finish the battle himself, with Worf and Alexander on his flank.
Morjod bounds crazily after Martok, attacking with an undisciplined frenzy that is easy for Martok to block; with each parry, he inflicts another small cut to his son. Eventually Morjod's weapon shatters, and Martok tells him to surrender and he'll live. Morjod slices the arteries in his own legs, and as he bleeds out, he starts to transform--into a Hur'q. Martok stabs him in the heart with his bat'leth and vows to kill Gothmara for such an atrocity.
Martok declares the battle won and tells those around him to tend to the wounded. Historians mark this moment as the start of the second age of the Klingon Empire.
Alexander uses his tricorder to trace Gothmara's signal from Morjod's communicator, and Martok sets off to find her, alone.
Martok finds Gothmara in a hidden cave. He tells her to surrender, but she difuses something from a hidden vial and uses the Voice to cause Martok to hallucinate a vision of Sirella. As he embraces his wife, she stabs him, digging for his heart. He briefly sees another vision of an old woman with a wooden cup and a bat'leth; he swings his bat'leth at Gothmara's neck.
Epilogue: 2 months later, Martok meets with Admiral Ross about the new security measures being implemented at all Federation embassies. Martok is recovering, as is his son Drex, who suffered severe frostbite during the skirmish. Kahless has been missing since the battle on Boreth, though he is not presumed dead. Rebuilding the Defense Force, the High Council, and monuments to the Great Hall and all the fallen have taken up much of Martok's time; he also made sure to pay a certain Ferengi company for the loan of their vehicle. When Ross leaves, Martok tells Worf to finish up his affairs and get back to the Federation.
Martok spends much of his time in his ceremonial garden, talking with the many ghosts that advise them. He has a statue made with Sirella's features, holding a cup and a bat'leth.
Review: 4.5 stars. I skipped this initially, and most of the time I was reading it I just wanted to get back to the main DS9 storyline, but it really was a great book in the end. I particularly didn't expect to get so attached to Pharh, and didn't see his death coming.
My only complaints are that the end with Gothmara did feel a little rushed, and I wish there would've been more checking in with the rest of the DS9 cast--but that really would've just bogged things down.
PART 1
The Future: Ezri Dax is aboard the Klingon ship Rotarran. It is under attack, and it's plummeting towards the icy surface of planet Boreth.
The Present: Ezri intuits that Worf's message "now" means that House Martok needs her immediately, so she rents a shuttle, takes emergency leave, and heads towards Klingon space. After waiting for hours at the specified coordinates in an asteroid field, Ezri blindly hails Worf, who decloaks immediately and tells her to put on an EVA suit to come aboard the Rotarran.
Once aboard, Dax is taken to a conference room where she is greeted by Martok, and Sirella--after meeting her challenge. Martok recaps recent events, including their theory that Morjod is using a subsonic neural carrier wave to influence the population, to an extent; and also that he controls the Hur'q--but Martok says Gothmara is the true enemy.
Kahless II says he dug into Morjod's background during the Dominion War and found his birth certificate was forged; Morjod also has ties to Boreth, the very place where Kahless himself was cloned--facilitated by Gothmara, one of the greatest Klingon scientists of the last century.
Martok served aboard Gothmara's father Kultan's ship, the Gothspar, where she was chief science officer. He fell in love with her before discovering that Kultan was selling illegal bioweapons. When Martok found out, he confronted Gothmara, but she used the voice to seduce him. Pain clears his head, and he is able to restrain her. When he looks around her lab, he realizes she was the one developing the bioweapons. She fires at him with a gun implanted in her head, but misses and hits a canister, releasing a deadly pathogen. Kultan arrives and Martok says he knows about the bioweapons. An explosion rocks the lab, killing anyone nearby, including Kultan. Martok orders all hands to abandon ship.
Gothmara somehow escaped the Gothspar's destruction, and devoted her life to destroying Martok's. Her first attempt was to undermine the Empire by cloning Kahless. When that was thwarted by Worf, she resurrected the Hur'q and played the long game with Morjod.
Kahless reads aloud from Gothmara's logs. She found a partial frozen Hur'q on Boreth in a cave, but could not recreate one from the ancient DNA alone--so she combined it with Klingon blood using her mutagenic virus. With Boreth being central to Gothmara's plans, they decide it will be their next target.
Martok assigns Worf, Alexander, and Dax to the Rotarran, Sirella to the Orantho, Drex to e Ya'Vang, and takes the Ch'Tang for himself. After everyone leaves, Sirella chastises him for trying to rescue her and their children instead of thinking first of the empire, and tells him to start acting like the chancellor.
Afterwards, Kahless tells Martok he found a document on Boreth about Martok's father, referring to him as Katai Urthog, an honorific he has never seen before.
General Ngane's flagship, the Chak'ta, arrives, but it's apparent something is wrong when it doesn't slow on approach. The viewscreen reveals Ngane's decapitated head, held by Morjod. Other ships decloak and attack the Ch'Tang, leaving it without warp. Martok is about to ram Morjod's ship when Lady Sirella rams the Orantho into the attackers, doing massive damages but being destroyed itself. Martok calls for retreat, but then decides they should search for survivors. A wounded Kahless says no; Sirella is dead, and she would not want him to waste her sacrifice.
Captain B'Tak is killed, and Drex takes command of the Ya'Vang. Martok is surprised at his composure, and tells Drex to find the rest of Ngane's fleet, who did not join Morjod. Martok takes a shuttle and heads to Boreth. A ways out, Pharh reveals himself and says he's coming along as Martok's good luck charm.
Morjod's ship detects the bearing of a cloaked ship, the Rotarran.
Martok enters the dream space again and sees Lukara--Kahless's wife of legend, though she says they never wed. She offers him an earthen-ware bowl and says he needs a warm meal and rest, then asks how Kahless is. Martok says he had become more than what he originally was; she says he is a Katai, explaining that the ancient word means "fire bringer", but evolved to mean teacher or builder--a great man. He hugs her and awakens.
Martok and Pharh arrive at Boreth to find 3 Klingon war ships in orbit. Sensors detect massive damage to the monastery; Pharh says Gothmara was shredding ledgers before the auditors arrived. Martok says he's going to beam down because it's the last thing they'd expect, and asks Pharh to wait on the ship.
Martok finds nothing but destruction and a dying cleric in the monastery. While he tends to the man, Gothmara appears with her 2 pet Hur'q. She says she's playing a game to figure out who will kill Morjod; he is merely a tool that will inevitably be killed--but he can be quite persuasive with his augmented voice. Her only goal is to see Martok lose everything before she kills him. He attacks, spilling the oil of a wall lantern to cover his retreat. An old woman's voice tells him to make his last stand under the open stars, so he heads outside, finding himself at the edge of a cliff. He monkey flips one of the Hur'q off the edge when if attacks, though it punctures his lung and re-fractures his leg. The other howls for backup, and Martok slices it's throat. As it's bleeding out, it grabs him and the cliff gives way. He survives the fall by landing on the Hur'q, and he hears 2 voices talking about rescuing him as he blacks out.
PART 2
4 years ago, Worf, Jadzia, and Kor found the legendary sword of Kahless, but Worf decided it was not yet destined to be found, and left it adrift in Klingon space. Deciding that now is the time, they search for it for days, and eventually find it in an Oort cloud. They can't get a transport lock on it, so Ezri says someone will have to go get it.
Martok dreams of Kahless the Unforgettable, who wields Martok like a spear, using him to crack a boulder in two. He proclaims that this is the line that divides the old from the new.
Martok awakens 2-3 days later with Pharh looking over him; he seems rejuvenated. Pharh says the katai performed a healing ceremony on him; his spine was broken in several places.
Ezri dons an EVA suit to try and retrieve Kahless's sword from the tail of a comet. She nearly has it when 3 ships appear nearby, including the Chak'ta. The Rotarran takes a beating, and loses shields right as Ezri frees the bat'leth with a laser torch--igniting a pocket of gas and sending her spiraling in the process. Alexander beams her aboard and they go to warp just in time.
After finding footprints in the snow, Gothmara sends 3 waves of Klingons and Hur'q to track Martok down, but all are slaughtered, save 1 dying Klingon and 1 Hur'q. The soldier tells her they were all killed by 1 man.
Kahless finds Ngane's fleet of 17 ships, and they attack Gothmara's 7 ships in Boreth's orbit. However, she orders most of the troops to beam to the planet, so they can attack Kahless's force once they beam down to search for Martok. Darok realizes this immediately, but they still need to find Martok before she does, so they beam down an assault force anyway.
Martok is taken to see the Master Katai Okado. He and the other katai tell Martok that they are the last true disciples of Kahless; their order is older than written history. They carved their temple into the mountain to escape the original Hur'q invasion and have lived amongst three Klingon people since. They tell Martok that the Klingons have lost their way, only paying lip service to honor; Martok says they need to stop fighting the battle without and start fighting within. He hears Sirella's voice tell him that he needs to be the leader they can follow; he will be the embodiment Kahless.
Gothmara's troops outnumber Kahless's by 3:1, though he has no way of knowing. She finds the hidden katai cave and sends troops in to find Martok.
The katai sense the invading horde. Katai Angwar takes them to the armory, where Pharh finds a shield that fits his arm perfectly, and Martok a helm with the left eye patched out. As they run up the tunnels toward the surface, the first line of invaders catchers up to them; a single katai woman effortlessly kills Klingons and Hur'q alike, allowing the rest the chance to escape.
On the surface, Kahless's troops start to beam down. The Hur'q are half-frozen from exposure, making them easier to fight.
The katai take them to a stable area filled with large beasts called jarq. Okado senses that the woman has fallen and goes to make his last stand. Martok mounts the lead jarq, and Pharh jumps on behind him.
Alex beams Ezri aboard, with the sword of Kahless in tow. He says Morjod is coraling them towards Boreth.
Kahless and Darok realize they're winning the battle--too easily. They call for retreat just as the disruptor cannons are revealed from the mountain walls. Not long after, Darok hears Martok charging into battle and a renewed fire surges through his blood. Martok's beast leaps over the cannon and Martok decapitates the gunners. He tells Pharh to help him drag it out so they can destroy the other guns.
Morjod calls his mother to tell her he's arrived in the system. She gives him coordinates to beam down backup troops where Martok won't see them. He says he'll do it as soon as he finishes off the Rotarran. He doesn't tell her that he killed the main navigator, and the backup is having trouble tracking their quarry, but they do score a hit and it starts going down.
The katai tell Martok that the battle is fairly even, but a half frozen Darok stumbles into the cave with a tricorder, and he tells Martok that another force of equal size is beaming in. Martok and the katai rush to intercept.
Morjod beams down with his troops, and Gothmara tells him to take over; she wants Martok killed. She asks about the other ship, and he says it's not destroyed, but in a decaying orbit. She realizes he is scheming, and decides she needs to kill him after the battle.
With their options limited, Worf decides they're going to have to crash land the Rotarran to get the sword to Martok.
Darok convinces Pharh to leave him and go join Martok in battle. A few minutes later, Darok dies.
Drex is shot in the arm by Hur'q coming through the narrow pass. As he and Kahless are about to die, Martok and the katai arrive on their mounts. Kahless leaves Drex to go find more soldiers to join the secondary battle. A Hur'q fires aimlessly and hits a cache of mortar shells, blowing the narrow ravine wide open--and killing Martok's jarq. He jumps on a katai's mount and retreats.
The Rotarran comes bursting into the atmosphere, and everyone scrambles to get out of its path. It makes a crash landing right in the middle of the frozen lake that the battle is taking place on, and quickly sinks into the water. A figure in Klingon armor (Ezri) comes out of the water and hands Martok the Sword of Kahless, which shines brilliantly as he holds it up and roars a battle cry.
Morjod fires his disruptor rifle at Martok, but from seemingly out of nowhere, Pharh lives up to his destiny as kr'tach and uses his shield to protect Martok from the shot--suffering a mortal wound in the process. He gives Martok back his chancellor's ring. His dying request is to be granted passage to Sto-Vo-Kor; Martok holds open Pharh's eyelids and bellows a roar of grief and rage. He commands his troops to attack Morjod to grant Pharh passage to the afterlife.
Angwar reports to Martok that all the Hur'q have been slain; however, Morjod killed 3 of the katai himself, and is calling for Martok from a cliff. Martok goes to finish the battle himself, with Worf and Alexander on his flank.
Morjod bounds crazily after Martok, attacking with an undisciplined frenzy that is easy for Martok to block; with each parry, he inflicts another small cut to his son. Eventually Morjod's weapon shatters, and Martok tells him to surrender and he'll live. Morjod slices the arteries in his own legs, and as he bleeds out, he starts to transform--into a Hur'q. Martok stabs him in the heart with his bat'leth and vows to kill Gothmara for such an atrocity.
Martok declares the battle won and tells those around him to tend to the wounded. Historians mark this moment as the start of the second age of the Klingon Empire.
Alexander uses his tricorder to trace Gothmara's signal from Morjod's communicator, and Martok sets off to find her, alone.
Martok finds Gothmara in a hidden cave. He tells her to surrender, but she difuses something from a hidden vial and uses the Voice to cause Martok to hallucinate a vision of Sirella. As he embraces his wife, she stabs him, digging for his heart. He briefly sees another vision of an old woman with a wooden cup and a bat'leth; he swings his bat'leth at Gothmara's neck.
Epilogue: 2 months later, Martok meets with Admiral Ross about the new security measures being implemented at all Federation embassies. Martok is recovering, as is his son Drex, who suffered severe frostbite during the skirmish. Kahless has been missing since the battle on Boreth, though he is not presumed dead. Rebuilding the Defense Force, the High Council, and monuments to the Great Hall and all the fallen have taken up much of Martok's time; he also made sure to pay a certain Ferengi company for the loan of their vehicle. When Ross leaves, Martok tells Worf to finish up his affairs and get back to the Federation.
Martok spends much of his time in his ceremonial garden, talking with the many ghosts that advise them. He has a statue made with Sirella's features, holding a cup and a bat'leth.
Review: 4.5 stars. I skipped this initially, and most of the time I was reading it I just wanted to get back to the main DS9 storyline, but it really was a great book in the end. I particularly didn't expect to get so attached to Pharh, and didn't see his death coming.
My only complaints are that the end with Gothmara did feel a little rushed, and I wish there would've been more checking in with the rest of the DS9 cast--but that really would've just bogged things down.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2020
The opposite of the first book. Very slow moving. The first quarter of the book is meeting and the last, a battle.
July 7, 2018
A sprawling, fantastical tale full of intrigue, Shakespearean tragedy, and Lord of the Rings-esque grand conflict. Despite the fact that I ground my gears with the first book and somehow got stuck half way through it for over 6 months, as soon as I tentatively dipped back into it this summer it was a no holds barred rollercoaster ride through to the end.
The Left Hand of Destiny chronicles Martok's return to Qo'noS to be formally confirmed as Chancellor of the Klingon Empire. On arriving at the homeworld, Martok and Worf are horrified when a previously unknown despot known as Morjod seizes the opportunity to destroy the Great Hall of the First City, wiping out most of the High Council and placing a bounty on Martok's head. Quickly finding himself a hunted man, Martok must round up his family and few remaining allies to ascertain what has happened. In the process, he confronts horrors thought to have been confined to the history books as the very future of the Empire hangs in the balance.
I've been asking myself why I stalled half way through Book 1 for so long, and I can only put it down to Klingon fatigue. I've long since railed about the monotonous cultural norms that seem to permeate the species whenever we're gifted a Klingon-heavy episode. Shows like TNG's "Birthright" and "Rightful Heir" bored me to tears, leaden with references to honor and vengeance and retribution to the point where they lost all appeal. Despite the dramatic events depicted in the exposition of the first book, it wasn't enough for me to keep turning the pages.
Seven months later, I'm so happy I gave it a second chance. As soon as Martok encounters his shield-bearer, unlikely Ferengi hero Pharh, the book takes on a life of its own. Martok is a character plagued by self-doubt, filled with uncertainty about his destiny and his ability to lead the Empire. Yet somehow a failed Ferengi businessman manages to relight the Chancellor's spark and right his path. On paper it sounds ridiculous, yet somehow it works beautifully.
Author and Martok actor J.G. Hertzler has a clear love for his character, and effortlessly channels his voice while reintroducing associated characters we've previously seen on the show (Sirella, Drex, Darok). Sirella and Martok's Shakespearean love story is just as explosive as we saw in Season 6's "You Are Cordially Invited", and forms the backbone for the coda of the first book as Martok races to save his Lady from the twisted grip of Gothmara, a lover he spurned many a year ago.
I had some issues with the climactic sequence in Book 1, purely from a believability perspective. Perhaps Pharh coming to the rescue in a cleaning truck, somehow procured in the middle of a public execution, was a bridge too far. The big reveal of the Hur'q (monsters thought to be confined only to Klingon nightmares) almost push Gothmara and Morjod into the realm of omnipotence, often dangerous when an author has to write their way out of it to ensure victory for our heroes.
For me, Book 2 is vastly superior on account of the change of focus and setting. As our outcasts head to Boreth (the monastery planet and birthplace of Kahless' clone seen in TNG's "Rightful Heir"), Martok discovers what it means to be the "line that divides" as he must energise his comrades and fight for an Empire that is in desperate need of change in order to survive in the 24th century. As a sufferer of Klingon fatigue, Book 2 is a thrilling prospect. The authors acknowledge that Klingons have become stuck in a rut... so preoccupied with battle, the ill conceived notion of honor from battle, and victory no matter what the cost. Yet here are a people who have, in past generations, spawned poets, philosophers and great visionaries. It's an allusion to Star Trek Enterprise's "Judgement", where Hertzler also stars, playing Advocate Kolos, a Klingon frustrated with the Empire's preoccupation with bloodlust. Martok becomes cognizant of the fact that if he's to bring about change, he must commit to a destiny which will see him take on far more of a central role in his people's future than he ever wished for.
At this point, our journey splits: Worf, Ezri and Alexander take the Rotarran on a quest to rescue the Sword of Kahless, discarded in DS9's fourth season episode of the same title; while Martok, Kahless and Darok head to Boreth to expose Gothmara's plans to the Empire and shine a light on her use of biochemical weapons to influence the populace. Both strands gripped me, but the Ezri/Worf dynamic was particularly believable, and Ezri's mission to the comet to rescue the sword was extremely well written.
So we come to the final act, which channels imagery perhaps more at home in a Lord of the Rings feature. The final battle is grand in scope and scale - the Tolkien infused atmosphere created by Morjod's army beating drums and Martok and his group of katai on horseback blowing horns to signal their approach is perfectly placed and injects a sense of historical importance to the events we are witnessing.
The ending clearly leaves the door open for some major changes to the attitude of the Klingon Empire as Martok heralds in a new era for his people.
For fellow sufferers of Klingon fatigue: buy these books! Invest some time and patience, and find your long held jadedness about Star Trek's most famous warriors disperse. An excellent read, and a pair of books I wouldn't hesitate to revisit.
The Left Hand of Destiny chronicles Martok's return to Qo'noS to be formally confirmed as Chancellor of the Klingon Empire. On arriving at the homeworld, Martok and Worf are horrified when a previously unknown despot known as Morjod seizes the opportunity to destroy the Great Hall of the First City, wiping out most of the High Council and placing a bounty on Martok's head. Quickly finding himself a hunted man, Martok must round up his family and few remaining allies to ascertain what has happened. In the process, he confronts horrors thought to have been confined to the history books as the very future of the Empire hangs in the balance.
I've been asking myself why I stalled half way through Book 1 for so long, and I can only put it down to Klingon fatigue. I've long since railed about the monotonous cultural norms that seem to permeate the species whenever we're gifted a Klingon-heavy episode. Shows like TNG's "Birthright" and "Rightful Heir" bored me to tears, leaden with references to honor and vengeance and retribution to the point where they lost all appeal. Despite the dramatic events depicted in the exposition of the first book, it wasn't enough for me to keep turning the pages.
Seven months later, I'm so happy I gave it a second chance. As soon as Martok encounters his shield-bearer, unlikely Ferengi hero Pharh, the book takes on a life of its own. Martok is a character plagued by self-doubt, filled with uncertainty about his destiny and his ability to lead the Empire. Yet somehow a failed Ferengi businessman manages to relight the Chancellor's spark and right his path. On paper it sounds ridiculous, yet somehow it works beautifully.
Author and Martok actor J.G. Hertzler has a clear love for his character, and effortlessly channels his voice while reintroducing associated characters we've previously seen on the show (Sirella, Drex, Darok). Sirella and Martok's Shakespearean love story is just as explosive as we saw in Season 6's "You Are Cordially Invited", and forms the backbone for the coda of the first book as Martok races to save his Lady from the twisted grip of Gothmara, a lover he spurned many a year ago.
I had some issues with the climactic sequence in Book 1, purely from a believability perspective. Perhaps Pharh coming to the rescue in a cleaning truck, somehow procured in the middle of a public execution, was a bridge too far. The big reveal of the Hur'q (monsters thought to be confined only to Klingon nightmares) almost push Gothmara and Morjod into the realm of omnipotence, often dangerous when an author has to write their way out of it to ensure victory for our heroes.
For me, Book 2 is vastly superior on account of the change of focus and setting. As our outcasts head to Boreth (the monastery planet and birthplace of Kahless' clone seen in TNG's "Rightful Heir"), Martok discovers what it means to be the "line that divides" as he must energise his comrades and fight for an Empire that is in desperate need of change in order to survive in the 24th century. As a sufferer of Klingon fatigue, Book 2 is a thrilling prospect. The authors acknowledge that Klingons have become stuck in a rut... so preoccupied with battle, the ill conceived notion of honor from battle, and victory no matter what the cost. Yet here are a people who have, in past generations, spawned poets, philosophers and great visionaries. It's an allusion to Star Trek Enterprise's "Judgement", where Hertzler also stars, playing Advocate Kolos, a Klingon frustrated with the Empire's preoccupation with bloodlust. Martok becomes cognizant of the fact that if he's to bring about change, he must commit to a destiny which will see him take on far more of a central role in his people's future than he ever wished for.
At this point, our journey splits: Worf, Ezri and Alexander take the Rotarran on a quest to rescue the Sword of Kahless, discarded in DS9's fourth season episode of the same title; while Martok, Kahless and Darok head to Boreth to expose Gothmara's plans to the Empire and shine a light on her use of biochemical weapons to influence the populace. Both strands gripped me, but the Ezri/Worf dynamic was particularly believable, and Ezri's mission to the comet to rescue the sword was extremely well written.
So we come to the final act, which channels imagery perhaps more at home in a Lord of the Rings feature. The final battle is grand in scope and scale - the Tolkien infused atmosphere created by Morjod's army beating drums and Martok and his group of katai on horseback blowing horns to signal their approach is perfectly placed and injects a sense of historical importance to the events we are witnessing.
The ending clearly leaves the door open for some major changes to the attitude of the Klingon Empire as Martok heralds in a new era for his people.
For fellow sufferers of Klingon fatigue: buy these books! Invest some time and patience, and find your long held jadedness about Star Trek's most famous warriors disperse. An excellent read, and a pair of books I wouldn't hesitate to revisit.
August 12, 2018
I'm having a hard time believing that this was written by the same author(s) as the first book, such is the difference in quality. Whereas the first book was a haphazard but fun tale with little direction, this is incredibly focused and adds a huge amount of depth to everything.
If this were a double episode of DS9, it would likely have been by favourite Klingon story. This digs into their culture, utilising everything that had been established previously and adding a huge amount of detail. Given that I'm now into the post-series continuity, I have to wonder if this will have consequences going forward. I hope so.
The book captures the character of Martok wonderfully and places him front and centre in an exciting story. While the book is fairly short, it doesn't rush through things. The entire first quarter is dedicated to a meeting between all the characters in which they discuss what has happened so far and what they plan to do. You might think that sounds dull, but it was surprisingly gripping. Excellent writing and switching between character's POV made it a hugely enjoyable sequence, along with all the revelations within.
This is a well written book that dives deep into its story. There are moments towards the end that become a bit silly, especially once the final battle begins in earnest, but I can forgive them because I was so wrapped up and invested in what was happening. There are some character deaths towards the end which feel genuinely sad.
Some of the characters we're familiar with from the TV show (notably Worf) don't quite ring true, and speak dialogue that I can't imagine coming out of their mouths, but they aren't the focus of the narrative. It's a shame that I also found the antagonists Gothmara and Morjod to be not particularly strong villains and come across as more cartoonish than anything.
I just found this to be a book to get happily lost in. It has a lot of atmosphere, especially with the snowy setting. Martok was already a fantastic character but this really lets us get into his head. If you read the first book in this duology and, much like me, were not blown away then I'd encourage you to read this one and finish it off, because it's of a significantly higher quality.
If this were a double episode of DS9, it would likely have been by favourite Klingon story. This digs into their culture, utilising everything that had been established previously and adding a huge amount of detail. Given that I'm now into the post-series continuity, I have to wonder if this will have consequences going forward. I hope so.
The book captures the character of Martok wonderfully and places him front and centre in an exciting story. While the book is fairly short, it doesn't rush through things. The entire first quarter is dedicated to a meeting between all the characters in which they discuss what has happened so far and what they plan to do. You might think that sounds dull, but it was surprisingly gripping. Excellent writing and switching between character's POV made it a hugely enjoyable sequence, along with all the revelations within.
This is a well written book that dives deep into its story. There are moments towards the end that become a bit silly, especially once the final battle begins in earnest, but I can forgive them because I was so wrapped up and invested in what was happening. There are some character deaths towards the end which feel genuinely sad.
Some of the characters we're familiar with from the TV show (notably Worf) don't quite ring true, and speak dialogue that I can't imagine coming out of their mouths, but they aren't the focus of the narrative. It's a shame that I also found the antagonists Gothmara and Morjod to be not particularly strong villains and come across as more cartoonish than anything.
I just found this to be a book to get happily lost in. It has a lot of atmosphere, especially with the snowy setting. Martok was already a fantastic character but this really lets us get into his head. If you read the first book in this duology and, much like me, were not blown away then I'd encourage you to read this one and finish it off, because it's of a significantly higher quality.
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May 1, 2023I thoroughly enjoyed the first book of this duology but being totally honest I found this to be a bit tedious to get through. And while it does build up to an epic conclusion, much of the second half of the book feels like a sprawling, never-ending battle. To the point where I kind of feel like all of this could have been edited down into one really epic book.
For as much pains as the books make in pointing out how Klingons don’t like sitting around and talking…..there sure seems to be a lot of sitting around and talking in the start of this. And while I get it that we needed to communicate information to the reader I also feel like it could have come out more organically as a part of the narrative.
I will say that I liked how the sword of Kahless was incorporated and how well they worked in the callback to a great DS9 episode. There are some ideas that this book goes in to that would have worked great if we had maybe had a few DS9 movies after the show closes down production. And considering that I don’t generally have a ton of enthusiasm for Klingon-centered stories, this one worked pretty well for me. Mostly I think the books needed some focus and needed to be shorter.
For as much pains as the books make in pointing out how Klingons don’t like sitting around and talking…..there sure seems to be a lot of sitting around and talking in the start of this. And while I get it that we needed to communicate information to the reader I also feel like it could have come out more organically as a part of the narrative.
I will say that I liked how the sword of Kahless was incorporated and how well they worked in the callback to a great DS9 episode. There are some ideas that this book goes in to that would have worked great if we had maybe had a few DS9 movies after the show closes down production. And considering that I don’t generally have a ton of enthusiasm for Klingon-centered stories, this one worked pretty well for me. Mostly I think the books needed some focus and needed to be shorter.
February 25, 2020
Klingon King Arthur
There were plenty of elements of King Arthur in the second half of this story. If the first book is Martok's trials, the second is his near-rebirth as an King Arthur figure.
1. Instead of Excalibur, the Sword of Kahless.
2. Speaking of the Sword of Kahless, it was originally retrieved then made "lost" again by Jadzia Dax, Worf and Kor in a DS9 episode. It was retrieved by Worf, Ezri Dax, and Alexander. While under fire, their ship crashes in an icy lake where Martok is battling to save the Klingon Empire. Ezri emerges from the lake with the sword. How do you say "Lady of the Lake" in Klingon?
3. Mordred, the illegitimate son of Arthur with a sorceress, becomes Morjod, Martok's illegitimate son with a rogue female Klingon scientist.
While the Le Mort d'Arthur was a 12th - 13th century French epic on chivalry and nobility where tragic endings are acceptable, the Left Hand of Destiny, Book Two is not a French epic. No, it's a "Klingon" novel written by the man who plays Martok on TV and he knows the character very well.
Qapla!
There were plenty of elements of King Arthur in the second half of this story. If the first book is Martok's trials, the second is his near-rebirth as an King Arthur figure.
1. Instead of Excalibur, the Sword of Kahless.
2. Speaking of the Sword of Kahless, it was originally retrieved then made "lost" again by Jadzia Dax, Worf and Kor in a DS9 episode. It was retrieved by Worf, Ezri Dax, and Alexander. While under fire, their ship crashes in an icy lake where Martok is battling to save the Klingon Empire. Ezri emerges from the lake with the sword. How do you say "Lady of the Lake" in Klingon?
3. Mordred, the illegitimate son of Arthur with a sorceress, becomes Morjod, Martok's illegitimate son with a rogue female Klingon scientist.
While the Le Mort d'Arthur was a 12th - 13th century French epic on chivalry and nobility where tragic endings are acceptable, the Left Hand of Destiny, Book Two is not a French epic. No, it's a "Klingon" novel written by the man who plays Martok on TV and he knows the character very well.
Qapla!
February 9, 2025
This is a definitely just 3 stars. Although it did answer the questions I had from the first book it did so in a way that I found a little unsatisfactory. I think R.A. DeCandido does a better job of handling Klingon stories in his IKS Gorkon books and here I found Pharh just a little too distracting and taking me out of the story. It tried to hard to balance a grand Klingon epic and throwing in a Ferengi perspective side plot. It should have just stuck to the Klingon epic. Martok being raised to a figure of destiny seemed a little grandiose for the figure of Martok who was nothing as grand as this book made him out to be and I would have much preferred he stay the character he was not some borderline Klingon messiah. Anyway, the elements I liked were the characters of Kahless and Darok and even Alexander although him thinking about Data as his ship crashes seemed a little out of place. I have liked Lang's other work and I didn't hate this one either, just wished some elements would have been different.
March 2, 2021
This book is part two of two-part story primarily focused on General Martok, the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire.
Written by J.G. Hertzler (the actor who played Martok on DS9) and Jeffrey Lang, this book details the aftermath of Martok’s escape from the hands of a usurper to the Empire and the villainous H’urq.
In essence, this book was a 300-page battle on the snowy planet of Beroth. To be perfectly blunt, the book nowhere deserved its length, as we breezed through battle scene after battle scene, with very little room for character development.
There were a few plot points in the epilogue that I hope will be explored in future DS9 Relaunch books, but beyond that, there’s not much in this book that I found worth experiencing. Klingon lovers, feel free to disagree with me.
Written by J.G. Hertzler (the actor who played Martok on DS9) and Jeffrey Lang, this book details the aftermath of Martok’s escape from the hands of a usurper to the Empire and the villainous H’urq.
In essence, this book was a 300-page battle on the snowy planet of Beroth. To be perfectly blunt, the book nowhere deserved its length, as we breezed through battle scene after battle scene, with very little room for character development.
There were a few plot points in the epilogue that I hope will be explored in future DS9 Relaunch books, but beyond that, there’s not much in this book that I found worth experiencing. Klingon lovers, feel free to disagree with me.
January 25, 2021
I used to like Worf, but he began to irritate me with his Honor bound determination but sipping prune juice conflict wanna be warrior but was raised by humans and that causes me conflict story arcs.
while this book has less of that and more of real warriors engaging in or fighting off the overthrow of the Klingon homeworld in the days following Worf's departure from DS9, I found any segment dealing with Worf a distraction.
We do, however, find out what a devoted wife and fierce warrior Martok's wife is.
while this book has less of that and more of real warriors engaging in or fighting off the overthrow of the Klingon homeworld in the days following Worf's departure from DS9, I found any segment dealing with Worf a distraction.
We do, however, find out what a devoted wife and fierce warrior Martok's wife is.
March 22, 2025
By far the better second half of this 2-book series. The authors show great respect and love for the source material and manage to world build intuitively.
Where many such books read like fan-fiction, this work feels authentic and authoritative.
This is officially my head canon for the next phase of these characters after DS9 concluded!
Where many such books read like fan-fiction, this work feels authentic and authoritative.
This is officially my head canon for the next phase of these characters after DS9 concluded!
February 17, 2022
What a fun romp! A few moments made me laugh out loud, while others made me sad, and even though the King Arthur allegory was a bit thick in places, I enjoyed this book immensely. The duology is a must-read for klingon lovers everywhere.
September 26, 2024
Left Hand of Destiny is an epic on the scale of Lord of the Rings featuring Martok, my favorite Klingon (sorry, Worf). For that reason alone it’s worth reading, but the authors do good work in further poking the bear that is Klingon politics.
January 7, 2018
Very enjoyable read.
October 11, 2020
Star Trek action-adventure done right. Great continuation of both DS9 and book one of this duology. Aside from one kind of rushed resolution, it's hard to find a big complaint about this book.
October 22, 2021
Another fun exploration of Klingon culture following the Dominion War!
4/5 Definitely more slow bits that its predecessor, but the authors earned the chills they gave me near the end.
4/5 Definitely more slow bits that its predecessor, but the authors earned the chills they gave me near the end.
October 28, 2021
A great conclusion to this two parter.
February 3, 2022
Great story and great addition to Martok's story !
March 27, 2022
one to read if you're a fan of trek. if that's the case it's definitely worth it.
July 13, 2022
I think the first book set up a lot of promises that were not necessarily kept in this one, but still a fun read!
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