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Book Review: ‘Kahless’ by Michael Jan Friedman

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Kahless, is a standalone novel by Michael Jan Friedman which was released in July of 1996.

For the last several months I’ve been focusing on big series such as the Destiny Trilogy, the Fall series, and the Prey trilogy. I thought it might be worth picking up a standalone and that’s exactly what I got in Kahless. However, reading this book made me realize why I appreciate reading series so much. 

This book is essentially two stories in one book that alternate back and forth. The main story in the modern age focuses on Kahless the Clone and his goals to unmask a plot to assassinate Gowron, the current leader of the Klingons. Kahless is joined by his friends Captain Jean Luc Picard and Worf, son of Mogh, as well as some other important characters. This feels like a standard Star Trek political thriller story, albeit a very small one. This plotline was somewhat predictable, but it allows the reader to learn about Klingon culture by visiting with various Klingons. All too often, stories focus on Worf or other main Klingons who just provide exposition about Klingons, but we rarely get to just spend time in the Klingon culture. I really enjoyed this aspect of the story.