Man, if you wanna have even your nerd friends call you a geek, carry around a Star Trek novel for a couple of days. My excuse for reading The Final Reflection is that it's by the late John M. Ford. Ford didn't publish that many books, but they're all worth reading. Yes, even the two Star Trek novels he wrote.

This novel is set well before the original Star Trek series (it features a cameo by Dr. McCoy literally in diapers) and is entirely from the point of view of Klingons. Ford was one of the first to take a stock 'unknowable enemy' and posit that they might be doing what they do for reasons that make sense to them. The whole 'honor-obsessed' Klingons of the Next Generation shows and beyond -- that all comes from Ford originally.

It's also a novel about playing games, which is just odd, since the last sci-fi novel I read was about that, too.

It's also just a really good novel about a young man (well, Klingon) making his way in an Empire, and a universe, that has little sympathy for anything new, or different, or weak.

FuzzyCo grade: A.