As a tie-in to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series, Simon and Schuster’s Imprint, Pocket Books, released an exciting trilogy by John Jackson Miller, long-standing bestselling author of Star Trek books. While the Prey trilogy takes place across decades, encompassing characters from various series, it is essentially a next generation trilogy. As the title implies, the core plot of the trilogy revolves around the Klingons, so there is action and intrigue aplenty. Star Trek: Prey: The Hall of Heroes is the third book in the trilogy.
You can read our reviews of the first book in the Prey series, as well as book two if you want to see how this one is set up at the start.
The third book starts off a little slowly as it tries to refresh the readers memories of the previous two books while simultaneously positioning all the players. Since the books came out a month apart, this was important, but since I read them one right after the other, I got a little frustrated with it. I recommend giving yourself a little time between the books or at least between book two and book three or be prepared for the refresher.
At the core of the Prey trilogy is the House of Kruge and who controls it. You might remember Kruge as the Klingon who fought with Kirk on the Genesis planet in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Enter Korgh, a once favorite of Kruge’s who believes that Kruge would have made him his heir, although the ritual was never performed. After Kruge’s death, Kruge’s family made a very un-Klingon decision to divide the house peacefully among them, but Korgh was not included in the spoils, because he had no legitimate claim. Furious, Korgh goes to claim the Phantom Wing, a unit of advanced Birds of Prey that Kruge had been secretly building, but the Phantom Wing is gone when Korgh goes to claim it and he loses any chance he has of taking back the House of Kruge. After this stunning loss, Kruge begins plotting revenge, so complex, it takes three long novels to unravel the whole thing and it is glorious.
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While Hall of Heroes starts off slowly, once it gets going it is non-stop action and intrigue as Korgh, now in control of the House of Kruge and its council seat, tries to drive a wedge between the Empire and the Federation. While Korgh plots his revenge, an Orion woman named Shift, who’d be integral in his plans at one time, has her own goals. Shift is a member of the mysterious Breen, and in an attempt to prove herself to them, she takes advantage of the problems between the Empire and the Federation to incite the Kenshaya, long standing enemies of the Klingons, to attack the Empire with the Breen’s help.
Fortunately for both the Empire and Federation, Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise, Admiral Riker and the Titan, and Worf with Emporer Kahless are there to save the day. While Hall of Heroes started off slowly it wraps up the trilogy absolutely perfectly. All the best and worst of Klingon honor is on display in this trilogy. For fans of the Klingons this is a must read, but there is plenty of joy to go around for all Star Trek fans. The characterizations of the cannon characters are strong and the characters John Jackson Millar introduces are excellent. The plot is riveting and the action is tight. This is Trek at it’s best. Read it for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments below.