In today’s episode, Alexander is growing hair and losing his temper in unusual places. But when his grandparents prove out of their depth, Worf returns from Deep Space Nine to help him lawyer up before he hits the gym. When did Worf suddenly become a good dad? How much of Klingon nature would ADHD explain? And how badly are Alexander’s teachers dropping the ball? All this and more in Honor Bound, the book that’s done more homework than its students.

Honor Bound
Author: Diana Gallagher
Pages: 109
Published: October 1997
Timeline: During the Klingon/Cardassian conflict of DS9’s fourth season
Prerequisites: A surprising number for a YA book, to the point where some parts will actually sound like gibberish if you don’t know the episodes. Events from “Sins of the Father” (TNG 3×17) are remembered and referenced frequently. The “Redemption” two-parter (TNG 4×26 & 5×01), “Firstborn” (TNG 7×12), and “Sons of Mogh” (DS9 4×15) are also invoked. The stated origin of the Day of Honor matches that of Treaty’s Law (TOS, Day of Honor #4).
Not to be confused with: The IKS Gorkon novel by Keith R.A. DeCandido that is also called Honor Bound

Although the quality often fluctuates wildly from one to the next, it’s always best to keep an open mind when reviewing media tie-in novels. You never know when one will surprise you. That said, even at my most open-minded, if someone had come up to me and bet on the YA novel being the best of the Day of Honor bunch, that’s not one I would have taken. And I’m happy to say that wagering against that would have cleaned me out.

Even if Honor Bound‘s only distinguishing feature had been being the only DS9 youth novel not to star Jake and Nog, that would have made it at least superficially interesting. But it doesn’t settle for being a mere footnote. Like Alexander the gymnast himself (a talent the climax of this book hinges on that I don’t think ever came up in any of the shows?), Gallagher sticks every landing. She and this book demonstrate a far more thorough understanding of honor than any of the others, create more compelling sources of conflict, and achieve higher highs without any of the lows—and all in just over a third of the space of the others.

The struggles of adolescence are deftly woven into the overarching honor arc. Alexander is going through the changes all children go through, except that being part Klingon, he also sees a noticeable uptick in uncontrollable rage. He’s only going off on people who dishonor his family, but that doesn’t matter to authority figures and peers whose only conception of Klingons is rooted in ancient stereotypes. On top of that, being right smack in the middle of the Klingon/Cardassian conflict, there’s a fresh wave of anti-Klingon prejudice going around. So with the deck stacked so heavily against him, Sergey and Helena Rozhenko invite the first Klingon they raised to come back to Earth and teach their second some meditative martial-arts exercises that will help him rein in his anger and burn it off more safely.

No matter how he tries, however, Alexander continues to be a magnet for bad luck. He accidentally snarls at a girl who appears to be interested in him, and not long after hulking out on a computer in the library, his bullies tip a bookshelf onto him in there, and not seeing the whole situation unfold, the librarian punishes him. Alexander would just as soon allow people to think whatever they want and simmer in the disappointment than rat his bullies out or go off on them Klingon-style, but Worf isn’t about to let him get away with that. Worf knows the truth, and is convinced that his reputation can be salvaged if others do as well. But even with Worf taking command of almost literally every situation in the book as smoothly as he ever has, it’ll take a lot to change hearts and minds, especially that of the boy who has it out for Alexander because his uncle was killed by a Klingon.

Worf and Alexander have such a good relationship in this book that it makes me mildly upset about the Alexander we actually did get canonically later on—the clumsy doofus who was more mascot than warrior. And though it may seem odd that Worf is suddenly able to tap into this endless fount of patience and paternal wisdom that was nowhere in evidence in TNG, I actually kind of get it. I’ve been in those exact shoes. I was far from the greatest with my own son when he was very young, but the older he gets, the easier it becomes for me to reason with him, gain his trust, and offer sage advice. It’s a big part of why I decided to go into high school when committing to teaching. I find it much easier to reason with kids and gain their trust the closer they are to adulthood. Maybe Worf is simply far more in his element when he’s dealing with someone who can begin to understand and accept an adult’s rationale. Whatever the case, I don’t think I’ve ever liked and admired him more than I do here.

Another reason I think this book succeeds so spectacularly is that it keeps things a lot more grounded than your average Star Trek youth novel. A lot of authors think very little of children’s attention spans and intelligence and assume that you need to keep throwing mindless action sequences at kids to keep them interested, but it always works out so much better when you trust them to identify with serious problems, keep up with the lore, and present them with challenges that are tough but believably surmountable for someone of their age and talents.

It’s also one of the few of these one could read as a kid having never seen any of the episodes it references, and it would only get richer over time as they experienced more Star Trek and were able to connect more dots and realize, “Oh, that part actually happened in the show!” Honor Bound shows that you can give plenty of gravity to a book for children without bogging it down. Of all the authors who participated in the Day of Honor miniseries, Diana Gallagher is the one whose efforts most firmly secured her a place in Sto-vo-kor and most deservedly earned her a hearty Qapla’!

MVP & LVP

• I’m handing out a co-MVP this time around to Worf AND Alexander. These two have never worked better together and probably never will again. Worf is the calmest, coolest, and most collected he’s ever been. More often than not, he is, in my opinion, a massive doofus. Not here. Here, he is the man with a plan. And Alexander trusts him enough to help it all hang together, and he’s doing that while pushing down raging adolescent Klingon hormones, which, not to be too hacky, but if you think human teenagers are bad, how about raising a Klingon teenager?!?!?!?!? You know what, since we’re handing them out like candy, Sergey and Helena get one too. Raising two Klingon boys? And the second is much more difficult than the first was? You get a MVP, you get a MVP, everyone gets a MVP.
• The LVP is also a joint affair, and it goes to Alexander’s teachers. There are few things that bum me out more than when the people who are supposed to be taking care of those who don’t get treated so well by the system miss such obvious abuse happening right in front of their eyes. I realize I’m putting myself in a bit of a hot seat here, given that I’m about to go into this profession, but several aspects of my planned approach are coming together even in student teaching, and this is something I intend to be very vigilant about.

Stray Bits

• Worf tells Alexander about accidentally killing a kid during a soccer game when he lived with Sergey and Helena on the farming colony Gault. In the show, he also told this story to Dax in the episode “Let He Who Is Without Sin…” (DS9 5×07), meaning timeline-wise, he actually told it to Alexander first, which is a pretty neat trick, since it’s tough, especially around this time, to organically work references from later than when a story takes place into that story.
• “If [Alexander] was a human kid and not mostly Klingon, [his grandparents] wouldn’t be afraid that he might take offense at some innocent remark or minor incident and go berserk.” Based on some personal experience, this made me think at first that Alexander has ADHD that presents with either rejection sensitive dysphoria or oppositional defiant disorder, or maybe both—and then I realized that this applies to a lot of Klingons, and now I’m wondering if there aren’t a lot of problems that could be solved by replicating a bunch of ADHD medication and sending it to Qo’nos. (p. 28)

Final Assessment

Excellent. This is without question the best of the Day of Honor books, and I’d even go so far as to say it’s the single best book in Star Trek‘s youth line so far. Worf is in as fine a form as he’s ever been, and Alexander, though struggling, comports himself admirably. When Worf asks Alexander to trust him, he not only gets that trust, he earns it as well. Diana Gallagher’s references to previous Klingon episodes do a great job of supporting the current story, and it’s clear she’s done her homework. Just when I thought this miniseries was going to be a total bust, this book came along and singlehandedly made it worthwhile. Highly recommended, whether you’re in the book’s demographic or not.

NEXT TIME: Cadet Janeway goes into Quarantine