Pawns and Symbols

Real world article

The Klingons are hungry for war -- and Kirk is caught in a brutal battle of wits!

Pawns and Symbols is a Pocket TOS novel – #26 in the numbered series – written by Majliss Larson. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in November 1985.

Summary[]

From the book jacket: Threatened by a deadly famine, the Klingon Empire is on the verge of igniting a mad interplanetary war of conquest. When an earthquake destroys a remote Federation research station, Jean Czerny, agricultural scientist, succumbs to amnesia. Stranded on enemy borders, she is imprisoned by Kang, the evil commander of a Klingon battleship. Now Kirk must play a dangerous game of mind strategy to prevent a savage attack on the Federation!

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This is the only Star Trek novel written by Majliss Larson.
The cover art of the novel depicts Kang with pronounced Klingon ridges, implying he had regained a full Klingon appearance after the events in TOS: "Day of the Dove". The novel was written well before the explanation of the Klingon augment virus and does not explain further on why or how Kang become more "Klingon looking".
When this novel was released by Titan Books in the UK, it was released as a "Giant" novel and not as part of the normal numbered series. It was one of four such releases – the others being Dwellers in the Crucible, Shadow Lord and Uhura's Song.
Bookriot.com ranked the novel among as one of the best Star Trek novels. [1]

Previous novel:	Series	Next novel:
#25: Dwellers in the Crucible	Pocket TOS Numbered novels	#27: Mindshadow
Shadow Lord	Titan Books release order "Giant" novels	Final novel in series