Judith Reeves-Stevens

This was a deeply frustrating book to read. In many respects, Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens's contribution to the Pocket Book series — their first of what proved a long and fruitful involvement with the franchise — has much to recommend it. A sequel of sorts to the third-season episode "The Lights of Zetar," it returns to the concept of a central information archive for the Federation and expands upon it with the introduction of artificial intelligences called Pathfinders. Their show more addition fills a noticeable gap in the franchise's vision of the future, especially given their increasingly-discussed likelihood within our own lifetimes. Yet this is just one of a number of richly imagined inventions for this book, in which the Enterprise transports several distinguished scientists and scholars to Memory Prime for the awarding of the most prestigious prizes in the Federation. Among their number, though, is an assassin whose mission, if successful, could unravel the entire union unless James Kirk and his crew can stop him in time, adding an element of suspense to the story.

Or it would if the authors had been more successful. In this respect this book underscores yet again the inability of contributors to the franchise to construct a decent mystery. As with Jean Lorrah's [b:The Vulcan Academy Murders|634980|The Vulcan Academy Murders|Jean Lorrah|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1298351716s/634980.jpg|209939], it's obvious far too early in the story who the murderer is, depriving the book of any real sense of suspense. While the plot is redeemed somewhat in last chapters with a final twist, this isn't enough to compensate for what is another disappointing attempt to blend together genres in the franchise. Perhaps some other author has solved the problem of writing a good mystery story in an Original Series novel, but at this point I'm wondering if the two just don't mix. show less

A dozen or so years ago, William Shatner took the Star Trek publishing world by storm when he wrote the Ashes of Eden. A story about Kirk, told by the man who brought Captain James T. Kirk to life for so many years was must reading for this Star Trek fan.

That must have extended to a lot of other fans because sales were good enough to bring about a second and then a third novel. Then a new trilogy and another one after that, creating what is referred to in the Trek fiction universe as "The show more Shatnerverse."

In the Shatnervise, the entire universe revolves around James T. Kirk. And while I'm a huge Kirk fan, I can't necessarily say this is a good thing. In Shatner's Trek-world view, nothing can be done, no evil can be defeated without the manliness that is Kirk. As each novel has gone along, the line between Kirk and Shatner has slowly blurred to the piont that you can't really tell any more whether Shatner is making up adventures for himself or his most famous role.

Which all brings us to the latest installment from Shatner. This time, instead of going forward, we go backward to the earliest days of James T. Kirk and his admission to Starfleet Acadamy.

Now, let me preface this by saying that if you're a Trek continuity geek, you need to just put this book down and walk away. I enjoy continuity but I'm not as much a slave to it as some. I can enjoy a good story that has a few continuity violations. That said, this one made my head hurt with the number of liberties taken with Trek canon. It's hard to imagine how co-authors Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens could help write this without at least asking, "No really, Bill. You want to do that?"

The story postulates that Kirk and Spock met as young men on Earth. Both are at the 23rd Century version of a brothel when they meet. Spock is there, selling Vulcan artifacts under the table to expose a conspiracy in the Vulcan embassy and Kirk is there hiding from the law. Seems the Kirk we meet here at 17 is pretty much your standard young punk who hates everything to do with Starfleet. Shatner tries to explain this by flashing back to Kirk's experiences at the hands of Kodos the Executioner.

Kirk catches the attention of some mysterious figure in Starfleet and is blackmailed into joining Starfleet Acadamy. Yes, you read that right--blackmailed into joining. But unfortunately, this is not the most absurd plot twist we're asked to believe. As the story goes along, we find out that Kirk's on the trail of a conspiracy that just happens to cross paths with the conspiracy Spock is unravelling. Suddenly, civilization as we know it is threatened and only Kirk and Spock can save us all--again.

The final half of this book found me flipping from page to page, my jaw dropping further and futher in disbelief at the absurd things Shatner was coming up with for these characters to do. All of this might have been better had these characters acted anything like the Kirk and Spock we know from any Star Trek series...but unfortunately, this is Kirk and Spock in name only.

I'm sure my neighbors loved the sound of the book repeatedly hitting the wall as I threw it across the room. And I'm sure I entertained the people at the gym as I kept shaking my head, muttering "You're kidding" as I read the final few chapters working out on the treadmill.

This is, without a doubt, one of the worst examples of Trek fiction out there. Don't waste your money or your time on it. show less

I'm rather torn about how high to rate this book, so I'll settle for 4,5 stars. I absolutely loved it, even though Kirk's escapades seemed a bit too much from time to time (particularly the metioning of so many of his female conquests. I know it was a thing on the tv show, but really...)
That being said, it also was a beautiful depiction of Kirk's character, his ideals, and the friendship between him and his crewmates.
It almost felt autobiographical in parts, as parrallells certainly can be show more drawn between Shatners experiences at cons and Kirk's reflections on his fame. All in all it was a heartfelt novel, and a must-read for fans of TOS. show less

I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. I will admit, that when I saw it was written by William Shatner, I was concerned. But he's either a much better writer than I gave him credit for, or his cowriters, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, did a lot of the heavy lifting. I was also happy that this book wasn't just a Kirk showcase. Certainly Capt. Kirk gets to be a hero, but it's never egregious and there are lots of other characters, all of them treated well and very much in character. show more My only complaint is my constant complaint about this era of Star Trek novels....the stakes are so high! I miss the smaller stories where the characters just get to explore a planet or meet a new life form without the fact of billions of lives riding on the outcome of the story. show less