Garfield Reeves-Stevens

What an interesting take on the Trek universe! It begins with a bang, where you find out that the Enterprise Six have been booted out of Starfleet because they broke the Prime Directive and destroyed a world.

What happens to each of them as they try to find the truth of what happened on Talin, the unfolding of the story of Talin's destruction, and all the intriguing players who were on board the Enterprise (including Lt. Carolyn Palamas, from one of my favorite episodes) are all here. Sulu show more and Chekhov have to live with Orion pirates on their high-gravity ship, Spock has to make his case to the Federation while living in student quarters with students who have their own agenda, and Kirk is vilified no matter where he goes or in what disguise he wears. McCoy questions space and Uhura stands up to everyone, and as those stories are woven the memories of the planet Talin are explored.

Definitely a good pick in the exploration of Star Trek writing. I won't use the term fan fic because it's not that, and I'm happy I picked it up and took the time to read it. show less

'The fate of an entire civilised world and the fate of more than two billion beings rests in your hands, sir. What will you do?'

I'm giving this TOS adventure four stars for the promise of the plot, rather than the execution of storytelling, and for the characters. Gotta love a Star Trek writer who gets the characters (almost) right. Captain Kirk is the ever curious leader who is 'genuinely interested in just about everything', Spock the half-human Vulcan who 'decides that 'his home was show more space', and the crew are the loyal band of Starfleet's finest who 'make the Enterprise so special'. The whole set-up is so nostalgic and heartwarming, I could even overlook the cliched use of catchphrases - Bones gets in the best line with 'I'm a pirate, not a doctor' - but BUT. My one annoyance would have to be Kirk's flirtation with Carolyn Palamas, the blonde lieutenant who had to give up the chance of becoming a goddess in 'Who Mourns for Adonais?' First of all, Kirk would never get involved with a member of his crew - maybe I should qualify that with 'female' member of his crew, haha - and his attitude towards Carolyn in Adonais was 'Man up, soldier, you have a duty to Starfleet and your crewmates!' So there isn't even a canon suggestion that he would have gone there - although Scotty tried in the same episode, and failed. Secondly, WHY? The whole dalliance served no purpose whatsoever, apart from being incredibly out of character. I was equal parts confused and annoyed by that.

Anyway, The story does what is says on the tin - Kirk and the crew are accused of breaking the Prime Directive, Starfleet's Number One Rule of noninterference with alien civilisations, and destroying an entire planet in the process. Oops. The opening chapters, catching up with the 'Enterprise Five' (or the bridge crew) are the best, especially Scotty raising hell on the damaged Enterprise, and I love how fiercely loyal the gang are to Kirk, but the rest of the tale, about the aliens on 'Kirk's World' and how much they had to do with the destruction of their own planet, not to mention the blather about the Prime Directive, could almost have made this a TNG novel in disguise. I may have been guilty of speed reading after a point. And the reunion of the crew with their captain was strangely underwhelming too. But still better than a Greg Cox novel! show less

Most of William Shatner's other Star Trek novels are written in the same pretentiously grandiose staccato as his acting style. But this one actually isn't badly written; my speculation is that by this time Shatner's co-writers have wrested more creative input from him. I found the storyline intriguing also, being a prequel that shows how a young Kirk and Spock (17 and 19, respectively), both dealing with teen and parental angst, reluctantly join forces (their first meeting) to thwart an show more attempt by Kodos the Executioner to steal dilithium from Starfleet. The Reeves-Stevens creative team has a nice touch for bringing in obscure references to the Star Trak literary canon without beating the reader over the head with their Trekky acumen. show less

Yeah dude this book is weird. The villains and their scheme is interesting but hard to believe. Kirk has a super weird characterization where he thinks he’s Spock’s dads son. There is plenty that is enjoyable in this book though. When I started the Shatnerverse I wanted to see old Kirk, old Spock, and old Bones interacting and this book delivers on that. For fans of the original series this book is kind of a treat because of that. Also it references an episode of the Original Series that show more isn’t often referenced which is nice. Furthermore, there is a crew that they interact with which is clearly supposed to be a younger version of the original crew. I could see some readers finding them cheesy but I quite enjoyed them. The plot is weak, there’s some dumb places they go with Kirk, but I just think any original series fan will enjoy it. If you are one of those psychos that don’t like Star Trek The Original Series definitely don’t worry about missing this one. show less