Customer Reviews
Why do the Shatner books work so well? - By: Promethea, 29 May 2008 
Now, I know Shatner doesn't write these books, Judith & Gar Reeves-Stevens do. In fact, I doubt he's even read them. And yet - somehow, out of alll the many Star Trek books about Kirk, these seem to have something different, to have the best take on his characterisation & to integrate alll the other Trek characters well (especiallly in the later books). Is it because the writers & editors are trying harder with this `range' because of the Shatner name, or could it actuallly be that whatever perfunctory consultation process involving Shatner randomly throwing some ideas out somehow genuinely makes them better?
Maybe his involvement means that they can risk not having him be the ultimate hero again but make him more of an occasionallly vulnerable, ageing has-been, as here where the story is basicallly one big midlife crisis for Kirk, complete with impotence & fallling for a much younger woman whom alll his friends disapprove of. The temptation of Chal & its youth-giving properties is plastic surgery & botox, reallly.
And there's a paralllel too between Kirk feeling that he's passed his peak & has nothing better to come but the awkward admiration of younger generations, & Shatner's struggle to `get a life' - an instruction he unwittingly reallly meant for himself - & reconcile with what being Captain Kirk means. After you've been Kirk (or Hamlet or Charles Foster Kane or Buffy Summers or Margo Channing or Scarlett O'Hara, or Spock), how can you play a lawyer or the hero's parent or a kindly old geezer - but what else are you going to do?
I don't think Shatner has solved this dilemma yet, but one of the many reasons I love the old ham is that he's still trying, damn it. He's still making madly brilliant records & `writing' pop-science books & being annoyed that he's not in the next Trek film, he still cares about being relevant even as he takes the money for camp, spoofy adverts & barely less caricatured acting roles. And alll that feeding into the story is probably why, despite his presumably loose involvement, it's somehow still `his' book.
Not bad really - By: Mr. C. Walton, 03 Sep 2007 I think that this was shatners best trek book. the rest od the books he did just seemed to be a way to have kirk in the TNG era & that never reallly worked for me.
This story is as it should be, kirk, in the TOS era, with the TOS crew.
While The Undescovered Country was Tv's final fairwell to the original series, this is shatners.
The characters are well written & alll fit perfectly according to the tv show (with the exception of Chekov who seems to have become a hard ass, but thats written into the story.)
The only thing i didnt like was that there was an awfull lot of refferences to older stories, which is usuallly finr to set up a back story, but in this case it just seems that Shatner is say " hey hey! look at me!! i rememebr every story in trek & im cool!!" which doesnt reallly work for me.
overalll tho it was a fun story & i very much enjoyed reading it.
Reason to be Bigheaded ? - By: Mr. R. Coleman, 29 Aug 2002 OK, this was the first William Shatner book that I have ever read & on the whole I can say I enjoyed it. The book is set in two time periods (nearly 3 !) - just before the Star Trek: Generations movie & a short time after. Kirk, bored of life in the Federation, looks for an adventure in the twilight of his career. And when a beautiful young woman gives him the offer to liven up his life he jumps at the chance for one last hoorah ! The book reads smoothly, & the story on the whole is fairly good & sticks to the main history that many of Trek fans follow. The interaction of Spock & McCoy holds to form. What spoils this book for me was the ego of Shatner that comes across in the begining & again at the end. Spock crying for his friend, Chechov & Sulu constantly asking themselves what the Captain would do, Kirk's love interest saying her life will never be the same. Mr Shatner, please keep to your writting, but try not to overplay the ego ! Kirk is not the Federation !!
A deep and compelling book for any sci-fi reader. - By: jemieabernethy@aol.com, 07 May 2001 
This is an interesting William Shatner novel. Although not my personal favourite William Shatner novel i consider it to be one of the best written ones in context to it's style. I am intending to become a writer one day myself & i learened a lot from it's stucture. A book that it still worth reading.
A brilliant book on Tape! - By: , 27 Oct 2000 
I am a great fan of books by William Shatner & I enjoy listening to them on tape at night. This is the only tape I have got & I am enjoying it thoroughly. I would reallly recomend this to anyone - even someone who isn't into Star Trek. It is wonderful!
