Star Trek: Captain's Glory (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

I have read many ST books, however this is my first William Shatner book. I should disclose that I was expecting this book to be about as good as Bill's Christmas albumn.

A pretty good winter-break read, it kept my interest. There are a few brilliant parts to the story, where Picard and Kirk are pitted against one another, and many very interesting places also. If you're a Star Trek fan, I can't see where this book would disappoint anyone. I would recommend this book.

First, a little bit about myself just so you know where I'm coming from. I'm a fairly lightweight ST fan. I've watched all the movies, but I've only watched the various TV series off and on. I can't even claim to have watched all the episodes of TOS and TNG, let alone Voyager or DS9. I've only read one (maybe two) TOS novels in the late-80s, when TNG was just starting out. And given that I barely remember what those novels were about, this book is, for all practical intents and purposes, my first ST novel.

And that brings me to how I came upon this book. Prior to picking up Captain's Glory, I had absolutely no clue what has been going on in ST timeline in terms of novels. So when I saw William Shatner's name on the cover and read the introductory passage on the book's first page at a local bookstore, I was pleasantly surprised to see Kirk speaking with Janeway. I was intrigued to know how Kirk came to be in that era, hence the purchase.

But after only a couple of dozen pages, it became very apparent that Kirk being in post-TNG/Voyager/DS9 era was an established fact, and further that this book was a sequel to a series of previous books.

A quick search on the web revealed that this book is a part of what is unofficially known as "Shatnerverse," which began with the Odyssey (Star Trek) trilogy. Furthermore, I learned that this book was the third and final book of the "Totality" trilogy -- the first two being Captain's Peril (Star Trek) and Captain's Blood (Star Trek).

I considered finding and reading those previous books first, but I decided to just keep on reading this book, as I was already hooked by its story. And now that I'm done, I can say that I've been thoroughly entertained. This is a well-written, fast-paced work of fiction. I very much enjoyed seeing Kirk, Bones, Scotty, Picard, Riker, Janeway, and other familiar faces all working together (and sometimes against each other) to save the universe once again.

If I could start over, I would probably start with the first book of the Totality trilogy, Captain's Peril (Star Trek). Captain's Glory makes several references to past events covered by previous books, and by reading the final book of the trilogy first, I feel I may have irrevocably spoiled myself of the events of the first two books.

Of course, you can simply read this book by itself as I did. The book does a good job of quickly summarizing the past events (with inevitable spoilers), and I can definitely attest that, while knowledge of events in prior books might be desirable, they are certainly not required for getting enjoyment out of this well-written book.

Also, I must note that I do *not* feel spoiled of the events in other Shatnerverse books. On the contrary, I am actually more intrigued by the glimpses and quick references I've gotten from reading this book. In fact, I hope to be able to track down a copy of the Odyssey trilogy books (which unfortunately seemed to have gone out of print), and perhaps check out the Mirror Universe trilogy.

Captain's Glory may not have been the most optimal entry point into the Star Trek novels (or more specifically, "Shatnerverse"), but I can't say I regret it one bit. I look forward to finding and reading other books in this series.

This book is much better than Shatner's previous books in many ways. I still was a little disappointed with how it ended; a little too much deus ex machina for my taste. Still, it's a very good book; for one thing, Shatner seems to have finally outgrown the tendancy to make Kirk into a demigod; in some of his previous books, it seemed that there was absolutely nothing that Kirk couldn't do, and even when that wasn't the case, he was always showing up Picard, Janeway, and any other Trek character about as thoroughly as a major league ballplayer would show up a minor leaguer. In this book, Picard battles him to a draw in a strategic contest, and given the circumstances, Picard could actually have been said to "win" the draw. Riker was the most level-headed captain of the three of them, and ultimately, Picard pulls Kirk's buns out of the fire. Given all that, I'm willing to accept Janeway being written as a largely irrelevant admiral.

There were a few places in which I felt that Kirk acted out of character, and that combined with the previously mentioned quibbles are why I only rate the book at 4 stars. Still, Shatner has always had good story ideas, and he tells this one better than he's ever done before. His pacing has improved, for one thing. Definitely worth the read.