Novel Reviews

Preserver by William Shatner  
Plot: Kirk's battle with Tiberius reveals the existence of the Preservers.

Another Shatnerverse classic full of continuity, action, series-connecting storylines, plot twists, and so on.  The opening battle sequence, with Kirk versus Tiberius in freefall and the Enterprise versus the Mirror-Enterprise in an asteroid tunnel, was just an absolutely spectacular action sequence, better than anything the movies have done.  All the Preserver revelations are extremely interesting and they really explain all the little plot holes of the Trek world, the humanoid aliens, the rip-off Earths in TOS, the Mirror Universe, it's all quite brilliant.  Having the Preservers secretly manipulate all the major events and characters of the Trek world through falsified orders was a little silly though.  And Project Sign was a great idea that just when nowhere!  Unfortunately after all this buildup the actual ending is pretty anti-climactic... Kirk meets the Preservers but they're just a bunch of weak little aliens that he beats up and sends them running, the Enterprise has to fight *gasp* an Intrepid science ship and a Ferengi ship, it's nowhere near the excitement of the opening battle.  Also it's a shame there was no real resolution with Tiberius, and all his plans just disappear into a puff of smoke.  MacDonald going nuts seems extremely out of place.  Teilani's death was good moving stuff.

The Badlands Book One by Susan Wright 
Plot: The Enterprise discovers the Badlands while intercepting a Romulan smuggler pursued by Romulans and Klingons.

Not quite up to the high quality of the rest of the Badlands novelettes, light on continuity and on relevance to the greater story.  Again, the mini-novel concept is a great.  Still, it's interesting to see the Enterprise discovering the Badlands, and trying to smuggle the Romulan plasma weapon out, and the confrontation with the Romulans and the Klingons.  The smuggler is an interesting enough character.  Unfortunately much of the novel is bogged down with medical/radiation stuff that isn't terribly interesting, and there's no real conclusion to the story.

Dark Victory by William Shatner 
Plot: Kirk hunts for his Mirror double Tiberius in and outside the Mirror Universe, which is connected to a great mystery.

Though a step down from "Spectre", it's still a damn entertaining middle section to the trilogy.  In fact, the opening and closing of the book are quite suspenseful, and it is only in the middle third that the pace is let down.  The opening sequence with Kirk's first personal encounter with Tiberius is very impressive, particularly in that Kirk actually takes some damage (looses his hands and his lungs!).  Plus we get an introduction to another brilliant universal story arc concept from the Reeves-Stevens, The Preservers, an ancient alien life that created life in the galaxy, who seem to have some kind of role to play in this story.  Though I have no idea how this connects to Tiberius, this is a fascinating plot twist and looks to offer some huge explanations for the Trek universe.   I can't wait.  The mysterious high tech Starfleet Project Sign is also an intriguing mystery.  But the third really slows down with Kirk's wedding and Telani on the brink of death... I'm starting to get sick of Telani being so central to the story line, particularly with her pregnant and dying.  But the final third picks up again, with Kirk and Picard taking the Enterprise-E into the Mirror Universe to track down Tiberius.  Cool!  I think it is pretty lame about the plot twist of Tiberius having all these deadly clone children though.  This may suffer a bit as a middle chapter, but it perfectly sets up the finale and offers some great sequences in between.

Spectre by William Shatner 
Plot: Kirk meets the Spock and Janeway of the Mirror Universe, who have come to recruit his help against the Alliance in return for him causing its birth.  The Enterprise-E discovers the Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant, but the Mirror-Voyager soon captures the Enterprise and puts Picard and the crew into a worker's camp.  Kirk is reunited with Spock, McCoy, and Scotty to rescue his kidnapped love Telani and prevent the Alliance from stealing the Enterprise-E.

This was an excellent action-packed novel, with the possible exception of The Return the best of the Shatner novels thus far.  Plus, the Mirror Universe plot was very interesting, best of all it continued the plot threads from the DS9 Mirror Trilogy!  Once again lots of great continuity; Cpt Bateson (Frasier) from the TNG 'Cause and Effect' appears, an Alt-Nechayev (TNG) appears, from the Voyager series is Janeway, Neelix, Paris, and EMH Mark 2 (Andy Dick).  Once again there is a Kirk plot and a Picard plot which become connected near the end, though actually the Picard plot makes a strange disappearance in the middle third of the novel, a full 120 pages of pure Kirk plot.  The history of the Mirror Universe was very interesting; we learn the fate of Mirror Spock and 'Tiberius' Kirk, the fate of the Empire and the Alliance, learn about the Vulcan Resistance, all this is a great set up for the cliffhanger appearance of Tiberius.  I for one can't wait for part two!  The Kirk stuff was great action; a miraculous escape from the enemy-held Soverign ship, wonderful tactics all around.  Also, unlike earlier Shatner novels Kirk is back to his old self, not the spiritual crap from before!  The Picard plot started great; the Voyager takeover of the Ent-E was great, maybe the worker's camp bit at the end dragged a little bit but Mirror Picard was a great character.  Once again, action all around makes for a wonderful novel.  The story did end a bit apruptly; they prevented the Ent-E from 'crossing over' but then Tiberius shows up commanding it!  Then again, this appears to be a trilogy about the Mirror Universe, and I except that at some point Kirk 'crosses over' to lead the Resistance to overthrow the Alliance!

Avenger by William Shatner 
Plot:  Kirk returns from the Borg Homeworld a spiritual man, but is quickly reunited with Spock and Picard to face a threat against the Federation; a virogen which is slowly destroying all plantlife in the Federation despite Starfleet blockades.  This is also connected to the mysterious murder of Sarek, which Kirk and Spock both know something of.

Like Ashes of Eden, an intriguing mystery that fizzles out at the end with a practically non-existant climax.  The beginning was extremely interesting; Kirk is played up as a wizard of sorts on Chal, Spock learns his father was killed, and Picard stumbles across the conspiracy while guarding the blockade.  The Picard plot was relatively short but interesting, mainly because it is they who reveal the identity of their enemy; the Symmetrists, a mainly Vulcan cult who think the Federation will die because it does not diversify her agriculture.  First of all, these ecological situations of the Federation are very interesting, and like all Shatner novels there are wonderful references to previous episodes; Kodos the Executioner is an important piece of the puzzle, Sarek's appearances in 'Journey to Babel' and 'Star Trek 3', Sarek's TNG appearances, and so on.  It was an interesting bit of revisionist history making Kodos and Sarek and Kirk connected like this, very ingenious.  Plus, it explains why Kirk says he's always known he'd die alone in 'Star Trek 5'.  The Spock plot was interesting, through the logic stuff with his aide got a little tedious.  Kirk teaming up with a Starfleet crew was a little strange, and it seems a tad out of place.  Also out of place is Kirk's spirituality; while its an interesting idea, the idea just made Kirk drag as a character later on.  Though the revelation of how Kirk escaped death was really cool; he jumped in a transporter beam on the Borg Homeworld which beamed him to a Borg dumpyard near the galactic core, where his life was saved by the Hugh faction of the Borg created in TNG!  And there he learned all these Vulcan and Klingon tricks!  The middle third of the novel really seemed superfluous, when Kirk and Spock et al are held prison on Vulcan we get these long tiresome court scenes and then this scene where they make an impossible escape which really stretched credibility a tad (though making a tiny prison cell into a holodeck to make it unescapable is a neat idea, and their way to break it was pretty clever).  And the bit where Kirk's little science vessal defeats the Enterprise-E was pretty cool.  Unfortunately after this the novel denegrated into its 'climax', which was basically a raid on a cultists compound.  Yawn.  After a threat to the life of the Federation, this and the Symmetrists cult seemed very anti-climatic.  And the end where McCoy and Voyager's Doc create the anti-virogen was just boring.  A disappointing ending.

The Ashes of Eden by William Shatner 
Plot: Just before entering the Nexus, Kirk falls in love with a mysterious woman from the planet Chal with dark secret, a planet of seemingly eternal youth.  Meanwhile, the rest of the Enterprise crew must deal with black market Klingon weapons and a Starfleet conspiracy that goes all the way to the top.

An entertaining novel with a disappointing ending.  The first 2/3 of the book were very interesting because of all the mysteries involved, though the Kirk-Telanei romance got stupid quick.  The opening was relatively intersting, showing a thinly veiled Shatner commentary about his stardom and how he tries to avoid these fawning fans.  Fortunately there were some interesting 'arc' elements to move things along; the fate of the Enterprise A, and the new post-war situation with the Federation and Klingons.  The Starfleet conspiracy (which is the same one from Star Trek 6, nice continuity!) is intersting, though having their leader be the new Starfleet CO is a tad much, especially the way this Drake character acts so over the top its amazing he was able to get to be CO.  Plus, Drake goes off in Klingon merc ships to hunt down Kirk, which is a very stupid move.  The climax, a confusing and rushed space battle betweeen Kirk and Drake and the Excelsior, was just stupid.  Plus, the secret of Chal was a real disappointment.  There were several hints that it would involve the Genesis Project from Star Trek 2, but that didn't happen.  Perhaps the best thing about this novel is the continuity; it directly relates to events in almost all of the Star Trek movies!  It's a neat little epilogue to the movie series, and also shows where the characters are at the end of their careers.  Nice to see Sulu still in command of the Excelsior, and a strange but interesting show of continuity was Drake attempting a time travel hop around the sun (Star Trek 4) to defeat Kirk at the end, leading to an unexplained battle which was like the nebula battle at the end of Star Trek 2.  Plus, we learn more about the Genesis Project; David illegally got the protomatter from Drake.  There's also lots of neat little references to Old Trek episodes, but in the end the novel is just a tad run of the mill with a tedious Kirk romance.  And for its credit, the plot of the episode is EXACTLY the plot of Star Trek Insurrection!  Starfleet conspiracy working with enemy to mine a planet of youth, Our Captain falls in love with one of the native women and leads a rebellion against the renegade Starfleeters with the help of his crew, etc.

#79 First Strike (Invasion!  Book One of Four) by Diane Carey 
Plot: A powerful alien ship crewed by mythological demons appears in Klingon space.  The Klingons think hell has come and enlist Kirk and the Enterprise in the fight but instead Kirk attempts to befriend the Fury Captain to prevent a battle.  The Furies have come in search of their ancient home from where they were banished, and if they learn this is their home the invasion will begin.

This was a by-the-numbers action plot that never got very exciting.  Sure there were some nice space battles, some interesting character stuff with Kirk trying to help the invading captain and befriend him, and a Klingon general who is sensible, but it all seems pretty dull.  The novel just seems to plod on, never really getting exciting.  For a colossal alien invasion, the threat didn't seem very real.  The Furies culture was very alien and thought out, though the image of McCoy being burned at the stake inside the thigh of a six story tall wooden doll is just laughable.  I also liked the division betreen the Furies Captain and the religious zealot who is his political officer.  Unfortunately, after spending most of the novel building up how Kirk is talking sense into the Captain, at the end he goes into crazy mode and gets killed with little drama.  What was the point I wonder?