Inferno

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Millennium, Book III of III
Inferno by Judith & Garfield Reeves- Stevens
Published April 2000
Read October 26^th 2018

Previous book (Millennium): The War of the Prophets
Next book (Deep Space Nine): #27: A Stitch in Time

Purchase:
Mass-market paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

All three books in the Millennium trilogy are also available in this omnibus edition:

Purchase:
Trade paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Spoilers ahead for The War of the Prophets and the Millennium trilogy!

From the back cover:

Now begins the final battle of the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths within the nightmarish realm of nonlinear time -- as the greatest epic adventure in the saga of Deep Space 9 -- reaches its staggering conclusion.... 

As predicted in ancient Bajoran texts, the Celestial Temple has been restored, ending normal space-time existence for all except Captain Benjamin Sisko and those trapped on the Starship Defiant and the Klingon warship Boreth. But as apocalyptic war rages between the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths, one last chance for survival beckons -- a return to Deep Space 9.

Yet, in the realm of nonlinear time, it appears that there are two possible times at which Sisko and his allies can turn to the station: on the day of the Cardassian Withdrawal, or on the day six years later when DS9 was destroyed. But which choice will lead to the triumph of the Prophets? And which to eternal victory for the Pah-wraiths? With time literally running out and the fate of the universe in his hands, Sisko now must confront his own personal inferno-in order to change the past and restore the present, he must be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice ... his future....

My thoughts:

Inferno marks the conclusion of the Millennium trilogy, three books that unironically embody the word "epic." Perhaps it's a cliche that so many Star Trek adventures involve the "end of the universe as we know it," and of course we all know that the universe won't really be destroyed. So, fittingly, at the end of the last novel, The War of the Prophets, all of creation is... destroyed.

How do you come back from that?

At the beginning of the novel, each of our characters are living their own "personal hell," constructed for them by the Pah-Wraiths. We soon come to understand the unreality of these situations as, one-by-one, they are pulled out into what the multi-verse has become: a sort of strange purgatory, seemingly inside the red wormhole. I'm glad the authors didn't linger too long on each of the characters' vision of hell; Jake Sisko's in particular, in which every word he wrote was being erased, quickly catching up to him as he wrote, was truly horrific. I still shudder visibly when thinking about it.

What impressed me the most about Inferno was that it answered all of the questions raised in the first two novels in a surprisingly satisfying fashion. While reading the previous book, I got that feeling that's similar to the one I got when first watching "The Best of Both Worlds": how the heck are they going to get out of this? Unlike that famous cliffhanger episode, however, the authors had a clear plan for the resolution of this story going in.

I see a number of reviewers online decrying this story as a convoluted mess of time travel, and I can certainly see how someone would come to that conclusion. While most of the time I read Star Trek fiction as pure escapism, I appreciate a good story that requires you to think. And Millennium, if nothing else, requires you to engage your brain and pay attention. It is extremely easy to get lost in the myriad twists and turns, with some of the plot points seeming to come out of nowhere. However, the entire trilogy is meticulously crafted and requires the reader to pay very close attention for it all to make sense. I must admit that some plot points flew light-years over my head the first time, and it took a closer reading to make everything make sense. But eventually, make sense it does.

Seemingly minor plot details dropped into the story in the first book pay off with surprising significance in book three, while other moments will make the reader slap his or her head and say, "so *that's* what that meant!" In the end, many of the situations the characters face in the course of the trilogy seem to have been engineered specifically by a particular group who knew how things were "supposed" to play out. This struck me as amusing, as one can cast the authors of these novels in those roles, almost as a sort of "fourth-wall" break.

As is often the case, Garak wound up being one of my favorite things in this novel!

I realize that this review has veered away from a typical discussion of the plot and has become a little more abstract; I suppose that is a reflection of the sort of book this is. It's difficult to discuss elements of the plot in great detail as I feel that would multiply the length of this review significantly. Instead, I will highlight a couple of scenes that stood out to me. First, we get a version of Garak interacting with his future self. I absolutely loved this part of the story, and I would have loved to have seen Andrew Robinson tackle this. One Garak is terrific, while two is very nearly perfection.

Also, I have to highlight a scene in which Odo converses with Vic Fontaine on an empty and abandoned Deep Space Nine. This part was surprisingly touching and poignant, with the two characters reflecting on reality and their ultimate fates. Vic Fontaine, for being a hologram, was a character that brought a lot of humanity to DS9, and his character is used to great effect here.

Final thoughts:

Inferno wraps up the Millennium trilogy in a more satisfying manner than I honestly expected. Some readers will certainly be put off by the very complex and interweaving plot twists and turns, but the Reeves-Stevenses have obviously worked very hard to make everything line up correctly. This is a novel (and a trilogy) that requires the reader to pay close attention, as even the smallest plot details end up being significant and play out in unexpected ways. However, even if all aspects of the story aren't completely understood by the reader, I was left feeling that Inferno was a satisfying conclusion to the overall story.

More about Inferno:

• Podcast: Literary Treks 248: It All Makes Sense... I Think

Also by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens:

• Star Trek: Prime Directive (1990)
• Star Trek: Federation (1994)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Millennium, Book I of III: The Fall of Terok Nor (2000)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Millennium, Book II of III: The War of the Prophets (2000)

My next read:

Next up is a TNG novel, but actually the first Stargazer adventure: The Valiant by Michael Jan Friedman!

The War of the Prophets

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Millennium, Book II of III
The War of the Prophets by Judith & Garfield Reeves- Stevens
Published March 2000
Read September 25^th 2018

Previous book (Millennium): The Fall of Terok Nor
Next book (Millennium): Inferno

Purchase:
Mass-market paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

All three books in the Millennium trilogy are also available in this omnibus edition:

Purchase:
Trade paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Spoilers ahead for The War of the Prophets and the Millennium trilogy!

From the back cover:

The crew of the Starship Defiant is trapped in a future in which the Pah-wraiths have triumphed--as the greatest epic adventure in the sage of Deep Space 9 continues...

In the last days of the twenty-fourth century, caught in the crossfire of the apocalyptic confrontation between the Bajoran prophets and the Pah-wraiths, Captain Benjamin Sisko and his crew face what might be the final millennium. On one side, the Pah-wraiths' new Emissary--Kai Weyoun--promises his followers that when Bajor's two Celestial Temples are restored as one, all beings in the universe will ascend to a new and glorious existence with the True Prophets. On the other side, the scientists of Starfleet predict that when the two Bajoran wormholes merge, they will create a Warp 10 shock wave of infinite destructive power.

With the Federation on the brink of collapse, and Starfleet consumed by Admiral Jean-Luc Picard's obsessive quest to build the largest starship ever conceived, Sisko enters the ultimate race against time for the biggest stakes of all--the survival of the universe itself.

My thoughts:

In The War of the Prophets, the second book of the Millennium trilogy by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Sisko and the crew of the Defiant find themselves catapulted 25 years into the future after having witnessed the destruction of Deep Space Nine by the opening of the red wormhole, created after the three lost orbs of Jalbador were brought together. (Whew, what a sentence!)

What follows is our characters navigating a dark future in which Armageddon is mere days away, the Federation has suffered enormous setbacks, and a religious fanatic is hastening the end of existence by leading the Bajoran people in a struggle against every other major power in the known galaxy. This religious fanatic is Weyoun, who has turned away from his worship of the Founders as gods and instead come to know the love of the Pah-Wraiths, who are now considered to be the "True Prophets" of Bajor. To complicate things, these are not the Pah-Wraiths who are trapped in Bajor's fire caves, but rather ones who live inside the red wormhole. The fire cave Pah-Wraiths still exist, and a crazed Gul Dukat serves as their emissary.

The remnants of Starfleet have committed all of their resources to the Phoenix project, an ambitious plan spearheaded by Admiral Jean-Luc Picard to send a revolutionary new timeship 25,000 years into the past on a mission to ensure the destruction of Bajor and secure the future. With the crew from the Defiant having split up, half of them are with Weyoun and the Bajoran Ascendancy, while the other half are with what remains of Starfleet along with Admiral Picard and Captain Nog. One thing I really enjoyed about this novel was how Nog's character was written. He has lived the past 25 years with hardship and regret, which has shaped the man he has become. There are some great scenes between him and Jake, reunited after what has been many years from Nog's perspective.

The War of the Prophets shows us a possible future, featuring Captain Nog, a man who is weighed down by the burdens of a dark past.

Sisko's role as the emissary of the "False Prophets" means that Weyoun keeps him and his crew alive while the pieces are put into place to fulfill a prophecy that will bring about the end of existence. Weyoun intends to bring the two wormholes together, which will apparently bring all beings together in a new existence with the "True Prophets," but will actually cause the end of reality as we know it.

The storyline in this novel is quite complicated, something I've discovered is a hallmark of the Millennium trilogy (a phenomenon which will come to a head in book three, Inferno). Still, the Reeves-Stevenses juggle all of the various plots quite expertly. Each of the characters have a moment to shine in this story, including Vash (who was aboard the Defiant when it was sent to the future). The final fates of Vash, Picard, and Nog are a fascinating aspect of the story, and while it seems they may be lost forever, Vash seems to intimate that she can hitch a ride with Q if a future story needs her in another role at some point!

One aspect of this trilogy that I am appreciating is that each novel in it has felt complete. While of course the entire story is told over the three novels, each one still has a beginning, middle, and end, and each installment feels different from the other two. They are distinct chapters within the overarching story. Sometimes, multi-book stories feel like each novel has an arbitrary stopping point in order to split it up among the books, but not so with Millennium. The War of the Prophets has a distinct story that is wrapped up within its pages, which feels very different from the story in The Fall of Terok Nor, but still a continuation of the main elements.

Final thoughts:

I'm very happy that covering these novels on the Literary Treks podcast has finally afforded me the opportunity to read them. This second installment was a lot of fun, with a glimpse at a dark future that our heroes will have to somehow prevent from taking place. Lots of great cameos (including Thomas Riker) and with a role to play for each of the characters, The War of the Prophets is an excellent continuation of the Millennium trilogy. I found myself wanting to pick up book three, Inferno, immediately, but unfortunately there were other novels to read for the podcast before I could get to it. Definitely excited to see how this series concludes!

More about The War of the Prophets:

• Podcast: Literary Treks 245: The "All Good Things" of Deep Space Nine

Also by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens:

• Star Trek: Prime Directive (1990)
• Star Trek: Federation (1994)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Millennium, Book I of III: The Fall of Terok Nor (2000)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Millennium, Book III of III: Inferno (2000)

My next read:

Next up is my review of TNG: Ship of the Line by Diane Carey!

The Fall of Terok Nor

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Millennium, Book I of III
The Fall of Terok Nor by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Published March 2000
Read September 9^th 2018

Previous book (Deep Space Nine): The Lives of Dax
Next book (Deep Space Nine): Millennium, Book II of III: The War of the Prophets

Purchase:
Mass-market paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

All three books in the Millennium trilogy are also available in this omnibus edition:

Purchase:
Trade paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Spoilers ahead for The Fall of Terok Nor!

From the back cover:

Bajor is in flames. The corridors of Terok Nor echo with the sounds of battle. It is the end of the Cardassian Occupation -- and the beginning of the greatest epic adventure in the saga of Deep Space 9...

Six years later, with the Federation losing ground in its war against the Dominion, the galaxy's greatest smugglers -- including the beautiful and enigmatic Vash -- rendezvous on Deep Space 9. Their objective: a fabled lost Orb of the Prophets unlike any other, rumored to be the key to unlocking a second wormhole in Bajoran space -- a second Celestial Temple. 

Almost immediately, mysterious events plague the station: Odo arrest Quark for murder; Jake and Nog lead Chief O'brien to an eerie holosuite in a section of the station that's not on any schematic; and a Cardassian scientist whom even the Obsidian Order once feared makes an unexpected appearance. With all those events tied to a never-before-told story of the Cardassian withdrawal, Captain Benjamin Sisko faces the most dangerous challenge of his career. Unless he can uncover the secret of the lost Orb, what began with the fall of Terok Nor will end with the destruction of Deep Space 9...or worse.

My thoughts:

The Millennium trilogy is a series of books I had heard a lot about but took a long time to get around to reading. Thankfully, my co-host on the Literary Treks podcast, Bruce Gibson, is a big fan of these books, and made sure to schedule them to cover on the show. Finally, I would be forced to read these books, which have taken up real estate on my bookshelf for quite some time.

There is a lot going on in this story, and the authors drop the reader into the middle of it right away. The characters in the "present day" (towards the end of season 6, between the episodes "The Sound of Her Voice" and "The Tears of the Prophets") are dealing with a number of mysteries: first, the murder of a visiting Andorian named Dal Nortron, the prime suspect for which is Quark. The second mystery arises when two Cardassian bodies are discovered embedded in Deep Space Nine's hull, dating back six years to the end of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor.

The mysteries in The Fall of Terok Nor date back to the Cardassian withdrawal from Bajor, 6 years prior to the main time-frame of the novel.

What follows is a fairly convoluted plot involving the "Red Orbs of Jalbador," which many believe to be a myth. However, they are proven to be anything but when, over the course of the novel, all three orbs are discovered and brought together with disastrous consequences. The novel ends in a cliffhanger when the orbs cause the appearance of a red wormhole which seemingly destroys Deep Space Nine. While many people are still aboard, many are able to escape, including a number of characters aboard the U.S.S. Defiant. However, the Defiant is caught up in the red wormhole and swept 25 years into the future where they are confronted by Captain Thomas Riker of the U.S.S. Opaka, imploring Sisko and his crew to take sides in "The War of the Prophets."

The Fall of Terok Nor is a little difficult to review, given that it is only the first part of a trilogy. There are a lot of story elements set up here, and many of the main characters get an interesting part of the story. Most of the characters are handled very well; Quark's voice, for example, comes through incredibly clearly. However, I had a few issues with some of the characterizations. For example, Jake Sisko, who is 19 years old at the time of this novel, feels like he is written a bit more like an earlier-season version of the character, coming across as a little more "childish" than we're used to at this point. Similarly, there are moments when Major Kira feels more like she does in season 1 or 2 than in season 6: a little more quick to anger and less willing to engage in thoughtful analysis. One final character issue I had: I found it frustrating that Odo was so focused on accusing Quark of murdering Nortron. I feel like Odo usually wouldn't suspect Quark of a crime that serious with a total lack of evidence; cheating, swindling, and petty theft, yes. Murder? I don't think so.

I felt that Odo's dogged belief that Quark committed murder was a bit out-of-character.

These minor character quibbles aside, in my opinion Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens have crafted a superbly compelling start to this trilogy, with mysteries and plot twists that I did not see coming at all. The book held my rapt attention throughout, and when I was finished, it was incredibly difficult to not immediately start reading book 2. Alas, the next book we covered on Literary Treks needed to be read first, so I had to exercise a lot of patience!

The authors' attention to detail is something to behold. Because of the nature of this story, there are a number of plot elements that remain unsolved and mysteries that I am sure will be followed up on in the next two books. I can only imagine the flowchart that they probably had to work from to keep all of the details of the story straight!

Final thoughts:

There were times that the plot felt a little too overloaded, with the characters jumping from situation to situation as the mysteries unfold, but a little more attention to the finer points of a story in order to follow along isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm glad I finally got the chance to read this story, as it has been taunting my from my bookshelf for some time. Thankfully, it didn't disappoint, and I'm happy to report that the reputation this story has from other fans seems to be well-earned, at least at the end of book one. 4/5.

More about The Fall of Terok Nor:

• Podcast: Literary Treks 243: An Upside-Down Tellarite Organ

Also by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens:

• Star Trek: Prime Directive (1990)
• Star Trek: Federation (1994)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Millennium, Book II of III: The War of the Prophets (2000)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Millennium, Book III of III: Inferno (2000)

My next read:

Next up is book 6 of the A Time To series: A Time to Hate by Robert Greenberger.

Collision Course

Star Trek: Academy
Collision Course by William Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Published October 2007
Read April 18^th 2018

Previous book (Shatnerverse): Captain's Glory

Purchase:
Hardcover: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
Mass-market paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Spoilers ahead for Collision Course!

From the back cover:

If you think you know how it all began, think again… 

Young Jim Kirk wants nothing to do with Starfleet, and never wants to leave Earth. In the summer of 2249, he's a headstrong seventeen-year-old barely scraping by in San Francisco, haunted by horrific memories from his past. 

In the same city, a nineteen-year-old alien named Spock is determined to rise above the emotional turmoil of his mixed-species heritage. He's determined to show his parents he has what it takes to be Vulcan – even if it means exposing a mysterious conspiracy at the heart of the Vulcan Embassy, stretching to the farthest reaches of the Federation's borders. There, a chilling new threat has arisen to test the Federation's deepest held belief that war is a thing of the past and that a secure future can be forged through peaceful means alone. But it is in San Francisco, home to Starfleet Academy, where that threat will be met by two troubled teenage boys driven to solve the mystery that links them both. 

In time, the universe will come to know these young rebels as Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock… two of the Federation's greatest heroes. Yet before they were heroes, they were simply conflicted teenagers, filled with raw ambition and talent, not yet seasoned by wisdom and experience, searching for their own unique directions in life – a destiny they'll discover on one fateful night in San Francisco, when two lives collide, and two legends are born. 

Star Trek: Academy – Collision Course sets the stage for an exciting new era of Star Trek adventure, and for the first time reveals Kirk and Spock as they were, and how they began their journey to become the Kirk and Spock we know today.

My thoughts:

In 2007, Star Trek was at a kind of crossroads. Two years earlier, Viacom, who owned Paramount Pictures, separated from CBS, which retained the rights to Star Trek on television. Paramount, meanwhile, was allowed 18 months to develop a new Star Trek film, otherwise they would lose the Trek film rights. The result was J.J. Abrams being tapped to direct a new Trek film, originally scheduled for release in the holiday season of 2008, and later delayed to the summer of 2009.

Star Trek (2009) was in pre-production when Collision Course was released.

Meanwhile, a new Star Trek novel was released: Star Trek: Academy: Collision Course by William Shatner (with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens). This novel focused on the young James T. Kirk and the events that led him to join Starfleet Academy and train to become an officer in the Federation's Starfleet.

Both the film, called just Star Trek, and this novel, focused on very similar themes and events. Both feature a young Kirk on a troubled path, described as a "delinquent," and showing his journey of redemption and acceptance into Starfleet. The film, while decried by some as not in keeping with the Star Trek of the past, proved to be a commercial and critical success, launching a new film series that renewed interest in the somewhat flagging franchise. Given the similarities between the film and the novel, but also the inherent differences due to each taking place in a separate timeline from the other, it is understandable that the proposed novel trilogy was cut short after just the first novel.

However, it is unfortunate, because Collision Course is actually pretty good.

As the novel begins, Jim Kirk is a troubled young man who is not only not interested in joining Starfleet, he actually hates the organization. This all stems from his horrific experience on Tarsus IV during the massacre of 4000 colonists by Governor Kodos. Collision Course goes into a lot of detail about this event, including the young Kirk's failed attempt to save the lives of a group of very young children and the use of child soldiers by Kodos' regime. There is a lot of chilling content in this novel, and the experiences that Kirk has on Tarsus IV go a long way to explain the problems he is having. A different person would possibly never recover from these experiences.

When it came to Kirk in this novel, I found myself picturing a young Chris Pine in the role.

In the "present day," Kirk gets involved with a number of illegal activities, but with an eye towards altruism, if that makes sense. For example, he steals a Starfleet staff car, but ostensibly for the purpose of proving his girlfriend's innocence with regards to a lab break-in at Starfleet Academy, showing how her codes could have been stolen or faked. While I initially bristled against this characterization of Kirk, it does remain consistent with some of what we have seen before; young Kirk in Diane Carey's Best Destiny, for example, has this rebellious streak as well. What I found interesting, however, is that while reading Collision Course, I actually pictured a young Chris Pine in my head. I found that the depiction of Kirk in this novel matched my idea of Kirk in the Kelvin Timeline quite well.

For the most part, Collision Course works well as a vehicle to show young Kirk's journey from troubled youth to Starfleet cadet. The primary plot, linking back to the events of the Tarsus IV massacre and a present-day threat that stems from that horrific tragedy, serves the characters well. However, some of the minutia of the plot seems overly complex. For example, there is a conspiracy to acquire advanced camouflage technology by setting up a scheme to purchase fake Vulcan artifacts. The buyers, however, know the artifacts are fake, and are actually after the technology that makes them seem authentic. If this is their endgame, it seems overly convoluted and highly unlikely to succeed once you examine the plan closely.

Young Spock's motivation to enter Starfleet Academy struck the wrong tone for me in this novel.

One final issue I had with the novel was Spock's motivation for joining Starfleet Academy. We know from Star Trek canon that Spock's decision to attend the academy was over Sarek's wishes, and led to a rift between father and son that saw them not speak to each other for well over a decade. However, in Collision Course, we learn that Spock was made to join the academy as a sentence for a crime he allegedly committed. There is an attempt to make it fit in that the sentence is ammended to allow Spock to join the Vulcan Science Academy instead if he so chooses, but he ends up joining Starfleet Academy for plot reasons, which seems to undercut the conflict between the two characters established elsewhere in Trek canon.

Final thoughts:

Collision Course was certainly an interesting novel, and it was fun to read about young Kirk and Spock's initial entry into Starfleet Academy and the choices that led them there. It's unfortunate that similar plots were explored in Star Trek 2009; if they hadn't, it's possible that we would have had the originally-planned follow-up novels. The back of this novel says the sequel, Trial Run, would be coming soon, but alas, that was not to be. Perhaps, however, this is a good thing; the ending of Collision Course features Kirk and Spock parting ways and entering the academy on separate tracks. I like the idea of them going off and then meeting up years later on the Enterprise; if the series had continued, it's likely they would have had to contrive some reason to have them continually meet up and get into misadventures. Maybe it's better that the series ended now, before a later volume completely jumped the shark. 4/5.

Also by William Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens:

• Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden (1994)
• Star Trek: The Return (1996)
• Star Trek: Avenger (1997)
• Star Trek: Spectre (1998)
• Star Trek: Dark Victory (2000)
• Star Trek: Preserver (2001)
• Star Trek: Captain's Peril (2002)
• Star Trek: Captain's Blood (2003)
• Star Trek: Captain's Glory (2006)

More about Collision Course:

• Podcast: Literary Treks 227: Hogwarts Academy

My next read:

Next review is for book two of the Star Trek: Prometheus trilogy: The Root of All Rage by Bernd Perplies & Christian Humberg.

Captain's Glory

Star Trek
Captain's Glory by William Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Published August 2006
Read March 6^th 2018

Previous book (Shatnerverse): Captain's Blood
Next book (Shatnerverse): Academy: Collision Course

Purchase:
Hardcover: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
Mass-market paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Spoilers ahead for Captain's Glory!

From the back cover:

With the civil war on Romulus averted, Kirk is finally free to seek out the truth behind the death of his oldest and closest friend. Was Spock killed by the shadowy organization known as the Totality? A generous offer from Starfleet provides him with the starship he needs in order to reach his goal. Their only proviso: that they can call on his help if they need him. But what happened to Spock is not Kirk's only worry: Joseph, his son, is rebelling wildly against the restrictions placed on him as the price of Romulan peace. Is the Totality somehow also linked to Joseph's rage? But before he can find the answers to either troubling question, Kirk receives a call from Admiral Janeway, telling him she needs him to save the Federation. Torn between his mission and his duty, the cause of the Federation must claim him one more time before he can turn his attention either to his friend or to his son. 

Pop culture icon William Shatner returns with another breathtaking Star Trek adventure in which both generations must battle an unstoppable enemy for the existence of all life in this galaxy – and beyond.

My thoughts:

At the end of the previous novel, Captain's Blood, Spock is seemingly killed by The Totality, led by Norinda, in their campaign to bring "love" to the universe and unite everyone within the Totality. In the time since that event, several Starfleet officers have gone missing, replaced by the Totality. Additionally, warp drives have been malfunctioning across the quadrant with disastrous results.

On Vulcan, Jim Kirk's son, Joseph, goes missing, leading the legendary captain on a quest to get him back. Meanwhile, Kirk is convinced that Spock is still alive, despite Starfleet's belief that he is, in fact, dead. However, there remains a tenuous link between Kirk and Spock, with the former seeming to hear the latter's voice in his head saying, "we're life, Jim, but not as they know it." The meaning behind this cryptic phrase will become clear towards the end of the novel.

I found myself surprised by how much I enjoyed Captain's Glory. Readers of my earlier reviews know that I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the "Shatnerverse" novels, with their rampant Kirk-worship and outlandish plots that serve to feed the "Kirk is a god" narrative. However, I found a lot to enjoy in this novel. It's almost a shame that this is the final Shatnerverse novel set in the 24th century.

Almost.

One aspect I very much enjoyed was the facing off between Picard and Kirk. I remember when Star Trek: Generations came out, and a number of fans were disappointed we didn't get the "superhero fight" between the two captains, each on a bridge facing each other down with starships. We do get that scene in Captain's Glory, and even though the premise of the scene does bug me, I truly enjoyed the psychology at play between the characters. They match each other move for move, and because the two of them know each other so well at this point, they each are able to get into the other's head and anticipate their next move. The result is a fun scenario that uses both of these characters to their full potentials.

Fans who were looking for a Kirk vs. Picard situation in Star Trek: Generations kind of get that in this novel. While they are still friends, there is a situation that is engineered to pit the famous captains against one another.

The revelation of the nature of the Totality was fascinating as well. The idea that they make up 96% of the universe while traditional matter makes up only 4% was a fun concept, and fits well with the ideas that scientists have today about dark matter. The fact that the motivation of the Totality is not one of evil but rather one of misunderstanding and good intentions is a very Star Trek idea.

Surprising to me as well were the tie-ins to other Star Trek books in Captain's Glory. I tend to think of the Shatnerverse novels as very separate from the rest of the litverse, so it was a pleasant surprise that Captain's Glory used so much of the rest of Trek literature to fill out the universe. We see Riker's crew aboard the U.S.S. Titan, including first officer Christine Vale, tactical officer Tuvok, helmsman Aili Lavena, and others. Additionally, there was a "blink and you'll miss it" reference to the Q Continuum novels by Greg Cox!

Final thoughts:

I suppose if the Shatnerverse novels set in the 24th century are to end, this is a good one to end on. Easily the strongest novel of the back half of the series, if not the entire series, Captain's Glory finally seems to get it right. I can't exactly say that I'll miss reading about the exploits of James T. Kirk in the 24th century, as I found many of the novels to be pretty sub-par. However, Captain's Glory is a fun exception with some great character moments and excellent ideas within its pages. A very strong note to end on. 4/5.


Also by Williams Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens:

• Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden (1994)
• Star Trek: The Return (1996)
• Star Trek: Avenger (1997)
• Star Trek: Spectre (1998)
• Star Trek: Dark Victory (2000)
• Star Trek: Preserver (2001)
• Star Trek: Captain's Peril (2002)
• Star Trek: Captain's Blood (2003)
• Star Trek: Academy: Collision Course (2007)

More about Captain's Glory:

• Podcast: Literary Treks 223: We're Life, Jim, but Not as They Know It

My next read:

At last, the final Star Trek novel penned by William Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens: Academy: Collision Course.

Captain's Blood

Star Trek
Captain's Blood by William Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Published December 2003
Read February 7^th 2018

Previous book (Shatnerverse): Captain's Peril
Next book (Shatnerverse): Captain's Glory

Purchase:
Hardcover: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
Mass-market paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Spoilers ahead for Captain's Blood!

From the back cover:

Following the explosive events of Star Trek Nemesis, the Romulan Star Empire is in disarray, and Ambassador Spock attempts to render aid by launching a last-ditch effort to reunify the Romulans with their distant forebearers, the Vulcans. But when Spock is publicly assassinated at a Romulan peace rally, Starfleet and the Federation are unable to search for the criminals responsible without triggering an intergalactic war. 

Thus, it falls to James T. Kirk, now retired, to investigate his beloved friend's murder. Given clandestine assistance by Captain William T. Riker of the Starship Titan, and accompanied by his good friend Jean-Luc Picard, Kirk travels to Romulus as a civilian, along with his five-year-old child, Joseph, the cantankerous Doctor McCoy, retired Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, as well as several members of Picard's crew, still waiting to return to duty on the badly damaged USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E. But on Romulus' sister world, Remus, Kirk unexpectedly encounters an alluring enemy from his past as Picard and he discover Spock's apparent murder hides an even deeper mystery, reaching beyond the limits of the galaxy. 

Trapped on a deadly, alien world on the eve of a Romulan civil war that could plunge the galaxy into a civilization-ending conflict, Kirk's investigation brings him to the heart of a staggering conspiracy. As he discovers the true threat facing the Romulans, he realizes that he must sacrifice the freedom of his son, whose very blood holds the secret to his destiny. Captain's Blood brings together both generations in a battle for the existence of all life in this galaxy, and beyond.

My thoughts:

Captain's Blood is the second book in William Shatner's "Totality" trilogy, and as such, I feel like it learned a few lessons from the first book, Captain's Peril. For one thing, in both books, certain characters are under the impression that a major Star Trek character has perished. In Captain's Peril, the authors attempted to maintain that charade for a large portion of the book, much to its detriment, in my opinion. However, in Captain's Blood, the readers are made aware of the deception very early on, a tactic that I felt worked much better.

However, this assumed death brings me to my first big complaint about Captain's Blood. Spock's reasoning for faking his death in front of a crowd of 3000 Romulans is apparently because he wanted to remove himself from the public stage in a very dramatic fashion so that his message of peace and reunification between the Vulcans and Romulans would be enhanced. Does this seem at all logical? I have a hard time believing that Spock would be a willing part of this plan, let alone conceive of it himself. Deception on this scale does not seem to be Spock's style.

Spock makes what I feel to be an oddly illogical decision in Captain's Blood.

However, there is a lot more to like in this novel than in the previous one. The Totality feels like a real threat, and tying it into the events and revelations from Star Trek Nemesis worked quite well. I enjoyed the exploration of the Remans, including their origin as well as learning a bit more about their culture. I felt that Nemesis didn't really do enough to explain them, and I appreciated that we got a chance to discover more about them here. The idea of "Shinzon" being a title rather than a proper name was a nice retcon, and the role that Kirk's son, Joseph, played in the story as the new Reman Shinzon was fascinating.

Captain's Blood provides a better exploration of the Remans than Star Trek Nemesis, in my opinion.

Speaking of Kirk's son, Joseph Kirk turns out to be a particularly interesting character. Possessing a number of odd characteristics thanks to his blend of Human, Romulan, and Klingon heritage, Joseph was born intersex; in fact, his full name is Joseph Samuel T'Kol T'Lan Kirk, a name that combines masculine and feminine qualities. By his own choice, he is referred to as male by the other characters in Captain's Blood.

The threat faced by James T. Kirk and the rest of the galaxy, the Totality, is personified in the character of Norinda, the alien woman who "tested" Kirk in the flashback portion of the story from the previous novel, Captain's Peril. I find it oddly coincidental that she would be at the center of a story that Kirk just happened to tell Picard shortly before she resurfaces as the primary threat facing the Federation in this novel. However, that strange detail aside, I think the Totality works as a threat. The menace they represent is certainly worthy of the story, and they provided a great deal of tension in the novel.

The end of the novel is, expectedly, a cliffhanger as we head into the final book in the trilogy: Captain's Glory.

Final thoughts:

While Captain's Blood is plagued by many of the same issues that the rest of the "Shatnerverse" novels suffer from (an over-abundance of Kirk-worship, Picard and his crew being forever upstaged by the legendary James T. Kirk), the novel is a definite improvement over the previous story, Captain's Peril. The events of that novel seem starkly unconnected to this book and the one that follows, despite ostensibly being the first part of a trilogy. A few strange character motivations are offset by an interesting exploration of the Remans (better than in Nemesis, in my opinion), as well as an interesting threat posed by the Totality. 3/5.

Also by William Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens:

• Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden (1994)
• Star Trek: The Return (1996)
• Star Trek: Avenger (1997)
• Star Trek: Spectre (1998)
• Star Trek: Dark Victory (2000)
• Star Trek: Preserver (2001)
• Star Trek: Captain's Peril (2002)
• Star Trek: Captain's Glory (2006)
• Star Trek: Academy: Collision Course (2007)

More about Captain's Blood:

• Podcast: Literary Treks 220: I Wanna Know What Love Is

My next read:

Next up: the conclusion to the Totality trilogy: Captain's Glory by William Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens.

Captain's Peril

Star Trek:
Captain's Peril by William Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Published October 2002
Read January 9^th 2018

Previous book (Shatnerverse): Preserver
Next book (Shatnerverse): Captain's Blood

Purchase:
Hardcover: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
Mass-market paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Spoilers ahead for Captain's Peril!

From the back cover:

The Dominion War is over. The Federation is at peace. What better time for two legendary starship captains to set aside the demands of duty and simply take some well-deserved time off?  

But when James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard arrive on Bajor to dive among the ruins of an ancient sunken city, conditions are far from what they had planned. The small group of scientists the captains have joined suddenly find their equipment sabotaged -- isolating them from Deep Space Nine and any hope of rescue -- as one by one, a murderer stalks them. 

Cut off from the people and technology on which they have always depended, Kirk and Picard must rely more than ever on their own skills and abilities, and their growing friendship, to solve the mysterious deaths and protect one of Bajor's greatest living treasures. 

At the same time, Kirk finds the events he and Picard struggle with are similar to one of the first challenges he faced as the new captain of the Starship Enterprise, less than six months into his first five-year mission. 

Now, with time running out for a dying child trapped in the scientists' camp, and Picard missing after a diving disaster, Kirk must search his memories of the past to relive one of his earliest adventures, propelling him into a harrowing personal journey that reveals the beginning of his path from young Starfleet officer to renowned legend, and the existence of a new and completely unsuspected threat to the existence of all life in the universe. 

From the breathtaking shores of Bajor's Inland Sea to the welcoming arms of a seductive and deadly alien commander intent on making Kirk her own, Star Trek: Captain's Peril is the exciting new novel that spans space and time to present Captain Kirk's most personal, and most extreme, adventure yet.

My thoughts:

Captain James T. Kirk has had an eventful few years in the 24th century after having been resurrected by the Borg in the novel The Return. Along with Picard and the crew of the Enterprise, he has saved the galaxy from the likes of Vulcan extremists, interlopers from the Mirror Universe (including his own mirror counterpart), and The Preservers, a "super race" that manipulates events throughout the universe to conform to their own design.

Now, he faces his greatest challenge yet: a vacation on Bajor with Picard.

I'm serious. The A plot of this novel has Kirk and Picard enjoying a holiday together, a vacation which includes an orbital sky-diving accident that nearly claims their lives. This is an interesting enough development, but the sky-diving incident takes up three chapters of this novel alone.

I found much of the A plot of Captain's Peril to be a plodding, slow-moving, confused mess. After the near-death experience of a sky-dive with faulty equipment (which is totally down to negligence on the part of Kirk in my opinion), Kirk and Picard get swept up in a murder investigation among a community of rural Bajorans. The pair play investigators until an incident at sea leads to Picard being presumed dead. This is a part of the novel that truly annoyed me. We (the readers) know for a fact that Picard cannot be dead. The book takes place in between Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis, and Picard would never be killed off in a novel. Nevertheless, I got the impression that Captain's Peril tried very hard to convince me that he was really, actually dead. While the reactions that Kirk has to this are interesting, the jeopardy is completely manufactured as, over the course of a number of chapters, the book continues to attempt to convince the reader that Picard has died.

We also get the latest in a series of situations in which Kirk has to show that he is the absolute best. In this case, it has to do with his newfound knowledge and understanding of the Bajoran religion. He and he alone is the one to determine the true nature of a sea creature and the link it has to the Bajoran Prophets (yes, I am aware of how strange that sentence is). Not only does he routinely outsmart Picard and his crew in these books, but now he's even better at the Bajoran religion than Sisko, who is the Prophets' Emissary! Thanks to Kirk's deep understanding of the relationship between the Bajorans and the Prophets (acquired over the course of a few chapters in this novel, it seems), he is able to save the life of a Bajoran girl and solve a mystery that has stumped everyone else.

Another issue I had with Captain's Peril is its treatment of the Bajorans. Granted, the Bajorans we see in this novel are particularly rural and provincial, but they are depicted as "backwater" and prejudiced to a degree that I found to be patronizing. Kirk and Picard swoop in and "save" them, but of course are initially misunderstood and feared. The way the book treats the Bajorans is, frankly, insulting.

The B plot of the book, which is a flashback to Kirk's earliest days as captain of the Enterprise, is much better than the rest of the story. We see Kirk coming face to face with an enigmatic alien woman, and he must compete with the Klingons for access to her advanced technology. This story was fascinating, and obviously sets up events to come in the next two novels. I especially liked Kirk and Spock's early interactions, as they lent an interesting perspective to the close relationship that would eventually form between the two life-long friends.

Another positive is the epilogue, in which the U.S.S. Monitor (previously seen in the novel The Return) comes face-to-face with The Totality in interstellar space. The hook at the end was just enough to get me interested in the novels that follow.

Final thoughts:

The "Shatnerverse" books have had their ups and downs; there are some genuinely great reads among them. Sadly, Captain's Peril is not one of those. The story wasn't one that captivated me at any point, and instead served to further inflate the already-over-the-top image of Captain Kirk's greatness. The book's depiction of the Bajorans also disappointed me. The story is somewhat elevated by the flashback scenes to the early days of Kirk's first five-year mission, as well as an exciting epilogue, but overall the story can't escape its pedestrian A-plot. 1/5.

Also by Williams Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens:

• Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden (1994)
• Star Trek: The Return (1996)
• Star Trek: Avenger (1997)
• Star Trek: Spectre (1998)
• Star Trek: Dark Victory (2000)
• Star Trek: Preserver (2001)
• Star Trek: Captain's Blood (2003)
• Star Trek: Captain's Glory (2006)
• Star Trek: Academy: Collision Course (2007)

More about Captain's Peril:

• Podcast: Literary Treks 217: Agree to Disagree

My next read:

Next up: a video review of Kirsten Beyer's latest Voyager novel: The Architects of Infinity!

Preserver

Star Trek
Preserver by William Shatner
Published April 2001
Read July 25^th 2017

Previous book (Shatnerverse): Dark Victory
Next book (Shatnerverse): Captain's Peril

Purchase:
Hardcover: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
Mass-market paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Spoilers ahead for Preserver!

From the back cover:

In the Mirror Universe the tyrannical Emperor Tiberius, once captain of the ISS Enterprise, had great success turning captured alien weaponry to his advantage. Until, that is, his failure to seize the tantalising advances of the ancient First Federation. Now, in the more peaceful universe of the United Federation of Planets, Tiberius sees his second chance. And a new ally will help him take it - his alter ego for whom he has nothing but contempt - Starfleet Captain James T. Kirk. Honorable, idealistic and decent, James T. Kirk is many things Tiberius is not. But he is also a man deeply in love with his wife - and Teilani is dying. To save her life, Kirk is prepared to compromise his ideals and enter into his most dangerous alliance yet. Battling Captain Jean-Luc Picard and a new generation of Starfleet heroes, Kirk must guide Tiberius to a long-abandoned First Federation base which conceals a power so great it will enable Tiberius to conquer the mirror universe - and his own. But on that journey Kirk uncovers long-hidden secrets that raise the stakes far beyond the mere survival of family and friends. At the heart of their quest, something else is waiting: an object from a civilisation whose technology is far more advanced than any Kirk or Tiberius could hope to acquire, placed there for Kirk's eyes only by mysterious aliens who appear to have influenced life within the galaxy over eons of time - a message from the Preservers...

My thoughts:

As the title of this novel suggests, the enigmatic "Preservers" are at the heart of the story. The implication in Preserver is that this species is responsible for galaxy-changing events and interference spanning billions of years. They may even be the same race of ancient humanoids seen in the TNG episode "The Chase," responsible for "seeding" worlds throughout our galaxy and giving rise to the humanoid form that is so common in the Star Trek universe. However, the only canon reference to the Preservers comes to us from the TOS episode "The Paradise Syndrome," in which it is revealed that they were responsible for transplanting a community of Native Americans from Earth to another planet. Seeing as this would have to have occurred within the last 10,000 years, I always find it strange that the Preservers are linked to events that span billions of years. Preserver isn't the only story to do this; other sources such as Star Trek Online have also postulated an ancient origin for the Preservers.

The Preservers, mentioned in the TOS episode "The Paradise Syndrome," feature heavily in this novel. However, they are implied to be quite different from the beings that are explored in that episode.

This issue aside, Preserver is actually a fascinating conclusion to Shatner's Mirror Universe trilogy. We learn a lot about why things are the way they are in the Trek universe, and much of it comes down to the actions of the Preservers. Many Trek fans were put out by the revelations of the influence a computer AI had on the early Federation as revealed in David Mack's Section 31: Control, but I would contend that the Preservers' impact as outlined in this novel is much greater and more far-reaching. For example, we learn that they were likely responsible for placing people in key positions in order to shape the outcome of the universe, such as ensuring that James T. Kirk became captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Come to think of it, this may explain why everything worked out the way it did in the 2009 Star Trek film...

The story itself wraps up the trilogy in a satisfying manner. One complaint I do have, however, is the death of Kirk's wife, Teilani. I felt she was too important a character to essentially "fridge" in this manner, and her death felt empty, as it seems to just be motivation for Kirk rather than important to Teilani's story. However, I do understand that William Shatner was working through some things during the creation of this novel, including the tragic death of his wife, and it has been suggested to me that this plot point may have stemmed from that terrible incident.

An interesting aspect of the story is the idea that all of the parallel earths we see in Star Trek: The Original Series (see: "Miri," "Bread and Circuses," "The Omega Glory," et al.) were created by the Preservers as "experiments," trying different theories and outcomes by changing variables. In fact, the mirror universe itself was created via the Preservers as well.

In a Star Trek: Discovery easter egg, we see a Preserver obelisk. Might that series one day explore the origins of this enigmatic race?

After finishing two of the three "Shatnerverse" trilogies, I have to say I am pleasantly surprised by the quality of the stories. Sure, there is far too much Kirk-worship for my tastes, but if you go in with that expectation, there are some good stories to be found here. I'm certain that much of that is due to the writing expertise of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Their stories have been consistently excellent, and it's good to see that their abilities are put to good use by the Shatnerverse, even if the basic premise and heroic acts of James T. Kirk strain credibility.

Final thoughts:

A fine conclusion to the Mirror Universe Shatner trilogy, but nothing extremely groundbreaking. The usual tropes are here, and the plot itself didn't completely wow me. I was fascinated by the revelations about the Preservers and role they play in creating the multiverse, but the fact that the conclusions the story comes to don't jive well with what is established about them in canon doesn't sit extremely well with me. 3/5.

More about Preserver:

• Podcast: Literary Treks 199: Star Trek Murder Board

Also by William Shatner (with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens):

• Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden (1994)
• Star Trek: The Return (1996)
• Star Trek: Avenger (1997)
• Star Trek: Spectre (1998)
• Star Trek: Dark Victory (2000)
• Star Trek: Captain's Peril (2002)
• Star Trek: Captain's Blood (2003)
• Star Trek: Captain's Glory (2006)
• Star Trek: Academy: Collision Course (2007)

My next read:

Up next is a novel from the late days of the TOS numbered novels era: Mudd in Your Eye by Jerry Oltion.