Customer Reviews

Captain's Glory (Star Trek)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Star Trek books by William Shatner (and Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens) have always been an entity of their own, away from the normal Trek novel continuity and featuring (sometimes to a fault) a rejuvenated James T. Kirk in the Next Generation timeline. While I didn't enjoy the Mirror Universe trilogy (I don't think I even read the last book), Captain's Blood was rather enjoyable. Perhaps that was because of the Romulans? The test of that would come with Captain's Glory, Shatner's new novel, which doesn't feature any Romulans whatsoever. Surprisingly, that didn't matter. I actually enjoyed it much more than Captain's Blood, making a winner of an ending for this particular trilogy.

After helping avert a Romulan civil war and the Empire's destruction by the Totality, Kirk decides he wants to just take care of his son, Joseph. However, Admiral Janeway has given him a sweet offer, a ship of his own with a lot of hidden abilities, as long as he'll help Starfleet when he's called. Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Joseph are making the rounds of the galaxy, but strange dreams of Norinda (an agent of the Totality) and his past are still haunting him. He is determined to discover the fate of Spock, who was seemingly absorbed by Norinda into the Totality. It seems to be on the move again, and this time it's using the warp drives of starships to invade the Federation. It seems that the warp fields generated by the ships' engines open a window that they can come through, but doing so causes the drives to overload. Starship traffic is brought to a standstill, with any ships containing newer drives unable to use them. Thankfully, the Enterprise was refitted with an old one after Nemesis, so it can still run! How convenient. The remains of Starfleet High Command are forced into hiding, with the reach of the Totality everywhere, and only Captains Picard and Riker, along with a certain ego-centric 23rd century relic, can stop it. Kirk is mainly interested in saving his son, but in doing so, he may save the galaxy.

One thing I love about the Shatner books is the use of continuity, tying many things from the old series together, along with the occasional new item as well. I'm normally a rabid anti-continuity person, but for some reason, Shatner's books are just fun that way. We get references to many old episodes, one of which is very important to the plot. We also get some novel continuity, with the crew of Riker's ship, the Titan, being exactly the same as that of the Titan novel series. This is actually news, as the Shatner books are generally considered "out of continuity" with the rest of the novel line (perhaps so Shatner and his co-authors don't have to keep up on all of the lines?). They're not used much, so the authors really only had to be familiar with the names themselves. They don't even have enough lines that you could say whether or not they're in character.

Shatner portrays Kirk (much like Captain's Blood as weary of the demands of Starfleet and duty, mainly interested in his son and raising him in as peaceful environment as possible. He has his friends with him, and he's determined that Spock was not killed on Remus, but instead was transported in some way. Admiral Janeway is almost his equal in both stubbornness and will, and some of their arguments are a joy to watch. You can see the underlying respect both have for each other even as Kirk keeps getting tired of her. In fact, after a couple of teaser scenes, that's how the book starts, with an argument. Kirk was given the ship to do with as he pleased as long as he agreed to run occasional missions at Janeway's request. One of the missions Kirk refused because it would put Joseph (and his friends too, who are both now civilians) in harm's way. I'll ignore the fact, for the moment, that this would seemingly apply to most missions, making this situation stand on shaky ground to begin with.

My animosity toward most of the Shatner books has to do with the fact that Kirk almost becomes a superhero in them, saving the day and able to do almost anything in them. Even Captain's Blood had its share of that, bringing it down in my opinion. Captain's Glory on the other hand, tones it down a bit, perhaps because of Janeway. Yes, it has Kirk saving the day again, but this time it seems more logical because his son is intimately involved with the whole thing. In fact, Joseph's instrumental in the resolution. And yes, it has the inevitable confrontation between Picard and Kirk, where both sides feel that they are in the right and are determined to force the other one to see their point of view. In Captain's Glory, the sequence is almost laughable as both Captains are willing to allow great damage to their ships because they're too stubborn to trust one another. This is mitigated a little bit (but not much) by Riker eventually calling them both out for being extremely silly, and their chastised reactions are classic.

The Totality is an interesting villain, more of a force then anything else, and thus even more malevolent. They don't actually think they are doing anything wrong, instead trying to get the "lesser life-forms" to see the true meaning of the universe (which our minds are unequipped to handle). They truly believe that they are doing what's best for us and don't understand our resistance to it. The authors even do a good job of spreading this explanation for the Totality around so that it doesn't come out in one massive infodump (another failing of the previous book). And it's much more interesting than the Mirror-Kirk from Shatner's previous series.

All in all, Captain's Glory is a great finale to this trilogy. It had a stumble in the middle, and I never read the first one, but this one gets the balance almost right. There are still annoying passages, and the Kirk-love is still there, but I actually didn't roll my eyes too often during this one. It's probably the best Shatner book I've read in a while.

David Roy

I have read everyone of the Shatner Kirk books since Ashes of Eden and I have greatly enjoyed everyone of them. There is nobody better to write a Kirk adventure than the man that invented Captain James T. Kirk. I've read a lot of Star Trek novels in my life time and none have fascinated me more than Shatner's Trek novels. With that said I want to review Captain's Glory.

One of the greatest aspects of this book is the pace of the story. There are hardly any slow times during the book where something is not happening. From the beginning to the end I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know what was going to happen. The creation of the Totality is absolutely superb and what makes it so great is there has never been a villian quite like them. Norinda is such a great character and the interaction between Norinda and Kirk is excellent.

One of the things that Shatner has done better than any other Star Trek author is bridging the gap between the T.V. shows. Clearly, Shatner is a fan of Next generation and Voyager because those are the main characters in this trilogy. I really hope that authors in the future are able to do half as well as Shatner has with this aspect, and if they do there should be plenty of interesting Trek novels in the future.

Some have commented that the ending is not that good or not what they expected. I thought the pace and how Shatner brings all 9 of his Kirk novels into a final "finale" was excellent and very well written. The ending was very satisifying for me and I don't think Shatner could have ended his saga any better.

It's sad this will be the last of his Kirk novels but I couldn't have asked for a better bookend than Captain's Glory. Well done Mr. Shatner. Well done. Thank you for 11 great years of Star Trek "Glory".

Being a fan of most Star Trek books and all of their shows and movies, (Except for the total idiotic way "Enterprise" was betrayed and wasted for the true fans), I have found Judith and Garfield Reeves-Steven's Shatner books on Trek the very best in all of the Trek media available.

They often employ the best tactical believe-ability in Trek action, motivation and logical conclusions in their story-planning, plotting and telling. The Ashes of Eden was a great start, followed by the more invigorating "The Return" and "Avenger", Kirk in TNG's timeline was really hitting his stride.

Kirk's marriage to Teilani opened up doors and more possibilities, and with a great Mirror Universe Trilogy to follow, Kirk had his best action ever. ("Dark Spectre" probably being the best) Sure, Shatner books focus more on Kirk coming up with the heroic resolutions and action, but Riker played his usual "I can relate to saddle-swinging Kirk as well as prolific Picard" self. Picard was always handled pretty well and in an expected manner, Janeway was just as you'd expect, from where Voyager and Nemesis left her off.

So now we have the conclusion to the Totality trilogy, which unfortunately is kind of like a typical Peter David 'New Frontier' letdown at the end. Instead of their usual large scale tactical Trek realism, the Reeves-Stevens elects to put us in a little bit of a 'kooky 1960's angle' of believing the Totality is the end-all, be-all abundant actual mass of the universe's 'dark matter' that loves us so blindly, they need to kill us all off to see their point of view. The entire storyline is somewhat contradicting and self-defeating. If the Totality loves themselves enough to describe their own need to be left alone by light matter, then why love us so much as to force us into their dark matter dimension of life against our will, against the very pattern of evolution they had for themselves?

Poor Joseph Kirk has to become something that is a such a stretch, even by a wide-ranging Sci-Fi evolution standard, that what happens to him is impossible to accept. Kirk again must face over-whelming personal tragedy that would make most of us readers insane, despite the strengths of our various characters.

The Picard/Kirk wit matching in this book is good, the ideas of the Totality's attack are great, but I do believe another HUGE careless mistake from the 1960's would be to believe that any human being would last for long in 400% gravity. I do believe most scientists declare that to be instantly lethal. I even liked how Counselor Troi was contributing truly valuable impressions for a change. Spock and McCoy, who were great in the previous novels are downplayed a bit, and Worf, now first officer of the Enterprise was a commenting non-factor at best.

This book was a fine read for the characterizations and story strategies the Reeves-Stevens always provide, and not boring like a lot of J.M. Friedman novels, but the enemy we're left with is un-believeable at best, ridiculous from Spock's explanation of their true nature, up and until how they act at the end. I was wondering how many more times Kirk was going to think or declare "This time I'm really dead..." before he passes into oblivion. It happens so much in the last four chapters, you're being dragged around with morbid expectations.

I think the Reeves-Steven's had to rush this book over martinis and vacations once Enterprise's TV run ended. For what was great story inventiveness, something you can count on from them, there are too many weak points in this novel that are hard to swallow about this story's conflict. Heck, did we have to have ANOTHER alien force take on the shape of sexy woman for Kirk? I sure do miss the true action sequences and smart strategies everyone employed in the Mirror Universe trilogy.

I give this 3 out of 5 stars, because they do keep the magic of the best in Jim Kirk's spirit soaring with the latest day crew of TNG etc. I'm sorry this last trilogy to be done by Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens was not as climactic as the previous one, it's not bad, just not good enough. To be the last such trilogy they do together, I wanted them to care enough on this one to do it far better than the "Totality" development and conclusion. At the end of "Captain's Peril", the first book of this trilogy, it looked as though it might be bigger than a well-done Borg invasion. But, after the often-confusing second book, this third and final one left too much assumed, and not as logically developed as their previous works.

To get down to it, this was, for the most part, a pretty good book. Up until the ending, I felt it was the best out of the "Captain's ..." trilogy and it reminded me a lot of the Shatner & Co.'s Preserver saga. For once, there's a fair balance between Kirk's characterization and those of the other characters. Picard is written to be Kirk's equal on many fronts instead of being his lacky or sidekick as he at times comes off as in the previous books. There were some good crossover moments as well, including Voyager's Admiral Kathryn interacting with Kirk and Picard's crews, Riker and the Titan being involved, a glimpse at the Enterprise-E's new crew, Voyager's EMH Doctor and McCoy and Scotty backing up Kirk.

This book did have its flaws which held it back from being a hit like earlier works. It's the classic Trek plot; the entire Federation and Earth are being threatened and Kirk/Picard are the ones who can make a difference. While the problem the Federation faces is somewhat original, it's been done in the novels before in small ways. Also, the book had a feeling of "The Search for Spock" part II in modern Trek times. The enemy, the Totality and Norinda who embodies it (sort of as the Borg Queen represents all that the Borg are) perhaps a true Original Series enemies; they have an idea of how to bring or offer peace to a troubled universe and offer love as an alternative. The book hits its slump toward the end with a few-chapter long tactical battle between Kirk and Picard. It was interesting for a few pages; by the second chapter, it seemed to drag on. While the characterizations were pretty good, I found Riker and Janeway to be way off. Janeway was written to be some brooding, angry, short tempered typical "admiral of the episode" type of character. Riker seemed irrational, angry and just not himself at all. Worf was written as always growling and basically disagreeing with anything said. The EMH Doctor didn't seem necessary to the plot at all and Scotty and McCoy barely seemed needed other than to give Kirk someone to talk to when he wasn't interacting with Picard.

With those and other flaws that a reader or fan of Trek would pick up on, it was still a good book and a big improvement over "Captain's Peril" that started this trilogy. It actually seems to wrap up the Shatnerverse to this date; the plot involves bits and pieces of the Kirk story since Ashes of Eden, The Return and on through "Captain's Blood". There were some appearances of characters from the past novels and it also seemed to serve as a small reunion of sorts for the TNG crew which I actually liked; it does spoil "Death in Winter" for Picard/Crusher fans, it seems like it reveals a little about the new crew members on the Enterprise-E, Counselor Troi has a rather big part as the counselor/diplomatic officer in the novel. There are references to Deep Space Nine, but none of those characters appear in the plot. Even Janeway seems to be given more material and attention here than she does in the Voyageer-Relaunch novels.

In all, I'd recommend the book. It's fun, and it does echo Star Trek's ideals and messages. There's a conversation between Kirk and another Original Series character (I won't spoil it) that really seemed to capture the moment and remind the reader what Star Trek is all about. It's high in action and drama and only loses its steam toward the end with a "that's it?" sort of ending and conclusion.

I consider myself a big Trek fan -- I have never dressed the part nor attended a big convention, but I still love all the series and sorely miss the recently cancelled Enterprise (which receives a small mention). Of all the Trek theatrical releases, I consider Trek V the Final Frontier to be the all-time worst... and guess what? It was written and directed BY William Shatner. After that horrible outing, it took some desperate need to read something before I relented and bought a copy of 'The Ashes of Eden' in the bargain book section some years ago. I gotta tell you: it was instantly one of my favorite Trek novels. The resulting series with Judith & Gar Reeeves-Stevens have been seriously some of the best Trek fiction bar none ('Preserver' still remains my all-time favorite Trek novel). While the Mirror Universe trilogy was sub-par compared to the rest of Shatners books (but was still great) I found the Totality Trilogy that began with 'Captain's Peril' to be a slow start to an otherwise pretty good series. 'Captain's Blood' was better in all respects, and I was VERY anxious indeed to see where 'Glory' would lead the United Federation of Planets after a full-scale invasion from the Totality, quite possibly the most dangerous foe ever featured in all of the Trek Series.

One of the great strengths of the Shatner version of the Trek Universe (strongly influenced by his co-authors) is how almost all of the series crossover. Some fans strongly disagree with this, but I happen to VERY much enjoy storyline's from the original series that link together with Next Gen and soforth. Especially when it happens to be done as clever as Shatner has been able to pull it off. The Totality, which was introduced during Kirk's original 5-year Mission is slowly re-introduced beginning with 'Captain's Peril' and sits center stage here has become a most formidable foe indeed because how can you fight an enemy who can seemingly take over the bodies of literally anyone they choose without you even being able to tell, and does it all from the perspective of Love. How can Starfleet fight that? At the end of 'Captain's Blood' Spock was taken by the Totality, but is he truly gone? Well a quick reminder that this is Science Fiction and that Spock has on more than one occasion died on us only to come back, so the answer to that doesn't exactly require an intellectual leap. Some of the best sparring between Picard and Kirk happens here. Pitting both Captain's against one another DOES make for some entertaining reading. Unfortunately I found it to be a bit tiring overall. How many times can Kirk & Picard find themselves on opposite sides and still remain friends? Sure, their bond is a hard one to ignore, but it is precisely because of their bond that I found some of the scenes where they were reluctant adversaries to be a tad hard to swallow. I still enjoyed the novel a great deal, but Shatner needs to find a more fitting enemy for Kirk to overcome than Picard -- who ultimately ISN'T the enemy at all.

I also have to say that as I came to the end of the book I found it difficult to see how everything was going to be solved with so few pages left. The Totality seemed to be such an incredibly complex and huge danger to Starfleet that with so few pages left, I found it VERY hard to see how Kirk could possibly wrap it all up so quickly. It happens to be a minor gripe at best, but for me anyway, it was a valid one. You may believe differently. In ANY case, I still find Shatner's version of Trek to be one of the best, regardless of whether or not he follows previously established Trek lore. Give it a shot, I know I certainly am glad I did.

Received the book in perfect condition and am reading a little each day. It seems to be book #3 of an unstated triligy.

David.

William Shatner is my favorite audio book author. That stated, even he couldn't bring me to like this audio book like he did the first 4 starting with The Return. The storyline just seemed to be missing something and I was bored. Don't bother getting this if you want to be enthralled and captivated by his words-get the earlier audio books-not this or Captain's Blood either.

Bill Shatner has proven time and again that he is an author. His novels are easy to read and very enjoyable

Though I don't like to give books bad reviews, I must with this one. It is the same old story (Kirk saving the day, etc.). I HATE the way that Janeway acts in this book (very annoying and pompous) and am very glad that the Totality storyline is over. It is also ridiculous that McCoy is still alive (though a nebulous explanation is given for the reason why). Naturally, Spock is not dead either. I tend to place WS's books in an alternate TREK universe, myself. Buy this book only in a bargain bin sale, etc.

Star Trek: Captain's Glory by William Shatner and his long time companion writing duo the Reeves-Stevens is the third and final book in the "most recent" trilogy that puts the former Captain of the Enterprise (Kirk) and the current Captain of the Enterprise (Picard) against various threats, each other and time. Again.

If you don't follow Shatner's Star Trek books the entire series starts with "Ashes of Eden" and ends with this book. It's not necessary to read those books, although I highly recommend it.

For those of you who DO follow Shatner's books then you'll appreciate that this is a return to the strengths of the previous six books. It doesn't leave you waiting around hoping that "something happens soon" as the action starts fast and keeps going. The book is fast paced with little downtime, so you'll finish it quickly.

The first book of this trilogy was "Captains Peril" and had Kirk and Picard vacationing on Bajor. There was a lot of downtime compared to the previous six books and that let a lot of people down. The middle book, "Captains Blood" was more of the same - as if the first book was just a prelude. Which it was.

The first two book were just a round about way of bringing the bad guys in this book to light - the Totality.

The Totality are shape shifters, of a sorts, but worse than the ones on Deep Space Nine, if you follow that series. They're kind of like organized religion - you're a terrible person and you're going to suffer all eternity, but they love you. Go Figure.

Overall, this book will leave you satisfied and wraps up most if not all of the plot lines left open in the other 8 books.

Shatner (and Reeves-Stevens) do a great job with the Kirk and Picard characters, and while some of the other crew members such a Worf are fairly flat, they don't have a lot to do with this story so it's no big deal. The Riker character (and his new wife) were handled well.

Overall this book is enjoyable and if you suffered through the first two of this trilogy, then you'll be happy to know that you didn't waste your time, this book makes reading the first two worth it.