Customer Reviews

Enterprise (Star Trek: My Brother's Keeper, Book 3)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Enterprise begins with Kirk having to go through the gut wrenching process of having to tell Gary Mitchell's parent's about their son's death. He has the internal struggle of either lying to them to save face or telling the truth and dealing with it. In this one, we also get the back story of how Kirk was reunited with "Bones" and invited him to serve on the Enterprise. The Klingon's in the story are extremely interesting as well. Overall, another great story by Michael Jan Friedman. I would recommend this trek trilogy to any and all Star Trek fans who would like to get the back story of the relationship between Kirk and Mitchell. Thank you to the author!

James T. Kirk is on planet earth to do two painful things in his life. First, he must give the eulogy for his friend Gary Mitchell. Second, he must tell Gary's parents that he killed their only son. Such a burden would tear anyone apart.

While on earth, Kirk meets an old friend, Dr. McCoy, and is able to tell him about the facts surrounding Gary's death. Once done, Kirk looks back at another critical time in his career as Captain of the Enterprise where Gary has shaped his career.

In this final volume of the three part series, My Brother's Keeper, we come to the conclusion of a friendship that has grown throughout the years only to be marred by death. Enterprise explores whether Kirk can truly be a Captain of his ship or must he depend upon every word of his friend Gary? His resolve is tested as his ship is taken over by enhanced Klingons determined to destroy the Federation as well as their own empire.

The presence of the Klingons on his ship answers the mystery that long plagued Kirk and Mitchell for fourteen years while cadets on the Republic and later on the Constitution. The two are reunited with their old officers and an "old flame" who are not willing to share "classified" information with the Captain.

Michael Friedman does another good job in providing us with a moving story. You see a man still grabbling with his demons of guilt and also a young Captain learning to regard the opinions of all his crew members during atrying time. Excitement, adventure and intrigue is packed in this last novel of a man who had a great impact on Kirk's life. You will witness growth and maturity in both of them as they become true leaders of Starfleet.

Michael Jan Friedman has a way of making these characters come to life as if they were on the screen again. After reading this trilogy of books, watch "Where No Man Has Gone Before" again and see it for the first time. Who can ask for more than that...

The Star Trek 'My Brothers Keeper' 3-book series tells the story of how Jim Kirk became the type of person that could do the amazing things that brought him fame. At times the stories suggest how if he had been 'normal' or had more 'normal' friends he would've gone some other direction-for instance, when he couldn't take any more death and suffering by people under his command he could've gone to an academic life, but then he would've missed all the adventures that exploring space brought! Also, because of his peculiar relationships with his core friends his personality shifted to such that he did things differently from what others would've in the same situation, which expanded the range of adventures and often helped save his life as well as the lives of many others through the years.

The small series is well written, many action scenes and many 'philosophic' discussions, a little bureaucratic detail for reality, a little pondering on Vulcan logic, but the author did a great job to not go beyond his abilities with any of them so it all fits together really well (as an aside, many writers try to 'explain' Vulcan thinking, and build some carefully constructed logical argument for a course of action but they end up going way over their ability by making facts fit their argument and ignore other perspectives or facts, they end up sounding just stupid and stubborn instead of logical. It's best to just make a decision and stick with it, and not try to explain why it's "the logical choice").

From this series Jim Kirk and the Star Trek universe is shown in its real glory! The people are hard working, studious, sometimes overly academic, always trying to balance fun with work and keeping some physical outlet that explains how they can meet the physical challenges (Kirk is a gymnast, so is very flexible and able to move quickly and gracefully even when fighting). This small series is easy to read and gives probably the best introduction to the Star Trek ideals. Enjoy!

I am not a big Jan Michael Friedman fan and this book is an example of why. First of all, the story was completely predictable without a single surprise; not one. But there is a deeper problem, and that derives from some of Friedman's writing mannerisms. He uses adjectives and pronouns in a cloying, irritating way, to wit: The upperclassman (meaning Kirk) and his companion (meaning Gary Mitchell) did this or that, and Kirk's friend (meaning Mitchell) alerted his pal (meaning Kirk) etc. etc. I did not know quite how to characterize this writing style, except to say that I found it to be almost unbearably annoying and distracting from the story. How many ways in one sentence does Friedman need to tell us that Kirk and Mitchell were friends? And this is a sappy, weak story in common with Friedman's other lamentable books about Kirk and Mitchell.

I know that Friedman has a following, and that's fine. But I did not enjoy this book and I generally do not enjoy Friedman's writing, although I tried to.

There is certainly plenty of action here, but there's some thought and character development, too. Plus an attempt to explain the evolution of Klingons from the mostly human-looking characters seen in the original series to the brow-ridged beings seen in the movies and later series, an attempt which predates that seen in the "Enterprise" series, and which, frankly, works much better. Almost worth five stars, but there are a few flaws in continuity that mar it just enough to bring it down a star, most prominent among them the fact that if Kirk and Kang not only knew one another, but had successfully worked together before, it presumably woudln't have been NEARLY so hard to presuade Kang to trust Kirk enough to work with him in "Day of the Dove". Of course, one could claim that that was due to the influence of the alien energy-being, just as Chekov's mania was, but one would assume that SOMEBODY might have remembered the occasion and commented on it. And it's totally unnecessary; there's no reason why this couldn't have been some random Klingon rather than one we saw later in the original series. And if the claim is that this IS a random stranger who just HAPPENS to have the same name, there's no good reason for that, either. Surely Friedman could have come up with some other Klingon-sounding name that didn't duplicate one from the series.

Has i mention before i just the star trek books and this one is no exception since i had one and two I knew i had to have the third one.

Rondall Banks

This short series was the perfect story arc for the enigmatic Gary Mitchell and the lasting impact he had on all of us in the TV series episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and now, in print, really driving home the fact that Captain Kirk really loved this dear friend as a brother and, thus, took causing his death hard. This short series is fantastic and all three books, even as stand-alones, equal and surpass such sci-fi books as: "Foundation", "Ringworld", "2001", "Childhood's End", "Starship Troopers", "I,Robot", "Advent of the Corps", and many other great books of sci-fi adventure.

This novel focuses on how Kirk, Gary Mitchell, and their fellow crew members dealt with Gary's death. Kirk returns home to Earth sadly, and tells Gary's folks about how brave Gary was in dealing with hijacking genetically-engineered Klingons--before Kirk met with Khan in "Space Seed" and the movie "Wrath of Khan". One thing bothers me about the book's cover: why does it show Gary Lockwood as Gary Mitchell at an earlier age than the cover on My Brother's Keeper #1?

James T Kirk is one of the greatest fictional character's of all time. The series of star books chronicling his voyages on the star ship enterprise are enjoyable to read and compare to Hartio Hornblower or similar character's. The author makes a lot of story line on somebody from only one esisode of star trek. you should see this epsoide and compare it to the book. Also, you should read the first voyage of the enterprise.