Customer Reviews

The Fearful Summons (Star Trek)

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

 

 

If you had read or listened to the Captain Sulu adventures, you probably will not like this book.

Sulu is captured, Kirk rescues him and the Excelsior. Paper thin plot.

Buy to complete your collection or if you have run out of other Star Trek books to read.

This novel, wrongly depicts Spock and many of the other characters. The only part I liked about it was when the author was looking onto what Sulu was doing. Spock in this novel is not as refined as he used to be. He says 'can't' and other things he did not used to say before. I would not recommend this book to you if you truly like Classic Trek.

Set in the period shortly after the sixth Star Trek movie, "The Undiscovered Country", the first half of this story focuses on Captain Sulu of the Excelsior and his crew, while the second half deals with Kirk and the remaining command crew of the Enterprise as they learn that Sulu is in trouble and come to the rescue. I have mixed feelings about the basic concept; I like to think that Sulu and his crew would be competent enough to manage on their own, without needing a bailout from the "Over The Hill Gang"; on the other hand, I can easily believe and appreciate that they'd all be loyal enough to charge to the resuce if he DID need it, and competent enough to succeed if they did. All in all, the writing is good if the proofreading was occasionally a bit off (errors such as the use of "moral" when what was clearly intended was "morale", "passed" when what was intended was "past", "eminent" when what was intended was "imminent", and "thought" when what was intended was "though" are among the errors that slipped through) and the characterizations are handled well.

As a loyal reader of TOS novels,I have to agree with the rest of the reviewers: this book ranks down there with Triangle and Ghost-Walker for worst TOS novels I have read in the Pocket Books line. The main beef I have with the author is that the dialogue and developement for the Enterprise crew is so out of charater and so unbelieveable, I had to end my reading of the book half way thru. You are better off spending your money on the Shatner books, at least the Reeves-Stevens' know how to write Trek!

How many times can you use the 'search and rescue' theme before it gets old? Even if that theme was underused, this book would still not be a good one. I'm tempted to ask the author if perhaps he really did ever write for ST:VI. The characters are unrealistic and go against everything we've come to know and love about them. Spock in the theatre? Be reasonable! Also unnecessary profanity and sexual innuendo. Hello! its not a dime novel. Author did not research thoroughly; his misuse of scientific and other Star Trek terms testifies to this. Also, if i had a nickel for every misspelling and typo, well you know how that goes. I was thoroughly disappointed with this book. It was hardly worth my time.

Clearly this author did not do his homework! Spoke is way off he is useing words like can't. This is not and has never been Spock. And the other Vulcan in the story SMILES!!! Further more his depiction of the Excelsiors capablities is way off. Missing is the banter between McCoy and Spock. In short a good story poorly writen by a author who does not know enough about Star Trek to write Star Trek books.

I'm completely stunned by the generally awful reviews The Fearful Summons has received. One reviewer has even compared The Fearful Summons to the dreaded Triangle - there can be no greater insult to a Trek writer! In reality, Flinn has brought us an extremely delightful Trek book - think the flavor of Next Gen's "All Good Things. . . " but with the original crew. Kirk in particular is well-developed here, true to the way we see him in Star Trek VI without being a caricature.

As in "All Good Things. . . " the crew of the Enterprise (this time -A instead of -D, of course) have gone their separate ways. When Captain Sulu is captured by a pseudo-Ferengi race, Kirk rounds up his shipmates one by one to go on a rescue mission. Along the way Kirk manages to get some female action (in a PG-13 setting), McCoy complains, Scotty tells tall tales, and Spock . . . well, Spock doesn't do much, but what he does do, he does logically. In short, there's a bit of everything in here that most Trek fans love about the original series.

There certainly are flaws. Despite writing in 1995 or 1996, Flinn appears to be completely oblivious to the events of Generations, which means an opportunity to show Demora Sulu is wasted, and there some plot holes one could fly a Galaxy class starship through. However, since one should never expect more than entertainment from a Trek book, the flaws are minor compared to an extremely satisfying Trek novel.

One final note - Pocket strikes again with poor packaging. This one is hardly a sequel to Star Trek VI. Other than taking place a year or so after the movie, the novel has no connection whatsoever to The Undiscovered Country.

The plot is boring and awful. It doesn't show much depth and chemistry between characters.

He hasn't even understood the meaning of honor.

The plot is great and it kept me wanting more for the entire novel. As an added gem, Kirk's round up of his crew was actually written to be at the beginning of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, but budget limitations prevented it from being filmed. Flinn used the script written for those scenes and transformed it into prose for this novel.

Well done!

The plot is boring and awful. It doesn't show much depth and chemistry between characters.

He hasn't even understood the meaning of honor.