Customer Reviews

Republic (Star Trek: My Brother's Keeper, Book 1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

James T. Kirk has committed a heinous act. He killed his best friend, Gary Mitchell. Sorrow, guilt and frustration take their toll on Kirk as he begins to reminiscence over a relationship that went sour.

Republic, the first book, in the three part series of My Brother's Keeper, tells the story of how Kirk and Mitchell became friends at Starfleet Academy. There we meet two different personalities. Kirk is Mr. Play It Safe Lieutenant while Mitchell is a fun loving cad. The two get on one another's nerves. While on the U.S.S. Republic on a training mission, the two begin to learn that they must work together in order to save a planet about to be torn apart in an interplanetary conflict.

Republic is a good story in introducing us to two intriguing characters forging a friendship in their youth. We see just what Kirk was like before becoming a Captain and get a taste of Mitchell's influence on his life. This was an enjoyable read which will take you to the stars as well as teach you about the meaning of friendship.

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 comrade (meaning Kirk) etc. etc. I did not know quite how to characterize this writing style, except to say that I found it to be annoying and distracting from the story. And candidly, there is not much of a story here, or in Friedman's other 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.

A good but not a great Star Trek book. If you ever wanted to know when and how Kirk and Mitchell became such great friends, this is the book for you. Beginning as a flashback in the aftermath of Gary Mitchell's death, Republic is an entertaining, intriguing tale of Kirk's relationship with Mitchell, offering insight into Kirk as a younger man, and what makes both of these guys tick. Not great writing, but fascinating in its description of the interplay between the two men. A great gift for a Trekkie!

We're all Trek fans reading these books...so for most of us, they're generally appreciated and enjoyed, even with their flaws.

The "My Brother's Keeper" trilogy is light-hearted gap-filler with some fun moments. But I agree with another reviewer's comments about the author's belaboring style. Friedman obviously has great affection and familiarity for the characters. But maybe too much. Or perhaps it isn't the familiarity that bothered me, but rather a lack of discretion in showing it off.

I don't mind an occasional reference to random details from actual episodes here and there...but if you removed them from this three-volume, 800-page story, you'd have a pamphlet. Page 55 of "Enterprise", as a random example, is typical of the trilogy. Check it out, and then select a few more pages at random on your own, you'll see what i mean. These characters were never so cute and cuddly together...just how we'd like them to be if we could hang out with them ourselves. By the way, counting these inside-Trek references throughout the trilogy would actually make a great drinking game. Please pass the Saurian brandy.

Friedman's dialog never resists demonstrating what wonderful, life-long pals all these characters are, or will become. So much of the dialog is jam-packed with forced--albeit often jolly--exposition, simply for the sake of nodding to Canon without advancing the story. Aside from the ubiquitous Trek references, pages--sometimes entire chapters--tell and retell the same scenes, almost to the point of novelization. In fact, if you've ever seen "Where No Man Has Gone Before" more than once (and who reading these books hasn't?), you can literally skip the first three chapters of both "Republic" AND "Enterprise" (I just saved you 80 pages right there).

While I agree with another reviewer's comment about no real surprises or revelations, the trilogy is a fast and light read. If you can wade through the excessive banter and repetitive scenes, it's a fun jog through one possible origin of the classic TOS crew.

The Star Trek books have always had a major complication thrown at them. They are never allowed to change anything in the Star Trek universe. I used to love these books until I started reading other science fiction and fantasy and realized how bad these books can be. The problem is, I bought every star trek book I saw for years before I came to this realization (I know, ridiculous) so I have a bookshelf full of them. Having said that, the retelling of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was very well done. It went downhill from there.

I can understand Mitchell trying to "loosen" Kirk up a bit, but taking it upon himself as a personal project even when Kirk tells him to back off? It smacks of condesension and the Babysitters Club.

The book went downhill and off a cliff during the "mission". Star Trek aliens always have human habits, human colloquialisms, and always speak in English. That's just something you have to expect. Rarely is time taken to create a truly alien culture. But the whole "rejoining" ceremony was so stupidly contrived, it hurt to read it. Nobody is allowed to use technology during it. Why? No need to tell us. Why do the telepaths have to walk down a parade route to each other? No need to tell us.

Last thing. Kirk and Mitchell jump off a five story building, and "land correctly" on the ground so they don't break their legs. Yes. It's true. I read it twice. They just jump off a building, land on the ground and go after their prey. How does the author expect the reader to swallow that?

This is a great book, if you are 12 or 13 and don't look for any depth or reasoning behind your stories -- which because of Star Trek book restrictions, is usually what you get here.

This book starts off with a treatment of the original series episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" that far outshines the James Blish version from "Star Trek 8", even if it does start in the middle of the story and fill in the background as flashback. We then have a few pages of seeing the aftermath, something that was glossed over in the series; the psychological effects on Kirk of having had to kill his friend. We see an early, very stiff and contained Spock making his first attempt at reaching out past his emotional limitations to connect with Kirk, and the rest of the story is the story Kirk tells Spock of his first encounters with Gary Mitchell back in their academy days.

All told, the story is well-handled all around, although in some places the characterizations are not necessarily what I would have made them; I can believe Mitchell as an immature, irresponsible jerk (given what we saw of him in the episode set a dozen years later, even before he went insane, it's hardly a stretch to figure that he wasn't very stable or dependable as an eighteen year old, although I doubt that his psychic talents were as well-developed or clear-cut as they are portrayed here.) It's more of a stretch to believe in a Kirk who was so by-the-book and straightlaced, even if Mitchell does tell us in the episode that when he met him, Kirk was "positively grim". What Mitchell would consider grim would be just about anybody with a grain of responsibility; that doesn't necessarily mean that he was. It's an interesting concept, though, to hypothesize that it was his friendship with Mitchell that helped to create the dynamic, intuitive Kirk that we saw through most of the series. And while Spock was portrayed well, with just the right mixture of stiffness and discomfort with emotion for the level of development that he showed at that point in the series, the relationship between Spock and Kirk should have been farther along in its development than shown here; during the chess game at the beginning of the episode, we definitely see some teasing interplay thay indicates a level of comfort with each other that the author here seems to have missed.

Still, the book is well-written, even if I don't agree with all of the characterizations, the story is a good one, and the picture we get of Mitchell goes a long way toward explaining where the character flaws that led to his destruction came from. I can easily see the Mitchell that we saw in Kirk's reminiscence reacting to godlike power the way that the Mitchell in the episode did.

I did enjoy the book along with the other books in the trilogy Star Trek "Brother's Keeper." I always wandered what would happen after James T. Kirk had killed his best friend Gary Mitchell after I the Star Trek Original Series episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

An excellent profile of a young James T Kirk and his best friend Gary Mitchell. I've been waiting for a novel like this and get the first of a trilogy. Captain Kirk is my favourite 'Trek' character and I found that Lt Comdr Gary Mitchell would've been an excellent addition to the classic series had he been cured of his Q complex. It is not surprising to find that Mitchell was a considerable influence in the forging of the legendary captain. Amongst Kirk's influences in various episodes and novels have been Captain Garth 'Whom God's Destroy' his father Commander George Kirk - from the Diane Carey novels 'Final Frontier' and 'Best Destiny' and the first captain of the USS Enterprise 1701 Captain Robert April in the Diane Carey novel 'Best Destiny' The breakdown is as follows:

CAPTAIN GARTH - STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL ABILITY

CAPTAIN APRIL - COMPASSION & DIPLOMACY

COMMANDER KIRK - AGGRESSION AND DETERMINATION

LT COMMANDER MITCHELL - BRASHNESS , CUNNING AND CHARM

Lt Commander Gary Mitchell has only been highlighted in one other novel Margaret Wander Bonnano's under-rated novel 'Strangers From The Sky'. In which Captain Kirk, Lt Comdr Mitchell, Lt Lee Kelso Mr Spock and Dr Elizabeth Dehner form a landing party to a mysterious un-inhabited planet . This planet subsequently throws them back in time and they get involved in the unofficial first contact with the Vulcans and avert an intergalactic tragedy.

The heart of that book is the team work of Kirk Kelso, Mitchell, Dehner and Spock. They're also consistent with the characterisations perpetuated by Michael Jan Friedman. Not so much Kelso, but the way the talked about him and the way they referred to him in 'Thy Brother's Keeper - Republic' is in keeping with the officer portrayed in the novel 'Strangers From The Sky'. and the classic episode 'Where No Man has Gone Before' .

'Thy Brother's Keeper - Republic' is a terrific novel. Kirk flashbacks on his relationship with his best-friend starting with their Academy days and their tour on a training ship the USS Republic. It occasionally snaps back to the present as they cope in the tragic wake of Kelso, Mitchell and Dehner's deaths. Kirk's loss is palpable as is his guilt. The fact that he had no choice is of little comfort, not only has he lost his best friend he was the one responsible for his death.

I liked the explanation for the infamous and subsequently inaccurate JAMES R KIRK inscription on the tombstone Gary conjured up . 'R' for 'Racquetball'. A private joke between the two of them. Maybe a little contrived as we've never seen him play or mention the game before. It's the one thing they have in common besides Starfleet; they're both accomplished players and finalists in regional competitions. A nice touch though.

There is no doubt in my mind that Mitchell was a great character, 'Trek' presently doesn't quite have any one like him. In the book he's clever, charming, brash, daring, intuitive and a bit a rebel, a rogue. He was a fun guy. I was interesting to see Kirk portrayed as serious, disciplined and shy with women before Mitchell's dastardly influences. For his part Mitchell may very well have been expelled from the Academy for his excesses and impulsive behaviour if not for James T. Some of Kirk's discipline rubbed of on him and he knuckled down and became a fine officer with a bit of a twinkle in his eye. They were very good for one another; complementary. I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. And I hope that we can have some more Kirk - Mitchell team ups in the future. After all there is the seventeen years from their Academy days to 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' According to the second book 'Thy Brother's Keeper - Constitution ' they served together on the USS Constitution for a while. There must be some more adventures to tell beyond the trilogy as well as in the thirteen months since the USS Enterprise launched on it's five year mission until 'Where No Man has Gone Before'. And I for one would welcome more.

The second pilot of Star Trek, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the hook that embedded the show in the consciousness of the viewing public. It was an exciting tragedy, where James Kirk is forced to kill his dear friend Gary Mitchell. With the limits of the early episode of the show, all we can be told is that James Kirk and Gary Mitchell were the best of friends, despite their differences in rank. In the episode "Shore Leave" we learn about Finnegan, an upperclassman whose sole purpose in life was to torment the cadet called Jim Kirk.
This book fleshes out the role of Finnegan a little bit, but the real purpose is to explain the start of the friendship between Mitchell and Kirk. They meet at the Star Fleet Academy where Kirk is a very young instructor of history and Mitchell is one of his students. Kirk is very cold and stiff while Mitchell is wild to the point of insubordination. Their early relationship is very much on-again-off-again; it begins with a fistfight, until they go on a training cruise together.
With no other ships available, the U. S. S. Republic is diverted to a planet where peace is about to break out between two long-warring factions. Kirk and Mitchell are assigned to a back-up security role in order to protect the two principal figures of the reconciliation, with orders to stay at their post no matter what. However, when there is a kidnapping of one of the principals, they follow the kidnappers and affect a rescue. This heroism earns them a commendation and cements their friendship for all time.
Bookended by the events of "Where No Man Has Gone Before", this story is an example of the Star Trek books at their best, for it explains what otherwise would forever remain unknown. By providing the deeper context for the relationship between Kirk and Mitchell, Friedman has crafted a story in the best traditions of Star Trek.

Sorry I meant that last review for Constitution:My Brothers Keeper Part 2 of course.... Part 1 is great! :)