Customer Reviews

Star Trek: Captain's Peril

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The first three "Shatnerverse" novels were met by Star Trek fans with a rare kind of anticipation. After all, what could be better than the story of Kirk told from the man who had brought him to life for over 30 years? It was a must-have for any Trek fan. And the thing is--those first three books really delivered on the promise. The original Shatner trilogy is one of the better multi-novel sequences out there.

However, after a rather lackluster trilogy, Shatner (and the Reeves-Stevens) return with the start of another trilogy. Honestly, after how poorly wrapped up the Mirror Universe trilogy was, I wasn't anticipating the start of a new saga in the Shatnerverse. However, I still had some hope for the Captain's Peril to be a good Trek book. After all, Pocket's track record this year has been fairly impressive.

But "The Captain's Peril" seems more like it was written to meet a quota--it's a new calendar year, so we need a new Trek book by Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens. The story sees Picard and Kirk taking a vacation of Bajor where they will orbital skydive and then go on an archaelogical expedition. Of course, things go awry from Kirk and Picard almost perishing while skydiving to then finding things amiss at the Bajoran archelogical dig. Before you know it, Kirk is up to his ears in a murder mystery and looking into the past of Bajor. Meanwhile, we are given a story of one of Kirk's early missions--set before "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

Of the two plots, the early story is the most compelling since it tries to delve into the early relationship Kirk had with his crew and filling the shoes of the then-legend Christopher Pike. However, the problem with both plots is they are rather heavy-handed at time. They are also predictable as all get out. The deep, dark secret at the end of the Bajoran plotline is spelled out in the first few pages of the book. Add to it an abrupt stop to the story mid-way through for Picard and Kirk to debate the merits of the Prime Directive (Kirk sees it as being an obstacle to really exploring) and it adds up to a less than satifsying read.

One thing that the early Shatnerverse novels did was take chances. The idea of bringing Kirk by using Borg nanotechnology was intriguing and revoluationary. However, in The Captain's Peril the attempted risks in intriguing storytelling are underminded by the reader knowing certain things can't stay the way they unfold in the book. There must be a giant reset button at the end and while it's not as groan-inducing as it could be, it does serve to take you out of the narrative flow.

Overall, this isn't the weakest of the Shatnerverse novels, but neither is it the best. It's content to do well for about 300+ pages, setting up the storyline for the next novel. In a lot of ways, the Shatner novels have gone from something to really look forward to, to just your standard Trek novels.

There are two concurrent story lines in this book, and they both provide us with additional information about the Star Trek universe. The first is a joint vacation by captains Kirk and Picard on Bajor. Their goal is to join an archeological dig on Bajor, in an attempt to uncover some ancient religious artifacts of deep significance to the Bajoran people. It starts with what must be one of the ultimate of extreme sports, as Kirk and Picard sky dive from orbit. Kirk's equipment fails and Picard manages to carry out a dramatic midair rescue. In this story line, we learn more about the Bajoran culture and how deeply held their religious beliefs are.
The other thread describes the first days of Kirk's command of the Enterprise. A ship appears from another galaxy and sends a signal picked up by the Federation and many species currently in competition with the Federation. The signal is of great power and they all rush to approach the ship and the Enterprise under Kirk represents the Federation. It turns out that the ship contains technology far in advance of that of all the current occupants of the galaxy. The interesting points of the story involve the conflicts between Kirk and the other members of the crew. Spock requests a transfer and Dr. Piper is forced to threaten to relieve Kirk of duty to prevent him from taking an unnecessary risk. The interactions between Spock, Piper, Scott, Zulu and other Enterprise crew members and Kirk as they start their careers together is a very interesting and believable tale. Kirk is a very headstrong individual and it is certainly plausible that his command approach would not be appreciated before they all learned how talented a commander he is.
This is a book that further expands the long saga that is Star Trek. Each of the two story lines could be the plot of a book and they are well integrated into this story. It is one of the better Star Trek books.

"Captain's Peril" is seventh is the excellent Star Trek novel series by William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, a series that began with "Ashes of Eden" and centers - at least in part - around the premise that Kirk did not meet his final end as portrayed in the movie "Star Trek: Generations," but rather he was resurrected, events surrounding this of which are detailed in the second novel in the series, "The Return." This novel, as are all the others with the exception of the bulk of "Ashes of Eden" takes place contemporaneously with the events of the Star Trek universe at large, with each successive novel in the series incorporating events portrayed in the various television series and movies (several throwaway lines in this novel hint at events depicted in the currently on-going series "Enterprise" with references to Archer and T'Pol).

Having said that though, it is not necessary for one to have read the preceding novels in this series, though they may shed some light on a few brief references to what has gone before. In previous novels of the series James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, and others have dealt with issues ranging from conspiracies within Starfleet to the Borg to villains from the alternate universe first depicted The Original Series episode "Mirror, Mirror." This one starts off with (aside from a prologue set during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor) with Picard and Kirk taking a vacation to Bajor. The two friends sought to combine their mutual interests, the vacation starting out with some orbital skydiving, which would take the pair to a Bajoran archaeological dig along the shores of an inland sea in the desert, the researchers there investigating a sunken ancient city, one that was covered by waters released thanks to Cardassian efforts (depicted in the prologue).

The vacation does not go off as planned; first they almost die during the orbital skydiving thanks to faulty equipment, leaving them miles away from their landing zone next to the dig and without hope to be rescued before possibly dying of thirst or exposure. To pass the time Kirk describes to Picard events he faced very early as captain of the Enterprise, less than six months into its first five year mission. This story is told throughout the course of the novel and I found it quite engaging, showing how Kirk and Spock became friends, how Kirk grew into the role of captain, and what the Enterprise was like in the transitional period between Pike and Kirk having command of the ship. The story tied into a surprising degree with events in the story and was capped at the end of the book by a riveting and chilling epilogue, one which begs to be followed up by the authors in future works.

Kirk and Picard are rescued by one of the archaeologists, but they find that he wasn't out looking for them; he was out seeking a murderer! One of the foremost scientists at the camp had been murdered and no one there knows who did it or why. Much of the novel details Picard's and Kirk's efforts to solve this crime and bring the murderer to justice. The camp is completely cut off from the outside world, with no communications, miles from nowhere in the desert wilderness, Kirk and Picard lacking any weapons or access to sophisticated technology, many in the camp openly hostile to their presence, several with ample motive and opportunity to have committed the murder; the two captains have their work cut out for them.

I found the murder investigation a bit less riveting than Kirk's tale of his early days as captain. While by no means bad - it was interesting in that it had a lot to do with Bajoran history and particularly Bajoran religion - I found it at times confusing. Matters weren't helped much by the fact I had trouble sometimes keeping track of the various archaeologists and others at the camp. This is not to say that they were all alike, as some were quite distinct, but enough were similar and there names sort of ended up blending together for me. I still liked it, just didn't find it as effective as the second plot line, the one set in the past.

A good book, it didn't have quite the epic scope as earlier books in this series and I sort of liked that (though the plotline relayed through Kirk's tale has much broader implications in the future if the authors chose to explore it). All in all though a very good read, one I would recommend (though there were other books in the series that were better); certainly I would read it if you liked others in this series.

A good story. Kirk and Picard vacation together on Bajor first planning to arrive by doing a plantary orbital skydive and then assist with an archaeological dig in progress. Problems already start on the dive down and get worse as the leader of the dig is killed before their arrival and of course Kirk and Picard get in the middle of everything risking their lives. But during the quiet periods Kirk tells Picard of his first major assignment and of the start of his and Spock's freindship (about 40% of the book). The main story gets resolved well but the story Kirk tells does not because I think it is the intro to his next book coming out.

For those that have not followed the original Star Trek from the begining and throughout. Kirk is still around in the new Start Trek time frame because he disappeared in some kind of time thread and was thought dead for around 75 years and was brought back by Picard in the movie and latered seemingly died but was returned to life (a book by Shatner). Spock (an ambassador at large) is still alive since Vulcans have very long life spans; McCoy is a very old admiral having had 100 plus repacements and grafts; Scotty is still around having locked himself in a perpetual loop on his ship's transporter when his ship was trapped and he was much later released by Gordie on the Star Trek Next Generation.

I have always been a fan of the original Star Trek series and I love William Shatner's interpretation of the characters. Indeed I would rank his Star Trek novels as heads and shoulders above most of the rubbish that passes for Star Trek these days. However I have to say I was somewhat disappointed with this novel and it is easy to see why so many people were quite scathing of it. Firstly it is definitely a "Kirk novel". While Capt. Picard features a bit his role is really secondary to the plot and has little impact. In the past Shatner has tried to involve other characters, sometimes even introducing new ones, which has given his books a greater scope but this one is far too introspective. Secondly, whereas most of Shatner's books are not easily classified as they cut across a number of the modern Star Trek incarnations, this one is most definitely a "Deep Space Nine" novel. Given that out of the modern series DS9 tends to rate the lowest - though personally I think it is actually the best of the modern ones by a long shot !!! - it was odd that they would choose to set a novel entirely within this framework. Finally, because of the murder mystery nature of the story, it actually reads more like one of Shatner's "Tek" novels than a true Star Trek adventure. All of these factors undoubtedly undermined the book and I suspect probably divided the readers. Personally I quite liked it but would definitely not rate it up there with his best and again, because of the high price of hardbacks, would probably only recommend people buy the paperback when it comes out next year. Still the ending is excellent and leads in well to next years "Captain's Blood", which I hope will be a much better, and more traditional, Star Trek adventure.

Star Trek: Captain's Peril written by William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens is a Kirk egocentric novel. Yes, the venerable and still indomitable Captain James T. Kirk teams up with Captain Jean-Luc Picard in this adventure.

This book starts out like gangbusters, skydiving to the planet Bajor from outerspace and Picard's suit has a malfunction and we almost lose Picard. But, the "Shatnerverse" is thick in this book and soon you will find Shatner one furlong short of the barn door. I believe that this is the opening salvo to another trilogy as Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens have done in the past. Oh well, I hope that the next volume makes a better show than this book did.

When Kirk and Picard land on the Bajor from their skydiving escapade, they plan to go to an old sunken city to uncover some of Bajor's past. But, alas, tragedy strikes and all of their high-tech equipment seems not to work. As you can imagine ol' Kirk wants to take charge, nothing new there. A child is now in danger of dying and there isn't any way of contacting the outside world or DS-9.

As Captain Jean-Luc Picard is now missing, the egocentric Kirk takes action as he goes back into his memory and thinks of a mission long ago in his past. An early mission, when he was taking over the Captain's chair from Christopher Pike... "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

So, we have a double plot in the book, making for some interesting reading as Kirk goes back into his past to solve a mystery in the present that could cost the universe. Like I said earlier, this book is only the first of a trilogy, so it is setting up what is to follow... and it scored on that account, but as Shatner writes the character of Captain James T. Kirk shines at the expense of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

All in all, this book could have been wriiten a bit better. This book rates a solid three stars and let's hope for better writing in the future. William Shatner try to get the horse in the barn with the next installment... otherwise folks wait till the paperback comes out.

Let me start this off by recommending the previous six books done by Shatner and the Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Classics! Amazing!
Which logically had me going into this with eager anticipation. Given the events of the last series they did, I couldn't imagine how things could get any bigger or more complicated.
Sadly, it looks like I was right. The only benefit of the doubt I can give for this book is to treat it as one big "transition" or "setup" book for whatever is to come next.
I think they may have made a mistake by writing this book before Nemesis had become reality.
The thing that has been so good about the previous books was how they took in the whole of everything that was going on in all the Trek universe and, in some much needed cases, given certain events a special underlying meaning.
That's more or less absent here. The book is short and beyond some interesting character details, it feels like an excuse.
So many profound things happened in the previous six books, they may have a hard time following up their own act. This book demonstrates that.
Hopefully, book two in this next series will take off like a rocket, becuase that will be some time after we have all digested Nemsis.
A solid read, but don't go in with the high hopes that I had.

Captains James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard choose to go on a working vacation on Bajor. The vacation centers on an archeological dig taking place in the ancient sunken city of Bar'trila, which had been lost for millennia and only recently rediscovered. Thirty years ago, under Cardassian occupation, the Valor Ocean had been tapped to flood the valley. Plummeting from outer space in environmentally controlled jumpsuits equipped with force field, Kirk and Picard fall to Bajor like comets, literally burning through the planet's atmosphere. To Kirk, this is all great fun. The problem is, the suits were supplied by Quark, who is known to cut a corner or two. Kirk's suit develops a problem and while dealing with that problem, he remembers an early encounter he had at the beginning of his career as a starship captain new to Enterprise and knew to the Vulcan way of thinking posed by Spock. Surviving the fall to Bajor, despite the fact that Kirk tried to use the almost suicidal K'Thale Deployment, invented by a Klingon who became a one-armed Klingon as a result, both captains hike toward the dig site only to find that one of the archeological party has been murdered. Even as Picard and Kirk go into action to access the problem and begin damage control, the dig team lets both captains know that they and the Federation are unwelcome on the site. Shortly after that, Picard becomes a casualty. Kirk continues pressing the investigation, solving the problems in the present that tie into Bajoran religious history, and re-evaluating his past encounter while getting to know Spock.

William Shatner, with co-authors Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, has written two other trilogies expanding the life and conquests of Captain James Tiberius Kirk of Enterprise, a role that Shatner breathed life into during the original Star Trek series and the movies that followed. The Reeves-Stevens collaborations as well as individual works outside the Trek universe have included stand-alone science fiction novels (SHIFTER, NIGHTFEEDERS, NIGHTEYES), horror novels (BLOODSHIFT), and military thrillers (ICEFIRE, QUICKSILVER), and numerous scripts for television series and animated series.

CAPTAIN'S PERIL offers a slam-bang action beginning that is bound to score big with the crossover fans of science fiction and extreme sports. The intro of the planetdive comes directly after an intriguing Cardassian plot to bury the ancient city of Bar'trila, which had only recently been rediscovered. From there, the story springboards in the early days aboard Enterprise when the Spock/Kirk relationship was still quite volatile because of misunderstandings on both sides. The action, narrative flow, and comradely conversation between Kirk and Picard are well done, making the pages turn quick and clean as the reader is drawn into the mystery of the murdered archeologist at Bar'trila and the ancient Bajoran legend of the Five Brothers.

Unfortunately, the mystery and the legend elements that are set up so well in the course of the story are solved so simplistically that readers may feel a tad disappointed. The build-up was great, and the solutions were neat, but the journey getting there was lacking and over much too soon. The Spock/Kirk early days had a nice feel to them, but none of those scenes showed anything that longtime readers haven't seen before.

Overall, CAPTAIN'S PERIL is a good quick read, recommended to hardcore Trek fans and readers who like to visit those universes on regular excursions.

This is the first chapter of the Captain's trilogy that leads into what's in my opinion an excellent conclusion to the Kirk Saga. After a couple of year break in between the Mirror Universe trilogy and this trilogy I had lost some interest in Star Trek. Even all of William Shatner's novels have been excellent, I had started college when this book came out (Summer 2001) and just didn't read it. This year (2006) I regreted that decision greatly after reading Captain's Blood and Captain's Glory (which I just finished Captain's Glory last week. Highly highly recommended).

Anyway, for me Captain's Peril acted almost like a prequel because I read parts 2 and 3 first. Let me tell you I really wish I had read Captain's Peril when it came out. It introduces the Totality, tells a great early adventure of James T. Kirk on his first Enterprise NCC-1701, and a great "bonding" adventure between Kirk and Picard that hasn't been in any of the previous novels. This novel is excellent and I would highly recommend you don't do what I did and read all three books in the totality trilogy in order. This book is a little slower than the ones in the past but still a very enjoyable and entertaining read. Highly recommended. 9/10.

The Captain's Peril is the third of William Shatner's novels I have read. I first read Dark Victory. I was disapointed that it ended and I had to get The Preservers to finish the story. I enjoyed them and went out looking for the books that Shatner had written. I found The Captain's Peril. I started it and couldn't put it down. It was good to see that Kirk and Picard could get together and not always be saving everyone. I found they were seen as normal, not as superman. This story is written by William Shatner, so it centers around James T. Kirk. Picard is a his side kick. I was surprized that the story took place over just a few days, but kept my attention thru the entire story. Now I'm getting all of the rest of William Shatner's books. If they are as good as this, I will be eagerly waiting for new novel to continue the life of James T. Kirk.