Customer Reviews

Star Trek Spectre

5 star:		(86)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"Spectre" is an excellent read. Book one of William Shatner's Mirror Universe Trilogy has nearly everything for the Star Trek fan. An exciting story line; practically everyone's favorite characters; non-stop action; events predictable and totally unpredictable. This book has everything. And of course, since it's written by Shatner, the protagonist is Captain Kirk.

This novel takes the reader back to one of the ten greatest episodes in the entire Star Trek television history, "Mirror, Mirror". The author weaves a story of what occurred after Kirk's appearance there influences the Mirror Universe Spock. Fast forward that event through more than 100 years of history, and bring the Mirror Universe characters into our universe for action and revenge, and you'll get the gist of the story.

Sounds like your basic Star Trek episode, but it really comes across as more than that. This novel is the best Star Trek novel I have read and I have read quite a few. Just when you think you've seen the last character that can be squeezed in that allows the book to retain continuity, and BANG, here is another surprise that fits right in. Or is it a Mirror Universe duplicate of that character? Read the book and find out for yourself.

I rate this book at a very enjoyable 4.70 out of 5.00 stars, rounded up to 5.00. If this is your kind of book, you won't want to put it down. I'd tell you more but that would ruin the surprises. Perfect for several hours of get your mind off life and serious stuff reading. It is also a good jumping on point to check out Shatner's Kirk based stories. No one understands Kirk better than Shatner. The author proves what a terrific fan he is of the Star Trek history too.

Only someone closely affiliated with Star Trek can truely write a story fans would love and adore and that's exactly what William Shatner has done. Well done and keep it up! We can't have another series, or film, with the original team in, so books will have to suffice.

William uses his knowledge of James T and crew and goes further than any series. It's just a shame TV and Film will never equal the descriptive stories of his books. The human mind is a powerful tool and the images it creates are unequal to any screen visualists' power. Star Trek - Live Long and Prosper!

Another Trek novel. Yes, I just can't get enough of these. They are kind of like the Bud Lite of SF, they go down easy and after you have read about five of them you don't notice the bad taste they sometimes leave in their wake.

Well, I am a Star Trek fan and after reading Shatner's Get A Life book I do find myself with a bit of affection for the potbellied former Captain of the Enterprise. Unfortunately while this book has good pacing and has a bevy of interesting characters, I often didn't feel like I was seeing Kirk portrayed properly. It feels like Shatner is exploring his own feelings about age and love more and more with the Kirk character. There are endless scenes in the book where we find Kirk mooning over his love for Teilani, the exotic Klingon, Romulan hybrid that Kirk fell in love with in past books. In fact much of what motivates Kirk in the book is his endless love for this woman. That's all fine and dandy, but really, that isn't the Kirk that we have known up till now. In the The Return and Avenger, Kirk wasn't this dreamy eyed, (granted in one of those he was the brainwashed pawn) this book takes this to a whole new level. That said and done it was probably the main thing that irked me about the book, that and the ending.

The beginning of the novel finds Kirk trying to settle down with Teilani, but she convinces him that he needs to go out and explore some more and find out whether he really wants to settle down with her or not. Of course, Kirk agrees to this and goes off to a few Starfleet functions to shoot the breeze with his old comrades in arms. While he is attending said functions he is kidnapped by mysterious forces. Cut to the Enterprise-E where Picard seems to have found the Voyager, the ship thought lost in the Delta Quadrant, or is it?

The story gets a bit twisted and convoluted from there. It brings back the Mirror Universe plot-line which was first explored in the original Star Trek television show. Later the idea was further explored on episodes of Deep Space Nine and in other books including Dark Mirror by Diane Duane. While the ideas are a rehash, the plot is engaging and fast moving. Picard and his crew seem thrown in and aren't used very effectively, but then again what would you expect when Shatner writes a Star Trek novel? Of course Kirk gets top billing. There are quite a few characters that make a return in this novel including Spock, Scotty and Mccoy. Talk about the geriatric patrol. Amazingly, through luck, good breeding or just plain stubbornness they have all been able to survive into the time of the Next Generation. While the plot moves along there are a lot of melodramatic moments from Kirk either reminiscing about how good it is to be back with his crew or about his love for Teilani.

The book is fast paced with a lot of action, it did keep me turning the pages, but the Kirk melodrama and some cookie cutter characters (read Next Generation) thrown into the mix bring the book down a few notches. Also just an FYI the ending is a "to be continued" one. So if you were thinking about picking this up in paperback, you might want to wait until the sequel Dark Victory is out so you can get the whole story.

3 out of 5 Bias: +1 if you are a rabid Star Trek fan. -1 if you hate Kirk or Shatner.

"Spectre" is, in my opinion, one of those books that the dedicated follower of the Star Trek mythos will probably get the most out of. Why? Because like the first trilogy by this same set of authors, much reliance is put on the exact timing of various events from the past - meaning, as a reader, you get the most enjoyment out of these, I think, if you can relate the events happening in the story with events that happened in the various Star Trek series. This is the scaffold upon which these authors like to build.

One problem for me is that these authors (from what I have seen in their books) can never quite seem to get the dates exactly right. Normally that would be a non-issue for me but since the authors so clearly predicate so much of their books on what I call "the fandom effect", this seems a curious oversight. That said, this story either takes place in 2374 or 2375, but definitely after the events of the movie "Star Trek: First Contact". (Careful fans, with an eye for details, will note that "Spectre", combined with the second book in the series, "Dark Victory", gets the dates a bit mangled. There are many references to events strewn in the novels and if you take them all together, they eventually start to slightly contradict. Nitpicking? Yes, but again bear in mind these authors like to really "get into" the Star Trek mythos thus when discrepancies appear in the dates, it is a bit distracting particularly since they give so many references to events in the series that it practically compels the careful reader into checking into the veracity of the dates. When all is said and done it is clear the authors want this story set in 2374.)

This novel takes one of the episodes from the Original Series ("Mirror, Mirror") and another episode from Deep Space 9 ("Crossover") and then runs from there, showing one possible sequence of events that force the two crews of the Original Series and the Next Generation to team up and figure out why the so-called "Mirror Universe" is threatening the Federation.

This is the first of a tightly correlated set of three books. So you might want to prepare for that if you decide to start in on this book. Also note that while not strictly necessary to understand the current story, it probably helps if you have read the previous trilogy by the authors (composed of "The Ashes of Eden", "The Return", and "Avenger") as this all explains why Kirk is still around even after the events of "Star Trek: Generations" and who Teilani is and why she is so important to Kirk. But, again, this book, the start of its own series, does stand on its own.

What I liked about the book was that, all in all, it was a good story that was quite fast-paced and that seemed to generally fit in the overall structure of Star Trek stories, with regard to characters and plotting and offered some intriguing unanswered questions to keep the reader motivated. What I ultimately disliked about the book is that it did not explore the concepts of the "Mirror Universe" at all. This universe is meant to be a mirror reflection (in a loose sense) of the universe our heroes occupy. As such, while there is some interesting side dialogue about just how alike the counterparts are, there is no real implications to any of this. The characters do not really fundamentally change as a result of the dealings with their counterparts. The "Mirror Universe" exists solely to propel what, in the end, is a fairly basic plot: Kirk and Picard teaming up to save the Federation. There are also the ambiguities that could have been explored about the Prime Directive and how that applies to another universe and what kind of help can or should be given in the situation the novel presents. This is all alluded to - but generally only as a means to dismiss it from further consideration in the plot. Finally, the juggling of action between the various characters (Kirk's crew, Picard's crew, the mirror universe counterparts) gets a little unwieldy in my opinion although it is held together by the pace of the action.

In the end I gave the book three stars. This is because the authors did provide an entertaining read that kept me wondering where the authors were going to take the plot but the book provided nothing very challenging or innovative about the Star Trek mythos for me.

I love this book. William Shatner holds true to what the Great Bird of the Galaxy would have wanted in a book. It holds true to the original series and all the series that came after. Live long and write more Willam.

Book one of the Shatner Mirror Universe series, William Shatner along with the duo of Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens produce a nonstop action packed galactic size quest of epic proportions. Kirk, Spock, Janeway, Scotty, Bones, who could ask for anything more? Well, we could and they provide. Not only one Spock, not only one Kirk but duplicates galore.

With a threat that could very well change his life forever Kirk is forced to rejoin an organization he long ago left behind. An organization that has evolved and left behind Kirk's way of bloody knuckle problem solving opting for a more means-by-committee approach. Disease, violence, and betrayal will line their path to justice and only sheer determination will once again lead the warriors of justice and peace to an epic conclusion.

Another great installment from the Shatner & Co. bunch. A good read and lots of fun.

ALL FEEDBACK IS APPRECIATED. THANKS AND GOOD READING.

Happily remarried to a hybrid woman, that is a mix of just about every "major" species in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, Kirk will return to Earth and be kidnapped.. and the Enterprise-E comes across a ship that's returned after being missing for 5ish years, Voyager. But it isn't as it appears seeing as half of the crew is dead, which can mean only one thing the Mirror Universe.

I wasn't overly thrilled with the book and all the events got a little shaky after that.. it was ok, but I thought it could have been better.

Even though I thought Avenger sucked out loud I was still looking foward to this Shatner novel. I must say it started out with a bang. Lots of action from the start. As Kirk is making his way back to earth to meet up with Scotty he gets kidnapped by Kathryn Janeway, T'Val and Spock from the mirror universe. At the same time Picard and the Enterprise get taken captive by what appeared to be the Voyager only to find out that it was a replica and there were some mirror counterparts from the Voyager teaming with Klingons and Cardassians.

As usual Shatner rights his original series comrads very well. He basically knows them as well as any other writer. All the characters for the most part where written very well. However as for the story, it kind of slowed down a little. There is about fifty pages in the middle of the book that are almost a chore to read. You are just reading and hoping that this will get better. It does... as the end, even though a cliff hanger for the next book, is very exciting.

Shatner has the same ego that he does in the rest of his books. The universe still counldn't exist without James T. Kirk. Kirk even says it in the book. Something along the lines of Kirk knows he has to continue to save the universe because no one else can. Shatner still has very little respect for TNG members and that is certain. One other thing that I noticed was it was mentioned that since Kirk, Spock, Scotty and McCoy didn't know whether they could trust T'Val, the mirror Spock and Janeway that a mind meld should be done to make sure they were telling the truth. Scotty mentioned it to Kirk and Kirk said that he couldn't do it but Spock could. However, Kirk learned how to do the mind meld from Hugh when he rescued Kirk from the Borg world in Avenger. He then used it on Spock's assistant to find out that he was the one that killed Sarek. Has he forgot how to do it? Not sure what happened there.

They are also a lot of good things about the book. First of all, it is better than Avenger. I was getting worried, Ashes of Eden was great, The Return... still pretty good, and then Avenger was not good at all. So I was worried that if the trend continued that this book would be bad. Another interesting fact about this story was that there was an exact time that the mirror universe went bad. There was a certain event, unlike Duane's Dark Mirror in which she had that universe bad from the beginning of time. They will probably continue the idea through out the rest of the books.

This book was a good read with lots of action, several surprises, and good story telling. If you are an OS fan it is a must read.

I have a baby due in 10 days I am going to try to get The Vulcan Academy Murders read before that. After that it might be a while before I get to read anymore.

Grade: B (maybe B+)

I have always enjoyed the story of the mirror universe in Star Trek, and wish that it had been explored more in the t.v. series. William Shatner fulfulled my mirror universe lust with a trilogy that takes us the reader in to a spectacular story. Spectre is the first chapter of the mirror universe trilogy that informs us that Captain James T. Kirk's mirror counterpart "Tiberius" is wanting to take over both universes. The Mirror universe Spock returns as well as the mirror version of Captain Janeway, telling Kirk how grim and bad the situation has gotten in their universe. With the help of Kirk's greatest allies (McCoy, Our Spock, Scotty, and the next generation crew)one of the best adventures of Star Trek begins.

Highly recommended and very fun to read. The book is fast paced and a sure joy for any Star Trek fan or none Star Trek fan looking for a great read. 10/10.

I was hesistant to pick up this book for I am NOT a fan of the 'Mirror Universe'. This is Shatner again writing about 'Capt. Kirk' trying to live a private life in the 24th century.

Con: What bothered me was Kirk is described as a man whom wants to live his 'private life' in retirement,with wife on a remote world. Then for NO reason,(from what I see) Kirk gets this 'bug' to exit routine life and visit earth. His own wife just 'understands' and allows him to pursue this whim!! [This was non-sensible to me] But I suppose it is the platform from which to launch the story. Kirk is hooked up with old colleges and when he no sooner arrives on earth, Kirk is kidnapped and whirled into an adventure.

Pro: Capt.Picard and another 24th Century character get involved as well. The story informs the reader on things that happened after a TV series star trek episode was told. Action picks up the pace and just keeps going. Good swash buckling.

Con: Book ends in a cliffhanger in which some details will be explained in the next novel. If you are a 'Mirror Universe' fan you'd probably want to obtain that book as well. Sense I'm not- I'll wait until new ground is explored before I read another Shatner Novel.