Star Wars vs. Star Trek: Could the Empire kick the Federation's ass? And other galaxy-shaking enigmas [Paperback]

Matt Forbeck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 2011

Could a Jedi knight use his light saber to deflect a beam from a phaser?
Which aliens are cooler: the Cardassians or the Chazrach?
Have any Federation ships ever made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs?
And most important, in a fight between the Empire and the Federation, who would win?

Ever since Princess Leia's starship hovered into sight on the silver screen, fans of Star Wars and Star Trek have been debating these questions. Now, side by side, they can line up aliens, technology, story points, weaponry, and heroes from the two great science fiction/fantasy stories of our age.

For fans everywhere, this volume offers detailed information about both universes, as well as trivia, quizzes, quotes, and information drawn from these two iconic settings. So phasers on stun and light sabers at the ready! It's time for the duel to begin.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matt Forbeck has worked with many companies, including Games Workshop, Mattel, and Wizards of the Coast. He has designed games, and has written short fiction, comic books, novels, nonfiction, magazine articles, and computer game scripts and stories.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media (May 18, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1440512620
• ISBN-13: 978-1440512629
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,024,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matt Forbeck has been a full-time creator of award-winning games and fiction since 1989. He has designed games and toys and written stories of all sorts. He has sixteen novels published to date, including the award-nominated Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon and the critically acclaimed Amortals and Vegas Knights. His latest work includes the Magic: The Gathering comic book and the historical horror novel Carpathia. He is currently in the middle of his 12 for '12 project, in which he's writing a novel every month this year. For more about him and his work, visit Forbeck.com. 

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I thought... July 19, 2011

By The Sarge

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

While Matt Forbeck's knowledge of ST and SW is formidible, I just couldn't wrap myself around this book. The "Who'd Win?" scenarios got real repetitive after the fourth or fifth one that started with "Captain 'so-and-so' beams down to some cantina on some world... Gets into a fight with...." or Grand Moff Tarkin takes a transport to another bar... gets into a fight with..." or "Worf beams into another bar and greedo challenges him....." Okay, we get it. Unfortunately there is too much of "it.." and not enough other information to settle this so-called argument. If I could return it, I would.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Really? July 23, 2011

By Enjolras TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

This book kind of misses the point of both Star Wars and Star Trek. The "who'd win" matches pitting Star Wars and Star Trek characters against each other come across as silly and vapid. Mixing the two genres doesn't really work. Star Wars is about, well, wars, while Star Trek is about, well, exploration. While I love both franchises, pitting them against each other seems odd. Who really cares if the Sith would defeat the Temporal Cold War aliens from Enterprise? Even within these scenarios, the author spends only a few lines on each, providing for superficial treatment. Overall, you're better off spending your money on an actual Star Trek or Star Wars novel.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Contains the Odd Bit of Trivia, But You're Buying it for the Who Would Win Scenarios and They're Poorly Done November 7, 2011

By James N Simpson

Format:Paperback

When both of the only actors you can find from each movie (Jeremy Bulloch who played Boba Fett and Tim Russ who played Tuvok) who were prepared to do intros for your book are telling your readers that the concept of Star Wars characters fighting Star Trek is ridiculous as one was set in a war atmosphere and the other was about space exploration, then you probably should rethink your idea. That's not to say many of us haven't had these sorts of conversations at parties, around the staffroom lunch table and places like this. Incidentally Matt Forbeck has Boba Fett fight Tuvok, Fett wins, probably because Bulloch was a lot less critical of the concept than Russ was.

The whole who would win a fight between Star Wars character A and Star Trek character B is the whole reason you've decided to pick up this book. However these analyses are the most disappointing part of the book. They are basically just paragraph long short stories of a Star Wars character walking into a bar, accidentally bumping a Star Trek character, causing them to spill a bit of their drink, the Star Trek character gets mad, attacks the Star Wars character and depending on a lot of creative writing external factors such as if one character had their weapon ready or if there was a distraction and a weapon earlier knocked away can be picked up off the floor while the winning character doesn't notice, ultimately decides the question. Nothing wrong with a bit of fiction involving fictional characters, Family Guy and others have done it pretty well a lot of the time, but they come up with different scenarios for each joke. Seriously I mean it's not really in character for say princess Leia to just walk into a bar, surely Forbeck could come up with something else, say she walked out of a hairdresser and the Star trek character made fun of her hair or something. But alas we're pretty much restricted to someone walked into a bar for most of these fights.

To make matters worse it's not even really the character you're thinking of, I mean Luke fights Riker, but it's not Jedi master Luke, it's farm boy teenage Luke. I think most people are thinking of each character at their peak when the question who would win a fight comes up in general conversation.

Besides a couple of characters (a lot of Star Wars are from the terrible prequel movies) Forbeck pits ships verse each other, religions, even each franchise's theme songs. To be fair there are little snippets of trivia on the actors, awards each film has won, box office takings and things that show Forbeck has done a bit of research and are of some interest. However hardcore fans would probably know most of it. As a trivia book it has some appeal, but if buying for a who would win analysis, it's not worth your time, let alone your money.