Captain's Glory (Star Trek)

(Author), Garfield Reeves-Stevens (Author), Judith Reeves-Stevens (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An old threat in a new form, the Totality threatens to eradicate all life in the universe. Starships throughout the Federation are succumbing to malfunctioning warp drives, and shadow creatures are kidnapping key people throughout the Federation. In their own ways, Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker, James Kirk and Kathryn Janeway must figure out how to combat a nearly indestructible and endless enemy. Like any good franchise, Star Trek seeks to grab the attention of the widest spectrum of fans as possible. In that vein, the authors populate the story with characters from Star Trek, The Next Generation and Voyager. Shatner's voice captures the tension and energy of the scenes, which are also capitulated by the musical score and occasional sound effects. Shatner ably embodies the voice of Kirk, but his characterizations of Picard, Riker, Worf and several others are mediocre and pale in comparison to the actors who created them. Even fans of the show may become significantly lost in this abridgment without sufficient reading of previous Star Trek books.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Description

With the civil war on Romulus averted, Kirk is finally free to seek out the truth behind the death of his oldest and closest friend. Was Spock killed by the shadowy organisation known as the Totality? A generous offer from Starfleet provides him with the starship he needs in order to reach his goal. Their only proviso: that they can call on his help if they need him. But what happened to Spock is not Kirk's only worry: Joseph, his son, is rebelling wildly against the restrictions placed on him as the price of Romulan peace. Is the Totality somehow also linked to Joseph's rage? But before he can find the answers to either troubling question, Kirk receives a call from Admiral Janeway, telling him she needs him to save the Federation. Torn between his mission and his duty, the cause of the Federation must claim him one more time before he can turn his attention either to his friend or to his son. Pop culture icon William Shatner returns with another breathtaking Star Trek adventure in which both generations must battle an unstoppable enemy for the existence of all life in this galaxy - and beyond.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Star Trek (August 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743453433
• ISBN-13: 978-0743453431
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #526,846 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kirk just wants to be loved!!, August 18, 2006

By	David Roy (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The Star Trek books by William Shatner (and Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens) have always been an entity of their own, away from the normal Trek novel continuity and featuring (sometimes to a fault) a rejuvenated James T. Kirk in the Next Generation timeline. While I didn't enjoy the Mirror Universe trilogy (I don't think I even read the last book), Captain's Blood was rather enjoyable. Perhaps that was because of the Romulans? The test of that would come with Captain's Glory, Shatner's new novel, which doesn't feature any Romulans whatsoever. Surprisingly, that didn't matter. I actually enjoyed it much more than Captain's Blood, making a winner of an ending for this particular trilogy.

After helping avert a Romulan civil war and the Empire's destruction by the Totality, Kirk decides he wants to just take care of his son, Joseph. However, Admiral Janeway has given him a sweet offer, a ship of his own with a lot of hidden abilities, as long as he'll help Starfleet when he's called. Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Joseph are making the rounds of the galaxy, but strange dreams of Norinda (an agent of the Totality) and his past are still haunting him. He is determined to discover the fate of Spock, who was seemingly absorbed by Norinda into the Totality. It seems to be on the move again, and this time it's using the warp drives of starships to invade the Federation. It seems that the warp fields generated by the ships' engines open a window that they can come through, but doing so causes the drives to overload. Starship traffic is brought to a standstill, with any ships containing newer drives unable to use them. Thankfully, the Enterprise was refitted with an old one after Nemesis, so it can still run! How convenient. The remains of Starfleet High Command are forced into hiding, with the reach of the Totality everywhere, and only Captains Picard and Riker, along with a certain ego-centric 23rd century relic, can stop it. Kirk is mainly interested in saving his son, but in doing so, he may save the galaxy.

One thing I love about the Shatner books is the use of continuity, tying many things from the old series together, along with the occasional new item as well. I'm normally a rabid anti-continuity person, but for some reason, Shatner's books are just fun that way. We get references to many old episodes, one of which is very important to the plot. We also get some novel continuity, with the crew of Riker's ship, the Titan, being exactly the same as that of the Titan novel series. This is actually news, as the Shatner books are generally considered "out of continuity" with the rest of the novel line (perhaps so Shatner and his co-authors don't have to keep up on all of the lines?). They're not used much, so the authors really only had to be familiar with the names themselves. They don't even have enough lines that you could say whether or not they're in character.

Shatner portrays Kirk (much like Captain's Blood as weary of the demands of Starfleet and duty, mainly interested in his son and raising him in as peaceful environment as possible. He has his friends with him, and he's determined that Spock was not killed on Remus, but instead was transported in some way. Admiral Janeway is almost his equal in both stubbornness and will, and some of their arguments are a joy to watch. You can see the underlying respect both have for each other even as Kirk keeps getting tired of her. In fact, after a couple of teaser scenes, that's how the book starts, with an argument. Kirk was given the ship to do with as he pleased as long as he agreed to run occasional missions at Janeway's request. One of the missions Kirk refused because it would put Joseph (and his friends too, who are both now civilians) in harm's way. I'll ignore the fact, for the moment, that this would seemingly apply to most missions, making this situation stand on shaky ground to begin with.

My animosity toward most of the Shatner books has to do with the fact that Kirk almost becomes a superhero in them, saving the day and able to do almost anything in them. Even Captain's Blood had its share of that, bringing it down in my opinion. Captain's Glory on the other hand, tones it down a bit, perhaps because of Janeway. Yes, it has Kirk saving the day again, but this time it seems more logical because his son is intimately involved with the whole thing. In fact, Joseph's instrumental in the resolution. And yes, it has the inevitable confrontation between Picard and Kirk, where both sides feel that they are in the right and are determined to force the other one to see their point of view. In Captain's Glory, the sequence is almost laughable as both Captains are willing to allow great damage to their ships because they're too stubborn to trust one another. This is mitigated a little bit (but not much) by Riker eventually calling them both out for being extremely silly, and their chastised reactions are classic.

The Totality is an interesting villain, more of a force then anything else, and thus even more malevolent. They don't actually think they are doing anything wrong, instead trying to get the "lesser life-forms" to see the true meaning of the universe (which our minds are unequipped to handle). They truly believe that they are doing what's best for us and don't understand our resistance to it. The authors even do a good job of spreading this explanation for the Totality around so that it doesn't come out in one massive infodump (another failing of the previous book). And it's much more interesting than the Mirror-Kirk from Shatner's previous series.

All in all, Captain's Glory is a great finale to this trilogy. It had a stumble in the middle, and I never read the first one, but this one gets the balance almost right. There are still annoying passages, and the Kirk-love is still there, but I actually didn't roll my eyes too often during this one. It's probably the best Shatner book I've read in a while.

David Roy

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Part IX of the Kirk Saga. What a great way to end the William Shatner Kirk saga!, October 12, 2006

By	imgreenlantern2 (Montana) - See all my reviews

I have read everyone of the Shatner Kirk books since Ashes of Eden and I have greatly enjoyed everyone of them. There is nobody better to write a Kirk adventure than the man that invented Captain James T. Kirk. I've read a lot of Star Trek novels in my life time and none have fascinated me more than Shatner's Trek novels. With that said I want to review Captain's Glory.

One of the greatest aspects of this book is the pace of the story. There are hardly any slow times during the book where something is not happening. From the beginning to the end I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know what was going to happen. The creation of the Totality is absolutely superb and what makes it so great is there has never been a villian quite like them. Norinda is such a great character and the interaction between Norinda and Kirk is excellent.

One of the things that Shatner has done better than any other Star Trek author is bridging the gap between the T.V. shows. Clearly, Shatner is a fan of Next generation and Voyager because those are the main characters in this trilogy. I really hope that authors in the future are able to do half as well as Shatner has with this aspect, and if they do there should be plenty of interesting Trek novels in the future.

Some have commented that the ending is not that good or not what they expected. I thought the pace and how Shatner brings all 9 of his Kirk novels into a final "finale" was excellent and very well written. The ending was very satisifying for me and I don't think Shatner could have ended his saga any better.

It's sad this will be the last of his Kirk novels but I couldn't have asked for a better bookend than Captain's Glory. Well done Mr. Shatner. Well done. Thank you for 11 great years of Star Trek "Glory".

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Reeves-Stevens/Shatner books are the BEST Trek, but !....., August 24, 2006

By	Terrence Abrams "Trek Top Expert" (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Being a fan of most Star Trek books and all of their shows and movies, (Except for the total idiotic way "Enterprise" was betrayed and wasted for the true fans), I have found Judith and Garfield Reeves-Steven's Shatner books on Trek the very best in all of the Trek media available.

They often employ the best tactical believe-ability in Trek action, motivation and logical conclusions in their story-planning, plotting and telling. The Ashes of Eden was a great start, followed by the more invigorating "The Return" and "Avenger", Kirk in TNG's timeline was really hitting his stride.

Kirk's marriage to Teilani opened up doors and more possibilities, and with a great Mirror Universe Trilogy to follow, Kirk had his best action ever. ("Dark Spectre" probably being the best) Sure, Shatner books focus more on Kirk coming up with the heroic resolutions and action, but Riker played his usual "I can relate to saddle-swinging Kirk as well as prolific Picard" self. Picard was always handled pretty well and in an expected manner, Janeway was just as you'd expect, from where Voyager and Nemesis left her off.

So now we have the conclusion to the Totality trilogy, which unfortunately is kind of like a typical Peter David 'New Frontier' letdown at the end. Instead of their usual large scale tactical Trek realism, the Reeves-Stevens elects to put us in a little bit of a 'kooky 1960's angle' of believing the Totality is the end-all, be-all abundant actual mass of the universe's 'dark matter' that loves us so blindly, they need to kill us all off to see their point of view. The entire storyline is somewhat contradicting and self-defeating. If the Totality loves themselves enough to describe their own need to be left alone by light matter, then why love us so much as to force us into their dark matter dimension of life against our will, against the very pattern of evolution they had for themselves?

Poor Joseph Kirk has to become something that is a such a stretch, even by a wide-ranging Sci-Fi evolution standard, that what happens to him is impossible to accept. Kirk again must face over-whelming personal tragedy that would make most of us readers insane, despite the strengths of our various characters.

The Picard/Kirk wit matching in this book is good, the ideas of the Totality's attack are great, but I do believe another HUGE careless mistake from the 1960's would be to believe that any human being would last for long in 400% gravity. I do believe most scientists declare that to be instantly lethal. I even liked how Counselor Troi was contributing truly valuable impressions for a change. Spock and McCoy, who were great in the previous novels are downplayed a bit, and Worf, now first officer of the Enterprise was a commenting non-factor at best.

This book was a fine read for the characterizations and story strategies the Reeves-Stevens always provide, and not boring like a lot of J.M. Friedman novels, but the enemy we're left with is un-believeable at best, ridiculous from Spock's explanation of their true nature, up and until how they act at the end. I was wondering how many more times Kirk was going to think or declare "This time I'm really dead..." before he passes into oblivion. It happens so much in the last four chapters, you're being dragged around with morbid expectations.

I think the Reeves-Steven's had to rush this book over martinis and vacations once Enterprise's TV run ended. For what was great story inventiveness, something you can count on from them, there are too many weak points in this novel that are hard to swallow about this story's conflict. Heck, did we have to have ANOTHER alien force take on the shape of sexy woman for Kirk? I sure do miss the true action sequences and smart strategies everyone employed in the Mirror Universe trilogy.

I give this 3 out of 5 stars, because they do keep the magic of the best in Jim Kirk's spirit soaring with the latest day crew of TNG etc. I'm sorry this last trilogy to be done by Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens was not as climactic as the previous one, it's not bad, just not good enough. To be the last such trilogy they do together, I wanted them to care enough on this one to do it far better than the "Totality" development and conclusion. At the end of "Captain's Peril", the first book of this trilogy, it looked as though it might be bigger than a well-done Borg invasion. But, after the often-confusing second book, this third and final one left too much assumed, and not as logically developed as their previous works.