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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The True Star Trek saga finally continues..., April 11, 1999
By A Customer
Starting with this book, Willam Shatner has proven how much he knows about and truly loves Star Trek and its characters. Along with the help of the Reeves-Stevens (They also deserve a high salute as well), Shatner adds some much needed depth to the cheap "death" of Kirk in Star Trek: Generations. He also takes care of some hanging continuity threads from the past movies as well. Gosh! Is it more than satisfying or what to finally see the resolution and evolution of some key questions and themes! The interesting thing here, while reading this, is that word has it Shatner proposed this story for the next Star Trek film. 6 was a great way to go out, but if they would have come back for one more, this would have been it. This story would have merited it, and I gurantee you everyone would have been leaving that theater with tears in their eyes and their fist in the air in victory. All sorts of juicy details are touched upon, including how and why The Genesis Project failed and more about David Marcus's death and everything else. I, too, had a little bit of a struggle seeing the young Teilani go after Kirk. I realize he IS Kirk, but come one, he is 60 years old now. (This is rectified in the following books in the series when Kirk is in the 24th century and Teilani is more his age) Whatever reputation Shatner may have, there is one thing no one should dispute: He knows and loves Star Trek like the back of his hand. It's too bad; as awesome as his books in this series have been, I wish he and Nimoy would take over the reign of control over the Star Trek franchise. I would DIE to see the saga Shatner had portrayed in these books on the big screen. For me, his books are what the movies used to be. Star Trek has become so cheapened, watered down, and politically correct, that when I finally ran across these books, I finally had REAL Star Trek again. Not some soap opera like what it has become. Go ahead: Compare these books to anything Star Trek in the past several years. The difference will make you weep. Here is the difference between love and the almighty dollar.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
James T. Kirk in His Own Words, July 2, 2003
I bought this book at the suggestion of the manager of the local bookstore to keep me occupied during an unwanted month-long trip to Poland. I normally don't read Star Trek novels, because Paramount doesn't recognize them as canon. That means that they never happened. They're basically authorized fan fiction. In fact, this is the first Star Trek novel that I've read all the way through. It's actually pretty good. In fact, I read so much of it at a time that I had nothing to do to relieve my boredom for the rest of the vacation. It's written by William Shatner. Who better to write a Captain Kirk story than James T. Kirk himself? This story is Kirk in his own words. It takes place between the end of "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" and Kirk's apparent death in the opening scenes of "Star Trek: Generations". Kirk joins a young woman on a journey to save her homeworld and, perhaps, recapture his youth and be young forever. Sure, we know that he won't be young again. Sure, we know that he'll survive the events of the novel. It's still fun and exciting to read, though. Don't let "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" fool you. Shatner can write. The only complaints that I have are a few typos and Shatner's writing style. He often omits the word "and" in compound sentences, and he often uses incomplete sentences lacking subjects. He also writes a lot of the characters' thoughts into the narrative itself, which is supposed to be neutral. It's as if the narrator knows what the characters are thinking and agrees with them. Other than these things, which you can get used to, it's a good book. Shatner even references events in numerous TOS episodes and all of the TOS movies except for "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (which really didn't need to be referenced anyway). The story is bookended with scenes of Spock, standing over Kirk's grave on Veridian III, thinking about his late friend. Some historical notes are contradicted, such as when phasers were invented ("Enterprise") and the time period of Cochrane's first warp flight ("Star Trek: First Contact"), by later canon material, but the main story itself can still fit into the canon. The ending sets up Shatner's next Star Trek novel, "The Return". Overall, "The Ashes of Eden" is a good story and worth your time to read. It IS James T. Kirk.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
William Shatner examines Capt. Kirk and himself as legends., June 11, 1996
By A Customer
"The Ashes of Eden" takes place in the last years
of Kirk's career at Starfleet, just before the events
seen in the film STAR TREK: GENERATIONS. The plot,
which is compelling written by Shatner, centers on
a mysterious doomsday project that the Romulan and
Klingon empires have put into place to destroy the
Federation. Kirk goes to investigate it, and in his
absence, a traitor in Starfleet convinces everyone
else (including now-Captain Sulu, who goes to hunt
Kirk like the professional he is) that Kirk has turned
traitor.
The novel is one of the best of the STAR TREK line.
I was pleasantly surprised by Shatner's writing, but
I suppose that I shouldn't have been. After all, the
man has "been" Kirk for three decades. Which leads
me to the other surprising element of the book.
"The Ashes of Eden" isn't just an exciting STAR
TREK adventure, it's also a look inside the mind
of Capt. Kirk. Shatner uses the novel to relate
what it's like to be a living legend. Kirk encounters
young crewmembers who know more about his
adventures than he does and who want details that
he can't remember. Kirk's response that he and his
crew didn't set out to be heroes, but rather "we were
just doing our job" applies to Shatner as well.
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