Ed (LazerFlash) - reviewed on 5/12/2010 + 41 more book reviews

Okay... I'll admit it: I enjoy most things ostensibly penned by Bill Shatner... even those Tek War novels.

This particular adventure certainly bears the unmistakable style of the Reeves, while showing flashes of Shatner's abilities and opinions... and ego. I read somewhere that in the multi-faceted 'Shatnerverse' things ofttimes happen differently than within the same time-line already established with Trek Lore and Roddenberry's official canon. Buy hey, these are science *fiction* stories revolving around a TV series originally created a long time ago, in a galaxy far... (oooops, wrong universe ;-) ). Seriously, let's get above it all and try hard not read into it what isn't there. Hell, we all know that even the series itself mucked things around a bit at times, so what's the problem? Like most fans of hugely popular fictional universes, I *would* like it if things could agree even 90% of the time, but since it doesn't, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. (Even if the two most recently released stories about Kirk & Spock's origins are grossly different.)

So, how was the book? In my humble opinion, and having read some true dogs over the past few decades, I would say that this one is pretty good - especially as you near the end. As with time-travel stories which give me a headache, fiddling with the origins of the two major characters of Star Trek is dicey at best. But, this novel does a fine job of it. As with many Shatner-penned novels, the plot twists often come out of both left- and right-fields, and are sometimes a bit incredulous (I mean c'mon -- a handful of Academy mids actually stealing... ooops, sorry, no spoilers). Let's just say some of it fits REALLY well into the over-the-top nature of our heroes and their adventures. ;-) As a coming of age story, this book does a good job and explains a key point in Kirk's back story, even though it leads you into yet another one of those contra-canon areas. Considerably more mature than his chronological age, Captain Kirk is immediately recognizable in young Jimmy Kirk. And fans of the angst Mr. Spock suffers throughout most of the series and the movies holds true in the teenage representation presented.

Lastly, there's the morality play that all Trek stories are known for. This story is no different, tying the 21st century to the 23rd as this tale reminds the reader of the contemporary tragedy of child soldiers in places like the West Coast of Africa.

I give this book a solid 4.5 stars and highly recommend it. My only real complaint is that three years later, where is the promised sequel?

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