I gave up during Spectre, just plain lost interest. Never really liked the whole ressurection thing either. But the Ashes of Eden was okay.
I think Ashes of Eden was excellent--and it was a fitting "true" end to James T. Kirk's adventures in the 23rd Century--along with Spoiler: Ashes of Eden a legendary end for the Enterprise-A. She fights to the end, that bonnie lass.... The Return was pretty good--I enjoyed it a great deal. Still...I think the "attack the Borg homeworld" thing was a little hokey. So...how were they able to find the homeworld again? Avenger was all right...but I didn't really see what was served by "revealing" that Sarek was murdered, and that Kirk has to avenge him. The MU trilogy was pretty good--an enjoyable read...just not particularly memorable. I thought the parallel Earth "explanation", with the Preserver element, made the final book a little dull. I haven't read the first and third book in the Totality trilogy...but I read Captain's Blood. It was all right--I like the whole mystery of "Who killed Ambassador Spock...or is he even dead?" Still, I suppose it was a little confusing because I didn't read the backstory with Norinda in the first book.
Thanks for the opinions so far guys seems like the books have a lot of merit. I'll at least give Ashes of Eden a try because that doesn't have Kirk's revival and is more of a final story before Kirk's role in generations and that seems pretty interesting to me. I may at some point even give the others a try even if the resurrection deal bothers me it would be a good story after all and I dont have to take it literaly to the main continuity.
This sounds crazy, but when I read Ashes of Eden, I felt it could have worked as a Star Trek VII if the original crew did one more.
By rule of thumb the books became progressively weaker with each one. But I loved them. The Ashes of Eden was great and felt the closest to spirit of the Movie era star Trek. The Return was just a heck of a lot of fun to read. Lets face it, Kirk CAN beat up anyone because he is Kirk from Star Trek. Avenger was enjoyable too. The Mirror Universe Trilogy was good but not as good as the previous trilogy. The Totality Trilogy was the weakest and a bit frustrating but nice ending to the series. The prequel Collision Course was fun too and I liked seeing Kirk's early days explored but the Villains were less interesting as was the threat. I see these books as something like a Character series books, like spy novels, or fantasy/wizard novels. So I allow them to be larger than life and don't get too hung up on things that seem over the top. The writers try hard to tie everything together with Canon and they explore some fun unexplained canon.
Not really. Remember, Roddenberry's whole purpose with Star Trek was to get away with the cartoony, larger-than-life fantasies of most science fiction on TV and approach the genre as a naturalistic adult drama, with more grounded and human characters. Kirk wasn't supposed to be some perfect superhero, but a relatable everyman with flaws and doubts and vulnerabilities and limitations. He generally did win his fights, but often with difficulty, getting pretty beat up in the process. And there were a number of fights he didn't win. Spock totally wiped the floor with him in "This Side of Paradise" and "Amok Time." The Air Force guards took him down in "Tomorrow is Yesterday." Cloud William beat him easily in "The Omega Glory." So he wasn't some unbeatable fantasy hero.
I'm a fan of the books- they were my introduction to Trek Lit. I've *since* realized they are cartoonish and OTT, but at the time I thought they were double-plus good.
I've just ran across this thread, and I'd like to share my opinions on the books (aside from Captain's Peril. I skipped it The Ashes of Eden: A fairly good TOS novel set after TUC. It's a fun read with some good development of character and action. Shatner's ego was, er, pretty well in check... The Return: Not the best Trek novel by any means, and it has more action than even Die Hard (which isn't so bad, really..), but it also makes for a fun story of Kirk's resurection and the TNG crew fighting the Borg...oh, and the USS Monitor is a neat device. But the best part of the book was the Borg subplot Avenger: An interesting story involving Kirks re-return and a little twist on Ambassador Sarek's death. Spectre/Dark Victory/Preserver:The first is awesome, IMO. The little trick with the USS Voyager was clever. 2nd was kinda eh, but with lots of mystery. Third...wellllll....it was neat, but not SUPER awesome. (As some others have said, it is rather cartoonish. Captain's Blood and Glory were pretty dull for the most part.
He was the only one with willpower enough to beat the spores in "This Side of Paradise". He won a fist fight with a genetically-engineered superman in "Space Seed". Earlier in the same episode, he remained concious longer than anyone else when the oxygen was cut off to the bridge. Kirk was mortal in some episodes, but not all.
I liked the first 2 trilogies but the third one wasn't nearly as good and I lost interest in it to the point where I decided not to read Collision Course.
Thanks for all the insight to this point guys, I will start with Ashes of Eden as it seems like its good and look into the other ones as they are for a good story despite the resurrection deal. Wanted to ask about collision course though is it a good TOS prequel for Kirk? Does it give more background and other details? The whole premise of Kirk at the academy seems really interesting so im definitely going to try to get collision course as it seems like a real interesting story.
"Collision Course" feels much more like the 2009 movie version of Trek than the original series. It's loosely based on a pitch Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens made for a Star Trek Academy TV series in 2003 (or thereabouts). A larger story is hinted at, and a sequel promised at the end, which unfortuately never materialized. It's in a continuity unto itself, ignoring stuff even from previous Shatner books.
Personally, I've never minded that Collision Course hasn't had a follow up. The Shatner novels felt like they got more and more over the top as they went on, and this one... Yeah, it was so over the top to me that it crashed down to the bottom. Spoiler: Collision Course I couldn't really swallow Kirk and Spock knowing each other since they were teenagers, and when they got to helm the Enterprise with behind-the-scenes approval from some higher up, it felt like bad fanfiction in hardback.
Well, to re-iterate what I said elsewhere: I love the first four of his novels, though (that is, "Ashes of Eden", "The Return", "Avenger" and "Spectre"). Yes, "The Return" is the "wild" one of the bunch, as I do think the other ones are better written... But hey, "The Return" was only following one of the most vile, most God-awful movies ever (and I'm not kidding). Bringing him was necessary, IMO. And AoE is a great final chapter for Kirk and co. just before GEN, and a great epilogue to TUC. The MU trilogy is a mixed bag... The first one is superb, "Dark Victory" is indeed meh, but still quite good - especially for its use of Garak, and as everybody knows, whatever Garak we get is better than no Garak. "Preserver" is... Very mixed bag. Mostly because whatever role Picard has in it is abandoned in the third half of the novel and the MU focus is sorta shifted to a whole different kind of spectrum. The Totality trilogy is OK. The first one I dug, because the first half had Kirk and Picard interacting wonderfully - their discussion about the Prime Directive is great stuff - the second half is basically a flashback to Kirk's early days and the third half has Kirk looking for Picard. THe second novel is every bit as OTT as they go - but its OK, cause its a decent follow-up to NEM, though not quite as good as the equivelant Titan novel. And "Captain Glory" is OK, but the climax and epilogue are totally awesome. Its a really fine ending to Kirk's adventures in the Prime Universe, bittersweet but also... Fun. Never read Collision Course, and I don't think I plan to. Sorry. Something I'd like to note: I like to view GEN, "The Return" and FC as an unofficial trilogy: The Enterprise-D crashes and Kirk dies, Kirk comes back because of the Borg's insedious alliance with a Romulan fraction to take down the Federation, and when the Federation basically closes down one of its home planets, the Borg fight back by direct assault and then time-travel. And what links all those stories throughout is the TNG crew.