The "Shatnerverse" what do you all think-recommend or no

[Stoek]

I don't remember which book it was, one of the early ones, but I quit after reading both Picard and Sulu and Spock written as petty hidebound bureaucrats who are too narrow minded to understand what's going on, and only Kirk has the intelligence and vision to see, understand, and combat the threat to hand.

I threw up in my mouth a little bit, put the book down and walked away and haven't been back since.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^"Third half?"

Shatnerverse fractions

 

[Therin of Andor]

^"Third half?"

Well, it was in a nine-part trilogy.

 

[CaptainMatt]

Thw dirst four bookks were generally alright (aside from the way Kirk was resurrected in The Return) but afterwards..no. After Spectre the series seemingly jumped a shark and made Kirk into a demi-god or something close to it.


Collision Course was better than the latter half of the "Kirk's Return" novels but easily and immediately contradicted by what JJ did for the series in 2009.

 

[Saul]

Thw dirst four bookks were generally alright (aside from the way Kirk was resurrected in The Return) but afterwards..no. After Spectre the series seemingly jumped a shark and made Kirk into a demi-god or something close to it.


Collision Course was better than the latter half of the "Kirk's Return" novels but easily and immediately contradicted by what JJ did for the series in 2009.

JJ's 2009 movie is an alternate universe. No contradiction.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Not quite. Kirk's father in "Collision Course" is Joseph Kirk, a Starfleet enlisted redshirt. The George Kirk of STXI is a Starfleet officer, Lieutenant Commander, and XO of the USS Kelvin.

Although there's no contradiction with the events of young Kirk's life, the way he met Spock etc, his motivation for joining Starfleet differs from what was established about Kirk Prime in the movie, too.

 

[Mister Spock]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but the Shatnerverse was my introduction to Star Trek literature so I've always really loved them.

I remember being about eleven or twelve, my local library had the comic book adaptation of The Ashes of Eden - as well as Who Killed Captain Kirk? - and I loved seeing Kirk's final adventure aboard Enterprise.

Through a local discount book store I found a copy of Spectre and I loved every moment of it. Captain Kirk was my favourite character and, having received Star Trek: Generations on video the previous Christmas, was immeasurably happy to see him alive and well again.

 

[borgboy]

I love the whole series, but I do agree that "SuperShatner" gets a little bad at times. Overall though the writing is really good.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I loved the Shatner books when I first read them years ago. Unfortunately, I recently re-read The Return and it was awful. It read like bad fan fiction. I couldn't believe it was the same book I'd loved before.


"The Borg teamed up with the Romulans and brought Kirk back to life with [tech]! The Borg captured Spock but didn't assimilate him because he once melded with V'ger and... get this... V'ger is the Borg! And there's a black ship with super duper secret Starfleet badasses on board! They take Section 31's lunch money and answer to nobody! They wear badass black super armour and stuff! Kirk kicks he asses of Picard's entire crew, one at at time! They make the black ship into a secret Enterprise! And the Borg homeworld has a big fuckin' self destruct lever and Kirk pulls it!!"

 

[zarkon]

To be honest I liked the central node idea better then the queen stuff.

Borg worked better as a faceless amoral machine

As for kirk vs worf, worf got beaten up day in day out on TNG, so its hardly unbelivable. The almost breathless kirk is amazing heroworship threaded through the narration itself was helluva offputting though.

I KINDA liked the v'ger stuff. not because of v'ger being a borg, which was silly, but because it opened up the idea of different "branches" of the borg, which I'd have loved to have seen

 

[Enterpriserules]

I say read it. I always enjoyed it, especially since you didn't have to know so many other novels to get into the series. It has it's weak moments for sure. I personally liked Kirk back, but that is me.

 

[borgboy]

I'm planning to re-read the Shatnerverse series in the near-ish future. I hope I enjoy the good parts and can stomach the bad. There is a lot of stuff in there I did like, Teilani and her people were interesting, I liked the mirror universe storyarc a lot. I like Garfied and Judith Reeves-Stevens's writing in general. I particularly loved their DS9 trilogy.
I did like that Kirk was brought back. There was one or two huge developments in the series I'd liked to have changed - the Telani story arc started out pretty strong but didn't end well for example - but overall it's a good popcorn movie kind of read, and that's not all bad.

 

[Frontier]

The first trilogy -- Ashes of Eden, Return, Avenger -- where all great. I've re-read these a half-dozen times since they came out in the 90s. I still remember buying "Avenger" on special order in 8th grade. I think they really capture the voices of the characters well, and give fun and unique stories.

The second trilogy, which is mirror universe based, is pretty good. Not as good as the first ones; the longer you go the worse it gets, you know?

By the last 3 books/trilogy, it's just a runaway mess. :S

And the only act of what might have been another trilogy, "Collision Course" -- which is Shatner's take on young Kirk and Spock at the Academy in the shadow of Trek 2009 coming out not long after -- is... eh.

I'd give the first 3 books a try. If you like them, the next 3.

 

[Christopher]

I think Collision Course was meant to be the first of a 2-book sequence.

 

[ronny]

I read Ashes of Eden and Return in the last couple months. I liked them a lot more than I expected but that's probably because I was thinking about all the comments about the last trilogy. I didn't remember so many people liking the first couple books so much. I'm planning on reading Avenger in the next month or so.

I plan to eventually read them all, just because I want to finish them all ST pocket books but it sounds like the last trilogy is going to be a trial.

 

[Tribble puncher]

I've only read "The Return", like several other reviews I did think the treatment of Kirk in this novel was "fanwanky". I do however, remember enjoying this novels slant on the borg. I haven't read it since 1998 so that could change if I read it now...

 

[Markonian]

Of the Shatnerverse novels, I've only read Captain's Glory so far. Although I was unfamiliar with the previous books it was easy to get into the story, understand the characters and what's at stake.

The writing was solid and the only scene I found somewhat cheesy was Kirk having to stop a fight between Captains Picard and Riker.

It was a good book and the entire series is somewhere on my to-read list. Based on my single-book knowledge, I recommend it.

 

[Mr Light]

I love the Shatnerverse novels! They're cinematic and epic in a way that the normal Trek novels never really achieve. The Return will always be my favorite, but I really liked the Preserver Trilogy as well. I don't remember the last trilogy well but I recall it wasn't quite as good.

 

[borgboy]

Yes the series did sputter out and die by the end. The first two trilogies are much better.
For what it's worth, if you enjoy the best of the Shatnerverse novels, I recommend the other Reeves-Stevens novels. I especially loved their DS9 trilogy, which involves the late season 6 Defiant crew being sent forward many years in the future, where they deal with all kinds of interesting changed situations and characters.

 

[Mr Light]

I remember their DS9 "Millennium" trilogy being very good.