Author: William Shatner & Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 2006
Spock has disappeared and so has Kirk’s son. The Federation is at war with an unknown enemy that they can’t fight. Will Kirk turn his back on the Federation to find Spock and his son?
““Captain’s Glory” by William Shatner with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens was another book that came with expectations. I’ve read a number of these collaborations before, which focus on Captain James T. Kirk in the current Star Trek era.
This book fit the template of the previous books. Big. Starting with William Shatner’s name in dominant font size on the cover of the book. Moving into the story itself. Big. So big that our galaxy was not big enough to contain it. The story stretched from Mercury in our own solar system, to Vulcan, to the galactic barrier, and beyond.
The other usual trait of a William Shatner (with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens) story is that it is epic. If this was put on screen it would not be a one hour TV show, or even a two parter or a mini-series. This would be a big screen movie, and a blockbuster.
It was sprinkled with a Who’s Who of the Star Trek universe: Captain Kirk, Spock, McCoy (still alive at the age of 140+), Scotty (still alive after his time spent in the transporter buffer as recounted in a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode), Captain Picard, Worf, now the first officer of the Enterprise-E, Dr. Crusher, Captain Riker, now in command of the U.S.S. Titan, which he took command of at the end of the last movie, Counselor Troi, Admiral Kathryn Janeway, Tuvoc, now the security officer on Riker’s ship, the holographic doctor from the U.S.S. Voyager. This novel brought almost all of the classic characters. I almost wonder how they missed Captain Sisko.
What kind of story can contain all of these characters? A big one of course. Missing people. An unknown, seemingly undefeatable enemy. Exploding ships. Galactic war.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It was fast paced and character driven. Once I got started on a reading session it was definitely a page turner that I devoured for as long as my reading time would allow, and sometimes longer.
I did finally figure out in this book what has bugged me just a little bit about the books in this ongoing series. It occurred to me that maybe just a little bit James. T. Kirk is afflicted with just a little of the “Mary Sue” phenomenon, where he gets to rub elbows with all the legendary characters of the contemporary Star Trek era. That said, I will clarify so it doesn’t appear that I’m taking this as more of a negative than I am. “Mary Sue” is usually used in conjunction with fan fiction, most often as a criticism of poorly written fanfic.
This book was not, nor have any of the others in the ongoing series been, poorly written. While “Mary Sue” usually implies that the author’s character rubbing elbows with a series of famous characters serves in and of itself as the main creative force of the story, rather than anything original that the author has to add, I think that Shatner (or the Reeves-Stevens) has added a lot of intriguing characterization to the Kirk character.
Conflict, both internal and external, between Kirk’s manner of doing things “the cowboy way”, which was acceptable during the era of his Starfleet career, and the more structured, chain-of-command procedures of the current Starfleet are a common theme. We see Captains Kirk and Picard work closely together, representing Starfleet’s old-guard and their new guard. Both though learn from each other, Kirk learning that sometimes “by the books” procedures can be the better way of resolving issues, and Picard learning that sometimes “outside the box” thinking can be the best way to resolve issues. Though the two are allies and friends, they are frequently at odds in this book due to their very differing viewpoints. Add to this conflict Captain Riker, representing almost a “newer guard”, who is confident and willing to tell both Kirk and Picard that there is a better way of doing things. I very much liked that Riker did not immediately slide back into a subservient, almost First Officer-like role to Captain Picard, as the old crew of the Enterprise found themselves reunited again. He stood his ground as an equal, which was illustrated by Riker referring to Picard as “Jean-Luc” rather than “Captain”. Things have changed in the dynamic that we saw for many years on TV and in the movies.
Still on the topic of character evolution, Kirk is no longer driven solely by duty and the urge to explore. He is a father first, and still suffers from a personal loss. His refusal to absolutely toe the party line with regards to Starfleet makes for an adversarial relationship at this stage of his life. Kirk definitely has his personal agendas which he is most focused on, and is more content to leave the “saving the universe” work to the career Starfleet officers, such as Picard.
Going back to the “Mary Sue” point, I acknowledge that it’s one thing to use that in a derogatory fashion with regards to an amateur piece of fan fiction. However, William Shatner has been in James T. Kirk’s head for 40+ years. With Gene Roddenberry gone, Shatner would be far and away the expert on Kirk. So he is as qualified as anyone to write (or co-write) this novel. I don’t know how the drafting and writing process works among this triumvirate. It doesn’t matter because Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens write very good books on their own as well. The bottom line here is that the final product is very good. I brought it up merely because something tickled in the back of my brain as I read previous Shatner works. While I was reading this book it occurred to me that this was it. It’s worth noting in that there is a lot of “name-dropping” done in the book.
Maybe the one thing I didn’t like was the very end. “Captain’s Glory” was the last book of three I think. Maybe some of the setup for that ending was contained in the other books. I didn’t feel like I missed anything by not having read any of the other two. They were referenced a few times at key points, which clued me in as a new reader of this series how we had arrived at this point. I could see that being a little too much flashback if someone had read them straight through. The ending though, maybe I missed some knowledge that the previous books would have planted the seed for. I liked how things tied back to what was a very neat Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, which I always thought deserved some follow-up. But it almost seemed like the ending was a bit of deus ex machina. There was a bit of resolution in that ending for a character, I would presume, if you’d been reading over a series of books, but that character was in the background of this story until the end. So that didn’t have the impact on me within the context of this one novel as I expect that it would have otherwise.
Still though, this book was an exciting page-turner. I’ve thought that about the three or four previous Shatner books that I read, and again this one fit well into that style. Looking at the name on the cover I’d have been expecting to get this type of story. I’d have bought the book because of that. And this book would not have disappointed.
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