THE DIRECTOR SHOULD'VE SHOT YOU: MEMOIRS of the FILM TRADE (audiobook) by Alan Dean Foster

Published in 2024 by Tantor Media.
Read by Stephen R. Thorne.
Duration: 7 hours, 1 minute.
Unabridged.

Alan Dean Foster is a prolific sci-fi author. He has written over 50 sc-fi novels, but he is probably most famous for his numerous novelizations of sci-fi movies and TV shows, such as the original Star Wars movie (ghost written for George Lucas), Alien, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Krull, and The Last Starfighter.

The Director Should've Shot You is the story of Foster's experiences as the man who Hollywood turns to to write novelizations of sci-fi movies. He talks about how that system (usually) works, the odd experiences, his interactions with directors, producers, and faceless stuidio executives, and his various thoughts of the strengths and weaknesses of the various projects. 

My experiences with Foster as a young reader start with his two Star Wars books that he wrote when George Lucas  and his team were finishing the original movie.

As I noted, he ghost wrote the novelization of the first movie for George Lucas. He  also wrote the original sequel to the original Star Wars movie - a book called Splinter of the Mind's Eye. George Lucas asked Foster to make Splinter of the Mind's Eye a smaller story when compared to sweeping epic of the original story just in case the first movie turned out to be a bust. Lucas hoped to make a cheaper movie and recycle some of the original props and costumes in order to eke out a little profit. The runaway success of Star Wars made that plan unnecessary. 

We were so starved of Star Wars material back then. I must have read the novelization of the original Star Wars movie more than 10 times. This was back in the days when you could only see Star Wars in the movie theaters. It hadn't been played on TV yet and there were no VHS, DVD, or streaming releases. But, we had the books, the collectable cards, the toys to remind us of the story and it was an endless source of conversation.

I remember reading and discussing Splinter of the Mind's Eye until Lucas released the eventual sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. We were searching for any indication of how the stories might continue and we were trying to figure out how the Star Wars universe worked and all we really had were two little paperback books writen by Alan Dean Foster. That cover was excellent.

I must have read all of his novelizations of the Star Trek animated stories because I read everything Star Trek that I could find when I was in high school.

If you are looking for a complete autobiography of Foster, this isn't it. He offers a decent autobiography up to the point where he starts writing the movie novelizations and then it's pretty much all about those novels. That was fine by me - Foster is a critic and a fan at the same time and it was a fun listen.

The book is almost worth reading just to see what 1970s TV show paid him to write a novelization of a very special two episode story arc. It was certainly out of his normal area of expertise.

Now, I am seriously thinking about re-reading Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE DIRECTOR SHOULDVE SHOT YOU MEMOIRS of the FILM TRADE by Alan Dean Foster.

STAR TREK PICARD: NO MAN'S LAND: AN ORIGINAL AUDIO DRAMA (audiobook) by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio Originals in 2022.

Performed by a full cast, including Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd.

Duration: 1 hour, 39 minutes.

Unabridged.

Synopsis

Set immediately after the Star Trek streaming show Picard: Season One, the audiobook No Man's Land is an adventure featuring the characters Seven of Nine and Raffi. 

With the collapse of the Romulan Empire comes the rise of local Romulan warlords who are trying to assert their control over the Romulan territory and, just as important, lay claim to the Romulan brand. 

A Romulan who has taken the title Emperor is conquering/leveling various planets in an attempt to establish himself as the successor to the Romulan Empire. It looks he is heading towards a planet that is secretly holding a massive collection of written materials, museum pieces, and other cultural relics of the collapsed Romulan Empire. 

There is a mad scramble to remove the relics, led by an ancient, kindly professor of unknown origin and Seven and Raffi are heading in to the chaos...

My Review

The audio in this book is excellent. It is a multicast performance with 12 different actors and the typical Star Trek special effects, very much like an old-fashioned radio drama. With all of the narration describing space battles and simple things like pouring a drink being replaced by sound effects, this makes for a very quick story. It's not an epic story, it feels much more like a solid Star Trek: TNG show storyline. That was fine by me - I like that show a lot.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Trek Picard: No Man's Land: An Original Audio Drama.

STAR TREK: TIMETRAP by David Dvorkin

Published in 1988 by Pocket Books

I used to be a gigantic reader of Star Trek books. In the mid-80's I had a rather large collection. In fact, my cousin and I had a complete collection if we put ours together (we would share back and forth so we wouldn't miss any book). I was quite the fan. I ran across this book when I was picking through the stacks of a used book store that had lost its lease and picked it up for old times sake.

I don't remember the plot of Timetrap at all so this must have been published after I had stopped making sure I had EVERY Star Trek that was printed.

Synopsis:

The story occurs in the same region of space as The Original Series episode "The Tholian Web." The Tholians had the ability to make an area of space phase in and out of alternate universes. Or, maybe it was natural - who knows? After all, the Tholians are a mysterious species and no one knows much about them.

In that show, a federation ship was trapped and phasing back and forth between universes. No one knew that this was the case and Captain Kirk ends up trapped on that ship and comes within seconds of death because he personally led an away team to an unclear and dangerous location. What can you do? He's the captain, he can pick the away teams and if he wants to risk his life it is his prerogative. 

In the book, it is some time later and Kirk finds a Klingon ship in a similar situation as the Federation ship was in "The Tholian Web". The Klingon ship is literally being torn to pieces by the stresses. Again, he personally leads an away team, The goal to kidnap/rescue members of the crew so they can be questioned as to why this Klingon warship was so far away from the Klingon Empire. 

But, something unexpected happens. The ship blips out of existence and Kirk wakes up 100 years in the future - in a time when the Klingons and the Federation have combined. The Federation won the continual Klingon/Federation Cold War and the Klingons are happy about and everyone is looking forward to the day when the Romulans will join as well.

Meanwhile, the crew of the Enterprise is pulling in every favor to keep investigating the disappearance of Captain Kirk in hopes of rescuing him...

My Review

Even with a book that is 37 year olds that has its own Wikipedia page, I am not going to talk a lot about the plot and any issues that I had with it because it would be nothing but a series of spoilers.

It isn't a bad story, but not a great one. I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Trek: Timetrap by David Dvorkin.

THEY CALLED US ENEMY (graphic novel) by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott

Published in 2019 by Top Shelf Productions.
Illustrated by Harmony Becker.

Winner of the 2020 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work.

Winner of the 2020 American Book Award.


George Takei is most famous for his part in the the original Star Trek series and the subsequent movies. But, over the last 20 years or so, Takei has been on a personal crusade to make sure that the Japanese Internment Camps are not forgotten. 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order in February of 1942 to place all of the Japanese on the west coast of the United States into camps because they could not be trusted not to help the Empire of Japan. This order applied to all Japanese, even if there was absolutely no reason to suspect them of doing anything at all to help Japan. Takei's family was included in this round up and this graphic novel is that story.

The graphic novel format is ideal for the story of a young man caught up in a situation he cannot possibly understand. Takei does a good job of going back and forth from his childhood perspective to multiple adult perspectives (Takei at various points in his life) in order to explain things better.

I rate this graphic novel 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THEY CALLED US ENEMY (graphic novel) by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott.

Note: This book has been listed on multiple book ban lists - in Tennessee (use the searchable database because the list has more than 1,100 unique titles) in 2025 and in Pennsylvania right after it was published. I suppose that people are scared of learning America's history.

REDSHIRTS: A NOVEL with THREE CODAS (Kindle) by John Scalzi

 

Winner of 2012 RT Reviewers Choice Award.
Winner of the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Winner of the 2013 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

Published in 2012 by Tor Books.

Redshirts is considered a modern classic and I absolutely jumped at the chance to download it for free thanks to Tor Publishing's e-mail newsletter and their monthly free e-book offer. I don't take every e-book they offer, but this is a book I've been considering for a while and you can't beat the price of free.

The title of the books tells you that there is a Star Trek tie-in with this novel. As every Star Trek fan knows, on the original series the joke is that the character wearing red shirts (except for Scotty and Uhura) are expendable characters that die in a number of weird and sometimes horrible ways. 

This book features a universe similar to that of Star Trek. The characters are based on the flagship of the Universal Union fleet - the Intrepid. The fate of the redshirts on the Intrepid is much like that of the redshirts on the Enterprise on Star Trek. 

And...that's all I can really say without going into spoilers and I really don't want to do that. Suffice it to say - if you are a Star Trek fan, you will enjoy this book.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. I would have made it 5 stars but the first of the three codas at the end was so padded with repetitive information that I literally skimmed several pages of it.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi.

LIVE LONG and...WHAT I LEARNED ALONG the WAY (audiobook) by William Shatner and David Fisher

Published by Macmillan Audion in 2018.
Read by the author, William Shatner.
Duration: 5 hours, 11 minutes.
Unabridged

William Shatner gets personal in this look back at his life. He offers advice, although to be fair you have to know his first piece of advice - don't take his advice. Why not? Because his life is his life and you are you and the situations are different.

That being said, he does offer one really good piece of advice - say "yes" to new opportunities.

Besides the advice, he fills the book with stories of his life and discussions of situations he faced and how he dealt with them. He is brutally honest about his childhood and his lifelong inability to make real friends. Leonard Nimoy was one of his few friends, but at the end of his life Nimoy had refused to talk with him for five years.

The author, undoubtedly being overly
dramatic - and also interesting.

Sometimes he drifts into sort "old man" ramblings about life in general and repeats himself, but most of the book is quite interesting. Say what you want about William Shatner - he's never boring for very long. His stories of his career right after the cancellation of Star Trek tell something about how badly he wanted to be an actor. His story of his drive from New York City to Chicago in a blizzard is worth the price of the book all by itself, in my opinion.

Shatner read this audiobook himself. Did you expect anything less?

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: LIVE LONG and...WHAT I LEARNED ALONG the WAY (audiobook) by William Shatner.

I FIND YOUR LACK of FAITH DISTURBING: STAR WARS and the TRIUMPH of GEEK CULTURE (audiobook) by A.D. Jameson

Published in May of 2018 by Macmillan Audio.
Duration: 6 hours, 58 minutes.
Read by Holter Graham.
Unabridged.

A.D. Jameson is a student of cinema - not just science fiction and fantasy movies, but of cinema in general. I used the word "student" in the previous sentence carefully because he is not just a fan of movies, he studies the directors, the movements and the ideas behind the movies.

Photo by DWD

But, he is also a proud geek - a fan of sci-fi and fantasy literature and movies. Like me, he was really into those genres in middle and high school, moved away from them for a while during and after college and then came back to them in a big way when the Star Wars "Special Edition" movies were released.

My own children do not believe me, but there was once a time when the mere sight of a Star Wars t-shirt or bumper sticker was worthy of comment. Now, they are everywhere. My family probably owns more than 20 Star Wars-related t-shirts alone.

A.D. Jameson explores how this happened by focusing on the world of cinema and television. He argues that Star Trek, not the original run on NBC but the re-run episodes running night after night, day after day until everyday, normal TV viewers got used to the idea of spaceships and aliens. When Star Trek was starting to fizzle out, Star Wars came in and made a big splash - the biggest splash in movie history up to that point. When the Star Wars phenomenon started to fade away, Star Trek came back with the movies and then with four different TV shows that spanned 18 years. Many of those shows aired every day (sometimes multiple times per day) because they were syndicated.

Star Wars came back with the troubled (but immensely successful) prequel series. X-Men movies started coming out - another troubled franchise, but it has been going on for 19 years! The Lord of the Rings movies and suddenly it seemed like every movie was a sci-fi, fantasy or a comic book movie.

As I mentioned, Jameson focuses on TV and especially cinema, spending a lot of time arguing that Star Wars fits perfectly well in with its peers from the time period like Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather. He makes a compelling argument, one that would undoubtedly be argued against by Martin Scorsese when you consider the ruckus he has kicked up with his comments about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  While I was interested in all of this exploration of cinema, the book title gives the reader the impression that "geek culture" was going to be explored in a meaningful way. Culture is more than movies. I assumed that the book was going to explore how we went from being a culture where sci-fi and fantasy were fringe movements in everyday life to the point where the truck in the picture I posted with this review is driven around in central Indiana, but it is largely unexplored.

His comments on Star Trek and its influence on culture as a beacon to where we might one day end up as a society (more open, more accepting) were quite good. It occurred to me that among my many behavioral role models are Jesus and Jean-Luc Picard - and those two don't clash with one another at all.

The audiobook was well-read by Holter Graham. He did such a good job at sounding like he was into the topic that I actually assumed that the author was self-narrating the book until I checked.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. I have to take off a star for mostly failing to address one of the themes mentioned in the title. Still, it is a good book. It can be found on Amazon.com here: I FIND YOUR LACK of FAITH DISTURBING: STAR WARS and the TRIUMPH of GEEK CULTURE by A.D. Jameson.

CAPTAIN to CAPTAIN: STAR TREK LEGACIES, BOOK 1 (audiobook) by Greg Cox

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2016

Read by Robert Petkoff

Duration: 9 hours, 40 minutes

Unabridged

This book is part of a series marking the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. Captain to Captain features Captain Una, better known as Number One in the original pilot episode of the Original Series ("The Cage") and the regular cast of the Original Series.

Captain Una, a legendary Starfleet officer, comes to the Enterprise on a surprise visit for vague reasons and promptly steals a secret object that captains of the Enterprise keep hidden away from even the Federation. Kirk isn't even sure what it is exactly, but he knows it can't fall into the hands of the Klingons, the Romulans and maybe not even the Federation because what he does know is that it is the key to more power than anyone should be able to control. 

Number One from the original pilot of Star Trek

Now Kirk has two questions:

Why did Captain Una steal the object?

Why is Captain Una heading to the Klingon Empire as fast as she possibly can?

A few years back I swore off of Star Trek novels. I used to read them almost obsessively and I owned an impressive collection - but that was 30 years ago. In the last few years I have tried to come back to them and re-kindle the magic but I just can't. I tried this audiobook and, once again, I found that it just didn't have to the old pizzazz. The story seemed flat. I just didn't buy into a lot of it. It was just okay, but nothing special.

I will not be moving on to the other books in the series, even though this book left off with a pretty big cliffhanger.

None of my complaints about the book can be lain at the feet of the reader, Robert Petkoff. He did a solid job with the accents of the Original Series characters, including Number One.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: CAPTAIN to CAPTAIN: STAR TREK LEGACIES, BOOK 1 by Greg Cox.

STAR TREK: THE LOST YEARS (Lost Years #1) by J. M. Dillard

Published in 1989 by Pocket Books (Simon and Schuster)

The idea behind Star Trek: The Lost Years is interesting: What happened to the characters from the original Star Trek series between the end of their original five year mission and the events of the movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

But, the follow-through is quite weak.

The characters feel like cardboard cut-outs of themselves, especially McCoy. Kirk's decision to become an admiral makes sense. but McCoy's outlandish, petulant, even childish response to Kirk's decision was simply not believable to me. Even worse, the new characters are, at best, one-note wonders.

McCoy and Natira, 

McCoy quits Star Fleet to find Natira, a former love interest from the TV episode "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky." She is the leader of a group of refugees who live inside a giant spaceship that they thought was a planet. They had a romantic spark but when McCoy returns to visit her he finds that she has made a political marriage because her people need her more than McCoy did. McCoy responds by consuming lots and lots of alcohol.

The book would have been so much better if it had just went with the Spock/Vulcan story line. It was by far the most interesting and had real possibilities. But, it was skimped on to make room for the other parts - and all of those parts come together in a rather unconvincing manner - in a series of galactic-sized coincidences.

There is simply too much going on in this book - too many new characters, too many plot lines and too many romances. The overall quality of the book suffers as a consequence.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Trek: The Lost Years.

Reviewed on September 21, 2013.

Shatner Rules: Your Key to Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World at Large (audiobook) by William Shatner with Chris Regan

Published by Penguin Audio in 2011
Read by the author, William Shatner
Duration: 4 hours, 27 minutes
Non-fiction, biography

If you are a fan of William Shatner, Shatner Rules is a must-read, or a must-listen if you prefer to listen to the audiobook version like I did.

Shatner is unique and if you do not appreciate his odd blend of storytelling, self-promotion and urge to stroke his own ego then please skip this book. But, if you think a little self-promotion (actually, a lot of it) is okay and are willing to tolerate Shatner's ego trips for the sake of a good story than this short audiobook should please.

Most of the book covers the last 5 years or so of his career under the guise of explaining several rules that he  has followed throughout his career. The most important rule and the most consistently followed is his admonition to say yes to opportunity. Throughout the book he talks about the positives that he has had in his career due to his willingness to say yes, including a rather long convoluted story about how his willingness to make the almost universally panned The Transformed Man album in the late 1960's led to his getting the part of Denny Crane and receiving two Emmy Awards in the 2000's.

By and large, though, this book could easily be considered a tongue-in-cheek promo for William Shatner, Inc. He talks about his roles on The Twilight Zone , Star Trek , T.J. Hooker , The Practice , the Star Trek movies, his TekWar books, his current cable shows, his disputes with other members of the Star Trek cast and his part in the Vancouver Winter Olympics closing ceremonies.

I enjoyed it although I could have done without the 5 minutes and 20 seconds of narration in the made up language of Esperanto (he made a movie filmed entirely in Esperanto in 1965). I suggest the audio version so you can get the full Shatner experience.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Shatner Rules.

Reviewed on December 29, 2012.

Q-Squared (Star Trek: The Next Generation) (abridged audiobook) by Peter David

A thoroughly entertaining audiobook experience

Published in 1994 by Simon and Schuster Audio Division
Read by John de Lancie
Duration: 2 hours, 59 minutes
Abridged

I picked this audiobook up at a library sale - they were clearing out all of their audiobooks on cassette. So, I picked up a bunch of them and dusted off the Sony Walkman (literally) and gave it a listen. Back in the day (1994) most audiobooks were edited to about 3 hours. This book was originally over 400 pages long so it was edited extensively as well, although the cover does not admit to it. That being said, the editing was very well done here. This could have been an extraordinarily confusing book considering that it bounces around in 3 different universes, but the editors have demonstrated a great deal of skill. All that being said, Q-Squared is not an audiobook for the Star Trek newbie.

In the original Star Trek, Captain Kirk and company encountered Trelane, a being of extraordinary power but very little maturity who called himself "the Squire of Gothos." Trelane captured the Enterprise, verbally sparred with Spock and Kirk and finally ended up in a sword fight with Kirk. He was just about to beat Kirk when Trelane's parents interceded and took their very naughty boy away and set the Enterprise free.

Peter David goes ahead and makes Trelane a member of the Q Continuum and has Q, the character from Star Trek: The Next Generation serve as Trelane's godfather. Trelane is basically working as an apprentice under Q as a favor to Q's friends, Trelane's parents. Trelane and Q come to Captain Picard's Enterprise to learn about humans and see how they operate.

Picard and Q. Q is played by the reader of this audiobook, 
John de Lancie

But, Trelane gets a bellyfull of being told he's a nuisance and that he shouldn't use his awesome powers to make people he dislikes disappear. Trelane comes up with a plan...

There is a theory that there are actually multiple universes out there, not just one. This book follows three of them. The first is the standard Star Trek storyline. The second is a storyline in which the Federation and the Klingons are at war and the Federation is losing badly. The third is one in which Jack Crusher, husband of Dr. Beverly Crusher and best friend of Captain Picard is not dead. In fact, he is the Captain of the Enterprise, newly divorced from Dr. Crusher and Picard and Dr. Crusher are having a secret torrid affair.

Trelane's plan to get even with the Enterprise involves melting away the "walls" that separate these universes (and all of them, I suppose), blocking the Q Continuum from interfering and killing Q. But, Q does not die and the injured Q works his way through all 3 universes to fight Trelane with Picard's help. It is entertaining to listen to the interaction amongst them all and painful to listen to Trelane do his best to make Jack Crusher a source of even more pain for Dr. Crusher and Picard.

Trelane and his harpsichord in the original 
Star Trek series

The audiobook is read by John De Lancie, the actor who portrayed Q in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television shows. He captures the voice of his own character perfectly (of course) but he also nails the voice of Trelane as well with a manic and injured tone that captures his insanity and his dangerous side. Throw in some decent sound effects (including what has to be the loudest turbolift in Star Fleet...) and an interesting twist to the musical score that includes a harpsichord being played as Trelane's insanity builds to a crescendo (Trelane really enjoys the harpsichord) at the end of the book and you have a thoroughly entertaining audiobook experience.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Q-Squared by Peter David.

Reviewed on June 19, 2012.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (abridged audiobook) by Vonda N. McIntyre, Leonard Nimoy, and Harve Bennett

Published in 1986 by Simon and Schuster
Read by Leonard Nimoy and George Takei
Duration: 90 minutes

Abridged.

I picked up this audiobook of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home on cassette at a clearance book sale in the "who's going to want this stuff?" section. Mostly, it was serious junk. Educational software that only operates on Apple IIe,  VHS copies of movies that I've never heard of starring some guy that was on some TV show that I barely remember and DVDs of some pastor's sermons on any number of topics (still in the plastic!). And, suddenly, I find a memory from my high school and college years - a genuine Star Trek audiobook from 1986!...on audiocassette! And...narrated by George Takei and Leonard Nimoy! So, I scuttle out of there like I've found a gold bar and pop it in car's cassette player - one of the advantages of having an old car is that it has a multimedia (CD and cassette) stereo system.

Back in the day, audiobooks were almost always abridged, sometimes criminally. This 274 page book is abridged to a mere 90 minutes. To be honest, if it weren't for my faded memories of the movie, I don't even know if there is enough plot here to tell the story.

George Takei from a scene in the
movie Star Trek IV

But, I enjoyed it immensely - I am a fan . Takei reads the story except for the internal musings of Spock, which are, of course, handled by Nimoy. It turns out that George Takei is a very strong audiobook narrator. His Scottish accent for Scotty is very strong, his southern accent for McCoy is smooth and understated and his Kirk is interesting. Several times Takei sneaks in his take on Shatner's stilted....way...of...pausing....when...he...speaks. I loved it.


So, in a sentence, the book is way too abridged but the fact that it was narrated by Takei and Nimoy made it a joy to listen to anyway.

Get this book as a audio download from Audible on Amazon.com here: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Adapted) .

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on April 1, 2012.

Star Trek: The Return (abridged audiobook) by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

It's Star Trek. It's William Shatner. What More Can You Ask For?

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2001.
Read by William Shatner
Duration: 3 hours, 6 minutes
Abridged

The audiobook lasts about 3 hours and is read by William Shatner, who is also one of the authors.

I admit, I picked Star Trek: The Return on a whim - the fact that it was read by Shatner himself was a big plus. Shatner is nothing, if not interesting. His book is much like the man himself (at least his well-known public persona) - lots of action, bluster, bravado, noise and Shatner's well-known and unique speaking style.

This book takes place immediately after the events of the Star Trek: Generations movie. If you haven't seen the movie lately, don't fret. Shatner uses it as a launching point only and goes on his own way. 

William Shatner in
Star Trek: Generations

At the end of Star Trek: Generations, Kirk has been killed by sacrificing himself to save a planet and possibly the entire Federation. Jean-Luc Picard respectfully buries him under a pile of rocks. Star Trek : The Return has the Romulans and the Borg coming to find Kirk's body so that they can re-animate his brain and learn all of his secrets. Kirk cannot be contained by the Borg or the Romulans and soon enough he's off saving the galaxy again.

Of course, William Shatner's Kirk is featured prominently throughout, which helps to make it an entertaining listen. Any armchair psychologist can have a field day with William Shatner's apparent need to keep his hand in the Star Trek franchise, especially by bringing Kirk back (again...he was presumed dead and definitely gone at the beginning of the Star Trek: Generations as well). This is hardly great literature but I had fun.

Three of the movies are tied together in a neat little bundle (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact) I enjoyed this audiobook during my commute for a few days. An entertaining diversion.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Trek: The Return.

Reviewed on January 23, 2009.

Sanctuary (Star Trek, Book 61) by John Vornholt

You can't go home again

Published in 1992.

I picked my title for this review for two reasons:

#1 - Sanctuary describes a legendary planet called 'Sanctuary' - a place where any and all fugitives are welcomed and spared from any further persecution. Unfortunately, McCoy, Kirk and Spock discover that once you come to Sanctuary you can never leave again. Thus the main challenge of the book - how do our intrepid three break out and get back to the 'Enterprise'?


#2 - I used to be a gigantic reader of Star Trek books. In the 80's and very early 90's I had a rather large collection. In fact, my cousin and I had a complete collection if we put ours together. I was quite the fan. I ran across this book and picked it up for old times sake and discovered that 'You can't go home again'. The old magic just was not there. Not that I dislike the characters or even the basic plot idea. It was the way the book was written:

-The supporting characters are one-dimensional cutouts.

-There's no character development.

-The planet is apparently covered with the same plant life since they encounter it in nearly every outdoors scene.

-I found myself being drawn into the last scene until I realized that my own fear of heights was making me imagine it much, much better than it was written.

Probably the last of the series for me. It's not the fault of the series - I have moved on to greener literary pastures and expect more.

I give this one a grade of 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Sanctuary (Star Trek: The Original Series Book 61)

Reviewed on April 11, 2006.

Crisis on Centaurus (Star Trek) by Brad Ferguson

A pleasant enough read but at times it was just 'off'

Published in 1986 by Pocket Books.

The premise of Crisis on Centaurus is that the colony Centaurus is bombed by a terrorist group and approximately 1 million victims die. The planetary government is in a shambles and the Enterprise is dispatched to aid in whatever way possible. However, Enterprise is having a series of computer failures and is not up to full capacity so things get tricky for Kirk and the crew.

Ferguson has written an adequate Star Trek novel - his main characters are written very solidly, but his supporting characters are rather like cardboard cutouts. The women weep and the men clench their teeth and pound their fists in anger at the news of the terrorist attack.

Having the benefit of hindsight in regards to the 9/11 attacks, I found the behavior of many of the characters to have been implausible at best, including doctors taking time away from the thousands of refugee patients to tour the Enterprise and especially the Mardi Gras-type partying that was going on in the new capitol city just a few days after a million people were killed in the planet's old capitol city. Remembering the somber mood of the country after 9/11 that went on for weeks with only a few thousand deaths, I found it to have been a jarring, hard to believe part of the story.

The first half of the story was really much, much better than the contrived second half. It is the first half that pulls it up to the third star and makes this a book that I recommend, albeit weakly.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Crisis on Centaurus by Brad Ferguson.

Reviewed on August 12, 2005.