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Title: Dark Victory (Star Trek) by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens ISBN: 0-671-00884-6 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: April, 2000 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.92 (88 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: If I know my Spocks...
Comment: Arguably the best of the 6 ST books. Taken from the original Star trek TV series episode MIRROR MIRROR, Kirk's double - twin has not been defeated by spock as we hoped. "Spock is logical and the mirror universe is illogical. If I know my Spocks, he'll..." well he didn't. The Kirk Twin is now Emperor Tiberius (ET) and he has enslaved humans and Vulcan alike.
ET has left home and found a way to our universe and has bad things planned for the federation. Only kirk can stop him. But kirk has a lot of friends to help. Shatner has two Spocks, McCoy and Scotty, and Picard & crew to help. But how do we know which Picard is a mirror or not?
This is the second book of the second trilogy (5th of the double trilogy) written by Shatner and friends for the star trek galaxy. I had long been disappointed in ST books, because they often read as if throw together. Shatner's ST is clearly the best that ST has to offer. If started with ASHES OF EDEN which turned into a trilogy, with the second book being THE RETURN. So, you want to kill off James T. Kirk huh? If you haven't read at least SPECTRE, you will want to because it starts this story arch. The story doesn't end with this book, and continues with PRESERVER. This is great sci-fi and great ST stuff.
Some have called DV the weakest of the trilogy which can happen to the middle book for a series, because things end "up in the air". But for shear entertainment this was a lot of fun to read. You have to read PRESERVER for the ending. Do it. Shatner is a great story teller.
Since I am now boycotting Star Wars NJO with the killing of Anakin, I truly hope that the Star Trek people will do a better job giving us more high quality books that are fun to read. Shatner is great. But I recently read the Dominion War 4 book set and was disappointed. I read these for the familiar characters and especially like what Shatner has done, reviving kirk and putting him with TNG characters.
Rating: 4
Summary: An engaging tale read well and with good sound effects
Comment: Mirror, Mirror has long been my favorite episode of the original Star Trek series. The prospect of a parallel universe where there is empire rather than federation is one that seems more likely when human history is considered. In this, the second in a series written and narrated by William Shatner, James Kirk must come face to face with what his evil counterpart, Emperor Tiberius, has done in the parallel universe. After Kirk plants the seed of rebellion in the Spock of the empire, Tiberius is overthrown and seeks assistance from an alliance of the Klingons and Cardassians. With the help of Tiberius, they destroy the federation, enslave all member species and turn Earth into a dead planet.
The story is one of the darker of Star Trek stories, in that it is one of a bleak future. Agents from the empire are filtering through and taking the place of their counterparts in the federation. There is a small rebellion in the empire, but it needs the help of James Kirk to have a chance. Kirk is hindered by his desire for the woman he loves and by the reality that he is battling himself. The other version is more capable, because it has no reluctance to destroy friends and even entire planets to get what he wants. Tiberius also knows every weakness that Kirk has and it is clear that only by becoming Tiberius can Kirk hope to defeat him.
William Shatner is quite good as a dramatic reader. Some of the exaggerated mannerisms that he exhibited playing James Kirk come through well as he reads. There are some excellent sound effects that add strongly to the strength of the story. It is one of the best of the Star Trek books on audio, I listened to it in my car and often stayed in it longer than usual to listen to the end of an especially exciting section.
Rating: 3
Summary: *Picard Should Have Edited This One*
Comment: "Dark Victory" is the second, but weakest novel in William Shatner's Mirror Universe trilogy. Solid enough for true believers, the book lacks the punch shown in the first and third volumes. It makes good airport reading material, but you probably won't lose sleep staying up late because you can't put it down, unlike the other two novels in the series which are riveting works.
Basically, the reader follows James T. Kirk through the recovery of his injuries from book one, "Spectre", which was an excellent book. The other main theme is the wedding of Kirk and his beloved Teilani. Frankly, Shatner may have wanted to pay tribute to love and humanize Kirk, but it just doesn't work. The bigger than life Federation hero doesn't play so well with such a weakness in his middle-to-old ages. Don't kid us, Kirk is a ladies man, period. In this aspect, Kirk's Mirror Universe counterpart Tiberius plays better than the original protagonist.
There are key characters and underlying foreshadowing that lend importance to the trilogy as a whole, and the writing partners put words on paper rather nicely. These elements make the book worth the effort, but it is honestly not their best work. As so often happens, writers planning out trilogies just don't have enough juice to make it last three full books. In this case, it is "Dark Victory" that suffers as opposed to the excellent bookends that surround it in the series.
I rate this work at a moderate 3.00 out of 5.00 stars, for good style and a great job with ongoing continuity. You have to read "Dark Victory" to bridge "Spectre" to "Preserver" (book three), both of which are terrific pieces of Star Trek fiction.
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Title: Spectre (Star Trek) by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens ISBN: 0671008803 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: The Return (Star Trek) by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens ISBN: 067152609X Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Ashes of Eden (Star Trek) by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens ISBN: 0671520369 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Avenger (Star Trek) by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens ISBN: 0671551310 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Captain's Peril (Star Trek) by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens ISBN: 0743448197 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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