Rating: 
Summary: What an eye opener!
Review: (This Review is for the Audio Version of the Book). Mr. Takai does an excellent job of narrating his own autobiography injecting a personal note into the book. He is a clear speaker easy to understand even in the noisiest of (car) environments. The first tape covers George's life "before Star Trek" talking mostly about his life in the "camps" during WWII. I especially found this interesting as I knew little of what this was about. The second tape talks about George's Star Trek life. The people he met and how he felt about them. His take on William Shatner is especially interesting! A very enjoyable set of tapes. 3 hours.
Rating:
Summary: An eloquent piece of work..
Review: George Takei is a wonderful role model for Asian Americans in this country! As an Asian American actor in Hollywood, George had to endure quite a bit compared to some of his contemporaries but handled his experiences with great class! George refused to let himself be pigeonholed into stereotypical roles later on in his career and fought for dignity for his character Sulu which I greatly admired..
His book is a fascinating glimpse into a life of a Japanese American who was incarcerated simply because of his race during World War II..funny enough..even though the US was at war with Germany and Italy at the same time you never saw German Americans or Italian Americans incarcerated....
Although George and his family experienced this undignified treatment, George writes quite eloquently about his experiences and how they drove him to be the best he could be in his chosen profession..
He realized he had a great responsibility to his character in such a highly visible and popular TV show and fought to make his character more visible and succeeded! He peppers his book with anecdotes about his experiences on the set of Star Trek and his relationships with his fellow castmates.
As a writer George is very talented and he also has a website where he keeps a monthly journal of what's going on in his life and career:
http://www.georgetakei.com/
George is truly an inspiration and a talented writer. I think you will really enjoy his book!
Rating:
Summary: Personal Favorite
Review: I couldn't even finish this book. Too angry for my tastes. Seems Mr. Takei blames William Shatner for everything wrong in his life. If you listen to this guy, he'd be Jesus Christ if it weren't for Bill Shatner. Get over it, Mr. Takei. Get a life!
Rating:
Summary: Mr. Takei, not Mr. Sulu, Japanese-American
Review: I don't usually seek out Star Trek autobiographies, but I'm glad I found this one. I found it particularly useful in explaining the context of the title of the first Japenese-American novel, No-No Boy by John Okada. Takei's parents like the Okada character answered no and no to the loyalty oath that the U.S. government made its citizens like Okada's character and Takei's mother swear to. The Takeis, as a family, went to another camp, a camp for troublemakers. Okada's character, a single man, goes to jail. I have read other descriptions of camp life, but Takei's particularly useful and helpful. (In fact, I used it as part of a lesson plan on teaching No-No Boy to secondary students.) I also found Takei's political life interesting. So while I appreciate Mr. Sulu, I like Mr. Takei much more.
Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting
Review: I just finished George's book this morning. I found the beginning of the book to be interesting and it grew even more interesting when I reached his Star Trek days. All in all, it's a very interesting book. You should def. read it if you are a ST fan.Also, if you want more details about Shatner you should check out this book. I've read Walter's, Nichelle's, James, and Leonard's book. Leonard didn't really mention anything bad about Shatner. James summed it up with one line of 'I don't really like that man.' Nichelle waited until the very end to talk about Shatner, but even then she didn't really go deep with details. Walter skimmed the water a bit with details, but he didn't really go into the dirt either. George told about a few Shatner stories, but he didn't really diss either. If Shatner was that a much of a pain, I toast each ST member for not throwing all the dirt in the book in order to sell it. Good job guys!
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting
Review: I just finished George's book this morning. I found the beginning of the book to be interesting and it grew even more interesting when I reached his Star Trek days. All in all, it's a very interesting book. You should def. read it if you are a ST fan. Also, if you want more details about Shatner you should check out this book. I've read Walter's, Nichelle's, James, and Leonard's book. Leonard didn't really mention anything bad about Shatner. James summed it up with one line of 'I don't really like that man.' Nichelle waited until the very end to talk about Shatner, but even then she didn't really go deep with details. Walter skimmed the water a bit with details, but he didn't really go into the dirt either. George told about a few Shatner stories, but he didn't really diss either. If Shatner was that a much of a pain, I toast each ST member for not throwing all the dirt in the book in order to sell it. Good job guys!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book from a very intriguing person
Review: I've read most of the books from the Star Trek ensemble. I, by far, enjoy most the books that are written by the biographer his/herself, such as George Takei has done. This is a true life story, and not just another solilquy of Star Trek life. His account of his early life is particularly fascinating (to quote Mr. Spock!). His unique insight, experiences, and literary talents make this book among the best autobiographies of any type. To illustrate just how good this book is, my wife, who is not particularly a Star Trek fan, grapped up this book and read it before I could! You most definitely DO NOT need to be a Star Trek fan to enjoy this work of art.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book - only wish there was more
Review: Just finished reading George Takei's autobiography and enjoyed it immensely! George is a very talented & gifted writer who paints pictures with prose. He told very engaging stories about his family's triumphs & tribulations in America as well as his eventual rise to Sulu in the Star Trek juggernaut. His book provides a very honest & compelling view of his family's ordeal in the Japanese internment camps in the US during World War II. In spite of this awful abrogation of their constitutional rights by the US government, they still believed and never gave up on the American dream....simply amazing! The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is that his coverage of his days with Star Trek (both television series & movies) was a little thin. Given the colorful cast of characters within Star Trek as well as that dysfunctional bazaar called Hollywood, I have to believe there is more literary & comical gold to be mined from his life story.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book - only wish there was more
Review: Just finished reading George Takei's autobiography and enjoyed it immensely! George is a very talented & gifted writer who paints pictures with prose. He told very engaging stories about his family's triumphs & tribulations in America as well as his eventual rise to Sulu in the Star Trek juggernaut. His book provides a very honest & compelling view of his family's ordeal in the Japanese internment camps in the US during World War II. In spite of this awful abrogation of their constitutional rights by the US government, they still believed and never gave up on the American dream....simply amazing! The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is that his coverage of his days with Star Trek (both television series & movies) was a little thin. Given the colorful cast of characters within Star Trek as well as that dysfunctional bazaar called Hollywood, I have to believe there is more literary & comical gold to be mined from his life story.
Rating:
Summary: He's not the 'Sulu' you knew from Star Trek
Review: Like many other people, I've grown up watching Star Trek in syndication. Sulu is at the helm in most of the episodes. George Takei brings the role to life. I bought To The Stars on a pretense of it being another Star Trek book, but it's much more than that. Only the latter half talks about Star Trek, while the earlier half talks about his boyhood experience in Japanese Prison Camps, his adolescence, and his early career in theater and film. Later, he talks about his involvement in politics, which continues to be the other big love of his life next to Star Trek. He learns at a young age that in order to make change, you have to get involved, which he does. When he gets the role of Sulu, Takei talks passionately about breaking the Asian stereotype of servant or sidekick and being part of a show, which believes that a future where all races and creeds could coexist and no one would be held back. On screen, that's what the show is, but off screen, there's a lot of tension and ego clashes, largely due to William Shatner. It's painfully obvious that Takei and Shatner aren't friends. This tension goes straight through the making of the movies as well. Takei has nice things to say about everyone except Shatner and the producer Harve Bennett, who refused to promote Sulu in the first five movies. Ultimately, Takei fights for and wins Sulu's promotion to captain, but this doesn't happen until Star Trek VI, the last film with the original cast, and long after Harve Bennett leaves. I get the impression from reading the book that Takei has to work three times as hard to be considered an equal in a business (show business) that is unfair to Asian Americans. I have had the good fortune of getting to meet George Takei. I told him his book is a fascinating read. He's outwardly friendly. He truly is the way he writes and his personality leaps off every page. In conclusion, To The Stars is more than just a Star Trek autobiography. It's an inspiring book for all readers and lends itself to the possibility that dreams do in fact come true.
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