Rating: 
Summary: A murder-mystery/trip to the past with Kirk...
Review: I happen to have enjoyed 'Captain's Peril' quite a bit. While it failed to be as gripping or as all-out entertaining as Shatner/Reeves-Stevens' last outing in 'Preserver', I still found it to be different, and entertaining overall. Within 'Captain's Peril' are two separate stories that aren't as connected as the authors would like us believe. Still, I enjoyed both tales. The story begins as Kirk has strong-armed Picard into taking a joint archaeolgical-vacation on the planet Bajor. It starts off with a perilous Orbital Skydive where one of the 'Suits' rented by Quark on DS9 seems to be a shade past its warranty and fails on Kirk. His quick thinking, combined with Picards resourcefulness saves him, but in the process it uncovers the memory of Kirk on the original Enterprise just shortly after he took over as captain. Spock has requested a transfer, forcing Kirk to think that his 1st officer thinks of him as incompetant. Soon an emergency call from Starfleet forces them to the Mandylion Rift for a very interesting 'Challenge'. Before anything ever happens of course, the action returns us back to the present where Kirk & Picard find themselves trapped in the Bajoran desert, wondering if they will survive long enough to find the ancient dig they were originally expecting to visit. To make a long story short, they make it (was there ANY doubt?) and stumble quickly upon a murder. The stage is now set for both captains to solve this incident, meeting opposition at every turn, and interrupted by Kirk's memory of his original 5-year mission and some interesting conversations with Spock, who is busy trying to figure out Kirk (and humans in general). Personally I found the background story from years past to be more entertaining than the murder/mystery in the Bajoran desert involving a possible Cardassian/Lost Bajoran Orb cover-up. I found myself wondering what exactly was going to happen next to Kirk and crew in the Mandylion Rift and the 'Challenge' facing them than who the murderer was. Although I also enjoyed a very interesting debate between Kirk & Picard over the merits of the Prime Directive. Overall I liked the story, but felt that jumping in between the two stories ultimately distracted me from the entire tale as a whole--BUT I enjoyed it enough to look forward to 'Captain's Blood' which is mentioned at the end of the story along with a teaser of just what may be in store for us in the next chapter of the saga of James T. Kirk in the world of Next Generation Star Trek. Not bad--but not great, either.
Rating: 
Summary: Star Tek ?!!
Review: I have always been a fan of the original Star Trek series and I love William Shatner's interpretation of the characters. Indeed I would rank his Star Trek novels as heads and shoulders above most of the rubbish that passes for Star Trek these days. However I have to say I was somewhat disappointed with this novel and it is easy to see why so many people were quite scathing of it. Firstly it is definitely a "Kirk novel". While Capt. Picard features a bit his role is really secondary to the plot and has little impact. In the past Shatner has tried to involve other characters, sometimes even introducing new ones, which has given his books a greater scope but this one is far too introspective. Secondly, whereas most of Shatner's books are not easily classified as they cut across a number of the modern Star Trek incarnations, this one is most definitely a "Deep Space Nine" novel. Given that out of the modern series DS9 tends to rate the lowest - though personally I think it is actually the best of the modern ones by a long shot !!! - it was odd that they would choose to set a novel entirely within this framework. Finally, because of the murder mystery nature of the story, it actually reads more like one of Shatner's "Tek" novels than a true Star Trek adventure. All of these factors undoubtedly undermined the book and I suspect probably divided the readers. Personally I quite liked it but would definitely not rate it up there with his best and again, because of the high price of hardbacks, would probably only recommend people buy the paperback when it comes out next year. Still the ending is excellent and leads in well to next years "Captain's Blood", which I hope will be a much better, and more traditional, Star Trek adventure.
Rating:
Summary: Solid effort
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I just finished it last night. The interaction between Picard and Kirk really show up well in this book while they try and work through a murder mystery, debate the prime directive, and talk about an early mission of Kirks. That early mission is probably the most entertaining part for me, I simply enjoy Kirk best as the Captain, leading his ship, engaging danger pLus this had the early interaction between Spock and him, as they debate back and forth trying to deal with eachothers differences. The murder mystery on Bajor, the Planet Kird and Picard are vacationing on, is a solid entry, but not as entertaining as the old mission in the book and it is that old mission which sets up what is up coming in this trilogy. I am certainly looking forward to reading the next in line. Shatner's Trek books are some of the best Trek reads you are ever going to find. His second, The Return, would have made a better choice for a Trek movie than the last two stinkers they released.
Rating: 
Summary: More like a reader's peril
Review: If you're collecting the Shatner/Trek series, skip this one. There are a few glimpses into the early days of Kirk on the
original Enterprise and you can see--barely--the command crew starting to form but, other than that, zilch. It reads as if it has been padded or stretched. On a scale of 1 to 5 with "Ashes of Eden" being a 5, this is barely a 1. Get over the Kirk/Picard forced friendship. This is where I stop on the collection, put it like that.
Rating: 
Summary: Shatner is still king.
Review: It's Shatner's world and we all just live in it. Now if he would only write that T.J. Hooker book.
Rating:
Summary: What happened? Nowhere near as good as its predecessors.
Review: Let me start this off by recommending the previous six books done by Shatner and the Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Classics! Amazing!
Which logically had me going into this with eager anticipation. Given the events of the last series they did, I couldn't imagine how things could get any bigger or more complicated.
Sadly, it looks like I was right. The only benefit of the doubt I can give for this book is to treat it as one big "transition" or "setup" book for whatever is to come next.
I think they may have made a mistake by writing this book before Nemesis had become reality.
The thing that has been so good about the previous books was how they took in the whole of everything that was going on in all the Trek universe and, in some much needed cases, given certain events a special underlying meaning.
That's more or less absent here. The book is short and beyond some interesting character details, it feels like an excuse.
So many profound things happened in the previous six books, they may have a hard time following up their own act. This book demonstrates that.
Hopefully, book two in this next series will take off like a rocket, becuase that will be some time after we have all digested Nemsis.
A solid read, but don't go in with the high hopes that I had.
Rating:
Summary: Star Trek: Captain's Peril
Review: Star Trek: Captain's Peril written by William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens is a Kirk egocentric novel. Yes, the venerable and still indomitable Captain James T. Kirk teams up with Captain Jean-Luc Picard in this adventure. This book starts out like gangbusters, skydiving to the planet Bajor from outerspace and Picard's suit has a malfunction and we almost lose Picard. But, the "Shatnerverse" is thick in this book and soon you will find Shatner one furlong short of the barn door. I believe that this is the opening salvo to another trilogy as Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens have done in the past. Oh well, I hope that the next volume makes a better show than this book did. When Kirk and Picard land on the Bajor from their skydiving escapade, they plan to go to an old sunken city to uncover some of Bajor's past. But, alas, tragedy strikes and all of their high-tech equipment seems not to work. As you can imagine ol' Kirk wants to take charge, nothing new there. A child is now in danger of dying and there isn't any way of contacting the outside world or DS-9. As Captain Jean-Luc Picard is now missing, the egocentric Kirk takes action as he goes back into his memory and thinks of a mission long ago in his past. An early mission, when he was taking over the Captain's chair from Christopher Pike... "Where No Man Has Gone Before." So, we have a double plot in the book, making for some interesting reading as Kirk goes back into his past to solve a mystery in the present that could cost the universe. Like I said earlier, this book is only the first of a trilogy, so it is setting up what is to follow... and it scored on that account, but as Shatner writes the character of Captain James T. Kirk shines at the expense of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. All in all, this book could have been wriiten a bit better. This book rates a solid three stars and let's hope for better writing in the future. William Shatner try to get the horse in the barn with the next installment... otherwise folks wait till the paperback comes out.
Rating: 
Summary: OK read, but you're better off not owning a copy
Review: Thankfully, I found this one at the library and checked it out. Being William Shatner's books have started to weaken, I didn't want to chance owning a copy of this. The CD I will probably get the next time I take a road trip. Then again, it was so boring that having a CD may prove dangerous. At any rate, this was not great reading. It was wonderful when Kirk was brought back through Borg technology and then it was good when the mirror universe visited our universe. But, what was the point of this story? It all takes place on Bajor, not once on the Enterprise. Then, after Picard is lost, Kirk is helpless to do anything. What about Deep Space Nine floating nearby? Nobody thinks of calling the station for help. Then again, conveniently, nobody goes camping with any communication devices in this either. Now, the time Kirk remembers being on his Enterprise was a nice story. But, that story is only told to set up the events that will take place in the next story called "Captain's Blood". At least, in the end, we finally find out what happened to the Monitor and Captain Lewinski. Plus, it briefly explains what happened to the robot ship the Federation was sending to Kelva in "By Any Other Name". But, when Kirk is busy searching for Picard and dealing with the Bajorans, it really gets boring. There is no adventure and no interest at all. So, my advice is if you're going to read it, go to your local library. Take the book off the shelf, read it for an hour or so, write down what page you're on when you leave, then continue on that page the next time you go in there! Not worth the money. Believe me.
Rating:
Summary: Kirk is only human. (In case you didn't know)
Review: The Captain's Peril is the third of William Shatner's novels I have read. I first read Dark Victory. I was disapointed that it ended and I had to get The Preservers to finish the story. I enjoyed them and went out looking for the books that Shatner had written. I found The Captain's Peril. I started it and couldn't put it down. It was good to see that Kirk and Picard could get together and not always be saving everyone. I found they were seen as normal, not as superman. This story is written by William Shatner, so it centers around James T. Kirk. Picard is a his side kick. I was surprized that the story took place over just a few days, but kept my attention thru the entire story. Now I'm getting all of the rest of William Shatner's books. If they are as good as this, I will be eagerly waiting for new novel to continue the life of James T. Kirk.
Rating:
Summary: Predictable.
Review: The first three "Shatnerverse" novels were met by Star Trek fans with a rare kind of anticipation. After all, what could be better than the story of Kirk told from the man who had brought him to life for over 30 years? It was a must-have for any Trek fan. And the thing is--those first three books really delivered on the promise. The original Shatner trilogy is one of the better multi-novel sequences out there. However, after a rather lackluster trilogy, Shatner (and the Reeves-Stevens) return with the start of another trilogy. Honestly, after how poorly wrapped up the Mirror Universe trilogy was, I wasn't anticipating the start of a new saga in the Shatnerverse. However, I still had some hope for the Captain's Peril to be a good Trek book. After all, Pocket's track record this year has been fairly impressive. But "The Captain's Peril" seems more like it was written to meet a quota--it's a new calendar year, so we need a new Trek book by Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens. The story sees Picard and Kirk taking a vacation of Bajor where they will orbital skydive and then go on an archaelogical expedition. Of course, things go awry from Kirk and Picard almost perishing while skydiving to then finding things amiss at the Bajoran archelogical dig. Before you know it, Kirk is up to his ears in a murder mystery and looking into the past of Bajor. Meanwhile, we are given a story of one of Kirk's early missions--set before "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Of the two plots, the early story is the most compelling since it tries to delve into the early relationship Kirk had with his crew and filling the shoes of the then-legend Christopher Pike. However, the problem with both plots is they are rather heavy-handed at time. They are also predictable as all get out. The deep, dark secret at the end of the Bajoran plotline is spelled out in the first few pages of the book. Add to it an abrupt stop to the story mid-way through for Picard and Kirk to debate the merits of the Prime Directive (Kirk sees it as being an obstacle to really exploring) and it adds up to a less than satifsying read. One thing that the early Shatnerverse novels did was take chances. The idea of bringing Kirk by using Borg nanotechnology was intriguing and revoluationary. However, in The Captain's Peril the attempted risks in intriguing storytelling are underminded by the reader knowing certain things can't stay the way they unfold in the book. There must be a giant reset button at the end and while it's not as groan-inducing as it could be, it does serve to take you out of the narrative flow. Overall, this isn't the weakest of the Shatnerverse novels, but neither is it the best. It's content to do well for about 300+ pages, setting up the storyline for the next novel. In a lot of ways, the Shatner novels have gone from something to really look forward to, to just your standard Trek novels.
| 
