Rating: 
Summary: Captain's Peril Is A Waste of Time & Money
Review: The previous Shatner/Reeves-Stevens novels have all been enjoyable to various degrees. I'd have to say the The Return and Spectre were the best, Ashes of Eden, Dark Victory, Preserver and Avenger were pretty decent also. But this. Boring to the extreme. For those looking for a mixed adventure with various ST crews, forget it. It's a Kirk and Picard only story, a whodunit where you don't care who the murderers or victims are. Occasional references to other ST characters are thrown in to good use (including Enterprise), but there is not much of a story. Just Bajoran religious tedium, and Kirk's flashback to an TOS event no fan had ever heard of. These hardcover novels, especially the Shatner ones, are meant to cover or continue epic events in ST lore. This does neither. It's merely a long tedious prologue for the next book. You find that out in the bloody EPILOGUE, no less! The rest of the book is a struggle to stay interested, no real tension or suspense, as you know the safety of Picard & Kirk are assured, and the characters that die are introduced and eliminated. No new continuing characters are introduced. ..it seems Shatner had more to do with the writing of the story than the Reeves-Stevenes, at least they've done good interesting Trek before. This just laid there like a dead tribble. Only buy this if it's a remaindered copy at a used book store in the future. Better yet, just check it out of the library and don't waste your money, your time is another matter
Rating: 
Summary: Not Bad But Not Great
Review: The setting of this most recent Shatner Trek novel is on Bajor. Picard and Kirk are orbital skydiving and just recreating while on shore leave when they discover a possible murder and some sort of conspiracy. I have vague memories of the details since it took me about 3 months to get through this, having to give it back to the library and such. It starts off pretty well with the Cardassion battle but then as the book progresses it goes down hill. It seemed that Shatner delved a little to much into the conversations and chattering between Kirk and Picard instead of focusing on interesting and engaging plot and storylines. Still, it was ok, I guess. Shatner is supposedly making this into a trilogy. If that's the case, I hope it improves with books 2 and 3.
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable, but still worth reading
Review: There are two concurrent story lines in this book, and they both provide us with additional information about the Star Trek universe. The first is a joint vacation by captains Kirk and Picard on Bajor. Their goal is to join an archeological dig on Bajor, in an attempt to uncover some ancient religious artifacts of deep significance to the Bajoran people. It starts with what must be one of the ultimate of extreme sports, as Kirk and Picard sky dive from orbit. Kirk's equipment fails and Picard manages to carry out a dramatic midair rescue. In this story line, we learn more about the Bajoran culture and how deeply held their religious beliefs are.
The other thread describes the first days of Kirk's command of the Enterprise. A ship appears from another galaxy and sends a signal picked up by the Federation and many species currently in competition with the Federation. The signal is of great power and they all rush to approach the ship and the Enterprise under Kirk represents the Federation. It turns out that the ship contains technology far in advance of that of all the current occupants of the galaxy. The interesting points of the story involve the conflicts between Kirk and the other members of the crew. Spock requests a transfer and Dr. Piper is forced to threaten to relieve Kirk of duty to prevent him from taking an unnecessary risk. The interactions between Spock, Piper, Scott, Zulu and other Enterprise crew members and Kirk as they start their careers together is a very interesting and believable tale. Kirk is a very headstrong individual and it is certainly plausible that his command approach would not be appreciated before they all learned how talented a commander he is.
This is a book that further expands the long saga that is Star Trek. Each of the two story lines could be the plot of a book and they are well integrated into this story. It is one of the better Star Trek books.
Rating:
Summary: One Of The Best Kirk Books
Review: This book is getting panned in certain quarters, but I think that's a result of certain readers (i.e. the Trek phanboi contingent) not having their very rigid expectations met . This is not a "Big Cosmic Struggle" (tm) Trek novel -- it's a murder mystery starring Kirk and Picard, set on Bajor. It's definitely more character-driven than many current Trek novels, and the Reeves-Stevenses (Judy, I think, was the main author on this one) give a fair amount of insight into the workings of Kirk's mind, something I found interesting. More than that, the characterization of Kirk as an older man (i.e. as the older Bill Shatner, who's decidedly more philosophical these days) rang true for me. It's still Kirk, but it's a Kirk who has learned to leaven his impulsive, pro-active nature with a certain amount of conscious consideration. Picard is well-drawn also, and the book's two authors (two-point-five? I'm led to understand that Shatner contributes/discusses plot ideas, and that the Reeves-Stevenses `make it so') have finally made me begin to believe a Kirk-Picard friendship is plausible. Why? Because the two captains *don't* see eye-to-eye; they are very different men, and they know it. Their friendship seems to come out of the fact that they are peers for one another -- they are, in effect, the only two who have an innate understanding of what it means to be considered "living legends", and who know the reality of carrying the burden of such status. Another thing I liked? This novel is essentially self-contained. Oh sure, the groundwork is set for the next book, but this story is not a cliffhanger. You get a complete tale for your money, even as you know there's something brewing for the next volume. And, surpringly, Bajor worked for me as a setting. I always wanted to like Deep Space Nine better than I did -- but I just had real problems with the erratic writing quality on the show. This book made the planet Bajor "real" to me in ways the show rarely did. I don't know why -- I just got a sense with this novel of how interesting the setting could be if handled well. It made me interested in Bajor and the Bajoran people for the first time in a long time. So, there you have it, a non-spoiler review. If you're the kind who buys Trek novels only for galaxy-shaking plots of peril, then you probably won't like this book. However, if you can appreciate a well-written Trek mystery, featuring strong characterization of James T. Kirk, then I recommend Captain's Peril to you.
Rating:
Summary: Woop! Forget Something?
Review: This novel is average at best. The ending of the main story is interesting, but the secondary "flashback" story is simply dropped. It is odd when you read something for a couple of hundred pages and then it just disappears. Very strange...like something is missing. I can't say much more without needlessly giving away too much information.
The character of Picard is treated poorly. He comes off as a somewhat scared, play by the rules flunky to Kirk's "damn the torpedo" persona. Both characters are represented poorly. This continues the later Shatner novel characterizations which is unfortunate since the first novels were so good.
On the positive, the main story is vaguely interesting if you are willing to put up with yet another "murder mystery" Trek novel.
In the end, the novel was an ok read but nothing to right a review about...oh wait, too late.
Rating:
Summary: A Modest Shatner effort.
Review: This review is based on the abridged Audio CD. I've read the Tek War books and 6 of his ST books, and this is my least favorite of the bunch so far. I'm a Hugh Shatner fan, as author and as Kirk, but I can only give this 3 stars. What holds this story together is the interplay between Picard and Kirk? We have a little murder mystery going on her also. Shatner has teamed them many times, and it seems he is the only author with the guts or gravitas to do it. I hope he keeps writing in the ST universe. I like the fact that Kirk, Bones (God rest his soul), Spock and Scotty live on in Shatner's Star Trek world. I hated it when Generations killed off Kirk, and loved it when he had to audacity to write himself back to life. And I am not tongue-in-cheek. I am serious. THE RETURN is the first non-Tek War Shatner book I had read. Based on that book I have read the rest of his ST books, and this one at 3 stars is the worst of the bunch, but still pretty good Star trek Sci-Fi. This review is based on the Audio CD.
Rating:
Summary: A Modest Shatner effort.
Review: This review is based on the abridged Audio CD. I've read the Tek War books and 6 of his ST books, and this is my least favorite of the bunch so far. I'm a Hugh Shatner fan, as author and as Kirk, but I can only give this 3 stars. What holds this story together is the interplay between Picard and Kirk? We have a little murder mystery going on her also. Shatner has teamed them many times, and it seems he is the only author with the guts or gravitas to do it. I hope he keeps writing in the ST universe. I like the fact that Kirk, Bones (God rest his soul), Spock and Scotty live on in Shatner's Star Trek world. I hated it when Generations killed off Kirk, and loved it when he had to audacity to write himself back to life. And I am not tongue-in-cheek. I am serious. THE RETURN is the first non-Tek War Shatner book I had read. Based on that book I have read the rest of his ST books, and this one at 3 stars is the worst of the bunch, but still pretty good Star trek Sci-Fi. This review is based on the Audio CD.
Rating:
Summary: It's Jean-Luc, the Skipper to, Captain Kirk and his Ego...
Review: Three stars is perhaps being generous. It starts off really interesting with an appearance from one of Deep Space Nine's best characters. Then what? It turns into Kirk and his little buddy Jean-Luc Picard. I found a lot of things to be just plain silly. You have chapter after chapter of Kirk and Picard having philosophical debates. Okay, a went a tad bit over board. Where's all the action and excitment we saw in Ashes of Eden? Where is the interesting plots such as those found in The Return, Spectre and all that? You're either going to like the book or you aren't. Coming off the Mirror Universe kick-butt plots and the hopes that Kirk would move on to the future that's sort of poked at within the last few pages of Preservers... don't hold your breath. At least not for this book. Don't fall into the trap many have and buy the hardcover! You can WAIT, believe me. By the time you wait, perhaps Captain's Blood will be near release and this book will have more to it than Shatner's version of National Lampoon's Captain Kirk's Bajoran Vacation.
Rating: 
Summary: I can;t stand these books...
Review: Well I read this book and it's long and tedious. It does not take place in the Star Trek universe, but rather in the Shatnerverse which is a place you do not want to visit for very long. It's like the Star Trek movie, Generations. Star Trek needs to stay as far away from the movie and these books as much as possible.
Rating:
Summary: The "Peril" of Following Up An Epic Trilogy...
Review: Well, it was inevitable that William Shatner, with his collaborators Judith & Garfiled Reeves-Stevens, would have a great deal of difficulty providing a story as stirring or as relevant as that told in the earlier books to his credit. "Captain's Peril" is how it sounds on the back jacket: a story that would make a fair novel at best from a less established and notable creative team. It is no better a story than "Kobayoshi Maru" or such where a contemporary story is setup where Kirk ends up in a bind which leads him to tell another character (and thusly the reader) a story of his glory days that is somehow supposed to be relevant to the current crisis. Like in such stories, the relationship between the storyline of the past era and that of the present seem unrelated and each seems simply a distraction from the other. Two stories that wouldn't hold water on their own end up sandwiched together at no juncture finding a point of convergence. That said, while it is good to have a followup to "Preserver", this is a big disappointment.
This team of writers has a fairly good track record. It began its partnership with "Ashes of Eden", a story that told of one of Kirk's final missions into the final frontier before his disappearance from the 23rd century (as featured in the seventh Star Trek film). While this story seemed unrelated to anything other than telling the reader about one of Kirk's last love affairs and the death of the Enterprise-A, "Avenger" brought the first trilogy full circle by returning the story to Chal and Kirk's quest to save that world from doom. Between thos two novels was "The Return", a book which resurrected Kirk after his death on Verdian III (as featured in the seventh Star Trek film) and really set the stage for his potential future life in the 24th century era of the franchise.
The team really had hit its stride with the previous trilogy of books from "Captain's Peril" ("Spectre", "Dark Victory", and "Preserver). That epic three book arc told of Kirk facing the consequences of his actions in the original series episode "Mirror, Mirror" and facing his most challenging adversary: the evil James T. Kirk from the Mirror Universe. In those books (which took place over the course of a period of about ten months) on the personal frontier, Kirk married his beloved Telani (the woman from "Ashes of Eden" and "Avenger"), had a deformed child with her, and in the finale of "Preserver" watched helplessly as he became a widower and single parent.
How do you follow up such drama? I don't know exactly, but I have to say that I was dying to find out what would come next. "Preserver" ended leaving many questions and much hope for where the story could go from there. How would the answers to the uncertainties of Kirk's child be remedied as the child grew up? How would Kirk handle being a parent alone? Where would he go after Chal? Would the death of Telani send him back to Starfleet? Would Kirk end up having to serve again to complete his the reenlistment conditions he had made in "Spectre"? What next mission or adventure could build upon the arc effectively while not cheapening it in the way that so much of the frnahcise has been? With this supposedly last trilogy, and the requirement of Kirk's death at its conclusion, what epic tale would begin to evolve here that would be so revelant to Kirk's overall character that it would by the conclusion ot the last book of this trilogy lead to his death.
Inevitably, where we would end up going almost would pale in comparison to what the rabid imagination allowed possible. "Captain's Peril" tends to fall too short to even be reasonable. A murder mystery on Bajor and the story of how an officer under Kirk's command died just doesn't hold water. Kirk's relationship to Bajor is very limited since Bajor wasn't even discovered in his contemporary era. While he has been in the 24th century for 8 years now, he hasn't exactly been the captain on Star Trek to be getting nitty-gritty with the Prophets (the captain for that type of story is Sisko, who already did this type of stuff in the first years of DS9). The Kirk and Picard contrived vacation gone bad just is weak and just awkward. This adventure just doesn't serve either Kirk or Picard in any aesthetic manner and thusly it falls flat. People complained that Picard served little function in earlier books and Kirk got all the heroics in the plot; well, here, halfway through the story Picard is seemingly killed and Kirk ends up really having to solve this mystery alone (at which point the motivation for the flashbacks to the other original series era story are completely lost). The only reason this story even holds attention at all is the vague promise that in a short time the Enterprise-E will arrive and then this ho-hum story could get some life (But, of course, as suspected the ship comes in the epilogue only to reunite Kirk with Spock and McCoy so that Kirk can relay to them after the book's conclusion what happened).
After this novel I only found myself anxious for the second book in this next series of three. This is not because this book left me wanting more or on the edge of my seat (I wasn't desperately page turning with this one). I'm just ready for redemption from this. At the same time, I'm a little afraid of how lackluster the next one might be.
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