Rating: 
Summary: ST - Preserver
Review: Preserver by William Shatner et.al. is the conclusion to the Mirror Universe Trilogy, (Spectre, Dark Victory, and Preserver). Shatner has a grasp on the characters and has brought us another good novel... probably the best in the trilogy. No disappointment on the story line, action and drama of fantastic scope. I can see some borrowing from "The Promethus Design," by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, but nevertheless there is some crossing of ideas within the Star Trek Universe... how many different problems are there or solutions for that matter?Shatner does tie in many events from past TV episodes which helps bring this book into better clarity. So the trilogy ends? Or is Tiberius coming to claim Kirk's universe again? Ah, the writers will decide, but we the readers will ultimately be the ones to be either satisfied or disappointed. There is plenty of emotion between Kirk and his wife in this book and you can feel it come through... fantastic imagery. There are some unanswered questions, but this does give to poetic license and later wrap-up in the future. All in all this was a good read and I enjoyed it. Storytelling and characterization are well done, Kirk vs. Tiberius was a fine example and the narative easily read. This ranks high on my recommendation for a Trek book, which there are now six. I do recommend that to get the complete story read the trilogy it is fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Real life inters the book
Review: Preserver is a nice finish to the Mirror Universe Trilogy, it ties up all the lose ends and leaves a lot that can be done in feature books, It also has some surprising twists; A new enemy For the federation? A new ally in the mirror Captain Kirk? You can see that the real life death of Shatner's wife effected the plot in this book and you know he was expressing the feelings of his lose tough captain Kirk. That gives the book an emotional side it might not have oterwise had. The way Shatner does it, Lets us into his thoughts, is very tastefuly done. I Also like the way Shatner ties in Planets and events from past episodes of the original TV show intro his Star Trek Books. Preserver (and The Whole Mirror Universe Trilogy) is a good read for any Star Trek fan.
Rating: 
Summary: An **Excellent** book!
Review: The fact that you are reading this review tells me that you have not read the other two books in this trilogy. Because if you *had* read the other two sections, you would not need to read anyone's comments on this book before buying it. This book is that good! This three book series, "Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Saga" is excellent. Exciting stories, incredible scope, continuous action, surprises on every page, and fantastic imagery. In short, this series has everything a sci-fi story should have. The three authors have created a classic of the genre. You don't have to be a Trekie to enjoy these stories. I'm not. I found myself reading the final chapters of this book very slowly. I didn't want it to end. I was also somewhat concerned that the ultimate resolution would fail to satisfy. I needn't have worried. So start with Book 1, "Spectre", and happy reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: On the plus side, this book continued to demonstrate that Shatner has a fine grasp of the characters and the general universe, although even this aspect of his writing was not as good here as in his previous books. And where there was action or drama, the story moved well and managed, in spite of my general disappointment, to capture my attention and interest. But on the down side, the basic plot was rather over-ambitious, and Shatner failed to successfully carry off his attempt at writing an epic saga; there were too many unanswered questions, too many loose ends left untied, too much general confusion. It seemed to me (admittedly, it's been over a year since I read the previous installation in the series, so I MIGHT be mistaken, but I don't think so; my memory of it seems pretty clear) that the continuity between books left something to be desired, and was more than a little choppy. At least in the beginning of this book, Shatner fell back too often on the dodge of making Kirk even more competent than he is, too much of a larger-than-life character, to the detriment of his humanity (he was guilty of this in the earlier books, too, but not as badly). The basic plot-concept was more than a little reminiscent of "Star Trek #5, The Prometheus Design", by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, and if this book wasn't as bad as that one (which it wasn't) it isn't because the basic concept was any better; it was just a bit better executed. The quality of the writing was better, the characterizations were better. But the basic idea (nearly-omnipotent alien beings are manipulating galactic history, and Kirk & co are NOT powerless to do something about it) was still bad. To be fair, I should probably give this book two and a half stars; it really is better than a two-star book, but I can't bring myself to give it three. Three, after all, is what I gave its predecessor, "Dark Victory", and for all that this book gives us an ending (the lack of which was that book's biggest flaw) it isn't nearly as good a book as that one was.
Rating:
Summary: A Fitting End to Shatner's Saga
Review: I am a big fan of the mixed-cast saga that William Shatner and the Reeves-Stevenses have created, and Star Trek Preserver is an excellent end to this adventure!
Rating:
Summary: A stormy sea of storytelling, without a drop of credibility
Review: Preserver, the last book of the mirror universe trilogy by William Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-stevens, taking place in 2375 is, in a way, the best Shatner book so far. In fact, (again...) in a way, it's one of the most satisfying Star Trek books I've read. The storytelling is examplarory, the writing as full of nuances as it can be, the characterization incredibly well done. The story is structured in a way that doesn't allow the reader to lose interest for one second. And it works as the best ending to the trilogy. To both of the Shatner trilogies. But... The premise is so faulty in the terms of credibility, I'm frankly surprised the writers ever even considered making the story the way it endet up being done.<
Rating:
Summary: William Shattner's Preserver (Star Trek)
Review: I've never met a Star Trek episode or book that I didn't like, which is probably the best one can say about the modern time version of Will Rogers' "I never met a person I didn't like.* One good thing about Shattner's TV role as Captain Kirk and his series of books including Preserver is that we have one of the original Gene Rodenberry cast (who lasted all the way through the series and into seveal more)who helped very much make it what it is and was, William Shattner, interpreting things and carrying on with the help of his admirable co-authors. Another good thing in Preserver is the *Wise Aliens* - it is so in contrast with the usual Bug Eyed Monster (BEM) Sci-Fi movies! I think that it did wonders for Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series. Wise People/Creatures behind the scenes, like mysterious benefactors in mystery stories (Agatha Christie had them all over the place - not just mysterious psychopaths), appeal to our good and Noble parts. Long Live Star Trek! I have to add that time and space and dimensional travel and related mysteries are really important in modern physics (quantum entanglement may involve all three). As usual, science fiction keeps up with the latest research and sometimes goes ahead.
Rating:
Summary: A fitting end to the trilogy
Review: This is the final part to the Mirror Universe trilogy started in "Spectre". In it's defense, it's better than "Dark Victory". I think I would have liked this book better if I felt Kirk in danger, but there's really no worry of that. I have to applaud Judith and Garfield (who really believes William Shatner had anything to do with writing this? Ever seen Star Trek 5?) for killing off a main character in the end of the book. That was indeed a shocker, coming out of left field from nowhere. And the epilogue of the book shows us several years into the future with the character still dead, so we are led to believe they are gone for good. Unfortunately, in the Star Trek universe where nobody ever stays dead, we know that somehow they'll be back (possibly by some quantum interference of an ion storm on a transporter beam caused by a Borg/Ferengi alliance instigated by a rebel Romulan faction with a personal vendetta against the Federation's acceptance of the Klingon empire who have spies throughout the galaxy plotting the overthrow of the Cardassian scum - or something like that). Oh, and how does a ruthless tyrant like Tiberius, the bloody dictator of the mirror universe, suddenly become a warm-hearted fuzzy guy so quickly? At any rate, it was a good book, but I'm not looking forward to another 3-year trilogy. How about putting out the next books 6 months apart so we don't get completely lost and bored by the constant cliffhangers?
Rating:
Summary: A Page-Turner Despite Many Flaws
Review: This is the sixth Shatner/Reeves-Stevenses Trek novel, but the first good one since Avenger. Gone are the vast numbers of Mirror Universe duplicates that cluttered Spectre and Dark Victory. Instead, it's the main characters of the first two Star Trek shows, plus a handful of players created for these books. The smaller cast makes the story a lot easier to follow. Which is good, as the story is byzantine and doesn't quite hold together. We race around between universes and ships and distant worlds, and leave the bulk of the Mirror Universe plots behind for one involving what may be a vast conspiracy by mysterious aliens to control all of Starfleet history. As often is the case with such conspiracy threads, the result doesn't quite hold together, and leaves a few too many threads dangling. The use of Kirk's evil Mirror twin is a bit hokey - we are left to wonder which Kirk Shatner thinks of as his true alter ego - and when it seems that all of human history might revolve around James T. Kirk, you wonder how anyone at Pocket Books can let any writer indulge himself as much as Shatner does. That said, this is a fun book, one that makes me miss the crews of both NCC-1701 and NCC-1701-D at a time when the Trek franchise seems to be running out of steam. Given that even Peter David is running out of things to say, I am left hoping that maybe the Reeves-Stevenses and their amateur friend with the longer-than-it-should-be writing resume might have a few more wild ideas left in them.
Rating:
Summary: More Kirk hero-worship from Shatner
Review: C'mon, Bill. Give the now 200-year old Kirk a rest and let it go, already. Continues Shatner's trend of being unable to write a Trek novel in which his love for himself isn't splashed all over the book.
| 
