Home :: Books :: Science Fiction & Fantasy  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy

Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
The Eugenics Wars Vol I:  The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh (Star Trek)

The Eugenics Wars Vol I: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh (Star Trek)

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Very meaty read
Review: This book was an awesome read. It had many plot twists and yet still followed the same plot at the same time. It was set in the 70's and 80's time era on earth, and things that actually happened during that time period were brought into the plot quite ingeniously. This book was not full of the usual Star Trek characters or any ships, but it did entail the TOS crew in 3 chapters. I really enjoyed getting to know the khan character, and I am looking forward to the 2nd book that will be set in the 90's. This book is deffinately worth the hard back cost. I rate "The Eugenics Wars" one my top 5 Star Trek books!!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Genetics something to worry about
Review: When I bought this book I expected the book to be all about Khan and that's it. As many reviewers here have mentioned it more than that. It's about the dangers of genetics and cloning that we are about to do ourselves. Cox doesn't beat you over the head on the dangers, but he gives some graphic scenes what will happen. The story is really interesting especially the way Cox connects historical events with Star trek events. He is definately going to have his work cut out in the 2nd book. That will deal exclusively with the 1990's. I also like how Cox shows us where Khan grows up and why he has so much anger and desire to rule the world. I also enjoyed how he has portrayed gary 7 and Ms. Lincoln as sorta of like The Avengers. The B story is our guys Kirk and Company from the 1st 5 years mission heading to a planet made up of these "supermen". The Klingons want their technology and the Federation doesn't want this non-memeber world to fall in the wrong hands. The main story is being read by Kirk as historical documents. That story also has an interesting cliff hanger. The B story is only 3 chapters I believe the rest is Khan. My only problem with the book that it tends to excessively mention things of that period. Cultural things. I guess since I am a history teacher I am well aware of the things he mention!! But that is a minor thing. I think the 2nd book will be even better.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pure fun
Review: This book starts where the series episode "Space Seed" and movie "The Wrath of Khan" only briefly referenced, namely the origins of the figure Khan Noonien Singh and the historical context in which he rose to power. The book is fun to read, and the author brings in some characters from the series and movies, and also real characters from history. Tainting a Star Trek episode, movie, or novel with real history can cause problems with accuracy issues, but the author does it only sparingly and so the story is believable.

The presence of Gary Seven in the story was a surprising move, and one which I found a little troubling. One would like to believe the future was brought about solely by human action, with no assistance from extra-terrestrial agents who take it upon themselves to guide humanity to the "correct" destination. Much time is spent in the book on how Seven and his delightful female assistant are working to prevent a certain high-tech eugenics project from carrying out its plans.

As with most Star Trek stories, this one has a strange admixture of optimism and cynicism. And, despite the enormous statistical evidence to the contrary, the Star Trek view of history paints the human being as a brutal, inconsiderate savage, who only occasionally exhibits compassion and reason. Indeed, this is exemplified by the character Seven, who has no confidence in the efficacy of the human mind to be able to resolve social, economic, and political problems. In addition, the view of intelligence in the Star Trek series is quite narrow. The reader is supposed to believe that Khan has superior intelligence, in spite of his zeal to use violence to achieve his ends. But the initiation of force by any individual is never a sign of intelligence, but rather of stupidity. The character of Spock, who is quoted in the book as saying that "superior intelligence breeds superior ambition", to warn against the use of genetic engineering to create Khan-like monsters, is also another example of the restricted view of human intelligence in the Star Trek series. Emotions are thought of as having a disruptive, irrational effect on the human ability to reason effectively, instead of a set of natural processes that assist in the estimation and mental concentration of the human mind.

The book also reflects some of the current anxiety about genetics as a science and its application in genetic engineering. There is valid reasons for concern about the use of genetic engineering, but like all human problems, we can solve them by employing more science and technology, not less. Minds capable of creating a human clone can indeed find solutions to the concerns thus generated.

The optimistic view of the future though is one that makes the Star Trek series such a pleasure to participate in. It uses the medium of art and fantasy very effectively, and allows one to take part in an era, not very far distant, that is populated by beings (human and otherwise) who hold as an axiom that reason and mutual respect are the keys to a successful life. The characters of Star Trek have their faults and personal conflicts, but with their optimisim and their sense of adventure, they are worthy of contemplation.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow. . . .
Review: One of the best Trek books I have ever read, Cox writes about the past, and the future with equal skill and grace (before this work, I didn't know that a book could be graceful). I was not able to put it down, and I keep trying to pick it up again so that I can read the rest of the story. I am waiting impatiently for the rest of the set. :)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This book was really good and really funny
Review: This book was really good. I have never heard of the author, or seen any of the original trek episodes with Knah(did i spell that right?) and gary 7, but it was really good. I liked how he intervove real history with trek stuff, and made it all funny. I highly recomend it to any one who likes start trek, esspecialy history buffs.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This book was really good and really funny
Review: This bok was really good. I have never heard of the author, or seen any of the original trek episodes with Knah(did i spell that right?) and gary 7, but it was really good. I liked how he intervove real history with trek stuff, and made it all funny. I highly recomend it to any one who likes start trek, esspecialy history buffs.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Compulsively Readable
Review: This is Greg Cox's best book to date, in my opinion, and one of the finest in the STAR TREK lineup.

Its plot has been ably summarized: suffice it to say that Greg combines two story lines from TOS -- that of Gary Seven and that of Khan -- into a novel that is more technothriller than anything else. Greg knows his STAR TREK, none better; and this book is not only a fine addition to the line of novels, it's a feast for those of us addicted to retroactive continuity.

But it's far more than that. Greg writes with a kind of awareness of the world that I find all too rare in science fiction: he uses science, the news, the map of the world, Realpolitik, and business with authority in this fast-paced and well-plotted story, while never letting readers forget that -this- is Khan, whose wrath set the whole tragic action of STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN in motion.

When the book isn't dealing with power politics, intrigue, and attempts to stop the war that is inevitably coming, it's witty, capable of making me laugh out loud.

There is, however, one thing I'm not laughing about: I WANT THE NEXT BOOK IN THE SERIES AND I WANT IT NOW.

Greg's made a name for himself as a best-selling STAR TREK author, and he does a superb job at it. But I'd also like to see him write in a universe all his own. He comes close in this: no one else manages to write Gary Seven as well -- and now no one, except the film makers, has managed to capture Khan, his motivations, and his wrath as well either.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: ...where credit's due
Review: The book contains the usual Paramount boilerplate, "Based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry" (and all the spin-off series), and thanks Teri Garr among others, but the author has not seen fit to acknowledge, even in the slightest, writers Carey Wilber and Gene Coon, who created Khan Noonien Singh for the "Space Seed" episode of Star Trek.

Without them this book would not exist. For shame.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolutely Brilliant!
Review: History has been rewritten numerous times in the Star Trek universe, but never as brilliantly as in the incredible new novel from Greg Cox, "The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Kahn Noonien Singh-Volume I". Any of fan of Star Trek should be thoroughly entertained by this unbelievably clever retelling of Earth's modern history. I enjoyed it because it was ingenious, thrilling, sublime, arresting, hysterical at times, and the writing so vivid that while reading I felt like I was watching a prequel to "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn". The characterizations were right on the money and the plot more intricate and compelling than many movies. If you are looking for a great book to read you need look no further than "The Eugenics Wars"

Resplendently peppered with references to modern pop culture, history and numerous Star Trek episodes and movies, the author has managed to seamlessly include a veritable who's who of late 20th century history and Star Trek into the plot of the novel in such a believable way that as you read you almost find yourself nodding and saying "ah, that's how or why that happened". Gary Seven, another classic TOS character, along with his sidekick Roberta Lincoln and the mysterious Isis play pivotal roles in young Kahn's life. Indeed their own story intertwines with Kahn's, as apparently much of the historical records of that time were apparently compiled by agent 194 himself. A plot contrivance so well done on the part of author Greg Cox that I could not help but think it is the perfect way to tell Kahn's story.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Seven Times the Action
Review: Finally a story that fills in the gaps of the past. I bought the book and book on tape this weekend. It is awesome. This would make an excellent movie set in the past. If Paramount was smart they would do this ASAP. I am enjoying this trek (no pun intended) as fiction and fact are mixed together, creating a colorful view of earth's struggle to reach the stars. Can't wait for volume 2.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates