Rating: 
Summary: A worthy sequel to "Whom Gods Destroy"
Review: "Garth of Izar," by Pamela Sargent and George Zebrowski, is a "Star Trek" novel that continues a story begun in an episode of the original TV series. The TV episode "Whom Gods Destroy" introduced the book's title character, a legendary Starfleet captain. Garth went insane after being granted the shapeshifting abilities of the Antosian people. As the novel starts, Garth has been declared cured of his insanity and boards the Starship "Enterprise" for a mission that will take him back to the Antosians' planet.Overall, I enjoyed this continuation of Garth's story. Garth is a compelling figure. In this book he is very much a man caught between two worlds; although he shares the Antosians' shapeshifting ability, he is not one of them. He thus has a foot in both the Antosian world and his world of Starfleet while being an "outsider" in both spheres. The authors make some effective use of the shapeshifting element as the story progresses.
Rating: 
Summary: Whom Gods Destroy ... they first make write bad sequels !!!
Review: As with most modern Star Trek writers I always worry when they decide to write a sequel to one of the original stories. This is because they rarely capture the style or fun of the show that started the Star Trek legend. These two authors to my mind have an erratic history with Star Trek as their first novel together, "Heart of the Sun", was a boring go nowhere story with no action whereas their second, "Across the Universe", was an exciting fast paced little adventure. Unfortunately this book is an uneven mix of the two. While there is a bit of excitement in it, the plot is an absurdly constructed mess, full of situational and logical errors. The dialogue is painfully bad at times and the mistakes and disjointed nature of the dream sequence at the beginning of the novel makes you question just how closely the two authors were in contact when they wrote it. As others readers have pointed out the authors can't seem to figure out if the adversaries are Romulans or Klingons !!! Though as every real Star Trek fan knows for the timeline to be consistent (*not that modern writers seem to give a damn about that sort of thing these days !!!), it would have to be the Klingons engaged in the battle. The other big problem with this story is again the rather dubious idea that it was inspired by an original series character who was so interesting the authors felt we should hear more about him. Well I completely disagree with the statement that "Captain Garth was only rivalled by Khan Noonien Singh as Kirk's greatest adversary". In fact he was just one of a long line of interesting characters who Kirk met during his career, a number of which have featured in various other novels, and personally I don't think that Garth was anywhere near the top of the list. I suspect that these two authors sat down one day and said ... "Hmm, who can we write about to give us a link back to Star Trek that hasn't already been covered" ... and thus this novel was born. Certainly I don't believe they captured the feel of the character, or delivered a particularly credible adventure with this novel. However once again the most disturbing thing about this book, and indeed the current generation of writers, is the lack of credit they give to past writers. As with Greg Cox, who wrote the atrociously bad novels about "Khan Noonien Singh" in 2001 and 2002, these two authors are full of praise for the actor who breathed life into the central character of their novel, who they claim was their inspiration, but give absolutely no recognition what so ever to to his creator. For the record, while Steve Ihnat played the character of "Garth of Izar", it was Lee Erwin and Jerry Sohl who conceived him and without them he simply wouldn't exist. This lack of respect for the original series writers is both disappointing and I suspect indicative of why so much modern Star Trek is weaker than its' predecessor. Current writers don't understand the in and outs of how the original stories were constructed and subsequently often fail to reproduce the sense of style and entertainment that they had. As for this novel it is a barely adequate excuse for yet another mediocre adventure.
Rating:
Summary: Gives Trek a black eye
Review: I've read a few of the Trek novels and found most of them to range from respectable to very good. Garth of Izar is a black eye to the original Trek. In a word, the quality stinks. Part is due to the writing itself - florid and full of speechification that tries to capture the flavor of the original Trek episode "Whom The Gods Would Destroy" which featured Steve Ihnat as the mad Lord Garth. Ihnat merrily chewed the scenery as an insane, shape-shifting star fleet legend while Shatner looked downright subdued caught between Ihnat and green-painted Yvonne Craig. Evidently, the writers of this book thought they could cash in on all the televised hamming by gifting their characters with overblown speeches. Unfortunately, campy overacting doesn't translate well to the written word. The single dumbest mistake, though, was editorial. The book begins with a dream sequence (always a bad sign) where Kirk imagines himself as a bridge officer for his hero, Garth, as the good ship Heisenberg does battles with the Romulans...I mean the Klingons...no, wait, it's the Romulans, er... And that's the point where any self-respecting Trek fan realizes that Pocket Books doesn't share that respect. They didn't respect the readers enough to assign an editor (or possibly an editor and writers) who care enough to keep straight the Romulans from the Klingons. I could go on with a laundry list of hack mistakes - improbably plotting, ridiculous reactions, etc., but why bother? This turkey is a waste of paper and ink.
Rating:
Summary: Gives Trek a black eye
Review: I've read a few of the Trek novels and found most of them to range from respectable to very good. Garth of Izar is a black eye to the original Trek. In a word, the quality stinks. Part is due to the writing itself - florid and full of speechification that tries to capture the flavor of the original Trek episode "Whom The Gods Would Destroy" which featured Steve Ihnat as the mad Lord Garth. Ihnat merrily chewed the scenery as an insane, shape-shifting star fleet legend while Shatner looked downright subdued caught between Ihnat and green-painted Yvonne Craig. Evidently, the writers of this book thought they could cash in on all the televised hamming by gifting their characters with overblown speeches. Unfortunately, campy overacting doesn't translate well to the written word. The single dumbest mistake, though, was editorial. The book begins with a dream sequence (always a bad sign) where Kirk imagines himself as a bridge officer for his hero, Garth, as the good ship Heisenberg does battles with the Romulans...I mean the Klingons...no, wait, it's the Romulans, er... And that's the point where any self-respecting Trek fan realizes that Pocket Books doesn't share that respect. They didn't respect the readers enough to assign an editor (or possibly an editor and writers) who care enough to keep straight the Romulans from the Klingons. I could go on with a laundry list of hack mistakes - improbably plotting, ridiculous reactions, etc., but why bother? This turkey is a waste of paper and ink.
Rating: 
Summary: Garth Vader
Review: In this novel set in the original series era; Garth a former starship captain is cured of insanity. Remember the Garth from "Who Gods Destroy" where Kirk and Spock are held captive in an institution for the insane? It's the one where captain Garth was the shape shifter....this was before the era of Odo on Deep Space Nine. To make a long story short Kirk joins forces with Garth or pretends to do so in order to infiltrate a group of enemy shape shifters. For 60's nostalga points I have to give it a five out of five stars. It reads like something out of the sixties era complete with plot holes so big you could drive a truck through them. However it's a lot of fun to read this one and I'd have to call these books Star Trek Season 4.
Rating:
Summary: Garth Vader
Review: In this novel set in the original series era; Garth a former starship captain is cured of insanity. Remember the Garth from "Who Gods Destroy" where Kirk and Spock are held captive in an institution for the insane? It's the one where captain Garth was the shape shifter....this was before the era of Odo on Deep Space Nine. To make a long story short Kirk joins forces with Garth or pretends to do so in order to infiltrate a group of enemy shape shifters. For 60's nostalga points I have to give it a five out of five stars. It reads like something out of the sixties era complete with plot holes so big you could drive a truck through them. However it's a lot of fun to read this one and I'd have to call these books Star Trek Season 4.
Rating:
Summary: Whom Gods Redeem
Review: Kirk's new mission: escort Captain Garth, now cured of his insanity and reinstated in Starfleet, back to Antos IV. But is Garth truly cured? And what set him off in the first place when he tried to destroy the Antosians (as mentioned in the classic Trek TV episode Whom Gods Destroy)? Does the Federation face a new threat from a race of shape-shifters... or have the Antosians been the victims of a catastrophic cultural contamination as the result of their unfortunate contact with Garth? Authors Pamela Sargent and George Zebrowski bring their characteristic intelligence to the story, investigating the Antosians as a culture but not neglecting Kirk and Garth, the book's main focal points, as complex individuals facing troubling uncertainties. A terrific adventure in the spirit of the Original Series -- and a smart sci-fi yarn that will appeal to Trek fans and the general reading audience alike.
Rating:
Summary: Whom Gods Redeem
Review: Kirk's new mission: escort Captain Garth, now cured of his insanity and reinstated in Starfleet, back to Antos IV. But is Garth truly cured? And what set him off in the first place when he tried to destroy the Antosians (as mentioned in the classic Trek TV episode Whom Gods Destroy)? Does the Federation face a new threat from a race of shape-shifters... or have the Antosians been the victims of a catastrophic cultural contamination as the result of their unfortunate contact with Garth? Authors Pamela Sargent and George Zebrowski bring their characteristic intelligence to the story, investigating the Antosians as a culture but not neglecting Kirk and Garth, the book's main focal points, as complex individuals facing troubling uncertainties. A terrific adventure in the spirit of the Original Series -- and a smart sci-fi yarn that will appeal to Trek fans and the general reading audience alike.
Rating:
Summary: ST-TOS: Garth of Izar
Review: Star Trek-The Original Series: Garth of Izar written by Pamela Sargent and George Zebrowski is a novel that continues the television episode "Whom Gods Destroy." The legend of Captain Garth is known Federation-wide and his exploites are taught at Starfleet Academy and read by Captain James T. Kirk. Garth sustained some rather extensive injuries while on Antos IV. Antos IV is a planet of shape-shifters and after Garth sustained his injuries the tried to bring Garth back to his former health, but now he has shape-shifting abilites and the cure has proved to be worse than his injuries driving Garth to insanity. Captain Garth is sent to Elba II due to the madness that the Antosians inadvertinatly passed to Garth while being treated. Now, Captain Garth has been "returned" to service after being treated for mental illness... and Garth has returned to mediate a crisis on Antos IV as Captain James T. Kirk and the Enterprise crew come to Garth's aid. The book was well-written and I found it to be better than this duo of writers did on "Heart of the Son" TOS #83 and "Across the Universe" TOS #88. I found the storyline to be captivating and the reintroduction of Garth to be a strong character to balance the character of Kirk. I enjoyed the book as it was a very quick read at 263 pages with a larger print made this book easy to read. This book is, so far, the best work by this pair of authors as found in the genre of TREK. I have always wanted to know of what became of Captain Garth from the television series and this book fills in that gap. We get a good fleshing ourt of the character of Garth.
Rating:
Summary: ST-TOS: Garth of Izar
Review: Star Trek-The Original Series: Garth of Izar written by Pamela Sargent and George Zebrowski is a novel that continues the television episode "Whom Gods Destroy." The legend of Captain Garth is known Federation-wide and his exploites are taught at Starfleet Academy and read by Captain James T. Kirk. Garth sustained some rather extensive injuries while on Antos IV. Antos IV is a planet of shape-shifters and after Garth sustained his injuries the tried to bring Garth back to his former health, but now he has shape-shifting abilites and the cure has proved to be worse than his injuries driving Garth to insanity. Captain Garth is sent to Elba II due to the madness that the Antosians inadvertinatly passed to Garth while being treated. Now, Captain Garth has been "returned" to service after being treated for mental illness... and Garth has returned to mediate a crisis on Antos IV as Captain James T. Kirk and the Enterprise crew come to Garth's aid. The book was well-written and I found it to be better than this duo of writers did on "Heart of the Son" TOS #83 and "Across the Universe" TOS #88. I found the storyline to be captivating and the reintroduction of Garth to be a strong character to balance the character of Kirk. I enjoyed the book as it was a very quick read at 263 pages with a larger print made this book easy to read. This book is, so far, the best work by this pair of authors as found in the genre of TREK. I have always wanted to know of what became of Captain Garth from the television series and this book fills in that gap. We get a good fleshing ourt of the character of Garth.
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