Tekwar

Rating:
Summary: Shatner has created a fast paced entertaining journey.
Review: This is the first Shatner book I read. I have read the first 5 and liked them all. I stopped reading them when I became obsessed with the new Star Wars expanded universe following Timothy Zahn's trilogy about the further adventures of Luke and friends. If you saw FIFTH ELEMENT I imaged that Shatner's Jake Cardigan was a futuristic scruffy, PI more like Bruce Willis than Stacey Keach. When the TV series started starring Greg Evigan I thought Evigan did a fine job.

Shatner and friends have done a great job creating this futuristic world where Tek theatens to do real harm to humanity. Cardigan, after spending years in a deep freeze coma prison is released and goes to work for a detective agency. The TV series followed the books fairly closely as Shatner was a big part of both, but the books had differences. Check these book out if you can find them. They are a fun read.

Rating:
Summary: Captain Kirk, stick to acting!
Review: This sci fi novel is written by *William Shatner* of all people, of Star Wars/Capt. Kirk fame, and believe me when I tell you that, if you find his acting a little wooden, you should try his writing! It makes his acting look like Oscar material! Years of being a sci fi star apparently made him think that, if he could *act* in a sci fi thriller, he could *write* a sci fi thriller. He was wrong.

Please, dear captain, stick to Star Trek conventions and making movies, where you are appreciated. Leave writing to those who can actually breathe life into an imaginary character. I still wonder how Beauty's marriage to the Beast worked out (in either of Robin McKinley's books on the topic), how the characters in Cynthia Voigt's "Jackaroo" and "On Furtune's Wheel" turned out, and what Robert Jordan's Matt (from his "Wheel of Time" series)is up to nowadays. The Tek characters? I didn't retain a single character or plot device nor did I care about the possible resolution of any of the loose ends.

Shatner's writing had no life, I didn't care about any of the cardboard characters in it, and I had to force myself to finish it, thinking, "Well, it's bound to get better!" It didn't. I don't normally waste my time reviewing books I dislike, but in this case, I've made an exception. If it saves one reader from investing a single moment of his or her precious time on earth slogging through this title by William Shatner (or any of the other Tek titles, which I have sampled, to my dismay and continued dislike), my job on this planet is done.

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad effort from Captain Kirk
Review: William Shatner, best known as Star Trek's Captain Kirk, provides his first literary effort here in Tekwar, and truth be told he does a pretty good job. This isn't an amazing novel, or a particularly deep one, but it's a fast paced story with lots of great action set in, shocker of all shockers, the future.

Jake Cardigan, detective extraordinaire, is jailed after being framed for dealing the mind altering drug known as Tek. Four years later, long before his sentence has expired, he is released from stasis/prison under mysterious circumstances. The terms of his parole entail his going back to work searching for a missing scientist and his beautiful daughter, with all sorts of adventure and mishaps along the way.

Sometimes silly, but totally filled with action, Tekwar is a solid first effort from a multitalented entertainer. It's a fun cross between a mystery and flat out sci-fi adventure, and succeeds because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Worth a read, and thoroughly entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad effort from Captain Kirk
Review: William Shatner, best known as Star Trek's Captain Kirk, provides his first literary effort here in Tekwar, and truth be told he does a pretty good job. This isn't an amazing novel, or a particularly deep one, but it's a fast paced story with lots of great action set in, shocker of all shockers, the future.

Jake Cardigan, detective extraordinaire, is jailed after being framed for dealing the mind altering drug known as Tek. Four years later, long before his sentence has expired, he is released from stasis/prison under mysterious circumstances. The terms of his parole entail his going back to work searching for a missing scientist and his beautiful daughter, with all sorts of adventure and mishaps along the way.

Sometimes silly, but totally filled with action, Tekwar is a solid first effort from a multitalented entertainer. It's a fun cross between a mystery and flat out sci-fi adventure, and succeeds because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Worth a read, and thoroughly entertaining.