Preserver: Star Trek The Original Series

A fine conclusion to the Mirror Universe Shatner trilogy, but nothing extremely groundbreaking. The usual tropes are here, and the plot itself didn't completely wow me. I was fascinated by the revelations about the Preservers and role they play in creating the multiverse, but the fact that the conclusions the story comes to don't jive well with what is established about them in canon doesn't sit extremely well with me. <br /><br />Full review: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://www.treklit.com/2018/08/preserver.html">http://www.treklit.com/2018/08/preser...</a>

Good and evil are not always what they seem, but friendship and love and family CAN overcome loss.<br /><br />What really struck me within this trilogy was the artful weaving of the stories and characters of the TV episodes that I watched for so many years. <br /><br />I have the story line and the back ground in my head and heart and am ready to pick up where I accidently started the last trilogy seven books ago.

*Note: This is a review of the audiobook.*<br /><br />Whereas the previous book kept us entertained and awake for our road trip, this one left us confused and concerned we might actually be drifting off into sleep periodically, because it made so little sense. (For the record, we were not drifting off into sleep. This book just makes very little sense).<br /><br />All of the audiobook qualities that were great about the previous book stay great here. Shatner’s narration alternates between hilariously good and hilariously bad but mostly is just hilariously Shatner. The sound effects continue to be stellar and one of my favorite parts of the book. It continues to feel like listening to a Star Trek movie as a radio show, and that it was kept me going through it.<br /><br />The plot, however, just makes very little sense and seems to fall apart. Whereas in the previous book a continuing plot point is Shatner’s ruined hands, in this one it’s Shatner’s unborn (and then born) son who is all kinds of genetically messed up thanks to the poison in his mother’s system from the cloned children of Tiberius. (Are you confused yet?) This could possibly make for an interesting plot, but it’s dropped frequently to pursue the other plot about the preserver orb things. We read this book and both fiancé and I are still unclear as to precisely what the orbs mean. We’re not even sure if they’re good or bad. This is how confusing the plot is, I can’t even properly sum it up for you folks. In spite of the plot being really confusing, there are still some fun scenes, such as when Kirk meets his son for the first time. It’s a short audiobook, so I’m not unhappy I listened to it, even if I mostly only understood the Kirk’s son plot.<br /><br />Overall, while this provides very little clear closure to the plot point set up earlier in the trilogy, it does feature the birth of Kirk’s son and all the fun of listening to a radio show version of a Star Trek movie. If you liked the previous books in the trilogy and don’t mind a confusing plot, you’ll enjoy finishing up the trilogy.<br /><br />Check out my <a href="http://wp.me/pp7vL-1cn" rel="nofollow noopener">full review</a>.

I liked this quite a lot, even though one aspect of the ending seemed highly unlikely to me. I won't spoil it. Do be aware that this is the third book in a trilogy, beginning with Spectre and then Dark Victory. All three are credited to William Shatner, with Judith Reeves-Stevens and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. <br /><br />The concept for this trilogy is set in the time frame of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy have survived into this time period. McCoy is very old, of course, and Spock as well, although Vulcans are much longer lived than Humans so it doesn't show that much on him. As told in other books, Kirk took a short-cut into this future and is still relatively young. The trilogy also involves an interaction with the Mirror Universe, and we get to see a number of our Federation's counterparts throughout the three books, including Tiberius, Kirk's opposite, who plays a very prominent role. <br /><br />"Mirror, Mirror" was probably my favorite Star Trek TOS episode so I've always enjoyed other chances to visit that concept. These three books did a good, fun job with it. Preserver also reveals the reason why the two universes split in the first place, and I found it rather charming.

Very frustrating conclusion to the Mirror Universe trilogy. I will say this, Shatner and his ghost writers really dug deep in TOS mythology. The Mirror Universe angle had great potential, but then they took a right turn by bringing the Preservers into the story. <br /><br /><br /><br />Spoilers:<br /><br /><br />Again, I still struggle with Teilani. I just never felt she worked in the series. Her death at the end felt telegraphed and unnecessary. <br /><br />And then there is Tiberius, the evil Mirror universe counterpart to Kirk. In his universe, he ruled the despotic Terran Empire, that would give the Empire a run for its money. He destroyed worlds, enslaved species, and murdered on a whim. And he is released to go back to the Mirror Universe at the end of the book. Apparently Kirk making one nice gesture to him is enough to change him, nevermind the countless atrocities he committed. I guess Starfleet JAG is a bit lenient.

Quite the convoluted mess, and a structural nightmare. <br /><br />The first 10% of this is basically the end of the previous book, then it feels like we're starting a new story that lasts to the 50% mark, then it feels like we start what should have been book 4 with yet another story.<br /><br />Not that the stories are unrelated, nevertheless the demarcation lines are too well defined to feel like your reading a complete novel. Rather it feels like two-and-a-bit-plots stitched badly together.<br /><br />Still entertaining enough read... i did not remember how this one ended at all from my previous read.

This book was really not bad, but there was a lot of dialogue this time and not much action, it felt a little bland. <br /><br />I also think it was absolutely tragic that Teilani died, and I don’t understand why they had to kill her for the plot. Since TOS Kirk has suffered loss after loss with women he has loved, and it is heartbreaking that even now, he has to suffer yet another loss and cannot just be happy in love for the rest of his days. <br />I think the character of Kirk deserves that break, he deserves happiness and love. <br />I didn’t much care for Teilani’s character; but she clearly meant a great deal to Kirk. <br /><br />A slightly disappointing end to this mirror universe trilogy, with quite a few unanswered questions that I don’t think will be resolved in the next trilogy- like what happens to Tiberius? Does he actually change? What about Joseph? <br />A very confusing book overall, and I felt like it was quite hard to follow most of the time, so I definitely missed a few things that were going on too. <br /><br />I’m left feeling a little blank after this one, and rather deflated.

I did write a separate review for Book 1, Spectre. This review is for the series as a whole. I won’t rehash what I’ve already said, I love Spectre so much. I was so excited to continue on with the series. Unfortunately, Books 2 and 3 do not live up to the awesomeness of Book 1. I felt like we switched from Shatner to his ghost writers. Book 2, Dark Victory, felt like nothing more than a placeholder. It existed just to give details so we would get what was happening in Book 3. Teilani turned into a completely different person and Kirk went from maverick to unhinged. I was also completely out of my league with the science. Normally, I can keep up in Star Trek. I get the basics and pick up things as I go. I know that a cloaked vessel emits tachyon particles and that’s the best way to detect it ... but I can’t really tell you why it does or what tachyon particles are. Dark Victory went to a more advanced level that I knew I’d never be able to reach. It felt like a struggle just to understand what was going on half the time. Book 3, Preserver, got better, but I was still disappointed. The story line that was developing in Spectre was what I wanted to read. But by the end of Preserver, we were in a completely different quadrant and I’m still not sure how we got there. Preserver dealt more with history than with science so I felt a little better on my own turf, but I really didn’t like how it made me question literally everything I had seen and learned from Star Trek up to that point. And the ending just felt incomplete, like Kirk lost who he was along the way. Overall, I was just dissatisfied. I wanted to enjoy it, and I did enjoy parts, but Shatner let me down and I mourn what this series could have been!!

That’s right, I, the woman who reads Harry Turtledove books where he has so many characters on the canvas and continually jumps around between them, found this novel by William Shatner and his co-authors Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, to be very confusing to follow.<br /><br />Star Trek: Preserver is the last novel in a trilogy by the trio of authors in which Captain Kirk, resurrected in the 24th century, fights an unknown foe in the Federation and a known foe in his mirror universe counterpart, Tiberius. Along the way, Kirk gets married to a half-Kling, half-Romulan super-woman.<br /><br />This wife, Teilani, is dying at the beginning of Star Trek: Preserver. The belief is that only Tiberius can save her since Kirk believes that she was poisoned by a genetically engineered child of Tiberius’ design. However, Tiberius has plans of his own in acquiring an alien technology known to Kirk and the Federation in his universe, but which does not exist in Tiberius’.<br /><br />As if this isn’t a complicated enough story, Tiberius’ efforts at gaining the technology are thwarted by another unseen species known as the Preservers. The Star Trek: The Next Generation cast is in the story too. Captain Picard has been kidnapped by two psych-historians who believe he is the key to the end of the universe which is imminent.<br /><br />To read my full review, please go to: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://thoughtsfromthemountaintop.com/2020/08/31/star-trek-preserver-by-william-shatner-is-too-confusing/">https://thoughtsfromthemountaintop.co...</a>

This is the sixth in a series of six books (actually, two trilogies). This series was my introduction to Star Trek novels, and I very much enjoyed these books. I actually read them out of order by mistake, and then re-read the whole thing in the correct order. Good stuff for the avid Trek fan! A very satisfying conclusion to the series.<br /><br />(Note: if you think Shatner really wrote these books, you don't know much about publishing. His ghost writers, the Reeves-Stevenses, deserve the kudos here.)