Captain's Peril

This is the first chapter of the Captain's trilogy that leads into what's in my opinion an excellent conclusion to the Kirk Saga. After a couple of year break in between the Mirror Universe trilogy and this trilogy I had lost some interest in Star Trek. Even all of William Shatner's novels have been excellent, I had started college when this book came out (Summer 2001) and just didn't read it. This year (2006) I regreted that decision greatly after reading Captain's Blood and Captain's Glory (which I just finished Captain's Glory last week. Highly highly recommended). Anyway, for me Captain's Peril acted almost like a prequel because I read parts 2 and 3 first. Let me tell you I really wish I had read Captain's Peril when it came out. It introduces the Totality, tells a great early adventure of James T. Kirk on his first Enterprise NCC-1701, and a great "bonding" adventure between Kirk and Picard that hasn't been in any of the previous novels. This novel is excellent and I would highly recommend you don't do what I did and read all three books in the totality trilogy in order. This book is a little slower than the ones in the past but still a very enjoyable and entertaining read. Highly recommended. 9/10.

The Captain's Peril is the third of William Shatner's novels I have read. I first read Dark Victory. I was disapointed that it ended and I had to get The Preservers to finish the story. I enjoyed them and went out looking for the books that Shatner had written. I found The Captain's Peril. I started it and couldn't put it down. It was good to see that Kirk and Picard could get together and not always be saving everyone. I found they were seen as normal, not as superman. This story is written by William Shatner, so it centers around James T. Kirk. Picard is a his side kick. I was surprized that the story took place over just a few days, but kept my attention thru the entire story. Now I'm getting all of the rest of William Shatner's books. If they are as good as this, I will be eagerly waiting for new novel to continue the life of James T. Kirk.

CAPTAIN'S PERIL is an excellent read, recommended to Star Trek fans that, like me, still think that the book series was in comatose state, until Shatner started writing his outstanding trilogies with the Reeves-Stevens.To negative people who put their feelings here, do you really want the worst Star Trek books ever written? Try "Windows on a Lost World", "The Rings of Tautee" or any Voyager...

Captains James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard choose to go on a working vacation on Bajor. The vacation centers on an archeological dig taking place in the ancient sunken city of Bar'trila, which had been lost for millennia and only recently rediscovered. Thirty years ago, under Cardassian occupation, the Valor Ocean had been tapped to flood the valley. Plummeting from outer space in environmentally controlled jumpsuits equipped with force field, Kirk and Picard fall to Bajor like comets, literally burning through the planet's atmosphere. To Kirk, this is all great fun. The problem is, the suits were supplied by Quark, who is known to cut a corner or two. Kirk's suit develops a problem and while dealing with that problem, he remembers an early encounter he had at the beginning of his career as a starship captain new to Enterprise and knew to the Vulcan way of thinking posed by Spock. Surviving the fall to Bajor, despite the fact that Kirk tried to use the almost suicidal K'Thale Deployment, invented by a Klingon who became a one-armed Klingon as a result, both captains hike toward the dig site only to find that one of the archeological party has been murdered. Even as Picard and Kirk go into action to access the problem and begin damage control, the dig team lets both captains know that they and the Federation are unwelcome on the site. Shortly after that, Picard becomes a casualty. Kirk continues pressing the investigation, solving the problems in the present that tie into Bajoran religious history, and re-evaluating his past encounter while getting to know Spock.William Shatner, with co-authors Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, has written two other trilogies expanding the life and conquests of Captain James Tiberius Kirk of Enterprise, a role that Shatner breathed life into during the original Star Trek series and the movies that followed. The Reeves-Stevens collaborations as well as individual works outside the Trek universe have included stand-alone science fiction novels (SHIFTER, NIGHTFEEDERS, NIGHTEYES), horror novels (BLOODSHIFT), and military thrillers (ICEFIRE, QUICKSILVER), and numerous scripts for television series and animated series.CAPTAIN'S PERIL offers a slam-bang action beginning that is bound to score big with the crossover fans of science fiction and extreme sports. The intro of the planetdive comes directly after an intriguing Cardassian plot to bury the ancient city of Bar'trila, which had only recently been rediscovered. From there, the story springboards in the early days aboard Enterprise when the Spock/Kirk relationship was still quite volatile because of misunderstandings on both sides. The action, narrative flow, and comradely conversation between Kirk and Picard are well done, making the pages turn quick and clean as the reader is drawn into the mystery of the murdered archeologist at Bar'trila and the ancient Bajoran legend of the Five Brothers.Unfortunately, the mystery and the legend elements that are

Having read this novel in the span of 4hrs, I have to say it was on the most enjoyable Star Trek books that I have read in a very long time. The jumping back and forth between Kirk's and Picard's adventure and then Kirk on the ENTERPRISE in the first 5 months of him taking command, had me wanting more with him and Spock, it was fun to read about Kirk and how he thought of Spock before the two of them became the legendary friends that they will become.