Sunday Series Review: Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Trilogy
Today Kim brings you a Sunday Series Review of Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Trilogy by William Shatner.
Books in the Series:
Spectre
Dark Victory
Preserver
Spectre
Published: April 1, 1999
384 Pages
Retired and happily married, Kirk believes his adventuring days are over. But as he returns to Earth for the first time since his apparent death upon the Enterprise-B, events elsewhere in the galaxy set in motion a mystery that may provide Kirk with his greatest challenge yet.
Dark Victory
Published: April 1, 2000
303 Pages
James T. Kirk returns to the mirror universe that was first seen in the original televised Star Trek, to engage in a battle with the cleverest and most dangerous foe he has ever encountered, his mirror universe duplicate.
Preserver
Published: April 1, 2001
420 Pages
In the Mirror Universe the tyrannical Emperor Tiberius, once captain of the ISS Enterprise, had great success turning captured alien weaponry to his advantage. Until, that is, his failure to seize the tantalising advances of the ancient First Federation. Now, in the more peaceful universe of the United Federation of Planets, Tiberius sees his second chance. And a new ally will help him take it – his alter ego for whom he has nothing but contempt – Starfleet Captain James T. Kirk. Honorable, idealistic and decent, James T. Kirk is many things Tiberius is not. But he is also a man deeply in love with his wife – and Teilani is dying. To save her life, Kirk is prepared to compromise his ideals and enter into his most dangerous alliance yet.
Battling Captain Jean-Luc Picard and a new generation of Starfleet heroes, Kirk must guide Tiberius to a long-abandoned First Federation base which conceals a power so great it will enable Tiberius to conquer the mirror universe – and his own. But on that journey Kirk uncovers long-hidden secrets that raise the stakes far beyond the mere survival of family and friends. At the heart of their quest, something else is waiting: an object from a civilisation whose technology is far more advanced than any Kirk or Tiberius could hope to acquire, placed there for Kirk’s eyes only by mysterious aliens who appear to have influenced life within the galaxy over eons of time – a message from the Preservers…
Kim’s Rating of the Series: 3.5 stars
Kim’s Thoughts on the The Mirror Universe Trilogy:
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. My review for Spectre is here.
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!!
Sunday Series Review: The Bill Hodges Trilogy
Today Kim brings you a Sunday Series Review of the Bill Hodges trilogy by Stephen King!
Books in the Series:
Mr. Mercedes
Finders Keepers
End of Watch
Mr. Mercedes
Published: June 3, 2014
437 Pages
In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.
In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.
Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with two new, unusual allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.
Finders Keepers
Published: June 2, 2015
434 Pages
The genius is John Rothstein, an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn’t published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy is livid, not just because Rothstein has stopped providing books, but because the nonconformist Jimmy Gold has sold out for a career in advertising. Morris kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash, yes, but the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel.
Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and then he is locked away for another crime. Decades later, a boy named Pete Saubers finds the treasure, and now it is Pete and his family that Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson must rescue from the ever-more deranged and vengeful Morris when he’s released from prison after thirty-five years.
End of Watch
Published: June 7, 2016
432 Pages
The spectacular finale to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with Mr. Mercedes (winner of the Edgar Award) and Finders Keepers—In End of Watch, the diabolical “Mercedes Killer” drives his enemies to suicide, and if Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney don’t figure out a way to stop him, they’ll be victims themselves.
In Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, something has awakened. Something evil. Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room.
Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney—the woman who delivered the blow to Hartsfield’s head that put him on the brain injury ward. When Bill and Holly are called to a suicide scene with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put their lives at risk, as well as those of Bill’s heroic young friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city.
In End of Watch, Stephen King brings the Hodges trilogy to a sublimely terrifying conclusion, combining the detective fiction of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers with the heart-pounding, supernatural suspense that has been his bestselling trademark. The result is an unnerving look at human vulnerability and chilling suspense. No one does it better than King.
Kim’s Ratings of the Series: 4 Stars
Kim’s Thoughts on The Bill Hodges Trilogy:
Such a great series! I’m all about some criminal psychology and then King threw in some amazing characters and now I’m almost perfectly happy! I watched the TV show, Mr. Mercedes, first, and got to know Bill and Brady and Jerome and Holly before ever reading them on the page. They drew me in and having faces to go with the story was an added bonus. Obviously there was some rather uncomfortable ideas flying around in Brady’s head, hence he’s the villain and such a good one.
I read Mr. Mercedes quickly and loved it. King doesn’t shy away from making tough decisions for his characters and while I may not have liked them all, his story reflected harsh reality pretty accurately. Finders Keepers was an interesting stepping stone for Bill, Jerome, and Holly. I’m not gonna lie, I feel like King should have nixed it from the trilogy and made it a standalone but I liked learning more about the core characters so I can’t complain too much. The Finders Keepers plot line was actually my 2nd favorite of the series so King definitely delivered. My inner booknerd was thrilled and appalled at the same time.
Then he concluded with End of Watch. And what a conclusion it was! Y’all know I hate loose ends and if a series ends, then it needs to end. End of Watch ended it and it was bittersweet. Saying goodbye to characters you love and even to ones you hate can be hard, but I felt complete and content. To me, End of Watch felt more classic King than the other books did. A lot of improbabilities, but still believable and even plausible. It gave me some anxiety and I loved every second of it!
Overall, this is a great series for pretty much everybody. It was far more true crime than horror. I absolutely recommend it!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Sunday Series VIDEO Review: Star Trek: Day of Honor
Today Kim is bringing you a Sunday Series VIDEO review of the Star Trek: Day of Honor series. This series has multiple authors who wrote the novels.
Books in the Series:
Ancient Blood
Armageddon Sky
Her Klingon Soul
Treaty’s Law
Ancient Blood
Author: Diane Carey
280 Pages
To true Klingon warriors, no occasion is more sacred than the Day of Honor, when they pay homage to all that makes them
Klingon. But honor demands its price….
Worf finds his honor tested when he goes undercover to infiltrate a planetary criminal network. How can he root out the corruption on Sindikash without resorting to deceit and treachery himself?
Worf’s dilemma is shared by his son Alexander, who searches for the true meaning of honor in his own human heritage. Along with his son, Worf must confront deadly danger — and the inner struggles of his Klingon soul.
Armageddon Sky
Author: L.A. Graf
279 Pages
All Klingons revere the Day of Honor, their most sacred holiday, but the true nature of honor can be a matter worth fighting over… Dispatched on a secret mission to investigate the raids, Commander Worf of Deep Space Nine and the crew of the Defiant find themselves trapped on a an alien world threatened by global cataclysm– trapped along with Klingons who were exiled to this world for their loyalty to Worf’s dishonored family.
Worf must find a way to save the Klingons whose honor bade them to keep their pledges to the House of Mogh despite the orders of the Emperor, and to prevent a bloody massacre that will forever stain the honor of the Klingon Empire.
Her Klingon Soul
Author: Michael Jan Friendman
304 Pages
Even light-years from the Klingon Empire, the Day of Honor remains an occasion of great importance. And sometimes honor is found in the most unexpected places… B’Elanna Torres has never cared for the Day of Honor. Ashamed of her Klingon heritage, she regards the holiday as an unwanted reminder of all she has struggled to repress. Besides, something awful always seems to happen to her then. Her bad luck seems to be running true to form when she and Harry Kim are captured by alien slavers. Imprisoned by the enigmatic Risatti, force to mine for deadly radioactive ore, Torres will need all of her strength and cunning to survive — and her honor as well.
Treaty’s Law
Authors:
Dean Wesley Smith
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
277 Pages
The Day of Honor is celebrated throughout the Klingon Empire. But every tradition had to being somewhere…
Signi Beta is an M-class planet ideal for farming. The Federation wants Signi Beta, but the Klingon Empire has the stronger claim. Captain Kirk hates to lose the planet, especially to his old adversary, Commander Kor. Their mutual antagonism turns into an uneasy alliance, however, when yet another alien fleet attacks both the Klingons and the “U.S.S. Enterprise.” Now Kirk and Kor must rely on each other’s honor — or none of them may survive to wage their war again.
Kim’s Ratings of the Series:
Ancient Blood: 4 stars
Armageddon Sky: 4 stars
Her Klingon Soul: 5 stars
Treaty’s Law: 5 stars
Kim’s review on the Day of Honor series:
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