Titan A.E. Books

do u think anybody seriosuly cares how akimas hair got short? or purple? seriously now. ure giving this book 5 stars because it tells u WHY HER HAIR IS PURPLE???!!!

shiazas

now my opinion is that this book is very childish and has lot of plot holes. If you are reading this book beacuse of the original TITAN A.E. then DONT. if you r reading this book for fun DONT.

KJ anderson never fails to dissapoint me

This book is honestly very well done, but u have 2 read it before u read the novel cause then you'll understand the story better... If u r wondering this book is about Akima's life before she went to work on finding the Titan or working with Korso. That is why u should read it before u read the novel. Other than that it is a really good book, and u should also read Cale's story too... You'll find some intresting parts in both stories... Have fun reading! -If u get it, which I mostly recomend, for Titan AE fans or any science fiction fans... =)

"Akima's Story" is a good novel, simple and childish, but good. "Akima's Story" is a prequel to the film "Titan A.E.", and the plot centers around Akima and her friend Ishaq, both of which
reside on a human drifter colony, New Marrakech, until it is attacked by the Drej. The attack leaves Akima and Ishaq's parental guardian dead, and this motivates the two of them to buy a ship and find work. The couple easily find work transporting goods to Solbrecht, and on their first mission they find trouble. After narrowly escaping death from a criminal kingpin's goons Akima and Ishaq team up with Stith to take down Golbus and to locate acient artifacts that Ishaq's father and Sam Tucker had been hiding.

The plot is original, but doesn't seem like it took a lot of thought to develop, and the dialogue is very "childish" and corny. But I just tried to turn off my brain and enjoy it for what it was, and even though it has a lot of plot holes that didn't stay consistant with the film, I just tried to read it as if it were a totally different story, and I think that if you do the same a lot of the plot holes will not be so evident.

I feel that the people who would enjoy this novel the most are those who are fans of "Titan A.E.", for those who enjoy Science Fiction stories, and for young ones, as there is no real offensive language and almost no violence. Though fans of either of the above mentioned may feel that it's to kiddie to be taken seriously and many may want to laugh at some of the dialogue. Overall, I did enjoy "Akima's Story", and you may enjoy it as well if you keep an open mind. Thanks for reading.

This was the best book I have ever read. Akima and Ishaq and Stith are the best. I recommend it a lot. Akima keeps the story going. It tells you a lot about Akima like how her her hair got short and purple,what happend to her mom and dad. You should read it.

Ok, I really liked this book but some aprts are screwed up and I'll go into that later. This book and Cale's story are best read before you see the movie or read the movie novelezation. It gives some great background on why Akima is sort of fiesty and strays away from other people. But some parts of it are jsut not right. Now I read this book AFTER I read the novelezation. First of all, in the beggining of the book, Akima meets Korso. Nope, the novel says she dosn't meet him until years later when she is already a great pilot. Second, the novel says Akima's grabdmother started theaching her how to fly as soon as she was old enough.In this book, she dosn't start training until after her grandmother is dead. Thrid, Akima meets Stith half way through the book. In the novel, Stith is part of Korso's crew and she has never met him. Little things like this take some fun out of the book. This book dosn't have like any swearing or severe violence but in the beggining her mentor is hurt badly and the book goes into deep detail in his injuries. Its a fun read and I think most people will like it.

JSA PRESENTS: STARS AND S.T.R.I.P.E. collects issues # 1- 8 of the 1999 series featuring the first regular DC work from Geoff Johns. Johns is now recognized as a major architect of the modern DC Universe, and as his work is so closely associated with the JSA, this series was begging for a collected edition. Regular readers of JSA have probably picked up on the origin of the second Star-Spangled Kid, Courtney Whitmore. Well, Stars and STRIPE is where it all happened, and like so much of Johns' other JSA work, it has strong ties to DC's Golden Age.

Courtney's mother has just remarried, and her husband is none other than Pat Dugan, aka Stripesy (the sidekick of the Golden Age S-SK, Sylvester Pemberton). Courtney is not happy about either the marriage or their recent relocation to Blue Valley, Nebraska, and while digging through some of Pat's boxes, Courtney comes across the original Kid's cosmic converter belt and costume. Without her mother's knowledge, and against Pat's protestations, Courtney begins to adventure out on her own. Pat realizes he must put his formidable mechanical engineering skills to use in order to watch over her and ensure she makes it home for dinner in one piece. Encased in a suit of high-tech armor, Pat once again plays sidekick to the Star-Spangled Kid, but this time as S.T.R.I.P.E.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. It's a great prelude to the magic that Johns would work in later years, paying homage to DC's rich history and bringing back classic characters in various forms. There are nice references to the Seven Soldiers of Victory, the original Robotman, Ultra the Multi-Alien, and even some ominous appearances by Solomon Grundy and the Nebula Man! Unfortunately, there's just not a lot of meat here. The writing has some painfully rough edges, and the ongoing plotlines involving Shiv, kidnappings at Courtney's school, and her quirky principal, got old quickly. Also, it's difficult to sympathize with Courtney when Johns writes her as a one-sided smartmouth whose only objective is to annoy her parents. It seems to me that the easiest solution to Pat's dilemma would be to just take the belt from her. As for the art by Lee Moder... too cartoony for my tastes, but it gets the job done.

Anyway, I am looking forward to volume 2. Hopefully it will address some of the issues Johns brings up in the first volume and tie the series more firmly to the JSA title.

The comics collected herein are among the best examples of how the legacies of comics' Golden Age can be built upon with respect, and still be great reading. Johns and Moder skillfully develop new relationships with some of the most revered characters of the past from Robotman to the Metal Men's Dr. Will Magnus to the whole huge Starman backstory to the JSA. Very adroitly, Star Spangled Kid quickly became a vital and prominent part of the DC Universe. Of course, none of that came at the expense of strong characterization, intricate and interesting plots, and great storytelling. This is a fine collection; certainly a must have for those of us with huge love and respect for the Golden Age, but also anyone who just loves great comics. Highly recommended.

This is an excellent book to supplement a unit on astronomy. The book is divided into 12 chapters, following the plot of the movie, Titan A. E. In each chapter, astronomical facts, relevant to the chapter, is explained. Also, space travel is covered. One chapter is concerned with how humans survive in space. It is done in a way that is easy to understand. Every page has several pictures, photos or scenes from the movie. On the outside margin of each page, there is a scientific fact. Terms defined in the glossary are in bold type and underlined. In addition to astronomy, other sciences are briefly covered. For example, since cloning plays a part in the movie, there is a section of the book devoted to that and DNA. On the last page of the book, is a list Web sites about astronomy. The only negative thing about the book is that the movie was not that good. Still, I would not hesitate to show it to a class.

I read "Trouble on Titan" around 1970, when the Apollo program was at its apex, and the human exploration of the Solar System seemed only a short step away. My review is based on old memories, but I can still remember a mining colony on Titan and jet craft using oxygen for fuel and burning Titan's methane atmosphere. We've learned much since this book was written, and Titan's atmosphere has less methane than we originally thought. However, this book was well written, and I am sure will intrigue my son as much as it intrigued his father, who is now working at NASA on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. This book has that old-style sci-fi flavor that made another world seem more like reality than fantasy. I think if you enjoyed the Lucky Starr and David Starr stories by Asimov, you will enjoy "Trouble on Titan."

This book has always been said to have been a foretelling of the Titanic disaster, but aside from a few coincidences, it's not that much.

The story is boring and trite, and if you have read a list of the similarities between what happened and what Robertson put in his book, then you have most of it.

The Wreck of the Titan is far more interesting as an historical curiosity than it is as a work of literature. (You can ignore the ship on the cover: the Titan in the novel didn't have sails.) Robertson wrote the story before the RMS Titanic was designed, let alone built, and the fact that the Titan shared a lot with it historically (three propellers in a time when that was rare, the length that was only a few feet off, and it struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank) is beside the point. As an historical sidenote, there was a copy of this book in the Titanic's library.

The story itself is sentimental with many of the literary elements typical of the Victorian era: the gruff sailor with a heart of gold, the little girl who needs saving, and polar bears lurking behind every iceberg to attack unwary shipwrecked sailors.

While the story would probably be more interesting to the historian as a chronological artifact, it's still enjoyable as an adventure of survival in a harsh climate following a disaster.

This book violates the dictum, "Write what you know about." Living on an iceberg following loss of the ship? Polar bears in mid-ocean? With thoughts running together sans punctuation, this work reads like an outline of what the writer intended to expand into a book at some later time.

I bought this for my classroom, while I was teaching a unit on the Titanic. Lots of kids have borrowed it and are amazed that it was written before the Titanic. language is a little outdated, of course, and hard for some middle schoolers, but when they realize when it was written that makes sense. Worth having for the classroom

This book was a surprise. After reading other reviews I didn't think it would be that great. I was pleased that the plot was thicker than I was expecting and the similarlites to the Titanic were really amazing. I wanted to read it because of my interest in the Titanic and to read this book that was written more than 10 years before the Titanic sank made it even better. The plot and characters were interesting and all in all it was a good read.

Have you ever seen yourself in a kindergarten class photo and wonder how you ever got from there to here? Experienced fans of Conan comic books may feel the same dislocation revisiting the first eight issues of Marvel Comics' "Conan The Barbarian" series, from 1970-71.

In issue #1, Conan, nominal number-two in a band of roving warriors, battles winged creatures who lead him to their shaman boss. Sights of a future world with Apollo spacecraft are observed. "Death to the harbingers of Hell!" Conan cries out, bringing the party to an end with a hurled boulder.

Issue #2 presents Conan in Charlton Heston mode, helping human slaves in an underground city overthrow their ape overlords. In Issue #3, he looks on in chains as gods and love triangles crash to a sudden halt around a swirling battlefield.

In comparison to the sure lines of later Conan artist John Buscema, Barry Smith has trouble with faces and limbs, needing Conan to wear a goofy horned helmet to distinguish him. Writer Roy Thomas admits in his afterword to this book, which was published in 2003, that his own prose was a bit purple going in.

But that's what's also great about this book, for those of us who have a larger interest in the Marvel series. You see how the character and the comic both evolved, in astonishingly short a time, to early fruition.

Thomas in his afterword states it happened as early as issue #4, the first adaptation of a story by Conan creator Robert E. Howard. "Tower Of The Elephant" is definitely a far better offering than its three predecessors, with Conan now striking out as a thief with the object to steal a legendary jewel, the "Heart of the Elephant", from the demonic wizard Yara. A crackling adventure which reveals a more compassionate side to Conan than the other stories here, "Tower" gets a bit squeezed over the course of a single issue. In the future, Thomas often made his Howard adaptations multi-parters, a formula which suited them better.

Actually the first fully satisfying issue here is the sixth one, "Devil-Wings Over Shadizar", where Conan, still wandering the same thief-thick nation as "Tower Of The Elephant", must rescue a maiden from a giant bat and its devoted human acolytes. Here you really see the comic book gelling into something diverting and well-centered within the confines of its 19 allotted pages, especially with a story twist involving the maiden. Conan is better served by both Howard and Smith; he even loses that silly helmet: "It makes you look like a yak," says the woman.

The decision by publisher Dark Horse to ditch the issue covers is a disappointment, especially as Howard's afterward notes their importance to the comic-book's success. But the computerized color treatments which spur much controversy here seem solid additions to me, a bit much in places but very vivid and dynamic on the whole, not to mention necessary to pull in younger anime-weened readers.

If you are just starting out with the Marvel comics, the jumpy goofiness of Vol. 1 doesn't make the best introduction. But if you wind up liking these as much as I do, you will want to see how the Cimmerian began his trek through a new medium, before finally conquering it.

Yes, this was an earlier book called Conan Chronicles. A nice compilation of Conan, Conan of Cimmeria, and Conan the Freebooter. The first three Lancer Conan paperbacks put together by de Camp and Carter. A little bit higher quality I think, and the maps look better. This edition is from Sphere.


Conan


This compilation contains :-

Howard's Letter to Miller

The Hyborian Age

This is not a story as such, but an account of the fictional history of Howard's world through the ages, to the time of Kull and Atlantis down to the entitled time when Conan ran amok. Quite nicely done.

4 out of 5


The Thing in the Crypt

A young Conan has been fighting wolves, and they are still after him. He finds a door in a rock wall, but it leads him to an encounter with a skeletal mummy thing. He learns why DnD clerics use maces against the undead, and manages to get out of there.

3 out of 5


The Tower of the Elephant


Conan is in thieving mode here. In a tavern, he is asking the assembled crowd of nogoodniks why no-one has stolen a famous jewel from this tower.

They tell him because it is guarded by some very nasty things.

He, of course, investigates, and meets a master thief attempting the same thing.

Humans, animals, a giant spider and a wizard are to be encountered, not to mention an alien.

3.5 out of 5


The Hall of the Dead

De Camp completed this from an outline of Howard's that was found. Conan has left Shadrizar to look for the treasure of Larsha, and a squad of soldiers, out to arrest him for other larceny are on his trail.

He deals with most of them, but the leader, Nestor is not dead and follows him into the city, meeting him in the treasure room after he deals with a giant slug.

They leave, quickly, when mummified warriors come to life and the building starts collapsing. Their loot is not too stable, and not enjoyed for long.

3 out of 5


The God in the Bowl

Conan is indulging in a bit of thievery and is busted by the local constabulary, right near a dead body. Conan proclaims his innocence, which they find hard to believe, but are not going to fight him over it.

Some digging reveals a local wastrel nobel is involved, up to ears in debt, but he ends up with a few problems with the God In the Bowl, of the mortal kind. When he orders Conan restrained, the constabulary lose a few body parts, and others more than that.

3 out of 5


Rogues in the House



Conan is yet again in trouble because of drinking and wenching. A crime has gone wrong, and a woman he was with has betrayed him to the authorities.

He is offered a way out, if he will kill a man. This man is Nabonidus, The Red Priest.

The only problems involve breaking in, a huge hulking ape-man servant, and then The Red Priest himself and his powers.

3.5 out of 5


The Hand of Nergal

Another story fleshed out from an outline.

Conan is fighting as Turanian irregular cavalry when large mystical bat creatures attack the force he is fighting with. Their morale breaks, leaving them easy prey, all except the Cimmerian who happens to have found The Heart of Tammuz amulet.

A local scholar sends his girl slave to find Conan and hire him to help him get rid of the evil sorceror using The Hand of Nergal to summon the bat creatures, and worse.

Conan is not able to do much, and is a lot of trouble until the girl arrives, and is able to employ the amulet. As a reward, he takes her with him, out of servitude.

3.5 out of 5


The City of Skulls

A pretty ordinary story. Conan's Turanian warrior band is destroyed by Meruvian raiders. He is taken captive there, with a friend and a girl. A spider-idol monster causes some havoc.

2 out of 5



3.5 out of 5




Conan of Cimmeria


This contains

The Curse of the Monolith
The Bloodstained God
The Frost Giant's Daughter
The Lair of the Ice Worm
The Queen of the Black Coast
The Castle of Terror
The Snout in the Dark

Conan, by dint of prowess is now a Turanian captain. He is sent on a mission to Khitai. The foppy type he takes along lures him into a night quest by promise of treasure.

Conan is none to pleased to learn he is to be a human sacrifice, instead.

Now, said magic using fop guy. Out of all the band, and people, he picks Conan?

What is Khitan for fracking stupid?


3 out of 5


Conan has deserted Turan, and is on the trail of treasure in the Kezankian mountains. Can't trust anyone in this bunch of treasure hunters.

The statue he is after is something he decides he definitely doesn't want, after all.


2.5 out of 5



Conan meets a very pale woman after fighting a battle in the frozen north. She is haughty, and arrogant, and summons a couple of her brothers to fight Conan. Giant men they might be, but the Cimmerian grabs them, and then grabs the girl.

She calls to her father Ymir, and disappears. Conan wakes up - was it all a dream?

4 out of 5


Conan, uneasy after his encounter with the Frost Giant's Daughter, heads south.

He saves a girl from a pack of white hairy beast men only to lose her in the tunnel of the ice worm. He barely makes it out himself.


3 out of 5



One of the classic Conan stories. The barbarian goes a-reavin', and finds another of the rare women that can match him. Belit has fire, and presence, and command, but again, it does not end well. Highly recommended.

4.5 out of 5


Conan is war chief of the Bamulas, and the story is told from the point of view of an Ophirean woman that is a captive of the group he is leading.

She talks him into letting her go by offering herself to him, for variety. He doesn't hold her to it, however, knowing that would be wrong, and lets her go.

She manages to get herself into trouble in the vale, where the women she finds definitely are not human. The Cimmerian, luckily for her, had been following her trail, and arrives just in time, another day at the office for him :

"A devil from the Outer Dark," he grunted. "Oh, they're nothing uncommon."

3.5 out of 5


It all piles on the barbarian here. He has to leave his Bamulas warrior chief post due to racism.

Travelling through the Kushian grasslands a pride of lions decide he would be quite tasty, being so young and meaty. He fights off lions for a while, but runs out of arrows and has to run.

Amazingly, he comes to a black onyx tower, and the lions won't enter. Everything is dead around it.

He enters due to having no choice, but his superstitious barbarian self is worried, and he sleeps uneasily.

He is right, because a whole bunch of slavers turn up, and a hundred headed monster promptly appears and starts slaughtering them with its bare hands, head ripping off and all that good stuff.

He takes one of their horses and leaves, to take his chance with the lions.


3.5 out of 5


A short draft. A popular military officer is imprisoned by a dangerous queen type. When she returns from hunting, the population is beginning to turn ugly, and tries to tear her from her horse.

A large, scarred Cimmerian is nearby, and manages to rescue her, not without injury to either.

She promptly orders her Captain of the Guard slain, and gives Conan the job. He is not displeased to be the captain for a good looking naked and bleeding ruler, at least for now.

3 out of 5



4 out of 5



Conan the Freebooter


This has

HAWKS OVER SHEM
BLACK COLOSSUS
SHADOWS IN THE MOONLIGHT
THE ROAD OF THE EAGLES
A WITCH SHALL BE BORN

A fun passage from the intro :-

"...If, on the other hand, you insist on realism in your readin--if you must have novels about introverts suffering in a brutal world--if your
meat is something "close to the soil" or concerned with psychopathology or the state of the world, then, my friend, this book is not for you.
You'd better find yourself a hole and read Crime and Punishment. But I won't be there with you--I have an engagement in the Hyborian Age, and
will be busy all evening.

John D. Clark, PhD."

One of the rewritten from another Howard story into a Conan story jobs.

In Shem, a local king has gone the whole extremely repressive Islam style no fun city thing. No drinking, gambling, women wandering around, etc., etc. Thinks he is a god, as well.

As such, Conan is not having a great time, and is more than happy to lend a hand in changing the leadership to a variety that isn't so insane.


2.5 out of 5



Princess Yasmeela is visited by the sorceror Natokh, in an unearthly appartion. Terrified, she consults the oracle of Mitra, who tells her to make the first man she sees head of her armies.

It is her good fortune that this man is Conan. Her understands her political and military problems, and leads her army in war against the forces of Natokh, who has a resurrected monster up his sleeve.

Carnage ensues.

4 out of 5



Conan comes across an Hyrkanian battle leader who has slaughtered the mercenaries he was with. He slays him and allows a girl the dead man had captured to come with him.

Attempting escape they come across pirates, a man ape, and spooky statues at night.

4 out of 5


Another historical story adapted to a Conan tale.

Conan is now leading a Red Brotherhood band of pirates, and a general has been sent to clear them out. Bad luck for everyone, really.

A younger prince has been exiled into the care of a bandit, rather than killed.

Add in a somewhat too hasty woman, pirates, brigands, and soldiers, and some vampire monsters, and Conan is happy to leave for somewhere else.


3 out of 5


A bad problem to have - how do you tell which of two women is the very evil twin. Luckily, our favorite barbarian is a very pragmatic man. Excellent and evocative, this story.

4.5 out of 5



4 out of 5

This is the first eight issues of the Marvel comics from the seventies, and includes the title story, and 7 others, including Thomas' adaptations of a couple of other Howard short pieces.

The interesting thing is that he says he was trying to get Lin Carter's Thongor first, but his agent stalled, and he wrote to Glen Lord because he saw his name in the Conan paperbacks, and Lord said ok for Conan, for only slightly more money.

Buscema and Kane were too expensive after that, to use as artists, so he chose Barry Windsor Smith.

Have you ever had to stop reading a decent comic because the art was so terrible? This is one of those, only it's not the drawings that ruins it but the colors. Usually I can bite my lip and bear recent re-colorings, but this one is so bad it makes the book unreadable. These early Conan stories, while not the best, are among the most famous of all time and the foundation for the whole Conan comic empire; Thomas' writing is as always above par and we get intriguing drawings by a gestating Barry Windsor-Smith. However, this book has re-colored it so poorly it's literally unbearable; they have reduced what is considered very good art to something you don't even want to look at. The original drawings were specifically designed to be reproduced with flat, simple colors and to be printed on standard paper. Changing those things by printing it on glossy paper and, especially, coloring it in a very modern faux-3D way truly just ruins it. This is just another cheap, thoughtless cash-in on a popular classic- they had to spiff it up and make it look shiny and new for kids to buy it. In the early '90s Marvel reprinted the first 11 issues of Conan with much better results in a series called "Conan Classic"; they are very cheap and easy to come by. Another way to get these stories is the first six issues of the magazine-sized "Conan Saga", each one presenting two or three stories plus extras in enlarged black and white. Not surprisingly, the art looks way better in black and white- maybe even better than the old-fashioned colors. Plus it's bigger too (like the original art, which is normally scaled down quite a bit for publication). Either way, skip this book. It stinks.

Barry Smith's Conan series is one of my favorites, but the Dark Horse color editions don't really measure up. The colorists for these volumes laid it on a bit thick, the result being a lot of muddied and/or obscured linework. There were many, many pages where the original artwork was blurred to the point of being unrecognizable. Smith's artwork deserves better treatment. BTW, for whatever reason, none of the covers are reproduced here. It seems an odd omission. If you're a Barry Smith fan, you'd be better served by picking up the Essential Conan. Fifteen dollars gets you 25 issues and covers, with all of Barry Smith's lovely artwork left intact.

when I was beginning to read this book I noticed who wrote it and I gave a little bit of a groan...Vardeman's first trek book, The Klingon Gambit was anything but stellar....but he definetly makes up for it with this book..

this book seems more sure of itself..doesn't get lost like the klingon gambit did..he's got a solid hold on the characters

kirk, always at odds between doing what's right and his orders from star fleet, scotty working his engineering magic, spock and mccoy, well, being spock and mccoy and how they interplay between one another..

at the heart of this book is a captain's worst nightmare..mutiny! why? long overdue R & R or something else entirely? not something sinister by any stretch, but definetly alien..

what I liked about this book was it started off with a simple mission, but in true star trek fasion, nothing's a cakewalk..i like how vardeman got off the beaten track of what would have been an otherwise boring mission and got into more action filled and dramatic territory, but still went back to the beginning and wrapped things up nicely..

a really good and solid star trek read.

This story is very similar to the original series episode "This Side of Paradise." In that episode, there is a symbiotic relationship between humans and the spores of a plant. The spores provide humans with immunity from a deadly form of radiation and are a narcotic. When infected by the spores, humans enter a state of artificial bliss, showing no initiative or aggression.
In this case, Lorelei induces the state of bliss; she is a humanoid that the Enterprise picked up from a severely damaged ship. At the time, a worn down Enterprise and crew are transporting a Federation team of ambassadors to a planetary system where two sides are on the verge of war. The situation is further complicated by Romulan meddling that includes an occasional armed incursion. Lorelei's speech induces an extreme pacifism in the Enterprise crew; everyone except Spock is entranced by her words. The crew begins to passively resist the Captain's orders to carry out their mission, and the Enterprise engines finally break down. To repair them, they need radiation shielding, so they divert to a planet that contains the raw materials they need.
However, the planet itself is a living organism and it imprisons and kills some of the Enterprise crew. Not out of malice, it is just the natural functioning of the planetary ecosystem. Kirk, Spock and McCoy are marooned on the planet when Lorelei takes over the ship, but manage to escape and continue on their mission. When they arrive, the two sides are at the point of firing on each other. When Captain Kirk does not tell them what they want to hear they both begin firing on the Enterprise. Kirk manages to defuse the situation by imprisoning the leaders of both sides with Lorelei.
This is not one of the better Star Trek novels, simply because pacifism is taken to far. No sophisticated space being, and certainly Lorelei is in that category, would fail to understand that war is certain if the Enterprise does not arrive at the planetary system. To sabotage that mission would itself be an act of passive aggression. I also found the similarities to "This Side of Paradise" to be too great to consider the stories distinct.

As one reviewer stated it is similiar to one of the episodes, I can't remember which either. It was good book though. Suspensful, dramatic you could easily play it out in your head, especially if you had seen the episode this is similiar too.

Star Trek #12 is an enjoyable read that can be read in a couple sittings at best, the later book have more pages and somewhat deeper plots. Some of the other reviews here give synopsis of the plot so I will refrain from that.

I found 'The Speaker of Hyla', or Lorelei, to be a very interesting character, as did Captain James Kirk early on. Until her methodology and beliefs takes his ship away from him in mutiny!

As can be seen from several other reviews, the plot is fairly simple, but the writing and action are enjoyable. And with Kirk being a romantic of sorts, he is taken in more so than either McCoy or Spock. All's well in the end and it is an early Star Trek tale told well. One can almost see this as a screen play to be viewed on TV.

Live long and read many Star Treks.

Semper Fi.

In this story it was nice too see that usual Kirk-style approach to ending a conflict doesn't sometimes work -and that in the end he has to rely on something else to end it. I guess the morale of the book is how much carrot or stick to apply in a conflict.

The conflict is a potential war between 2 planets. The Enterprise is sent to show the flag. The character's are some what believable. The key character is on alien woman, Lorelei, a pacifist, who has the unique ability to influence anyone to her point of view. She can do this just by talking to them. I was left wondering though, why weren't Spock and Kirk influenced by her abilities. That part wasn't explained. Eventually, Loreli convinces the crew that the Enterprise's presence in the area will start the war between the 2 planets. So, the crew becomes pacified and mutines.Kirk and Spock have to find a way to get there crew back under control and stop the war. The rest of the story deals with that and then stoppping the potential war.

Read on...

"Enemy Unseen" is an adverage and insignificant read through and trough.

It does have some potential of being a decent SF thriller, but instead it stumbels on endless clichés and predictabilities. The story advances well enough, but eventually doesn't advance even past the introduction.

I found myself constantly getting a little frustrated when I was sure some major twist in the storyline was lurking right around the corner, but istead there was just more pacing that eventually didn't help the story grow.

When that is combined to the most predictable and hurridly constructed ending, you get a novel wich offers some interesting parts, is a nice, quick read with a good use of some original characters and a bad use of a bunch of original characters who aren't at all essential and are left unexplored, combinet with the quite apparent overuse of Kirk... you can read it, but it offers nothing.

First of all, this book is NOT for fans of Mr. Spock; for reasons of her own, the author writes him out of the story early on, and only brings him back for the epilogue. (He is on a leave of absence to attend a scientific conference, and is replaced by a temporary first-officer in training, a character of the author's own devising.) If this concept is not to your liking, you may want to take a pass on this book.

Secondly, the plot is a bit contrived, as are some of the minor plot points. Still, the book is reasonably well-written, and by the end of the story had actually overcome its deficiencies to the extent that I could not say that I didn't find it an enjoyable read. As is not uncommon in mysteries, the main characters seemed unduly slow on the uptake in solving the puzzle, but I suppose that was neccessary to prevent the story from being over too quickly.

All in all, an enjoyable book, but one that doesn't bear too much scrutiny. Accept the flaws and enjoy the read, but looking for holes in the plot and characterization is like shooting fish in a barrel.

This has a fairly involved story. The Enterprise is hosting an alien delegation and the Federation negotiating team. The aliens have a complex honour system that results in some very amusing misunderstandings. The Federation team includes a spy attempting to sabotage the negotiations, and the alien delegation has another spy simply attempting to wipe them out, with little concern for the Enterprise crew. Essentially this is a murder mystery with a diplomatic subplot. The characters are very strong, well described and vividly written, although only one of the Enterprise regulars, Admiral Kirk, is a major character in the story. One problem I can see is that the character interaction gets so intricate that it might not appeal to people preferring more straightforward presentation. Also, the author's language is fairly intricate in itself. Finally, it is definitely written for a mature audience.

I was slightly disappointed when I received this book. There is only one drawing for each character along with a brief description of the character and five steps on how to draw them. The book starts off with an introduction from Cale Tucker (main character). I thought there would be more drawing tips for each character and that it would show how to draw the characters faces, etc., but there's only one pose for each character to draw. The characters featured are Cale, Akima, Korso, Preed, Gune, Cook, Stith, the Drej, and Chief Gaoul. Included also is a guide how to draw each of the spaceships. There's also some graph paper in the back to draw the characters on, which takes up half the book. I recommend this book to Titan A.E. fans, but it would have been nice to see some more poses and tips to draw from.

This is a good book if all you want is to draw each charecter in a single pose, but not anyhting more then that. It has onlt one picture of each charecter. The drawing method isn't even that great. It uses grids, and grids are useless if you want to truely learn how to DRAW the character from memory. When you use the traditional ball-and-line method (which real animators use), you learn how to "see" your drawing in verious dimentions which allows you to draw the charecter in different poses. It also makes for better remembering as to HOW to draw the character. With the grid-method the book uses, you only see the charecter in one pose, and one dimention. Totally useless if you want to draw from mind. Buy this book if you are simply out to collect merchandise from this great movie, or if you just want the nice pictures (as the pictures of the charecters are actually nice to look at).

This is the type of book that gives 'tie-in' novels a bad name. The premise of the story, Enterprise protecting archeologists and previously undiscovered ancient civilization against hostile forces, is good. It has certainly be used elsewhere in the Star Trek universe to much better effect. The characterizations of the main characters is 'off', even allowing for the fact that they are under the influence of an outside force. The execution of the novel is just plan sloppy, there are huge gaps in the action that left this reader wondering just what the heck was going on.

Unless you are oppessive-compulsive and just HAVE to read them all give this one a miss, there are plenty of other, much better, entries in the series.

not the best book, period.

It had its moments though...it reminds me of several classic original series episodes...such as the Naked Time to name a favorite

I can't quite put my finger on it, but even though the premise was cool, the writing just wasn't all that great.

Simply average.

Trekkies demand orthodoxy. New intpretations or ignoring the generally held view of how characters are supposed to act is really bad. Spock is real, McCoy is real. Therefore you have to stick to what is "normal" for them. Also Klingons are more complex than this book presents. They are warlike but they don't go solely on bloodlust. Give more of a reason for Klingons to act. This author did a better job in his other book, Mutiny on the Enterprise.

Sinners repent.

I suppose that The Klingon Gambit isn't the worst Trek book out there. After all, I managed to finish it very quickly and, despite some eye-rolling, I didn't mind it while I was reading it. Ultimately, the book is inane and the solution is both obvious and trite.

This book has a little of the STTOS episode, "Naked Time", and a ST:TNG episode with a Picard archeological story thrown in. The storyline stays on track. There is no real character development because everyone is under some kind of mental influences and acting out of the ordinary. Kirk is to pacifist - McCoy hates machines -Scotty wants the ideal top-notch engines. So, there is not the character developments and relationships we usually see in the ST Universe. But, I liked that unusual differences. Who else is acting differently? Read and find out! Some of the new on-board ship characters I didn't like. The aliens are the Andorians and Klingons. What will they do? The Andorians are not the military aggressors as shown in a recent "Enterprise" TV episode.

Read on...