Product Description: If you think you know how it all began, think again...
Young Jim Kirk wants nothing to do with Starfleet, andnever wants to leave Earth. In the summer of 2249, he's a headstrong seventeen-year-old barely scraping by in San Francisco, haunted by horrific memories from his past.
In the same city, a nineteen-year-old alien named Spock is determined to rise above the emotional turmoil of his mixed-species heritage. He's determined to show his parents he has what it takes to be Vulcan -- even if it means exposing a mysterious conspiracy at the heart of the Vulcan Embassy, stretching to the farthest reaches of the Federation's borders. There, a chilling new threat hasarisen to test the Federation's deepest held belief that war is a thing of the past and that a secure future can be forged through peaceful means alone. But it is in San Francisco, home to Starfleet Academy, where that threat will be met by two troubled teenage boys driven to solve the mystery that links them both.
In time, the universe will come to know these young rebels as Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock...two of the Federation's greatest heroes. Yet before they were heroes, they were simply conflicted teenagers, filled with raw ambition and talent, not yet seasoned by wisdom and experience, searching for their own unique directions in life -- a destiny they'll discover on one fateful night in San Francisco, when two lives collide, and two legends are born.
Star Trek: Academy -- Collision Course sets the stage for an exciting new era of Star Trek adventure, and for the first time reveals Kirk and Spock as they were, and how they began their journey to become the Kirk and Spock we know today.
Academy Days Well written story about how Spock and Kirk became part of Starfleet Academy. Spock by choice due to dissapointment in his father's discisions and how Starfleet chose Kirk for his individuality. Well told, very enjoyable read. Worth adding to your Star Trek library. "Trail Run" available October, 2008
Star Fleet Academy-Collison Course Well written look at the late teenage life of Jim Kirk and Mr Spock.How Kirk and Spock unexpect and unlikely first meeting while both men were investagiting a mystery that involved their friends and family members.
Not a page turner, but awfully close Great story on how Spock and Kirk were found by starfleet and shaped to who they more familiarly are to us the reader. Great introduction if you saw a few episodes of Star Trek the first series, you would not be disappointed.
I actually quite liked it! I've just finished "Star Trek: Academy: Collision Course", by William Shatner, with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. This hardcover received extremely mixed reviews when it came out last October, so I put it beneath several other novels.
While it is well known that Shatner's previous nine-part hardcover saga (of Kirk's return from death beyond "Star Trek: Generations"), the so-called "Shatnerverse", has always operated within its own, ummm, pocket universe, this new prequel-to-TOS novel doesn't necessarily quash anything canonical (ie. onscreen, live action material), although it certainly stretches a few "fanonical" friendships.
I usually enjoy Star Trek hardcovers very much, but I began this one with great trepidation. Not many people online seemed to like it. Essentially this novel ignores most previous ST novels, especially the ones about Kirk's father, and Kirk Sr's career on the Enterprise under Captain Robert April. But the premise is intriguing, if not requiring suspension of disbelief. We see both teenaged Jim Kirk and teenaged Spock consorting with criminals, being shunted of to Starfleet training without a fair court martial, not to mention seemingly numerous links to young Kirk's very traumatic experiences under Kodos the Executioner, long before the secret events of "The Conscience of the King" (TOS) are revealed.
As Vulcan Ambassador Sarek, and Eugene Mallory - son of a redshirt we already know will one day die under then-Captain Kirk's command - discover, a little logic can go a long way when solving a crime. Annoying though,
And deja vu!: despite my many misgivings about this hardcover, the action in "Collision Course" certainly comes thick and fast. A real collision course, actually. People may have slammed it for ignoring "Final Frontier" and "Best Destiny", two very strong George Kirk Sr stories by Diane Carey, but there's also lots to enjoy.
There'll be frustrations no matter what. Jim's Dad is called George Joseph "Joe" Kirk is this one! And, for those who disliked "Star Trek: Enterprise", the TV series prequel to TOS, you may well be tetchy about Academy buildings named for Archer, Tucker and Mayweather - and even a non-"name drop" for Hoshi Sato and her husband, via their little great grandson! (It pays to read the fine print!)
This is a novel with a new, but still valid, take on the Sarek/Spock relationship. And it's about an extremely troubled, very different Jimmy Kirk, one far removed from the Kirk we met in previous prequels to TOS, (and sure to be overruled by the upcoming ST XI) but after the Tarsus IV experiences related in "Collision Course", who can blame him?
If you can make it through the first four or five chapters, it's easy to keep reading!
thank you mr. shatner I have been a fan of William Shatners Star Trek books for a while now, and when I heard about this book that tells us how Spock and Kirk first meet and how they both come to be in Starfleet I bought the book right away. Like all of his other books this one doesnt disappoint. This book takes you through a complex conspiracy within Starfleet that teams up their two greatest heroes and takes them on an epic journey. If you are a fan of Star Trek and William Shatner you definitely need to get this book. I cant wait for the next book in this series to come out to see what further adventures a young Kirk and Spock get into as they begin their journey through Starfleet on their way to becoming two of its greatest heroes.
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