Captain's Glory

Star Trek: Totality #3

by William Shatner, Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Judith Reeves-Stevens

With the civil war on Romulus averted, Kirk is finally free to seek out the truth behind the death of his oldest and closest friend. Was Spock killed by the shadowy organization known as the Totality? A generous offer from Starfleet provides him with the starship he needs in order to reach his goal. Their only proviso: that they can call on his help if they need him. But what happened to Spock is not Kirk's only worry: Joseph, his son, is rebelling wildly against the restrictions placed on him as the price of Romulan peace. Is the Totality somehow also linked to Joseph's rage? But before he can find the answers to either troubling question, Kirk receives a call from Admiral Janeway, telling him she needs him to save the Federation. Torn between his mission and his duty, the cause of the Federation must claim him one more time before he can turn his attention either to his friend or to his son.

Pop culture icon William Shatner returns with another breathtaking Star Trek adventure in which both generations must battle an unstoppable enemy for the existence of all life in this galaxy – and beyond.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction, Adventure, Space, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

William Shatner is the author of nine Star Trek novels, including the New York Times bestsellers The Ashes of Eden and The Return. He is also the author of several nonfiction books, including Get a Life! and I'm Working on That. In addition to his role as Captain James T. Kirk, he stars as Denny Crane in the hit television series from David E. Kelley, Boston Legal -- a role for which he has won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.

Reviews

[Cherie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought all afternoon about why I read Star Trek books. For the characters, for the plots, to escape, to learn something new, to explore, to be awed? I decided it was for all of these reasons and more, I am sure that I cannot think of right now, as I am sitting here trying to write a review for this last book in William Shatner's last trilogy. The three trilogies that have consumed me for the last month.

For the characters? Definately. I love the characters. They are part of me, part of my family and people I have known since the early days of black and white TV, as we sat watching those very early Star Trek episodes on Friday evening right up until the last episode of Captain Archer and his crew on the very first ST Enterprise that was on TV. I watched them all. I embraced them all. If they had not been created, there would be no stories and no books to read about them. Thank you Gene Roddenberry, with all my heart.

I am not going to write about any of the rest. Just so you know, I am relieved to have finished this last book. I liked it. I really liked it a lot. It was a wrap. It ended just about like I thought it would. I was sad, but I am happy to be done.

I admire Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens for the stories. Some were a little better than the others. I laughed. I cried. I escaped from the mundane with them. The stories brought back memories from past Star Trek TV episodes, books, and movies.

I am constantly in awe that humans have the ability to make up stories and put them into words and onto paper and into books. Where would we readers be without them?

[Sarah B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What an exciting book and a very fast paced conclusion to the Totality trilogy. This was way better than I had ever imagined too! All the things you could possibly want was in here, including an actual showdown between two of the popular characters (which I had never expected but while I was reading it I was giggling with excitement).

So when I had started this book I had been feeling rather sleepy. But after a few pages I was totally wide awake! The action started almost immediately and from there on I was hooked! And the pages just flew by. This is without doubt the most fun and exciting book I have read this year. I had never dreamed that anything could top the daredevil excitement in the first book but this certainly does!!

So the situation in here is dire indeed and the stakes are super high... Can Kirk once again save everyone? Except this time its the whole galaxy he has to save from those evil aliens. The Totality. And they have some nasty tricks up their sleeves too. I was very shocked at what the Totality could actually do. Its very creative. And darn right insidious too. I don't want to give away too much but they pretty much make Starfleet useless! And once again Kirk is racing to the rescue! Of course Captain Picard is there to help (and hopefully he will survive Kirk's crazy schemes). As we all know Kirk is not one for following the rules - but that is why he is so much fun!

The Totality is worse than even the Borg. I kid you not. And yes that surprises me. There is some grand science fiction in here, some big ideas about aliens and alien life. Very, very creative. And it's genius how it can connect back to the original TV show too. A lot of careful thought and planning went into this story and the result is absolutely spectacular!

Kirk's character is just perfect. Both the daredevil and also a caring father. I admit a few scenes has me laughing a bit. It was just so exciting and I never dreamed I would see that in Star Trek! Totally fun!!

But at the same time the story is about love. Does love conquer all? You will have to read it to find out.

Of course in this one we find out what had happened to Spock (not that I ever doubted). Plus there are all the things you love from the classic TV show in here action wise. Fights, running, spaceship battles and the most crazy outrageous stuff! Not much Spock-McCoy chatter but lots of Kirk - Picard chatter. And we finally get to find out which captain will prevail over the other (maybe)... Haha.

Really loved this! And I like the cover too.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suppose if the Shatnerverse novels set in the 24th century are to end, this is a good one to end on. Easily the strongest novel of the back half of the series, if not the entire series, Captain's Glory finally seems to get it right. I can't exactly say that I'll miss reading about the exploits of James T. Kirk in the 24th century, as I found many of the novels to be pretty sub-par. However, Captain's Glory is a fun exception with some great character moments and excellent ideas within its pages. A very strong note to end on.

Full review: http://www.treklit.com/2018/09/CG.html

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A crisp, concise, intense, fast-moving conclusion to the Totality trilogy. I'm rather surprised how much I enjoyed this trip into the Shatnerverse...but the Kirk/Picard conflict feels like it's been pushed past its limit at this point. Move on...

[Adrianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an abridged audio version of the third book in a trilogy about an enemy called the Totality. Star Trek fans will enjoy this reading by William Shatner because he brings the characters alive with his engaging impersonations (although he could work on his women's voices). This audio book was like a radio show broadcast with special effects and a musical score that rivals the series.

The main negative aspect to this book is the fact that it's abridged. I recommend reading the print version and then listening to the audio CDs to gain a different experience of the story.

Finally, remember that it's the finale to a trilogy, so try reading the first two books in the series. I didn't realize this fact until after I had finished listening to it. Despite this unfortunate realization, I still throughly enjoyed the book and was able to follow most of the back-story.

This book has an engaging and interesting villain, the Totality, which will draw Borg fans into the depths of the Star Trek universe. Countering the villain's efforts to consume humanoid life in the universe are favorite heroes from various Star Trek series: Captain Kirk, Captain Picard, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Chief Engineer Scott, and even Admiral Kathryn Janeway, to name a few. Overall, I enjoyed the interactions between Picard and Kirk the best, many of the scenes were thought provoking or comical depending on the situation. And of course the epic battle between the heroes and the villain had me on the edge of my seat until the interesting conclusion.

Although the entire crew of the Next Generation makes an appearance in this book there was one question left unanswered for me: Where was Data?

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captain's Glory carries on with a cracking pace from the previous book with Picard and Kirk taking on the Totality and though having varying opinions on how to come about this really work well as a team! :D Throughout the amount of characters who put in an appearance is incredible but brillaintly done and the action is thick and fast and the character moments are guaranteed to have you cheering as they range over philosophy and the need for real tea (a crisis for the Federation!) ! :D Kirk's relentless quest to save his son and Riker and Troi's getting caught between Picard and Kirk will have you laughing as well! :D At the same time everything is left very open with plot points hanging in abundance promising future adventures! :D

Captain's Glory barrels along with you never really knowing where the plot is going to go and how messy things are going to get which really does keep you on the edge of your seat be prepared to lose sleep trying to find out! :D Captain's Glory is intelligent, clever, fast-paced and action packed! :D Brilliant and highly recommended! :D

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly decent novel, nothing special, but not a flop either. The plot is creative enough, and there is enough action and twists to keep my attention. I like the idea of this "Totality" which is made up of life-forms based on dark matter and energy. As for the novel as a whole, however, I felt like it would have been better suited to a comic book than a novel. The dialogue is too simplistic, the action sequences too contrived, and the villains come across as too shallow when depicted with words alone. The plot is supposed to have far-reaching consequences throughout the entire Milky Way, a rather formulaic and contrived plot point I felt difficulty taking it seriously. Captain Kirk is treated as a special celebrity hero, of course; not much of a surprise given the author.
My complaints might make the novel sound bad, but something clicked that allowed me to enjoy it for the most part. It was still a decent payoff, and had intriguing plot elements such as Kirk's son Joseph, who is somehow the centerpiece of the Totality's attack on the Milky Way. Just read it and see for yourself.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gotta say, this book was better than expected. Some of the action was so perfectly and expertly described, it was magical. It f particular brilliance was a confrontation between Kirk and Picard, illustrating both their differences and similarities to perfection.

The book builds to the final confrontation with the Totality, represented by Norinda. The Federation is crippled and nearly defeated, but Kirk, Picard and Riker along with Admiral Janeway manage to develop a plan to drive back the Totality, but the cost is high.

Fans will be delighted and others will find this to be an enjoyable diversion, and just my might find themselves converted to fandom.

[Declan Waters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shatner brings us the conclusion of his 'Totality' series where the entire galaxy is under threat and only he (with the help of his friends, Picard, & Riker) can save them.

It's typical Shatner with Kirk providing the main action sequences and being and all-round *great guy* despite breaking every rule Starfleet has. But, if you're reading Shatner you've already made your peace with this approach and this book is a fun conclusion to a story that forces Kirk to 'fight an enemy whose greatest weapon is love'...

... no really, it's not that bad and has good pacing throughout. I good end to the trilogy.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a big fan of the Star Trek original series & movies plus the reboots and Enterprise series; thus my husband purchased this one as a Christmas present. It was a fantastic read-- now I need to go back and read the first two!!! Even not having read #1 & 2 it was so well written I could figure out what was happening. I would have to say the best part was the tensely written scene when an immovable object versus unrelenting force (no spoilers here). IF you are a Trekkie fan I would recommend this one- I will let you know how the rest goes when I actually order them and read them!

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful way to wrap up this series. The entire thing is very well done. A wonderful mix of individual stories that all go together to build the overall story quite nicely. Wonderful story telling. I wish there were more of these available I would love a continuation. It’s a shame these are not considered cannon they are great stories and work nicely with other Star Trek stories. I would love to see thi 9 part series brought to life on the screen.

[Joe Seliske · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shatnerverse is all about Captain James T. Kirk and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Kirk ends up the hero in each and every novel. In this case, the Totality makes up 96% of the known universe and is intending to corral the last 4%. Warp drives are taken away stopping Starfleet and the Federation in its tracks. But who comes through to save the galaxy once again? It isn't Jean-Luc Picard, but in this case he helps.

[Josh Newhouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Messy fan-fiction with theology, adventure and romance living messily. Maybe a terrible abridgement as its full of explanations over showing and doesn’t make much sense or have a lot of narrative coherence. And the audio is a mess of multiple characters who all sound the same. I barely finished it for completion.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad series. Mostly all of your "old"favorites between the Original Show and The Next Generation. Paramount allowed Shatner to explore the "Shatnerverse" non-canon realm. Franlky might have helped the movies to got longer, but still the series is a fun read.

[Katrina Veerkamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved reading this. Hate that both Kirk’s son Joseph and wife Teilani die in them. Great interaction between the old Spock and Bones and the TNG guys with Kirk. Kirk has his own ship it’s just very intriguing

[Derwin Lester II · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an ending!
I was pleasantly surprised by the final two books in the Totality Trilogy. They seemed maybe there was a different editor on the project and the books were tighter. The pacing quicker. As a cap to the Shatner-verse, I would recommend.

[Debbie Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first this seemed a hodgepodge of Star Trek characters, Star Trek TOS, Next Generation and Voyager. I am a Star Trek TOS fan but not a Voyager fan. Once I got into the book, it was better than I thought at first. So I give it three stars, OK but not great.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course, Why not just make Kirks Son the Christ Child while your at it o Great and mighty Kirk? This is still a Good Read.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rollicking good read! Star Trek at its best.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was kind of over the Shatnerverse novels by this point, TBH.

[David Sastre · Rating 4 out of 5]

A touching conclusion!

[Brandie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I may have had issues with the previous installments in this series starting out slowly, but this one definitely starts with plenty of action. That is an improvement. The depiction of Kirk’s son Joseph is not. Even though Joseph has been present in each of the two previous books, something about the way his character is written still feels incredibly hokey, almost Mary Sue-ish. It’s something I just haven’t been able to get used to. An example is the way he refers to Bones and Scotty as “Uncle Bones” and “Uncle Scotty”. While it makes perfect sense that Joseph would refer to them in this manner, given their relationship with his father, it just comes across weird.

Captain’s Glory is probably my favorite book in the Totality series. It’s so exciting, and it feels more like a Star Trek book than the others because of the heavier Starfleet presence in the plot. It feels like a Trek movie.

Now that I’ve finished the whole series, I can confidently proclaim that Totality is all about how special Joseph is and how he is destined to be some kind of divine being who saves the universe. Captain’s Glory is definitely the best book of the series, with non-stop action almost all throughout, but the premise reeks of Mary Sue-dom. I guess when you think about it, it kind of is, being about Kirk and his son and having been written by William Shatner. Even though I went into into this knowing that, totally eyes-open, my Mary Sue meter still went crazy on this one.

While the plot of Captain’s Glory was full of action, and the book is the best of the series, the ending leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, and this is as an ending for the entire series, not just Captains Glory. It was a good book, but it’s Mary Sue characteristics detract from it severely. It would have been better if Joseph could’ve ended up just being a normal kid in the end, even if he did help defeat Norinda. I mean, he turned into light - he was light to Norinda’s darkness. Wow. All I can do is shake my head at that. Wow - just, wow.

[Jimyanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is much better than Shatner's previous books in many ways. I still was a little disappointed with how it ended; a little too much deus ex machina for my taste. Still, it's a very good book; for one thing, Shatner seems to have finally outgrown the tendancy to make Kirk into a demigod; in some of his previous books, it seemed that there was absolutely nothing that Kirk couldn't do, and even when that wasn't the case, he was always showing up Picard, Janeway, and any other Trek character about as thoroughly as a major league ballplayer would show up a minor leaguer. In this book, Picard battles him to a draw in a strategic contest, and given the circumstances, Picard could actually have been said to "win" the draw. Riker was the most level-headed captain of the three of them, and ultimately, Picard pulls Kirk's buns out of the fire. Given all that, I'm willing to accept Janeway being written as a largely irrelevant admiral.

There were a few places in which I felt that Kirk acted out of character, and that combined with the previously mentioned quibbles are why I only rate the book at 4 stars. Still, Shatner has always had good story ideas, and he tells this one better than he's ever done before. His pacing has improved, for one thing. Definitely worth the read.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hear you laughing already. Stop it.

No, it's not horribly well written, but there were a lot of silver linings, Ironically I didn't realize that until I listened to a friend who talked to me about the Star Wars books he's listening to.

Here's what I walked away with.

William Shatner reads just like he acts, so you know it's actually him narrating.
What makes this hilarious (and consequently hard to walk away from) is that he reads the parts of Picard, Riker, Scottie, McCoy, Janeway, Ohura, and Spock just like you remember hearing them on the show. Its just weird when he reads Kirk's parts, cause its like he's reading, but acting, and it's just weird. You'll have to listen to it yourself.

The music brought the whole thing together...instead of listening to a story it was like watching tv in my head, which just sounds odd, but there you have it.

This review kinda sucks, but I bet you are fighting the urge to look this up and hear it for yourself. Or turn on the tv.
Either way, Kirk wins.

Trekkies Unite! ;)

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book in the Totality series by Shatner. The first two books had some action but were setting the stage for the final confrontation in this book. It had alot of action and moved right along as it tied together all the various threads leading to the climax. Shatner's dialogue is written like a Trek episode, in that the dialogue is true to the film characters. It's easy to hear each of them saying the words because they are so natural to the whole feel of the characters. Lots of fun and it had a moral, too.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I have enjoyed it more than I enjoy most Star Trek books, especially lately.

Most likely because it is all based on characters I know very well and have watched or read about before. With still some new and unfamiliar ones.

It also has a story and theme that I enjoyed.

The book was fairly long as it was, but I felt it could have been a little bit longer, and more in-depth, but it certainly didn't need to be. So, well, there you have it.

[Stuart Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice ending to this series, I must say I'm a little sick of the Totality, so I'm glad to be finished. On the other hand, I don't want the adventures of Kirk, Spock and McCoy to ever end, and did enjoy the interactions between them, as well as the characters from TNG/Voy. Collision Course is coming up in my stack of books to read, so I'm looking to a different angle from Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens'.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointed. The Totality was so logically impossible that I could not suspend disbelief for any length of time. Characterizations were good, but because I know them all well. Joseph was just strange. I kept feeling like someone had shoehorned the Enterprise and crew into a totally unrelated universe. I only finished reading because I was out of town and had this cheap on my Nook.

[Lois Merritt · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite, but still can say I liked it... though, I wonder if I lose anything by listening to the audios since they are all abridged.
----------
1/23/2021 - the above still applies, but I listened to the unabridged story, and while much fuller, yeah, still my least favorite of the bunch. Combines too many elements from old missions and the like.

[Mikael Kuoppala · Rating 5 out of 5]

As good as the team's earlier "Captain's Blood," "Captain's Glory" is a spellboundingly complex and ambitious novel that takes the reader's breath away. The sence of dread in this one is almost suffocating in its intensity.