Man O'War

War #1

by William Shatner

In retaliation for stepping on some high-ranking toes, maverick career diplomat Benton Hawkes finds himself posted to Mars, a world in which slavelike living conditions, unfulfilled promises, and discontent have brought the planet to a state of open revolt.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 1996

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

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Crazy as it may sound, this one had been on the bucket list to read, ever since I saw it in stores back when it was relatively new. I probably would have enjoyed it more then, before I had read so extensively, and before time rendered the story pretty much obsolete. This is typical 90's mid-level action sci fi in the vein of Star Trek or Tek War. Although a bit better than the latter, there's nothing really new here worth mentioning. One of the main premises of the story - that Mars is supplying most of Earth's resources in the future - seems laughable now. I mean, ore I could understand, but food? The very notion is ridiculous.

This book could find its use as a case study of mistakes not to make when writing. The author has the bad (and cliched) habit of skipping ahead right at the moment of a scene's climax to hours or days ahead, then telling you what happened in the intervening time instead of showing it to you - an amateur move. Also the horrible habit of having the main character think thoughts to himself in cynical sentences - sentences which he then answers out loud!

Ultimately this book would probably most appeal to fans of Shatner; while I doubt that he personally wrote this, the main character almost certainly was written for him. You can easily picture Shatner as the main character, and can almost hear him delivering Hawkes' lines in his unique delivery style. On the other hand, I was appalled at some of the harsh language in this book - something that you don't see in Shatner's Star Trek novels.

[Timothy Drake]

This book reads like a movie. You can almost picture Shatner as the lead character.

[Mark Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining Scifi with Mars supplying food for earth. Benton Hawkes is a career diplomat asked to go to Mars and mediate dispute between the inhabitants and earth. Nothing is as it seems after multiple assassination attempts Hawkes gets to the bottom of what is going on on Mars. Quick entertaining read with political intrigue.

[Karen Wrobel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I don’t much care if he physically wrote this or not, I am 100% sure that this is all his idea - this is Captain Kirk’s alter ego or who Shatner wants to be when he grows up. It’s entertaining and a quick read. A script made just for him.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting story about a future colony on Mars. I really enjoyed the mystery and intrigues that our hero has to uncover in order to resolve the dispute on Mars while finding out who is also trying to kill him and save his home.
Some of the major events were resolved too quickly via a time-lapse and then a quick recap of how the event ended. I would have liked to see the resolution despite this lengthening the book. That said, I enjoyed the characters, the story and the mystery. I look forward to reading the second, and final, book in this series.
I've been enjoying going back and reading William Shatner's early novels as they do give a glimpse into Shatner's non-Star Trek Sci-Fi interests.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, i read a William Shatner novel. It was great! I give it 4 stars as an estimation of my enjoyment of the experience, including the large photo on the back cover, the reasonably creative story development, the emotional outbursts of the author-modelled middle-aged protagonist, the Martian theme, and overall sense of recognition that the reader is neither an astrophycisit, nor pre-pubescent, but something in between, nearing an adult seeking the simple enjoyment of a sci fi novel written by William Shatner. Plus there's no way one can get around the expectation-lowering pre-conditioning provided by the knowledge of the author.

[Ben Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a guilty pleasure. One that you don't want to enjoy nearly as much as you do. The entire book was narrated in my head by Shatner himself, which definitely improved it.

The only thing I didn't really enjoy was the romance that the author tried to shoehorn into the story. Thankfully, the romance didn't actually pan out. Thank goodness!

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well William Shatner writes better than the acts or sings.

While its never going to win a Hugo, the story was enjoyable and well written for the most part. I'm going to have to try to track down the other book in the series now, but still, it reads fine as a stand alone book in its own right if I cannot find it.

[Keith B]

Not bad for Shatner.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very impressed. Shatner is a very good writer. A good storyteller as well. I would certainly read more of his work.

[Alan Hoffman]

He didn't write this.