The Autobiography of James T. Kirk (Star Trek Autobiographies Series)

One of the first questions to enter my mind when I saw this title was 'which Kirk?' Was this about Kirk as originally portrayed by William Shatner, as portrayed more recently by Chris Pine, or an amalgam of the two? For the record, this is Shatner's Kirk, one hundred percent. This book begins with Kirks early life--his birth aboard the USS Kelvin is about the only small detail that seems to be lifted from the more recent Star Trek films. From that point on up until shortly before Kirk boards the 'Enterprise-B' for its ill-fated maiden voyage, much of the ground covered will be immediately familiar to anyone who has watched the original 1960s TV series and the seven Star Trek feature films that featured Shatner as Kirk. But Goodman does it in a way that is not simply a boring rehash of Captain Kirk's 'greatest hits'; in fact, it appears to be written with the assumption that most readers will be intimately familiar with the source material and instead focuses on the connections between those well-established episodes, often fleshing out the frequent, yet fleeting references to Kirk's back story from the original TV series (Events from the 1970s animated series are ignored) and tying them together into a coherent narrative that connects them not only to each other but to the feature films as well. It also bridges the gaps between them.to create a continuous, thematic story arc that simply didn't exist in 1960s prime time television. The focus remains consistently on how the events depicted within its pages shaped Kirk as a person and explores Kirk's deep feelings about those events. Goodman creates such a realistic sense of candor in the narrative that it is sometimes difficult to remember that this 'memoir' is of a fictional character; indeed, James T. Kirk as portrayed by David Goodman in this book is in some ways more deeply nuanced, far more thoughtful, introspective, and even modest than the stock character portrayed by William Shatner. This is definitely an engaging and worthwhile read for any Star Trek fan.

I've read many Star Trek books. Mostly because I like the original crew, and I always get that itch for a new adventure to see them in. Now before anyone says anything, yes, I am also a fan of NuTrek. I like the new spin to the franchise. This book isn't a new spin on anything. It retreads a lot of old stories. New fans will be lost in this text. Now if they end up watching the original show, and all the movies, its remarkable on how many gaps this story fills. Let's take the first season of the original series into consideration; In that year, Kirk has to kill his best friend/first officer Gary Mitchell, his brother dies, a woman he loves needs to die because if she doesn't, the Nazi will rule the world. He is later betrayed by one of his oldest friends from the academy, and is on the trails of a person who is masquerading as an actor who nearly killed him as a child. It was amazing that he didn't have mental issues after that first year. The book does a great job taking all these facts, and creating an over all arc that can't be seen by viewing the episodes on their own. All of the sudden TOS turns into Madmen in space. This book is great as a supplement to the series. However, it would be very interesting to see this as a biopic film. I know that will never happen, but I can see a Danny Boyle taking this material and turning it into an interesting film about a remarkable yet tragic man. If you know nothing of Kirk Trek, then this will not be as enjoyable to a person who has seen the episodes and movies. However, it's interesting to see the arc of a hero who has seen so much, but ends up not having the things like a family, a wife, or children. All he had, or was ever given, was space...the final frontier. There's also a pretty mean joke about Scotty's weight....but I must admit, I laughed.

This is difficult to write a review since the book is a compilation of original Star Trek series episodes and early movies. Since I have watched the latest incarnation of Star Trek with Chris Pine as Kirk and really liked the new movies, it took some time to get back in the swing of things with the original episodes (which I am still a huge fan of but just the recent movies are the latest I have seen on the subject.) Saying, that once I got back in the mood of the original, this is an awesome book. Very clever way of handling the subject matter. Kirk is dead and this is his memoir written by him ("edited" by the author - clever way of dealing with this), with a foreword by Dr. McCoy and an afterword by Mr. Spock. What is also neat is how the "editor" allowed Kirk to reminisce about all the exploits of the Starship Enterprise and her crew with additional thoughts by Kirk. Kirk becomes much more multi-dimensional. The "editor" gives Kirk a chance to "explain" why he did things and chose the paths he did. I also indicated there are "some twists" because the "editor" gives Kirk a chance to show things from his perspective and many times that is quite a bit different than people may have "seen" on the TV series. As I mentioned, hard to give a decent review because this is such a different book but what a wonderful read once you get in the mindset that this is James T. Kirk telling his story his own way. Highly recommended especially for fans of the original series.

A great weekend read, just wished it had given the 'movie era' a bit more time / texture. Would happily impulse-buy a part 2!

Un must per chi ha adorato la Serie Originale e, soprattutto, il personaggio del capitano Kirk. Il libro è scritto in prima persona da Kirk (con la scelta della prima persona singolare e visto tramite i suoi occhi), con prefazione del Dottor McCoy e postfazione di Spock. Attraverso Kirk ci viene data un'idea di com'è stata la sua vita sin dalla tenera età, quando ancora viveva in una fattoria dell'Iowa, e incontriamo gli orrori di Tarsus. Non ho ancora terminato la lettura, ma penso basti per dare un'idea di quello che offre il libro. Ovviamente molto è stato inventato, mentre altro è stato preso da fonti più o meno canon. Ho apprezzato inoltre l'aver mantenuto alcuni legami con i nuovi film/la nuova timeline ad eventi pre nascita di Jim (si accenna al Capitano Robau sotto il quale George Senior ha prestato servizio in qualità di Primo Ufficiale sulla Kelvin - come si vede nei film recenti) Al centro del libro vi è anche un inserto con foto di scena (alcune ritoccate) o manipolate (un James Kirk cadetto) per rendere più credibile la finzione che il libro sia stato pubblicato con il contributo del Capitano stesso. Pacco arrivato nei tempi indicati (anche se ormai è difficile abituarsi di nuovo a non avere il tracciamento!). Il segnalibro incluso dal venditore era molto carino (anche se, a voler essere precisi, è un po' troppo piccolino per un libro dalle pagine molto alte come questo qui)

I enjoyed the Autobiography of James T. Kirk, mainly due to to it's expansion of his personal history. However it rapidly become very episodic and brief for episodes of the original series and especially the movies and this was disappointing for me. I would have liked more exposition. It's a good book for hard-core Trek fans, just don't expect large amounts of new material, just snippets.

A superb all encompassing account of Captain Kirk's life from childhood to after the last Classic crew Star Trek film. It very cleverly weaves through his childhood, academy years, first years in Starfleet with the bulk of the book recounting classic series adventures. What I was most impressed with was how it so organically linked the end of the first 5 year mission into the Kirk crew feature films. It offers an interesting insight into the mind of character throughout the different stages of his life. You can hear Kirk's voice as you read. Highly recommended.

Como trekkie la verdad es que me faltan muchos episodios por ver de las diferentes series, pero en la clásica y la nueva generación los he visto casi todos, y siguen siendo mi parte favorito de la saga. Por tanto, esta autobiografía novelada de James T. Kirk lo tenía todo para gustarme y lo cierto es que ha cumplido con creces. No solo narra los hechos canónicos de la vida del capitán del Enterprise, sino que rellena huecos en su vida y añade escenas extra a diferentes episodios y películas, enriqueciendo la historia y el universo Trek. Están todos los capítulos de la vida de Kirk y todos los personajes que esperas encontrar con algunas sorpresas y extras que entenderás cuanto más trekkie seas.