Another of Shatner's Trek books, but either he's improving a bit, or he's getting old and tired enough to hand off more of the duties to his co-writers. The latter, I suspect. Anyway, I missed an earlier book that must have focused on his and his late wife Teilani's multiracial son, Joseph. The plot is actually intriguing, although messily handled. The Totality, a group mind entity that has already taken over the Andromeda Galaxy, is attacking the Milky Way Galaxy by destroying the capability of warp flight, effectively isolating all star systems. That's the good part. The messy part is the reason for this; it seems unneccesary. The Totality are shapeshifters and telepaths; one would think they would welcome the benefits of being able to easily propagate themselves through space. Shatner does come up with an alternate explanation for their tactics, and their origin is eventually revealed, an explanation which links such Star Trek elements as the Galactic Barrier and the Progenitors. The final confrontation with Norinda is messily handled, too, and it's never really clear just how Joseph and Kirk are able to eventually resist and defeat the Totality. It's nice to see Spock, McCoy, Scotty and some of the Next Generation cast in the mix. This is an interesting book that had the potential to be a much better one. ( )

OK, not great ( )