Saturday, November 15, 2014

Audio Book Review: Star Trek

Narrator: Zachary Quinto

Audio Length: 8 hours and 2 minutes

Since I thoroughly enjoyed the new Star Trek movie I purchased the Tie-In novel in hope that it would fill certain gaps and cover new ground that the movie couldn’t. Overall, I have to say that I was disappointed as the novel is basically a retelling of the movie. Yes, it does add a few tidbits but nothing worth buying the book if you have seen the movie. For example, that boy a young Kirk drives buy in his Corvette joy ride was actually his older brother, George Kirk and Nero’s name is actually Oren (since the Federation types have trouble speaking Romulan names, they reverse it to make it easer?). Nothing earth shattering. I am really surprised the novel was released after the movie. After doing research I learned that Alan Dean Foster was allowed to watch the whole film before writing the novelization and that the novel contained some scenes that were cut.

I am not going over the plot of the movie or book again. If you have seen the movie then you got the premise and if not, then you need to run to nearest movie theater ASAP or be in danger of losing your geek card.

The Audio Book is narrated by Zachary Quinto who plays Spock in the movie and Sylar on Heroes. At first I was somewhat leery about the whole the idea of the actor reading the book but I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed it. For some reason Mr. Quinto nailed Spock’s voice perfectly. He also did an excellent job with the other voices including my favorite, Scotty. He got pretty close to Simon Pegg’s accent and did a fine rendition of the grouchy McCoy. But my favorite was the monster noises when Kirk is attack on the ice planet. I had to stop the playback because I started laughing so hard I was missing the story.

Alan Dean Foster is the granddad of movie novelizations and does an adequate job in relaying the story. Obviously, it is hard to capture the incredible visuals and tight action sequences from the movie. I had no qualms with the book except that it was a direct retelling of the movie and I was hoping for more.

In my opinion, if you are considering purchasing this novel then get the Audio version just to listen to Zachary Quinto. I believe the written version will be a little boring if you have watched the movie but Mr. Qunito spices up the story enough to make an entertaining listen.

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