Shadow Planet (Quest for Tomorrow) - Softcover

Shatner, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061059978 ISBN 13: 9780061059971

Publisher: Harper Voyager, 2003

Synopsis

The scum of the galaxy are the last hope of humankind . . .

Aboard the stolen, renamed starship Endeavor, the Stone Cowboys rocket across the heavens toward a confrontation they cannot avoid . . . and, most likely, will not survive. But first, Jim Endicott must mold the street-hardened gang of thugs and hoodlums into a disciplined commando unit. Once harboring dreams of joining the Space Academy, Endicott has already altered one past using the astonishing powers of Omega. And now the untried captain and his misfit crew must take on a powerful alien race devoted to the obliteration of the human "cancer." With tension, unrest, and mutiny brewing dangerously all around him, Endicott faces the deadliest challenge he has ever known. Because the cutthroats riding the Endeavor into the enemy's turf for a war to the death are the only champions courageous -- and foolhardy -- enough for the mission. And they have nothing in the universe left to lose . . .

About this title

About the Author

William Shatner's career as an actor, director, producer, screenwriter, recording artist, author, and horseman has spanned more than fifty years. One of pop culture's most recognizable figures, he is also a major Hollywood philanthropist. Shatner and his wife and three married children live in Los Angeles.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-In this fifth installment in the series, 40 gang members-teens and younger kids who had hijacked the spaceship of intergalactic drug suppliers in the previous book-have sworn reluctant allegiance to young Jim Endicott. The only gang member from a middle-class background and the only one with pilot training, Jim must first earn the respect of an anarchic group of rebels and then learn how to lead them. He has resolved to trace the drug-which turns humans into homicidal maniacs-back to its planetary source and put a stop to its trafficking. Although the original plan is simply to destroy the planet, the solution proves more complex, and leaves readers ready for a sequel. Shatner handles his characters well; he shows a little of what had turned them into misfits, and then takes them through some surprising turns of character development as they respond, mostly well, to challenges and events in their struggle to save the human race. This story of teens at their best and their worst is set against a future society in which humans are just in the process of bursting upon a universe already peopled with other sentient species. In the spirit of old-fashioned pulp sci-fi, there is plenty of action and highly colored prose, while the gang politics and personal challenges should interest modern teens. A brief bibliography points the way to nonfiction about both space colonization and gang life.
Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library,
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0061059978
• ISBN 13: 9780061059971
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352