Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Book Review: Shatnerquest by Jeff Burk

Shatnerquest by Jeff Burk 188 pages Eraserhead press

While many of us in the genre community know Jeff Burk as the mastermind and editor behind the cult extreme horror press Deadite, his most famous project was the 2009 short bizarre novel Shatnerquake. In between he penned a choose your own adventure novel called Super Giant monster action, and released a shit-ton of horror novels with dead babies and guts everywhere. Burk’s latest adventure in copyright infringement …wait no parody – is Shatnerquest.

A sequel to Shatnerquake the gonzo novel about a bomb that brings all of Shatner’s fiction characters to life, who take on a mission to kill the real Shatner at the first ever Shatner-con. Shatnerquest was originally just a joke title, but the demand was there and thankfully Burk has given us the long awaited sequel.

Overall this is a much stronger novel than Shatnerquake, even if it might not on the surface it might not be as insane. Sure the first book had a little higher rate of crazy-ness per page in it’s short length, but this novel tells a stronger story with more realized characters which has the effect of making the insanity involved more fun.

Don’t get me wrong there is plenty of bizarro going on. White power Klingon bikers, flaming tribbles, zombie borgs, Cultists who worship Kirk and of course Shatzilla. I enjoyed this novel laughing out loud several times and had many smiles at inside trekkie jokes. Character names like Gary Mitchell and Benny Russell (nice tip of the dredlocks to DS9)and lots of references to geek culture.

A must for trekkies who can laugh at themselves and their favorite show.

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