Man O' War 1996 novel by William Shatner

Man O’ War (1996), a science fiction novel by William Shatner, set on 21st-century Mars.

Pictured: Paperback (New York: Ace Books, 1997), 304 p., $6.99. Cover art by Bob Eggleton. The blurb from the back cover:

Beloved as Captain James T. Kirk of Star Trek, then respected as a film director and as the bestselling author of the Tek series, William Shatner has become one of the most popular entertainment figures in the world. Now he brings his readers an all-new hero, a man trapped in a world of revolution, mind-games, and murder...

Benton Hawkes is a career diplomat, the best in his field. But his maverick ways have angered some very powerful people, and nothing can prepare him for his next assignment: a Martian mining colony on the verge of all-out revolt.

Reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Kirkus Reviews are posted on Amazon. In short:

• Publishers Weekly concluded that “The plot and the speculative concepts grounding it are shaky at best, resulting in a novel that distinguishes itself as neither science nor fiction."

• Booklist concluded that Man O’ War “is a workmanlike, highly readable tale that will doubtless please Shatner's substantial audience.”

• Kirkus Reviews concluded that “Shatner will have to do better than stock situations, hackneyed plotting, and such ludicrous Trekkisms as spaceships with built-in gravity and instantaneous communications between Mars and Earth.”