From Brent Spiner, who played the beloved Lieutenant Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, comes an explosive and hilarious autobiographical novel.
I was granted eARC access to Fan Fiction via NetGalley but unfortunately ran out of time to review it before publication. Unfortunately, that it, for the publisher, but as it turns out quite fortunately for me. Since it was already out when I got around to it I was free to borrow the audiobook version from my library and I regret nothing!
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About the Book
Fan Fiction
A Mem-Noir: Inspired by True Events
by Brent Spiner & Jeanne Darst
Print/eBook
Published 5 October 2021
St. Martin’s Press
Page Count: 256
Audiobook
Published 12 October 2021
Macmillan Audio
Length: 6 hours and 53 minutes
Cast: Brent Spiner, Jeanne Darst, Barrie Kreinik, Gates McFadden, Genie Francis, Hallie Todd, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, Matie Argiropoulos, Matt Godfrey, Michael Dorn, Patrick Stewart, Saskia Maarleveld, Sean Patrick Hopkins
Genre: Fictionalized Memoir
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
From Brent Spiner, who played the beloved Lieutenant Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, comes an explosive and hilarious autobiographical novel.
Brent Spiner’s explosive and hilarious novel is a personal look at the slightly askew relationship between a celebrity and his fans. If the Coen Brothers were to make a Star Trek movie, involving the complexity of fan obsession and sci-fi, this noir comedy might just be the one.
Set in 1991, just as Star Trek: The Next Generation has rocketed the cast to global fame, the young and impressionable actor Brent Spiner receives a mysterious package and a series of disturbing letters, that take him on a terrifying and bizarre journey that enlists Paramount Security, the LAPD, and even the FBI in putting a stop to the danger that has his life and career hanging in the balance.
Featuring a cast of characters from Patrick Stewart to Levar Burton to Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, to some completely imagined, this is the fictional autobiography that takes readers into the life of Brent Spiner and tells an amazing tale about the trappings of celebrity and the fear he has carried with him his entire life.
Fan Fiction is a zany love letter to a world in which we all participate, the phenomenon of “Fandom.”
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My Review
My Rating: 5 Stars
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I was granted eARC access to Fan Fiction via NetGalley but unfortunately ran out of time to review it before publication. Unfortunately, that it, for the publisher, but as it turns out quite fortunately for me. Since it was already out when I got around to it I was free to borrow the audiobook version from my library and I regret nothing!
Fan Fiction is a stalker-flavoured thriller by actor Brent Spiner of Star Trek fame (and yes that’s why I picked it up in the first place!) and although it’s not entirely true, Brent has borrowed a lot from his real experiences working on Trek sets over the years. A stalker who has taken on the persona of Lal, Data’s daughter from Next Generation’s 16th episode, The Offspring, is sending Data’s actor Brent all sorts of… “interesting” fan mail. Some of it’s rather stinky. Most of it is ominous and threatening. When things just keep on getting ever more “interesting” to the point that the CIA get involved, Brent finds himself in a love triangle between his case agent and his new personal bodyguard, who happen to be twins.
I sincerely think that the lower-starred reviews on this title are from people who were under the false impression that this was a factual autobiography or who couldn’t handle the over-the-top love triangle. Everything about this story is over-the-top and it’s supposed to be. It’s very tongue-in-cheek. It’s Brent having a good laugh at himself and his Trek friends while he writes the sort of detective thriller his character would have both revelled in and been utterly perplexed by had it been a holo-novel (revelled in the mystery, perplexed by the romance.)
I am so glad I decided to borrow the audiobook in order to get this review done because Brent Spiner himself narrates it with guest contribution by most of the cast members he worked into the story. This Trekkie is so happy! This Trekkie will also be re-borrowing the audiobook over Christmas to give it a second listen along with her Trekkie mother. I find myself wondering how early in this process did Brent approach everyone else about the narration and whether or not fictionalized Wil Wheaton was really left out of the cast meeting because he was too young (or to play into the “Shutup Wesley” meme) or if the real Wil Wheaton wasn’t going available to record lines and got written out in the early stages.
If you’re a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation and you’re up for a fun thriller that doesn’t take itself seriously, this is the ideal book for you, and I highly recommend the audiobook in particular.
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