The View From the Bridge
9th February 2010
This is very definitely a memoir - don't expect it to provide more than the bare minimum of autobiographical facts, emotion, or colour. It is, purely and simply, and account of Nicholas Meyer's career, with particular focus on his work with Star Trek and the period immediately before.
The book is simply divided into three sections, pre-trek, trek and post-trek, although the last of these, covering the last twenty years or so, is particularly short. It is a very basic division and makes it very clear that this is a book aimed at a star trek audience, despite having little in it that isn't already known and not being particularly passionate about the subject matter. In fact, Meyer's writing seems quite detached through most of the book - there's a slight sense of anger or bewilderment in places but elsewhere it is lacking in emotion.
Meyer doesn't deal with his writing process - most of the tale is made up of very factual and sometimes dry anecdotes about his time working on Trek - don't get me wrong, it is interesting, but it's not very deep, and not very informative about the person, more about the industry. There are nuggets of gold but really this is just a light-hearted quick read which (the cynical part of my mind says) almost seems like it is just jumping on the Star Trek bandwagon.
