Walter Koenig | Bibliotica

Things to Come
by Walter Koenig

Product Description (from Amazon.com):
The brand new graphic novel from one of the stars from the original Star Trek, Walter Koenig. Two species, one trying to cheat death, the other to become its master and, in between, a little child shall bleed them.

My Thoughts:
At least four times in the last twelve months I’ve said things like, “I’m so over post-apocalyptic stories,” but what I really meant was, “Oh, God, please no more zombie stories.” Fortunately, Walter Koenig’s Things to Come isn’t a zombie story, it’s a *vampire* story, which means I don’t have to retract anything I’ve said.

Late to the party (because I’m a casual fan, not a die-hard one), I only heard about this graphic novel about a week ago. I ordered it last Wednesday, it arrived on Friday, and I’d finished reading it before dinner time. On Saturday, as cold rain fell from the Texas skies, I re-read it, because I wanted to really understand it (I’m very verbal, so graphic novels take me longer to process).

On the surface, it’s a fairly standard post-apocalyptic survival tale, except with vampires instead of zombies. But that’s just the surface. Looking deeper, it addresses the horrible things we real-world, current-era humans are doing to our planet, and extrapolates possible (if exaggerated) repercussions.

As well, it looks at the classic battles of fear vs. courage, prejudice vs. tolerance, and even sustainability vs. conspicuous consumerism.

What I liked about it was that despite its dark tone, it had hopeful elements.

(I neglected to comment on Juan Baez’s art, but the drawings are compelling and serve the text perfectly. I’m looking forward to exploring more of his work.)

What I didn’t like? Four chapters (four individual books) bound into one volume was barely enough to whet my appetite.

As I tweeted to Mr. Koenig, “More, please?”

Goes well with: a shot of espresso and a dark chocolate & cherry brownie. Because a story this dark REQUIRES chocolate.

Warped Factors
by Walter Koenig

There are some celebrity autobiographies that make you kind of want to bitch-slap the authors. There are some celebrity autobiographies that make you think you should be curled up in a library with a crackling fire, smoking endless tatuaje cigars. Then there are the celebrity autobiographies that perfectly balance the behind-the-scenes, name-dropping dish we all claim to hate, but secretly crave, with the relatively candid story of a person’s life that makes them seem like a real person.

Walter Koenig’s autobiography is one of the latter kind.

I first read it several years ago when it came out, but when I was up in the Word Lounge a few weeks ago, looking for something entirely different, it caught my attention, possibly because I’d just re-read a Star Trek novel featuring the character he played. I sat down on my old blue couch to read just a few pages, and found myself, hours later, reading the last of it via booklight in bed, while my husband snored blissfully beside me.

As autobiographies go, this one, Warped Factors is free of major scandal. Instead, it’s a wry, sometimes self-deprecating glimpse into the life of a man who has a far larger body of work than most of us probably realize, and while there are some moments of bitterness in regard to his career, they’re not without provocation.

Reviewing an autobiography feels sort of like judging an actual person, which is silly, because it’s still just a glimpse. A peek.

But as glimpses and peeks go, especially if you’re any kind of classic Star Trek fan, Warped Factors is pretty good reading.