What a wonderful piece of fan fiction written from the unique point of view of the celebrity instead of an outsider. It made me wonder all kinds of things throughout it. Were his costars represented true to life? Where did he get the idea for the story? Who knew that Brett Spiner could write such an incredible mystery?! His talent carries over into narrating his book.

Thank you so much to Brett Spiner, NetGalley, and Macmillan Audio for giving me the chance to listen to this story and share my honest thoughts and opinions with others. I got this from my library too for a reread.

This would probably be more of a 3.5 stars but I decided to round up. When I originally requested this I just saw the narrators and jumped to request it. I enjoyed the story to an extent but the noir style of the book was just to stereotypical for me. I understand he was probably trying to add some over the top comedy but Cindy and Candy were too ridiculous and too much of cartoon characters. I loved the aspects of his real life sprinkled throughout and obviously this was probably more fun to write than an autobiography. But overall I struggled to finish this at times.

Am I even allowed to review this novel? I've never watched his Star Trek show.

What actually attracted me to the title was that it was a comic novel. In dark times, I crave humor. And that it was meta-fictional, which I tend to enjoy. And... it wasn't terrible. (How's that for damning with faint praise?) Here's the thing with humor. It's so damn subjective! This book is definitely funny, but the humor was very, VERY broad, and sometimes a little bit stupid. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it.

While I opened this book talking about not being a Trekkie, having seen literally zero episodes of his show, it was still a lot of fun hearing Patrick Stewart, Jonanthan Frakes, and the rest of the cast read their own dialogue. If I were a fan, I'd probably be in heaven. And, I have to admit that I enjoyed the meta-fiction. So, in the end, a mixed bag. But, I've spent worse time in the pages of a book.

Sadly, this one wasn't for me. I heard some mixed reviews on the book and that made me hesitate to start it, and when I finally did, my heart just wasn't in it. I do think it could be someone else's cup of tea andI might give it another chance down the road, but for now I'm just gonna set it aside!

Fan Fiction
Brent Spiner

Brent Spiner’s debut is a mix of nutty-noir and a realistic behind the scenes look from an actor’s perspective of life on and off the set of a very successful sci-fi tv series. His captive audience will also get a behind the curtain look at the man behind the gold façade of Lt. Commander Data, his personality, his humor and his secrets, in a nutshell a man who’s all human. But it’s listeners that really get a special treat when all the actual characters from the show plus a few others play themselves on the audio edition of the novel. The plot is both comic and chilling and the audience will find themselves nail biting one minute, rolling on the floor the next and in between want to ask Brent, what were you thinking from page one until the unexpected ending. If you’re looking for an entertaining whodunit full of drama and artist angst this entertaining debut should definitely be on your wish list.
After years of being a struggling actor all Brent Spiner’s work paid off when he landed the role as Data on the tv show Star Trek The Next Generation. And although becoming Data involves hours putting on and taking off make up Brent is grateful to be playing along side a wonderful cast that has become his pseudo family. The TV show has made stars out of all of the cast and Brent is no different however celebrity also has its dark side as Brent finds out when some of his fan mail is a bit on the mental side. Most of these he just brushes off as harmless, but when someone posing as Lal, the daughter that Data created on the show starts sending her daddy little gifts and says she wants Data dead just like she is it raises Brent’s alarms enough to call in the calvary. When the calvary includes twin bombshell law enforcement officers one federal one private Brent can’t help but feel very attracted protected.

Oof... I love Star Trek and I never thought I'd actively dislike a NextGen actor but here we are.

This book follows Brent onto the set of early Next Generation as he deals with a crazed fan pretending to be the daughter that Data created on the show. Throughout the journey to finding this crazed fan, all the hot women fall madly in love with Brent (insert eye roll), all the men are huge fans of Data (yeah right) and we get to hear all about his horrible stepdad randomly for no reason that furthers the plot. I think it was supposed to be funny but it was really just sad and obnoxious. The story never gets engaging and ended up just being extremely boring. The big reveal was just kind of thrown in at the end to wrap things up because I guess he was done trauma dumping all of his step-dad issues.

If celebrities could stop using us normal people as their trauma dumping ground as a way to make money, I would be so happy.

Brent Spiner is best known as Lt. Cmdr. Data, the golden-skinned android with an insatiable curiosity about what it means to be human on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Now the actor turns author with a wild, funny novel based in some degree on real life, set during his years playing the part. A fan who somehow imagines they’re Data’s dead android daughter is stalking Spiner, with death threats triggering both an FBI investigation and Spiner’s insecurities about his past.

Granted, this doesn’t seem like the stuff of comedy. But as Spiner romances the lead FBI agent and her twin sister, a private investigator; ruminates on his history with an abusive stepfather; and weaves the story of his early years with moments from his “Next Generation” life, the story is by turns comic, suspenseful and — when he’s discussing his upbringing, his early acting struggles or the loss of a close friend — heartfelt.

A key to the audiobook’s success for fans is its all-star cast — a strong advantage here for audio over print. When a “Next Generation” cast member speaks in “Fan Fiction,” from Patrick Stewart to Marina Sirtis, it’s that actor’s actual voice you’re hearing.

They’re all bit parts, but what fun to hear Spiner talking to LeVar Burton or Michael Dorn, or listen as Jonathan Frakes and his real-life wife, onetime “General Hospital” actress Genie Francis, read the words Spiner has assigned them in his story.

For Trekkers, this is not to be missed.

The audio for this book is hilarious. Cameos from the TNG cast mates as themselves really adds something to the story.

Unfortunately the story itself is kind of bonkers and a bit nonsensical. I know that it is mostly intentional, but I'm pretty sure if I were reading this rather than listening, I would have just dropped it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC

As an avid Next Generation fan I was excited for this and it didn’t disappoint. I enjoyed it immensely and it was so fantastic to have the guests in it too. I loved hearing Brent’s story and he did a great job with the narration.

"Fan Fiction" is an unusual work by actor Brent Spiner. While it’s certainly a spoof on the traditional memoir, there are elements that belie the truth of his existence for the last 30 years, dealing with the fame that came with his role on "Star Trek." As a fan of the shows and movies of that fictional universe, I eagerly looked forward to this comedic fictional tale. In many ways I wasn’t disappointed, particularly in listening to the audiobook performance. Not only on the written page, but in the audio recording of the book, there are numerous cameos from a wide cast of characters, including Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn and more. The production also includes frequent enhancing sound effects and an intermittent soundtrack. I was quite impressed at the effort that was put into this. As a Trek fan I was often highly amused.

"Fan Fiction" is more of a comedy than anything else, although there is the overarching mystery aspect, as we wonder who the true villain is throughout the narrative. There are episodes however, that diverge into dreamlike, bizarre areas that didn’t serve the story well, in my opinion. The occasional moments of drug use and frequent salty language were things I could have done without as well, but I understand that is the culture in which Mr. Spiner was/is living. The mature content is pervasive enough that I would not recommend this for younger readers. That said, I was often amused with "Fan Fiction", both as a Trekkie and a reader. If you enjoy the universe that Gene Roddenberry created many years ago and are in the mood for a tongue-in-cheek, humorous mystery, "Fan Fiction" might be a good bet for you. Spiner’s work may not have been the perfect fit for me, but it was still an interesting read/listen nonetheless.

Having never been a 'Trekkie', I didn't even realize who Brent Spiner was before reading this book. That being said, I do know enough about Star Trek and Data to understand the references in the book. I enjoyed the hyperbolic story, and the cameo appearances by other actors from the Star Trek universe.

I don’t smoke crack, although I must have been doing just that when I requested the opportunity to preview this book.

Fan Fiction is a “mem-noir” written by Brent Spiner - the guy best known for playing Data on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Have I ever watched an episode of ANY Star Trek? No. Then why did I feel like it was a good idea to read this? See above.

But commitments are commitments, so I dove in with an open mind. (Hopefully a crack-free one at this point.) The letter from the publisher that accompanied the print copy states, “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.”

Okay then, so Fan Fiction is basically a self-indulgent fever dream in which Spiner fictionalizes a stalker experience he had in the early days of playing Data. Hence the “mem” part of mem-noir. The “noir” part is because it’s told in a darkly comedic fashion, complete with misogyny, F-bombs, uncomfortable sexual encounters, feverish drug use, and a pig’s penis. (Yes, a PIG’S PENIS. The darn thing is mentioned about 100 times, and that’s enough pig’s penis to last me a lifetime.)

In many ways this reminded me of Jim Carey’s disastrous 2020 “let me blur the lines between celebrity fact and fiction” book Memoirs and Misinformation, though Fan Fiction is more successful given its moments of lucid humor and coherent storytelling. (See the 2.94 GR rating for Carey’s M&M… yikes!!!)

Now the Fan Fiction AUDIOBOOK is something of its own experience. That’s right friends, I requested an advance copy of this not once but TWICE! Spiner is the primary narrator, but fellow Star Trek cast members such as Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Jonathan Frakes, and Gates McFadden join in to read their own “lines.” (I had to look up half those people. See? Not a Star Trek fan. Side note though, I did once get assigned as LeVar Burton’s Studio escort down the step-and-repeat of the red carpet at the premiere of a late-90’s Disney movie. “Tarzan” maybe??? I introduced him as "LeVar Burton from Reading Rainbow” throughout the night, which got me a lot of strange looks. Further evidence of my lack of Trek-awareness, but I digress.)

Anyhoo, the audiobook also features sound effects and occasional music, so that’s cool. It’s a truly great production, which is what helped me settle at a comfortable 3-star rating. While I may not know Star Trek, I do know audiobooks, and Fan Fiction’s pulls out all the stops. And I’m 99.9% certain people who are actual fans of Spiner and his cohort will find this fiction a lot more fun than I did.

My thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the advance print copy and Macmillan Audio for the advance listening copy via NetGalley. (Please don’t disown me now… I love you guys!) I was just a wee bit tardy with this review, so Fan Fiction is OUT NOW.

Different, funny, campy--Brent Spiner's mem-noir Fan Fiction is a weird and whacky ride.

I was raised by a Trekkie, which meant early exposure to The Next Generation as a weekly family event. So, I have a certain reverence and nostalgia for the OG's of the starship Enterprise.

The audiobook of this semi-autobiographical thriller is a fun reunion of STNG cast member cameos peppered with fun sound effects and music. LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Patrick Stewart to name a few!

That said, this one was a bit too campy for me and ultimately did not satisfy me in the end when the action hit its peak and the mystery revealed.

There was also some obnoxious over-sexualization of the female characters and misogyny that *I think* was meant to be poking fun at itself but still gave me the ick.

The strongest part of the book was the first third, which had a lot of self-loathing humor but towards the last two thirds it wore thin and I trudged on out of commitment and hope that it would improve.

Publication Date: October 12, 2021

Thank you to @NetGalley and @Macmillanaudio for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

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This book is a focused, incisive and often comical account of Brent Spiner's experience of being stalked while playing Data in Star Trek. Unlike many sprawling celebrity memoirs, the single subject of this book, with plenty of background and anecdotes about his career and life, makes it far more interesting than simply a catalog of an entire life. Brent is often funny and despite coming across as an extremely unlikeable person, the book he created was highly likeable. For fans of true crime, celebrity memoirs and comedic nonfiction, I would recommend this book.

There’s a fine line between parody and farce, and it feels like Brent Spiner tap-danced over it in both directions, multiple times, during the course of this story. If that dance turned out to be set to one of Frank Sinatra’s greatest hits, or something else from the “Great American Songbook” I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised.

It might be best to go into this story not really thinking of it as, well, a story. It’s more of a combination of homage and love letter. The “mystery” part of the story reads like an homage to the noir films of the Golden Age of Hollywood, complete with a reference to that classic image of noir, the painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.

It’s also a love letter, to his friends and fellow crew members of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and to all of us who vicariously voyaged with them aboard the Enterprise-D.

But as a story, it goes over the top so much and so often that it pratfalls down the other side. At the same time, it mixes events from his real life in a way that intentionally blurs the line between fact and fiction to the point where the reader just has to hang on for the ride without attempting to figure out which is which.

So the story is grounded in what feels like the real, the real traumas of Spiner’s childhood with his abusive stepfather, the real grief over the death of Gene Roddenberry which occurs during the course of the story. But the picture that hangs within that real framing is the story of a crazed fan stalking the actor and making his life his misery, while his attempts to find help to keep him safe and find his stalker send the story way over the top into the land of make believe.

At least I hope they do, because some of what happens can’t possibly be real. Can it?

Escape Rating B: I’ll confess that as much as I’m still a Star Trek fan, particularly the original series and Next Generation, I had no intentions of reading this book, until I saw the audio. The full cast audio with appearances by several of the Next Gen cast playing themselves – albeit a slightly exaggerated version thereof. And that’s what got me to pick up the audio – and eventually the book because I needed to doublecheck more than a few things.

There is still plenty of animosity among the remaining members of the original series cast, even after 50+ years, but there were no such rumors about the Next Gen cast, and the idea that they would get together and do this for one of their members after all these years says a lot about the group dynamic. A dynamic that was on full display in this recording.

So the audiobook is both a blast and a blast from the past and I was all in for that. Fan Fiction is a tremendously fun listening experience, and hearing everyone play themselves made the whole thing a real treat even when the story itself doesn’t quite hold up to examination.

I also have to say that, as weird as it is in yesterday’s book where the author is a character in his own fictional story, it’s even weirder when the author is a real-life character in a story that is basically fan fiction about his own life. Particularly in the bits where he alludes to his own romantic escapades. (He’s married now, but he hadn’t even met his wife in 1991 when this story takes place. So it’s weird and meta but not quite THAT weird and meta.)

There’s a saying about the past being another country, that they do things differently there. Fan Fiction, in addition to its bloody animal parts in the mail, bombshell twin detectives who BOTH have romantic designs on the author AND the stalker who gets stalked by yet another stalker, is also a trip down memory lane back to 1991.

That’s 30 years ago, and we, along with the world, were a bit different then. Next Generation was in its 5th season, and still not all that popular in the wider world of TV no matter how huge a hit it was among science fiction fans. Next Gen was in syndication only at a time before the streaming juggernauts were even a gleam of a thing in a producer’s eye. It was the author’s really big break as an actor, and that was true for all of the cast except Patrick Stewart and LeVar Burton.

So we were all a lot younger then, childhood traumas were a lot closer in the rearview mirror and still being worked on and worked out, and no one knew then that Star Trek would become a multimedia colossus to rival Star Wars. None of us knew then what we know now, and that’s true of the author and his attitudes towards his own celebrity.

Back to this story. The mystery/thriller aspects push the willing suspension of disbelief well past the breaking point. I half expected this to turn out to have all been a dream like The Wizard of Oz. But the full cast recording turns the whole thing into a delightful trip down memory lane as well as a hilarious send-up of acting and fame and celebrity and fandom. .

If you’re a Star Trek fan, get the audio and settle in to hear some of your favorite characters tell you just one more story. Bits of it might even be true!

I wasn't sure at first if I would like this book since I haven't watched Star Trek in years (and wasn't a huge Trekkie), but that didn't matter. This book will appeal to anyone who likes fast paced mysteries and film noir. It was so much listen to and I loved how they brought in actors from the original series to voice their characters. I went back and forth from laughing to being overly intrigued. I haven't been this disappointed that a book was over in a while.

I listened to the audio a not to be missed for anyone who like s to know about celebrity life. Part memoir, part comedy thriller (or as described a “mem-noir”). A fun and fab listen for any Star Trek fans but has enough of a story to carry even for those listeners who may not know the background… yet, for those who do, it’s an extra special treat. I found myself laughing out loud several times and smiling along the way with beloved fellow actors from the series: Labar Burton, Michael Dorian, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Patrick Stewart and many more. Brent Spiner’s comic timing is fantastic and the addition of many other ST actors really fleshed out the fun of the story! I hope there are more to come! Thank you Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for the preview listen in exchange for an unbiased review.

I’m really not sure what to say about this book… I did not enjoy it. I think I know what Brent Spiner was trying to do with this, but it just did not work for me. You can certainly tell that it’s written by an old-ish white dude, and while noir can be misogynistic/sexist, one written today really shouldn’t be. It wasn’t overly bad, but there were definitely some icky bits about women and mental health/addiction.
I was really disappointed that it wasn’t better. I’ve loved Star Trek forever and I had really hoped for more.

Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner
Genre - Mem-Noir inspired by true events
Narrated by Brent Spiner and various others
Book Rating - 4 out of 5 stars
Narration Rating - 5 out of 5 stars

So I had to do a little research on a what exactly a Mem-Noir was for this book. For those of you that don’t know from my research a Mem-
Noir is a narrative of the author, about an important part of their life. It is not the whole of the authors life.

In Brent Spiner’s book it takes him through the trials and tribulations that happened when he developed a stalker. It is set right at the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation series. It takes him on a terrifying and bizarre journey of having a stalker.

The narration was great. With an all star cast including Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Levar Burton and many others from his life and the show. They would pop up to actually say things they told Brent through his journey.

Although I was a little disappointed that this wasn’t more about the TV series I thoroughly enjoyed. It had me laughing out loud in parts and scared for Brent in others. I would highly recommend this book in audiobook format. All the different characters bring something to it that I believe would not come through if just reading it!

Ever been in the mood to read something different....something a bit off the usual beaten genre path? When I read the blurb for this book by Brent Spiner I was in that mood. I needed a bit of a genre palate cleanser....something odd....something wacky.....

And Spiner delivered just what I needed!

I read the first portion of this book in digital ARC format, then switched to the audio book. The story was fun to read ..... but even more fun having Brent Spiner read this tale of fame gone wrong. Had I not realized this tale was fictionalized to make it more entertaining, I would have been alarmed at the story. A stalker. Weird notes. Gross things in boxes. Fear. Body guards. STNG fans don't like to think about one of their fav actors being stalked by a wackadoo. But.....this book isn't alarming.....it's entertaining, witty and funny. And exactly what I expected from Mr. Spiner. I kept seeing the joyful look on his face in that episode of Big Bang Theory when he pulls open Sheldon Cooper's mint-in-package Wesley Crusher action figure saying "Remember how we used to make these things look like they were masturbating?'' LMAO. I laughed my way through this entire book.

I highly recommend this book / audio book for any Star Trek fan who doesn't take things too seriously. There's some great moments for Trek fans, but more of Brent Spiner just having fun telling a story. Just go with it.....

It's an easy reading or listening length. The audio is just short of 7 hours long and mostly narrated by Spiner, with drop-ins from fellow Star Trek actors and other familiar folks.

Fun, entertaining....and very very different. Loved it! It was nice to see Data finally get that android cob out of his butt... ha ha

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book (and listened to the audiobook). All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**