George Takei

Best known as Mr. Sulu, helmsman of the Starship EnterpriseTM and Captain of the Starship Excelsior, George Takei is beloved by millions as part of the command team that has taken audiences to new vistas of adventure in Star Trek®--the unprecedented television and feature film phenomenon. From the program's birth in the changing world of the 1960s and death at the hands of the network, to its rebirth in the hearts and minds of loyal fans, the Star Trek story has blazed its own path into our recent cultural history, leading to a series of blockbuster feature films and three new versions of Star Trek for television. The Star Trek story is one of boundless hope and crushing disappointment, wrenching rivalries and incredible achievements. It is also the story of how, after nearly thirty years, the cast of characters from a unique but poorly rated television show have come to be known to millions of Americans and people around the world as family. For George Takei, the Star Trek adventure is intertwined with his personal odyssey through adversity in which four-year-old George and his family were forced by the United States government into internment camps during World War II. Star Trek means much more to George Takei than an extraordinary career that has spanned thirty years. For an American whose ideals faced such a severe test, Star Trek represents a shining embodiment of the American Dream--the promise of an optimistic future in which people from all over the world contribute to a common destiny.

To the Stars is set in an uncertain, strife-torn future when the first starships of man are traveling across the galaxy but not without extracting a terrible price from their crews. The novel's thought-provoking opening line, "Space is deep, Man is small and Time is his relentless enemy", powerfully captures the challenges facing the brave men and women of these vessels people who must give up their former lives to explore space as entire generations and whole societies come and go on Earth, while those aboard remain essentially untouched by the passage of time in a vessel traveling at nearly the speed of light. This immersing, remarkably ruthless drama begins when Alan Corday, a naively unseasoned but brilliant young engineer, is shanghaied from the spaceport at New Chicago and taken aboard the Hound of Heaven bound for the stars. Commanded by a distantly mysterious but charismatic leader by the name of Captain Jocelyn, the Hound traverses the galaxy in an effort to keep open a lifeline between Earth and the first colonies in other star systems. But in the time span of a few crossings, conditions on Earth grow gradually worse and more dangerous, while those aboard are treated increasingly as outcasts and a threat to the powers that control the planet. Against his will, Corday is mercilessly driven by Jocelyn to use his untested intellect and abilities to serve the ship and the beleaguered space colonies. But as events unfold among the turbulent reaches of the galaxy, and during the perilous returns to Earth, Corday discovers a startling truth about his destiny that will give a whole new meaning to man's place in the stars.

"A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon--and America itself--in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love. George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father's--and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten 'relocation centers', hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard. 'They Called Us Enemy' is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future. What is American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do?"--

"How did a 75-year old Star Trek actor become a social media juggernaut with nearly four million fans on Facebook? Why does everything he posts spread like wildfire across the ether, with tens to hundreds of thousands of likes and shares? And what can other sites, celebrities, brands and companies do to attain his stratospheric engagement levels, which hover near 100 percent while most languish in the single digits? In this candid, hilarious and informative book, Takei recounts his experiences on platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, where fans and pundits alike have crowned him King. He muses about everything from the nature of viral sharing, to the taming of Internet trolls, to why Yoda, bacon and cats are such popular memes. Takei isn't afraid to tell it likes he sees it, and to engage the reader just as he does his legions of fans. Both provokingly thoughtful and wickedly funny, Oh Myyy! captures and comments upon the quirky nature of our plugged-in culture. With Takei's conversational yet authoritative style, peppered with some of his favorite images from the web, readers should be prepared to LOL, even as they can't help but hear his words in their heads in that unmistakable, deep bass."--Back cover.