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SWORDS, STARSHIPS AND SUPERHEROES:  
From Star Trek to Xena to Hercules,
A TV Writer’s Life Scripting the Stories of Heroes​

​​“There are chapters for Star Trek devotees to dive into, especially lovers of Deep Space Nine, but it’s mainly aficionados of Xena and Hercules who are going to want to scoop up this major peek behind the curtains of these shows’ productions... Coyle gives us passages from scripts, sometimes two variants of script drafts, along with other production documents.  He shares stories of things that might have been and of how problems were solved, notably how the writers and producers had to deal with the absence of Kevin Sorbo in the 4th and 5th seasons of Hercules due to the star’s serious health concerns... It's all very readable and well told, as you’d expect from an inventive writer who’s been drawing from his own creative well for many years now.”
– Dr. Wesley Britton at bookpleasures.com
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Steven Kates, Director of Operations for Jacobs/Brown Press (L) making it official with screenwriter and author, Paul Robert Coyle (R)
“Swords, Starships and Superheroes... is an entertaining short read for Trek fans, and is one of the best in-depth looks into the Hercules/Xena writers rooms that I’ve come across, a franchise that at times rivaled even the Trek fandom... Coyle is a professional author that knows his material and most importantly knows how to write it in a captivating and entertaining way.  I’m sure my wife didn’t appreciate me having the light on until 3am, but every time I got to the end of a chapter, I could tell that something even more interesting was going to be happening in that next chapter, so I’d read a couple paragraphs and sure enough I’d be at the end of the chapter again, thinking the same thing.”
– Adam Selvidge at startrekbookclub.com
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Paul Coyle in the 1990s
“Coyle’s story is a snapshot of the life of a typical TV writer over 30 years in Hollywood, a career of many challenges, highs and lows, with plenty of freelance opportunities (and missed opportunities), failures and lessons learned, ultimately achieving the success of full-time work in the writing department of successful TV series with international fan followings.  If you watch a lot of genre TV, this book is for you.  It’s the first time I’ve seen a thorough account of a versatile genre TV writer who made his way across an impressive spectrum of genres.  I’ve seen nearly all his episodes and even count some among my personal favorites, especially Simon & Simon... A fun tour of some of our favorite TV series and how they got that way...”
– CJ Bunce at borg.com
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