Brent Spiner’s new book, Fan Fiction: A Mem-oir Inspired by True Events, isn’t a Star Trek story, nor is it really even a book about Star Trek.

But Fan Fiction isn’t a book that could exist without Star Trek either, and explores the actor’s complicated relationship between stardom and fandom through a self-deprecating and oftentimes hilarious fictionalized telling of some of Spiner’s android days working on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

For a number of years, Spiner has clearly been fascinated with the impact of stardom on his life in his own creative works. His web series Fresh Hell covered themes of fame, loss of fame, and how uncomfortably awkward it can be to be loved by many.

Fan Fiction explores the same themes through a different medium, approaching the topic not by looking at a version of Brent Spiner at a decade past the height of his fame, but by way of a fictionalized version of the actor right in the middle of the most important chapter of his career.

Set around the 1991, right in the middle of his run on The Next Generation, the book is a first-person-perspective noir dark comedy thriller in which Brent Spiner discovers he has a stalker — one who sends the actor death threats signed by Data’s android daughter Lal. Hijinks ensue as Spiner tries to navigate his life, meet the acting demands of his Trek career, and work with law enforcement to uncover Spiner’s stalker before they can make good on their threats.

Fan Fiction stresses that it is exactly that — fiction. And while the specific details of the story are very much fictional, part of what makes the book work so well is that Spiner clearly does not have to reach too far to describe some of his written alter ego’s  emotions about the the uncomfortable relationship any star has with their fans.

Has Brent Spiner ever actually been stalked by a person masquerading as his character’s fictional dead daughter? One would hope not — but it’s not hard to imagine that after encountering so many devoted fans over the last thirty-plus years, Spiner has likely had more than a few unpleasant experiences along the way.

The emotional reaction to the situation Spiner crafts in the book feels very real, even if the specific events don’t necessarily line up with reality — and while told with lots of humor, there is a serious point that underlines this narrative: actors are people. We may demand time and attention from them that we are not entitled to, and it is important that those boundaries be maintained.

(It’s also important to note that that despite the book’s serious situation, none of the tale’s humorous moments denigrate Star Trek fans as a whole; the author writes positively and with appreciation for the those who genuinely love the show — and who maintain appropriate boundaries — while savaging those who do not.)

Fictional Spiner is also definitely not the hero of the story. Drawing from a form of comedy that Spiner clearly relishes in — making the audience as uncomfortable in their laughter as possible, Larry David-style — the fictional Spiner is a deeply wounded, anxious, and awkward man, who never seems to have it quite figured out.

He bumbles through the story as a guy who is at the mercy of the whims of those around him rather than in control of his own destiny, and it works very well – author Spiner makes fictional Spiner the butt of most of the jokes in the book, and they are very funny.

Are you going to learn anything about the production of Star Trek? Not really. This is a fictional narrative, where real life events are incorporated only insofar as they serve the tale. A visit to the set by Ronald Reagan and the death of Gene Roddenberry make it into the story, but though these events happened six months apart in reality, they are presented here as happening in a very short period of time.

But you shouldn’t be approaching Fan Fiction wanting that. This is a funny book, but it’s made up — it’s not a memoir, as much as the title might wink at being so.

While the book isn’t about Trek, there is still a lot that franchise fans are going to enjoy, as Spiner brings in his own fictionalized take on his Next Generation castmastes, too, with humorous versions of Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton as the standout characters.

And if you’re an audiobook fan, Spiner enlisted the participation of his TNG pals to voice their character’s dialogue from the book, and even a chapter in which Spiner visits a Star Trek convention that feels very familiar to anyone with a similar experience!

Overall, I found Fan Fiction: A Mem-oir Inspired by True Events to be a funny read that will make you wonder if celebrity life is all its cracked up to be, in a darkly humorous style that’s reflective of a lot of Brent Spiner’s work — and his convention appearances — since The Next Generation.

You’ll laugh, you’ll feel awkward, and you might even feel a little disturbed… which, I think, is exactly what Brent Spiner wants you to feel.

Fan Fiction: A Mem-oir Inspired by True Events is in stores now.