Just finished up with The Last Stand on the "recommendation" of you lovely people. ;p. Next up, its back aboard the good ship Titan for The Red King and the conclusion to the Neyel arc.
Just wrote my review for Keith R.A. DeCandido's Gateways Book 4 of 7: Deep Space Nine: Demons of Air and Darkness. Wow, that's a mouthful! I also finished Gateways Book 5 of 7: Voyager: No Man's Land while on vacation, and I'm currently reading Dayton Ward's That Which Divides, Peter David's Gateways Book 6 of 7: New Frontier: Cold Wars, The World Without Us, and Russka: The Story of Russia.
I've made it through to the last 100 pages of ST:NF: Blind Man's Bluff, so later today I'll be starting The 4400: Welcome to Promise City by fellow Trek BBS poster, and Trek author Greg Cox. I'm a big fan of the show, and I've been looking forward to the post-finale stories since I first heard about them. I've actually had this sitting on my Nook since I first got it, but it got knocked back to the end of my list and I had forgotten I had it until a couple weeks ago.
Since I last posted in this thread, I've finished Orion's Hounds and Sword of Damocles, and am now on Over a Torrent Sea (having previously read the Destiny trilogy independently). Orion's Hounds definitely cemented Christopher as one of my favorite Trek Lit authors, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with OaTS.
Once time permits, I will be reading either 'Firefly" by Piers Anthony or "Tunnel in the Sky" by Robert Heinlein.
Finished Genesis Force tonight. I'd venture to say that it's probably the strongest entry in the 4 book cycle. I really enjoyed the focus on Worf, Alexander and Jeremy Aster. The alien culture was fun, if a little... uninspired. That said, the ending is incredibly rushed. Literally 40% of the ending is depicted in Worf and Alexander telling people what happened in 1 page and the other 60% of the ending takes place over 10 pages! Just weird. Now I'm moving onto Rising Son from DS9. I can't believe I'm already at this point in the Relaunch!
Just finished reading the Enterprise novel called "The Expanse". Anyone interested can read my review here. Currently now reading Last Full Measure, the first of the Enterprise re-launch novels.
I recently read Star Trek: That Which Divides, Election, and The Wicked (the latter two being short stories by John Scalzi).
I'm about mid-way through Summon the Thunder and took a little break and re-read Vanguard prequel Distant Early Warning in bed last night due to their ties. Overall my next months of reading will be very predictable: Vanguard, Vanguard and more Vanguard. However, I tend to read two books in parallel most of the time, one novel and one non-fiction book. The non-fiction book right now is The Architecture of Open Source Applications, a collection of 25 essays written by developers of notable open source projects on the architecture of their respective project. Before Architecture I read the fascinating Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler, which charts five millenia of world history by way of the expansion, contraction and intermingling of language spheres.
I finished Children of the Storm a couple days ago and really enjoyed it. The only, very minor disappointment I had, was that the core Voyager characters seemed secondary to the plot. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the new characters. It's just everyone's been talking about how Chakotay is finally getting development and what-not, and I just really am not seeing it three Beyer books in. But really, interesting story, enjoyed it a great deal. Also overcame my frustration over e-book-only editions and read Typhon Pact: The Struggle Within. It was fine, but I really would have preferred a longer story. I think Christopher's strength really lies in the densely-plotted novels that I have been able to just lose myself in. And thus ends the giant goal of getting caught up on Trek! Well, at least as it stood when I started the list. What I had planned to cover in 2011 bled over into 2012 a bit, but I'm super proud of myself for sticking to it and finishing: 12/23/10 Vendetta 12/27/10 Avatar Book One 12/29/10 Avatar Book Two 1/3/11 Diplomatic Implausibility 1/7/11 Intellivore 1/19/11 Immortal Coil 1/31/11 The Battle of Betazed 2/12/11 Section 31: Abyss 2/19/11 Gateways: Demons of Air and Darkness 2/19/11 Gateways: Horn and Ivory 3/4/11 Mission Gamma: Twilight 3/19/11 Mission Gamma: This Gray Spirit 4/2/11 Mission Gamma: Cathedral 4/7/11 Mission Gamma: Lesser Evil 4/16/11 The Brave and the Bold: Book One 4/23/11 The Brave and the Bold: Book Two 4/26/11 Star Trek Nemesis 5/4/11 Rising Son 5/9/11 Homecoming 5/15/11 The Farther Shore 5/28/11 I.K.S. Gorkon: A Good Day to Die 6/5/11 Unity 6/13/11 I.K.S. Gorkon: Honor Bound 6/22/11 Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Cardassia / Andor 6/25/11 Spirit Walk: Old Wounds 6/28/11 Spirit Walk: Enemy of My Enemy 7/11/11 Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Trill / Bajor 7/19/11 Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Dominion / Ferenginar 7/23/11 I.K.S. Gorkon: Enemy Territory 7/27/11 I.K.S. Gorkon: A Burning House 8/1/11 A Time to Kill 8/6/11 A Time to Heal 8/10/11 A Time for War, A Time for Peace 8/17/11 Death in Winter 8/21/11 Titan: Taking Wing 8/27/11 Articles of the Federation 9/6/11 Titan: The Red King 9/10/11 Titan: Orion's Hounds 9/16/11 Warpath 9/18/11 Resistance 9/21/11 Q & A 9/25/11 Before Dishonor 9/30/11 Titan: Sword of Damocles 10/8/11 Fearful Symmetry 10/3/11 Greater Than the Sum 10/11/11 The Soul Key 10/16/11 Destiny: Gods of Night 10/20/11 Destiny: Mere Mortals 10/26/11 Destiny: Lost Souls 11/4/11 Losing the Peace 11/13/11 A Singular Destiny 11/18/11 Titan: Over a Torrent Sea 12/6/11 Full Circle 12/14/11Unworthy 12/26/11 Titan: Synthesis 12/27/11 Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game 1/6/12 Typhon Pact: Seize the Fire 1/18/12 Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire 2/5/12 Typhon Pact: Paths of Disharmony 2/17/12 Indistinguishable from Magic 2/27/12 DTI: Watching the Clock 3/5/12 Children of the Storm 3/6/12 Typhon Pact: The Struggle Within So, I have a list for this year too, but it's filled with mostly NOT Trek. Not that I didn't enjoy that ride, but I'm SO ready to visit another universe or two. First off - Artemis Fowl. I read the first one a few years ago and thought it was charming, so I'm going to read at least the first four that I already own. Depending on how I feel when I finish, I'll either go out and find the rest or move on to something else.
I just finished 'Losing the Peace' (okay, not terrible, but certainly nothing that made me particularly excited- is it me or does a massive amount of the TNG relaunch novels [and one of the Titan novels] involve dealing with large amounts of displaced citizens?) and have now downloaded 'Under a Torrent Sea' onto my Kindle, which I've been looking forward to for some time. Can I get some opinions on 'Full Circle'? I am a Voyager fan but have read no VOY Lit beyond Pathways and Mosaic. So, two questions: 1. Is Full Circle any good? 2. Should I read the previous VOY books first (and are they any good?) Thanks, -Dan
1) Yes, Full Circle is good. Actually, it's more than simply 'good'; it's excellent. 2) If you can get your hands on them, I would definitely recommend reading the other 'Relaunch' novels. However, it may be hard to find the Spirit Walk duology. Fortunately, Kirsten Beyer does an excellent job of 'bridging the gap', so that you can go straight from The Farther Shore into Full Circle with no problem whatsoever. Regarding the quality of the books that precede Full Circle, I personally enjoyed them (although I haven't yet had a chance to read the fourth one , Enemy of My Enemy [the second book in the Spirit Walk duology]), but would suggest reading them and forming your own opinion about them.
Reading the previous VOY books is completely optional. Full Circle is fantastic; Beyer's books are pretty easily the strongest Trek books published since Destiny, all three of them. Well, aside from maybe Vanguard, but I've been saving those for this month, so I can't directly compare
^ Oh, you're starting on Vanguard soon? Nifty, one more who can participate in the new review threads covering the early books.
No, I already read 1-5, but starting with Declassified I decided to wait until the next one came out and read them together...and then learned that the one after that was the finale, so decided to wait to read all 3.
I have been doing my own massive re-read of TOS/TNG. I started with TOS #1 "The Motion Picture", and TNG "Encounter at Farpoint" and am going to read them all in release order. I'm currently on TOS #4 "The Covenant of the Crown" and TNG #6 "Power Hungry." I read a chapter of one book, then hop to the other book reading a chapter, and then back to the first book, etc etc.
Finished up with The Red King earlier today. Definitely enjoyed it more the second time around, but I think that is to do with the fact that I was more invested in the Neyel, having recently read The Sundered. Good stuff and establishing a firm foundation for Titan. Now a brief detour back to Vanguard for Distant Early Warning and Summon the Thunder. Then back to Titan for Orion's Hounds.
I finished Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions the other day. I'm now reading On the Oceans of Eternity, the last of the Nantucket trilogy, by S.M. Stirling.