So What Are you Reading?: Generations

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by captcalhoun, Dec 22, 2011.

  1. ronny

    ronny Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2006
    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    I wondered about that a little myself. But I get the impression HCTB wasn't too serious of a show so I'm not sure how bad of a villain Aaron Stemple could have been. After all, he was just trying to prevent some women from marrying so he would get a mountain and I'm guessing there was trickery involved but he wasn't resorting to murder, threats or the like. But hey, I could be totally wrong, it's guess work on my part.
     
  2. T'Bonz

    T'Bonz Romulan Curmudgeon Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 1, 2000
    Location:
    Across the Neutral Zone
    I saw HCTB first-run as a kid, and before I saw any Star Trek. It was a fun little show.

    I enjoyed the crossover book. It made me want to rewatch HCTB. Wonder if it's available for streaming.
     
  3. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2011
    Location:
    astral plane
    * raises hand, too *
     
  4. Endgame

    Endgame Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2010
    Location:
    Burnaby, BC Canada
    I got "Ishmael" as an e-book copy last year since I heard so much about it at this site and enjoyed it immensely and sort of ignored the HCTBs references. I guess it is by Barbara Hambly. I thought I had previously read it long ago because I failed to disambiguate it from the book with the same title by Quinn which is also something of an entertaining read.
     
  5. Patrick O'Brien

    Patrick O'Brien Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2012
    Location:
    Brooklyn NY
    Reading First Shift:Legacy by Hugh Howey. I enjoyed WOOL so much I thought I'd read a bit more of the series.
     
  6. wahwahkits

    wahwahkits Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2007
    Location:
    England, somewhere between Liverpool and Chester
    Just started a re-read of 'Paths Of Disharmony'
     
  7. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 12, 2004
    Location:
    Lancaster, PA
    My (fuzzy) memory is that Aaron Stemple was more of a rival to our heroes than an out-and-out villain. He worked against our heroes' interests, and wanted to see them fail, but, no, he wasn't tieing the Brides to railroad tracks or anything. He was a competitor, not an arch-nemesis.
     
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2013
  8. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    I just finished re-reading Bantam's Star Trek: The New Voyages, the first professionally published Trek anthology from back in 1976, and one of the earliest books of original ST prose fiction ever published (only Mission to Horatius and Spock Must Die! preceded it). It's also probably the oldest surviving book in my personal Trek collection (I do have a couple that are physically older but that I haven't owned as long), and it's been ages since I actually read it. I read the stories so many times back in the early years that I still found them very familiar, but it was interesting to revisit them with a fresh perspective and see how well they held up.

    The highlight of the volume is still the concluding story, "Mind-Sifter" by Shirley S. Maiewski. In concept it's a bit derivative of "City on the Edge of Forever" and "The Paradise Syndrome," but it's still pretty effective and emotionally engaging, and it's striking what a large and ambitious story it tells, spanning nearly 2 years of story time. (Although it has a couple of plot holes by virtue of being so focused on the personal consequences of its events that it glosses over the larger ramifications.) Another highlight is "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited" by Ruth Berman, in which Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley are beamed aboard the real Enterprise and have to play their parts like never before (the flipside to a previous fanfic story, "Visit to a Weird Planet," which can be found online). It's a bit implausible how quickly the characters accept the incredible situation, but it's still rather fun. I also think "Intersection Point" by Juanita Coulson holds up very well; it feels like it could've been an episode of the show. Maybe not one of the best episodes, but it does capture that '60s-TV flavor very well.

    The other stories are kind of a mixed bag, and a couple suffer from feeling too derivative of specific episodes. And while they're probably rather sedate for stories that started out as fanfic, there is one story ("The Enchanted Pool" by Marcia Ericson) that arguably falls into the "Mary Sue" category, and one or two that have a vague hint of slashiness. (And "Mind-Sifter" does somewhat fall into the classic "hurt-comfort" fanfic category.) Overall, though, the anthology does a pretty good job feeling like Star Trek rather than indulging in the excesses fanfic can be known for.

    I don't still own The New Voyages 2, so I won't be moving on to that. I remember it being less satisfying overall, which is why I didn't keep it.
     
  9. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2011
    Location:
    Washington State, USA
    I didn't know it was related to a TV show until reading this thread. I read the book and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I did like the setting (since I live in Washington state, although I'm not near Seattle). The story overall was entertaining.

    As for my reading right now, I'm almost done with To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh. Its a great book. It makes me want to read the other Khan books, except I can't stand Gary Seven (curse you, extremely boring mystery man. If only Assignment: Earth had never been written :klingon: ). I like how this book portrays Khan and the others, and their story between the events of Space Seed and STII. It actually gave me some sympathy for Khan and his people. sure, they're not good guys, but they went through a lot, probably more than they deserved. I only have one question about something in the book, which I hope will be answered before the book is done

    How did Chekov survive the ceti eel in STII? The book keeps stating that the host always dies. The movie made it look like the eel just comes out. Captain Terrell killed himself fighting the eel, like Khan's wife did in the book, but of the other people infected, they apparently just died eventually. Why would it leave chekov's head with no outside influence and without killing him, but everyone else (who didn't kill themselves) just died from the damage it inflicted to their brains? Its weird to hear that Chekov is apparently the only survivor of the eel.

    Overall, its been a great book (I have less than 70 pages left, so I can safely say that, unless the last 70 pages totally ruin the book, which is unlikely). After this, I'll be rereading Star Wars: Republic Commando: True Colors, then probably reading some of the sT: Titan books (I've only read the first one, which I'll be rereading first before reading some of the others).
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2013
  10. NightJim

    NightJim Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Location:
    Dundee
    Started New Frontier: Martyr last night. Now I know everything's on Kindle I think I'm going to burn through the series.
     
  11. Patrick O'Brien

    Patrick O'Brien Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2012
    Location:
    Brooklyn NY
    Finished Enterprise by Vonda N. McIntyre. Sadly not a great ST book. I enjoyed the begining of the book, but found the vaudeville company very distracting to the rest of the story. Anyone else read this one?
     
  12. ConRefit79

    ConRefit79 Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2008
    Now reading The Buried Age. Next will be Reap the Whirlwind, followed by Forged in Fire.
     
  13. Kertrats47

    Kertrats47 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    May 3, 2010
    Location:
    Alberta, Canada
    Just posted my review of Dayton Ward's first full-length Trek novel, In the Name of Honor. Definitely enjoyed that one!

    Right now I'm reading A Time to Die by John Vornholt and working my way through the SCE series. I'm currently on The Riddled Post by Aaron Rosenberg.
     
  14. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2011
    Location:
    Washington State, USA
    If you mean Enterprise: The First Adventure (which for some reason Goodreads.com also just calls Enterprise, even though The First Adventure is in big letters on the cover) then I own it, and have read it atleast once. Its been awhile, but I remember thinking it was ok, but not great. the vaudeville thing was really weird.
     
  15. AdmiralSteven

    AdmiralSteven Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2008
    The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry. This is the second book in the Cotten Malone series.
     
  16. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2004
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    How is that series? I've seen it mentioned several times by James Rollins, who's Sigma Force series is a favorite of mine.
     
  17. Use of Time

    Use of Time Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2012
    Location:
    Va. Beach, VA
    Just started The IDIC Epidemic by Jean Lorrah. So far so good.
     
  18. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2004
    Location:
    The Island
    TOS - Devil's Bargain - 50+ pages in and enjoying it
     
  19. Joel_Kirk

    Joel_Kirk Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2009
    Location:
    In the Joel Zone, identifying as Sexually Fluid.
    I recently read two novels:

    *"Along Came a Spider"by James Patterson - I have seen the film adaptation (which was pretty poor) and the novel obviously expands on the story, but the novel itself is a cliché and isn't as good as it should be. Still, I hope that the rest of the series picks up...(I do own Crossfire and Four Blind Mice - I read Four Blind Mice years ago - but I'm going to be able to look at the series as a whole rather than based on one book).

    My score: 2/5

    *"hadows of the Moon"by Zoe Marriott - A fantasy story set in a fantasy Japanese society; a girl who wants revenge on a lord who betrayed her father, and must be invited to a high society ball in order to speak to a prince and "out" her stepfather as the evil man that he is. (The conclusion doesn't necessarily go that way, which makes much of the story pointless, since she is being trained to become princess, gaining the attention of the prince...or Moon Prince...which will give her enough clout as a person of high society to do what she has to do). Moreover, there is a "Blasian" romance between the girl - Suzume - and a black young man from a presumably fantasy African country. Interestingly, as much as I give the author "props" for this romance, the suitor doesn't really affect the plot; he could have been jettisoned, and nothing would have really changed in the story...

    My score: 2/5

    The books I plan on reading next: "Fledgling" by Octavia Butler...and "Kiss the Girls" by the aforementioned James Patterson.
     
  20. Patrick O'Brien

    Patrick O'Brien Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2012
    Location:
    Brooklyn NY

    Yes, that is the proper title. Nice to see I was not alone on the vaudeville thing:)