Which edition are you reading? The original from 1973 or the 1984 reprint? I read the 1984 edition that same year when I was a teen, and I remember Gerrold writing in that version how there were differences from the original. In several places, he wrote, "In the 1973 edition of this book, I wrote about.....". I've been curious about the 1973 printing ever since, but every copy I've found has been priced beyond my budget.
It's an eighth printing (from 1976) of the 1973 edition. I picked up a well-worn copy for $3 at a convention.
Taking a break from Star Trek to read The Bourne Identity, as I've only read it once. Amazing! Then, The Captain's Daughter.
I just finished DTI: Forgotten History, which I only received in the post yesterday. It lasted two sittings, interupted by a few hours of sleep. I do believe I enjoyed it even more than Watching the Clock, possibly because the plot was more straightforward. As an historian, I appreciate the essential lesson of the novel and am very impressed by Bennett making "The Omega Glory" seem sensible.
The can be explained by the fact that the book was written long before the show premiered, and Carey had nothing to go on but the pilot script and the series bible, which contained a lot of ideas the show quickly abandoned due to the heavy staff turnaround in the first season. A lot of the stuff in Ghost Ship is from the original bible, like Riker being called "Bill" and being strongly prejudiced against Data (both of which are glimpsed in the pilot but soon forgotten). And, not having seen the actors perform or the characters develop, she had to make best guesses about what the characters would be like.
Yep, that's actually why I'm going back to read it again now. I originally read it in the mid 90's but didn't remember a thing about it. Someone had brought that up about this book being written prior to EaF so I thought it would be cool to see the differences. The only other glaring thing right now is that Picard is portrayed as smart and capable but he seems extremely irratable.
I remember rather liking how thoughtful and moral Picard was in Ghost Ship. Which isn't incompatible with irritability, but I don't remember that part.
I actually just finished the novelization of Encounter at Farpoint a few days ago and thought that David Gerrold did a good job with the character's in his version of the episode. He seemed to have a pretty consistent vision of a lot of the mannerism's that were indicative of season one.
I recently finished Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies. While I'm not sure what my next nonfiction read will be, I'm leaning toward Twilight of the Mammoths, which addresses the mystery of all those late-ice age extinctions in the Americas. I'm also starting Plagues of Night.
Last night I finished Stargate SG-1: Four Dragons. It was alright, not necessarily good or bad, but fairly enjoyable. I haven't seen an episode of the show in a few years (especially those involving Lord Yu, who is a major character in the novel), so I couldn't fully recall the episodes it references. If you want to learn more of Lord Yu's background, then you'll probably enjoy this one. I'm about to start Star Trek: New Frontier: Dark Allies.
I finally got my hands on The Eternal Tide, and i've only put it down to inform you all. I'll be back in a minute...
I finished Last Call: The Rise And Fall of Prohibition about ten days ago. Wrote a review for my blog. Now I'm onto the first Shadow novel, The Living Shadow by "Maxwell Grant" (who is the mild-mannered secret identity of Walter B. Gibson). It's not badly written for 1930s pulp.
I finished STVOY: Children of the Storm yesterday. Wow. I honestly think this was a perfect ST story. Great characters, great action, great writing, and a good message in the end. Since I finished that I started Somewhere Inside: Once Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home by Laura Ling and Lisa Ling. Laura was one of the two American journalists taken captive in DPRK back in 2009. I remember hearing about this when it was going on, and I've been curious to see what exactly went on from their perspectives. Since that is a hardback, and I don't feel like dragging it back and forth from work, I also decided to star The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson. I'm a big Superman fan, and I've always been curious to see more Krypton, so I'm looking forward to this one too.
Finished Shards and Shadows. Now I do have a question. I see that the next book is Sorrows of the Empire. This one was already included in the first book, Glass Empires. Is it worth buying it? It is an expanded book, as I suspect or the same story in a single compact format? Also, as I understand Rise like Lions is the final book in the Mirror Universe series (for now, I hope). Are there any other books that are connected to the series besides the 3 compilations (Glass Empires, Obsidian Alliances and Shards and Shadows)? I would like to read them all before going for Rise like Lions.
It's called The Sorrows of Empire, actually, and the standalone version is more than twice as long as the original version. There's a Mirror Universe arc in the Deep Space Nine novels that leads into this, incorporating Bajor: Fragments and Omens (in Worlds of Deep Space Nine Volume 2), Warpath, Fearful Symmetry, and The Soul Key.
My usual monthly tally/blog post. No Trek again this month, but some Doctor Who. 08/03/2012 Dennis Wilson: The Real Beach Boy by Jon Stebbins 08/04/2012 Will-o-the-Wisp by Thomas Burnett Swann 08/07/2012 Starboard Wine: More Notes on the Language of Science Fiction (Revised Edition) by Samuel R. Delany 08/09/2012 Ringworld’s Children (audiobook) by Larry Niven 08/10/2012 The Not-World by Thomas Burnett Swann 08/13/2012 Revolt in 2100 by Robert A. Heinlein 08/17/2012 The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (audiobook) by Richard Dawkins 08/19/2012 The Goat Without Horns by Thomas Burnett Swann 08/24/2012 Doctor Who: Shada (audiobook) by Gareth Roberts based on a screenplay by Douglas Adams 08/26/2012 Why is the Penis Shaped Like That? ...and Other Reflections on Being Human by Jesse Bering 08/30/2012 Fate of Worlds:Return from the Ringworld (audiobook) by Larry Niven & Edward M. Lerner I finished my three-month reading program of Thomas Burnett Swann last month. So, during June, July and August, I read all the fiction Swann ever published (apart from the "Minotaur Trilogy," which I read perhaps a decade ago, so I wasn't ready for a re-read quite yet.) I really enjoyed spending time in Swann's Not-World. Great stuff. I slotted in Heinlein's Revolt in 2100 because I kept seeing references to Nehemiah Scudder (usually in articles about "Mittens" Romney) and wanted to get an idea what it was all about. After reading Revolt in 2100 (and Heinlein's notes about "stories not written" that would have chronicled Scudder's rise to power, beginning in 2012) I recalled reading some of this when I was in junior high (side note -- I pulled out my old Heinlein paperbacks, and found that the bookmark I was using was a note excusing me from class to go to the orthodontist and get my braces adjusted. When I was 13 or 14. So I abandoned reading that particular book almost 40 years ago... How time flies!) Back then, I thought the notion of America falling into a religious dictatorship was ludicrous. How naive I was! Reading about Dennis Wilson's life and death was just sad. What a waste! Listen to his brilliant solo album Pacific Ocean Blue and weep for the loss of a great talent. POB unquestionably rates as the best record to come out of the Beach Boys camp since Pet Sounds -- and better than anything since, including Brian's stuff, with the possible exception of SMiLE. Ringworld's Children and Fate of Worlds were much better than the preceeding couple of Ringworld books, but not quite as enjoyable as the Fleet of Worlds quartet. But Fate of Worlds provides a nice capstone to Niven's Known Space series, and if he never gets back around to it, this is a good ending. Gareth Roberts's novelization of the legendary lost Douglas Adams Doctor Who serial Shada was an enjoyable listen -- perhaps more for Lalla Ward's excellent reading than for the somewhat ponderous and overpadded novelization itself. Seriously, stretching 6 half-hour episodes into a 400+ page novel was occasionally tedious. But great fun! It was nice seeing Dr. Chronotis again (Adams salvaged the character for Dirk Gently) and the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker), the Second Romana (Lalla Ward) and even K-9. Dawkins is awesome. I loved Greatest Show on Earth. It was interesting listening to that, surrounded by Niven's books which maintain that humans are descended from aliens transplanted from another world. I wonder how badly Niven wishes he's never come up with that conceit, because it's utterly untenable in light of what we know today -- and probably even knew when he came up with the Pak. That's the danger with writing "Hard" science fiction -- science doesn't stop discovering more about the universe, rendering story ideas ludicrous or worse. Jesse Bering's collection of "popular" science essays was entertaining, but perhaps better read as occasional articles than straight through. And his explanation for why the human penis is shaped as it is is kind of gross, but convincing. Delany's Starboard Wine, originally published in 1984, is largely aimed at showing why all those "Science Fiction as Literature" courses that were popping up in the '70's and '80's were wrong-headed. He convincingly argues that "science fiction" is a way of reading (and a corpus of texts meant to be read that way.) "Literary" fiction is read differently that science fiction, and to read SF as literature is to read it wrong -- or, at least, read it less effectively. The best way to read SF is to read it AS SF. I'm good with that.