So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Patrick O'Brien]

TJ Sinclair wrote:

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It's unequivocally the best Trek novel I've read in a very, very long time. I don't know if I'd put it in my Top 5, but it's definitely a top 10 contender. A most worthy sequel to The Undiscovered Country, and something that makes Valeris a much more interesting character to me than she was in the film itself. And that little nod to The Ashes of Eden made me really happy, too.

It was the first one I'd actually finished since reading A Singular Destiny when it came out. *That* was a really good book,but the next couple I tried to read after that were clunkers (to me). Inception and The Soul Key. Couldn't get past the first couple chapters of either, and it put me off reading Trek for quite a while. I think I tried Unspeakable Truth, too, but by that time I just wasn't in the mood and put it aside. I was behind on Titan and Vanguard and none of the post-Destiny stuff coming out sparked an interest at the time, either.

It was kind of the same reaction I had with the early "TNG relaunch" books. The only one of those I really liked was KRAD's Q & A, and after forcing myself to get through Before Dishonor and then DS9's Fearful Symmetry, I kinda gave up onTrek novels until A Singular Destiny.

So anyway, it'd been what, almost four yearstaking a break from Trek lit. And then, after finishing up the main sequence of The Camulod Chronicles and waiting for the new Dresden Files book to come out, I figured I'd give Cast No Shadow a chance. Really, really glad I did. It was a library book, but I'm definitely going to get my own copy soon and put it on the shelf next to Sarek and The Ashes of Eden (my TUC sequel section had long ago been purged of the god-awful A Fearful Summons). And it gave me enough renewed interest and energy to try the Typhon Pact books and a few other things. I'd say of those initial four, Seize the Fire was the one I enjoyed the most, overall, for many reasons.

I'd be reading Vanguard: Open Secrets right now, but my copy is boxed up right now, along with almost all the other books I own. My basement got flooded when Sandy hit, and it'll be another couple of weeks before everything's back together and I can start to unpack. Thank God for libraries. I picked up Indistinguishable From Magic, Plagues of Night, Raise the Dawn and Brinkmanship from the library today, along with Steven King's It.

ThinkI should put Children of Kings and/or Troublesome Minds on reserve? Like I said, Inception didn't really do it for me, and honestly, neither did That Which Divides. The latter really had nothing wrong with it, I just wasn't that into the story since "That Which Survives" was never one of my favorite episodes. I normally like TOS books, but I'm kinda wary of them right now.

On Chapter 2 of Indistinguishable right now. So far so good. Oh, and I'm assuming Taurik being a Lieutenant again was just a minor editorial lapse?

I am glad you enjoyed the book and see it as a top ten Trek novel. I could not agree more. Also a big welcome back to Trek lit I hope you keep finding the books you enjoy. Here is a link to Sho's list of BBS rated Trek books: http://www.eikehein.com/stuff/trekbbs/review_threads/ It may help you find the best ones.

[Paris]

I'm just diving into a pile of comics after finishing the last part of Mr. Mack's trilogy. Even though i'm not usually a fan of TOS 5YM stories, i'm excited to get DRG3's new TOS book come the end of the month

[Kertrats47]

TJ Sinclair wrote:

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ThinkI should put Children of Kings and/or Troublesome Minds on reserve? Like I said, Inception didn't really do it for me, and honestly, neither did That Which Divides. The latter really had nothing wrong with it, I just wasn't that into the story since "That Which Survives" was never one of my favorite episodes. I normally like TOS books, but I'm kinda wary of them right now.

I very much enjoyed Troublesome Minds (review). On the flip side, I was not a fan whatsoever of Children of Kings (review). Of course, as always, your mileage may vary. Troublesome Minds was, to my mind, a surprise hit, while Children of Kings was a complete miss.

[JD]

TJ Sinclair wrote:

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And it gave me enough renewed interest and energy to try the Typhon Pact books and a few other things. I'd say of those initial four, Seize the Fire was the one I enjoyed the most, overall, for many reasons.

StF, really? What did you like about it so much? Most people on here didn't like it. I tried to read it a few months ago, and lost interest after a couple of chapters. I didn't hate it like a lot of people on here did, but I just found myself losing interest, and since I have a crap load of other unread books I stopped and moved on to other stuff.

[TJ Sinclair]

JD wrote:

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StF, really? What did you like about it so much? Most people on here didn't like it. I tried to read it a few months ago, and lost interest after a couple of chapters. I didn't hate it like a lot of people on here did, but I just found myself losing interest, and since I have a crap load of other unread books I stopped and moved on to other stuff.

Well, it wasn't perfect, certainly, but I really enjoyed the take on the Gorn, their pathological fear of mammals, the potential terraforming tech, and the first contact scenario. In general, I enjoy the Titan's crew. The downside was a lot of the dialogue, but I've had that problem with Trek lit in general for quite a while(and Indistinguishable from Magic is continuing that trend, sadly).

In the case of Seize the Fire, it's more a matter of simply liking it better than the other three initial Typhon Pact books. Zero Sum Game is ultimately the better written book, but I really don't enjoy Bashir, Ezri or Sarina at all, and don't really care about the Breen. Rough Beasts of Empire was like reading two different books, I really enjoyed Spock's story, but couldn't wait to get through the Sisko chapters, and I can't say I'm really keen on the novelverse's interpretation of the Tzenkethi. Just not to my taste. And then Paths of Disharmony, I liked to a degree. I like Shar, and enjoyed certain elements of the book, but overall, it just didn't click for me. So, yeah, Seize the Fire seemed to be the one I got the most out of, that's all.

[Garrovick]

Currently Reading:
Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire by David R. George III
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier novelization by J. M. Dillard
Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly

Since my past post, I've completed:
Typhon Pact: Seize the Fire by Michael Martin
Bloodletter (DS9 #3) by K. W. Jeter
Double, Double (TOS #45) by Michael Jan Friedman
Strike Zone (TNG #5) by Peter David
Power Hungry (TNG #6) by Howard Weinstein
and Reunion by Micheal Jan Friedman

[Kertrats47]

Latest review is up! This one is for the first book in Kevin Ryan's Errand of Fury series, Seeds of Rage.

Just finishing up Only Superhuman by Christopher L. Bennett, and moving on to Divergent by Veronica Roth shortly.

[vorador33]

Finished Star Trek TNG:Resistance yesterday, enjoyed the first few chapters and Wolf's story was enjoyable throughout but the book took a major nosedive in quality at the midway point for me. Just started the Andor half of Worlds of DS9 Volume One. Heather Jarman has been by far the my favourite contributor to the DS9 relaunch so far.

[Paris]

Because people have been mentioning how much they enjoyed James Swallow's Cast No Shadow, i've decided to pick it up again and finish it. I have no idea why i didn't finish it originally, but i'm jumping back in at the 200 page mark. Hopefully it grabs me more this time

[Markonian]

Finished Star Trek: Voyager: Distant Shores today. Nice touch that the people-of-the-week Equinox survivors appeared again.

Resumed Star Trek: Invasion! #1: First Strike. The demonic aliens don't appear to be evil, after all. Nice this book manages to surprise me. Looking forward to finish it soon to continue with the series.

[TJ Sinclair]

Markonian wrote:

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Resumed Star Trek: Invasion! #1: First Strike. The demonic aliens don't appear to be evil, after all. Nice this book manages to surprise me. Looking forward to finish it soon to continue with the series.

Invasion was the series that started Pocket's "summer crossover" tradition, and it remains one of my favorites. Of the four books, only the TNG entry is lackluster. The DS9 one doesn't deal much with the Furies directly and so almost feels a bit disconnected, but it's still a really good novel. First Strike is overall my favorite of the four, but then I'm a Diane Carey fan from way back, so I admit I'm biased.

[Patrick O'Brien]

Finished my first Star Wars book Heir to the Empire. Now back to Trek and the recommended Planet of Judgment, by Joe Haldeman.

[Greg Cox]

The UPS man just dropped off a copy of THE CAMELOT PAPERS by Peter David. Looks like fun!

[ronny]

Started thumbing through some of the novelizations to get them off of my unread shelf. Started with Voyager's Equinox. My god, Diane Carey just can't make characters sound like they do on the show even when she's doing a novelization. And leave it to her to throw in gratuitous and inappropriate navel references. "Katherine Janeway, Master & Commander" on the bridge plaque? Are you kidding me? And the Seven of Twelve reference? Yeah, Carey really follows the newer shows.

The next one on my list is Flashback. Since this one is a single episode instead of a 2 parter there's going to be a ton of new content and since we've got Sulu it's all going to be about how TOS was the real Star Trek.

[TJ Sinclair]

ronny wrote:

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The next one on my list is Flashback. Since this one is a single episode instead of a 2 parter there's going to be a ton of new content and since we've got Sulu it's all going to be about how TOS was the real Star Trek.

Flashback isn't bad, honestly. It was a decent novelization/expansion. As for Equinox, Broken Bow and the others? Nah, as much as I love her writing, it never really works for anything but TOS. The editors kept assigning novelizations to Carey because she could do them quickly.

However, to this day, Final Frontier remains my favorite Trek novel.