So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Sakrysta]

I finished Raise the Dawn the other day, and since I promised a couple comments...

Overall I liked the stories. I have to say I was disappointed by the end of Vaughn's life. His condition was dragged out for so long that I kept expecting him to come back. I really hated to lose the character.

I'm glad to see Ben and Kasidy back together. Looking forward to their development, and would really appreciate seeing them happy for a while. LOVED getting to see Miles and Nog again. And I'm tired of all the Julian torture. Let's clear up whether Sarina is good or evil and let him be happy for a change. That poor man has been through enough.

I found all the recapping rather frustrating, and this is something I'm starting to notice in the current batch of Trek novels in general. Authors seem to feel the need to give a paragraph synopsis of two or three episodes at least per novel, and then throw in "by the way, this happened in the last novel to feature this character" bits as well. I would much prefer content like this be either a preface or just left out entirely. Sometimes I felt like I was revisiting old stories every other chapter. If I'm reading new Trek books at this point in the franchise's life, I know all this stuff already.

Now I'm reading Fallen Gods, which in addition to the recapping disease also suffers from "look I have a thesaurus and I know how to use it" syndrome. As a word nut myself, I understand the desire to broaden vocabulary and use interesting words, but the ones I'm encountering always seem to pull me out of the narrative. I get it. The author knows a lot of neat words. The meaning is usually at least implied by context. It just feels forced, like the author is reaching for variety for its own sake instead of to serve the storytelling.

While I'm on a bit of a rant, I get it. Keru is a "hulking" unjoined Trill. Ree has sharp teeth. Troi is an empath. People, at book number 7 in the series, you don't need to tell us these things every single time the characters appear in a scene. Titan suffers the most from this need to define each character's species and/or appearance nearly every time they appear.

One more thing, and I'll quit. This alien culture is written really annoyingly. There has to be a better way to communicate alien-ness than merged pronouns and thesaurus-izing body parts and other general terms. The whole "they're alien because they use different words for things than we do" approach gets tiresome quickly. Every "hir" or "s/he" I hit is like a speed bump for my brain. And "heartlaps" for years? Really? "Grandbegetter"??? Insect cultures are hard to make relateable. Stuff like this doesn't help, at least it doesn't help me.

I'm sorry, I know I'm being cranky. I just ... I felt the same way about the Gorn in Sieze the Fire. I liked the insight into the intricacies of the species, but the language and terminology used threw me right out of the rhythm of the story.

[Christopher]

Sakrysta wrote:

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While I'm on a bit of a rant, I get it. Keru is a "hulking" unjoined Trill. Ree has sharp teeth. Troi is an empath. People, at book number 7 in the series, you don't need to tell us these things every single time the characters appear in a scene. Titan suffers the most from this need to define each character's species and/or appearance nearly every time they appear.

Any book has the potential to be some reader's first book in the series. Since Titan is just about the most episodic of the 24th-century series, that's particularly the case there. Writers shouldn't assume that every last person who reads a particular book is familiar with the earlier ones. Even people who have read the earlier ones may need a reminder about who's who, especially in a cast this diverse.

[Allyn Gibson]

Reading Anthony Horowitz's The House of Silk, the recent Sherlock Holmes novel that was authorized by the Conan Doyle estate.

[TJ Sinclair]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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Reading Anthony Horowitz's The House of Silk, the recent Sherlock Holmes novel that was authorized by the Conan Doyle estate.

I've been eying that one on the shelf for a while now. Definitely interested to hear if it's worth picking up. I enjoyed some of Horowitz' YA fiction years ago, and this is the guy that created Foyle's War, so hopefully it's good.

[Allyn Gibson]

TJ Sinclair wrote:

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I've been eying that one on the shelf for a while now. Definitely interested to hear if it's worth picking up. I enjoyed some of Horowitz' YA fiction years ago, and this is the guy that created Foyle's War, so hopefully it's good.

To the point where I am (seventy-five pages), I have mixed feelings.

It's very well written. The characterizations ring true (though I keep hearing Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke behind the dialogue). But it's so derivative in places that it feels more like a caricature of a Sherlock Holmes story than the genuine article. That said, something happened about ten pages back of where I am that I suspect is going to spin the novel off in a new direction, which leads me to think that the derivativeness of the first third of the book was deliberate, to ground the reader in the sense that they're firmly in Holmes' world so that Horowitz can do something original with it. Yes, that's optimism speaking.

[Kertrats47]

Christopher wrote:

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Any book has the potential to be some reader's first book in the series. Since Titan is just about the most episodic of the 24th-century series, that's particularly the case there. Writers shouldn't assume that every last person who reads a particular book is familiar with the earlier ones. Even people who have read the earlier ones may need a reminder about who's who, especially in a cast this diverse.

Very true. In fact, your own Over a Torrent Sea was the first Titan novel I read (with the exception of Destiny). I really appreciated being introduced to the characters in a way that didn't make me feel lost. It was that positive experience reading Over a Torrent Sea that made me go back and read the rest of the series. The re-introductions may seem tedious and unnecessary to long-time readers, but from both a creative and marketing standpoint they make a lot of sense.

[Spike730]

I'm catching up on the DS9 relaunch.

[trash80]

I've just started "How much for just the planet?" and its wonderful

[Markonian]

Yesterday I received Die Welten von Star Trek Deep Space Nine No. 6: Das Dominion: Fall der Götter (The Dominion: Olympus Descending) and read it in one go before continuing with The Final Fury.

It was good to see what the Dominion is doing after the war and after I finished the book I reread some passages of Raise the Dawn to see its up-to-date status. It is heartening to see Odo's efforts yielded limited results but nice that the Dominion isn't belligerent anymore, at least. Hopefully there'll be a follow-up sometime that brings the Dominion back without the constant threat of war.

[Reanok]

trash80 wrote:

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I've just started "How much for just the planet?" and its wonderful

That's a really fun novel some of the sceneswith Kirk's crew and the Klingons are so funny I won't spoil the story for you, except just to say this is a classis TOS book alot folks here really like alot.Your going to enjoy this book.I started reading Section 31 Rogue By Andy Mangels and Mike Martin.I really like this book so far.

[WarsTrek1993]

So I just finished Resident Evil: Underworld by S.D. Perry. It wasn't all bad, but to me, it felt more like Jurassic Park than Resident Evil, with the whole plot of an underground base that has some weird creatures, such as Pterodactyls, Giant Scorpions, and even a T-Rex offshoot.

Next: Instead of Mosaic, I've decided to halt my chronological reading and read Avatar: Book One for the first time, before resuming.

...I have to say, I'm only fourteen pages in, and I wonder: why the hell haven't I picked this up sooner?!

[Cap'n Crunch]

I finished Mere Anarchy: The Blood-Dimmed Tide and am now in the middle of the final story in the book, Its Hour Come Round.

[TJ Sinclair]

Just finished up The Persistence of Memory. Thought about diving right into the next Cold Equations book, but I'm going to take a break from the post-TNG era and get caught up on Vanguard. About to start Open Secrets.

[USS Firefly]

Bond, James Bond in "Moonraker"

[Killie]

Just finished and reviewed.. Starfleet Academy: Aftershock. This is one of the 1996 novels and it is rather basic due to to the YA Target audience.

Anyway interested in reading my review can find it here