So What Are you Reading?: Generations

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

  1. Sakrysta

    Sakrysta Vice Admiral Admiral

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    What else? The Light Fantastic. ;)
     
  2. Paris

    Paris Commodore Commodore

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    I just finished DS9: Section 31: Abyss. It was a great read! Jeffrey Lang did a fantastic job. That is the third novel I've read by him, and it was the third winner. The DS9 relaunch has been getting better with each instalment. Next up is KRADs Gateways: Demons of Air and Darkness :)
     
  3. Cap'n Crunch

    Cap'n Crunch Captain Captain

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    I finished The Klingon Art of War last night.

    I'm now reading Star Trek: The Lost Era: One Constant Star.
     
  4. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Proofreading the galley pages for Star Trek: Foul Deeds Will Rise. 134 pages so far.
     
  5. Paris

    Paris Commodore Commodore

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    Galley pages? What does this mean? Surely not 134 pages of the book takes place in the ships galley? Unless, of course, the "fouls deeds" are gastrointestinal in nature..
     
  6. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Publishing jargon for first-pass, uncorrected page proofs. Basically, my last chance to search the text for typos or forever hold my peace.

    Alas, there are no scenes in the ship's galley, although there is a reference to it.
     
  7. Paris

    Paris Commodore Commodore

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    Thanks Greg. Now we won't have to suffer through a myriad of "captain's log" jokes. Much appreciated ;)
     
  8. Last Redshirt

    Last Redshirt Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I haven't read Vanguard's stuff before, but I have read some Trek novels before. I've read two Stargazer stuff, A Stitch in Time, A Lost Era one, and Q-Squared. All the ones I've read were very well written.

    Not to derail the thread, but, is there any recommended/required Star Trek books that I should read? I really want to get into the expanded universe with the novels but I don't know where to start.
     
  9. borgboy

    borgboy Commodore Commodore

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    Among my favorites are the Vanguard Series, New Frontier series, Peter David's Next Generation novels Imzadi and Q Squared, Ex-Machina (a novel set after TMP), the DS9 relaunch novels starting with Avatar... too many others to name.
    Below is a website with chronologies of reading order. - Thanks Christopher, I forgot to include the link.
    http://startreklitverse.yolasite.com/
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2014
  10. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^Uh, there's no website there.
     
  11. Last Redshirt

    Last Redshirt Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Thanks, I'll be sure to check it out.
     
  12. ryan123450

    ryan123450 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Starting New Frontier: Gods Above today. I thought Being Human was one of the best of the series so far.
     
  13. JD5000

    JD5000 Captain Captain

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    I've been reading Protectors by Kirsten Beyer. It's been slow - busy weekend. Excellent novel. I'm curious what people that have read this Voyager 'relaunch' series think about Liam O'Donnell. I thought he was gonna be a sacrifice in the first story lines he appeared in, and then seemed to come into his own in Children of the Storm, and is surprisingly still alive. I like the guy. He's like Superman in a lab coat, and his personal tragedies and ways of dealing with are easy to identify with. I think that when faced with a choice, the characters way of dealing with the obvious moral course of action vs. the official way to deal with it is instructive. I don't think we've had a character that has been that adamant about the superiority of the moral imperitive vs. the letter of Starfleet procedures. Picard is the closest comparison, but even he hemmed and hawed over situations that O'Donnell would act on with absolute certainty. I'm looking to see how this character develops in the last two novels, so I'll get back on that in a couple years. I'm betting he dies heroically in the pursuit of beneficial science.
     
  14. Reanok

    Reanok Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I just finished reading Star Trek TNG To storm heaven by Ester Friesnaer. It was an interesting away mission and about difficulties about whether to ignore the Prime Directive to save an alien race from a serious illness.
     
  15. Paris

    Paris Commodore Commodore

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    Having ploughed through the amazing books #3 & 4 of the DS9 relaunch (Section 31: Abyss & Gateways: Demons of Air and Darkness) in three days, i've started KRAD's Gateways epilogue Horn & Ivory. Hopefully I'll start DRG3's Twilight in the next day or two. I'm so happy i left the DS9R until now. Just like waiting for Vanguard to end before I jumped in, the DS9 relaunch is living up to the wonderful praise it has gotten on these boards :techman:
     
  16. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Finished The Buried Age a few days ago. It was a great book. I liked reading about Picard post-Stargazer but pre-Enterprise. The ancient aliens were also cool. Its only problem is it got WAY into the technobabble. There were several times where I started to become convinced that I was no longer reading actual words :lol: I really don't need to know the mechanics of a field where time doesn't move or how a black hole could store information. It got irritating and, by the end, started to feel a bit like padding.

    The book could have just said "Oh, they're trapped in a field where time doesn't (or just barely) moves". I didn't need to try to read a scientific essay on the subject. Now, I can't tell what was complete technobabble and what might have been based on actual science (it seemed a bit too comprehensive to not have been researched at least a bit), but it was completely unnecessary and bogged parts of the book down. I'm a trekkie, not a scientist, and I will just accept something exists in a Sci Fi book without the book completely stopping to try to justify its plot points in complicated science terms.

    It didn't ruin the enjoyment of the story in general. I really liked the book, although I think it could definitely have been improved by removing 90% of the science talk. Overall, it was an interesting story that had some cool characters and even made parts of early TNG seem better (like explaining why Data would do weird expressions of emotion early in TNG). I also liked the Janeway cameo, and the cameo by one of my favorite TNG connected characters at the end. So, I'm glad I got it and read it, and I'd recommend it. I'd just warn people to prepare to put up with way too much overly complicated science explanations.
     
  17. Paris

    Paris Commodore Commodore

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    ^I loved those science explanations! Christopher really outdid himself with his research on The Buried Age. It was much appreciated on this end. He really put the 'science' in science fiction :techman:
     
  18. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well, I couldn't stand it. I also couldn't understand most of it, and I wasn't going to do research online to understand a star trek book. I'm trying to read a story, not an essay. I've read a LOT of Star Trek books, and I've never seen any author do that before. It bogged down a good story in unneeded fluff, and definitely felt like padding after awhile. I'd say it was the difference between the book being a 9/10 and being a 10/10. It wasn't bad enough to ruin the story, but it took me out of the story several times and really ruined the flow of the story at points.
     
  19. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yes, the science in TBA was as real as I could make it within the context of the Trek universe's conceits, just as it usually is in my work. Different Trek authors write in different subgenres, and my preferred genre is hard science fiction, where the science is a significant part of the story rather than just set dressing and is as well-grounded as it can be. I think science fiction is a fun way to learn about the universe, and I think it's a missed opportunity to use made-up or erroneous science when you can talk to your audience about some intriguing bit of reality.
     
  20. Paris

    Paris Commodore Commodore

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    Too bad you couldn't understand it. I understand that not everyone is able to grasp some of the complicated scientific concepts that Christopher adds to his Treklit, no matter how much he explains them in the text. Too bad it took you out of the story somewhat. But hey...9/10 still ain't bad :techman: