So What Are you Reading?: Generations

Reading has been going slow lately. I'm just about done with The Captain's Table by various authors. It's a pretty cool book. It deals with stories told by Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Calhoun, and Pike as told in the setting of a bar that exists out of time and space in the company of other captains of other vessels.

Awesome concept. Through most of the book, it really did feel as if the main character/narrator was telling the story to me over a glass of "bier" or Saurian brandy. The exception was Diane Carey's Janeway bit, which didn't fit in with the other stories in terms of style, and I don't think that she really captured the Janeway character. She felt really contrived, more like a stereotype than an actual person, whereas the other captains were portrayed to a tee. I liked how in the other five stories, there were breaks that brought you back to the Captain's Table and made the audience part of the story. The themes of each story evolve and mutate throughout the book, each building on previous ones so that even though it's six separate stories, they each tie into each other and give more and more 'Aha!' moments as you read. I think that this is the best co-authored Star Trek book I've read to date and definitely recommend it.

 

Almost done with The Taking by Dean Koontz. First of his works that I have read. It was definitely a fast read, though I'm unsure right now where the story can possibly end up.

 

JD5000: there was a followup anthology that I put together in 2005 that includes some captains who were added to the pantheon after 1998: Riker (put in command of the Titan in Nemesis), Chakotay (promoted to captain in the post-finale Voyager novels), Shelby (promoted to captain in the New Frontier: Excalibur trilogy), Demora Sulu (promoted to captain in The Lost Era: Serpents of the Ruins), Archer (from Enterprise), Kira (made a captain in Unity), plus using the captains of three (at the time) new book series: Stargazer (Picard), Starfleet Corps of Engineers (Gold), and I.K.S. Gorkon (Klag).

 

One of my favourite of Koontz's book. An interesting ending. I didn't expect it at all.

 

Silver Shadows: A Bloodlines Novel by Richelle Mead.

 

Finally got started on the Veronica Mars novel and I'm really enjoying it so far.

Warning: You definitely want to read this novel after you've seen the movie. It picks up shortly after the movie, which means there are plenty of spoilers about the movie.

 

^I gather that the novel started as an outline for the movie, but then they decided they needed the movie to start earlier and set up the new status quo, so the outline became a novel.

 

Interesting!

It will be odd if they make a second movie, because the novel is dealing with a lot of the aftermath of the first one--which they would also have to deal with in any movie sequel.

 

^They might just adapt the novel into a movie.

 

Sadly, my reading has been somewhat Trekless. I have recently read about 40 short stories from what would be available in various short fiction textbooks. I am reading "The Christian Ethic of War" by P. T. Forsyth (1916) which might be WW I propaganda, heresy, or sound doctrine. Hope to read "A Singular Destiny" by Keith R. A. DeCandido (2009) sometime soon. Have a ticket for "Guardians of the Galaxy" for 14 or 15 hours from now. TNG is available from Netflix for the time being. Hope to get into the series as I have definitely missed a number of episodes.

 

I finished the Star Trek novel "Shadow Lord" by Laurence Yep and if you are interested my review is here.

I have to be honest and say it isn't very good as a Star Trek novel.

 

Thanks Keith, I'll put on the short list for summer reading.

 

I'm reading Jupiter by Ben Bova.

 

I've just started Death in Winter since finishing TNG and the movies.

But I'm wondering, what would people recommend as a reading order between TNG novels and TTN novels up to Destiny? Should I continue onto Resistance, Q&A etc to Greater Than The Sum, and then go back to Taking Wing? Or should I switch back and forth, read one from each series alternately?

 

Storywise, the TNG and TTN books don't intersect between Nemesis and Destiny, so you don't have to read them in chronological order. But chronologically speaking, the order after Death in Winter would be the first three TTN books (Taking Wing, The Red King, Orion's Hounds) followed by the first three TNG-R books (Resistance, Q & A, Before Dishonor), then TTN: Sword of Damocles, then TNG: Greater Than the Sum, then Destiny. Though from a story-flow perspective, it might be better to read the first four TTN books, then the four TNG-R books, then Destiny.

 

This is what I'd recommend.

 

I read the second volume of the Captain America: The Winter Soldier comic book arc yesterday and Tuesday. I really enjoyed it. Whileit was very different, there were still a lot of interesting parallels with the movies.

 

I am sorry, but dumb question. What does TTN stand for?

 

The Star Trek: Titan novel series.

 

Must read more Star Trek. However, I just finished reading "Night" (translated by Marion Wiesel) by Elie Wiesel (2006 translation). About two-thirds of the way through, I listened to Barbara Streisand sing "Memory" from Cats. Its meaning has changed. Much has changed. I may not "select" text again the same.