I finished up Magic Bleeds/ the 4th book in the Kate Daniels Urban Fantasy series. I posted my review in my Urban Fantasy thread over the sci-fi/fantasy section.
I'm going to start reading 'Eye of the Beholders' - again - by A.C. Crispin. I read it about five years ago, and recalled thinking that 1. It probably should have featured Geordi as the one who mentors the girl. 2. A scene with Riker sleeping with a female ENT officer came off a bit random.... I'm going to see how if my thoughts change.
I am reading and enjoying "Lexicon" by Max Barry. Looking forward to the seekers series starting on the 22nd. As I am sure most of you are
Just finished The Wounded Sky by Diane Duane. It's one of the worst pocket sT books I've read. Its slow, boring and long winded. It had a lot of problems. The author seemed to write some scenes just because they really wanted to write them, not because they made sense to the story, like having Kirk randomly take time to space walk basically just so the author can write some generic fluff about the wonders of space. The author also created a lot about the ships crew. I'm fine with the idea that there was some actual variety in the crew that we just didn't see on screen, but this book would have you believe that a bunch of different, sometimes non humanoid crewmen were sitting just behind the character, to the point that humans are maybe a bare majority, which was definitely not the case. This would have been ignorable if the book hadn't been bad. The main story was just annoying. It starts out decent enough, the Enterprise gets to test an experimental drive that allows them to travel huge distances almost instantly. It quickly gets boring. It could have been a cool story and an interesting adventure, but mostly its an excuse to spout a lot of probably fake science, some fake psychology, and just some stupidity from McCoy (when he said that dreams are a complete reality, just not as "senior" as the one we live in, my eyes almost rolled into the back of my head). Overall, I'd say to stay far, far away from this book. Its really got nothing going for it, except a premise that might have been good if done by another author. As it is, its just slow and boring, with a dose of stupid.
I just finished reading Star Trek Vanguard Open Secrets it was an excellent story. I'm now reading Vanguard Declassified . I really like reading about the building of the station and the very beginning of the Vanguard space station.
I just finished The Light Fantastic by Jeffrey Lang. It is well-written and ties some loose ends somewhat more together. And, it ends with the promise of more to come--always good in a ST book! However, with the exception of the androids, the humanoid characters all seem to be aging. That is the way life goes, and it beats the alternative! But, it makes the stories somewhat bittersweet: a combination of nostalgia and sweet sadness.
I'm reading The Fallen by Charlie Higson. In the past few days, I've read Four (Divergent) and 34 Pieces of You.
Continuing my quest to read all the Star Trek books in order, I've recently read a bunch of books under TNG line. So I finished the following: Death in Winter - I like Picard and Crusher together and I appreciate Beverly getting a little more attention. That said, I find Romulan politics a bit dull since everyone is out to screw everyone else. Also if I was Starfleet Medical I probably wouldn't ask Crusher to head my organization a third time! Articles of the Federation - I've read this before but it was one of the first ST books I got since returning to the series. I was completely lost for most the novel but enjoyed it nevertheless. Now that I've read so many of the connecting books, it was even better the second time! Defiantly one of KRADs best. Resistance - Not bad. Sort of a prequel of what's to come. I will say I found T'Lana to be a very intriguing character. I like someone on the ship to get in Picard's face because who else is going to do it? Q&A - You can't go wrong with a KRAD Star Trek book and this is no different. This is good stuff! The addition of Miranda Kadohata is wonderful, and the T'Lana/La Forge scenes are particularly good. Before Dishonor - Ok so here's the deal! I've heard so much about this book, and I expected to hate it. I assumed it would make me mad, and I would set it aside unfinished. But I gotta say, I really really enjoyed it! Yes Janeway is treated shamefully here, and the new characters don't have the personalities KRAD gave them in his previous book (understandable given the close publication dates) but I was able to get past it. The story feels much bigger, the Borg much more dangerous then Resistance. With ties to the original series, and even a cameo from Calhoun, I was shocked how much I enjoyed this book! Up next Christopher Bennett's Greater Than the Sum and then on to the Titan series! --Chris
The Wit And Wisdom Of Gene Hunt was a short novelty thing for the LOLS. So short that I forgot to post it in the list of recreational reading. It's basically a collection of quotes from Gene Hunt in Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes, which some pics and annotations by fictional writers Chris Skelton and Ray Carling (and actual writer Guy Adams). Full of totally un-PC one-liners, which come across as a lot more offensive when separated from context and performance, but also occasionally amusing. It too a while longer to get through 1000 Years Of Annoying The French, by Stephen Clarke, because it's an awkward size to fit in a pocket, so I wasn't carrying it around and reading on journeys, but was more dipping into it in the bathroom. Anyway, it was a pretty good popular history romp through Anglo-French relations, from the Norman invasion onwards. Always readable and amusing, frequently surprising and fascinating, and still quite relevant (especially where, for example, it covers how a Sun headline in 1983 basically is responsible for the crap we're still seeing between Europhiles and Euro-sceptics today. Anyway I can recommend that.
Open Secrets is VAN book 4, while Declassified is VAN book 6. Precipice is VAN book 5. You may want to read it first...especially before David Mack's story in Declassified.
Yesterday I received The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, volume I in the mail. This afternoon I finished it. I started on the series a decade ago, when they were released, but for some reason I received the first volume as a set of audiodramas on cassette tape and the second as a book. The tapes were excellent, but I misplaced them and couldn't finish the story. Rewatching "Space Seed", TWOK, and Into Darkness prompted me to purchase a copy of the first book, so now I can read the second and buy the third. Poor Gary Seven; he has no idea what horrors he released on the world by rescuing little Khan.
^ Loved that book. Currently reading ENT novel By the Book. This book might be ok but it keeps ripping you out of the story with the alternating chapters that send you back to this RPG game Crewman Cutler is playing with her friends.
Finished Crucible of Empire by Flint/Wentworth and enjoyed it. I'm about half way through the new Seekers novel and am really enjoying it so far.
I am also reading Seekers #1 right now. I'm alternating between it and DS9: Twilight by DRG3, as I couldn't put it aside completely due to its high quality. Enjoying both very much
I just finished Vanguard: Harbinger this morning. Tonight after work i'll be starting Vanguard: Summon the Thunder. I originally read the first 3 books when each first came out. And then I stopped reading the series. So I started over, and plan to burn through all 8 books before starting Seekers book 1.
I finished Fringe: The Burning Man last night. I'm not really sure what I think about it. It's not necessarily bad, but I did enjoy The Zodiac Paradox more. What I thought of as the main storyline just wrapped up around the halfway point, and then the plot just changed. There was a lot of crazy stuff that happened, which is to be expected in Fringe. But the story is a prequel to the show, focusing on Olivia, and I never got the idea that she had seen any weird stuff before the show (other than the Cortexiphan trials as kid, which she didn't really remember as an adult). I just feel that if the events which happened in this novel actually occurred in Olivia's past she would have mentioned it at some point in the show. Like I said, I'm not sure if I liked it or not, it's not bad, but fairly interesting, so if I had to rate it I would give it 3 out of 5 stars. I'm now reading The Walking Dead, Volume 4: The Heart's Desire.