So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[ryan123450]

I'm reading The Princess Bride by William Goldman. One of the most interesting narrative structures I've ever read. Well, nowhere near as different as House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, but pretty interesting nonetheless.

[S. Gomez]

King's Cross by Timothy Keller
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (This one I hadn't read since Grade 9. It's still really good, probably Christie's best.)

Today I bought Markus Zusak's I Am The Messenger because I loved The Book Thief and this one sounded intriguing. I'm already closing in on the halfway mark; it's awesome so far.

[Greg Cox]

Picked up a fun coffee-table book on the history of Drive-In Movie Theaters. Ah, memories . . . .

Also read the (forthcoming) sequel to A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan. A fun series.

[wahwahkits]

Just finished 'Ash' by James Herbert. Was well written but I saw the ending coming a mile off. 4/5

Just started Q In-Law by Peter David

[Defcon]

Defcon wrote:

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Started Leverage: The Con Job by Matt Forbeck earlier today.

Finished that one on Friday. Nice little novel, some flaws, but overall enjoyable.

Now I'm reading Devil's Bargain. I'm about 2/3 through and have to say that I'm not overly impressed yet. Unless something ground-shaking happens in the last third, I guess this one will end up knee-deep in the average category.

[trash80]

Currently i am reading the Galactic Whirlpool, and its as good as people say it is, though personally found the start a bit slow but once you get beyond that...

[USS Firefly]

Star Trek: Diplomatic implausibility

[Use of Time]

I am currently reading K.W. Jeter's Warped. I have noticed that the writing style leaves each character with a heavy supporting internal monologue that makes for a slow reading style. I have enjoyed it so far but this is a book where you have to take your time or else you can lost quickly.

[Patrick O'Brien]

Finished Wool last night. Great Sci-Fi book! This is the first book I have read by Hugh Howey. Based on this omnibus edition of "Wool", I'd say he is one of the best sci-fi authors today. Looking forward to more stories from the Silo series.

[Garrovick]

Currently reading:
Typhon Pact: Brinkmanship by Una McCormack
Best Destiny by Diane Carey
Boogeymen (TNG #17) by Mel Gilden
A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin

Over the last week, I finished:
Titan: Fallen Gods by Michael Martin
Dark Passions Book One by Susan Wright
Contamination (TNG #16) by John Vornholt
A Flag Full of Stars (TOS #54) by Brad Ferguson
Renegade (TOS #55) by Gene DeWeese

I actually enjoyed Fallen Gods quite a bit, although there are other Titan novels I like better, particularly Orion's Hounds and Synthesis. I enjoyed the characterization of the Ta'ithans, and I am most interested to see what happens concerning

the Andorians making transporter duplicates of the Titan's Andorian crewmembers

in future books.

I understand from Voyages of the Imagination and also from other sources that A Flag Full of Stars was significantly changed from original manuscript to published form. I understand that Brad Ferguson doesn't really feel that it is "his" work any more - sounds like a similar situation to what happened with Probe. I wonder if there is more information somewhere about the original content of the novel.

Dark Passions was... interesting. With the Dark Passions novels being set before all of the DS9 Mirror Universe episodes, I wonder if future mirror-universe-only novels make any reference to them, or are they basically stand-alone works?

Technically, I suppose I can't really claim to have read all of Renegade, since my copy is actually missing about 40 pages - there is a stretch basically from about page 80 to page 120 that is printed twice in the novel, and then pages 121 to 160 are dropped from the book - I seem to remember that my original copy purchased in 1991 had the same flaw. My current copy is also a first edition, I may keep my eyes open for a copy of a later edition and see if I can find the missing text. Luckily I was able to figure out what happened in the missing pages from reading the remainder of the story.

[Christopher]

Garrovick wrote:

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Dark Passions was... interesting. With the Dark Passions novels being set before all of the DS9 Mirror Universe episodes, I wonder if future mirror-universe-only novels make any reference to them, or are they basically stand-alone works?

None of the later Pocket Mirror Universe tales made any reference to the events of DP, and indeed they created a continuity that's entirely incompatible with DP.

[Daddy Todd]

Garrovick wrote:

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I understand from Voyages of the Imagination and also from other sources that A Flag Full of Stars was significantly changed from original manuscript to published form. I understand that Brad Ferguson doesn't really feel that it is "his" work any more - sounds like a similar situation to what happened with Probe. I wonder if there is more information somewhere about the original content of the novel.

Ferguson used to have a link to a PDF of his version of AFFoS available on his website. I downloaded a copy years ago (maybe 10 or more...)

I've managed to snag copies of the author's drafts of a couple Trek novels. They make an interesting read, when compared to the final, published versions.

[Daddy Todd]

A few days late turning this entry around. It was a busy weekend.

02/01/2013 The Rim of Space (audiobook) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/01/2013 Who? by Algis Budrys
02/08/2013 Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice (audiobook) by Stephen Baxter
02/10/2013 Contraband from Otherspace by A. Bertram Chandler
02/10/2013 Chance Encounter (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/12/2013 The Golden Journey (na) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/12/2013 Lady Dog (nv) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/13/2013 Stability (nv) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/14/2013 A Time Odyssey I: Time’s Eye (audiobook) by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter
02/20/2013 A Time Odyssey II: Sunstorm (audiobook) by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter
02/23/2013 Space: 1999: Johnny Byrne’s Children of the Gods by William Latham
02/23/2013 Rimghost (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/23/2013 The Ship from Outside by A. Bertram Chandler
02/24/2013 Gift Horse (nv) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/24/2013 Wet Paint (nv) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/24/2013 The Man Who Could Not Stop (nv) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/24/2013 The Key (nv) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/24/2013 Forbidden Planet (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/25/2013 The Survivors (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/25/2013 The Key (nv) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/25/2013 The Man Who Could Not Stop (nv) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/25/2013 They Blow Up (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/25/2013 Time to Change (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/26/2013 Sense of Wonder (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/26/2013 Drift (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/26/2013 Dark Reflection (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/27/2013 The Cage (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/27/2013 A Time Odyssey III: Firstborn (audiobook) by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter
02/28/2013 Not Quite the Noblest (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/28/2013 The Book of Power (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler

Went trawling through my collection of old sci-fi magazines to read some previously unread A. Bertram Chandler stories. After reading some stories from the '40's, I thought it would be interesting to read some later stuff. I noticed that Chandler's output, pretty steady from 1945-1955, slowed to a trickle in 1956, then exploded again in 1957-1958. So I started with his three 1956 stories, then embarked on reading his entire 1957 output in order of publication. That's been fun -- 1957 is where he starts laying groundwork for the Rim Worlds stories that will dominate the rest of his career. He published 31 stories and novelettes in 56-57, and I have all of them but one published in a detective magazine. I also skipped ahead to 1958 to read the earliest batch of bona fide Rim Worlds stories. It's been interesting seeing Chandler's evolution towards his most important fictional milieu.

I've also discovered that far too many of Chandler's stories are nothing more than elaborate jokes, with far more care expended in the set-up than the eventual punchlines deserve. Nevertheless, they're still enjoyable reading. Someone should collect his stories into a couple of fat omnibuses. There are probably five other fans around the world who would enjoy reading them...

Listening to the audiobook of Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice got me in the mood for more Stephen Baxter, so I queued up his 4 collaborations with Arthur C. Clarke. The Time Odyssey series wasn't at all what I was expecting. But I liked it, mostly. It's clear that there were plans for at least one more volume -- volume III plants a bunch of seeds for a continuation towards the end. I can only speculate that Clarke's death prematurely ended the series. Currently listening to The Light of Other Days, their first collaboration, which is fairly lackluster. Clarke/Baxter would do significantly better on later collaborations.

Pulled out a copy of Budrys's Who?, which I first read in the '80's, when it was already three decades old. I remember being knocked out by the ending. I was less impressed this time, but it's still a solid novel of identity. I also got a DVD of the low-budget film made out of the novel in the early '70's. The movie is OK for what it is, but Elliot Gould is woefully miscast as the CIA agent assigned to figure out the central mystery. Was there a time when people thought Gould was a good actor, or did he just skate into a career based on being Babs Streisand's ex?

A new Space: 1999 novel came out in February. It's based on a "legendary" lost storyline for a second-season episode that was abandoned when Fred Freiberger came on as showrunner. No copies of the teleplay have survived, and the story's originator, Johnny Byrne, passed away a few years back, so this extremely short novel (maybe 35,000 words -- certainly not much longer) was written based on conversations between its author, editor, and Byrne late in Byrne's life. It's OK, I guess. Fitted into the storyline of Powys Media's line of Space: 1999 novels, it takes place a good decade or more after "breakaway," long after the events of both the first and second series. If you care about that kind of detail.

But this was really Chandler's month. I got through a single John Grimes novel (Contraband from Otherspace) and the two "Derek Calver" novels (The Rim of Space & The Ship from Outside.) The Ship from Outside concludes on an unresolved note -- Chandler refers to the tale later, in very hazy terms. I wish he'd gotten around to writing about what happened next to Calver and his crew. I'll probably read the original Astounding magazine versions of the two Calver tales in March or April -- they were published in '58. That might prove enlightening.

[Use of Time]

I am reading TOS #62 Death Count by the writing team of L.A. Graf. It dawned on me while reading this book that I have become quite the fan of Ecklar and associates. They have a smooth writing style that makes for an interesting and easy read. I also like their attempt at fleshing out Chekov's character a little more than what is generally seen on T.V.

[Christopher]

^If by "fleshing out" you mean "torturing." For some reason, most of the Graf TOS books involve Chekov getting beaten/injured to within an inch of his life.