So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Drago-Kazov]

I just finished that series. I assume you will review all of them.

[Kertrats47]

Drago-Kazov wrote:

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I just finished that series. I assume you will review all of them.

Eventually, that's the plan!

[Smellincoffee]

I just finished The Eternal Tide. And...wow. The transdimensional thing-destroying-the-universe plot took a while to warm up to, but the exploration of the You-Know-Who's origins was an unexpected gift. And again, the way Tom and Chakotay's relationship has grown is delightful.

[Joel_Kirk]

Finished Luther: The Calling by Neil Cross.

Brilliant.

[Daddy Todd]

November reads:

The first half of the month was scary-busy with Real Life stuff -- the run-up to, and aftermath of the election left me no time to power up the Nook or iPad for casual reading, so I only finished some audiobooks in the first 16 days of the month.

11/02/2012 Star Trek: Vulcan’s Soul I: Exodus (audiobook) by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz
11/10/2012 Star Trek: Sarek (audiobook) by A.C. Crispin
11/16/2012 Star Trek: Vulcan’s Soul II: Exiles (audiobook) by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz
11/17/2012 Space: 1999: Phoenix of Megaron (2nd Edition) by John Rankine
11/21/2012 Lord of the Trees by Philip José Farmer
11/22/2012 Opus: The Complete Library Sunday Comics 2003-2008 (gn) by Berkeley Breathed
11/24/2012 The Mad Goblin by Philip José Farmer
11/25/2012 The Adventures of Venus (gn) by Gilbert Hernandez
11/25/2012 The Other Log of Phileas Fogg by Philip José Farmer
11/27/2012 Star Trek: Vulcan’s Soul III: Epiphany (audiobook) by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz
11/29/2012 The Coils of Time by A. Bertram Chandler

Let's talk about the "Vulcan's Soul" trilogy by Sherman and Shwartz. Good lord in heaven, are those ever L O N G! It's about as "decompressed" as the Star Wars prequels. That's not a compliment, by the way. There's about enough story for one thick book. The rest is kinda endless padding. Didn't care for them at all. If there were abridged versions of books 2 & 3, I'd recommend someone try those out. Way too much for an unabridged reading.

Had to stop after the first Vulcan's Soul audiobook (my copy of part II was damaged, and I had to find another copy) and slotted in an unabridged reading of A.C. Crispin's Sarek, another Star Trek novel. This is far from Crispin's best work, and feels so out of character compared to her other Trek titles that I wonder if it was ghost rewritten, like Margaret Wander Bonanno's Star Trek: Probe, which is from the same era.

Powys Media finally fixed the ordering snafus with Phoenix of Megaron, so I got a copy to read. This was very enjoyable. It's always fun to drop back into the Space: 1999 universe -- more fun than actual episodes of the series,

The final volume of the Berkeley Breathed "Complete Library" of Bloom County/Outland/Opus. This final volume was entirely new to me; I wasn't taking a newspaper in the years while these were running as a Sunday-only strip. Nowhere near as good as the Glory Years, but still enjoyable as Opus's last hurrah.

Blew through a few more Phil Farmer novels from the early '70's. Lord of the Trees/The Mad Goblin are the twin sequels to A Feast Unknown, which I read last month. They were originally published as both halves of an Ace Double. They were awesome fun, but considerably toned down, when compared with their predecessor. The Other Log... was something of a chore to get through. YMMV.

I've been a big fan of A. Bertram Chandler since reading the SFBC's first couple of omnibuses of John Grimes novels in 2002. Since I was unemployed for most of the spring, summer & fall of that year (from right after the Salt Lake Olympics until October) I had lots of time to research and collect Chandler's work. I even recognized an error in the placement of one of the novels in those first two omnibuses, so I started emailing SFBC editor Andrew Wheeler, and gave him suggested contents for the rest of the series -- which he followed. That's why I get a "Thank You" in the final three volumes of the series, John Grimes: Reserve Commodore, John Grimes: Rim Runner and John Grimes: Rim Commander.

Anyway, an e-book publisher has acquired reprint rights to some of Chandler's non-Grimes novels and published 8 of them (all titles I've never read) for Kindle, Nook, etc. in September or October. I have moldering old paperbacks of all these, but I find I really prefer reading e-texts over the tiny print in an old Ace Double, and as the prices were reasonable, I bought all 8. I started with The Coils of Time, from 1965. It's clearly a potboiler written in a few weeks, with all the pulpy plot holes one would expect. But Chandler's writing has a vividness that I find appealing, so it was a fun read. I'll be reading more of these in December.

[Cap'n Crunch]

I finished New Frontier: Excalibur: Restoration the other day, then I read the New Frontier comic Double Time. I'm now reading Halo: First Strike.

[JD]

I decided to go back to the Comics Collectiond DVzd, which I haven't popped into my computer in ages, and read issue #29 of DC's first TOS series, The Trouble with Bearclaw. I really enjoyed it.

[Joel_Kirk]

Currently reading:
Sword by Da Chen

[Bones_McCoy21]

Q-In-Law by Peter David

[Fer]

I finished up Coruscant Nights II: Streets of Shadows, and also read Coruscant Nights III: Patterns of Force while I was at it. Drago-Kazov, what did you feel messed up the continuity with that book? The only problem I really saw with it was that it didn't make sense for it to take place in 18 BBY like the timeline in front of the book stated, because (a) that makes the events of Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter only took place 13 years earlier, when the book repeatedly states they took place 20 years earlier, and (b) the whole Inquisitorius thing doesn't work if it's only one year after Order 66. Supposedly Darth Vader trained Tesla (and the other Inquisitors) since Tesla was a teen, and that's just impossible if Darth Vader has only existed for one year. But if you go with the idea the timeline chart placement is wrong and the book really takes place in 12 BBY, then it all fits into place and makes sense.

After much anticipation, I've finally started Silent Weapons!

Up on deck is The Han Solo Trilogy Book 1: The Paradise Snare, by good ol' classic Trek novelist A. C. Crispin. I haven't read a book from her in ages, so I'm looking forward to that one.

[Drago-Kazov]

If you enjoyed it its irrelevant.

I highly recommand reading the whole trilogy.

[JD]

I started reading the first Kate Daniels book, Magic Bites. I've read a short story prequel to the series in the urban fantasy anthology, Dark and Stormy Knights, and I loved every page of it, so I've been looking forward to this one.

[Endgame]

I am so desirous of being more up-to-date in readings. I finished "Ishmael" (ST-TOS #23) by Barbara Hambly which is my 26th ST novel this year. Enjoyed reading about The Emperor of the United States.

Then, I read "On Kingship" (a fragment) by (Saint) Thomas Aquinas which is for covering "Great Political Thinkers" source documents. I further am reading First and Second Kings from the Bible. And for further religion "Spiritual Growth" by Arthur W. Pink (from sometime in the early Twentieth Century).

Then, I read "Mind Meld" (ST-TOS #82) by John Vornholt which was strange for the age of the protagonist.

Maybe I can read some more recent books soon. But, I am almost to reading 30 ST books this year (same as last year) and am near having read a total of about 200 ST books now. Is that at least the halfway point? It is fun but I am wondering if I am missing something by not reading enough of other authors and multiverses.

[WarsTrek1993]

I'm currently reading VOY: Places of Exile, from the Myriad Universes: Infinity's Prism anthology.

[Patrick O'Brien]

Finished David Mack's new book. Currently reading Una McCormack's Brinkmanship.