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So What Are you Reading?: Generations

Started No Time Like the Past by Greg Cos last night. Been awhile since I got round to Trek Lit, and my reading of NF has been put on the back burner, but the itch became impossible to ignore. The concept sounded awesome so had to give it a go!
 
Finished a story by Stephen King & Son, "In the Tall Grass" last night. First scary, then creepy to disgusting; I enjoyed it. :)
 
I really liked Una McCormack's 'The Missing'. Fast paced whodunit, alien of the week storyline (I like those), and I liked the more in-depth investigation into Corazame's personality. Metiger was by comparison a little bland, but maybe we'll see more of her in the future.

"Rogue Saucer" by John Vornholt was a pretty good episode novel. Those that remembered enjoying it remembered well. I didn't particularly like the way Nechayev was portrayed - what ever the circumstances, I can't imagine her willingly being 'held in Riker's arms'. I think she would have fought to her dying breath to get away from that situation. What an odd mental picture.

Onto another Vanguard book, 'Precipice' by David Mack. I haven't been reading these sequentially, but I've either been really lucky or the overall storyline is looser than I think it is, because somehow I keep ending up choosing a Vanguard book that seems to take place right after the last one I read. I like it so far - I've liked all the Vanguard books I've read.
 
Hate to double post, but so be it! I finished Revelation and Dust today and was pretty disappointed. The book isn't bad. Indeed, it's well written and DRGIII remains the most literary-minded of Trek Lit authors. But it just didn't connect with me on any level and aside from showcasing the new station, didn't give me enough of the DS9 uniqueness. The Keev storyline was too long and I was never given a reason to care or root for the characters there. I do wish TrekLit would avoid the temptation to give characters touched by the Prophets their own Benny Russell. I feel that section, instead of giving us insight into Kira via a proxy, pushed Kira to the side. The DS9 parts were good but not great. Too many characters in too little space. We get small scenes and that's it, Ezri/Julian could have been bigger. Nog and O'Brien seemed off. The biggest issues remain the constant time jumps for the DS9-R since "Soul Key" and the "missing" years of the Ascendant Incident. There's too much to fill in and at the same time there's a hesitancy to establish anything about the Ascendant arc. It's time to move on and either spill the beans on it all or put a book out that fills it. You can only read "The Ascendant incident" so many times. And man this book couldn't have more artlessly done political allegory.

Lest it seem I'm totally down on the book, I loved the scene between Wadeen and Gell Kamemor. And the scene with Quark and Ro late in the book was phenomenal, Quark's tearful statement of remorse set shivers down my spine in how emotionally and character true it was. It could have been so much better, but a weak DRGIII DS9 entry is still solid.

Finally, I started The Crimson Shadow today and am absolutely loving it. In just a single chapter, Una McCormack already has me caring for her policewomen and the Cardassian equivalent of a Southerner in the big city. And the real world reflections seem truer. Plus, Garak. Everything is improved by Garak.


Although I understand how people felt about Revelations and Dust, I'm convinced DRGIII is doing something similar with this as he did with RBoE and his Typhon Pact Duology. So, I'm reserving final judgement untill I've read his upcoming DS9 novel, which I'm guessing will continue/resolve what he started with this novel.
I do agree, the Keev storyline was hard to connect with.
 
Although I understand how people felt about Revelations and Dust, I'm convinced DRGIII is doing something similar with this as he did with RBoE and his Typhon Pact Duology. So, I'm reserving final judgement untill I've read his upcoming DS9 novel, which I'm guessing will continue/resolve what he started with this novel.

That's what I'm thinking too. That's why his DS9 novel is one I'm looking forward to: there must be a reason of all that story, and I want to know what it is! ;)
 
Although I understand how people felt about Revelations and Dust, I'm convinced DRGIII is doing something similar with this as he did with RBoE and his Typhon Pact Duology. So, I'm reserving final judgement untill I've read his upcoming DS9 novel, which I'm guessing will continue/resolve what he started with this novel.

That's what I'm thinking too. That's why his DS9 novel is one I'm looking forward to: there must be a reason of all that story, and I want to know what it is! ;)

I wish I could be that optimistic. I wasn't as down on RBoE as others had been, but I only had a short wait before getting to Raise/Dawn. However, there's still a lot of things from the "Four Year Jump" that I haven't really bought into, despite the build up across, now, four books.

Update.
In before the edit button disappeared! I finished up The Crimson Shadow which was fantastic. A great insight into Garak, interesting look at Cardassia, nice spotlight for my favorite "new crew" character Dygan and a sort of LeCarré-light plot. Picard & Co. do kind of get pushed to the side and part of me wonders if maybe having Ezri would have been a little more fun. Still, Picard and Garak is a great combo. Excellent read. Really made up for my disappointment with the first installment of The Fall.

Now onto A Ceremony of Losses, which is pretty good about 40 pages in. I also read the first issue of the Trek/Planet of the Apes crossover comic which was actually pretty good, definitely among the strongest Tipton Borthers scripts I've seen in a while. Loved the art, too. Surprisingly grounded for such a crossover.
 
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I just started "Sphere" by Crichton. I've heard from many people that the book is better than the film (which is true for almost all books-turn-film with a few exceptions), so it's time to see for myself.
 
I just started "Sphere" by Crichton. I've heard from many people that the book is better than the film (which is true for almost all books-turn-film with a few exceptions), so it's time to see for myself.

I keep saying I'm going to reread Sphere and I never quite get around to it. I love the movie and love the book. Maybe when I finally finish the 24th Century Trek novels. ;)
 
^ It took me ages to get to it. I noticed it in a library, but was at my limit with borrowed books, then it was constantly checked out, then I moved to another continent and they don't have it in the library here. So eventually I "gave up", and bought it.
 
Just posted my review of a classic novel that I loved in my childhood: Diane Duane's TNG: Dark Mirror.

At the moment, I'm reading the first book in the Slings and Arrows series, A Sea of Troubles.

I read Dark Mirror when I was in junior high school. I felt the DS9 version of the mirror univese was just horrid other then the first story. After that first epsoide the story line just got silly. I am hopeful the novels in the DS9r are redeeming. I thought the Enterprise mirror universe 2 parter was pretty good.
 
I read Dark Mirror when I was in junior high school. I felt the DS9 version of the mirror univese was just horrid other then the first story. After that first epsoide the story line just got silly. I am hopeful the novels in the DS9r are redeeming. I thought the Enterprise mirror universe 2 parter was pretty good.

The novel-verse MU has been amazing. David Mack (primarily) has really fleshed it out into a universe that i'd love reading about every year. If only :scream:!
 
I read Dark Mirror when I was in junior high school. I felt the DS9 version of the mirror univese was just horrid other then the first story. After that first epsoide the story line just got silly. I am hopeful the novels in the DS9r are redeeming. I thought the Enterprise mirror universe 2 parter was pretty good.

The novel-verse MU has been amazing. David Mack (primarily) has really fleshed it out into a universe that i'd love reading about every year. If only :scream:!

I agree completely. I really enjoyed DS9's "Crossover," and while the other entries in the MU canon weren't stellar, it only really went off the rails in "The Emperor's New Cloak." The work that David Mack and others have done in the MU literature has been amazing. The Sorrows of Empire and Rise Like Lions are two of my top Trek novels of the last ten years.
 
Finished A Walk Among The Tombstones by Lawrence Block. I love his Matt Scudder series (I have a thing for this type of detective stuff generally), but haven't read them in order. I see they made a movie of this one (which I haven't seen yet) with Liam Neeson in the role, and I can totally hear Neeson's voice narrating and speaking, so that's probably good casting. It was good, though with a somewhat abrupt ending that somehow didn't quite feel as climactic as it probably should have. So, loved it, of course, but I still think A Dance At The Slaughterhouse is my favourite of the ones I've read.
 
I have a question about 'The Missing'. Maybe someone can answer this for me.

Where does Una McCormack get 'Katherine D. Pulaski' from? It comes up on page 222 -

"...."Need more samples! Working on this and will be in touch. KDP
I wonder what the D stands for, Crusher thought, relieved that she didn't have to tell Pulaski that her test didn't work."

Is this just made up, or does Katherine Pulaski's middle initial come up somewhere else? I swear I'd heard her referred to as Katherine D. Pulaski somewhere before I read this but I can't find the source if it exists.
 
My guess was that the 'D' stands for Diana as well, but I still have this nagging feeling that it comes up somewhere else and bugs the hell out of me that I can't place it.

It's possible this was just Ms. McCormack's nod to Diana Muldaur, but the way it was presented implies something a little more.
 
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