So What Are you Reading?: Generations
- Thread starter captcalhoun
- Start date
Since my last post I finished Star Trek: Khan, the IDW comic collection based on the Kelvinverse version of the character.
I also read:
Assassin's Creed: Volume 3: Homecoming (comic)
Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War: "Eleven Hours Out" by Dave Galanter
Star Trek: SCE: Home Fires by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
Star Trek: The Original Series: Timetrap by David Dvorkin
Star Trek: Voyager: Distant Shores: "Da Capo al Fine, Part II" by Heather Jarman
Doctor Who: The Missy Chronicles: "Dimemberment" by James Goss
Doctor Who: the Missy Chronicles: "Lords and Masters" by Cavan Scott
Star Trek: New Earth: Belle Terre by Dean Wesley Smith with Diane Carey
Star Trek: Ongoing: Volume 8 (comic)
The Expanse: Gods of Risk by James S. A. Corey
Doctor Who: The Missy Chronicles: "Tedd Sparkles Must Die!" by Paul Magrs
Star Trek: The Original Series: Section 31: Cloak by S.D. Perry
Star Wars: Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (comic)
I'm now about to start Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War: "Safe Harbors" by Howard Weinstein.
I also read:
Assassin's Creed: Volume 3: Homecoming (comic)
Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War: "Eleven Hours Out" by Dave Galanter
Star Trek: SCE: Home Fires by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
Star Trek: The Original Series: Timetrap by David Dvorkin
Star Trek: Voyager: Distant Shores: "Da Capo al Fine, Part II" by Heather Jarman
Doctor Who: The Missy Chronicles: "Dimemberment" by James Goss
Doctor Who: the Missy Chronicles: "Lords and Masters" by Cavan Scott
Star Trek: New Earth: Belle Terre by Dean Wesley Smith with Diane Carey
Star Trek: Ongoing: Volume 8 (comic)
The Expanse: Gods of Risk by James S. A. Corey
Doctor Who: The Missy Chronicles: "Tedd Sparkles Must Die!" by Paul Magrs
Star Trek: The Original Series: Section 31: Cloak by S.D. Perry
Star Wars: Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (comic)
I'm now about to start Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War: "Safe Harbors" by Howard Weinstein.
TOS Section 31 Cloaked
I understand the negative reviews - that Scotty and Kirk were not that close for him to want to go back in time and stop Kirk from dying, if the character was McCoy, who was Kirk's best friend then that would make more sense. Apart from that major plot line, the time differences are interesting, especially the Sarek character.
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M
marlboro
Guest
I read that one not too long ago and enjoyed it. I wish S.D. Perry did more Trek stuff.
I think that Scotty blamed himself for Kirk's death. He thought he should have been rigging up that photon torpedo solution that helped save the Enterprise. His failure to prevent Kirk's death indirectly leads to Franklin's death, which he also blames himself for.
So, he can relieve himself of the burden of two deaths while (perhaps selfishly) returning to the time period where he thinks he belongs.
I'm glad you mentioned the Sare/time travel thing as I had an additional thought about it the other night. Whenever you watch a Trek time travel story you usually end up asking yourself how can they remember what happened if they fixed the timeline. Or, sometimes you end up asking why they don't remember. Eventually you pull a Janeway and just throw up your hands.
spoilers
The author finds a third option here with his "transformed" reality replacing (or working with) time travel. This allows his characters to have vague memories of the altered timeline without having to wrestle with all of the paradoxes. I thought it was pretty clever.
I recently read. TNG The Forgotten War, The Janus Gate books 1& 2, and Allegiance in Exile.
Sulu has grown on me as a character, thanks to the novelverse. I never disliked him or anything, but he's a lot more interesting in the books. In particular, I enjoy his relationship with Chekov.
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Because they weren't "in" the timeline when it was changed. Essentially, they traveled from one timeline into another, but they were still native to the first timeline. Their own worldlines originate in the starting timeline and cross into the revised timeline, thus containing memories from both, while the non-travelers' worldlines are confined to the revised timeline.
Really, it's the usual rule of most time travel stories that the time travelers themselves remember the original history while the people who didn't time travel only remember the altered history. That's the way that makes the most narrative sense, as well as making more logical sense, since it's the only way to avoid the paradox of the travelers erasing their own time travel so that the change was never made in the first place, so that they did time travel so the change was made, so that they didn't travel so that the change wasn't made, etc. I don't even know where the belief comes from that the time travelers forgetting should be the default, since it's more rare in time-travel fiction than the alternative. Kirk and Spock remembered the original history in "Yesteryear." Marty McFly remembered his original life when he got back to the future and found things had changed for the better. And so on.
I've recently been trying the Jerry Mitchell series by Larry Bond a go. I've just started on Cold Choices, but I think there is a new Safehold novel (David Weber) due out next week that I fancy along with A Way to the Stars by Una Mccormack. Week after that is The Iron Codex by David Mack
Yeah, I agree. It's not so much that he and Kirk were close, he felt responsible, which can be just as devastating to someone. Don't forget, way back in 'Mirror, Mirror' Scotty was willing to put his life on the line by staying behind in place of Kirk, so there is some precedent.
I loved Engine's of Destiny because of the whole cause and effect angle. It didn't just drastically affect Generations but First Contact as well. And I always love alternate universe storylines. Yeah, everything was reset at the end, but I think that's partly because books always have to put everything back in it's place (unless it's a relaunch which this was not though I didn't find this book totally incompatible with the relaunches).
Chain of Attack was one of my absolute favorite Star Trek novels so I hope you enjoy it.
Oh, as for novels I just started Probe by Margaret Wander Bonanno*
Since I loved some of Gene DeWeese's other books I hope I like Probe as well
I thought I read it years ago after it came out but I couldn't find it in my collection after I moved so I may have been thinking of something else. I bought a used copy and decided to give it a read--if I did read it, it would have been years ago
Since I loved some of Gene DeWeese's other books I hope I like Probe as well
I thought I read it years ago after it came out but I couldn't find it in my collection after I moved so I may have been thinking of something else. I bought a used copy and decided to give it a read--if I did read it, it would have been years ago
Damian Probe is a really interesting book. I've read Margaret Wander Bonanno's original story too and like both versions of Probe. In Margaret's original story Gillian Taylor is is in it and there's some real interesting things about how she's adjusting to living in the 23rd century and George and Gracie too.
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I’m about halfway into The Fall: Revelation & Dust. I really really like it so far. Was up until 2 AM last night reading because I just couldn’t put it down!
Finished this afternoon. I definitely agree with you both on those points...it was about 50 pages too long and the Kira/Keev plot every other chapter really took me out of the story. It was like the tension was building on DS9 and things were finally happening and then...back to yet another Kira in Bajoran history subplot...really killed it for me. I almost just jumped to the next chapter every time to keep up with Ro and DS9. Ah well, on to The Crimson Shadow. I’m expecting this one to be way better paced!
While I liked all of her novels, Brinkmanship is IMO her weakest.
I'm the complete opposite there, I liked the Kira/Keev stuff a lot better than the DS9 stuff. It just felt like nothing happened in the DS9 stuff until the big event that set off the rest of the miniseries. It felt to me like could almost cut off everything from the DS9 stuff up until a chapter or two before the big event and not really lose anything.
M
marlboro
Guest
I think almost all the writers are better when working outside the multi-author miniseries format. There are just too many moving pieces.
I just finished The Children of Kings. This was a re-read for me. I read it two summers ago and was underwhelmed, but I enjoyed it a lot more this time.
I think it's important to know going in that this is more of a Dr. Boyce novel than a Pike or Spock novel. The latter two do get plenty of time in the spotlight, of course. This turns out to not be such a bad thing.
Some positives:
- A little Orion culture building
- Some Spock & Number One interaction
- Boyce is an interesting character. I always liked the actor who played him on tv.
- The story had nothing to do with Talos IV. Nice to read some Pike stuff that isn't tied to Menagerie.
- It was fast paced with a couple of twists that I didn't see coming. Well, at least not during my first read anyway.
Extremely minor nitpicks:
- A couple of minor continuity flubs. I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of Trek history but they caught my eye. Easily avoidable by changing the names of alien races A and B to X and Y. It wouldn't have affected the story one iota.
- I think the glimpse of Captain Pike we get in The Cage will always be more interesting than what we get when we dig deeper.
- They should just give Number One a name and get it over with.
- The security in that Orion holding cell didn't exactly put me in mind of Alcatraz. The only way it could have been more lax is if the guards served cakes with files in them for lunch everyday. Maybe with a nice blueprint of the ship mapped out in frosting and some arrow shaped candles pointing to the ship's self-destruct button.
Questions:
- Will we get to see a new Pike book now that he's going to be on Discovery?
- Any idea what the title Children of Kings is referring to?
(spoilers)
- Was the Kronos project a joint effort to cure the Augment virus?
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IIRC, The Children of Kings was sort of deliberately out-of-continuity. It was written before the question of how Pocket would handle the new movie continuity was settled, so TCoK was sort of written to be ambiguous, to be not quite in either Prime or Kelvin continuity (as they're now known) but to be its own thing distinct from both.
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