Over the last two or three days I've started working my way through the Time magazine special edition, How Dogs Think: Inside the Canine Mind.
Just posted my review of Star Trek: Destiny, Book I: Gods of Night by David Mack. Currently finishing up reading Book II: Mere Mortals for this week's Literary Treks recording.
I bought "The Crimson Shadow" from eBay. The only "The Fall" novel that I couldn't find in Waterstones or WHSmith back when the novels were originally released.
Now a bit over a third of the way through The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I know I got this far, the first time, because I remember the chapter I just read: a lengthy monograph on how printing supplanted architecture. Victor Hugo seems rather given to that sort of verbose interpolation. Seems like this is at least part of what Goldman was poking fun at in The Princess Bride, with his supposed "abridgments" of hundreds of pages of [entirely imaginary] material that advanced neither plot nor characters. For some reason, I remembered this from my first attempt on the book, but completely forgot the preceding chapter with Dom Claude Frollo denouncing astrology and medicine (not that the medicine of Hugo's medieval Paris was anything but pure superstition), while expounding on the virtues of alchemy. At any rate, Victor Hugo makes Tolkien seem terse, and ADF at his most verbose seem downright laconic.
It's been quite awhile since I last posted here. I finished Star Trek: The Next Generation: Available Light by Dayton Ward. I've since read the following: Star Trek: Voyager: Section 31: Shadow by Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch Star Trek Ongoing, Volume 11 Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War: "A Song Well Sung" by Robert Greenberger Star Trek: Enterprise: What Price Honor? by Dave Stern Tomb Raider, Volume 3: The Serpent Queen Star Trek: New Earth: Rough Trails by L.A. Graf Star Trek: Prometheus: In the Heart of Chaos by Bernd Perplies & Christian Humberg Star Trek: Stargazer: Maker by Michael Jan Friedman Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Section 31: Abyss by David Weddle & Jeffrey Lang Star Trek: Vulcan's Soul: Exodus by Jospha Sherman & Susan Shwartz Star Trek: Vulcan's Soul: Exiles by Jospha Sherman & Susan Shwartz Star Trek: Vulcan's Soul: Epiphany by Jospha Sherman & Susan Shwartz The Expanse: "The Churn" by James S.A. Corey Star Trek: The Original Series: First Frontier by Diane Carey & James I. Kirkland I'm currently reading Star Trek: The Original Series: The Captain's Oath by Christopher L. Bennett.
Now 2/3 of the way through Hunchback. Quasimodo has just now saved Esmerelda from the hangman's noose. The Frollo brothers were of course very different in the 1923 film, since in 1923, movies could not portray a Roman Catholic Priest as being consumed by lust. But I was a bit surprised at how different Phoebus is: not very heroic in the original, at least so far.
Yeah, it's ridiculous. I like THoND, but I could never make it through his Les Misérables. It begins with 50 solid pages of anecdotes about how generous and kind the bishop is. 50 pages! Right after that he succinctly shows you everything you need to know about the character in two brief scenes where he interacts with Jean Valean. 50 pages wasted hammering home the point that the bishop is charitable. And don't even get me started on the 70 pages devoted to pointlessly recreating the battle of Waterloo. The Man Who Laughs is also chock full of pointless digressions as well.
I finished my jaunt through the Star Trek MU with Rise Like Lions. It is a decent wrap-up to the story but felt a bit rushed this time around. The wormhole drive ships are cool but come off as very convenient. When in the timeline did Memory Omega develop them? I feel like they could have overthrown the Alliance with almost no help with that advantage. Was the destruction of Ferenginar meant to uphold the DS9 tradition of killing off a Ferengi in every Mirror Universe installment? I wish the show had not already killed off Mirror Quark, Rom, Nog, and Brunt because the book series could have benefited from a different perspective like theirs. Zek was just Bashir with bigger ears to me in Saturn's Children. One aspect I like in The Sorrows of Empire and Rise Like Lions is the use of chapter titles. Have any other Trek novels used them?
I finished up ST:SCE: Hard Crash last night, and I really enjoyed it. I really liked how what happened with Jaldark and Friend tied into what is going on with 110, and helped him resolve his issues.