I finished a reread of Star Trek: Dujonian's Hoard by Michael Jan Friedman. If you liked "Gambit" but wished it had more Worf, romance, and first-person Picard narration, then this book will do the trick. I also reread The Candymakers by Wendy Mass. The setting is as wondrous as Willy Wonka's factory, and it has the bonus that the young protagonists all end up being pretty awesome, even the one who is acting obnoxiously at the beginning. Its structure is one of my favorite things about the book. The author retells the same few days as Part One in Parts Two, Three, and Four, but from the perspective of another one of the children. This results in many puzzling bits from earlier chapters making so much more sense as further details are revealed. If anyone knows what to call this literary device, please chime in, as I feel it probably does have a name. Now reading: Star Trek: Time's Enemy by L.A. Graf and The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase by Wendy Mass (a rare sequel to a five-star book that is also worth five stars and does not wreck the ending of the original book)
I had purchased the Enterprise novels on kindle. However, only thing stopping me from diving in is, I've always wondered if Patterns of Interference was left with any hanging cliffhangers. I'm guessing with this whole shift towards the newer shows in fiction, that any future Enterprise novels have been put on hold.
My impression from chatter at the time and CLB's general writing style is that anything open after Patterns of Interference is more loose thread than cliffhanger.
There were some threads I'd hoped to develop further, but no cliffhangers per se. I've always believed that if you're going to tell a story in multiple installments, each one should work as a whole story in its own right and come to a reasonable conclusion, at least of its phase of the story. It annoys me when a story just stops in the middle, at least if you have to wait months or more for the rest of it. Plus, aside from books 3 & 4, I only got contracted for one book at a time. And Patterns of Interference does bring several story arcs to a resolution, or at least to a point of transition between one status quo and the next. So there's a reasonable amount of closure for the overall series.
The Sound and the Furry -- this morning, I got to the point (in "The Napoleon Crime") where Jones considers the possibility that he's just a character in a story written by two hacks, for the money.
Finished Star Trek Agents of Influence by Dayton Ward. A very good book, I love the Endeavour and her crew, I hope we get another book about them. Only nitpick, mr Ward forgot the to "be continued" at the last page, because how can you leave the Endeavour like that all alone?
Finished The Sound and the Furry: The Complete Hoka Stories yesterday. The last of them, the long novella/short novel, Star Prince Charlie, isn't really a story about the Hokas; rather, it's a story in which a Hoka has a major supporting role. Finished Starhunt this morning. I can definitely agree with the earlier comment (which I can no longer find -- was that you, CLB?) to the effect that the added material after Chapter 28 completely changes the meaning of the story. Not sure which I prefer.
Yeah, that was probably me. I like the original ending better. It's bleaker, in a way, but more subversive, and a more interesting twist. The expanded version just feels more conventional and straightforward.
It is that. Either way, it's not exactly my cup of tea, and it's definitely a book I'm glad I bought used, off Alibris. Although neither is it the sort of book that's so irredeemably awful that I'll only talk about it under an NDA, for fear that somebody else might get curious and buy a copy. Not exactly the only case in which DG has revised an opus in a manner that changed everything. Case in point, When HARLIE Was One. Although between the marijuana and viruses spreading on network connections, in some ways, the original is actually less dated than the "2.0" version.
Prey A Tng Short story by Lisa Klink and a short story with Geordi and Tasha Yar from the new Star Trek Explorer magazine
I've gone from old DS9 (Time's Enemy) to the newest DS9 (Revenant, which is a first-time read for me). It's been a long time since I've read a great Jadzia story, and two chapters in, I'm digging it.
About two and a half chapters into Second Self. Just looked up the 25th century Stargazer in MA. Interesting. Obviously the name and the 4-nacelle design was a callback to the Stargazer that Picard commanded.
RELUCTANT IMMORTALS by Gwendolyn Kiste. Lucy Westenra (of DRACULA fame) and Bertha Rochester (from JANE EYRE) living undead in 1960s Hollywood . . . . Gotta share the first line: "It's almost sundown in Los Angeles, and Dracula's ashes won't shut up."