So What Are you Reading?: Generations
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Now into Chapter 5 of my own opus. Already found some typos and continuity errors. For example, in one chapter, I'm calling an elementary school Victor Appleton School, and the very next, I'm calling it Edward Stratemeyer school. (There's also a Garis School referenced, and if anybody here notices the connection between the three, then I would conclude that you would almost have to be a fan of a certain subdivision of children's literature.)
There was no "directive." What was done with Donatra and Tal'aura in both Articles and ASD was entirely my idea, as I thought it would be cool for the Romulan Empire to be split after the events of Nemesis.
Of course, those two books were developed by me and Marco Palmieri, and then Marco was laid off and I was suddenly no longer being asked to write Trek books, and Marco's successors had their own ideas on what to do with the Romulans.
But no, when writing ASD there was no specific plan. We were just having fun with it.
I knew Theodore Sturgeon as a Star Trek writer and was aware that, like several of TOS writers, he was well-known outside ST but I'd never read anything by him. Came across "Microcosmic God", the second volume of his collected stories on the library catalogue so reserved it. Really enjoying the writing and will certainly be reading more of him.
Finished the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, and the fourth book, which is just ok. The first book was great, the second and third book were not good to boring. The main character Cheng Xin who contributes nothing to the story is irritating bad who only slowly reacts and does nothing else.
Next book I am going to read is "Replay" by Ken Grimwood
Next book I am going to read is "Replay" by Ken Grimwood
See also "More Than Human," "Some of Your Blood," "The Other Celia," etc.
True story: I did my very first convention panel with Sturgeon back in the day. I was intimidated at first, but he was very hospitable and generous to a newbie writer with only a few short-story sales to my name.
Sorry to post twice in a row, but it's been three days since my last one, and nobody else has posted anything in-between.
Anyway, I'm currently enjoying AN EDUCATION IN MALICE by S. T. Gibson: a revisionist retelling of "Carmilla" set in a 1960s women's college.
Anyway, I'm currently enjoying AN EDUCATION IN MALICE by S. T. Gibson: a revisionist retelling of "Carmilla" set in a 1960s women's college.
The Road to Roswell ended up being pretty enjoyable. Anyone with an appreciation for UFO stories or Westerns will find something to like, and it's a lighthearted little cream puff of a tale.
I decided very early on to DNF How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying. There is a high "ick factor" in the first few pages that is not suggested by the book's blurb. If you are considering this one, please read the sample first.
The Rules of Supervillainy was okay, and I can see how it would appeal more to a different segment of the reading audience. I give it credit for establishing a comic book type of universe with original names that do not sound too goofy and has that almost-DC feeling that the author is obviously going for.
Currently reading:
Star Trek: Full Circle (reread, first read after having read the four Golden post-series books)
Star Wars: Padawan (Obi-Wan adventure set before TPM)
The Dragon Business (con men in a medieval fantasy setting, definitely just for laughs)
I decided very early on to DNF How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying. There is a high "ick factor" in the first few pages that is not suggested by the book's blurb. If you are considering this one, please read the sample first.
The Rules of Supervillainy was okay, and I can see how it would appeal more to a different segment of the reading audience. I give it credit for establishing a comic book type of universe with original names that do not sound too goofy and has that almost-DC feeling that the author is obviously going for.
Currently reading:
Star Trek: Full Circle (reread, first read after having read the four Golden post-series books)
Star Wars: Padawan (Obi-Wan adventure set before TPM)
The Dragon Business (con men in a medieval fantasy setting, definitely just for laughs)
"Did Not Finish"?
I didn't even do that with "The Novel That Will Not Be Named." Just as I can't recall ever walking out on a movie (not even Rabbit Test or the Bakshi LOTR).
At any rate, I'm around halfway through reviewing my own opus, around the point when she graduates from high school.
Good book! Won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, back in the day.
Assuming I live to be 100, which is not guaranteed, I only have about 525,000 hours left to me, and not all of that is reading or movie watching time. At 40, I am secure enough in my tastes to DNF or skim if I don't feel something is working for me. If I have approached the material with an open mind, then I do not owe it to anybody to plod along to the finish, especially for something that is meant to be for entertainment. I also DNF'd Shards of Earth and the movies Taking Woodstock, Love in the Afternoon, and A Room With a View recently, although they were of much higher caliber to me than the Dark Lord book. Even if I limited myself to books and movies I have not read/watched yet, there is more than I could ever experience, so why waste time on something that is clearly not connecting?
Very true.
Then again, I usually know a fair amount about a book before I'm willing to shell out money for it.
When I bought Jen Wang's graphic novel, The Prince and the Dressmaker, I'd already looked at a fair amount of the art in the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco (where there was a small exhibit on it), and knew that despite the titular prince's hobby, the story would probably not be "a drag" (pun intended). When I read Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes, it was because GC liked it, and his descriptions of it and its prequel seemed intriguing. I don't recall where I was first told about Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, but just being told that its central conceit was a key link in the Underground Railroad that was a literal railroad, literally running underground, was intriguing enough. And I highly recommend all three books.
On the other hand, I have hung onto my copy of "The Novel That Will Not Be Named" simply to keep it off the used market (I'd burn it, but book-burning is something I cannot bring myself to do).
Reading the entire KJV cover-to-cover, including the Apocrypha Supplement, is simply a Lenten discipline. The Canterbury Tales were a challenge, requiring me, as I recall, to keep the relevant Cliff's Notes booklet close at hand. And I wouldn't attempt Beowulf without first getting at least an Associate's degree in Old English.
And at 62, I probably have fewer hours left than you do.
Then again, I usually know a fair amount about a book before I'm willing to shell out money for it.
When I bought Jen Wang's graphic novel, The Prince and the Dressmaker, I'd already looked at a fair amount of the art in the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco (where there was a small exhibit on it), and knew that despite the titular prince's hobby, the story would probably not be "a drag" (pun intended). When I read Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes, it was because GC liked it, and his descriptions of it and its prequel seemed intriguing. I don't recall where I was first told about Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, but just being told that its central conceit was a key link in the Underground Railroad that was a literal railroad, literally running underground, was intriguing enough. And I highly recommend all three books.
On the other hand, I have hung onto my copy of "The Novel That Will Not Be Named" simply to keep it off the used market (I'd burn it, but book-burning is something I cannot bring myself to do).
Reading the entire KJV cover-to-cover, including the Apocrypha Supplement, is simply a Lenten discipline. The Canterbury Tales were a challenge, requiring me, as I recall, to keep the relevant Cliff's Notes booklet close at hand. And I wouldn't attempt Beowulf without first getting at least an Associate's degree in Old English.
And at 62, I probably have fewer hours left than you do.
I tried reading Out of the Silent Planet, I really did, but it was so dull I couldn't finish.
I am at page 105 and so far I like it.
And it is funny how fast Jeff Winston stopped
Lee Harvey Oswald, compared to the story in the Stephen King book 22-11-1963
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I read Beowulf in high school. It's not as hard as people think it is.
In the original Old English? Or in a modern translation.
. . .
. . .
I read the entire trilogy. On the advice of a one-hour photo-lab technician with whom I'd become acquainted. C.S. Lewis it may be, but Narnia it ain't.
I have tilted at the Out of the Silent Planet windmill three times, and each time the arms have thrown me back to the ground. Weirdly, though, I have read The Dark Tower, Lewis' unfinished Space Trilogy book.
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