So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[bdub76]

Read a couple of short stories from Dangerous Visions this past week. I'm trying to get my head into the idea of these stories being shocking for the time period, which is what I expected after reading all of the introductions for this anthology. There is an excessive number of them. I'm not really finding them all that shocking, but then this book came out a couple of years after Doctor Who originally premiered. It sucks that I'm not having the same experience reading the book as someone during that time period to really get it.

More than half way through Housemaid. Loving it. My wife says that I might not like the twist. We'll see.

Also, half way through The Long Walk.It's interesting reading a story that's almost in real time. It's a lot like watching 24. There are some time jumps as stuff happens, but a lot of it is continuous. This would be cool for a Star Trek story. Imagine Picard stumbling upon a long walk on a planet. It would be a cool story.

I'm only a quarter of the way through with the Lion Women of Tehran. I'm supposed to have this finished by the 24th. The Monday holiday might save me. It's well done, but it's a slow burn. I keep going back to the Housemaid after reading a chapter in this book since it's far more engaging.

I've added one philosophy book to my TBR: The Disappearance of Rituals. There is a YouTube video, where Jared Henderson and the guy from Unsolicited Advice.discuss the modern reading crisis, and this book comes up in the discussion. It's really short, so I might knock it out this year. It sounds interesting.

And then I stumbled upon the fact that the original Candyman film is based on the short story The Forbidden by Clive Barker. It's in his Books of Blood Volume 5. My library only has the first two volumes. They're short story collections that have five short stories each. I think, I might save this for a read for October.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I finished Brigands & Breadknives last night. Some elements of the ending were pretty much inevitable and obvious, like the protagonist resolving her midlife crisis by becoming a writer.

Other things weren't just stranger than I imagined, but stranger than I could have imagined.

On to Amtrak's History Through Its Equipment.

 

[bdub76]

Read the Jaunt in Skeleton Crew and some more stories in Dangerous Visions.

The Jaunt - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Jaunt now has me wanting to read: The Stars My Destination. He seems to have taken a science fiction horror alternative take on this story, but I'll have to read it to find out. Unfortunately, both of the eBook versions of the book I can find look awful on preview. The formatting is all screwed up, so now, I need to find a good physical copy to read.

 

[Greg Cox]

Frustrated because I have another Stranger Things novel waiting for me at the library -- but it's been too damn cold to walk downtown for the last couple days.

 

[bdub76]

Frustrated because I have another Stranger Things novel waiting for me at the library -- but it's been too damn cold to walk downtown for the last couple days.

I grabbed the one about Eddie for $1.99 on sale. No idea if it's any good. Probably won't have time until the summer to read it. Was the last one you read good? It looks like it was the highest rated one of the bunch on Good Reads.

 

[Stevil2001]

I've started reading Diane Duane's So You Want to be a Wizard, first of her Young Wizards series. It's off to a great start, I like how this book doesn't make the reader wait, it gets to the point quickly without dilly-dallying. I like how we as the readers get to read passages out of the protagonist's magic book along with her. And I like that Diane Duane's prose is a bit more focused and streamlined, without going into extensive tangents within any given sentence (since it's for younger readers). I also like how the magic is kind of on the blurred line, where high science and high magic are the same. It reminds me a little of A Wrinkle in Time (and the other Time Quintet books of Madeline L'Engle).

Those books are great. I agree with you, they hit a similar vibe to L'Engle's Kairos novels—where magic and science are basically the same thing because they're both about a fundamental understanding of the universe.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Now into the second chapter of Amtrak's History Through its Equipment. It's a very heavily illustrated book, with process color on each of its over 200 glossy, large-format pages. Rather than being organized by strict chronology, it's organized topically, with the first two chapters covering specialized trainsets, from heritage RDCs, Metroliners and United Aircraft Turbotrains through Acela. Then several chapters on diesel locomotives, then one on electric locomotives, and finally one on cars.

It's already covered a lot of stuff I hadn't been the slightest bit aware of.

 

[Greg Cox]

I grabbed the one about Eddie for $1.99 on sale. No idea if it's any good. Probably won't have time until the summer to read it. Was the last one you read good? It looks like it was the highest rated one of the bunch on Good Reads.

The Eddie book is the one waiting for me down at the library. Alas, it's snowing heavily outside.

We should note that there appear to be at least two lines of Stranger Things novels: an adult line and a YA line. The one I read, "Rebel Robin," belongs to latter.

I enjoyed it, but it's an odd book in that it's a prequel, set before Robin joins our heroes and learns about the Upside-Down and all the supernatural stuff going on in Hawkins. So what we have is a well-told coming-of-age story about an offbeat young teenager coping with life in a conservative small town, with all the creepy stuff taking place offstage and between the lines. We know what's behind the some of the weird news and gossip in the town but Robin is still a few years away from finding out the truth. In the meantime, we get cameos from other characters whom she will come to know better just a few years from now.

So, basically, we're getting Robin's backstory before Demogorgons and evil government conspiracies became part of her life . . .

UPDATE: Trekked down to the library and picked up the Eddie book.

Figured since I was already booted and bundled after shoveling show, I might as well head on down to the library after all.

 

[Drumheller]

I just started Star Trek Strange New Worlds - Asylum by Una McCormack. So far, so good.

 

[Greg Cox]

I just started Star Trek Strange New Worlds - Asylum by Una McCormack. So far, so good.

I just read that one. Really enjoyed it.

 

[JD]

I finished up DS9: Millenium Book III: Inferno and enjoyed it. It did a good job of tying everything up in a way that answered all of the questions and resolved all of the issues while resetting the board for the episodes that came after it. The Reeves-Stevenses had a really good handle on the DS9 characters, I'm disappointed to see that they never wrote any other DS9 books.
With that done, I've now started Doctor Who: The Pirate Loop by Simon Guerrier, and it's off to a pretty good start. It definitely did a good job of feeling like the start of a Doctor Who story, and it seems like he already has a pretty good handle on The Doctor and Martha.

 

[bdub76]

The Eddie book is the one waiting for me down at the library. Alas, it's snowing heavily outside.

We should note that there appear to be at least two lines of Stranger Things novels: an adult line and a YA line. The one I read, "Rebel Robin," belongs to latter.

I enjoyed it, but it's an odd book in that it's a prequel, set before Robin joins our heroes and learns about the Upside-Down and all the supernatural stuff going on in Hawkins. So what we have is a well-told coming-of-age story about an offbeat young teenager coping with life in a conservative small town, with all the creepy stuff taking place offstage and between the lines. We know what's behind the some of the weird news and gossip in the town but Robin is still a few years away from finding out the truth. In the meantime, we get cameos from other characters whom she will come to know better just a few years from now.

So, basically, we're getting Robin's backstory before Demogorgons and evil government conspiracies became part of her life . . .

UPDATE: Trekked down to the library and picked up the Eddie book.

Figured since I was already booted and bundled after shoveling show, I might as well head on down to the library after all.

Great.

I'll check it out once I escape my SK rabbit hole of book references.

 

[bdub76]

I finished up DS9: Millenium Book III: Inferno and enjoyed it. It did a good job of tying everything up in a way that answered all of the questions and resolved all of the issues while resetting the board for the episodes that came after it. The Reeves-Stevenses had a really good handle on the DS9 characters, I'm disappointed to see that they never wrote any other DS9 books.
With that done, I've now started Doctor Who: The Pirate Loop by Simon Guerrier, and it's off to a pretty good start. It definitely did a good job of feeling like the start of a Doctor Who story, and it seems like he already has a pretty good handle on The Doctor and Martha.

I've only ever read some of the New Adventure books.

Are there any standout Doctor Who novels you'd recommend?

 

[JD]

I've only read a three so far, but I've enjoyed them all.
They were, The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner, The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards and The Last of the Gaderene by Mark Gatiss.
The Stone Rose and The Resurrection Casket are both New Series Adventures books with The Tenth Doctor and Rose, and Last of the Gaderene is a Past Doctor Adventures book with The Third Doctor, Jo, and the UNIT guys during The Doctor's Exile on Earth.
Here are the descriptions:
The Stone Rose

Mickey is startled to find a statue of Rose in a museum - a statue that is 2,000 years old. The Doctor realises that this means the TARDIS will shortly take them to ancient Rome, but when it does, he and Rose soon have more on their minds than a sculpture.

While the Doctor searches for a missing boy, Rose befriends a girl who claims to know the future - a girl whose predictions are surprisingly accurate. But then the Doctor stumbles on the hideous truth behind the statue of Rose - and Rose herself learns that you have to be very careful what you wish for...

The Resurrection Casket:

Starfall — a world on the edge, where crooks and smugglers hide in the gloomy shadows and modern technology refuses to work. And that includes the TARDIS.

The pioneers who used to be drawn by the hope of making a fortune from the mines can find easier picking elsewhere. But they still come, for the romance of it, or in the hope of finding the lost treasure of Hamlek Glint — scourge of the spaceways, privateer, adventurer, bandit...

Will the TARDIS ever work again? Is Glint's lost treasure waiting to be found? And does the fabled Resurrection Casket — the key to eternal life — really exist? With the help of new friends, and facing terrifying enemies, the Doctor and Rose aim to find out...

Last of the Gaderene

The aerodrome in Culverton has new owners, and they promise an era of prosperity for the idyllic village. But former Spitfire pilot Alex Whistler is suspicious – when black-shirted troops appear on the streets, he contacts his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart at UNIT. The Third Doctor is sent to investigate – and soon uncovers a sinister plot to colonise the Earth. The Gaderene are on their way...

 

[Desert Kris]

Those books are great. I agree with you, they hit a similar vibe to L'Engle's Kairos novels—where magic and science are basically the same thing because they're both about a fundamental understanding of the universe.

And now that the character Fred has arrived, well this is a character that makes me think of the backstory of Mrs. Whatsit and the others in A Wrinkle in Time, as well as the sentient microscopic lifeforms in A Wind in the Door. This Young Wizards world feels very much like a place where cosmic-scale life and microscopic life and human-sized life can interact. And it has parallel worlds, too. There's a an interesting moment where the main character says "If X is the answer, I don't know if I understand the question," really made me think of Kirk pondering V'Ger's existential questions in The Motion Picture.

I've only ever read some of the New Adventure books.

Are there any standout Doctor Who novels you'd recommend?

I've read two of the newer DW books. Touched By an Angel by Jonathan Morris was really impactful, and felt like a very faithful rendering of the Eleventh Doctor and companions. Jonathan Morris has written many great DW books, and Plague City will be one I look forward to reading. The Eyeless by Lance Parkin was awesome. There were a good amount genuinely decent Eighth Doctor novels, but they've been out of print for a while and might be getting expensive.

 

[Reanok]

Star Trek TNG Dominion War Book 1 John Vornholt

 

[Emissary of the Prophets]

I am currently bouncing around with my reading. I have gone from the House on the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune to SPQR by Mary Beard and I and I am currently on Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (for the 8th time in 30 years).

 

[bdub76]

I am currently bouncing around with my reading. I have gone from the House on the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune to SPQR by Mary Beard and I and I am currently on Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (for the 8th time in 30 years).

I really liked The House in the Cerulean Sea. I've had the sequel--Somewhere Beyond the Sea--on my TBR for a while now, but after reading In the Lives of Puppets last year, the sequel got pushed further down my list. Puppets isn't good. My next LGBT book is: The Sweetness of Water. It's for book club in February.

 

[Emissary of the Prophets]

I really liked The House in the Cerulean Sea. I've had the sequel--Somewhere Beyond the Sea--on my TBR for a while now, but after reading In the Lives of Puppets last year, the sequel got pushed further down my list. Puppets isn't good. My next LGBT book is: The Sweetness of Water. It's for book club in February.

Don’t say that. I have In The Lives of Puppets lined up to read soon. I know it is your opinion, but it has been recommended to me by a few people who said it was a good read.

 

[bdub76]

Don’t say that. I have In The Lives of Puppets lined up to read soon. I know it is your opinion, but it has been recommended to me by a few people who said it was a good read.

I have heard good things about this series by him:

Green Creek Series by T.J. Klune

The beloved fantasy romance series by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about love, loyalty, betrayal, and joy. The Bennett family has a secret...

www.goodreads.com

But I haven't read them.