So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Christopher]

After my last post I finished up issue #3 of the Malibu DS9 series, and I enjoyed it. And then I read the two part story line in issues #4 and #5, which had a another pretty big mistake that had to be a typo or something, because it doesn't even fit what the early episodes established. In it the DS9 crew is dealing with a new Gamma Quadrant race that Dax and O'Brien came through the wormhole with, and at one point one of the aliens wants to blow up the wormhole, and then they're talking about how without the wormhole it'll be 60-light year journey back to their home planet. I double checked on Memory Alpha, and the wormhole jumps across 90,000 lightyears, which is pretty far off from 60. I'm wondering if perhaps it was supposed to take 60 years to get home, and he or an editor got the time and distance mixed up and accidently added "light" to the "years".

I had a bigger conceptual problem with that storyline. Sisko was reluctant to give asylum to the escaping slaves because he thought it would break the Prime Directive, but that doesn't make sense. The PD forbids imposing your choices or policies on another culture, but it doesn't forbid offering humanitarian aid when it's directly requested. And given asylum to escaped slaves wouldn't have changed the culture they escaped from. So there was no reason it should've been a Prime Directive matter at all. We saw several TNG episodes where Picard granted asylum or was open to doing so, like "Half a Life," "The Mind's Eye," and "The Masterpiece Society." And O'Brien said in DS9: "Captive Pursuit" that Sisko would grant Tosk asylum if he requested it.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I had a bigger conceptual problem with that storyline. Sisko was reluctant to give asylum to the escaping slaves because he thought it would break the Prime Directive, but that doesn't make sense. The PD forbids imposing your choices or policies on another culture, but it doesn't forbid offering humanitarian aid when it's directly requested. And given asylum to escaped slaves wouldn't have changed the culture they escaped from. So there was no reason it should've been a Prime Directive matter at all.

I remember writing a letter to Malibu about that very thing. It was very long for a letter to a comic -- three pages, IIRC -- so I understand why it wasn't published.

 

[Christopher]

It's too bad about the asylum/PD thing, since I recall that being a pretty good story otherwise. Mike Barr's run on the DS9 title, like his earlier run on DC's TOS comic, was all too brief.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

The PD forbids imposing your choices or policies on another culture, but it doesn't forbid offering humanitarian aid when it's directly requested. And given asylum to escaped slaves wouldn't have changed the culture they escaped from. So there was no reason it should've been a Prime Directive matter at all. We saw several TNG episodes where Picard granted asylum or was open to doing so, like "Half a Life," "The Mind's Eye," and "The Masterpiece Society." And O'Brien said in DS9: "Captive Pursuit" that Sisko would grant Tosk asylum if he requested it.

Unfortunately, all too often, the PD means whatever the writer of the episode/book/comic/whatever wants it to mean, in order to advance his or her own agenda, or because he or she can't think of a better way to create conflict. Hence all those TNG episodes in which the PD was interpreted to demand that a culture doomed by a disaster that was not of their own making be allowed to go extinct.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (to coin a phrase), still in my Lenten trip through the King James Version (including the apocrypha). Just finished Ecclesiasticus (not to be confused with Ecclesiastes!). Ye vish, this Yeshua ben Sirach was misogynistic and draconian!

 

[Christopher]

Unfortunately, all too often, the PD means whatever the writer of the episode/book/comic/whatever wants it to mean, in order to advance his or her own agenda, or because he or she can't think of a better way to create conflict. Hence all those TNG episodes in which the PD was interpreted to demand that a culture doomed by a disaster that was not of their own making be allowed to go extinct.

Well, it was really just "Pen Pals" and "Homeward," but yeah. I found "Pen Pals" brilliant when I first saw it, but in retrospect, the moral dilemma it sets up is very artificial, since they're angsting over a question that Captain Kirk settled definitively a century before by stating the obvious: "The people of Yonada may be changed by the knowledge, but it's better than exterminating them." And "Homeward" was just awful, the worst extreme of the concept.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Could have sworn there were one or two others. But then again, you cited specifics by title, where I was not able to.

 

[Greg Cox]

Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD by Keith DeCandido.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

"In the criminal justice system, ghosts are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the Supernatural Crimes Unit, who investigate spectral crime; and the District Exorcists, who banish the offenders."

 

[KRAD]

Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD by Keith DeCandido.

Yay!

"In the criminal justice system, ghosts are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the Supernatural Crimes Unit, who investigate spectral crime; and the District Exorcists, who banish the offenders."

Um, no....

 

[Smiley]

Kenny Chesney: Heart Life Music
Zoe Sharp: The Last Time She Died
J.R.R. and Christopher Tolkien: The Lays of Beleriand (The History of Middle-Earth Part 3)

All three are new to me, although I know a bit of Kenny Chesney's story and the stories being told in Middle-Earth.

 

[Greg Cox]

Yay!


Um, no....

I gotta say: thank goodness I'm not a fan of cannolis or this book would be making me very hungry!

 

[JD]

I had a bigger conceptual problem with that storyline. Sisko was reluctant to give asylum to the escaping slaves because he thought it would break the Prime Directive, but that doesn't make sense. The PD forbids imposing your choices or policies on another culture, but it doesn't forbid offering humanitarian aid when it's directly requested. And given asylum to escaped slaves wouldn't have changed the culture they escaped from. So there was no reason it should've been a Prime Directive matter at all. We saw several TNG episodes where Picard granted asylum or was open to doing so, like "Half a Life," "The Mind's Eye," and "The Masterpiece Society." And O'Brien said in DS9: "Captive Pursuit" that Sisko would grant Tosk asylum if he requested it.

Yeah, I was a little surprised Sisko was so quick to refuse to help the slaves, but I couldn't remember what had happened in the episodes that dealt with similar PD issues well enough to know if Sisko was right or wrong. Sounds like my gut instinct, that he was wrong, was right.

 

[bdub76]

I went to the Tucson Festival of Books and discovered that Martha Wells used to write Star Wars fan fiction for Star Wars fanzines before the Internet blew up. Now, I have to track those time. Gotta love writers that start off writing fan fiction.

 

[Destructor]

Having just finished an Enterprise rewatch, I have started reading the 'post-Enterprise' novels, starting with 'The Good That Men Do', in an effort to give myself a 5th season.

 

[bdub76]

Finished the Notebook.

It was a mostly enjoyable. My one frustration with the book was how much his chapter sizes varied. You never knew when you went to the next chapter if it was going to be a fast read one that took some time.

Otherwise, it's a good story. Now, I'm looking forward to the musical.

I am going to end up audio booking my book club read for this month since my hold with the library hasn't come through. I did find it on YouTube, so that's the best I can do.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I'm guessing you're not referring to Roland Allen's recent treatise on the history of thinking on paper, starting with the origin of the notebook as a repurposed ledger.

As truly fascinating as it is, I can't imagine anybody turning that into a musical.

 

[bdub76]

I'm guessing you're not referring to Roland Allen's recent treatise on the history of thinking on paper, starting with the origin of the notebook as a repurposed ledger.

As truly fascinating as it is, I can't imagine anybody turning that into a musical.

This:

The Notebook The Musical

notebookmusical.com

 

[Desert Kris]

I finished up The God in The Bowl last night, and I really enjoyed it, the ending was a bit of a suprise. Once that was done, I was in the mood for more Trek comics, so I'm setting The Coming of Conan The Cimmerian aside for now

Really cool to see the Conan stories coming up in this thread, I started with the Coming of Conan without intended to go to deep into it. One thing I read in the introduction and commentaries is that the stories sometimes seem repetitive and formulaic, so I spaced out my reading of the stories. I figured that people reading them when they first came out would only be able to read a new one once a month. So I've always made sure to read other books and stories in between each Conan story; so I've never had issues with feeling like the stories are repetive; I would just read the next one when in the mood for one.

I didn't like The Frost Giant's Daughter. And I wasn't really enthusiastic about the stories until The Scarlet Citadel, and then I got the appeal of the stories and Robert E. Howard's writing. I ended up getting the rest of the Conan books after that, and eventually expanded and got all the Del Rey Robert E. Howard anthologies (and many non-Del Rey anthologies as well).

I'm currently reading The Hour of the Dragon; I ended up reading it last as I preferred to stick with the short stories and skipped over it. It's been pretty fun so far.

 

[Greg Cox]

Finished Keigh's Supernatural Crime Unit novel, which was much fun and so authentic when it comes to New York City, which is very much a character in the book.

Next up: The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan, an historical horror saga about the legendary Beast of Gevaudun.

 

[bdub76]

Started the book Broken Country. I'm listening to the audio book this time since I'm still waiting on my library hold for the book. So far the book reminds me of Pretty in Pink in the 50s in England with the girl making a different choice. There are literary references throughout, which reminds me of Stephen King. The good news this time is that I've read a lot of them.

Still need to finish up Dangerous Visions and Skeleton Crew. I've been enjoying my Jeeves stories a bit too much, so now I'm seeing what's being reused every story. However, what I'm seeing being reused hasn't made reading them less enjoyable.