So what are you reading now? (Part 3)
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Dark Hollow by Brian Keene is an excellent book and I would
recommend it if you haven't already read it.
Oh, I have. And the connecting books (Terminal and Ghost Walk) ... That's one of the things I am loving about Keene's books - how they all interconnect. If you know about the connections and look for them, they're there. If you don't, they're still great reads. For example, in Ghost Walk, one of the characters is the uncle of a character in Ghoul. If you've read Ghoul, then it's an instant connection. If you haven't, it's "so what" and move on.
A year ago, I had only read his story in a Doctor Who anthology. And now, I've gone through all of his paperbacks (except Darkness, which is coming out next week) and a few of his anthos.
I just finished Laura Anne Gilman's Flesh and Fire, and found it excellent.
Quarter of the way through Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson. Anyone read this? I don't really like fantasy, but I'm enjoying it way more than I expected to. A friend has been bugging me to read it for about three months, I finally gave in. It's good. Really interesting magic system.
Just finished the awesome Destiny trilogy. Now I can catch up on Titan: Over a Torrent Sea.
I finished Oliver Twist, which I ultimately liked despite the main character who does practically nothing, but instead has everything happen to him. I also read Neil Gaiman's Odd And The Frost Giants today, which was a nice little Norse fairy tale; I'd call it a longish short story, though, not really a novel or novella.
Today at the library I picked up The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, a collection of the stories by Robert E. Howard.
Today at the library I picked up The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, a collection of the stories by Robert E. Howard.
Seemed to work for Harry Potter...
Finished Twilight's End which I found to be a serviceable numbered book. A lot of times after I've read a Star Trek book I go look at Trekkieguy's reviews just because him and I don't seem to agree on a lot of things and I just need to make sure all is right with the universe. He rated it 1 start and I would have given it 3 1/2 or 4. Yep, the universe is fine. And I found what has to be the most scientifically inaccurate book review I've ever read. The plot of the novel concerns trying to give a planet that always has one side to it's sun a rotation.
I had just started reading the 6th Company novel, The Childred of the Company, but it's a rather depressing experience now that it's come to light that Kage Baker is very ill from cancer and apparently the prognosis is not good.
Ohh, that's just sad. It's surprising how many people seem to believe this bizarre notion. I wonder where it comes from.
And of course it's wrong on two levels. One, gravity is a property of any body with mass. Two, the planet is rotating; it just rotates in the same amount of time it takes to orbit its primary star, so that it keeps the same face constantly sunward.
Twilight's End is a good book by a writer who knows his physics very well. However, science is an evolving field, and the assumptions Jerry Oltion made about the climate of a tidally locked planet, while accurate to the theories that existed at the time the book was written, have regrettably been superseded. Simulations have shown that atmospheric and oceanic circulation on such a world would spread the heat around more; the denser the atmosphere, the broader the habitable zone around the terminator.
I recently finished The Chimes at Midnight and Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Second Stain. I'm currently reading A Gutted World by KRAD. Next is Brave New World by Chris Roberson.
I suspect it comes from all those stories where a spinning spaceship seems to generate its own gravity. People extrapolate the concept to planetary bodies, confusing gravity with centripetal force . . . .
^Hmm, good thought. I guess what they're missing is that the force is in the opposite direction there, outward instead of inward.
I just finished reading Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, which I'd somehow never read.
Next up will probably be The Sorrows of Empire.
Next up will probably be The Sorrows of Empire.
Re: bad science in reviews . . .
Almost as egregious was Entertainment Weekly's original review of VOYAGER, which kept referring to it as a "time-travel" series. This puzzled me, until I realized that that the clueless reviewer thought that "light-years" was a unit of time and was misunderstanding all the dialogue about Voyager being millions of light-years from home.
Sigh.
Getting back to the topic, I just finished HEAT WAVE by "Richard Castle." A very clever artifact, although I wonder how they got away with billing Castle as a "New York Times bestseller" on the cover--since none of his previous "bestsellers" actually exists!
The NYT had no objection to their name being taken in vain?
Almost as egregious was Entertainment Weekly's original review of VOYAGER, which kept referring to it as a "time-travel" series. This puzzled me, until I realized that that the clueless reviewer thought that "light-years" was a unit of time and was misunderstanding all the dialogue about Voyager being millions of light-years from home.
Sigh.
Getting back to the topic, I just finished HEAT WAVE by "Richard Castle." A very clever artifact, although I wonder how they got away with billing Castle as a "New York Times bestseller" on the cover--since none of his previous "bestsellers" actually exists!
The NYT had no objection to their name being taken in vain?
Now we all know that other things going on in life can greatly affect our enjoyment of what we’re reading. But even before I got the flu, The Romulan War sucked. After a nice start catching up with the NX01 crew everything went to shit. I gave up. I found nothing imaginative, nothing interesting and nothing worthy of my time. I hereby rename this The Romulan Bore: Beneath the Raptor’s Wang.
Such a cool part of Star Trek lore deserves *so* much better. It’s such a shame Erik Jendressen’s Star Trek: The Beginning was never turned into a novel series, even if it does reduce the Romulan “War” to a large battle in Earth orbit and star a guy with the Worst Name Ever™. So much potential…
I’ve since read the 2nd original TNG novel The Peacekeepers. It’s not a patch on Gene Deweese’s TOS novels, and it lacks the uniqueness(/"all wrong”-ness) of Diane Carey’s Ghost Ship. It’s still readable, and improves lots towards the end. Annoyingly, everyone almost refuses to believe that subspace beaming is even a possibility, when in TOS Kirk and co were beamed light-years away more than once. The “uphold prime directive with ridiculous scheme” ending was rubbish.
I’m now re-reading MJF’s Crossover, and I’m enjoying it a lot so far. I vaguely remember reading this years and years ago, and being a little disappointed. I also remember thinking it was a bit of a stretch to believe Starfleet would keep an old ship as a flying museum – but now, after the near-identical Enterprise-M in Of Gods and Men, it’s just fine. I guess seeing is believing.
What’s annoying the hell out of me is the constant references to Romulus and…Remii. Remii? Not Remus, the dumpy rock next planet along in the Romulan system (or lush green twin planet of Romulus, depending on what you read). Not Romii, the next star over (with, likely, a planet Romii in orbit). But “Remii”. I’m gonna put this down to a bizarre screw-up during editing.
Not even gonna mention the bizarre missing/displaced letters floating around...
Such a cool part of Star Trek lore deserves *so* much better. It’s such a shame Erik Jendressen’s Star Trek: The Beginning was never turned into a novel series, even if it does reduce the Romulan “War” to a large battle in Earth orbit and star a guy with the Worst Name Ever™. So much potential…
I’ve since read the 2nd original TNG novel The Peacekeepers. It’s not a patch on Gene Deweese’s TOS novels, and it lacks the uniqueness(/"all wrong”-ness) of Diane Carey’s Ghost Ship. It’s still readable, and improves lots towards the end. Annoyingly, everyone almost refuses to believe that subspace beaming is even a possibility, when in TOS Kirk and co were beamed light-years away more than once. The “uphold prime directive with ridiculous scheme” ending was rubbish.
I’m now re-reading MJF’s Crossover, and I’m enjoying it a lot so far. I vaguely remember reading this years and years ago, and being a little disappointed. I also remember thinking it was a bit of a stretch to believe Starfleet would keep an old ship as a flying museum – but now, after the near-identical Enterprise-M in Of Gods and Men, it’s just fine. I guess seeing is believing.
What’s annoying the hell out of me is the constant references to Romulus and…Remii. Remii? Not Remus, the dumpy rock next planet along in the Romulan system (or lush green twin planet of Romulus, depending on what you read). Not Romii, the next star over (with, likely, a planet Romii in orbit). But “Remii”. I’m gonna put this down to a bizarre screw-up during editing.
Not even gonna mention the bizarre missing/displaced letters floating around...
Finished 'The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter' by RTD and Ben Cook. Couldn't put it down, thoroughly entertaining and absorbing, and was actually a nice way to end the RTD era. Was going to say it had the usual brutal honesty you get from RTD but then I read the final entry.
Next up is either Synthesis by James Swallow or The Secret Notebooks of Agatha Christie which includes unpublished Poirot stories.
Next up is either Synthesis by James Swallow or The Secret Notebooks of Agatha Christie which includes unpublished Poirot stories.
Amazon.com says I should have it waiting for me when I get back from my trip. I'm looking forward to it.
Now waitaminute. How can a book have unpublished stories? A book is published. That's kind of ... unusual.
Changed my mind and started Losing the Peace instead. According to memory beta for the year 2381, most of Losing the Peace takes place before Over a Torrent Sea. But I think Unworthy can wait until after I read the next two Titan books.
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