So what are you reading now? (Part 3)

[Allyn Gibson]

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, by Snoopy. From the cover copy:

A malevolent, self-centered monarch, a midwestern farm boy, a young, street-corner florist in a tattered shawl -- these and many more keenly etched characters come together in this deeply moving and strangely compelling novel of growth, change, and recognition. Drawn with sparse clarity and measured cadence, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night is remindful of many works. Relevant to readers of all ages, here is a remarkable first novel by an inventive young author from whom more will undoubtedly be heard in years to come.

Also, The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The War of the Worlds by Manly Wade Wellman and Wade Wellman. (This is Titan Books' reprint of Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds.)

 

[seigezunt]

Just finished The Lives of Dax, my first foray into non-TOS Trekfic. Very very good, for the most part. I found the framing story a little weak, but some bits, like the Joran story, were great.

Now reading Inception. Great so far, though one revelation made me go "shoot,"

Spoiler: Inception

Carol Marcus is NOT the blond lab tech that Gary Mitchell steered to Kirk.

 

[Christopher]

Now reading Inception. Great so far, though one revelation made me go "shoot,"

Spoiler: Inception

Carol Marcus is NOT the blond lab tech that Gary Mitchell steered to Kirk.

In this version, no. In Peter David's 1991 "Starfleet Academy" annual for DC Comics, yes.

 

[S. Gomez]

Just started Ray Bradbury's Now And Forever, which is actually two novellas. The first is called "Somewhere A Band Is Playing" and the second is "Leviathan '99".

 

[F. King Daniel]

I’ve finished Losing the Peace. It was an aright read – I’m glad the post-apocalyptic Star Trek hasn’t become some terrible, misguided Boringstar rip-off. My least favourite bits were the Beverlump backstory (no fault of the author), although I liked that MJF’s old Jack Crusher death from Reunion was recycled.
Everyone’s quite dismayed that the refugee camps exist in the 24th century, even if they aren’t nearly as terrible as real-life ones today. Here’s a thought: In Star Trek, on thousands of worlds deemed “too primitive” for contact, such horrible atrocities as happen on earth today are probably going on. And what’s does the Federation do to help? Nothing.
Why is Picard so blatantly ignoring all his orders now? And getting away with it? He might as well just declare the independence of the Enterprise and make up his own missions.
Solution to everyone’s relocation/destroyed planet woes: Get that Genesis Device working properly – a new Deneva in, like, 5 minutes.

Up next: Second Foundation (again) before eventually getting to the ones I haven’t read.
Ages ago I was surprised to find fourth and fifth books in the Foundation series. I just picked up Prelude to Foundation, making it six. Or is it? A timeline at the start of Prelude has fourteen books in it – apparently Asimov’s Robot books are part of the same continuity, despite there being exactly zero robots in the first three Foundation novels.

 

[Christopher]

^It was later in life that Asimov began writing books that tied his robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation series together (yes, there were three series merged, not just two). Here's Asimov's suggested reading order for the whole shebang:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/links/cool_sci_fi.html#asimov-suggested-reading-order

 

[Allyn Gibson]

^It was later in life that Asimov began writing books that tied his robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation series together (yes, there were three series merged, not just two). Here's Asimov's suggested reading order for the whole shebang:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/links/cool_sci_fi.html#asimov-suggested-reading-order

Far be it for me to quibble with Asimov, but reading the books in chronological order, the first time through, is foolish; chronological order introduces characters and removes the mystery of some of the later books. Publication order is far better, imho.

 

[o'brien's scotch]

Finished The Romulan War and I'm about to begin Vanguard: Precipice.

 

[Sci]

I recently finished The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein. I've started and paused several times since I started it in late summer, but I finally finished it. It's an amazing, disturbing book that everybody here should read.

I'm now starting on The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet. I'm only about 100 pages in, but it's a deeply frightening book about the Family, a secretive Christian cult that tries to cultivate and influence powerful politicians and business leaders.

 

[Paris]

I finished up Inception last evening, and I've started on the second book in Dave Galanter & Greg Brodeur's Maximum Warp duology, Forever Dark. These short books are fun to read sometimes .

 

[Thrawn]

^ No kidding. I just started the first book in the Dark Passions duo, and I'm halfway through it already. It's... amusing enough, I suppose.

 

[ronny]

^ No kidding. I just started the first book in the Dark Passions duo, and I'm halfway through it already. It's... amusing enough, I suppose.

I think those were the first Mirror Universe books I read. I thought they were fun in that after reading a ton of early DS9R, before there was an MU arc, and other stuff that tied in it was great to be able to totally turn off the part of my brain that was expecting those books to tie in to anything else.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^It was later in life that Asimov began writing books that tied his robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation series together (yes, there were three series merged, not just two). Here's Asimov's suggested reading order for the whole shebang:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/links/cool_sci_fi.html#asimov-suggested-reading-order

Cheers. I’ve got a couple of Robot and Empire books in my Big Pile of Unread Books.

Whoever runs that site has some pretty weird ideas of what SF films and TV shows are any good (Daredevil? Elektra? SW Episode One??? And he *likes* B5 spin-off Crusade. Madness.)

 

[Reanok]

I'm reading the fourth novel in a mystery series by Conrad Allen Murder on the Carona.

 

[Rackon]

I re-read a lot of older Trek books this summer and fall - Ishmael, Strangers From The Sky, Entropy Effect, Crossroads - so now I'm getting back into non-Trek SF.

I re-read one of my old favorites, Sherri Tepper's Grass, to get into the mood the first of the year. I've just finished Iain Banks' latest: "Transition" - loved it! (I loved The Bridge too). So now I'm trying to pick up on Banks' Culture novels I haven't read, currently in the middle of Matter, with Excession to follow.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Finished Death Troopers.

I guess I'll tackle The Sorrows of Empire next.

Since it arrived before I could really start with The Sorrows of Empire, I decided to read Inception first.

And if anyones interested my reviews of Death Troopers and Beneath the Raptor's Wing are online.

I read your reviews...

Pretty good...!

 

[Steve Roby]

Just started reading Shepherd Moon, the new Space: 1999 anthology.

 

[bbailey861]

John Wayne My Father, by Aissa Wayne.

 

[Daddy Todd]

Just started reading Shepherd Moon, the new Space: 1999 anthology.

Thanks for reminding me about this -- I just put in my order...

 

[Steve Roby]

Don't forget David McIntee's Born for Adversity. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to Powys making Andrew Cartmel's Prisoner novel Miss Freedom generally available soon.