So what are you reading now? (Part 3)

[Paris]

...I'm starting with the omnibus of Mere Anarchy. Looking forward to it!

I loved Mere Anarchy . It's a really fantastic collection of writers all taking part in the mini-series. Great premise and a wonderful cover to boot. MA has made me pretty excited to eventually read Slings & Arrows when it is finally collected and printed.

 

[Csalem]

I finished A Stitch in Time earlier tonight. I've got to say it's one of the best Trek novels I've ever read. Of course any novel featuring Garak is automatically good, but ASiT is made even better because he's on every page. I've now started on the Star Trek anthology, Enterprise Logs. I'm currently reading the first story, The Veil at Valcour, by Diane Carey.

FYI, the book does get better after the two naval stories. Don't give up!

I seem to remember struggling through the first naval story, giving up on the second before skipping ahead to the rest. Like the Harriman story.

 

[Rosalind]

Just finished Voyager: Full Circle and I really enjoyed it.

Now reading Richard Feynman's "What Do You Care What Other People Think?", it's a really short book, I'm already 1/5 through.

 

[Smiley]

I'm now on a Jedi Apprentice/Jedi Quest marathon. Today, I start The Hidden Past.

 

[Reanok]

I'm almost finished reading a mystery novel and started Starfleet year one by Micheal J. Friedman.

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

The other day I read The Avenger, the Kirk story from Enterprise Logs. Last night I finished Night Whispers, the Decker story from the same anthology. I'm now reading the Spock story, Just Another Little Training Cruise.

 

[Reanok]

Just a Little Training cruise is one of my favorite stories from the Enterprise logs book.Nice to see Saavik in a short story before the Wrath of Khan. Mere Anarchy is also a really good story anthology as well.

 

[DrCorby]

After loving The Buried Age, I went back to other "Lost Era" novels I hadn't read -- Serpents Among the Ruins and The Art of the Impossible.

Now, I'm taking a break from ST lit to read One Second After by William R Forstchen -- a look at life in a small American town after an EMP destroys the electrical grid and electronics. It's a chilling read, a threat that's entirely plausible in today's world.

Afterwards, I'll pick back up with Well of Souls and Inception.

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

The other day I read The Avenger, the Kirk story from Enterprise Logs. Last night I finished Night Whispers, the Decker story from the same anthology. I'm now reading the Spock story, Just Another Little Training Cruise.

I've now finished Just Another Little Training Cruise and Shakedown, the Captain Harriman story.

 

[DimesDan]

It's a chilling read, a threat that's entirely plausible in today's world.

In today's world? God, I just detest that term. EMPs have been around for decades, so why would it be more plausible now then say 20 - 30 years ago at the tale end of the cold war?

Oh, sounds like a good read though.

Oh and I'm still reading the Ian Rankin Rebus novels, I'm now on book eight: Black and Blue.

I might pick up some of my too read Trek novels after, but they're not actually appealing right now.

 

[Snaploud]

I just read The Vulcan Academy Murders, the Lost Years, and A Flag Full of Stars.

I'm currently reading the political novel Game Change. The writers have zero journalistic integrity (basically creating fictionalized conversations between real people out of whole cloth--taking every rumor they could find), but it's an entertaining read nonetheless.

 

[William Leisner]

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. Given that the only other Pratchett I've read previously was his collaboration with Neil Gaiman, Good Omens, and that I've also previously read Gaiman's American Gods (and Anansi Boys), it's interesting to see a lot of similar ideas now filtered through this individual lens.

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

I'm almost finished with Enterprise Logs. I'm reading Hour of Fire, the Enterprise-C story, right now.

 

[DrCorby]

It's a chilling read, a threat that's entirely plausible in today's world.

In today's world? God, I just detest that term. EMPs have been around for decades, so why would it be more plausible now then say 20 - 30 years ago at the tale end of the cold war?

Yes, the old Soviet Union and China could have launched nukes that would have produced an EMP effect at any time during or just after the Cold War. But they were restrained by the certainty of US retaliation and the destruction of their lands. But now, with the rise of rogue states led by unstable governments like North Korea and Iran, plus various terrorist groups around the world, the deterent is not as strong. There's concern that some of these groups might get ahold of "missing" nukes from the Soviets. And, just in the last couple of weeks, Iran tested a missile that could concievably boost a bomb to the necessary heights over the US for a crippling EMP burst, plus announced it was now "a nuclear power". So, yeah, it is a different world now.

Oh, sounds like a good read though.

It has been so far. I'm over halfway through, and it's hard to put down.

 

[Steve Roby]

Finally finished Kavalier and Clay. Quite a read. Works as a literary novel, as an evocation of New York City from the 1930s to the 1950s, and as a great read and a celebration of pop culture, comic books in particular.

Now I can finally read those Escapist comics that were published a few years back to tie in with the novel. I've had them for years but wanted to read the novel first. It's a massive novel, so I kept putting it off, but it's a very readable book; I got through maybe 300 pages today alone. Highly recommended for anyone who hasn't already read it.

 

[JD]

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. Given that the only other Pratchett I've read previously was his collaboration with Neil Gaiman, Good Omens, and that I've also previously read Gaiman's American Gods (and Anansi Boys), it's interesting to see a lot of similar ideas now filtered through this individual lens.

What did you think of American Gods? I've tried to read it twice and for some reason I just can't get into it. I don't know why, it was well written, and I loved the ancient gods in the modern world concept, but I just lost interest after about 100 pages. Although TBH the first time it was more because I had never read anything as... um... descriptive as the first succubus scene and it freaked me out, but I managed to get past that the second time and it still lost me.

 

[Sci]

Yes, the old Soviet Union and China could have launched nukes that would have produced an EMP effect at any time during or just after the Cold War. But they were restrained by the certainty of US retaliation and the destruction of their lands. But now, with the rise of rogue states led by unstable governments like North Korea and Iran, plus various terrorist groups around the world, the deterent is not as strong.

Conceded with North Korea and terrorist organizations; these people are not rational political actors, and as such the risk of their making a move without regard for self-destructive consequences is a major problem.

But the Islamic Republic of Iran is not led by irrational political actors. It's led by rational men who seized power and have been very careful to hold on to it. Furthermore, it's led by men who know that their country is surrounded on two sides by occupying U.S. armies that overthrew the local regimes within weeks of beginning invasions (Afghanistan and Iraq) -- and who know that of the list of "Axis of Evil," the United States attacked the weakest state, indicating to them that they needed to develop their own nuclear deterrent to prevent another U.S. invasion.

If the United States can manage its own jingoists and can convince the Iranian regime of its intentions to negotiate in good will, I think that there's no particular reason that we won't be able to eventually convince Iran not to go nuclear -- or, barring that, to manage their rise as a nuclear power peacefully. But the idea that Iran is a dangerous, irrational political actor that will attack the U.S. or Israel with no regard for the consequences to itself is, to me, kinda silly.

Now, Kim Jong-Il, on the other hand? That bitch crazy.

 

[William Leisner]

What did you think of American Gods?

I remember liking it, though it's been close to ten years now (holy crap, can that be right?) so I don't have a lot of specific memories of the book.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Just had seven books delivered.

The last (for now?) two 4400 books, the latest two CSI books, Sorrows of Empire and Inception. Will be reading those now.

 

[Steve Roby]

Just started Unholy Dimensions, a collection of Lovecraftian stories by Jeffrey Thomas. I read and enjoyed one of his Punktown novels last year and a few of the stories here are part of that series as well.