So what are you reading now? (Part 3)

[Count Zero]

Well, it's my second attempt to get into Dostoyevksy. A long time ago, I started reading Crime and Punishment but never got through it. There's now a new, much lauded translation of some of his books available but I've shyed away from the price so far.
Also, this book has a recommendation by Nietzsche on the back cover, so I had to start reading it.

 

[Steve Roby]

I realise I've been absent from this thread for a while. I finished Perdido Street Station and while I enjoyed reading it I'm not quite sure what all the fuss was about. Yes, it was good but not that great and it meandered somewhat, so that I'm not sure what the point was.

I liked Perdido Street Station, but there are other books in vaguely similar styles that I like more. M. John Harrison's Viriconium, for example, or Jeff VanderMeer's Ambergris books, or Jay Lake's Trial of Flowers.

I feel idiotic for saying this but there was also way too much swearing in that book for my taste. I'm not prudish and I swear often myself but here people were going overboard with it, even in normal situations. It seemed a bit pretentious to me, as if the author was trying very hard to show that this was a 'mature' book.

I don't remember that at all. I certainly didn't get that impression.

I wish that the Who books were a bit longer and more elaborated, though I appreciate the different approach they have compared to the Trek books, i.e. they hardly ever detail the characters' thoughts.

Well, the Who books used to be longer etc (see the New Adventures and Eighth Doctor Adventures) but the more kid-friendly ones sell something like five times as many copies, if not more. But Michael Moorcock, a big influence in some of that China Mieville-type stuff, has a Doctor Who novel in the works. That one I'm definitely looking forward to.

 

[snakespeare]

Well, it's my second attempt to get into Dostoyevksy. A long time ago, I started reading Crime and Punishment but never got through it. There's now a new, much lauded translation of some of his books available but I've shyed away from the price so far.
Also, this book has a recommendation by Nietzsche on the back cover, so I had to start reading it.

If these still leave you on the outside, don't give up. My favorite is The Idiot. You might find it more accessible.


Myself, I am leaving Trek Lit for a year. I am going into a Tolkien phase. I'm picking through the early material in The Silmarillion and Book of Lost Tales I. It's going to be mostly non-Ring Tolkien, focusing on the development of his ideas. Then I'll finish it off with the trilogy.

This should keep me busy until all the Typhon Pact books are out, when I will buy them all and read them in rapid succession. I might be away from here for long stretches, but I'll be back bothering people in a year when I'm reading Typhon Pact.

 

[mbruno]

I've just finished Titan: The Red King and have started Beneath the Raptor's Wing. After that I'm really not sure, I've got such a backlog of books to read it's not even funny.

 

[new_mercury]

I've got such a backlog of books to read it's not even funny.

I'm the same. Star Trek wise i'm reading the 6th New Frontier book and also reading The Lost World by A.C. Doyle.

Next one on the list to read is Vanguard:Open Secrets

 

[Steve Roby]

Just started Denise Mina's recent novel, Still Midnight. Saw her talking about this one at a reading during a mystery writers' con a while back. Still haven't read her first three books, but her Paddy Meehan books are excellent, and this is the first book featuring a new character. If you like Ian Rankin's Rebus novels, here's some more grim Scottish crime fiction to investigate.

 

[JoeP]

Finished the 2nd Star Wars Darth Bane book on Monday and started in on the latest one. So far it's been a pretty quick read so I imagine it'll be done in a day or so. From there it's catch up time with my unread Trek books: Losing the Peace, Full Circle, and The Never-Ending Sacrifice...

 

[BrotherBenny]

I'm about to start reading David Mack's The 4400: Promises Broken. It might not be Star Trek but I'm still expecting a huge death toll.

 

[JD]

I decided to go back to Prophecy and Change now, since I'm getting farther into Sorrows of Empire. I'm in the process of reading Broken Oaths right now.
As for the other stuff I'm reading, I've been having medical issues so I haven't made much progress on Dune or Golden Compass.

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

I finally finished Andor: Paradigm from the first Worlds of Deep Space 9 book. It took me a while to get through it. It's not that I didn't like it, quite the contrary. In fact, I was somewhat surprised that I liked it so much because I didn't really like the author's previous contribution to the DS9 "relaunch", This Gray Spirit.

I'm now reading Age of the Empress, from the first Mirror Universe collection, Glass Empires. Next I'll be reading the short novel version of The Sorrows of Empire from the same book. After that I'm either going to go ahead and read the expanded version of The Sorrows of Empire, or wait until I finish all of Glass Empires. I want to read the expanded novel while the shorter one is still fresh in my mind so I can tell what's been added/changed. I'm not sure what I'll do yet.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Because I managed to misplace Ex Machina temporarily, I started reading The Best and the Brightest. The cover art makes the group look about as unappealing as is possible.

So far it’s not as good as Collision Course (the only other proper academy novel I can think of right now), instead going the Wesley-factory route of pampered space cadets without a care in the world, getting up to trivial “mischief”. Collision Course’s Kirk would have beaten them up and taken their lunch money without a second thought (then crashed a flying car into their dorm, just because)

In one of the most bizarre errors I’ve come across, one of the characters briefly turns into Rom on page 71.

Upon reading “It looks like shunt” (and later “Shunt!”) I thought a brilliant new future-swear had been invented, combining two of ours into a non-swear that could be published and enjoyed by all. Not so – it’s a Bajoran resettlement camp. What a shame. I can hear Picard or Riker going “Oh shunt!” or “you…shunt!” in times of crisis or anger.

I like the crazy gravity on the Rex (another pseudo-Kzinti race) ship. The cameos and references to TV characters seem forced. It's picking up a third though.

 

[JoeP]

Finished the latest Darth Bane book (good series, moves at break-neck pace) and have moved on to my unread Trek pile starting with Losing the Peace!

 

[Steve Roby]

Because I managed to misplace Ex Machina temporarily, I started reading The Best and the Brightest. The cover art makes the group look about as unappealing as is possible.

So far it’s not as good as Collision Course (the only other proper academy novel I can think of right now),

It's been years since I read The Best and the Brightest, but even going on dim memories, I disagree. Collision Course was a trainwreck of a novel; the only thing it came close to doing right was some of the Kodos stuff. OTOH, I remember really liking The Best and The Brightest.

Collision Course’s Kirk would have beaten them up and taken their lunch money without a second thought (then crashed a flying car into their dorm, just because)

And that's one of the reasons Collision Course sucked. IMHO.

 

[Count Zero]

I liked Collision Course. Sure, the story sometimes stretched credibility, but overall I enjoyed it, especially the world building for Earth, which resembled that of the new movie remarkably.

 

[S. Gomez]

I was hoping to make Burning Dreams one of my next few reads, but it turns out that may be dependent on my being able to find it in my local used bookstore.

 

[Greg Cox]

I'm about to start reading David Mack's The 4400: Promises Broken. It might not be Star Trek but I'm still expecting a huge death toll.

As I recall, you will not be disappointed!

 

[S. Gomez]

David: I promise I won't kill you all.
The 4400: Okay, thanks dude.

(The book comes out.)

The 4400: Hey! You said you wouldn't kill us!
David: Well, it is called Promises Broken...

 

[F. King Daniel]

Finished Ex Machina, which was good.
But… why was Janice’s child’s father changed from being Kirk? Why dredge up an obscure reference from an 80’s novel like that just to change/discredit the jist of it?

I also finished The Best and the Brightest. It’d picked up a third though and was mostly enjoyable, although most of the cadets came across like pampered rich kids.

Alien lifepans/lifecycles aside, Nev Reoh unfortunately came across as a kiddie fiddler, which kinda ruined the ending.

I thought Collision Course had lost it with Back to the Future style flying cars – Best and Brightest one-up’d it with hoverboards at the end.

I’d like these characters to show up again on the Titan, Enterprise, DS9, Aventine or wherever (something nicer then “They all died during Destiny”).

I’m now reading Captain’s Blood. Kirk has a mutant hermaphrodite child. The apex of Shatnerverse insanity has officially been reached. I’m not sure how to react.

Oh yeah – the child is also the Reman Jesus.

Obviously.

 

[Snaploud]

I also finished The Best and the Brightest. It’d picked up a third though and was mostly enjoyable, although most of the cadets came across like pampered rich kids.

Well, they do live in a "money-less" society with the average individual having access to a holodeck and a replicator.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Doctor Who: Journey Through Time