So what are you reading now? (Part 3)

[Christopher]

^ Which was written by ex-BSG writers, and an absolute goddamn riot.

Who were also ex-DS9 writers, David Weddle & Bradley Thompson. With the story by CSI's showrunner Naren Shankar, formerly a writer-producer on TNG and an executive producer of Farscape.

I know there are fan sites out there that have built up this whole alternate reality as if Galaxy Quest had been a real show, compiling episode guides and such, and I keep wondering if similar things are going to emerge for "A Space Oddity"'s Astro Quest. There's got to be somebody out there geeky enough to do that.

 

[Greg Cox]

I enjoyed the MONK book, which actually predates the CSI episode.

The "murder at an sf convention" plot is getting more and more popular. BONES did it last season, too, and, of course, there's BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN by Sharyn McCrumb.

Heck, I even set one of my ALIAS books at a "Space Vixens" convention . . . .

 

[Lonemagpie]

I enjoyed the MONK book, which actually predates the CSI episode.

The "murder at an sf convention" plot is getting more and more popular. BONES did it last season, too, and, of course, there's BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN by Sharyn McCrumb.

Heck, I even set one of my ALIAS books at a "Space Vixens" convention . . . .

Psych did it as well, so has just about everything else...

 

[JD]

Numbers did the comic book one with Christopher Lloyd and Will Weaton.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I finished Mission Gamma: Twilight. I found it alright, but nothing special (and not nearly as good as The 34th Rule). I failed to find Vaughn likable, and found his and Prynn's dysfunctional family story predictable. I liked the Quark/Ro story, and Taran'atar's misguided trips to Quarks and the day-care centre.

Why on earth did they refit Defiant as an explorer? Why not send a ship designed for exploring to the Gamma Quadrant instead, and put the crew on that? Giving a battleship all the abilities of Voyager or the Enterprise-D strikes me as silly.

I've now started Vulcan's Heart. I have reservations about the Spock/Saavik relationship, but I'm enjoying the novel so far. I especially liked McCoy's "I thought she died 50 years ago!" Spock's World reference when T'Pau shows up.

I now have 14 Best of Trek books As I expected the quality declines, and by #18 it's articles about what date the Enterprise's PB-30 nacelles were replaced with PB-31's
Still fascinating.

 

[RandyS]

I finished Mission Gamma: Twilight. I found it alright, but nothing special (and not nearly as good as The 34th Rule). I failed to find Vaughn likable, and found his and Prynn's dysfunctional family story predictable.

That's not surprising. I often feel the same way. The whole "dysfunctional family" idea is over done these days to the point of being redundant. In both books, and TV and movies.

As for my reading, I'm 250 pages in Star Trek: A Singular Destiny, and forty pages into Burster by Mike Capobianco.

 

[Smiley]

They refitted the heavily armed and cloakable Defiant for exploration because they did not know the exact status of the Dominion, and they wanted the ship they sent to be ready to meet the unknown. It also is the ship that the crew is most used to working on, interchangeable interfaces notwithstanding.

I'm working on catching up on my X-Men reading. The most recent was Legacy: Sins of the Father. It's an interesting comparison of the psyches and methods of Xavier and Sinister. It also has a fun non-canon story with Stan, Xavier, and Magneto.

 

[TheAlmanac]

I now have 14 Best of Trek books As I expected the quality declines, and by #18 it's articles about what date the Enterprise's PB-30 nacelles were replaced with PB-31's
Still fascinating.

How are you defining "interesting" when it comes to those books?

I ask because it seems like the main thing you found interesting in the earlier volumes was the peek at fandom in that era, and how differently they envisioned the Star Trek universe, so it's not too surprising that after TNG started, more of a consensus view emerged...

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

I finished CSI: Brass in Pocket earlier. Before reading it I assumed Brass would play a major role in the story but he doesn't even appear until the end (except for a minor part in the middle). However, it's still a good story.

I'm about start on His Last Bow, a Sherlock Holmes story. After that I'll be reading Supernatural: Heart of the Dragon by KRAD.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Picked up Craig Ferguson's "American On Purpose". I enjoy him on "Late Late Show" and the book has gotten a lot of positive reviews

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I'm currently 120 pages into The Children of Kings. It's okay so far, but I will admit that it is a little slow, in my opinion so far, and doesn't exactly make me want to go further. And, personally, I'm finding Vlasidovich to be a bit annoying. He can speak the Vulcan language effortlessly and smoothly, but when he switches to Federation Standard (or English or whatever), he sounds like a Russian spy from a TV show or something?

 

[F. King Daniel]

How are you defining "interesting" when it comes to those books?

I ask because it seems like the main thing you found interesting in the earlier volumes was the peek at fandom in that era, and how differently they envisioned the Star Trek universe, so it's not too surprising that after TNG started, more of a consensus view emerged...

While many of the specualtions I loved from the earlier volumes are mostly absent from the later ones, I still get a big kick out of the then-current opinions, and fans' attempts to reconcile various incompatible novels and episodes.
I don't like the shift from fans sharing varied opinions to the current somewhat small-minded trend of fans telling each other how to think.

I should point out that these are only my first impressions on quick flick-thoughs of the later Best of Treks. I may yet come across articles that change my opinion of 1994's Trekkies.

 

[dstyer]

I'm currently halfway thru "The Needs of the Many," the Star Trek Online book. I'm not sure what I expected since I haven't looking into the game very much, but it's entertaining and different. The interview format is a nice departure from the standard prose of virtually every other book out there. I do hope, though, that by the end of the book we won't find out that all the old crew members of Enterprise, DS9 and Voyager have all survived and become captains...

 

[vess]

Just finished The Return by William Shatner a couple of nights ago. Loved it.

And I've just started Ship of the Line by Diane Carey, and I've got to say that it isn't grabbing me quite as much.

These are my first two Trek novels, by the way.

 

[Smiley]

Ship of the Line is not highly regarded in these parts, so don't weight it too heavily in your opinions of Star Trek books. For something that's currently on shelves, I would recommend checking out Full Circle or The Never-Ending Sacrifice. If you have access to a good library or used book store, Imzadi and Federation are some outstanding reads.

 

[new_mercury]

Ship of the Line is not highly regarded in these parts, so don't weight it too heavily in your opinions of Star Trek books. For something that's currently on shelves, I would recommend checking out Full Circle or The Never-Ending Sacrifice. If you have access to a good library or used book store, Imzadi and Federation are some outstanding reads.

I second that. Federation remains one of my favourite books.

 

[vess]

Ship of the Line is not highly regarded in these parts, so don't weight it too heavily in your opinions of Star Trek books. For something that's currently on shelves, I would recommend checking out Full Circle or The Never-Ending Sacrifice. If you have access to a good library or used book store, Imzadi and Federation are some outstanding reads.

I second that. Federation remains one of my favourite books.

Is there a reason that Ship of the Line isn't highly regarded? I mean, I think it's boring so far (Chapter Three), but I assumed that it was because I hadn't seen any familiar faces yet.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Finished Richard Morgan's The Steel Remains, which was great but ends on the annoying tone of "we've fixed this problem, but discovered a bigger one and are preparing to take it on in the sequel(s)"

Admittedly, Light Of Heaven ends like that too, and there aren't going to be the sequels there now, so maybe I shouldn't complain.

Not sure what to read next...

 

[Bishop76]

Just finished up the first two Titan books. Not awful, except for the whole after school special feel of them. These authors don't really do subtle social commentary well, do they? More like a bat to the face...

 

[Zatoichi]

^
I've been hesitant to read "Titan" for those same reasons. There's a good amount of politicization in Mangel and Martin's "Enterprise" novels too, which never really appealed to me. It's a shame because the two of them write well together.

Right now I'm reading "Provenance of Shadows." This is my third book by David R. George ("Serpents in the Ruins" and "Twilight" being the others). Hoping "Provenance" is just as good.