You mean you returned to The Return?
More like re-returning to The Return, or even add more 're's as I think this is my sixth or seventh reading.
So what are you reading now? (Part 3)
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More like re-returning to The Return, or even add more 're's as I think this is my sixth or seventh reading.
You sound like you're trapped in the Typhon Expanse. Have you been noticing any odd recurrences of the number 3 lately...?
I believe you're thinking of The Rift by Peter David.No more incest in Trek novels, please. I vaguely remember a TOS novel where some alien girl was doing it with her brother (because it's "ok" on her planet) which utterly and totally ruined it for me.
If one of my former high school teachers married one of my former high school classmates, I (and many of my classmates, I think) would still consider it weird, even though a significant amount of time has passed...and that's high school, let alone junior high or elementary.
I'm taking a break from Trek books to read Greg Cox's The 4400 post-finale novel Welcome to the Promise City.
I always thought it was creepier that the adult Saavik had sex with a resurrected Spock who looked like a teenager but had a mind of a newborn baby.
I believe you're thinking of The Rift by Peter David.No more incest in Trek novels, please. I vaguely remember a TOS novel where some alien girl was doing it with her brother (because it's "ok" on her planet
If one of my former high school teachers married one of my former high school classmates, I (and many of my classmates, I think) would still consider it weird, even though a significant amount of time has passed...and that's high school, let alone junior high or elementary.
I know a college teacher who ended up marrying one of my classmates. They've been together for over a decade now and have two adorable children. People raised eyebrows, I admit, but it seems to have worked for them . . . .
I'm not totally disgusted by it, it just feels a little weird to me is all. I know this kind of stuff happens all the time, but it feels just as weird to me then too. I'm not totally against it, I do plan on eventually reading the Vulcan's books. I just would have rather seen them go in a different direction.
Currently reading: Peter Doggett's You Never Give Me Your Money, a biography of the Beatles that begins in 1967 and carries on to the release of Beatles Rock Band. In other words, it's the story of the break-up and the solo careers. Other Beatles bios have touched on the former, but I can't think of a Beatles bio that has given much, if any, attention to post-1970. Ian MacDonald's third edition of Revolution in the Head, for instance, summarizes the entire period in about ten pages, so he can lay broadsides on the entire Anthology project. Doggett's book is very readable and, thus far, quite balanced.
Red Sector, which was cited over in the Double Helix thread, is, frankly, an utterly atrocious novel -- and no amount of editing and rewriting would have fixed that. It is a novel that went wrong from the moment it was conceived, and it kept going wrong. Bad books happen, and Red Sector is, without question, a bad book. Ship of the Line, however, is something far more tragic -- it's a book that could have been better, it's a book that could have soared. The tragedy is that it didn't have to be that way.
Ship has all the hallmarks of a rush job -- the narrative is awkwardly balanced (the prologue amounts of a third of the novel), basic Trek facts (from chronology to the state of the Bozeman in "Cause and Effect") are simply incorrect in the book, and the manuscript needed a thorough copy-edit. Ship has a lot of problems, they're obviously fixable problems, and it's clear that Carey and Ordover simply didn't have the time to fix them.
I don't make excuses for Ship; I simply recognize it for what it is -- a book that was published before it was ready. It needed an edit, it needed a rewrite, it received neither. It could have been a contender.
A tale of two books...
Red Sector, which was cited over in the Double Helix thread, is, frankly, an utterly atrocious novel -- and no amount of editing and rewriting would have fixed that. It is a novel that went wrong from the moment it was conceived, and it kept going wrong. Bad books happen, and Red Sector is, without question, a bad book. Ship of the Line, however, is something far more tragic -- it's a book that could have been better, it's a book that could have soared. The tragedy is that it didn't have to be that way.
Ship has all the hallmarks of a rush job -- the narrative is awkwardly balanced (the prologue amounts of a third of the novel), basic Trek facts (from chronology to the state of the Bozeman in "Cause and Effect") are simply incorrect in the book, and the manuscript needed a thorough copy-edit. Ship has a lot of problems, they're obviously fixable problems, and it's clear that Carey and Ordover simply didn't have the time to fix them.
I don't make excuses for Ship; I simply recognize it for what it is -- a book that was published before it was ready. It needed an edit, it needed a rewrite, it received neither. It could have been a contender.
Was it a rush job, or did anyone actually care about it?
Those aren't necessarily incompatible. Sometimes deadlines are really, really tight, and no matter how much you care, you still have to rush.
But, what? I read Congo many years ago, when I was in junior high, I think. If you read any more of Crichton's books, I'd advise you stay well away from Rising Sun, it was as dull as dirt. I'd highly recommend Sphere, though, it's one of my favorite Crichton novels.
I guess I'm a very small minority, because I couldn't get into Sphere when I tried to read it a year or two ago. It just seemed kinda unevenly paced to me.
I've decided to work through some of my Star Wars books that I either haven't read, or don't remember. I've started with The Phantom Menace's novelisation, and I plan on working my way through a few random books all the way to New Jedi Order and (maybe) beyond.
I've decided to work through some of my Star Wars books that I either haven't read, or don't remember. I've started with The Phantom Menace's novelisation, and I plan on working my way through a few random books all the way to New Jedi Order and (maybe) beyond.
That's an intense read.
Rising Sun's actually my favourite of his books - but I loved Congo, Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park as well.
Couldn't get past page 50 of Timeline, and I hear the movie's even worse...
^Oh, so that film's actually based on the Matheson story they did on The Twilight Zone? I thought it seemed similar.
It strikes me that Russell Crowe would have been a better casting choice than Hugh Jackman.
Won't be the same without Lee Marvin...
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