So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm reading Sharpe's Tiger by Bernard Cornwell.

While I've read the original run of Sharpe novels (Eagle through Waterloo), I haven't read any of the post-Waterloo books save Trafalgar. (I'm talking publication order here, not chronological order.) I've decided to read the series through chronologically, starting with Tiger.

I enjoy Cornwell's prose. His words flow easily, and his characters are well-defined.

The one quibble I have with Cornwell's writing is that he'll change his POV character in the middle of a scene. He writes third person limited, but he can be clunky about it. A scene might be written entirely from Sharpe's POV, and near the end of the scene we're suddenly in Lawson's head. That has always given me mental whiplash; I'm settled into one character, and suddenly I'm elsewhere.

 

[JD]

I was going through TrekLit withdrawal so I started STTP: Raise the Dawn.

 

[Lonemagpie]

The one quibble I have with Cornwell's writing is that he'll change his POV character in the middle of a scene. He writes third person limited, but he can be clunky about it. A scene might be written entirely from Sharpe's POV, and near the end of the scene we're suddenly in Lawson's head. That has always given me mental whiplash; I'm settled into one character, and suddenly I'm elsewhere.

It's amazing how many good-selling writers actually do that, which bugs the living shit out of me...

 

[Thrawn]

Dune does that. I really wanted to like Dune, but that kept pissing me off royally.

 

[JD]

Yeah, I've noticed that in Dune too. It's not enough to turn me off from the book, but it is a little weird. In the scene I was just reading one line was Lady Jesscia's thought, and then the next line was Paul's thought.

 

[Thrawn]

Right, he even does it right in the middle of paragraphs. Drives me nuts.

 

[Kertrats47]

Just posted my review for the first book in the S.C.E. series, The Belly of the Beast by Dean Wesley Smith. I'm planning on posting the reviews for the first four books (compiled in Have Tech, Will Travel) over the course of the next week.

 

[Garrovick]

Currently reading:
Windows on a Lost World (TOS #65) by V. E. Mitchell
A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
Vulcan's Heart by Sherman/Shwartz
The Destroyer #150: The End of the World by Warren Murphy

Over the past week, I finished:
TOS: Errand of Vengeance No. 1: The Edge of the Sword by Kevin Ryan
Spectre by William Shatner and Gar & Judith Reeves-Stevens
The Devil's Heart by Carmen Carter
Honor Blade (TOS #96) by Diane Duane
Metamorphoses by Ovid
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
The Folded World by Jeff Mariotte

Edge of the Sword was really interesting - I had never read any of those books before and I really enjoyed the "Lower Decks"-style take on early TOS. I'll never watch the first part of "What Are Little Girls Made of?" the same way again, though.

I'd read the first 3 Shatnerverse novels before - I haven't really been a big fan of the Shatnerverse previously and Spectre didn't help. I never found the idea of him just falling head-over-heels for Teilani believable at all, plus it seems like he is turning into Super-Kirk and is just becoming a parody of himself.

The Devil's Heart was a mess, in my opinion. I kept expecting Picard to start making weird noises in his throat and referring to the Heart as his "precious". It also seemed like there were way too many peripheral characters with little or no impact on the story. I'd liked Carter's previous novels but this one just didn't work for me.

I really liked My Enemy, My Ally but I haven't liked any of the Rihannsu novels after that. I thought that Swordhunt and Honor Blade were both very dull, especially. I know that those were originally supposed to be a single novel and they got split into two separate books in order to avoid a hole in the publishing schedule after The Empty Chair was delayed. Even though both books are rather short (220 pages each), I wonder if they received extra padding when they were separated and that slowed their pace down. I've now read all of Diane Duane's ST novels except The Empty Chair - I wish she'd written more standalones like The Wounded Sky, Doctor's Orders, and Intellivore and left the Rihannsu-verse alone after My Enemy, My Ally.

 

[Use of Time]

I am currently juggling Michael Jan Friedman's Crossover and Susan Wright's Sins of Comission.

Crossover just didn't have enough meat to be a hardcover. I was somehow expecting more out of this one. Its ok but its just very vanilla.

 

[Christopher]

I thought that Swordhunt and Honor Blade were both very dull, especially. I know that those were originally supposed to be a single novel and they got split into two separate books in order to avoid a hole in the publishing schedule after The Empty Chair was delayed. Even though both books are rather short (220 pages each), I wonder if they received extra padding when they were separated and that slowed their pace down.

I don't think there was enough time for any rewrites like that. It looked like they just split the existing manuscript in two. They didn't even renumber the chapters for book 2, just started it with Chapter 6.

 

[Kertrats47]

Review for book two of the S.C.E. series, Fatal Error by Keith R.A. DeCandido, is now up.

In my current reading, I've finished Avatar, Book Two and the 12th S.C.E. story, moving on to A Time to Sow by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore.

 

[Halmirdax]

Recently read the first in the Starfleet Academy series, The Delta Anomaly by Rick Barba.
Suitably gripped and intrigued, I like his style.

 

[Endgame]

Finished "The Big Game" by Sandy Schofield (corporate author) and the title has around at least three meanings in the book. Read "Fallen Heroes" by Dafydd ab Hugh (hope I got author spelled right) and it was a bit more warriorly. Still reading "Modern Strategy" by Colin S. Gray (1999) and am now about 2/3 of the way through "Ethics for a Broken World" by Tim Mulgan (2011) which may be an appropriate companion volume with the six stories around "Mere Anarchy" topics. Just started "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) and I am at least enjoying the novel and don't know if I shall see the movie.

Not sure whether to continue with DS9 novels and read "Betrayal" by Lois Tilton (1994) or to read "The Romulan Way" by Diane Duane & Peter Morwood (1987) and get a TOS classic with insight into early Romulana. Could do both. Still mostly playing catch-up and purchasing the new books but not reading them yet.

 

[Use of Time]

I currently reading Deep Domain by Howard Weinstein.

I've been reading mostly 80's and 90's Trek novels and I swear that 80% of the novels involve some combination of crewmembers "stuck on a planet fighting for survival." The away team is usually cut off from the Enterprise or left there while the Enterprise goes and does some other peace keeping mission. I don't have an actual count of how many novels end up like this but it feels like it happens a lot.

 

[Kertrats47]

My review for S.C.E. #3: Hard Crash by Christie Golden is up.

On the reading front, I've changed my mind, and instead of A Time to Sow by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore, I've decided to take a break from Trek and read Xenocide by Orson Scott Card.

 

[Reanok]

I'm reading a TNG novel The Forgotten war by William Forestchen and I just finished reading Memory Prime by the Reeves-Stevens I really enjoyed this book it's well written,it's fast paced read .It has a intriguing storyline.I also like the fact all of main Enterpise crewmembers get to have important storyarcs in this novel.

 

[ryan123450]

I'm about a third of the way through TOS: Death Count. Pretty boring and hard to get through so far. If it wasn't so short I'm not sure I'd make it through.

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

I finished Star Trek: The Weight of Worlds by Greg Cox the other day. I enjoyed this one a lot. I really liked

Spoiler: Weight of Worlds

the idea of using gravity as a weapon (and other uses) and seeing Uhura in the Captain's chair.

I then read Chapter 1 of Federation: The First 150 Years, titled "First Steps: 2120-2155."

After that, I read the Doctor Who comic, Room With a Déjá Vu, written by Rich Johnston. This story was interesting, but a little confusing. After reading it backwards I understand it better, but there are still some things I'm not sure about.

I'm now reading Supernatural: Fresh Meat by Alice Henderson.

 

[EddyDrama]

I often read multible books at the same time. Currently reading 2 books, Foley Is Good and Star Trek Enterprise: The Good that Men Do.

 

[Kertrats47]

My four-day stretch of S.C.E. reviews concludes with book four, the last one in Have Tech, Will Travel: Interphase, Part One by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore.

I've been reticent to read Xenocide because of the some of the things I've read about it and Card's politics, but I'm really enjoying it at the moment. Only a few chapters in, but I forgot how much I enjoyed his writing.