I'm reading The Wind, The Road, and the Way by Jenny L. Cote.
So What Are you Reading?: Generations
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Just finished Doctor Who: Corpse Marker by Chris Boucher, a sequel to his serial "The Robots of Death." Having recently rewatched that serial, which is one of the best stories of the Tom Baker era if not the whole series, I was intrigued to learn there was a sequel revealing more of the world only hinted at by the serial, and by the original author, no less. So when I came across a new release of it at the bookstore recently -- part of a series of trade-paperback novel reissues called "The Monster Collection" -- I snapped it up. But I'm afraid it was very disappointing. The story is rather disjointed. The main characters (the Doctor, Leela, and the three survivors from TRoD) have too little interaction, the plot is hard to follow, important events are summarized rather than depicted, and the ending is so abrupt that I'm still not entirely sure how the crisis was resolved and why it happened in the first place. And the worldbuilding didn't feel like a plausible extrapolation from what was hinted at in TRoD. The serial implied a society where robots did all the work and so humans all led lives of decadent ease, surrounded by beauty and elegance and donning elaborate fashions and makeup. But very little of that came across in the novel; there were evident class divisions of a sort that don't make sense when the labor class is robots, and there was no sense of the fashions and Art Deco designs and general elegance and beauty that were such a terrific part of the episode's worldbuilding. It came off more as an ordinary culture like our own that had robots present in it but was only superficially affected by their presence. It just didn't feel like the same civilization I saw in the show, and that's strange considering it was from the same writer (albeit decades later). But then, I guess a lot of that implied worldbuilding came from the director and production designer rather than the scriptwriter.
The novel is noteworthy for including a character from a Boucher-penned episode of Blake's 7 (on which Boucher was script editor), and thus unofficially establishing B7 as taking place in the Doctor Who universe (something I've long been willing to believe was true); but the character ultimately seems rather peripheral and unnecessary. Even though he's supposed to be masterminding the whole situation on behalf of the ultimate culprit, it doesn't feel like the story would've happened any differently if he'd been left out.
The novel is noteworthy for including a character from a Boucher-penned episode of Blake's 7 (on which Boucher was script editor), and thus unofficially establishing B7 as taking place in the Doctor Who universe (something I've long been willing to believe was true); but the character ultimately seems rather peripheral and unnecessary. Even though he's supposed to be masterminding the whole situation on behalf of the ultimate culprit, it doesn't feel like the story would've happened any differently if he'd been left out.
If you think the first book in the trilogy is the worst Star Trek book you've ever read that means you haven't read books 2 and 3. The third one is especially bad. If anything can be considered worse than her relaunch books it's this these books.
For some reason I'm not in the mood for Rise of the Federation at the moment, so I've started to (re-)read Strange New Worlds 10.
Six stories in I'm reminded why I stopped reading it the first time around (after four stories). The stories are just not very good and most of them offer little new. Of the six I've read so far I would say two are decent (The Smell of Dead Roses, and to a lesser degree A Dish served cold), the other four not so much.
I plan to finish it this time around, though.
Six stories in I'm reminded why I stopped reading it the first time around (after four stories). The stories are just not very good and most of them offer little new. Of the six I've read so far I would say two are decent (The Smell of Dead Roses, and to a lesser degree A Dish served cold), the other four not so much.
I plan to finish it this time around, though.
Finished out DTI: Forgotten History today. What a great story. More TOS-heavy than I had anticipated for a DTI story, but I was really happy to see Sulu get some face-time. A lot of fun easter eggs and a lot more tying of TAS into the wider continuity. This is the fourth(?) different version of how the first Fiver Year Mission ended? (Lost Years, that DC Comics Annual and IDW's Mission's End).
Finishing out this one means that I officially only have 14 more novels before I'm "current" on the 24th Century novels.
Started in on Plagues of Night. Just 10 pages in, wasn't expecting it to pick up from Zero Sum Game! Excited for this one.
Finishing out this one means that I officially only have 14 more novels before I'm "current" on the 24th Century novels.
Started in on Plagues of Night. Just 10 pages in, wasn't expecting it to pick up from Zero Sum Game! Excited for this one.
Seventh, at least. There's also a version from the "Star-Crossed" storyline in DC's second volume, one from the Crucible trilogy, and one in Strange New Worlds 10.
Still, it's not reconcilable with any of the other versions. The DC Annual #2 version and Mission's End both show scenes after the return to Spacedock, overlapping with the Lost Years version and differing with it on various particulars such as the reasons for Spock's embrace of Kolinahr and Kirk's promotion to the admiralty. Crucible offers yet another incompatible explanation for those transitions, and also has the Enterprise badly damaged right at the end of its mission (also the ship ends up at Starbase 10 rather than Earth). The Ex Machina/Forgotten History version and the "Star-Crossed" version not only offer still other explanations for the transitions, but do depict a lot of what happens in the gap. And the version in SNW X puts the end of the 5YM immediately after "Turnabout Intruder," leaving no room for the events of the earlier novels that The Lost Years references (Dillard's three prior novels and Dreadnought!).
I'm reading Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi.
Read Star Wars: Darth Maul- Death Sentence. Pretty good story. Awesome to see Darth Maul again in all his Clone Wars glory.
Just wasted about 30 minutes of my life reading The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition by Ira Steven Behr. Glad it only cost me about £3 to get 2nd hand from Amazon as it really wasn't worth it but thats my own fault for reading a book originally from 1995 whose information you can find freely on the web.
Anyway if anyone is interested I did post a short review on my blog which is available here
Anyway if anyone is interested I did post a short review on my blog which is available here
I am on to book 2 of the Genesis Wave, I read the first one a long while back (proabably when it came out) but never finished the series for some reason so I started over.
Now I'm reading the Alien Spotlight Volume 2 trade paperback. The Cardassian story was weird, the Q story was pretty good, and I really liked the Klingon story by KRAD. Will get to the last too later tonight.
Book Of Lies is a chase thriller by Brad Meltzer, who's TV show, Decoded, is usually fun, and that's why I gave the novel a go.
Overall it was OK, but predictable in all the twists, and the characters never leapt off the page.
The story's about the search for the truth behind the Biblical mark of Cain, and the weapon he supposedly used to kill Abel. Also it's about the origins of Superman. Meltzer definitely gets points for having a surprising yet fitting actual truth to what the Macguffin is, though it never quite follows through with the weapon part.
So, a bit laboured, but generally entertaining in a TV episode-ish way.
Overall it was OK, but predictable in all the twists, and the characters never leapt off the page.
The story's about the search for the truth behind the Biblical mark of Cain, and the weapon he supposedly used to kill Abel. Also it's about the origins of Superman. Meltzer definitely gets points for having a surprising yet fitting actual truth to what the Macguffin is, though it never quite follows through with the weapon part.
So, a bit laboured, but generally entertaining in a TV episode-ish way.
I've been working on reading all the Pocket Star Trek output for years but I haven't worried about reading them in chronological order. Or any order for that matter unless it's a specific series like Vanguard or The Fall. I'm not exactly sure how many I have left but I'm pretty sure it's under a hundred. I'm keeping my progress at http://corral.com/stbooks.html. I stole the original list of books from the old PsyPhi site and have been adding new books as they come out. A strike through means I've read it.
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