Finally getting around to Strange New Worlds X. As usual, a mix of some good stuff and the occasional reminder that DWS and I must have pretty different taste in stories.
I finished up the Buffy The Vampire Slayer reboot comic and Friday, and I really enjoyed it. They did a really good job of updating things, but still keeping the feel of the Buffyverse.
The most recent episode of Literary Treks has been published! Bruce and I talk about The Original Series: The Captain's Oath by Christopher L. Bennett. Check it out here: Literary Treks 271: To Thine Own Self Be True. Thanks to @Christopher for providing answers to a few questions we sent his way!
I just finished listening to your literary treks podcast. I liked that Chris Bennnett gave you insight about certain story plots about Captain Kirk and new characters in the new book.
Latest review is up: a video review of Discovery: The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack. I really enjoyed this one, Tilly has become one of my favourite characters, and Una is such a wonderful author to tell her story. Great stuff.
Star Trek Log Three. One of the most interesting things in Log One was the description of the Enterprise’s journey into the cloud-creature in the novelization of “One of Our Planets is Missing.” It was eerily reminiscent of the long trip through the V’ger cloud in TMP.
Currently giving Slayer by Kiersten White a go. It's set in the BTVS-verse and Spoiler: Comic and this novel Spoilers from other spoilers is set post the end of magic in the comics. So far, it's mostly about some of the Watchers though one becomes a Slayer and pretty much thinks it's worse than becoming a demon. She also thinks that everything in the world is the fault of Buffy
I just finished up "The Captain's Oath" so I'm once again caught up on the current novels. I decided while waiting for "The Enterprise War" to come out I'd read one of my old Voyager books that I never got to in my 1990's collection of novels yet to be read. This one is #11 "The Garden" by Melissa Scott. I've read a lot of original series and TNG novels lately and I decided I was in the mood for something a bit different so we'll go with Voyager this time
I finished up the Voyager half of The Badlands Book Two a couple days ago, and it was OK. I did enjoy it more than the TNG and TOS stories in Book One, but it's not really at the level of the modern books. It's competently written, and the characters all feel pretty good. I liked that it fleshed out the original pre-DQ crew members of Voyager, and it was a bit more exciting than the TNG and TOS stories. I thought it was pretty cool the way it kind of weaved in and out of Caretaker. It starts off with a handful of chapters following Chakotay and the Maquis going up through the opening scene, and then jumps over to Voyager after they leave DS9, but before they arrive in the Badlands. Spoiler: Gul Evek I was really surprised that Gul Evek was actually killed off, I didn't realize until I was reading this that we never saw him again after Caretaker. Have any of the Novelverse novels featured Evek after Caretaker? If I was going to rate it, I think I'd go with a 7/10.
Philip Purser-Hallard's Sherlock Holmes novel, The Vanishing Man. I've never understood the difference between Titan Books' two ongoing lines of Sherlock Holmes novels, though labeled The Further Adventures and those labeled, simply, Sherlock Holmes. The former started out as reprints of out-of-print pastiches, then branched into original pastiches, while the latter has always been original, though perhaps a little more science-fictional or supernatural than the books published under the former. And The Vanishing Man certainly has a supernatural element. 1896. A man vanishes from inside a locked room during an experiment held by a metaphysical society to prove that psychic phenomena are real. The chairman of the society, a notable inventor, hires Sherlock Holmes to find a rational, not supernatural, explanation for the disappearance because he believes the man was a fraud and would be out ten thousand pounds if he were genuine. Holmes is intrigued and takes on the case. It's a fairly straightforward affair, though it requires careful reading and a memory for names. The interstitial chapters are crucial as well. This is a pastiche where you're probably not going to figure out the trick before the revelation -- I certainly didn't -- because Holmes is clearly ahead of Watson and the reader, though figuring it out and proving it are two very different things, and the latter takes some time. I'm a tough critic of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, because there are certain things I want and a certain voice I expect, and I will drop a pastiche like a hot potato if it starts not feeling right. On the one hand, I felt it needed another plot complication or red herring. On the other hand, it felt a little decompressed for a Sherlock Holmes novel. Still, Purser-Hallard wrote a decent story of Sherlock Holmes investigation a possible supernatural mystery, and he did so in a way that felt true enough to the Canon that kept me going until the end.
Just posted a new review: Titan: Taking Wing by Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels. I first read this one years ago, and interestingly enough, I enjoyed it more this time around. I remember not liking the Romulan political stuff, which I took to a lot more in this most recent re-read. Recently finished Titan: Orion's Hounds, and just started on The Children of Kings by David Stern.
After finishing the Voyager half of The Badlands Book Two, I decided to take a break from it, and am now reading Dr. Strange: The Oath, written by Brian K. Vaughn, and art by Marcos Martin. I'm a couple issues into the collection and I'm really enjoying it so far.
I'm doing the Deep Space Nine Relaunch stuff - I'm now on the first Mission Gamma. I'm getting a kick out of 'em, on the mix of old and new characters, especially Ezri Dax's character's growth.
Just finished the three volume Star Trek - Legacies series by Creg Cox (Vol 1), David Mack (Vol 2) and Dayton Ward/Kevin Dilmore (Vol 3). I must say I was a little disappointed. I've read a lot of late by Cox, Mack and Ward and have really enjoyed their work but this just wasn't up to their usual standards. The pacing was off, the story seemed strained, as if it was a bit rushed and there were plot elements that just didn't make sense. The revelation of the actual true nature of the "other place" the various people were transported to seemed just an unnecessary complication. The Romulan agent Sadria just was unbelievably rabidly extreme and two-dimensional while the Klingon renegade Visla was a complete throw away who could have had a much more satisfying role to play, both these characters just seemed wasted. And what happened to the Klingon captain Kovor? I'll have to re-read the books to see if I missed something, although right now I'm not inclined to do so, finishing the series had actually become a bit of a chore so I might have just glossed over it. I also don't believe that Captain April would have just walked away from a damaged planet and an unknown alien base without looking into it a lot more thoroughly and at least trying to repair some damage. It was good to see Number One's character fleshed out and there was a nice touch tying in plot elements from the "Mirror Mirror" episode, but I'm afraid for me the bad points outweighed the good. Pity, I had been looking forward to reading these.