So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[hbquikcomjamesl]

About 2/3 of the way through the front-matter (Oxford University Press sure added a lot of it) of Zenda.

*******

Now a chapter into the actual novel. Which, so far, seems so filled with silliness and caricature that the Get Smart episodes about King Charles of Caronia seem less like parody and more like . . . I dunno, homage, maybe?

 

[Daddy Todd]

Maybe I'm just an old pulp guy (I was reading Perry Rhodan translations throughout my teens in the '70s) but I'm having a whale of a time reading Doc Savage reprints -- even though the stories are ~90 years old. They're plot-heavy, written with breathless intensity, and mercifully short. Lester Dent ("writing as Kenneth Robeson") had to turn out as 50- to 60,000 word "novel" every month, so there's not much of what you might call subtlety. But dammit, they're fun to read. I've read 8 in a little over a month.

 

[youngtrek]

Monthly reading report time. I managed to read (or finish reading) four books in September:

“Pliable Truths” (Star Trek: The Next Generation) by Dayton Ward (2024)

“Voices From Krypton” by Edward Gross (2023)

“Superman Archives” Vol. 6 (2003) (DC Comics; by Jerry Siegel, Don Cameron, Ed Dobrotka, John Sikela, Jack Burnley, et al.) (reprints “Superman” #21-24 (March-April 1943 to September-October 1943))

“The Amazing Spider-Man” Vol. 1 (2016) (Marvel Comics; by Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, Ramón Pérez, Victor Olazaba, et al.) (reprints “The Amazing Spider-Man” #1-6 (June 2014 to November 2014), #1.1-1.5 (“Learning to Crawl”, July 2014 to November 2014), Annual #1 (February 2015)) (read the individual issues on Marvel Unlimited digital service)

2024 GoodReads Reading Challenge: 41 of 50 books (four ahead of schedule)

 

[Smiley]

I have been struggling with some books that have decent content but are lacking in momentum:

Star Trek: Atonement (Protectors and Acts of Contrition have also moved a bit slower than the tremendous The Eternal Tide)
Star Wars: Temptation of the Force (at almost halfway through, it feels like things are about to really happen now, but the Nihil, Drengir, and blight are not the most interesting antagonists of either canon or Legends)

On the more positive side, I am loving the correspondence included in Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter by Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook. It's mostly focused on Series 3 of the Who revival through the end of Tennant's first run as The Doctor, but it also goes into writing and production in general. It gives hope that we can be successful through our own struggles because Davies has his share of trouble with the writing process and self-sabotaging habits, and he produced some amazing work.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

On the more positive side, I am loving the correspondence included in Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter by Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook. It's mostly focused on Series 3 of the Who revival through the end of Tennant's first run as The Doctor, but it also goes into writing and production in general. It gives hope that we can be successful through our own struggles because Davies has his share of trouble with the writing process and self-sabotaging habits, and he produced some amazing work.

Ben Cook...

Seriously, though, I think The Writer's Tale is often fascinating, but I also found it frustrating at times to see RTD talk about something, completely oblivious to his blind spots. The writing of the ending of "Journey's End" is particularly illuminating because I think it's clear that RTD didn't know what his story was; everyone tells him it doesn't work, and he keeps taking cracks at it, because he wants the emotional climax to be the Doctor and Rose, while treating what he does to Donna as an afterthought. The book is full of moments like that--he doesn't have the distance or the time to stop and think about what he's doing, so successes (like Children of Earth, covered briefly in The Final Chapter) are mystifying accidents, while the things he thinks are successes don't always work.

 

[Smiley]

I really have no knowledge of Ben Cook other than his role here as the correspondent. He's asking some good questions in the first half of the book.

I think you are spot on that Davies really did not have the benefit of distance or time at the stage of work that the correspondence was covering. He was finding it a challenge just to meet regular script deadlines and had to pass off some work and turn in other things late. My perspective as a more casual fan of the series is that Series 1-4 worked very well more often than not, and the "Journey's End" arc at the end could make for an excellent capstone to the revival series. Reading through the writing and production history, it's amazing to me that the episodes and season arcs came out as coherently as they did.

Switching topics, I've started my reread of CLB's DTI novels. The first chapter of Watching the Clock is just as great as I remember.

One thing I can never keep straight in my head is whether uptime or downtime is the future from the perspective of a present day observer. I feel like Chapter 1 said that 15 years ago was uptime, but the heading for Chapter 2 (which is a flashback chapter) says that it is downtime. If anyone has figured out an easy way to recall which is which, I would be thankful for the help.

 

[Christopher]

One thing I can never keep straight in my head is whether uptime or downtime is the future from the perspective of a present day observer. I feel like Chapter 1 said that 15 years ago was uptime, but the heading for Chapter 2 (which is a flashback chapter) says that it is downtime. If anyone has figured out an easy way to recall which is which, I would be thankful for the help.

From my website annotations:

The DTI’s use of “uptime” and “downtime” to mean “in the future” and “in the past” is inspired by Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity, in which “upwhen” and “downwhen” were used equivalently. I chose not to follow the counterexample of Stephen Baxter’s Manifold: Time, which used “upstream” to mean the past and “downstream” to mean the future. That approach is logical — a river runs downstream, time runs into the future — but I was an Asimov fan long before I discovered Baxter, so the Good Doctor got the nod.


I think I see the problem. You're probably thinking of this exchange:

“Got a new assignment,” Lucsly told him as if it were just another day at the office. “Unplanned displacement, arrival detected three hours, twenty-seven minutes ago. In the dead zone, Regulus sector.”
“Uptime or down?”
“Up. Civilian ship, the Verity, reported lost on stardate 43021.5. A Saturday.”

My intent was that Dulmur was asking if the displacement had been uptime or down, i.e. if the ship had been moved forward or backward from its starting point. So Lucsly was saying it had been displaced uptime, not that it came from uptime. I could've made that clearer.

The way to remember is to think in terms of numbers -- a higher-numbered year is up, like the floors of a building. I guess Asimov did it that way because his time-travel kettles were sort of like elevators moving up and down the centuries between the "levels" of Eternity.

 

[Smiley]

That makes sense. I was not realizing that they were describing the direction of displacement instead of the origin point of the displaced people. I will try to remember elevators and calendars where "up" is higher numbers going forward in this book.

 

[bdub76]

Currently, I have three books going:

* Tekwar
* Small Mercies
* Capital

 

[Allyn Gibson]

and

I really have no knowledge of Ben Cook other than his role here as the correspondent. He's asking some good questions in the first half of the book.

I find Cook a bit cringey and full of himself.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Now 18 chapters into The Prisoner of Zenda.

 

[Stevil2001]

I have never actually read The Prisoner of Zenda, but my favorite riff on the Ruritanian romance is The Lost Embassy by Adam Fergusson, which imagines that a Ruritania-esque country ended up on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, combined with a dollop of the real life story of Carpatho-Ukraine, which was an independent country for three days during World War II.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

To tie Zenda back to Star Trek, Robert Fletcher's designs for the Monster Maroons on Star Trek II were inspired by the Ruritanian uniforms from the 1937 adaptation of The Prisoner of Zenda.

It's a pretty decent film. It smooths some things out from Hope's novel, particularly the climax, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as Rupert pretty much steals the show.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Finished Zenda this morning.

based on the plot summary I've read of the sequel (Rupert of Hentzau) I'm not sure I want to read it. Zenda ends on a positive, even hopeful note, and Rupert burns everything to the ground.

I would not bother with Rupert of Hentzau. If it weren't a sequel, it would be as forgotten as Hope's other books.

I went to Project Gutenberg and read the first and last chapters of Rupert. That last chapter, even without reading what leads to it, is depressing as hell. I think I'd rather stay with the happy, hopeful ending of Zenda and pretend Rupert doesn't exist.

I once again find myself agreeing with Allyn Gibson. Don't be afraid; be terrified.

Besides, Nana's book is finally in the bookstores, and so is the Discovery Season 5 DVD set, and there's a new ST novel on the way.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

and

I find Cook a bit cringey and full of himself.

Is that worth a vomit emoji?

Gareth Roberts... sure. But what did Cook say/do exactly?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I once again find myself agreeing with Allyn Gibson. Don't be afraid; be terrified.

I do not understand your animus. At this point, I don't know what I did to you, nor do I care, but I find your one-sided war against both me and Christopher mind-boggling and tiring. Back off.

Is that worth a vomit emoji?

Gareth Roberts... sure. But what did Cook say/do exactly?

I think the vomit emoji is appropriate. I don't know what he's "done" specifically, but I find his public persona barftastic.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I think the vomit emoji is appropriate. I don't know what he's "done" specifically, but I find his public persona barftastic.

Fair enough. *shrug*

 

[Greg Cox]

THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL by Stephanie Wroebel. A thriller sent in a Hitchcock-themed hotel.


Enjoying it so far.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Not reading much of anything right now. Too busy. The September NMRA Magazine has been sitting in my office, untouched (on the cover is a pair of GE diesels crossing a bridge over a river), because I've had errands on my lunch break three days in a row. Maybe I'll get through the editorials and the letters in what little time is left of today's lunch break.

 

[Bryan Levy]

I got the first four Buck Roger’s XXVC books. Anyone have any opinions?