So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Greg Cox]

Finished the Golem novel. Moving onto The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, which I've always meant to read. (Stumbled onto a nice trade paperback edition in a thrift store the other day, which reminded me that I'd never gotten around to reading it.)

 

[youngtrek]

After an off month (October), reading wise, I’ve managed to add back to my numbers a bit in November: six books read (two of then novels, four comics collected editions). Gets me up to 43 of my 75 books GoodReads 2025 Reading Challenge.

I’m not going to go crazy trying to read thirty-two books in December, even comics (which I could probably manage but don’t feel like it’s worth the effort). I’ll just see how close I get this time and try for 75 again in 2026.

Here’s what I read:

Star Wars: Iron Fist (originally released as Star Wars: X-Wing: Iron Fist; book two in the Wraith Squadron trilogy) by Aaron Allston (Bantam Spectra, 1998; Del Rey “Star Wars Essential Legends” rerelease, 2024)

Star Wars: Solo Command (originally released as Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command; book three in the Wraith Squadron trilogy) by Aaron Allston (Bantam Spectra, 1999; Del Rey “Star Wars Essential Legends” rerelease, 2024)

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Frozen Gold (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 2) (Fantagraphics, 2024) (reprints 1943-1945 Barks stories from Dell’s “Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories” and “Four Color” comic books)

Star Trek Vol. 5: When the Walls Fell by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Liana Kangas, et al. (IDW, 2025) (reprints 2024-2025 IDW “Star Trek” #25-30 comic books).

Star Trek: Defiant Vol. 5: No Old Warriors by Christopher Cantwell, Morgan Beem, Angel Unzueta, et al. (IDW, 2025) (reprints 2025 IDW “Star Trek: Defiant” #22-25 comic books).

Batman ‘89: Echoes by Sam Hamm, Joe Quinones, et al. (DC, 2025) (reprints 2024-2025 DC “Batman ‘89: Echoes” comic books limited series)

— David Young

(Addendum: I forgot to add that I also finally started reading “A Dance With Dragons”—A Song of Ice and Fire book five—by George R.R. Martin.

I finished the previous book, “A Feast for Crows” on June 8, 2024. So, I waited nearly a year and a half to move on to this next book which is the most recently released book in the series thus far (released in 2011(!)).

I’ve been stretching these out since there still is no sign of when book six, “The Winds of Winter”, will eventually come out (plus these are *big* books that take me longer to read).

I’ve managed to get 12% into this one, 133 pages, as of the time I’m posting this.)

 

[Greg Cox]

Sherlock Holmes and the Real Thing, by Nicholas Meyer. His latest Holmes novel.

And, no, it does not involve Coca-Cola (as far I can tell).

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

. . . these are *big* books that take me longer to read).

I’ve managed to get 12% into this one, 133 pages, as of the time I’m posting this.)

Ye vish! That's somewhere in the neighborhood of 1100 pages. And I thought topping out at 400 and change (not including front-matter, two appendices, and a glossary), to take my protagonist from nursery school to graduate school, was a lot of paper.

And, no, it does not involve Coca-Cola (as far I can tell).

Somebody had to say it.* May as well be you.

_____
* as Groucho said, when he broke into a chorus of "Hooray for Captain Spaulding."

 

[Greg Cox]

The title actually seems to refer to art forgery.

 

[Greg Cox]

The title actually seems to refer to art forgery.

 

[Reanok]

Claws Out by Cate Conte

 

[Reanok]

Star Trek TOS Foul deeds will Rise by Greg Cox

 

[JD]

I finished up STTNG: The Q Contiuum on Monday, and I absolutely loved it. I really happy with the way everything was tied up, the way they finally dealt with 0 was a nice unexpected twist, and Lem Faal's final fate felt like an appropriate way to tie up his story.
After that was done, I read Batman/Superman: World's Finest Vol. 3 Elementary, which was good. After the release of the new Superman movie this summer this volume's focus on Metamorpho felt well timed. I've been really enjoying Marc Waid's writing and the art on this series, and the art has been ranged from good to great. As someone who's still not had a ton of exerpience with the comics' version of the DC Universe outside of a handful of characters, the way this series have weaved in a lot of other characters has been a nice introduction to the wider DCU.

 

[Desert Kris]

I finished reading The Lost Years, a book I tried at least two times in the past, but wasn't ready for. I really appreciated continuity I kind of felt left out on, after reading JM Dillard's numbered books, Dreadnought and Battlestations, and My Enemy, My Ally and The Romulan Way.

It was a pretty relaxed read for me. I liked that the first half of the book was showing Kirk, Spock and McCoy settling in to new ways of living, and the major story lines starting up at the halfway point. Not for everybody, I'm sure, but I liked seeing that transition.

I thought it was funny that Kirk gets sold on accepting promotion partly on the notion he won't have an admiral or diplomat hovering over his decisions. And then he gets himself in a situation where he's doing the cowboy diplomacy thing again...yet still hasn't escaped the shadow of a higher ranking admiral hovering and issuing ulitmatums!

 

[Christopher]

I thought it was funny that Kirk gets sold on accepting promotion partly on the notion he won't have an admiral or diplomat hovering over his decisions. And then he gets himself in a situation where he's doing the cowboy diplomacy thing again...yet still hasn't escaped the shadow of a higher ranking admiral hovering and issuing ulitmatums!

That's strange, though, because part of what differentiated TOS from TNG was that Kirk didn't have officials hovering over him most of the time, since the ship was usually weeks away from real-time contact with Starfleet Command and part of a frontier captain's responsibility was to be the sole, ultimate decision-maker on the scene and face any consequences later. In fact, in "Balance of Terror," he lamented about having to be in that position.

People tend to assume Picard's "cowboy diplomacy" phrase referred specifically to Kirk, but no, it was about Starfleet in general in the 23rd century, how its captains were in more of a frontier environment and had to be more autonomous, interpreting the rules as needed or inventing their own for novel situations. It would have been the same for all frontier captains, not just Kirk. (Although Discovery and Strange New Worlds have retroactively undermined this by showing instant communication and more direct oversight from Command, since today's writers can no longer imagine a world where communication is not instantaneous and global.)

 

[Cyfa]

DS9: Unity, by S. D. Perry. I'm not very far in so far, but the Trill/Parasite story is just as chilling as the first time around, and I still love Dax and Cyl's reunion.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

The title actually seems to refer to art forgery.

The title actually seems to refer to art forgery.

You can say that again.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Star trek Myriad Universe Chimes of Midnight by Geoff Trowbridge

Hi everyone,

I can remember Trek writer and Timeliner, and fellow librarian, Geoff Trowbridge (“The Chimes at Midnight”, which featured TAS’s Mr Thelin, in “Myriad Universes: Echoes and Refractions”) announcing quite some time ago that he was scaling back his online activities. I think I first chatted with him via the now-long-defunct PsiPhi bbs.

Geoff’s Trek Timeline pages and website seem dead, so I assume the linked email address would bounce, and his LiveJournal blog has been unattended for many years.

I would love to reconnect with Geoff, if anyone is still in contact with him, please? I have some cool info to pass on to him.

Much appreciated if anyone can help. Thanks!

 

[Smiley]

Recently read books that I would recommend:

The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters, both by Rick Riordan
How to Honeymoon Alone by Olivia Hayle

 

[Smiley]

I'm currently in a reread of Strike Zone. Peter David's work with characters both original and borrowed was always strong, but I think he really shined with the TNG crew.

I'm also reading The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie. It's a fancy estate that has nothing to do with Santa, Mary Poppins, or anything of the sort.

 

[Greg Cox]

You can say that again.

Oops. Was probably trying to post on my phone and wasn't quite sure what I was doing.

 

[Desert Kris]

That's strange, though, because part of what differentiated TOS from TNG was that Kirk didn't have officials hovering over him most of the time, since the ship was usually weeks away from real-time contact with Starfleet Command and part of a frontier captain's responsibility was to be the sole, ultimate decision-maker on the scene and face any consequences later. In fact, in "Balance of Terror," he lamented about having to be in that position.

People tend to assume Picard's "cowboy diplomacy" phrase referred specifically to Kirk, but no, it was about Starfleet in general in the 23rd century, how its captains were in more of a frontier environment and had to be more autonomous, interpreting the rules as needed or inventing their own for novel situations. It would have been the same for all frontier captains, not just Kirk. (Although Discovery and Strange New Worlds have retroactively undermined this by showing instant communication and more direct oversight from Command, since today's writers can no longer imagine a world where communication is not instantaneous and global.)

Pardon my delayed response. I think it made sense to me from the standpoint of impressions from certain episodes of TOS. I was still intending to read The Lost Years as part of the idea of it being tied to books developing an earlier continuity. In the time since I started reading the 80s era TOS novels, Strange New Worlds is a new favorite, and it may be that in addition to the impressions from a select number TOS episodes, I experienced an unconscious overlay of two or more continuities.

From the standpoint of considering Ingrit Tomson's tenure on the Enterprise a security chief, one possibility I considered was she was security chief after the 5 year mission, but before Enterprise returned to spacedock, during a hypothetical extra year. Then an alternative I considered was that she was security chief after TOS ended, during the fourth and/or fifth year. And then The Lost Years itself indicated that Tomson was security chief for four or five years suggesting that Mindshadow took place some time between TOS episodes, in the first or second season (or at least that Tomson is a character we never saw, that was possibly there in the show). I got the impression The Lost Years was going for a strict reading of the five year mission (to make it more accessible to new readers, I assume).

Part of the fun of reading The Lost Years was considering how I interpreted things from previous books compared with how The Lost Years presented the characters and situations for it's own story.

 

[bdub76]

I'm mainly reading two books right now: Secret History and The Christmas Cookie Killer. The later is for book club. It's not that good. I've paused Bleak House, and I'm barely making my way through Nightmare Alley even though I'm more than half way through it. It's a tough read for the holidays. I might pick it back up in January. And I struggled to get into Bleak House.

I'm also reading through Dicken's The Haunted Man.

For some reason, I'm thinking of reading more Dark Academia and try out a Solar Punk novel. The later is a genre I heard about today for the first time. And I didn't even know that Secret History was in this Dark Academia genre. Thinking of reading a couple more from this genre. If We Were Villains comes to mind.

I did try to start Asylum by McCormack, but I couldn't get into it.

And then, I'm reading short stories from a variety of different collections, but it's mainly three authors: R.A. Salvatore, Flannery O'Conner, and Stephen King. Short story collections have become my go to for reading at lunch time.

 

[JD]

Since my last post, I finished readin Dog on It, which was pretty good. It didn't totally wow me, but I enjoyed, and as a dog person having the whole thing told from the dog's added a fun little twist on your standard mystery. After that was finished, I read #14 of the Star Trek: Lower Decks comic book series, which was a lot of fun.
Next was Star Trek: The Original Series: Burden a Knowledge, a comic book miniseries written by the Tipton Brothers with art Federica Manfredi, which I thought was OK. I've been really enjoyed most of the Tipton's other Trek comics, but I did have one issue with this one. Each issue was mostly standalone, with the last issue then connecting back to the first. And this is where my issue comes up, the first two issue really need a few more pages to really make the story work. The issues each focused on the Enterprise crew on a new planet, but they spent so much of the issues exploring the planets and being shown around by residents, that by the time they introduced the actual conflict they resolved it just a few pages, and felt anticlimactic. I really think with those two issues they either needed to cut back on the exploration of the planets, or add some more pages so we could get a deeper conflict. The 3rd and 4th issues pretty much just jumped right into the actions, so it they worked a lot better of me.
I'm not reading Star Wars: The High Republic: The Monster of Temple Peak and Other Stories, written by Claudia Gray, Justina Ireland, Daniel Jose Older, Cavan Scott, and Charles Soule, with art by Rachel Stott, Sam Beck, Jason Loo, Yael Nathan, Jessie Longergan, Stefano Simeone, and Nick Brokenshire.