So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[stardream]

Wow, you really do read fast. I'm still in the 22nd century..

Yes, I tend to zip through things. I was one of those 'early readers' when I was young. It has nothing to do with my overall intelligence, it's just a skill I developed as a kid and I never figured out how to slow down. At one time I honestly thought everyone read this way.

 

[Jinn]

Yes, I tend to zip through things. I was one of those 'early readers' when I was young. It has nothing to do with my overall intelligence, it's just a skill I developed as a kid and I never figured out how to slow down. At one time I honestly thought everyone read this way.

I started regular reading some time around fifth or sith grade and already back then differed greatly in reading speed. It took like half a year to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix while I read other books much faster. Later I read DS9: "Twilight" half a year, while I finished "Abyss" and "Demons of Air and Darkness" within two weeks. Also, I read VAN: "Storming Heaven" within a ~five hour traffic jam in France. NF: "Cold War" I read over two weeks, with the first half on the first day and the second half on the last day of said time. I really don't know where I'm going here..

 

[JD]

Finally made it to Titan: The Hounds of Orion. I like Bennet's writing style because it doesn't detract from the story. Sometimes I find myself paying more attention to a writer's style than the actual story and the writing could be extremely good. I'll find myself doing the 'oh wow that fight scene was great' only having to go back to read it again just to find out what actually happened. With his work, it's just one smooth read from beginning to end which is how I wish I could write.

That may make no sense. Maybe it's something only wannabe writers do.

Sorry about being picky, but it's Orion's Hounds, not The Hounds of Orion. At least it is for the English version.

 

[stardream]

You are right of course. I was posting it from memory. When I read from a kindle I'm not always as 'aware' of the title as I am when I am constantly picking up a hard copy.

 

[JD]

It's an easy mistake to make, I just like to be as accurate as possible when it comes to things like titles in case people are inspired to look for whatever it is I'm talking about.

 

[ronny]

I've started reading ST: The Classic UK Comics Vol. 1. I have an issue with the way the book is bound. For about the first half of the book they are reprinting comics that originally in the center of a magazine and the comics often have word bubbles and art that's in the center of the page that you can't see when it's in a book. For the first story our hero's name is 'Captain Kurt' and the Enterprise is nuclear powered which turns out to be critical to the resolution of the story. Fun reading though. I'm sure I'll be getting all 3 volumes. On the strength of what I've read so far I've finally ordered the 2 newspaper comic volumes.

 

[Paris]

About 100 pages into JJM's Prey #1 and really enjoying it. It seems as though i've really missed Klingon politics and the TNG crew both. This book is satisfying those respective itches in spades

 

[JoeP]

About 70 pages into Prey #1 and agree with Paris above. I'd be farther but it's taken some adjustment for me as I primarily read on my Kindle.

 

[Stephen!]

I'm currently getting back into reading Takedown, since I started it quite a while ago.

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

I finished Star Trek: Legacies: Purgatory's Key by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore.
I'm now reading Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Rules of Accusation by Paula M. Block & Terry J. Erdmann.

 

[David cgc]

I just finished The Dark Forest, the sequel to The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, the big Chinese science-fiction novel that won the Hugo recently. It's interesting stuff, and it's been a long time since I read a novel that wasn't originally written in english, never mind one that comes out of such a different cultural context. The translation of the third book in the series should be out anytime now (I didn't plan it that way, I was just lucky about when I decided to cross the first one off my to-read list).

As I reached the end of the novel, I did notice some interesting thematic parallels to some Trek novels, which I'll spoiler-code because I think it really helped that I went into the series cold.

Spoiler: Themes in The Dark Forest

As I reached the end of the novel, I noticed several parallels with the "Destiny" trilogy. Humanity is faced by an existential threat in the form of an unstoppable alien invasion, there are civilizations out in space that are so paranoid they either hide from the galaxy at large at all costs, or destroy other life as soon as it's found (that one's a bit of a stretch, but it kind of reminds me of the Caliear being swatted out of space when they try to communicate with the other galaxy, even though the motivations were totally different).

The one that got me thinking of it, though, was the very last page, where the main character and one of the aliens briefly muse that there may be other aliens out there who would be willing to gamble on coexistence rather than assuming anyone else is a threat, which made me think of the Caliear's new mission to search the universe for civilizations that were too good-hearted to make it on the interstellar stage and protect them so they could flourish.

I'm always interested in parallel development, and there are enough similarities to plant a seed that could grow into a pretty interesting essay contrasting the two works and their perspectives.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

I've started reading ST: The Classic UK Comics Vol. 1. I have an issue with the way the book is bound. For about the first half of the book they are reprinting comics that originally in the center of a magazine and the comics often have word bubbles and art that's in the center of the page that you can't see when it's in a book. For the first story our hero's name is 'Captain Kurt' and the Enterprise is nuclear powered which turns out to be critical to the resolution of the story. Fun reading though. I'm sure I'll be getting all 3 volumes. On the strength of what I've read so far I've finally ordered the 2 newspaper comic volumes.

Yeah, they could have formatted the first half differently -- like printed the two-pagers sideways, for instance -- because it's a pain to read that section as published. Still, those stories are pretty fun.

 

[Starbreaker]

Almost done with A Darkling Sea by James Cambias. I'm starting to lose interest and am ready to move onto something else. There's a little bit of ADHD writing. It switches viewpoints far too quickly.

 

[Cyfa]

I've just started The Baba Yaga (the third Weird Space book) by Una McCormack. I haven't read the first two, but Una's one of my favourite Trek writers, so I thought I'd give something else by her a go.

Please report back when you're finished. I'm quite curious about that one.

- Well, @Thrawn , I've finished. Over all, I liked it - good characterisation, no real technobabble (just like Una McCormack's Trek novels), a simple-to-follow story that makes sense, and I didn't feel like I'd missed anything having not read the earlier books in the series. However, the "villains" were rather two-dimensional (although their motives were pretty clear), it was pretty brutal in places (and a lot is left up to the reader's imagination, which is no bad thing), and - like I mentioned to @Sto-Vo-Kory - I found the style reminiscent of Anne McCaffrey's 60s-70s era female character-centric sci-fi.
I thought the Vetch boy, Failt, was an intriguing character; I mentally cast Teryl Rothery as Doctor Larson; and there seemed to be a nod to Trek's Venus drug.
That probably hasn't helped you at all - but, I did warn you I was rubbish at reviews!

 

[Jinn]

I just read the Hive Comic and I found three positive things in it. 1. The art, which I kinda liked. It was nothing special, but still i liked it. 2. The ending was really touching 3. It made me appreciate Destiny even more.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Dave Galanter's Crisis of Consciousness. So far, I've only read the 1st chapter. It's never a good sign when

Spoiler: Uh oh

an unknown ship shows up demanding their world back in the first few minutes.

 

[JD]

I finished up the second collection of Brian Azzarello's run on DC's New 52 Wonder Woman and started the first arc in the New 52 The Flash series.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Checking out the NCIS LA novel by Jerome Priesler.

@John Clark now my library system is buying that too.

 

[John Clark]

@John Clark now my library system is buying that too.

Since the last time I've posted (before today, rather than my last actual post ) I've read:-

The new Deus Ex novel by James Swallow (Good - and one of these days, I'm going to have to play the last two games)

Shadow of Victory (E-Arc) by David Weber. - I always tend to enjoy his novels, but the e-arc does need some editing and at this point of the story line, everything just seems to be going slowly. (This particular novel is set during the events of the other books of the series)

First five books of the Gaunt series by Dan Abnett.

Meta by Tom Reynolds.

Stargate: Hall of two Truths (ok).

There's probably a few I've missed, but I've done little else but constantly read the last few weeks. Suits me

 

[stardream]

Finished TNG Resistance. I've learned to not get attached or even care about new characters. The odds are they will end up dead. I was surprised when a couple in David Mack's A Time To books were still alive at the end of the story.