So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[marlboro]

Strange New Worlds vol. 8

Favorite story: Gumbo

One of the idiosyncrasies of Trek short stories, is that most of them only work because the reader is already incredibly familiar with the characters and lore. That's not a complaint on my part, I just find it interesting. "Gumbo" is the epitome of what I'm talking about. The reader can't really appreciate how pitch perfect this story is without already knowing these characters intimately.

I noticed that this story acts as a lead-in to Rising Son. Is this the first time that SNW story has referenced the Relaunch continuity?

Two stories from the Speculations category caught my eye, "Dawn" and "Concurrence."

"Dawn" is a time travel story that involves a visitor from a timeline in which Archer fails to stop the Xindi destruction of Earth. Humanity is ultimately saved by a reawakened Khan. The Xindi/Khan plot would have made an excellent Myriad Universes novella, imo.

"Concurrence" is a sequel to a previous SNW story, "The Soft Room." Both stories are very interesting, but both suffer from the same problem: they feel less like short stories and more like chapters from a book. I wish that they had asked the author to pitch a full length novel based on his idea instead of going the short story rout.

 

[marlboro]

Double Helix: Vectors

It's ok. You get to see a kinder gentler Dr. Pulaski. It's more of a DS9 story than TNG. I wish we had got to see more of Kira hunting down the source of the plague on Bajor. We do get some brief scenes with her and Odo, which was nice.

This is the only book in the miniseries that I've read. I'm not sure I could handle a series of six medical thriller stories back to back.

Off topic: The folks at Simon and Schuster should think about advertising on Trekbbs. It seems like the people here have to be the target audience, right?

 

[Kilana2]

Still busy with Well of Souls. I love the McCoy cameo. And the book has many twists and turns. It's a shame considering the fate that awaits the Enterprise C crew several years later.

 

[John Clark]

Doing a re-read of Cauldron by Larry Bond.

 

[JD]

Double Helix: Vectors

It's ok. You get to see a kinder gentler Dr. Pulaski. It's more of a DS9 story than TNG. I wish we had got to see more of Kira hunting down the source of the plague on Bajor. We do get some brief scenes with her and Odo, which was nice.

This is the only book in the miniseries that I've read. I'm not sure I could handle a series of six medical thriller stories back to back.

Off topic: The folks at Simon and Schuster should think about advertising on Trekbbs. It seems like the people here have to be the target audience, right?

A couple of the old editors in charge of the Trek books used to post here, but that stopped a few years ago.
I finished Up Hell Rode With Her Last Night,

 

[marlboro]

^ It just makes sense. Especially for new Trek fans who are here because of Discovery. They might not even be aware that there is a book line.


I read Titan: Sword of Damocles last night. I found it confusing at points, and not just because of the usual predestination paradox issues you find in stories involving time travel.


Here's what I think I know:

The tesseract = The Eye = the transported Orisha homeworld, correct?

Najem and Modan are thrown 1000 years into the past. Four other crew members are thrown 2 days into the past. We know this because Vale and the Orisha view the attack on the runabout in their present. I was unsure about this at one point, because time periods were being "folded" into one another. At first I thought that Xin had been left behind on the planet a few decades in the past. While escaping the tesseract Modan says that if they send a message to Titan it will arrive forty-seven years in the past. I assume she meant that would be the case because of their present location in the tesseract.

So far, so good. Here's where I get confused.

The alien being in the ship above the planet seems to have been in orbit for a very long time. She says the she has been out of contact with her people for more than 40 "cycles". She also seems to believe that her people planetside are killed when Titan shows up. I may be misreading it, but she also seems to imply that the planet itself is gone or at least devastated.

So did she make a mistake in believing her people were gone, when they were really just holed up underground, or was this the moment in time when the planet was transported into various time periods due to the creation of the tesseract? I'm not even sure if the planet was transported or maybe just duplicated.

Did Najem figure all of this out to the point that he introduced Warp technology to the Orisha in order to complete the time loop, or did the Dreamers eventually go to the "Shattered Place" and find the wreckage of the Charon? Or maybe the developed the tech on there own.

And why the heck was Charon in that region of space in the first place?

Sigh...so many questions. None of them really matter though, because I just don't like the Titan crew. I read the books for the imaginative plots and not for the characters. The early chapters onboard the Titan consisted of the crew doing nothing but bickering. I don't find any of the characters interesting enough to want to listen to them squabble, frankly. I cannot stand Vale. Between the way she treats Deanna in this and in Destiny I was hoping the counselor would snap and go full Dark Mirror Troi on her.

Some positives: The book was never boring. I liked Najem and Mordan. I found the Orisha interesting. Even though the plot was confusing to me, I think the premise had potential.

To sum up: People who do like the Titan crew would probably enjoy this book, as long as they can deal with some head-scratching plot points.

Personally, I think if the book had been about Najem, Mordan, and their travails on Orisha I would have liked it a lot more. I would definitely be willing to check out more of the author's work. As I said, I was never bored, and this was apparently his first full length book so a few rough edges are completely understandable.

I also read Strange New Worlds vol. 9. Favorite story: "Staying the Course." Introducing Derek Redmond into the story probably pushed things a little too far into glurge territory, but, whatever. "Bring him to me."

 

[JD]

To sum up: People who do like the Titan crew would probably enjoy this book, as long as they can deal with some head-scratching plot points.

Titan is one of my favorite Trek series, and SoD was one of my favorite books in the series. I love these kind of wibbly wobbly time travel stories, I'm a huge Doctor Who fan and some of favorite episodes are the ones where the timeline gets all twisted around, like it did in SoD.

 

[marlboro]

^ I knew you were a fan. I nearly always check here for review threads before picking up a book. I, too, enjoy a good time travel stories. The Time Machine (1960) is one of my favorite movies. The book is excellent, too, of course. It's one of those rare instances where both the novel and film are both classics.

I have never seen a single episode of Doctor Who. It never aired in my area growing up, and I've missed out on the modern version since I don't even have a tv these days.


p.s. One other positive of SoD is the cover is very nice looking. Sometimes the ship only covers can look kind of generic, but this one looks good.

 

[USS Firefly]

Just finished The Fall - The Poisoned Chalice, what was Riker an idiot again to leave the ship again.

So far Star Trek titan: Synthesis is my favorite of the Titan novels, and the first were I like Troi.

 

[Reanok]

I'm reading a mystery novel Death in the stacks by Jennn McKinley.

 

[indianatrekker26]

After having a break from trek fiction for the last half of this year, jumping back in with The Lost Era, a series I've never read. I just started the first book, The Sundered.

 

[Kertrats47]

The latest episode of Literary Treks is up: Literary Treks #251: 5 Missions of Elton John, in which we discuss the second book in the I.K.S. Gorkon series, Honor Bound by Keith R.A. DeCandido.

I'm currently finishing up Prometheus: In the Heart of Chaos (English translation) by Bernd Perplies & Christian Humberg, we'll be covering that in an upcoming Literary Treks as well.

 

[Reanok]

I'm rereading Section 31 Control by David Mack

 

[Damian]

Just started the final Prometheus novel, "In The Heart of Chaos". Looking forward to seeing how this story concludes.

 

[2of1million]

I finished Stargazer Three by Michael Jan Friedman the other day. Moving onto book four Oblivion. This series is great fun!

 

[Reanok]

I really like the Stargazer books by Micheal Jan Friedman I reread them a few years ago. And wished there had been more novels in this series.

 

[2of1million]

I really like the Stargazer books by Micheal Jan Friedman I reread them a few years ago. And wished there had been more novels in this series.

I never read them years ago, but picked up the ebooks when they were 99 cents each a few months ago. Enjoying them very much! More would be good for sure!

 

[marlboro]

After having a break from trek fiction for the last half of this year, jumping back in with The Lost Era, a series I've never read. I just started the first book, The Sundered.

I haven't read that one, but I am currently reading "Excelsior: Forged in Fire" by the same authors. I'm only half way through, but I'm really enjoying it so far.

 

[Kilana2]

I haven't read that one, but I am currently reading "Excelsior: Forged in Fire" by the same authors. I'm only half way through, but I'm really enjoying it so far.

The Sundered is connected with Titan The Red King. It's about the Neyel.

 

[marlboro]

The Sundered is connected with Titan The Red King. It's about the Neyel.

lol I haven't read that one either. The thing about TrekLit is that you can read 100 books and still have only scratched the surface.