Also, Requiem was by Michael Jan Friedman and Kevin Ryan, so why are you only blaming Mike?
So What Are you Reading?: Generations
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marlboro
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Well then I cast my blame upon both of them! 
As I recall, Edgar Rice Burroughs was pretty fond of his coincidences, too. I used to joke that you could take his hero, his heroine, and his villain, scatter them randomly across a planet or jungle or prehistoric kingdom or whatever, and somehow all three of them would somehow end up at the same gladiatorial arena in the same lost city at the same time.
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marlboro
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As I recall, Edgar Rice Burroughs was pretty fond of his coincidences, too. I used to joke that you could take his hero, his heroine, and his villain, scatter them randomly across a planet or jungle or prehistoric kingdom or whatever, and somehow all three of them would somehow end up at the same gladiatorial arena in the same lost city at the same time.
I'm not a huge Tarzan fan, but my father was. I've seen every Tarzan flick from Johnny Weissmuller to Christopher Lambert. My two favorites (Tarzan's Greatest Adventure & Tarzan the Magnificent) starred Gordon Scott as an intelligent version of the character.
I've never read anything by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I picked up a copy of A Princess of Mars a couple of years ago from the library but never read it.
It had an introduction by the author Junot Diaz that was unlike any I'd ever seen before. It was, literally, 40 pages of Diaz shitting all over Burroughs. Page after page of him talking about him being a hack, a loser, and a racist. I'm pretty sure he called him a "doofus" at one point.
I read A Princess of Mars when I was pretty young, inspired by Carl Sagan's endorsement of the books on Cosmos. Some of the stuff went over my head.
I reread the series when Disney released John Carter (which is awesome and tons better, imho, than its reputation); Disney's Hyperion imprint released a 3-volume omnibus set of the entire Barsoom series, and I also picked up an illustrated omnibus of the first three books, illustrated by Thomas Yeates, about the same time. (The first five books are commonly reprinted in various editions, as the copyrights have expired.)
I can't argue with Diaz's characterization of Burroughs as a hack and a racist. His work is hack work. It's page turning, entertaining hack work, but hack work nonetheless. As for his racism, Burroughs was very much a product of his time. I can't speak to whether or not Burroughs was a "loser"; Burroughs' novels have been in print constantly for a century, which has to count for something.
Yet, the Barsoom novels have their charm, and Burroughs' ancient Mars civilization is one I've enjoyed revisiting over the years. Part of the charm is the hack work quality of the books. Burroughs is not a strong plotter. He's clearly making it up as he goes along, and every twenty pages or so his story will spin off in some completely random direction, abandoning most everything that came before. That gives the books an interesting quality, this sense that there are other things happening elsewhere on Mars and John Carter's adventures only scratch the surface. There are lots of holes to fill, which is what Marvel did with their Warlord of Mars comics in the 1970s and Dynamite has done more recently with their comics (which now focus entirely on Dejah Thoris). I admit, I've sketched out some outlines for Barsoom stories I'll never actually write, because I don't feel that I can capture that Burroughs "quality," that fit into some of those holes Burroughs left behind.
Rereading 11-22-63 by Stephen King, I don't remember much about the novel only that I didn't like the ending very much
Burroughs is the one of those authors I adored as a kid who I am kinda reluctant to revisit now, for fear of discovering that (a) he hasn't aged well and (b) I'm not twelve anymore. Devoured him as a kid, read everything I could find by him, including the more obscure stuff like The Monster Men and The Moon Maid.
But, yes, even as a kid, I was amused by the coincidence-laden, pulp-style plotting.
But, yes, even as a kid, I was amused by the coincidence-laden, pulp-style plotting.
There was one particular logic hole in Tarzan of the Apes that drove me crazy when I read the book. Burroughs established that Tarzan learned to read from the books left behind in his late parents' treehouse, but since there were no humans to read them aloud to him, he didn't know what sounds the letters made until he met Paul D'Arnot years later. However, when D'Arnot first finds Tarzan's treehouse, before meeting the man himself, he sees it has a sign on the door saying that it's the property of Tarzan. How did Tarzan know how to spell his name when he didn't yet know what sounds the letters represented???
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marlboro
Guest
Why do you assume that Tarzan made the sign? Maybe Koko the gorilla did it for him. After all, she was an expert in sign language...
Back on topic: Talking about the Guardian being activated by telepathy made me want to dig up A.C. Crispin's Time for Yesterday. I think her writing skills improved a lot between this book and the original. And that's not a knock at her first book.
One thing that I didn't notice before is that the three planets that are destroyed near the beginning of the book were named after employees of The Daily Planet. Perry, Kent, and Olsen.
Back on topic: Talking about the Guardian being activated by telepathy made me want to dig up A.C. Crispin's Time for Yesterday. I think her writing skills improved a lot between this book and the original. And that's not a knock at her first book.
One thing that I didn't notice before is that the three planets that are destroyed near the beginning of the book were named after employees of The Daily Planet. Perry, Kent, and Olsen.
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marlboro
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I understand why the authors felt the need to introduce their own characters, but I can also understand why Roddenberry thought some of their stories shortchanged his characters.
The worst part, to me, is that at that point the TOS cast outside of the Big Three were almost blank slates. Maybe the writers wouldn't have had to rely on new characters quite so heavily if they had been able to flesh out the established cast.
Too bad there couldn't have been some sort of compromise. It would have been great if GR had contributed some ideas to how he thought the second tier characters might be allowed to grow, while also establishing some "Thou Shalt Not..." groundrules. Instead we got "If it ain't on the screen , it ain't in the books." As a result, I know more about the chick who spilled hot chocolate on Picard than I do about Uhura, Chekov, and pre-Relics Scotty combined.
Random question: I was reading some of your comments in Voyages of Imagination, and I saw that you hoped to write a follow-up to Voyager's "Distant Origin." Did that ever come to pass?
I've only managed to follow up on the Voth (at least a little) in "Brief Candle" and Places of Exile.
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marlboro
Guest
Have you read the S.C.E. two-parter "Wounds" by any chance? I think you might like that one. It's by Ilsa J. Bick.
No, it is not among the translated SCE stories by Cross Cult. Another Omnibus (Sammelband Nr. 5) is planned, but they have translated about 28 ebook stories until now:
http://www.startrekromane.de/romane/star_trek_-_corps_of_engineers.html
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marlboro
Guest
Nice covers, as usual. German P8 Blue is terrifying.
Does "Wunderwerk" = "Holodeck"?
Does "Wunderwerk" = "Holodeck"?
It means a miracle or a technical marvel -- literally a "wonderwork," a wonderful achievement. The text seems to be using the word to describe the holographic ship in the story.
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marlboro
Guest
Ah, I see. I assumed it meant "a place where wonders are produced."
p.s. KRAD really should have thought about using "Achtung, Monster!" for book 10, imo.
p.s. KRAD really should have thought about using "Achtung, Monster!" for book 10, imo.
It's been a while since my last post. In that time I've read:
Star Trek: SCE: "Safe Harbors" by Howard Weinstein
Star Trek: Stargazer: Enigma by Michael Jan Friedman
The Expanse: "Drive" by James S. A. Corey
Star Trek: SCE: "Age of Unreason" by Scott Ciencin
Star Trek / Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive
Star Trek: Discovery: The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack
The Expanse: Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey
Star Trek: SCE: "Safe Harbors" by Howard Weinstein
Star Trek: Stargazer: Enigma by Michael Jan Friedman
The Expanse: "Drive" by James S. A. Corey
Star Trek: SCE: "Age of Unreason" by Scott Ciencin
Star Trek / Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive
Star Trek: Discovery: The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack
The Expanse: Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey
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