Brothers of the snake - Dan Abnett.
I've been meaning to read this for a while, but have just got around to it.
I've been meaning to read this for a while, but have just got around to it.
So What Are you Reading?: Generations
- Thread starter captcalhoun
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Hmm. The only Ben Bova I've read was a youth novel, Escape. And maybe some nonfiction.
Almost halfway through Glory Lane. Miranda has discovered what shopping is like in Alvin, the capital of Nedsplen.
Almost halfway through Glory Lane. Miranda has discovered what shopping is like in Alvin, the capital of Nedsplen.
I read Bova's Mars in the mid-90s and remember liking it. Mars was a thing in sci-fi at the time; I also read Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars and Greg Bear's Moving Mars in the same general period. Twenty-five years on, I couldn't tell you which book was which.
I also read his World War II alternate history Triumph -- Winston Churchill has Stalin assassinated at the end of World War II -- and I remember a vague disappointment with it.
I think that's all the Bova I've read.
Now re-reading ADF's Sentenced to Prism. About halfway through: Azure has found and activated Evan's "plug," allowing the two to communicate.
A tour-de-force of ADF's world-building skills, as the early chapters introduce us to Samstead, a Humanx Commonwealth member planet where survival suits are so ubiquitous that ordinary clothing is considered equivalent to public nudity. Then we're introduced to Prism, a planet of fractal geometry, with both carbon and silicon life.
A tour-de-force of ADF's world-building skills, as the early chapters introduce us to Samstead, a Humanx Commonwealth member planet where survival suits are so ubiquitous that ordinary clothing is considered equivalent to public nudity. Then we're introduced to Prism, a planet of fractal geometry, with both carbon and silicon life.
Finished Prism.
Probably going to spend some evenings on the current draft of my own novel. My protagonist just got her driver's license.
Probably going to spend some evenings on the current draft of my own novel. My protagonist just got her driver's license.
Summer 2022 Reading Entry #5. The Orville Season 1.5: New Beginnings, script by David A. Goodman, art by David Cabeza, colors by Michael Atiyeh (Dark Horse Books, 2020). Originally released by Dark Horse Comics as The Orville* #1-4 (July 2019-October 2019). (* Some listings give the title as The Orville: New Beginnings, as that sub-title was on the covers of the first two issues.)
For those not familiar, "The Orville" is a science-fiction television series created (and starring) Seth MacFarlane that aired on Fox for its first two seasons (2017-2019), then moved to Hulu for its third (and what may be its final) season, currently airing now (June to August 2022). Its third season has been sub-titled "New Horizons". The long gap between the airings of season two and season three were due to COVID related shutdown delays.
To keep this review short, "The Orville" has been said by some to be basically "Star Trek: The Next Generation" meets "The Office" (and while I am not a watcher of "The Office", I can definitely vouch for the parallels to ST:TNG). What I find mostly appealing about "The Orville" (beyond the occasionally visually exciting special effects heavy sequences) is the modern day quirky characters and dialogue present in a "Star Trek: Next Generation" like atmosphere. Indeed, many of the plots would work just as well as ST:TNG episodes, and with good reason as "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Star Trek: Voyager", and "Star Trek: Enterprise" veteran Brannon Braga is one of the executive producers on "The Orville" (another being the author of this series of comics stories, David A. Goodman). But right when you think this is just a rehash of ST:TNG, one of the characters here will say something completely outrageous, something the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D would never say, but which is true to that of the U.S.S. Orville (and is often quite funny, although humor, of course, is very subjective).
All of that said, this first four issue limited series published by Dark Horse Comics and collected in trade paperback format under the Season 1.5: New Beginnings title was actually two separate two-issue stories. The first (which ran over issues one and two) features Captain Ed Mercer and Lt. Gordon Malloy getting stranded on a planet after their shuttle gets mysteriously shot down. They discover that what shot them down was a hundred year old ship like theirs (a "Union" ship, this series analogue for Star Trek's "Starfleet" and “United Federation of Planets”) that crash-landed on the planet's surface a century ago and been set up by its crew to protect and provide food for the few native inhabitants left, this ship's crashing on the surface having inadvertently caused the planet to become a wasteland.
Meanwhile, the Orville, under first office Commander Kelly Grayson, realizes that Mercer and Malloy have not reached their destination and begin searching for them. During these scenes back on the Orville, Grayson meets someone who will make his television debut at the start of season two: Cassius, a teacher on board the Orville (and who Grayson will become romantically involved with during season two).
The second story, "The Word of Avis", from issues three and four, have the Orville intercept a Union transport before it can travel into enemy Krill space. (I'm not going to go into who the Krill are here other than that they were a source of conflict during season one of the television series. I haven't mentioned it yet but as the trade paperback title indicates, these two comic book stories take place between seasons one and two.) The crew of the transport say it was due to equipment malfunctioning but there is something Mercer and his crew can tell they aren't revealing as to their true intentions in wanting to reach Krill space. Orville chief engineer, Lt. Commander John LaMarr discovers that the engineer aboard the transport is an old friend from when they both attended "Union Point" (I assume their version of Starfleet Academy).
There is nothing particularly exciting about either of these stories. Plot alone, I'd probably give this collection a three out of five stars on GoodReads. However, where Goodman excels is at capturing the voices of the "Orville" characters (and, as he should, since he's an executive producer on the television series, something I didn't realize as I was first reading these stories). And artist David Cabeza does an excellent job of capturing the likenesses of the various actors, which is always a big plus with comic books based on television or movie properties. Based on these two factors, I ended up giving it a four out of five stars, and I look forward to reading more in this run of "Orville" comic books.
(Dark Horse has released three more mini-series following this one. First, another four-issue mini-series sub-titled Launch Day and Heroes released from September to December 2020 and reprinted in trade paperback format under the title The Orville Season 2.5: Launch Day in May 2021. Then (as best I can tell) two separate two-issue minis: Digressions (May-June 2021) and Artifacts (October-November 2021), the two collected in trade paperback as The Orville Season 2.5: Digressions in March 2022.)
(Previous Summer 2022 Reading Entries: #1: Star Trek: Avenger by William Shatner (1997; novel); #2: Batman vs. Ra's Al Ghul by Neal Adams (2019-2021, six-issue comic book limited-series; 2021 collected hardcover edition); #3: Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid, Leinil Francis Wu, and Gerry Alanguilan (twelve-issue comic book limited series; 2003 to 2004; read on DC Universe Infinite, also available in hardcover and softcover editions); #4: Star Trek: The Next Generation: Slings and Arrows Book 1: A Sea of Troubles by J. Steven York and Christina F. York (2007; novella).
—David Young
For those not familiar, "The Orville" is a science-fiction television series created (and starring) Seth MacFarlane that aired on Fox for its first two seasons (2017-2019), then moved to Hulu for its third (and what may be its final) season, currently airing now (June to August 2022). Its third season has been sub-titled "New Horizons". The long gap between the airings of season two and season three were due to COVID related shutdown delays.
To keep this review short, "The Orville" has been said by some to be basically "Star Trek: The Next Generation" meets "The Office" (and while I am not a watcher of "The Office", I can definitely vouch for the parallels to ST:TNG). What I find mostly appealing about "The Orville" (beyond the occasionally visually exciting special effects heavy sequences) is the modern day quirky characters and dialogue present in a "Star Trek: Next Generation" like atmosphere. Indeed, many of the plots would work just as well as ST:TNG episodes, and with good reason as "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Star Trek: Voyager", and "Star Trek: Enterprise" veteran Brannon Braga is one of the executive producers on "The Orville" (another being the author of this series of comics stories, David A. Goodman). But right when you think this is just a rehash of ST:TNG, one of the characters here will say something completely outrageous, something the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D would never say, but which is true to that of the U.S.S. Orville (and is often quite funny, although humor, of course, is very subjective).
All of that said, this first four issue limited series published by Dark Horse Comics and collected in trade paperback format under the Season 1.5: New Beginnings title was actually two separate two-issue stories. The first (which ran over issues one and two) features Captain Ed Mercer and Lt. Gordon Malloy getting stranded on a planet after their shuttle gets mysteriously shot down. They discover that what shot them down was a hundred year old ship like theirs (a "Union" ship, this series analogue for Star Trek's "Starfleet" and “United Federation of Planets”) that crash-landed on the planet's surface a century ago and been set up by its crew to protect and provide food for the few native inhabitants left, this ship's crashing on the surface having inadvertently caused the planet to become a wasteland.
Meanwhile, the Orville, under first office Commander Kelly Grayson, realizes that Mercer and Malloy have not reached their destination and begin searching for them. During these scenes back on the Orville, Grayson meets someone who will make his television debut at the start of season two: Cassius, a teacher on board the Orville (and who Grayson will become romantically involved with during season two).
The second story, "The Word of Avis", from issues three and four, have the Orville intercept a Union transport before it can travel into enemy Krill space. (I'm not going to go into who the Krill are here other than that they were a source of conflict during season one of the television series. I haven't mentioned it yet but as the trade paperback title indicates, these two comic book stories take place between seasons one and two.) The crew of the transport say it was due to equipment malfunctioning but there is something Mercer and his crew can tell they aren't revealing as to their true intentions in wanting to reach Krill space. Orville chief engineer, Lt. Commander John LaMarr discovers that the engineer aboard the transport is an old friend from when they both attended "Union Point" (I assume their version of Starfleet Academy).
There is nothing particularly exciting about either of these stories. Plot alone, I'd probably give this collection a three out of five stars on GoodReads. However, where Goodman excels is at capturing the voices of the "Orville" characters (and, as he should, since he's an executive producer on the television series, something I didn't realize as I was first reading these stories). And artist David Cabeza does an excellent job of capturing the likenesses of the various actors, which is always a big plus with comic books based on television or movie properties. Based on these two factors, I ended up giving it a four out of five stars, and I look forward to reading more in this run of "Orville" comic books.
(Dark Horse has released three more mini-series following this one. First, another four-issue mini-series sub-titled Launch Day and Heroes released from September to December 2020 and reprinted in trade paperback format under the title The Orville Season 2.5: Launch Day in May 2021. Then (as best I can tell) two separate two-issue minis: Digressions (May-June 2021) and Artifacts (October-November 2021), the two collected in trade paperback as The Orville Season 2.5: Digressions in March 2022.)
(Previous Summer 2022 Reading Entries: #1: Star Trek: Avenger by William Shatner (1997; novel); #2: Batman vs. Ra's Al Ghul by Neal Adams (2019-2021, six-issue comic book limited-series; 2021 collected hardcover edition); #3: Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid, Leinil Francis Wu, and Gerry Alanguilan (twelve-issue comic book limited series; 2003 to 2004; read on DC Universe Infinite, also available in hardcover and softcover editions); #4: Star Trek: The Next Generation: Slings and Arrows Book 1: A Sea of Troubles by J. Steven York and Christina F. York (2007; novella).
—David Young
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Still not reading much at home that doesn't relate directly to my own writings. But I did just finish the May/June 2022 issue of FineScale Modeling (which included a review of the new Polar Lights USS Grissom kit) over lunch at the office yesterday, and I've got a stack of disposable reading material to accompany me on the MetroRail ride to my first Hollywood Bowl concert of the season, tomorrow evening (Steve Martin, Martin Short, and the Steep Canyon Rangers join the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with Thomas Wilkins conducting).
Star Trek Janos gate 3 Past Prologueby L.A. Graff. I've really enjoyed reading the first 2 books were really good. I like the story of having Captain Kirk have a story with hid dad George Kirk is well written..And the fact the Enterprise crew is trying to return Captain Kirk to his own time and a younger teenage Kirk to their right timelines is a complicated story.
Just finished Star Trek: The Next Generation: Slings and Arrows Book 2: The Oppressor’s Wrong and will be creating a review thread for that one shortly. (Also recently read Book 1: A Sea of Troubles, which I forgot to post about here but did create a review thread about.)
Just started on Book 3: The Insolence of Office, and am halfway through Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank (comics mini-series collected edition).
—David Young
Just started on Book 3: The Insolence of Office, and am halfway through Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank (comics mini-series collected edition).
—David Young
I just started with Star Trek Terok Nor Day of the Vipers. I hope that Dukat starts as a good person
Let us know how that goes for you. I started reading it a few months back and had to stop for life reasons. Thinking of getting back to it after a few others I’ve got on my current list.
So you don't like it enough to continue reading right away?
The energies have shifted. I have other books on my mind including the afore-mentioned comedic Stuff White People Like, non-fiction The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, and probably the one I'll get to next, the mystery Greeks Bearing Gifts. Plus, Never Ending Sacrifice was a masterpiece; I need to get away from Star Trek and Cardassians for a bit to let the magics finish their conjurings. I need to sit with it and process for a while. When I'm in a Star Trek mood again, it will be high on my list. Although I am awaiting the arrival of an interlibrary loan I put in for the non-fiction Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier: How Midcentury Modernism Shaped Our View of the Future after listening to an Inglorious Treksperts podcast on it as well.
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