So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[hbquikcomjamesl]

M&C's second anthology had at least one opus by a male author (and the one I'm thinking of was a semi-professional science fiction writer, as well as a NASA engineer and manager, and a technical advisor on TMP).

Pity that, for all their skill at picking the best of the best of the best fanfic of that era, M&C couldn't write their way out of a paper bag.

Last night, having finished re-reading Ishmael, I finally read over the most recent two chapters of my own opus, cut nearly half a page from one, and made both cuts and additions to the other. I'm pretty sure I can at least write my way out of a paper bag. At least, the instructor and my classmates when I took two years of Short Story Workshop seemed to think so, even if they got a bit tired of short stories that were offshoots of my novel. The one semester I took of Novel Workshop, on the other hand, found so much misread-bait that the class gave me a multi-year case of writer's block, before I started a new draft of the novel from scratch.

 

[Christopher]

M&C's second anthology had at least one opus by a male author (and the one I'm thinking of was a semi-professional science fiction writer, as well as a NASA engineer and manager, and a technical advisor on TMP).

Yes, Dr. Jesco von Puttkamer. They also reprinted Russell Bates's rejected TAS script "The Patient Parasites." All the other authors were female, though. The percentage of Bantam and early Pocket novels by female authors was also pretty high, both for the time and in comparison to the Trek novels of the 21st century.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Indeed. Some of whom (Diane Duane in particular) are right up there with anybody currently writing TrekLit; others, not quite, but still quite good, and others, barely above M&C.

 

[Smiley]

I just finished a reread of Enemy Territory. It's a fast-paced Klingon soap opera with a weird alien race, and I'm here for it. I've been wondering this for years, so I'll ask it here. Is the older Klingon on the cover supposed to be someone we know? If so, I am having trouble making the connection.

Currently reading:

Star Trek: No Time Like the Past (much more up my alley than the Gamma Quest story) reread
KISS: Behind the Mask
Avengers vs. X-Men Omnibus reread
Marple: 12 New Mysteries
Star Wars: Phasma

 

[Avro Arrow]

I just finished a reread of Enemy Territory. It's a fast-paced Klingon soap opera with a weird alien race, and I'm here for it. I've been wondering this for years, so I'll ask it here. Is the older Klingon on the cover supposed to be someone we know? If so, I am having trouble making the connection.

I think it's supposed to be Leskit.

Those ridges are pretty distinctive.

 

[KRAD]

Yes, it's Leskit.

 

[Smiley]

I'll say this for Leskit: he's never short of confidence (at least through Enemy Territory; I've forgotten most of A Burning House except for a massive development in the Rodek story and some opera).

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Star Trek: Tests of Courage. A collection of a DC Comics miniseries, originally titled "The Tabukan Syndrome." By Howard Weinstein.

There were some nice artistic touches in that. I especially liked seeing the Romulanized D-7, which suggested a design lineage that would eventually lead to the D'Deridex. The first DC series went a little overboard at times at being a sequel to the Original Series, while the second DC series was subtler at being a prequel to The Next Generation.

 

[StefanM]

At the moment I'm reading the (german versions of the) Rise of the Federation Series by @Christopher L. Bennett for the first time.
I didn't like the first one (A Choise of Futures) very much, but the second (Tower of Babel) was better and the third (Uncertain Logic) is really good. All storylines are really interesting, the happenings on Vulcan, the Ware-Story, and also Delta/Orion.

But there is one thing I wonder about: The character of Daskel Vabion reminds me A LOT of Lex Luthor from Superman.
Memory Beta compares him to Henry Starling from Voyager's time travel story to 1996, but for me, he's more an alien version of Lex Luthor.
Did anybody think the same about this character? And was Vabion really inspired by Luthor, Starling ore anyone else?

 

[Christopher]

But there is one thing I wonder about: The character of Daskel Vabion reminds me A LOT of Lex Luthor from Superman.
Memory Beta compares him to Henry Starling from Voyager's time travel story to 1996, but for me, he's more an alien version of Lex Luthor.
Did anybody think the same about this character? And was Vabion really inspired by Luthor, Starling ore anyone else?

Luthor was an influence, yes, as was actor Lance Reddick, my mental model for the character. But my main inspiration was Tobias Vaughn, the villain from Doctor Who's 1968 serial "The Invasion." Like Vabion, he was a calculating, ruthless industrialist allying with a high-tech alien force (the Cybermen) that was using him to conquer the world. The name "Vabion" is a partial anagram of "Tobias Vaughn." (And "Daskel" is an anagram of "Daleks," I guess because I couldn't get a good anagram from "Cybermen," maybe.) His company Worldwide Automatics is an homage to Vaughn's International Electromatics.

What I was going for in the Vanot sequence was an inversion of stories like Doctor Who or "Assignment: Earth" where a benevolent alien uses superior knowledge and technology to help fight crime and evil on present-day Earth. That's why I wrote all the Vanot scenes from the perspective of Vanotli characters, with Mayweather and the Starfleet crew being the mysterious advanced aliens from their perspective.

 

[StefanM]

Thanks.
I just read your annotations for this novel:
https://christopherlbennett.wordpre...rtain-logic/rotf-uncertain-logic-annotations/

I had to look up Lance Reddick. Didn't know him. He had the perfect look to play Lex Luthor. Unfortunately he died this year.
I'm a fan of Doctor Who, but don't know the most serials from the first three doctors. Sounds interesting.

 

[somebuddyX]

Stargate Reconnaissance. It's like bizarro SG-1. The last book was like "Lost City" with Earth being attacked, and this feels more like "Children of the Gods" with the first mission to a world not from the film, but with a Stargate that's known to the public and lots of media attention. I really enjoy this series.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Re-reading A Stitch in Time. Really captures Garak's voice, which should come as no surprise. Forgot everything about it other than that it's Garak-centric. Including how long it is.

So as with Rules of Engagement, I'm "reading it again for the first time."

 

[John Clark]

Stargate Reconnaissance. It's like bizarro SG-1. The last book was like "Lost City" with Earth being attacked, and this feels more like "Children of the Gods" with the first mission to a world not from the film, but with a Stargate that's known to the public and lots of media attention. I really enjoy this series.

Have to admit, I enjoyed that series, but it's definitely different to SG1

 

[USS Firefly]

Just started with Star Wars Soldier for the Empire. I am a big fan of Kyle Katarn, so I hope it is good

 

[Greg Cox]

Today's library haul:

SCARLET by Genevieve Cogman. (The Scarlet Pimpernel . . . with vampires!)

THERE'S A BODY IN THE WINDOW SEAT: The History of 'Arsenic and Old Lace' by Charles Dennis. A nonfiction book about the classic play/movie.

MAKING IT SO: A Memoir by Patrick Stewart.

My cup runneth over.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Now over a third of the way through A Stitch in Time. Remarkably fast read.

 

[I am not Herbert]

Just finished Kipling's Kim and, in a slightly different vein, Vulcan! by Kathleen Sky. I highly recommend the former, particularly the version with the Edward Said intro, lest one's post-colonial guilt begin to interfere too much with the enjoyment of the text. And Vulcan! was much better than my earlier reading of Death's Angel (same author) had led me to expect. (I know it has its defenders here, but apart from the first third, which itself is a warmed over Journey to Babel, I strongly disliked Death's Angel). Not a perfect book by any stretch of the imagination, and you will not receive any points for guessing the ending, but Vulcan! comes across as a credible 'lost' fifth/season TOS episode, if Spockamania had been allowed to run its natural course.

Inspired by @Falconer and a few others, I am now reading Ishmael by Barbara Hambly. Roughly halfway in, and it is in the running for my favorite TS book. And no, I don't know 'Here Come the Brides' from 'Herbie Goes Bananas'--- yet I'm still enjoying that aspect of the story.

 

[I am not Herbert]

Now almost exactly 2/3 of the way through Rules of Engagement. If there were a review thread, I'd give it at least an "Above Average." But I don't see one out there, and can't imagine there would be much point in starting a review thread on a largely (if unjustifiably) forgotten 3-decade-old novel.

Well, you'll never know if you don't try. But I'll take your recommendation and check out Rules of Engagement.

 

[Christopher]

Vulcan! comes across as a credible 'lost' fifth/season TOS episode, if Spockamania had been allowed to run its natural course.

I don't know about that, given that the novel pulls the classic Mary Sue gambit of making Spock incompetent so that the guest heroine can outshine him. He's written as irrationally attached to the belief that the insectoid natives are intelligent despite the evidence, and it's badly out of character for any capable scientist, particularly Spock.