The History of Susanna (an apocryphal prologue to Daniel, in the form of a detective story, quite possibly the very first forensic procedural).
So What Are you Reading?: Generations
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And it is with The Riddler, sounds interesting
There was a thread in here recently with an update on medical insurance etc, that prompted me to think of him.
Speaking of, absolutely chewing up the pages. Great writer.
Daniel. Including the apocryphal insertion, The Song of the Three Holy Children, which goes into detail on what Daniel's three companions do during their time in the fiery furnace.
That doesn't sound like the sort of thing I'd want details on...
It goes between Chapter 3, Verse 23
and Verses 24-25
and the insertion consists mainly of the three condemned men encountering an angel, who protects and leads them, and praying, and singing a psalm.
At any rate, I'm now reading The History of the Destruction of Bel and the Dragon, added to the end of Daniel, which includes what is arguably the very first locked-room mystery known to western culture. (Bel is an immense pagan idol, which seems to eat a great deal, and the ensuing story is a recognizable precedent for "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez," and probably anything else that hinges on ashes being deliberately strewn on a floor. And the dragon is dispatched in a way not dissimilar to how the space-amoeba and the planet killer were dealt with.)
I’m sorry. This is the first that I’m checking back around to the list so I’m just seeing your question.
I honestly have a bit of a hard time answering that. Short answer is that I enjoyed it. But not as much as Miller’s more recent Trek novels that I’ve read (The High Country, Rogue Elements, The Enterprise War). Actually, now that I think about it it, I might put my enjoyment level of Batman: Resurrection at right around the same level as The Enterprise War, which was basically “good but not great” to me.
Now, I have to say that it was a bit of a rough couple months that I was reading Resurrection. Rough as in busy and kind of taxing with a lot of stuff going on with my mom who is requiring more and more assistance from me to help take care of after a recent visit to the hospital and a nursing rehab center.
My reading and watch (TV) time has gotten scaled back a bit due to this. (Well, and even more recently, by the start of the Major League Baseball season.) Often nights I only get time for a chapter or two, if that, of whatever I’m reading late at night past the point when I was already supposed to go to bed.
Miller’s novels tend to have very short chapters. So, many a night I was only reading a few pages. I had a hard time building up any sort of momentum as I read it. It became more a case of “I need to read another chapter or two tonight or I’ll never finish it and this is a library book”.
But I wasn’t *not* liking it. I just wasn’t getting hooked by it pretty much throughout the entire first half or so. I was, okay, this is just as well written by Miller as the other books I’ve read by him. I like the sections focusing on Batman best. I also liked the sections on Alexander Knott from the movie. And I liked the sections on one of the two new characters, Karlo.
But there were sections on another new character, Dr. Auslander, that I wasn’t as much into for a while. And the constant switching between focus characters chapter to chapter (which generally feels okay in Miller’s Star Trek novels), kept increasing and then diminishing my interest as I’d read through the novel.
Now, Miller did excellent with the action parts, which there are quite a few of them. And he also played well on the ties to the first film which the novel follows right behind time wise. And occasionally Miller tosses in a reference that reminds me all of a sudden, oh yeah, this is 1989 when this is happening! (Some of his tie-ins to the subsequent Batman Returns film feel natural, others feel a bit forced. But, as mentioned earlier, there was already at least one more novel planned after this which presumably will also feature some of these Returns characters again.)
The novel, like a few other of Miller’s that I’ve read, definitely amps itself up a bit around halfway or two third in. Once the possibility arises that perhaps the Joker didn’t actually die in his earlier confrontation at the cathedral with Batman (in the film), the novel takes on a much different sense of energy from before that. At which point we have possibly three “villains” or opponents of Batman: Karlo, Auslander, and, maybe, the real Joker out there somewhere.
I finished the book enjoying it a bit more than I did the first half. Which I guess is better than the opposite. I ended up giving it three out of five stars on GoodReads. I do look forward to the second novel coming out later this year.
— David Young
Hosea. Always entertaining: where else do you have God's first words to a prophet basically boil down to "Go marry a whore!"
I have finished my reread of Star Trek: Kobayashi Maru. I came away from it this time with a newfound appreciation for how the book is structured. The switching back and forth between Enterprise, Trip, and various other major players flowed really well, and there was just the right amount of time before revisiting a thread to keep everything in the reader's memory.
After this many years later, is there an answer in the public sphere for why the Romulan War story was changed from a planned three trade paperbacks to one trade paperback and one mass market paperback? Given the initial plan for the three, I'm assuming The Good That Men Do and Kobayashi Maru had decent sales. Just from the sidelines, my guesses would be that either Beneath the Raptor's Wing had sales that fell short of expectations or that Martin or editorial wanted the change once it became a solo writing project. Either way, I'm excited to dig back into Beneath the Raptor's Wing and read for the first time To Brave the Storm.
After this many years later, is there an answer in the public sphere for why the Romulan War story was changed from a planned three trade paperbacks to one trade paperback and one mass market paperback? Given the initial plan for the three, I'm assuming The Good That Men Do and Kobayashi Maru had decent sales. Just from the sidelines, my guesses would be that either Beneath the Raptor's Wing had sales that fell short of expectations or that Martin or editorial wanted the change once it became a solo writing project. Either way, I'm excited to dig back into Beneath the Raptor's Wing and read for the first time To Brave the Storm.
Yeef. A few pages back, I was on about the similarity of titles between The High Country and The Higher Frontier, and I'd completely forgotten that there's both a TOS: The Kobayashi Maru and an ENT: Kobayashi Maru.
At any rate,
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That was never a secret. It was simply because Simon & Schuster's license to publish Trek novels was coming up for renewal, and the decision was made to wrap up the story before it expired. This was just a couple of years after the global economic crash of 2009, so everyone was being cautious with their spending and there was some uncertainty about whether the license would be renewed. So the books around 2011-12 were designed to work as finales of a sort just in case -- ENT had The Romulan War, TNG had Cold Equations, DS9 had Plagues of Night/Raise the Dawn, and VGR had The Eternal Tide. (Vanguard wrapped up around the same time, but that decision was made by the authors independent of the licensing issue.)
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First Esdras (apocryphal version of Ezra).
I finished Voyager #12 "Chrysalis" yesterday and had a good time with it. Classic early Voyager, running out of supplies and finds a near perfect planet to resupply on. The planet holds has some mysteries to uncover and it all finished up with a solid ending. Moving on to "The Most Human" by Adam Nimoy next. LLAP.
I finished up STTNG: Doomsday World yesterday, and I enjoyed it overall. It was well written, and I thought the story was pretty interesting, with some nice surprises as everything came together at the end, and it had some cool original characters. My only complaint is that there were a few times where some of the characterizations of the Enterprise crew felt a little off, a few of the things they said and did just didn't quite fit how I tend to see the characters.
Now I'm reading the digital comic book collection Star Wars Vol. 12: Rebels & Rogues, written by Greg Pak with art by Phil Noto. I'm on the second issue, and so far I'm really enjoying it.
Now I'm reading the digital comic book collection Star Wars Vol. 12: Rebels & Rogues, written by Greg Pak with art by Phil Noto. I'm on the second issue, and so far I'm really enjoying it.
Second Esdras (which has a well-deserved reputation for being surreal and apocalyptic enough to make The Revelation of St. John the Divine and the most apocalyptic and surreal parts of Daniel and Ezekiel seem tame).
Interceptor City by Dan Abnett (A follow up to his Double Eagle, though set a few years later).
So far, I think I prefer the former, but it's ok.
So far, I think I prefer the former, but it's ok.
Last night I finished up Rogues & Rebels, which I really enjoyed. I really enjoyed Greg Pak's writing and Phil Noto's art, and this introduced a couple of cool new characters with Warba and Dar Champion, and both of the gave us some nice new stuff for the heroes. The C-3P0 and Chewie storyline was a lot of fun, especially since for a good chunk of it 3P0 was the only character who could speak basic.
After I finished that I start the "interactive graphic novel" STLD: Warp Your Own Way, written by Ryan North with art by Chris Fenoglio, which I am loving so far.
After I finished that I start the "interactive graphic novel" STLD: Warp Your Own Way, written by Ryan North with art by Chris Fenoglio, which I am loving so far.
If you get stuck, I've put an "Invisiclues" (using nested spoiler tags in the spirit of the original Infocom Invisiclues) in the Warp Your Own Way thread. Complete with the traditional red herring and just-for-fun chains.
At any rate, I've now begun Second Maccabees. Which is a somewhat briefer, and more conversational, retelling of First Maccabees. (The opening is epistolary in nature, and even a little gossipy.) And it mentions a miraculous flammable liquid called "Naphthar," which may very well be the only Biblical mention of a petroleum distillate.
At any rate, I've now begun Second Maccabees. Which is a somewhat briefer, and more conversational, retelling of First Maccabees. (The opening is epistolary in nature, and even a little gossipy.) And it mentions a miraculous flammable liquid called "Naphthar," which may very well be the only Biblical mention of a petroleum distillate.
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