So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[hbquikcomjamesl]

. . . his Scottish surname.

. . . which the Reeves-Stevenses handwaved by having "Cochrane" as a rough approximation of his native name, much the same way Peter David would later create a captain (out of whole cloth, so far as I'm aware) with a fairly Human-sounding name (Mackenzie Calhoun) that's only an approximation of his actual name. I wonder if there wasn't just the tiniest bit of parody in there.

At any rate, Federation is an object lesson in "don't let incompatibility with canon get in the way of enjoyment of a good story."

 

[Christopher]

At any rate, Federation is an object lesson in "don't let incompatibility with canon get in the way of enjoyment of a good story."

Of course, but it's a Venn diagram. There's the "native Centaurians" idea, and there are various works it overlaps with. You can like the latter without liking the former. And you can like a story overall while still being unhappy with individual parts of it. (For instance, I hate the "Trelane is a Q" idea since it requires ignoring virtually everything "The Squire of Gothos" explicitly established about Trelane, but Q Squared is probably my favorite Peter David novel despite being based entirely on that idea, because what it does with it is so good. Although I hated SNW: "Wedding Bell Blues," since it basically had no payoff as a story beyond that continuity nod as an end in itself.)

I mean, really, how often does anyone like 100% of a story? There are many stories that I like overall despite being unhappy with one element of them or another, and I'm sure most people could say the same. So there's no reason why criticizing a single element of a story should be taken as a rejection of the story's overall value.

 

[FredH]

Have you seen Brotherhood of the Wolf? It's one of my hubby's favorite movies.

Really good film (and nice genre mashup), but near the end it suddenly feels like somebody skipped a reel.

 

[JD]

Also incompatible with

Spoiler

"Metamorphosis," which stated explicitly and repeatedly that Cochrane was human. ("He's human, Jim. Everything checks out perfectly." "We find you out here, where no human has any business being." "Not coming from a human being. You are, after all, essentially irrational." "I've got the feeling it's one of the pleasanter things about being human, as long as you grow old together." Also the fact that the asteroid environment the Companion created for Cochrane's benefit was identical to Earth conditions, not Centaurian conditions.) He was supposed to be "of Alpha Centauri" in the same was that T.E. Lawrence was "of Arabia" or Helen was "of Troy" -- it wasn't where he was born, it was where he was famous for going. (The episode outline defined him as the leader of the first Earth expedition to Alpha Centauri.) I've always found it strange how many fans latched onto that single line and ignored all the other evidence from the same episode, including his Scottish surname. (Although "Zefram" does seem to be an original coinage.)

Didn't Enterprise have him retire to Alpha Centauri?
I finished up ST: Strange New Worlds: Asylum a few minutes ago, I enjoyed it overall, but I did have one problem with it. I'll post my thoughts over in the review thread.

 

[youngtrek]

Okay, so, March 2026 turned out to be a one book read month: the excellent “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir (Ballantine, 2021)).

I did also manage to get to about a third of the way into David Mack’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds novel, “Ring of Fire” (Gallery, 2025) by month’s end.

2026 GoodReads Reading Challenge update: 7 of 75 books read (9%).


— David Young

 

[Steve Roby]

I've been reading a couple of Twilight Zone anthologies, collections of new(ish) stories inspired by the TV series. First one was Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary, also known as The Twilight Zone Anthology, from 2009. Currently reading More Stories from The Twilight Zone from 2010, which somewhat annoyingly uses the title of one of the 1960s collections of episode short story adaptations. A lot of good stories, some just okay, some not really capturing a TZ feel and some trying a bit too hard to be familiar. But worthwhile overall.

Peter Crowther's "Thoughtful Breaths," in the second book, about love and grief, hit me hard now, nearly seven years after my wife's death, and probably would have left me devastated for days a few years ago. And it might have seemed like a nice, pleasant, fluffy story, albeit one about cancer and death, one of the Twilight Zone's trips into sentimentality, a few years before she died. It has a nice but subtle Twilight Zone ending. This one may stay with me more than most of the stories here.

 

[FredH]

I've been reading a couple of Twilight Zone anthologies, collections of new(ish) stories inspired by the TV series. First one was Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary, also known as The Twilight Zone Anthology, from 2009. Currently reading More Stories from The Twilight Zone from 2010, which somewhat annoyingly uses the title of one of the 1960s collections of episode short story adaptations. A lot of good stories, some just okay, some not really capturing a TZ feel and some trying a bit too hard to be familiar. But worthwhile overall.

Peter Crowther's "Thoughtful Breaths," in the second book, about love and grief, hit me hard now, nearly seven years after my wife's death, and probably would have left me devastated for days a few years ago. And it might have seemed like a nice, pleasant, fluffy story, albeit one about cancer and death, one of the Twilight Zone's trips into sentimentality, a few years before she died. It has a nice but subtle Twilight Zone ending. This one may stay with me more than most of the stories here.

Very sorry for your loss, Steve. May her memory be for a blessing.

 

[JD]

Since finishing Asylum I've read a couple digital comic collections that I borrowed from Hoopla, Fantastic Four Vol. 2: Prime Elements written by Johnathan Hickman with Art by Dale Eaglesham, and Star Wars: Jango Fett - Trail of Lost Hope written by Ethan Sacks with art by Luke Ross. Both of those were really good.
Now I'm reading the Star Trek one shot comic, Operation: Assimilation, which is writen by Paul Jenkins with art by Steve Erwin & Terry Pallot. I'm only a few pages into it, but it's pretty good so far.

 

[Greg Cox]

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, which I have often listened to on audio (It's one of our road trip favorites), but have never read in prose before.

I was concerned that Vowell's dry wit might not be work as well in print, but I was laughing out loud by the end of page one. Mind you, the fact that her voice and delivery is already burned into my brain may have had something to do with that.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I've never read Sarah Vowell's work (what a name for a writer, radio personality, and voice actress!), but I loved her as Violet Parr.

 

[JD]

I finished up Operation Assimilate pretty quickly after my post yesterday, it was pretty good. Obviously as a stand-alone one shot it wasn't able to be very deep, but I thought it was pretty well done. It added a nice to explore a little of what happened while the Borg were in Romulan space. The only things that bugged me were the Romulan commander's ridiculous boob window Borg suit, and present tense second person narration was a little weird.
After I finished that I borrow the urban fantasy anthology Heroic Hearts from Libby, and started reading it.

 

[Greg Cox]

I've never read Sarah Vowell's work (what a name for a writer, radio personality, and voice actress!), but I loved her as Violet Parr.

I still need to see those movies.

 

[FredH]

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, which I have often listened to on audio (It's one of our road trip favorites), but have never read in prose before.

Now I hope there’s a writer out there named Rebecca Consonannt.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I still need to see those movies.

They're incredible. Especially the first one.

 

[Steve Roby]

Keeping up with media tie-in stuff... all the fuss about a possible Firefly animated series reminded me that I bought a bunch of Kindle editions of Boom's Firefly comic collections and hadn't yet actually read them. Some of that stuff's been waiting for as long as five years to be read. So the stories appear to be set after the TV series and before Serenity, which allows a bit of character growth and some new characters. And it works pretty well. The writer seems interested in addressing some of the show's problematic aspects, making Mal learn to be a bit less of an asshole and making the whole Lost Cause stuff more complicated than I remember it being.

If anyone was waiting for the right moment to pick these up, well, Boom dropped the licence, the digital versions are unavailable, and the print editions seem to be fast going out of print.

 

[bdub76]

Keeping up with media tie-in stuff... all the fuss about a possible Firefly animated series reminded me that I bought a bunch of Kindle editions of Boom's Firefly comic collections and hadn't yet actually read them. Some of that stuff's been waiting for as long as five years to be read. So the stories appear to be set after the TV series and before Serenity, which allows a bit of character growth and some new characters. And it works pretty well. The writer seems interested in addressing some of the show's problematic aspects, making Mal learn to be a bit less of an asshole and making the whole Lost Cause stuff more complicated than I remember it being.

If anyone was waiting for the right moment to pick these up, well, Boom dropped the licence, the digital versions are unavailable, and the print editions seem to be fast going out of print.

My library now has the Firefly novels. Check out Libby. That will give you even more Firefly to read ahead of the animation.

 

[Steve Roby]

I've got all the novels in paperback, I just have to get around to reading them. I even have this one in paperback, though I had to do it through a POD company.