So what are you reading now? Part 2

[Count Zero]

Yesterday, I sat down to read the ENT novel "What Price Honor?" by Dave Stern and even finished it the same day. Needless to say, it was an entertaining, captivating read.
I did, however, figure oiut what had happened to Ensign Hart after a third of the book and seeing the ENT characters not figuring it out at all for so long was a bit frustrating.
But anyway, a good, solid installment. There's still hope for me and the ENT novel line.

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

I finished Losing the Peace. This is a real page turner, I had a hard time putting it down. If you haven't read it yet, you need to. I then read The Adventure of the Six Napoleans, a Sherlock Holmes story. I'm now reading CSI: Killing Game by Max Allan Collins. So far it's a bit slow, but still interesting.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Yesterday, I sat down to read the ENT novel "What Price Honor?" by Dave Stern and even finished it the same day. Needless to say, it was an entertaining, captivating read.
I did, however, figure oiut what had happened to Ensign Hart after a third of the book and seeing the ENT characters not figuring it out at all for so long was a bit frustrating.
But anyway, a good, solid installment. There's still hope for me and the ENT novel line.

It's interesting how our tastes differ:

I thought 'What Price Honor' was horrible, whereas I liked 'By the Book'....(IIRC, I think you disliked 'By the Book')...

Interesting...

IIRC, you didn't like Daedalus/Daedalus' Children, so you may be going into 'Last Full Measure'...

Looking forward to your thoughts on that book...

 

[Count Zero]

Well, maybe we'll find an ENT book we both like. Surak's Soul is up next. But I've also started rereading Nietzsche and I'm reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra now, which is a really captivating read, so it might be a while.
What a great book so far. I didn't fully understand it the first time I read it but this time I grasp much more of the underlying philosophy. And I love the writing style, very poetic, yet funny and to the point, full of great quotes.

 

[snakespeare]

Sword of Damocles, almost up to the color insert. I don't like it, but it may contain material that will be referenced in later books, so I am going to finish it. Plus, it does have the fold-out so that makes up for the things I don't like.

I think Ra-Havreii's flirting is tolerated far too much, and I think Deanna doesn't scream quite this much. She cries sometimes, but I don't think she screams. Bajorans tire me. Sometimes I think there are too many alien main characters in this series.

My great admiration and respect to the writers who frequent this board, but sometimes I just read one of the books because it comes between two others, and such is the case with Sword.

 

[JD]

In regards to there being to many alien characters in Titan,I think it's worth pointing out that the whole concept for Titan was for it to have more aliens than any other Trek series. I'm not saying you're wrong not to like it, I just thought it was worth pointing out.
As for the book, I actually loved it, but it's definitely very different, and I can see why people wouldn't like it. In fact I think it's probably one of the most split Trek books, in terms of people who do and don't like it of any of the ones I've read.

 

[mackula]

Over A Torrent Sea

 

[snakespeare]

In regards to there being to many alien characters in Titan,I think it's worth pointing out that the whole concept for Titan was for it to have more aliens than any other Trek series. I'm not saying you're wrong not to like it, I just thought it was worth pointing out.
As for the book, I actually loved it, but it's definitely very different, and I can see why people wouldn't like it. In fact I think it's probably one of the most split Trek books, in terms of people who do and don't like it of any of the ones I've read.

I may change my mind. Today I was enjoying it more, now that we've met the bug people.

 

[JD]

I finally got may hands on Precipice, Under the Raptor's Wing, and the non-Trek book Night Watch, today while I was at Borders. I'm really anxious to get through some of the books I'm reading now so I can get started on these, I just need to decide which to start first.

 

[Thrawn]

^ Precipice.

 

[JD]

Precipice it is then. I'll admit it was slightly in the lead, but I wasn't completely sure yet.

 

[Thrawn]

Trust me.

 

[JD]

Oh, don't worry, I do. It's David Mack writting Vanguard, that's really all I need to read to know that it's going to be good. I was mainly debating between it and Night Watch, and that's only because Night Watch was something new.

 

[snakespeare]

Oh darn! I am almost done with The Sword of Damocles and I have asked for the Destiny trilogy for Christmas so that's still a week away. What the heck will I take on the bus until then?! I guess I can go back and re-read / scan the previous Titan novels. Or maybe I should try to locate some DS9 relaunch backlist novels like Unity and Trill:Unjoined.

Any suggestions?

 

[AdmiralSteven]

Just finished "Shield of Lies," book 2 of the Black Fleet Crises, Star Wars, and couldn't wait to see what happens, so I picked up the 3rd book, "Tyrant's Test." When I'm done reading this one then it'll off to "Unworthy."

 

[Thrawn]

Oh darn! I am almost done with The Sword of Damocles and I have asked for the Destiny trilogy for Christmas so that's still a week away. What the heck will I take on the bus until then?! I guess I can go back and re-read / scan the previous Titan novels. Or maybe I should try to locate some DS9 relaunch backlist novels like Unity and Trill:Unjoined.

Any suggestions?

Ex Machina and The Never Ending Sacrifice are two incredibly awesome standalone novels that aren't out of print. Both good for a quick pause before taking on Destiny.

 

[Count Zero]

Despite my earlier statements in this thread I started and finished 'Surak's Soul'. I must say I enjoyed it, though it has its weaknesses.
It did come off as slightly weird or far out, but I can't quite put my finger on the reason why. Maybe it's the old-fashioned sci-fi concept of the sinister enerhy being that's played pretty straight forward or maybe it's the message utterly affirming human culture/ideals. The story often reminded me of an old Doctor Who story (when the show was still broadcast in black-and-white) the way it was narrated. Curiously, the Doctor often has the same problem as T'Pol - neutralising a deadly foe without resorting to guns or outright destruction of said foe.
Anyway, I like weird and I love Doctor Who, so I was entertained by the book. The ending felt a bit rushed, though, an again, I guessed the twist of the story well ahead of its revelation. That seems to be a recurring theme for me with the ENT books.
I also have some minor complaints about the book:

• Why does the ENT crew assume that T'Pol and Vulcans in general are pacifists? We haven't seen anything to imply this in the series. After all, T'Pol is a Vulcan officer so it's highly unlikely she would be a pacifist. You don't join the military if you are.
• How did Trip suddenly become an expert on Surak's teachings? That came out of nowhere. A badly handled and unnecessary infodump.
• Sometimes people showed up unexpectedly because the author didn't mention them in the description of the situation. At one point we get a descrption of what Archer does as if he was alone in his room, then he says something as if he was talking to himself and suddenly Trip replies.

But there was also a lot to like, e.g. the insight into T'Pol's thinking, a look into her childhood and youth, characterisation for Reed, something to do for Hoshi and a funny decon scene.

 

[snakespeare]

The new book, Never Ending Sacrifice, is a stand-alone? Great! I thought it had to be read in sequence with the other DS9 relaunch novels. I know it starts with that Season 2 episode about the orphaned Cardassian boy, but the cover showed the picture of Cardassia Prime as shown in the last episode of Season 7 with all the bombed-out buildings, so I naturally thought it wasn't a stand-alone novel.

I did think it looked really interesting. The Cardassians have to rebuild their world. They used to be a Republic. I was watching the episode in which Jadzia is discussing poetry with some Cardassian scientists, and I remembered what Picard said to his torturer, that Cardassia was once the pinnacle of artistic achievement before the military coup. I hope the writers are going to go in that direction.

Thanks! It's actually available in my local supermarket, or it was a week ago.

The other book would take longer to find.

 

[Christopher]

^Well, The Never-Ending Sacrifice does tie into events from the series, pretty much showing all of Cardassian history from about 2370-78 from the perspective of the boy Rugal. But it has very little connection to the post-finale novels. It's basically a bildungsroman about Rugal's experiences growing up in the Cardassian Empire.

 

[snakespeare]

Oh this slippery slope... I think I need to read Greater Than the Sum before any Destiny novels anyway. I'm sure the poster before me will agree.