So what are you reading now? (Part 3)

[F. King Daniel]

I got my Spaceflight Chronology off eBay. It was actually my first time using eBay (now I'm finally into buying stuff online), and I "won" it for the grand total of 99p +£1.50p&p. I'd been looking for it in second-hand bookstores for around 15 years.
Sadly mine's the adbridged version (more of a 60-page magazine, really). I'd love to read the pretend newspaper articles and the like in the full one one day. Not quite enough to pay what sellers are asking, though

 

[C. Cole-Chakotay]

Another 'Phantom' book.

 

[William Leisner]

I'm sure I remember an old Horizon-class cruiser cropping up in either A Singular Destiny or Losing the Peace.

Both books had old Earth Cargo Service freighters, but neither referred to them as Horizon-class ships.

 

[John Clark]

Rereading Articles of the Federation. Enjoyed it the first time

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Just finished Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Despite being an atheist of many years' standing, I've not read any of the books by the "New Atheists" -- among them Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett.

I've justed started Michael Barone's Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America's Founding Fathers, which is a history of the Glorious Revolution of 1688-9. Barone's thesis is that the American Revolution nearly a century later was, in many respects, a continuation of (or fulfillment of) the Glorious Revolution; both came about because the people were chafing against crown absolutism. I harbor doubts that his thesis will entirely hold together.

 

[Thrawn]

What did you think about Hitchens' book? I'm definitely an athiest, but at times I've still found him a little... unpleasantly militant.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I thought Hitchens' God Is Not Great was enjoyable and readable. I've been reading Hitchens a long time, I'm somewhat used to his stridency and militancy (on whatever he's arguing about), and while I don't always agree with him (he and I were on diametrically opposite poles on Iraq, for instance) I will, at the very least, enjoy his prose. God is Not Great doesn't make arguments for atheism; rather, Hitchens points to historical examples of religion's pernicious influence. His examples don't always work (I'm not sure what the point of the chapter on Eastern religions was, to be frank), he could make other arguments against Islam and the Qu'ran (he seems unaware of Christoph Luxenberg's The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran which argues that the Ur-Qu'ran was a Syriac Christian text that was adopted by the Arabs to explain why large portions of the Qu'ran don't make sense even in Arabic), but the overall effect of the book is of one man's erudite, but still idiosyncratic, take on religion.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Finished "Beneath Raptors Wings" and started "The Children of Kings." Had a brief out of book moment when there was reference to "redshirts" on Pike's Enterprise, but it passed.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Finished "Beneath Raptors Wings" and started "The Children of Kings." Had a brief out of book moment when there was reference to "redshirts" on Pike's Enterprise, but it passed.

IIRC, Kevin Ryan also had reference to 'redshirts' in his 'Errand of...' book, even though some parts of the story took place years before Kirk's era...

 

[Snaploud]

I just re-read Diplomatic Implausibility. I'll probably re-read the IKS Gorkon trilogy and Klingon Empire: A Burning House.

 

[Reanok]

I'm reading a novel called Crossfire.It's a very exciting fast paced story.

 

[JD]

I finished the first of the three stories in the Russian book Night Watch last night, and I liked it. (8/10) It definitely much more mellow than the movie.
I also decided to switch out Serpents Among the Ruins for Infity's Prism. I've been wanting to reread the Myriad and Mirror Universe books, and I decided to start there.

 

[Daddy Todd]

I've been reading a bunch of Darkover books recently: Hastur Lord (not great, but OK) Traitor's Sun (pretty good) The Alton Gift (the best Darkover book I've read since MZB's late '70's/early '80's peak). Tried to read The Shadow Matrix again, after 2 prior failed attempts, but didn't get past the prologue before giving up a third time. This book SUCKS!
Then I went back and re-read Star of Danger, The Winds of Darkover, The Bloody Sun (1979 rewrite) The Planet Savers and The Sword of Aldones. Currently reading Sharra's Exile (the "replacement" version of SoA) and plan on reading the original 1964 version of The Bloody Sun, then The Heritage of Hastur.
I had intended on reading some of my Trek backlog during my May holidays, but it simply didn't happen -- I started reading Hastur Lord soon after I got it for my iPad, and continued reading Darkover for the next 6 weeks. Sometimes I'm like that.

 

[Steve Roby]

I read some of the early Darkover books ages ago but never got hooked. From what I've read about the later books, I probably would have had a hard time getting through anything published after the late '60s. (Speaking of MZB, I've had The Mists of Avalon since 1985 and haven't read it yet. It hasn't gone to waste, though -- my mother read it way back when and my wife read it a few years ago.)

I think I'll start reading George Mann's Ghosts of Manhattan tonight.

 

[new_mercury]

Currently reading

Black and Blue by Ian Rankin
and
Star Trek Vanguard: Open Secrets by Dayton Ward

 

[Defcon]

Currently reading Mr. Monk in Outer Space by Lee Goldberg.

It's Monk solving the murder of the creator of a Star Trek like series called Beyond Earth at a Convention.

 

[Dayton Ward]

^ If you can find it, check out Lee's Beyond the Beyond, which is a similar concept, but without the Monk characters/setting. It's also pretty darned funny.

 

[Christopher]

It's Monk solving the murder of the creator of a Star Trek like series called Beyond Earth at a Convention.

CSI did that same thing in "A Space Oddity."

 

[Thrawn]

^ Which was written by ex-BSG writers, and an absolute goddamn riot.

 

[Dayton Ward]

[RonMoore]

"You suck!!!"

[/RonMoore]