So what are you reading? Part VI

[label]

^Well, calling it "part two" is a stretch. Taking Wing and The Red King tell two separate stories, but one leads into the other and there are some subplots that span both of them.

That's true........it reminded me of "Indistinguishable from Magic" which (to me) read like 3 short stories with some common characters/subplots to tie them together. Taking Wing/Red King is certainly two different main stories with the same players involved for the most part with the only real difference is Taking Wing literally ends on a cliff-hanger that isn't resolved until Red King .

 

[CommanderRaytas]

The Red King

ALL HAIL THE CRIMSON KING!

 

[Corran Horn]

^Yeah, but that's along the lines of starting a new story at the end of the previous story, like the way Lost in Space or the third season of the Adam West Batman did things. Or like how "The Naked Time"'s time-warp ending was supposed to be the setup for "Tomorrow is Yesterday," an otherwise unrelated story. Or like how Greater Than the Sum wrapped up its story but then had an epilogue that was essentially the prologue to Destiny. Regardless of where the cutoff point is, they're still two distinct stories, not halves of a single story.

I guess I see it as more of the way the first two seasons of Batman did things. Leaving the ship stranded thousands of light-years away from the Federation is a pretty loose end.

 

[Christopher]

I guess I see it as more of the way the first two seasons of Batman did things. Leaving the ship stranded thousands of light-years away from the Federation is a pretty loose end.

Well, no, because it's a loose end that's the beginning of a new story after the former story has wrapped up. The Batman 2-parters in the first two seasons were each a single hourlong story with a deathtrap cliffhanger in the middle. Taking Wing and The Red King are not the same story. The former is about political intrigues in the Romulan Empire; the second is about dealing with a galaxy-threatening cosmic entity in a far-flung part of the universe and following up on the Neyel from The Sundered. Yes, some of the subplots from TW are carried forward into TRK and resolved at the end of it, but they are simply not a single story. They are two very distinct stories with some overlap.

 

[Greg Cox]

^Yeah, but that's along the lines of starting a new story at the end of the previous story, like the way Lost in Space or the third season of the Adam West Batman did things. .

True Blood's season finales tend to work that way. They seem to wrap the season's big arc plot halfway through, then spend the remainder of the finale setting things up for next year . . . .

 

[Christopher]

And it bears mentioning (sort of) that third-season Batman is a really bad example, because what they would do was end each episode with a scene that had the villain from the next episode showing up in town and starting to set their scheme in motion, usually with some of the main characters becoming aware of their arrival -- but then the next episode would totally ignore or contradict that teaser scene. For instance, the 3rd-season premiere ended with the Riddler calling Commissioner Gordon and asking him a riddle that went unanswered -- and that riddle never came up in the next episode. It was just one of the many, many flaws of the third season.

 

[Goldenbird]

I was reading Kristen Beyer's Voyager novel 'Unworthy' but I stopped half way through for some reason. I'm going to start reading it again now soon. I'm also re-reading 'Mosaic' by Jeri Taylor as I love that explores Janeway's life before Voyager. I got so drawn into the story that I even cried at parts.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Last night I started Isaac Asimov's Caliban by Roger MacBride Allen. I started off as a hostile reader, but Allen's won me over. I'm halfway done and it seems like a fitting contribution to Asimov's Robots series.

 

[label]

Finished : Pet Sematary (Review below)
Reading : Ready Player One

Pet Sematary

Probably closer to 4 1/4 stars...........

Pet Sematary is one of those classics I somehow missed reading for quite some time and just now got around to it. Having seen the movie many years ago, I was somewhat spoiled for how the story would unfold, but of course, the book is always so much better.

The downward spiral of Louis - the main character - is a pretty tragic thing to watch and there are some genuinely touching moments that made me realize how much I cared about the characters King had created. The discussions about death were thought provoking and were well written. The canvas is pretty small and revolves primarily around 1 family and their next door neighbors from across the street and because you don't have many characters to keep track of, it allows one to really feel connected to what they're going through.

The book is sufficiently creepy and well written with some believable supernatural stuff, though I personally didn't find it as compelling or "scary" as some of King's other works like "It". Still, the ending was brilliant albeit tragic and there was enough other interesting stuff to really keep me hooked so all in all I'd consider this a pretty strong effort from King.

 

[Destructor]

In the Trek world, I finished Greater than the Sum on Monday, and have now begun, at long last, after reading every DS9, TNG and TTN relaunch novel set prior to Destiny, begun the Destiny trilogy! Am about halfway through book one, am really enjoying it.

In the non Trek world, I recently read The City and the City, really trippy, mind-bending sci-fi that just didn't quite make sense. About two cities that occupy the same geographical location but that it's citizens are forbidden from interacting with the alternate city. Really fun noir novel if you take it on it's own terms.

Then I did a marathon run at Clash of Kings, the sequel to Game of Thrones. Read it in seven days. Absolutely fantastic.

The Kindle app has really won me over. I can now either sit down with my iPad to read, or sit down and open the web browser at any computer (sneaky work-reading, don't tell anyone) or if I'm in transit just get out my iPhone and the location stays synched across all three options- I love it! I love me a good paper book but for convenience you can't beat an eReader.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I just finished The Devil's Heart. A very enjoyable read. Carmen Carter got the Next Gen crew perfect, and told a great tale.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Finished The Black Echo, now trying to decide what to take on a trip to the seaside.

How was it? This is on my short list of things to read. I've never read Connelly before and they had this book on sale for .99 one day on Amazon so I picked it up.

Pretty good. There was an element of predictability - a twist I knew was going to happen in some fashion - but it's a good start to the series, and I know (from having previously read a couple of the later ones) that they get even better.

While over in Whitby for the past three days I read Douglas Reeman's book Battlecruiser. Normally I read the swashbucklers he writes under the name Alexander Kent, but this was WW2 and pretty decent- I kept being amused that the ship in it is called (HMS) Reliant...

Not sure what to read after that!

 

[label]

Not sure what to read after that!

If you haven't read it already and you're pretty familiar with the 80's, this is the book I'm starting and it sounds very intriguing:

http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-...743X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314215154&sr=8-1

 

[Sakrysta]

^ I've been trying to remember where I know that title from, and it just hit me. Wil Wheaton posted about doing the audio book for it. Sounds intriguing.

 

[label]

^ I've been trying to remember where I know that title from, and it just hit me. Wil Wheaton posted about doing the audio book for it. Sounds intriguing.

What better person than Wil for this book? I've always been a fan of his so I think it's great he's doing the reading...as for the book itself, I'll post a review by this weekend, let you guys know how it was.

 

[PsychoPere]

[...] I love me a good paper book but for convenience you can't beat an eReader.

And not just for convenience, either, considering you said you finished A Clash of Kings recently. Prior to the release of A Dance with Dragons, I read the earlier books and finished just in time to go straight into Dance, and I really ended up wishing I had been reading the series on an eBook reader. Such hefty books.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

"Catastrophes," and the latest issue of Smithsonian (just got through the "My Kind of Town" piece on New Orleans; Re: the remark therein about "bad music" on Bourbon St., I note that Preservation Hall is on St. Peter, about a quarter block riverside of Bourbon), and I'm about 2 Special Reports into the new Science Year.

 

[Caesar753]

I'm about to sit down with New Frontier: Being Human.

 

[Snaploud]

I just finished Ben Bova's Laugh Lines and the original Planet of the Apes.

 

[Greg Cox]

Catching up with my comic book reading. I'm now up to speed on Secret Six, Victorian Undead, and I, Zombie.