So what are you reading? Part VI

[JD]

Finished up Rough Beasts and I thought it was really good. I really enjoyed the Spock stuff, and I had no problems with Sisko's actions in the story. I have some other thoughts that I'm too tired to post now, I'll probably put them in the story specific thread later.
My rating: 9/10

 

[Kertrats47]

Finished John M. Ford's The Final Reflection, and reading Star Trek: Vanguard: Open Secrets.

 

[S. Gomez]

found the complete works of william shakeshpere on my nook for only $.99 it say it has all his plays and sonets. my question is what the hell is a sonet? plan to read it later this year. and one other question what is the name of plato's story that contains atlantis in it?

In the usual sense, it's a 14 line poem with the rhyme structure a-b-a-b/c-d-c-d/e-f-e-f/g-g. Shakespeare was a poet as much as a playwright.

And in fact (putting on my annoying English-and-Shakespeare-geek hat here) if you had called him a playwright he probably would have been offended. The word was coined by Ben Jonson as an insult, setting writers like himself and Shakespeare up as better than "wrights" (tradesmen) who just hammered together stuff for the stage. True "poets" (coming from the Greek word that actually meant the writing of plays) for them were artists rather than craftsmen. We think of writing in a very, very different way these days, always teaching on story structure and scene construction.

Sorry for going so completely off-topic. I don't mean to sound or be snarky, I just love talking and thinking about this stuff.

 

[NotLKH]

I'm putting Simon Peggs' "Nerd Do Well" on indefinite hold, as biographies are low on my read list.

I just procured "Fort Freak", edited by George R.R. Martin, the newest in the WildCards series, and am on page 50. So far, so good. However, I wish they'd soon bring back Dr. Tachyon! {Also, a "Great and Powerful Turtle" nursing home story would be appreciated}

Also, I picked up James Rollins's "The Devil Colony: a Sigma Force Novel", and plan on trying it out after "Fort Freak".

 

[wahwahkits]

Re-reading New Frontier Treason then onto blind mans bluff.

 

[RandyS]

After several years of procrastination, I finally began book one of the nine book Legacy of the Force series. After 30 pages, I find it so-so. I just hope this thing doesn't take me three years to get through the way NJO did. If it does, I'm demanding my money back.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Read Rendevous with Rama sometime ago....wasn't impressed.

I have been reading more Robert Parker Spenser novels...and I have been impressed with each entry...

I am also reading some Queen & Country graphic novels by Greg Rucka...and looking to read some Bond novels...

 

[timothy]

found the complete works of william shakeshpere on my nook for only $.99 it say it has all his plays and sonets. my question is what the hell is a sonet? plan to read it later this year. and one other question what is the name of plato's story that contains atlantis in it?

In the usual sense, it's a 14 line poem with the rhyme structure a-b-a-b/c-d-c-d/e-f-e-f/g-g. Shakespeare was a poet as much as a playwright.

And the other question, there were two dialogues that he mentioned Atlantis in: Timaeus introduced it, and Critias gave some more background on the civilization, though Plato was never able to finish Critias.

thanks for that.

 

[donners22]

I WAS expecting to spend my first week of holidays in over five months reading $110 worth of books (with free postage) shipped over from Amazon UK. I went to the post office to pick it up last Saturday with great excitement, which was dampened (excuse the pun) by a little sticker on the outside noting "Item arrived at Sydney in wet condition"

Now trembling through worry rather than excitement, I opened it up and found several of the books had substantial water damage - at best wavy pages, in the middle a now-soft and stained "hard" cover and the very worst had pages that were stuck together. Naturally, that was Star Trek 101, which I was really looking forward to reading.

A quick message to Amazon UK resulted in prompt apologies and arrangement for a replacement shipment of the worst-damaged books (I didn't bother for the slightly damaged ones, which included Geoffrey Robinson's Crimes Against Humanity and The Tyrannicide Brief - great books, but ones I'd already read). The condition of their replacement was that I return the damaged ones.

So again I wandered off to the post office; this time to drop off rather than pick up a package. All I had to do was pay the cost of postage to the UK... $118.

After a few stuttered responses, I quickly backed away and rushed home to fire off another message to Amazon, asking if they really expected me to pay more than twice the cost of the books I was returning simply in postage. Their policy included refunds for the cost of postage, but I didn't think they would cover that much, nor that it was reasonable for them to do so.

Thankfully, they were very sensible, and waived the need to send them back.

So in short, I have now spent the first week of my holidays without the books I was looking forward to, and am still waiting for Star Trek 101 and the others to arrive (again); hopefully in a dry state.

Grr.


It has however, given me the chance to read The Continuing Voyagers, the 10th anniversary TNG book, which has been sitting on a shelf for years. It tells me nothing I didn't really already know, but has some nice photos and is well-presented.

 

[label]

Finished : Mort (Discworld Series book)
Started : [sigh].....sucked into Game of Thrones against my better judgement.

Mort is great, of course...is Game of Thrones really that bad?

No, it's good. I've been avoiding the series because of all of the delay's in getting book 5 out and how much longer it might take to get book 6 and 7 out. However, I kept getting some things spoiled because of the show and thought I'd at least read through books 1 & 2 so the show can't spoil me. Probably take a break after that, and then read each of the remaining book spaced out a bit..........

 

[Steve Roby]

Currently reading The High Road by Terry Fallis, sequel to his popular comedy/satire The Best Laid Plans, about Canadian politics.

 

[Defcon]

Finished KRAD's Unicorn Precinct last night. Good read, probably a tad on the short side.

Until Declassified is released on Kindle I think I will start to read the Shattered Lights TPB.

 

[nickyboy]

currently reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, after this I will read A storm of swords by George RR Martin, unless Star Trek: Vanguard Declassified shows up before Wednesday and then I will read that first.

 

[Warp Coil]

Recently finished Jim Butcher's Furies of Calderon (Book One of the Codex Alera) and Kirsten Beyer's Star Trek: Voyager - Children of the Storm. I am a huge fan of Butcher's Dresden Files series and so I was cautiously curious about his Codex Alera books. I'm really not a fan of hardcore fantasy so I went in with low expectations. I was surprised to enjoy it well enough that I will likely continue with the series. Children of the Storm was another home-run for Beyer. It's simply amazing to see what one author has been able to do to transform VOY into the fantastic series it is now.

Currently re-reading Vanguard: Harbinger. I picked this novel up a few years ago and gave it a shot, due to the overwhelmingly positive feedback from fans about the VGD series. I didn't find it all that fantastic the first time through, so I am giving it a second shot. So far, so good. I'll probably continue forward and read the rest of the VGD books, too.

I'm a fan of on-going book series. I don't mind reading the occasional one-off, but my preference is to read books where I can follow characters for several installments. For the moment, VGD and the Codex Alera may be the two series that I can follow for a little while until I've read them all.

 

[Sakrysta]

I finished Spirit Walk: Old Wounds and am moving on to Enemy of My Enemy. I really wish Christie Golden would spend more time telling the story and less time telling the reader about things that happened on Voyager that anyone reading this book would already know.

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

I finished Children of the Storm the other day. It's very good. The VOY re-relaunch just keeps getting better and better.

I then read Sherlock Holmes - The Adventure of the Retired Colourman. I've now read all the Sherlock Holmes stories, at least the ones written by Doyle. I believe there have been some others written by different authors over the years, but I'm not sure if I'll be reading those too.

I've now started on Burn Notice: The Fix.

 

[Thrawn]

I finished Spirit Walk: Old Wounds and am moving on to Enemy of My Enemy. I really wish Christie Golden would spend more time telling the story and less time telling the reader about things that happened on Voyager that anyone reading this book would already know.

You're almost done with her and on to the good stuff.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Was going to read Isaac Asimov's Robots and Empire, but my library just received Jeff Shaara's latest historical fiction work -- the fourth in his WW2 series, this time set in the Pacific and called The Final Storm.

 

[Sakrysta]

I finished Spirit Walk: Old Wounds and am moving on to Enemy of My Enemy. I really wish Christie Golden would spend more time telling the story and less time telling the reader about things that happened on Voyager that anyone reading this book would already know.

You're almost done with her and on to the good stuff.

Yeah, I know. I'm trying to plow through quickly. I know my opinion of them is being slightly prejudiced by their, shall we say less than stellar reputation around here. At least they're easy, fast reads.

Just for kicks, here's my "catch-up list" that is my reading goal for this year, with dates of completion next to what I've finished so far. I actually got started a little before January.

• 12/23/10 Vendetta
• 12/27/10 Avatar Book One
• 12/29/10 Avatar Book Two
• 1/3/11 Diplomatic Implausibility
• 1/7/11 Intellivore
• 1/19/11 Immortal Coil
• 1/31/11 The Battle of Betazed
• 2/12/11 Section 31: Abyss
• 2/19/11 Gateways: Demons of Air and Darkness
• 2/19/11 Gateways: Horn and Ivory
• 3/4/11 Mission Gamma: Twilight
• 3/19/11 Mission Gamma: This Gray Spirit
• 4/2/11 Mission Gamma: Cathedral
• 4/7/11 Mission Gamma: Lesser Evil
• 4/16/11 The Brave and the Bold: Book One
• 4/23/11 The Brave and the Bold: Book Two
• 4/26/11 Star Trek Nemesis
• 5/4/11 Rising Son
• 5/9/11 Homecoming
• 5/15/11 The Farther Shore
• 5/28/11 I.K.S. Gorkon: A Good Day to Die
• 6/5/11 Unity
• 6/13/11 I.K.S. Gorkon: Honor Bound
• 6/22/11 Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Cardassia / Andor
• 6/25/11 Spirit Walk: Old Wounds
• Spirit Walk: Enemy of My Enemy
• Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Trill / Bajor
• Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Dominion / Ferenginar
• I.K.S. Gorkon: Enemy Territory
• Titan: Taking Wing
• Articles of the Federation
• Titan: The Red King
• Titan: Orion's Hounds
• Warpath
• Death in Winter
• Resistance
• Q & A
• Before Dishonor
• Titan: Sword of Damocles
• I.K.S. Gorkon: A Burning House
• Greather Than the Sum
• Destiny: Gods of Night
• Destiny: Mere Mortals
• Destiny: Lost Souls
• A Singular Destiny
• Titan: Over a Torrent Sea
• Full Circle
• Losing the Peace
• Unworthy
• Titan: Synthesis
• Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game
• Typhon Pact: Seize the Fire
• Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire
• Typhon Pact: Paths of Disharmony
• Indistinguishable from Magic
• DTI: Watching the Clock
• Children of the Storm

Okay wow, that's the first time I've used the "magic button" to add bullets to a list instead of typing the code. That was pretty awesome.

I'm almost caught up with books I've read before, which is basically just the DS9 Relaunch up through the Worlds of DS9 series. I felt like I needed to re-read those because it had been so long, and so much of what is going on in the current continuity springs from those books.

I still feel way behind though, and I don't think I'll feel like I'm approaching "caught up" until I get through the Destiny series. I would be on track to finish this year if those authors would just stop writing already! I had exactly 52 books on my list when I started this goal, and I thought an average of one a week was doable. I'm determined though - 57 isn't THAT bad. I just gotta read more and watch TV less.

ETA: In case you're wondering, those are in print-date order. It was the easiest way I could think of to order them.

 

[Thrawn]

Ok, if you're being that completist, there are a couple things I'd change. Some of the logic flows better when you change print order just a little bit.

I'm good with your list up to Enemy Territory. Then I'd go:

- A Burning House
- A Time To Kill
- A Time To Heal
- A Time For War / A Time For Peace
- Death In Winter
- Titan: Taking Wing

Move A Burning House and Death In Winter from down where they are, and add the three A Time To books (but ignore the other six). Continue after Taking Wing exactly as you have.

Then, after Warpath, you need to add Fearful Symmetry and The Soul Key somewhere before Destiny. They have some stuff in them that makes Ezri's arc make more sense, when you get to Destiny.

Finally, read Losing The Peace just after Destiny, before A Singular Destiny.

Trust me; I've just recently done this whole catching up thing, and this is how I wish I'd done it.