Ohh, that's a classic. Star Trek and dinosaurs? Who can resist? And it's a pretty solid hard-science tale, at least where the paleontology is concerned.
unfinished reading
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Ohh, that's a classic. Star Trek and dinosaurs? Who can resist? And it's a pretty solid hard-science tale, at least where the paleontology is concerned.
You should give it another try, I remember it to be quite enjoyable.
I loved First Frontier. Great way to while away a lazy summer day with nothing else to do. But then I like dinosaurs and time travel, so... :;shrugs;:
I think there have been more books that I took my time getting through than that I've just stopped reading. Never finished Well of Souls, never got into Demons! or the Prometheus Design.
I think there have been more books that I took my time getting through than that I've just stopped reading. Never finished Well of Souls, never got into Demons! or the Prometheus Design.
Definitely where you are, and what you're doing while reading, can be a huge influence on enjoyment. Vacation novels are often well-remembered. eg. "Prime Directive", "Windows on a Lost World" (yep!), "Ex Machina", "Gateways: Cold Wars", "Treason"... I know some people who found "The Wounded Sky" turgid, but I read it, hot off the press, on several legs of my first trip around the US - and the real-life take-offs and landings of planes seemed to coincide with the engine tests of the Enterprise. I was so in that book.
I was sent "Andor: Paradigm" as a pre-publication preview and, being the Andorian fanatic that I am, read it with great interest. Twice! With the soundtrack of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" playing in the background. "Into the West" matched up with the Andorian funeral scene and it gave me chills and tears! (Heather Jarman later told me that she'd played "The Two Towers" soundtrack while writing the story!) Then I turned back to the Cardassia story at the front and it was a hard slog. When I started reading reviews of WoDS9 Book 1, a few months later, many fans had the exact opposite experiences to me: loving Cardassia and being bored by Andor.
More recently, I was beta reading "Paths of Disharmony" while staying with my parents, during which time my Dad's cancer got worse and he had to be moved to a nursing home, so the separation themes of the manuscript had great significance. Remembering how "WoDS9 Book 1" had polarized its readership, I tried to note all the places for Dayton Ward that I worried other readers (those not as biased about Andorians) might get annoyed by too many angry blue men shouting at each other at the same time. I've been very pleased this book gets generally positive reviews, but I've seen a few inevitable, negative ones.
It's rare that I can't get through a Star Trek book, but there's been a few that I just couldn't manage. Shadow Lord was one I just gave up on halfway through, it seemed like a book from an entirely different series that just got forced into Star Trek. Not that that's necessarily a problem in and of itself, but I couldn't get into it, it just dragged on. The Marshak/Culbreath Phoenix duology was another, I tried both of them but I just couldn't get interested.
Speaking of Phoenix, a lot of the Bantam books were something of a struggle to get through, actually. They just feel so...weird to me, not really the same feel as Star Trek at all. I don't think any of the others I gave up on, though.
Speaking of Phoenix, a lot of the Bantam books were something of a struggle to get through, actually. They just feel so...weird to me, not really the same feel as Star Trek at all. I don't think any of the others I gave up on, though.
The only one for me is Titan's "Red King". The second book in the series - it was just...awful. Put me off the rest of "Titan".
The only Star Trek book that I have started and have not been able to finish is Price of the Phoenix. I've been trying to read this book for over twenty years. Every few years I get the inexplicable urge to pick it up and try it again. The worst part of it is that if I ever do manage to make it all the way through Price of the Phoenix I will only be half way done because I will then be compelled to read Fate of the Phoenix.
I put Marshak/Culbreath novels in the "so bad they're good" category.
I can't wait for their nuTrek adaptation, "Bad Touch on Delta Vega"
I can't wait for their nuTrek adaptation, "Bad Touch on Delta Vega"
The worst part of it is that if I ever do manage to make it all the way through Price of the Phoenix I will only be half way done because I will then be compelled to read Fate of the Phoenix.
I had to read "Fate" first, because "Price" was so hard to find - in either Bantam or Corgi - in 1980. It was... weird, but enjoyable at the time. Eventually I came to realise that there was better ST stuff around.
The Enterprise Romulan War book. I don't want to completely give up on it, but I might as well. I'm struggling with Paths of Disharmony right now. Even before I found out the spoiler by accident, the book was/is a slog to read. And I still the Typhon Pact Gorn book to finish too, which seems to be the weakest book in the series according to a lot of people on this board.
I've never stopped reading a Trek book, because you never know if it's going to get better. I remember seeing The Others in a cinema, and wanting to walk out. I'm so glad I didn't, because the last 5 minutes changed the entire movie for me.
But, some books have been a struggle to get through.
Oddly enough, right now I'm struggling with Over A Torrent Sea, which is odd since the other novels by Christopher I just couldn't put down.
Before Dishonour was a horror. Ship Of The Line wasn't easy.
But, some books have been a struggle to get through.
Oddly enough, right now I'm struggling with Over A Torrent Sea, which is odd since the other novels by Christopher I just couldn't put down.
Before Dishonour was a horror. Ship Of The Line wasn't easy.
I struggled a bit with Over A Torrent Sea, too. I also had a difficult time reading through Synthesis, the Titan novel that follows it, and Typhon Pact: Seize the Fire, the most recent entry to feature that crew. As much as I enjoy the Titan series, I have found the quality of writing to vary wildly from book to book.
I don't remember before the last eight or nine years (I am sure there was one or two), but the most recent one I remember actually tossing down and not picking back up was Before Dishonor. I quit on page 98 and have never picked it back up After learning a few spoilers, I sort of want to pick it back up - though mainly on account of the latent human reflex of stairing at a train wreck.
Rob+
Rob+
I can't really think of any Trek books I've put down. There are a few where I read a few pages and couldn't get into it, but I've never gotten very far into one and then gave up on it.
And I even made it through some of the horrible Voyager numbered novels, even though I was a kid and didn't know any better.
And I even made it through some of the horrible Voyager numbered novels, even though I was a kid and didn't know any better.
I have now finished Over A Torrent Sea, and was pleasently surprised by the ending and I'm glad I stuck with it. I can't really put my finger on it, but starting from about the middle in the book untill about the last 40 pages or so, it just didn't grab me as much as other novels by CLB. But like I said, I'm glad I stuck with.
As for Titan as a whole, it has indeed had its ups and downs sofar. I'm not a big fan of the works of Michael Martin and Andy Mangels. They just don't captivate me as much with their writing style, even though the stories themselves are more then interesting to me.
I've been struggling with my first Titan book, Seize the Fire. I've never been all that keen on the Titan series, but got this one with the other 3 Pact books. I've read 6 other books while working on this one. I've finally hit a point where the end is in sight though, I'm just over 100 pages from the end! Yay!
Except for one, I've read all of them(I really struggled through the Belle Terre novel Rough Trails). Andrew J. Robinson's A Stitch In Time was the only one I put down before finishing it. I know Garak's life in the Obsidian Order would make interesting reading, but he has an eidetic memory, which bogs the story down with so much detail.
Mangels and Martin are indeed a phenomenon. I absolutely love their Sulu-Books "The Sundered" and "Forged in Fire", both among my all-time-favourites. Their Titan-Novels are also quite good. But I can't stand their Enterprise-novels, despite the fact that I liked the show. They started slow and boring with Last full Measure and it's got worse with each new book.
What surprises me a bit, are the negative reactions for the Typhon-Pact-Books. Somehow it seems, that I'm the only who liked all four of them.
Would it help to know I liked them too? I don't even have that much of an issue with Sisko's actions, probably because I know he could have done worse than just walk away from his family.
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