"...no they didn't light it, but they tried to fight it."
(Pardon in advance for the paraphrased Billy Joel song)
Which sums up the Starfleet Corps of Engineers pretty well, in my opinion. Now, this review will be toned down a bit more than my more recent ones, but it's still a positive one. Creative Couplings was one of those CoE compilations that had seemingly different missions but all have a similar central theme. For most (if not all) of the CoE books, that's to solve whatever problem is put before them, often with time limits, capability limits, or limits on limits. And Creative Couplings followed form with aplomb. When I first picked it up and read the blurb on the back, specifically focusing on the Risa one, I was afraid it would be like Let He Who Is Without Sin.... Fortunately (and positively) it wasn't.
Overall I was pleased with it, but there were points when I'd go Didn't they just save the day somewhere else already?. And then, there'd be something that would push that thought away for the next couple of chapters.
Paradise Interrupted was the one I was worried the most about. Risa + technology problems + Starfleet = Let He Who Is Without Sin.... This story, however, pleasantly surprised me. Yes, it had all of the above (minus Vanessa Williams and hor'gahns), but so much more. A first contact. Sentient beings made of pure energy. A little boy finding a friend and getting over his familial issues. Almost fluff, perhaps, but if it is fluff then it was well-written fluff.
Where Time Stands Still was a nice CoE story, in that it had very little to do with the da Vinci, and almost everything to do with the Lovell and the TAS adventure The Time Trap. And Gorn! (Same with Paradise Interrupted). Gorn law, temporal issues, and an Orion female leader. A :thumbsup:, definitely.
The Art of the Deal was interesting for the way it showed business deals and corporatism, and how Starfleet gets involved. I'm afraid I got shades of Insurrection during the reading, but it made it slightly more compelling. I'm assuming that we're not going to see the end of Rod Portlyn (Remember, I'm one of the Temporal Tree Killers, out of synch with the e-books). Picard, an old flame of Gold's who is a powerful business person, and freedom fighters/terrorists/whatever you want to call them. Almost the way The High Ground could have been done.
Spin was, so far, my least favorite of the ones I'm read (I'm nearing the end of the actual Creative Couplings. The story was interesting, but...I got bored, something not usually that easy. However, we had the stereotypical Federation Ambassador who, through intention or accident, manages to annoy the starship commander and interfere with his plans. We had the potential Federation members who were covering up a terrible crime. And we had the victims who were on a ship that came from the scene of the crime but who are magnanimous and won't seek revenge and *gasp* are the new candidates for Federation membership (and presumably got in or are allies, considering their mention in Articles of the Federation, where Bacco needs a non-carbon based lifeform to speak to the Trinni-ek or something like that).
I'm almost done with Creative Couplings, and don't expect to take too much longer to read Small World, which I've been looking forward to reading for quite some time now.
(Pardon in advance for the paraphrased Billy Joel song)
Which sums up the Starfleet Corps of Engineers pretty well, in my opinion. Now, this review will be toned down a bit more than my more recent ones, but it's still a positive one. Creative Couplings was one of those CoE compilations that had seemingly different missions but all have a similar central theme. For most (if not all) of the CoE books, that's to solve whatever problem is put before them, often with time limits, capability limits, or limits on limits. And Creative Couplings followed form with aplomb. When I first picked it up and read the blurb on the back, specifically focusing on the Risa one, I was afraid it would be like Let He Who Is Without Sin.... Fortunately (and positively) it wasn't.
Overall I was pleased with it, but there were points when I'd go Didn't they just save the day somewhere else already?. And then, there'd be something that would push that thought away for the next couple of chapters.
Paradise Interrupted was the one I was worried the most about. Risa + technology problems + Starfleet = Let He Who Is Without Sin.... This story, however, pleasantly surprised me. Yes, it had all of the above (minus Vanessa Williams and hor'gahns), but so much more. A first contact. Sentient beings made of pure energy. A little boy finding a friend and getting over his familial issues. Almost fluff, perhaps, but if it is fluff then it was well-written fluff.
Where Time Stands Still was a nice CoE story, in that it had very little to do with the da Vinci, and almost everything to do with the Lovell and the TAS adventure The Time Trap. And Gorn! (Same with Paradise Interrupted). Gorn law, temporal issues, and an Orion female leader. A :thumbsup:, definitely.
The Art of the Deal was interesting for the way it showed business deals and corporatism, and how Starfleet gets involved. I'm afraid I got shades of Insurrection during the reading, but it made it slightly more compelling. I'm assuming that we're not going to see the end of Rod Portlyn (Remember, I'm one of the Temporal Tree Killers, out of synch with the e-books). Picard, an old flame of Gold's who is a powerful business person, and freedom fighters/terrorists/whatever you want to call them. Almost the way The High Ground could have been done.
Spin was, so far, my least favorite of the ones I'm read (I'm nearing the end of the actual Creative Couplings. The story was interesting, but...I got bored, something not usually that easy. However, we had the stereotypical Federation Ambassador who, through intention or accident, manages to annoy the starship commander and interfere with his plans. We had the potential Federation members who were covering up a terrible crime. And we had the victims who were on a ship that came from the scene of the crime but who are magnanimous and won't seek revenge and *gasp* are the new candidates for Federation membership (and presumably got in or are allies, considering their mention in Articles of the Federation, where Bacco needs a non-carbon based lifeform to speak to the Trinni-ek or something like that).
I'm almost done with Creative Couplings, and don't expect to take too much longer to read Small World, which I've been looking forward to reading for quite some time now.
Is Lantar just being deliberately obtuse and annoying, like the way he usually comes across, or is he being honest?
(I kid...partially. *furtively looks around*)
