TBR November 2008
Wow… it just seemed like it was October 3, and now, the month is OVER. It is amazing how quickly you loose track of time when working 50 to 60 hours a week!!! And yet, I still managed to read several books this past month….
Star Wars: Force Unleashed- Sean Williams- I was sort of disappointed in this book. During the 90’s, when there was an explosion of Star Wars theme books, I couldn’t read them fast enough… but after 3 years of it, I slightly burned myself out on the series. But, with the new movies, came a new series of books, set in a long, longer time ago, but the still the same galaxy far , far away…. And I liked what I read in this series. (Don’t get me started on the whole New Jedi Force series- anyone that kills Chewie in the first book of the new series is NOT a way to get my attention. C3PO- Fine. Lando- well, of course. But you don’t mess with the Wookie!!!) These days, I look at each new Star Wars book as a 50/50 chance of being good or being bad. Sadly, this was a bad one. Sure, it looks at the Dark Side of the Empire, and Vader’s plans to become The Master of the Master/ Apprenctice Relationship, but honestly, the book lacked the thrills and excitement of other Star Wars novels.
Star Trek: Myriad Universes #1 Infinity’s Prism- William Leisner, Christopher Bennett, & James Swallow- Last year, I read the two books in the Star Trek: Mirror Universe series- and LOVED IT. This year, I am reading the Myriad Universe books- and LOVING IT!!!! I have always like the idea of alternative timelines/ alternative history/ uchronia related ideas. (Guess I spend to much of my youth reading Marvel’s What If series). Well, I have finished the first two book in this series and were amazed by it. The combining of events from Trek that one knows so well, and giving it a twist- what if they turned left instead of right- makes the stories even more interesting.
A Less Perfect Union- A twist on the “what if Earth HADN’T helped to form the Federation”. I like how they incorporated an elder --------------------- with Captain Pike of the Enterprise.as well as to see how the events and characters of TOS would have different lives with this failure.
Places of Exile- This Voyager story is one that seemed to be an almost “look how rosy and great things would have been if Janeway HADN’T ----------------“. I felt it almost made all the seasons of Voyager that I watched AFTER this point seem to be ….depressing and disappointing. Sure, there is the death of two MAJOR characters, but almost everyone else seemed to almost come out happy and healthy in the end. (Although the parts where OTHER timelines are examined and talked about did seem to be a bit more interesting….Reminded me a bit of PAD’s Q-Squared novel).
Seeds of Dissent- Ok, I am not going to lie to you- I LOVED THE EUGENICS WARS BOOKS . I don’t know why, but I really enjoyed the whole “We are Genetically breed to be stronger, faster, and better than you” idea. (Although the ironic part is that I, with my problems, would have been most like exterminated IF the events had really happened…). Well, to have a place where the Augments were the Rulers of the “Federation”, and that all other races were inferior and made to serve the ruling class- well, give me MORE of that. (It almost harks back to the whole idea of a Mirror Universe where good is bad, bad is worse, and goatees are a sign of evil… ::brushes the goatee:: ). And finally, I like how the survivors of the Botany Bay were NOT strangers, but were familiar Trek characters…
Star Trek: Myriad Universes #2 Echoes & Refractions- Geoff Trowbridge, Keith R.A. Decandido, & Chris Roberson
THE CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT- At first, I thought this was to be a book about Thelin, the little known and forgotten crew member from the old TAS series. Instead, it was a story about both Thelin and David Marcus- how the decisions that they made in life had FAR reaching consequences. I was impressed at the twist in familiar events, due to the absence of a certain familiar pointy eared science officer- the lost of Earth; the war with the ______________ and even the emerging relationship between _____________ and _____________.
A GUTTED WORLD- WOW!! Seriously, WOW!!! This is one story that I knew was NOT necessarily going to have a happy ending; this is something I would have expected from David Mack, not KRAD. But in Keith’s hands, the Alpha/ Beta Quadrant War was something to be admired and enjoyed. This, in many ways, is a story that almost seems to deviate less from the traditional history than some of the others; for the most part, once can see that the Butterfly wings were based on the Cardassian withdrawal from Bajor, and what happens when this never happened. (Although, there was one part, in the story, when I was “I have read this before…” and had to pull out some of the more recent TNG novels/ stories I have read. And there is was- a VERY similar paragraph in an earlier TNG novel from this year. Makes me wonder how much of an impact a school trip Picard made had on his life… although thinking back, all of my school trips were pretty memorable…).
And I have to ask
krad Edmund Atkinson- A nod to Rowan Atkinson, and his Edmund Blackadder character?
Brave New World - This was a pretty interesting story. The idea of a society of androids seems kind of familiar :cough cough Asimov cough cough: but there is a nice Trek Twist to it all. (And I couldn’t help but want to compare the Romulan Wardrone to the Raider ships from the current Battlestar: Galactica series). Throw in the fact that there is also the mind transfer thing, and things get interesting. I particularly liked the nod to Roddenberry’s forgotten series Questor and to a few of the Sherlock Holmes references that were brought up. (Roberson has done some Sherlock Holmes related stories in the past, so it is always interesting to see it when it is brought up). And finally, and I am not sure if this was on purpose or if it was just my twisted sense of humor, but I got a real kick out of Lore’s continuing suggest to Gateway (yes, I am going to use it as a verb- get over it) in a Quantum Torpedo into the bridge of the Romulan Ship.
(Final Thoughts on the Star Trek: Myriad Universe Series: for me, a Trek novel is really good if it actually INSPIRES me to want to sit down and try my hand at writing something. When reading the Dark Mirror books, I had an idea for short story set in that universe, as well as maybe trying to incorporate a SCE story into the same universe. While reading these books, I had an idea for a Deep Space Nine story, which has been bouncing and tugging at my attention and pushing me to write…)
Candy girl : a year in the life of an unlikely stripper - Diablo Cody: Ok, a bit of advice to those who plan to read this book- DO NOT READ THIS BOOK WHILE AT WORK!! For starters, it tends to have people either raise their eyebrows at you, or they get very upset and want to argue/ debate/ lecture you on the pitfalls and negatives of stripping. Second…well, some of the more…. detailed parts of the book can make for some awkward situations.
Ok, so the warning is given. I like the book. Not because of the subject material, but because of the why the writer relates her time doing what she did. This is the same person who wrote the screen play for sleeper hit Juno, and it has the same witty, snarkiness that the main star of the movie had in her speech. Sure, the language can be a bit coarse and harsh at times, but when considering the subject material, it would be unusual if it didn’t have some more “colorful metaphors”. But I can promise there are some things in the book that would have you laughing (and a few having you THOROUGHLY GROSSED OUT), and that you will not be able to look at strippers the same way after reading this book. (Of course, that is if you can ever stop looking at strippers without imaging something else….)
Last Precinct- Patricia Cornwell: I had read this back in 2000- but COMPLETELY forgot the plot & details and ending. (It was read during a time when I was working 60+ hours a week, at the looney bin, during the night shift, so much of the time, I was reading and fighting sleep at the same time. But this is one of just a half dozen books that I barely remember- the rest being the novels I read in college for my Political Novel class). It was nice to go back and re-visit an old friend, so to speak- between 1999 and 2000, I read 10 of Patricia Cornwell’s books- most of them during a period of 3 months. However, since I last read a Kay Scarpetta novel, my level of Forensic knowledge has grown- thank you CSI, NCIS, and :gag: Sydney. So, what would have been “ok…. Got it” is now “Oh yeah..that was the plot line from the episode of NCIS where Abbey-mmmm Abbey- identified the ________”.
And there you have it. 5 books this past month. And with just 2 months left in the year, I have to try to meet my goal I set for myself this year- I still need to read a TOS book, a Sara Paretskey, a James Patterson, a Michael Creighton, Janet Evanovich, Nero Wolfe, and James D. MacDonald novel… (Actually, it is a bunch of novels, and not one novel written by all the forementioned authors- although can you image the type of book that would be if all of them WROTE something together… especially Rex Stout and James D. MacDonald…)
TBR FOR NOVEMBER 2008
Trek Related
· ST: Day of Honor Saga- Various Authors
· ST:TOS Ex Machina - Christopher Bennett
· ST:Enterprise- Rosetta- Dave Stern
· ST:Vanguard: Reap the Whirlwind- David Mack
· ST:DSN Hollow Men
· ST: DSN- Rising Son
· ST: Voyager String Theory- Conhesion
· Star Trek: Myriad Universes #1 Infinity’s Prism- William Leisner, Christopher Bennett, & James Swallow
· Star Trek: Myriad Universes #2 Echoes & Refractions- Geoff Trowbridge, Keith R.A. Decandido, & Chris Roberson
· Star Trek: Destiny Book 1- Gods of Night- David Mack.
Star Wars Related
· Star Wars: Force Unleashed-
· Star Wars: Clone Wars- Shatterpoint -
· Star Wars: New Jedi Order- Dark Tide 1 Onslaught -
Military/ Adventure
· Op Center: Line of Control
· Net Force: Spring Board - Steve Perry & Larry Segriff
· Splinter Cell - David Michaels
· Special Forces - Tom Clancy
· Last World War- daytonward
TV Based Shows-
· Quantum Leap: Pulitzer- L. Elizabeth Storm
· The West Wing Scripts- Various (this is an ebook I created from a collection of West Wing Scripts, covering Seasons 1- 5)
· Stargate: Atlantis- Mirror Mirror- Sabine C. Bauer (I feel like I have lost touch with so much of my geek side- no longer watch most of the my sci fi shows, not have time to hit the various trek fiction websites, and don’t get me started on comic books… So, I figure I would at least try my hand at reading a SG:A novel)
Comic Book Related books
· Batman: Dead White - John White
· Captain America: Liberty's Torch
· Wolverine: Weapon X- Marc Cerasini
· DC Universe: Helltown
· Spiderman: The Darkness Hours- Jim Butcher
· Spiderman: Down These Mean Streets- Keith R.A. Decandido
· Lois and Clark- C.J. Cherryh
Fiction
· Camel Club- David Baldacci
· Up Country - Nelson DeMille
· Department Thirty- David Kent
· The Company- Robert Littell
· Assassini- Thomas Gifford
· Conspiracy- Allan Topol
· Avenger-Frederick Forsyth
· Inside Ring- Mike Lawson
- Next President- Jospehn Flynn (Reading it right now- the election is just DAYS away, so I figure I wanted to read something where an African American is running for office- and with the exception of a possible 24:Declassified novel, set during the Administration of the first President Palmer, this is the next best thing…)
· Then We Came to the End- Joshua Ferris
· Candy girl : a year in the life of an unlikely stripper - Diablo Cody
Mystery/ Legal Thriller
· Monkey's Raincoat- Robert Crais
· Last Precinct- Patricia Cornwell
· Blowfly - Patricia Cornwell
· State of Fear- Michael Crighton
· Hard Rain- Barry Eisler
· Cruel Justice- William Berhardt
· Three to get Deadly- Janet Evanovich
· The Red Box- Rex Stout
· The Gun Seller- Hugh Laurie (House, M.D's Hugh Laurie)
· Tunnel Vision- Sara Paretsky
· Roses are Red- James Patterson
· One Fearful Yellow Eye- John D. MacDonald
· Rough Weather- Robert B. Parker
Nonfiction/ Humor
· Dragons of Eden- Carl Sagan
· Nerds 2.0.1
· When Smart People Work for Dumb bosses
· Office Speak
· Hardly Working - Chris Morran
· Dilbert Future - Scott Adams
· Adrian Mole Diaries- Sue Townsend