Friday, February 15, 2008

Book: Titan: Sword of Damocles by Geoffrey Thorne

Another excellent offering in the Titan series. Tesseracts, insectoid aliens, and interspecies romance. You won't be surprised to hear that one of the things I like best about this novel is the struggle the Bajoran character Jaza Najem has to reconcile his faith with his scientific work.Well written, and the end hints strongly that the next book will bring a new life to the ship.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Book: DS9: Hollow Men by Una McCormack

A Tale of the Dominion War.
Well written with interesting literary devices. Focusses on Sisko andGarak-one of my favorite characters. This book did make me a bit uncomfortable- while most ST books I've read recently posit the bekief that the neds cannot always justify the means, this book suggests that they do.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Books: Anniversery Collections

TOS: Constellations celebrates 40 years. It has a preview of the Shinsei Shinsei manga. all the stories are good- "Where everybody knows your name" by Jeffrey lang is an amusing story of mistaken identity; "Make Believe" by Allyn Gibson is poignent and timely.
TNG: The Sky's the Limit celebrates 20 years. Another good collection that spans untold tales from the first Captain of the Enterprise D to Picards letter to Riker as he assumes his first command.
Voy:Distant Shores celebrates 10 years. Always oen for the funny, my favorite is Talent Show. ON my "to buy" list!

Books:Doctor's Orders and Dark Mirror by Diane Duane

Doctor's Orders: When Kirk leaves on a routine mission he leaves the kibbutzing Bones in command. Of course things go all to hell soon after, so Bones has to call on skills he doesn't know he has. Like much of Duane's work, this book starts out strong but gets a bit tiresome by the end. Overall it's good. I enjoyed the reference to Orson Scott Cards Lusitanians.
Dark Mirror: a TNG mirror universe novel. Quite enjoyable. Fans of Duane's Young Wizard series will recognise the sapient cetaeceans who can sense the cosmis strigs.

Book: Ishmael by Barbara Hambly

I've enjoyed Hambly's other work and Ishmael was no exception. Aside from theexcellent writing, it was Spock-centric ( and we all know how I feel about all things Vulcan) and mostly set in Frontier Seattle. It was funny to see streets I can't find parking on described as muddy ruts. bit of trivia- this is actually a crossover novel, with characters and settings from two old shows, "Here Come the Brides" and "Paladin".

Book:This Grey Spirit by Heather Jarman

Book Two in the DS9: Mission Gamma Series. Iy's post TV series, so many favorite characters are gone, but some new favorite characters are developed. Well written, with fascinatating new Gamma quadrant species.