What Book Are You Reading?

[Jeff Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Jeff]

LOL. I bought a used copy of Cujo once that I swear was mulled by a dog.



Kindle's Lovecraft collection is really good. I had 3 paperbacks of HPL before I got it but when I got the digital collection it had all of those stories plus a few that I don't think have ever been printed outside of their original run in fantasy magazines.

The irony of the Cujo book is not lost on me.

Your speaking of the Lovecraft collection on Kindle reminded me of something... when I had the Nook with the Kindle app from Google Play on it, I was able to connect to a Kindle specific store to shop for books. Since I got the iPad mini (and downloaded the Kindle app from iTunes) I can't seem to find the store anymore. I would love to see their Lovecraft connection, but I can only view Kindle stuff now from Amazon.com. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

Finished:

[ns2 Your Clash At Demonhead Find all posts View Profile Close ns2]

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

The Dark Knight: Batman vs The Cat Commander by Bright & Vecchio (2014)

Catwoman steals a magical instrument (yes, as in "musical") that controls any cats that hear it and uses it to demand Gotham write into law that cats are not the property of humans. How can Batman stop her before she brings Gotham to its knees?!?!

This was a really amusing read. I feel it's a bit better than Catwoman's Classroom of Claws, though that was pretty good itself. The writing and art are both exactly what the targeted age group needs, with a fair bit of humor injected into it (Catwoman asks Batman to water her plants, and he does so). The art is also spot-on for the Animated style (when they changed it to match Superman Animated, but it's not a bad thing here); I personally found "Egyptian Queen Catwoman" to be a rather lovable look.

And of course, there are questions and writing prompts to encourage thoughts and interaction with the audience, which is critical for young readers.

Highly recommend.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Looking forward to your review on this.

Okay, so I finished this one and you asked for it...
This is the first in a series of books about the Titan, which is a newly minted (Luna class) ship and is captained by Riker as suggested at the end of Nemesis. In fact, this book begins within weeks of those events and Titan's 1st mission is to help with the post-Shinzon peace efforts on Romulus. The main plot centers around the intrigues of the various parties including 3 of the Romulan characters from Nemesis. That set-up makes the challenges of the story less unified than in most ST books, episodes, or movies (i.e., there's no one villain or event that Riker has to stop from p.1). In fact most of the 1st half is rather leisurely paced--Riker assembling his crew and finding out what his mission is (with some background on Romulus itself). This doesn't personally bother me because I think it's a strength of the books that they can take the time to show you a little more of what life is like in the Trek universe.

For me, the bonus was that it's a Romulan story (my favorite villains) and features Commader Donatra (Picard's "make it a Romulan ale" ally in Nemsis). As far as the Titan series itself, Mr. Ed might be of more help since he's undoubtedly read them all. My impression from book 1 was that so far it's okay, not great. Riker as the captain is a pro for me, since he was my favorite TNG character. Troi (and eventually Tuvok) are also here. One of the cool things about Titan and a benefit of the no-make-up-budget-needed universe of the novels is that it is supposed to have the most species-diverse crew in the fleet, so a lot of the regulars are familiar and strange aliens (e.g., the doctor is a dinosaur-like creature).

As a side note, according to the bios in the back, one of the co-authors is gay and I'd have to guess that this novel alone probably had more references to non-hetero sexuality than all of TNG combined (with at least two main characters who are openly gay plus a reference to prison bi****s [not the term used]). I cite this neither as a pro or con per se, but an amusing (possibly) observation. By today's standards, TNG's crew (both major and minor characters) in their TV adventures seemed disproportionately hetero (and humanly monogamous, which is another thing brought up here), especially for a society built on acceptance and diversity.

I do plan to read at least book 2 (I'll probably keep my review shorter ).

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

Finished:

Currently reading:

[Jeff Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Jeff]

Okay, so I finished this one and you asked for it...
).

I did, and don't be afraid to write thesis-length reviews. I dig them. Especially coming from you because you seem to always hit on the details and depictions I like and look for in a book.

Wow, I guess I've been out of the loop in the Trek Universe for quite some time. I'm not sure if I would read this for the fact that there doesn't seem to be any type of singular adversary or villain/monster that I crave when reading fiction. But kudos to Riker getting his own ship!

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

...I'm not sure if I would read this for the fact that there doesn't seem to be any type of singular adversary or villain/monster that I crave when reading fiction. But kudos to Riker getting his own ship!

Yeah, it's a bit of a weakness. I mean it's not exactly plot-less; there's definitely conflict, it's just not centered around the usual protagonist vs. antagonist.

I can't say whether you need book 1 to understand 2-7, but I think I can safely say if you skip this one, you're not exactly missing one of the best Trek books (like say Spock's World or Ashes of Eden).

Mr. Ed: what are your impressions of the Titan series as a whole? Do they become more focused? Do you like them overall or not so much?

[Jeff Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Jeff]

From where I left off last time, here's what I dun read:


The Island by James Kearney. One of the chances you take when reading independent books is that they are not proofread or edited correctly. Such is the case with this book. The story is literally all over the place; the plot could have been interesting if the book were written properly, but the characters are so one-dimensional that you end up saying to yourself "why the fuck did they just do that?" I can't even give this any Doombot ratings; even they wouldn't waste their time.


The Ocean King by Russ Watts. After a disappointment, it's always good to get back into comfortable familiar territory with a few new twists and turns. Though not directly marketed as such, the word "kaiju" is dropped a few times, alluding to the size of the creature. Good story, the human characters are really fleshed out to a point where you can share emotions with them easily. A few cut out stereotypes, but not too bad. The ending was sad. But I would still recommend it. 4 out of 5 doombots.



Skull Moon by Tim Curran. Excellent book. Combines monsters with Native American Legends and some very interesting whitefolk set in the mid 1850's with horses, mining towns, and some very wintery storms. Another enjoyable book. Good ending, too. I've seen the author around the Kindle monster section quite frequently, so it was about time for me to dive in and see what he was about. He was worth the chance. I'm currently reading another novel of his called Skin Medicine. I'll give ya the lowdown on that when finished.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

Started The Fall (Chuck Hogan/Guillermo del Toro), the sequel to The Strain. Figured I should get it over with since it's been sitting there on my shelf forever and with the TV series on now, I need to finish it and the third book, The Night Eternal.

Loved Strain, so I expect this to be no less satisfying.

[W.West Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close W.West]

[Marvelous Iggy God Of Turtles Find all posts View Profile Close Marvelous Iggy]

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Had been planning on buying this, but the cabin we rented had a copy on the shelves, so I'm reading it on vacation. So far, so interesting:

[Jeff Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Jeff]

Had been planning on buying this, but the cabin we rented had a copy on the shelves, so I'm reading it on vacation. So far, so interesting:

If I remember right, this was released around the same time as No Easy Day, and people often bought them together when I worked at B&N.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

If I remember right, this was released around the same time as No Easy Day, and people often bought them together when I worked at B&N.

Huh, makes sense (he talks a little about Seal Team 6, but he was in #3, which was deployed in the taking of Fallujah). Has another connection too---he was friends with Marcus Luttrell (the Lone Survivor guy).

Sad thing is knowing he survives all this crap in the war only to get shot at home by some crazy guy he was trying to help out.