Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
I read…a lot. Here’s where I ramble about books and printed media.
Book 17 of 2026: Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (2006 Hugo Best Novel)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: It seems I read this 13 years ago; oddly, I have no memory of that, though I rated it four stars back then. High-concept SF (the Earth is suddenly enclosed in a bubble where time passes at a drastically reduced rate as the rest of the universe goes on) that allows for exploration of how we (as a species and as individuals) cope with impending Armageddon, cosmic mysteries, and relationships with each other.
Book 16 of 2026: Purgatory’s Key by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore.
⭐️⭐️⭐️: Good wrap up to this 50th anniversary trilogy. A bit of a bummer that one of the villains was so similar to one in the prior book (a woman so obsessed with a particular goal that she makes increasingly irrational and ill-considered decisions), but otherwise does a good job tying things up with the rest of the books. Overall, the trilogy does well in touching on a lot of TOS and incorporating hints of things to come.
Book 15 of 2026: Best Defense by David Mack.
⭐️⭐️⭐️: I enjoyed this middle book more than the opener, as the Romulans try to disrupt peace talks between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.
Book 14 of 2026: Captain to Captain by Greg Cox.
⭐️⭐️⭐️: The first of a trilogy, this is primarily centered on Number One (now more well known from Discovery and Stranger New Worlds) when she was earlier in her career, serving on the Enterprise under Captain April. It’s kind of amusing, as this was written just shortly before her appearances in the modern shows, so it’s definitely Majel Barrett’s version rather than Rebeca Romijn’s. The adventure is fairly standard, with the common-for-modern-novels callbacks and references; nothing groundbreaking so far, but not bad.
Book 13 of 2026: Usurpration by Sue Burke.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: The last book in a trilogy, and does a good job of wrapping things up…or at least coming to an end, as in-world, the story is far from done. I don’t remember how I discovered the first book in the series, I’m glad I did. A fascinating non-human intelligence, and lots of themes of empathy and caring.
Book 12 of 2026: Identity Theft by Greg Cox.
⭐️⭐️⭐️: Not a bad adventure, and does a decent job of trying to rehabilitate the technology from one of TOS’s more ignominious episodes. However, having one of the primary alien races be essentially humanoid evolved deer, complete with being referred to as bucks and does, and described with their antlers and rubbery noses, meant that my mental image of the entire adventure was basically a Star Trek LARP at a furry convention. Kinda worked against really being able to immerse myself in the story.
Book 11 of 2026: Wet Visions edited by Cyn Mason.
⭐️⭐️⭐️: An anthology of stories by (primarily) PNW authors, all of which are…wet. Rain, oceans, fog, mist, bogs…and occasionally some blood. For me, no major standouts, but a few made me laugh, one made me uncomfortable, and overall not at all a bad collection.
Long-time Norwescon people may be amused at seeing this one pop up — the editor and many of the authors were attending professionals at early Norwescons (around the NWC4 and NWC5 era), and I kept seeing it being mentioned in their bios. Eventually, my curiosity kicked in, and I found a used copy online. Mine is copy #22 of a run of 700. Going with the “wet” theme, the cover uses an altered version of publisher Hypatia Press (“Hywetia Press”), and the book is bound in a dark green and printed on light mossy green paper.
Book 10 of 2026: A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher.
⭐️⭐️⭐️: Dark and disturbing, but (for me) very enjoyable adaptation of a Brothers Grimm tale (“The Goose Girl”) that I wasn’t very familiar with. The author is the writer guest of honor at next week’s Norwescon, and I wanted to make sure I had read something of hers before the con, and this was the one I stumbled across as we wandered through local bookstores.
Book 9 of 2026: Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha.
Seventh and final Philip K. Dick award nominee of the year. As such, not reviewed.
Book 8 of 2026: The Immeasurable Heaven by Caspar Geon.
Sixth Philip K. Dick award nominee of the year. As such, not reviewed.
