Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
I read…a lot. Here’s where I ramble about books and printed media.
📚 forty-six of 2020: The Eyes of the Beholders by A.C. Crispin ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng 🖖
Nice to see an encounter with something so alien so to be literally incomprehensible. A bit heavy on references to TNG episodes to prove that the author watched the show; otherwise good.
Most of the books we buy are second-hand, but we do occasionally buy/pre-order new books. We had two on order from Amazon, but I just canceled those orders in favor of ordering them from Bookshop instead. We’ll pay a little more and wait a couple more days for the books, but we can afford both the money and the wait, and this way some of the money goes to support independent bookstores instead of Amazon.
If you’re looking at buying books this holiday season (and beyond) and don’t have to have next-day shipping, I encourage shopping through Bookshop — and use their “find a bookstore” option to see if you can target a particular local bookstore; I set my default to one we just stumbled across last weekend. Until we’re comfortable going in to browse the shelves, we can support them this way instead!
📚 forty-five of 2020: Doomsday World by Carmen Carter, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, and Robert Greenberger ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng 🖖
Almost two stars because of the really painfully obvious “twist” that none of the characters managed to see, but otherwise acceptable.
📚 forty-four of 2020: Gulliver’s Fugitives by Keith Sharee #startrek #tng
This was a weird one. Fahrenheit 451 plus technobabble plus mythology plus pieces that felt tacked on. Felt like the author had several ideas, couldn’t pick one, and tried to get ‘em all in.
📚 forty-three (yes, again; this book was a two-in-one) of 2020: Collision Course by Robert Silverberg ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Shaky first half, but the latter half actually reminded me of TOS Star Trek’s “Errand of Mercy” (two warring races forced into detente by a third more powerful race).
📚 forty-three of 2020: The Nemesis from Terra (originally Shadow Over Mars) by Leigh Brackett ⭐️⭐️ 1945 Retro Hugo Best Novel
Rather amazing to think that this is just a year before Asimov’s Foundation win. If this was the best of ‘45, that was a bad year for SF.
📚 forty-two of 2020: Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Steven Spielberg ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A pretty straightforward translation of the story from screen to page, but as it’s a classic of 80s optimistic sci-fi, that’s not a bad thing. Really has me wanting to rewatch the film now.
📚 forty-one of 2020: A Rock and a Hard Place by Peter David ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng 🖖
Riker’s sent off on a B-plot, so a troublesome first officer is temporarily assigned to the Enterprise in the hopes that Picard can corral this loose cannon. He’s an ass, but is he unstable?
📚 forty of 2020: A Call to Darkness by Michael Jan Friedman ⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng 🖖
Almost a standard 3-star “stranded in primitive conditions/‘Bread and Circuses’ variant” adventure, but had some really weird oversights that knocked a star off.
📚 thirty-nine of 2020: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1969 Hugo Best Novel
While it was good, it was so tough right now to read a cynical dystopian novel about overpopulation, eugenics, and colonialism, featuring endemic racism and sexism, that it was a real slog.
