Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
I read…a lot. Here’s where I ramble about books and printed media.
📚 twenty-nine of 2020: The Peacekeepers, by Gene DeWeese ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #startrek 🖖
A bit of early TNG taking on the Prime Directive. A marked improvement from the last (first) novel, but still obviously at a point where the characters were still being developed.
Book twenty-eight of 2020: Ghost Ship by Diane Carey ⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng 🖖
Painfully obviously early in the TNG novels (it is the first not adapted from an episode). Characterizations are wildly off base (Riker’s distrust of Data is basically overt racism). Just…oof.
📚 twenty-seven of 2020: Star Trek S.C.E.: Have Tech, Will Travel by Keith R.A. DeCandido, Kevin Dillmore, Christie Golden, Dean Wesley Smith, and Dayton Ward ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A collection of four novellas following the S.C.E. characters. More of Trek’s expanded universe.
📚 twenty-six of 2020: Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A smart aleck demon and its long-suffering keeper, quirky locals in a tourist town, and a touch of Lovecraft on the California coast. Entertaining and amusing, if not “laugh out loud” funny.
📚 twenty-five of 2020: Star Trek S.C.E.: Foundations by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dillmore ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Trek “expanded universe” novel; three short stories and a framing story, all of Scotty’s interactions with the early S.C.E. and tying into TOS episodes.
📚 twenty-three of 2020: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1968 Hugo Best Novel
A neat blending of western SF sensibilities with the Indian pantheon of gods; enjoyed this one more than I expected given that I didn’t much like Zelazny’s prior Hugo winner.
📚 twenty-two of 2020: Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp ⭐️⭐️⭐️
On its own, a fairly standard action thriller. But as the source material for Die Hard, it’s a fascinating artifact. Surprisingly similar, and all changes made for the film were for the better.
📚 twenty-one of 2020: Matter’s End by Gregory Benford ⭐️⭐️
An average collection of short stories, some of which show their age more than others—especially one that starts with a riff on Mormon missionaries and ends with what comes across as (unconscious?) Islamophobia.
📚 twenty of 2020: Starman by Alan Dean Foster ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A pleasant and easy adaptation of an 80s SF film that I remember enjoying when it came out. It’s another of the “benevolent alien meets paranoid humans” contact stories, but does it simply and well.
📚 nineteen of 2020: The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1967 Hugo Best Novel
Once again, Heinlein has strong and interesting SF (the moon declaring independence) coupled with politics I don’t entirely go for and serious issues with women and sexism.
