I finished Firebird. The book starts off with a great set of mysteries: A missing scientist, a strange earthquake, ghost ships, and mysterious radio transmissions. Despite being an “Alex Benedict” novel Chase Kolpath does the narration. And towards the end of the novel the tone takes on that of a memoir that is being written years later. McDevitt lays out a universe that is very detailed and alive, even if it’s a tad anachronous at times. I kept thinking that this would make a great TV series. This wasn’t as dense of a read as A Talent For War had been, but I didn’t figure out what was going on as quickly with this one. I’m tempted (and probably will) re-read the last chapter or two just to be sure I didn’t miss anything as the last sentence in the book is really ambiguous.

Up Next: Star Trek: The Buried Age. This one may take a while as it's fairly large with small print

Yeah, I think that series would make a great TV show. I actually like the anachronistic universe-- even thought it takes place many thousands of years in the future, people are much like today-- no Cyberpunk or post-Humanism here. I think of it as the contemporary version of 50s SF and Space Opera.

In Firebird, I found the plight of the people trapped on the ship and Alex's determination to save them very touching. The ending was sad and ambiguous. I'm wondering if it means that he's ended the series.

I'm still reading blab's book. Since I was too distracted by events to read last week, I'm not as far along as I expected. I'm about 25% of the way through.

RJDiogenes wrote:In Firebird, I found the plight of the people trapped on the ship and Alex's determination to save them very touching. The ending was sad and ambiguous. I'm wondering if it means that he's ended the series.

The last line "When you're ready a couple of your friends just got here." made me wonder if Alex and Chase wound up in the future. Perhaps from trying to rescue the Capella.

Just started Scottydog's book.....as well as a Jack Kornfield.

^^ It finally came!

Lupine wrote:The last line "When you're ready a couple of your friends just got here." made me wonder if Alex and Chase wound up in the future. Perhaps from trying to rescue the Capella.

Yeah, that's right. They couldn't have lived that long, so they must have gotten caught in one of the rescues. But why would both of them be personally involved in the rescue? Maybe they deliberately traveled into the future.

McDevitt writes on his website that a new Alex and Chase novel will be out in November 2014, so I guess he hasn't ended it. We'll find out if they've traveled to the future.

I wonder if he'll ever do another Priscilla Hutchins book.

I finished Star Trek: The Buried Age yesterday. The story covers the time period between the destruction of Picard’s old ship, the Stargazer, and his taking of command of the Enterprise. The plot tends to meander early on as Picard deals with the loss of his ship, a betrayal by an old flame as she ruthlessly prosecutes him during his court-martial over the loss of his ship, and his taking leave of Starfleet to take up archeology.
The plot begins to focus as Guinan eventually visits Picard and tells him of ancient ruins and the possible clue to an equally ancient mystery. Apparently in the book some enormous caused the mass extinction of life on Earth at the end of the Permian and on other worlds at the same time. Picard then sets out and finds those ruins and an unlikely survivor from that era.
I have mixed feelings about the rest of the book. At times it gets quite good with the author, Christopher L. Bennett, showing he has a good grasp of the Star Trek mythos- though his characterization of Picard and some others seem a bit off. It’s mostly the book’s antagonists, the Manraloth, that annoyed me. For an immortal species they seem incredibly clueless most of the time. They’re not evil and think what they’re doing is in everyone’s best interest, but it’s hard to imagine how they could think their actions would not backfire wildly. Everything works out in the end but with everything that transpires it left me with the feeling that the Manraloth get off too easy.
But Bennett does cover this period in Star Trek remarkably well leaving nothing out. And I particularly liked how Picard meets Starfleet officers that impress him, Troi, Data, LaForge, ect and keeps them in mind when he starts to choose the crew of the Enterprise.

I know Christopher Bennett. I suspect with the well-meaning-but-clueless aliens he is subconsciously writing about himself. But the part about Picard being ruthlessly prosecuted by an old flame is surprisingly derivative-- they did that in TOS in the episode "Court Martial."

I am now almost halfway through blab's mega opus.

RJDiogenes wrote:I know Christopher Bennett. I suspect with the well-meaning-but-clueless aliens he is subconsciously writing about himself.

If he's the guy I remember from TrekBBS we got into an argument over competing alien world shows.

But the part about Picard being ruthlessly prosecuted by an old flame is surprisingly derivative-- they did that in TOS in the episode "Court Martial."

Well he didn't have a choice since it was established in TNG that Picard was court-martialed for the loss of the Stargazer.

Lupine wrote:If he's the guy I remember from TrekBBS we got into an argument over competing alien world shows.

I'm sure it's him. I get into arguments with him all the time. His interactive skills are not great.

I just started re-reading The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Nice. I still have a couple of Barsoom stories to read, too.

I am now more than halfway through blab's book. It's very good. Like the others, the tone is very reminiscent of Adams or Pratchett, but it deals seriously with the characters and the story. This one has includes strong themes of racism and sexism.

RJDiogenes wrote:

Lupine wrote:If he's the guy I remember from TrekBBS we got into an argument over competing alien world shows.

I'm sure it's him. I get into arguments with him all the time. His interactive skills are not great.

Understatement. A few years ago he named a starship after another ExIsler, and borged it on the first or second page. I called to tell her and we had a good laugh about it.

^^

I haven't read any of his books yet (although I own his original novel). He's probably Borged me or something at some point.

I am now almost two thirds of the way through blab's book. I don't know if she should split it up. I think it's working fine as one volume.

1/2way thru Scottydog's book - almost at the end pf a CNN Dzogchen book and starting a Michale Palin Himalayan travel book....