Friday, January 17, 2003

Death at Dartmoor, by "Robin Paige"

Another "Victorian mystery," by the husband and wife team of Susan and Bill Albert. Lots of fun mixing real historical characters (notably Arthur Conan Doyle in this one) with historical details as Lord and Lady Sheridan solve another mystery. This one takes place in the area round Dartmoor prison, and fills in details (based on reality) regarding how Doyle came to write "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

The Brave and the Bold, Volume one, by Keith R. A. DeCandido

Great book - like the R-S's, DeCandido has a very good grasp of Trek History. Lots of neat ways he is weaving things together into a coherent story. This book includes Enterprise, TOS and DS9 stories - fun weaving together of the tale of the Malkus Artifacts. Now on to the second volume and the Voyager and TNG stories. Fun to see that there is still room for new stories in the huge edifice of all the Trek series, books and movies.

Monday, January 13, 2003


Captain's Perilby William Shatner, "with" Garfield Reeves-Stevens, With Judith Reeves-Stevens

ah... without Judith and Garfield, I suspect these books by Shatner would be far less enjoyable. As it is, thanks to them, these yarns can be a lot of fun. Over the years the Reeves-Stevens's on their own have demonstrated what is evident in these books: a deep knowledge of all things Trek, and a clever hand on weaving the near-infinite details together in a coherent and intriguing mosaic.

This book, featuring yet-again, the resurrected Kirk, and his buddy Jean Luc, takes place on Bajor, in remote archaelogical "dig". In parallel, there is an early-Kirk thread, a story from his first months on the old Enterprise. All in all, a fun read - if only for those of us devoted to the literature of all things Trek.

Sunday, January 12, 2003

The Two Towers, by JRR Tolkien

Great to read and compare with the movies. I hauled the one-volume "Lord of the Rings" to London and back, and read "Fellowship" there as well as most of this book. I'll probably have little pause in reading book three. Right now I'm reading a Trek book (Shatner's "latest"; pretty good so far) with a couple more in the wings. And "Q is for Quarry" too....