Book two of The Expanse has the same outline structure. Bad things happen, a man becomes very single-focused obsessed with finding a missing person, he runs into James Holden, mayhem ensues. Structurally, it is different. We do change viewpoint characters,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Posts Tagged science fiction
The second Star Trek: Picard novel is more successful as a story, but this is at the price of it being less successful as a prequel. For those who kept up with post-series novels over the last twenty years (I[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Julia Ecklar wrote a number of short stories (in Analog, and a few anthologies), but no novels, which might explain why this Star Trek novel is more of a short story collection. However, she did later write other TOS novels[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This is the same length as the other New Frontiers books, but it feels just a bit meatier, and more than just a longer episode. Also, the subplots feel more natural to the overall plot this time. There’s still odd[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
So, the New Frontiers series settles down into a series at this point. There’s some rough patches. It’s still a shorter novel, and feels more like an expanded episode than a novel. Part of that… I think is that it[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Alexander Key definitely has a ‘type’, and this book is straight in his favored genre. Boy’s adventure with a super-powered (generally psionic) protagonist. Here we have a post-apocalyptic setting, where destructive weapons have reshaped the earth, drowning almost all the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The C plot of an early TNG episode has Picard practicing a formal greeting for the Jarada. They’re very touchy about protocol, very insular, and this is the first chance in a while for the Federation to try negotiating with[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This is the first book in Ben Bova’s “Grand Tour” series—chronologically at least. I get the idea it was one of the later ones written, but I haven’t looked deeply into that. Each one was written about a particular location[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The third Ancillary book is a direct follow on to Ancillary Sword, picking up very shortly after the that one. The start re-introduces everything going on, which I needed. However, while much more of a piece with the second book[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This TNG novel is set in early fourth season (an actual stardate is given at the end), and was written in that period. The series had settled down into a long haul of success, and the novels are doing better.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…