Demon Night
Story: 1963: eight year old Eric Langren is the only survivor of a single-car accident that kills both of his parents; his father lives just long enough to whisper a cryptic warning to Eric. Over 20 years later, Eric returns to his hometown in Maine for the first time, under the assumed name of Eric Matthews. After several recent inexplicable events, each followed by a voice urging Eric to come home, he’s seeking the truth of what happened – only to find out that something else is happening there, something dark and disturbing, a series of horrific events to which Eric may be more intimately tied than he can imagine.
Review: I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t go reading a whole lot of fiction, particularly not horror – just not my thing, really (working day-to-day in TV news, I suppose one gets one’s fill of inexplicable horrors). I was intrigued to see the re-release of J. Michael Straczynski’s much-sought-after debut novel “Demon Night”, however. Originally published in 1988, “Demon Night” won its share of acclaim at the time, and the finite number of used copies have become collectors’ items in light of Straczynski’s popular SF creations since then.
Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice – The Death of Hope
Story: On the trail of the captured Jedi Knight named Tahl, Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi finds himself losing confidence in his master, Qui-Gon Jinn, as Qui-Gon allows his personal feelings for Tahl to obscure his loyalties. At the same time, Obi-Wan and his master must try to resolve a conflict between social classes that is tearing the planet of New Apsolon apart.
Review: Boy, I hate the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I have read many Star Wars novels and with the exception of “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” and the Brian Daley Han Solo books, I have found them almost universally dreadful. (The early Lando books weren’t too bad, either.) Seldom do the authors seem to grasp the storytelling forms used in the films. They seem to have set up their own little view of the Star Wars Universe and are more interested in adhering to that than to the work of George Lucas. (Case in point: you can make an argument for an anti-alien bias in the Empire based on what’s in the films, but the EU makes it an all-encompassing passion of the Emperor far beyond anything that Lucas even suggests.) The one area where I have ocassionally found a more accurate representation of the Star Wars universe is in books written for a younger audience. (They don’t want to mess around too much for the sake of the kids.)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Avatar: Book One
Story: Only a few months after the end of the Dominion War and the disappearance of Captain Sisko in the Fire Caves of Bajor, things still haven’t quite returned to normal aboard space station Deep Space 9. Colonel Kira Nerys has become the station’s commander, though she is shaken when a friend of hers, a Bajoran Vedek, is brutally murdered on the station. Even worse, a surprise attack by Jem’Hadar comes at the worst time, with both the station and the U.S.S. Defiant undergoing much-needed refits. The damage is severe, and Dr. Bashir can’t save everyone. The station’s new security chief, former Starfleet officer Ro Laren (now in Bajoran uniform following the dissolution of the Maquis), seems to be achieving nothing but getting on Kira’s bad side. As Kasidy Yates-Sisko prepares to leave the station and settle in the house that her missing husband built on Bajor, Jake Sisko returns from Bajor with a new mission: a Bajoran Vedek slipped him a few pages of an ancient prophecy that seems to foretell the son of the Emissary retrieving his lost father from the Temple of the Prophets. Jake secretly prepares to undertake this mission, even going so far as to buy his own shuttle from Quark, but what he doesn’t know is that this same Vedek was Kira’s murdered friend – and that the rest of the prophecy, which Ro finds in a book that was in the Vedek’s possession at the time of her death, foretells something else: death on a massive scale on Bajor, something which apparently must happen before Sisko’s second child can be born.
Review: When Pocket Books relaunched its Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel series in the wake of the TV show’s demise, the possibilities seemed endless. Ever the bastard stepchild of the Star Trek franchise, DS9 was effectively being handed over to the authors and editors, who had carte blanche to advance the storyline without having to bring things around to the status quo so the book wouldn’t interfere with future filmed adventures (a requirement that had chased me away from any Trek novels years ago). This almost sounded too good to be true.
Star Wars – The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime
Story: The plotline of “Vector Prime” is very standard sci-fi fodder, not even remotely original. Retreading the plots of such venerable SF franchises as Star Trek: The Next Generation (Conspiracy) and Blake’s 7 (Star One), the book involves an invasion of the galaxy by hostile aliens from the nearest neighboring galaxy. They’ve already slipped a few agents into our heroes’ galaxy to make sure the alarm doesn’t go up, and by the time Luke, Han, Leia and the others find out about the invasion, it’s almost too late.
Review: Sound familiar? It should. Virtually the only difference between this story and the above examples – among dozens of others – is that the aliens are invading the galaxy of Tattooine, Endor, Hoth, etc., rather than invading Earth for once. Speaking as a citizen of the planet Earth, I’m relieved about this development, but as a reader, I found the plot hackneyed and all too predictable.
Star Wars: Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye
Story: Pilot Luke Skywalker and Rebel Diplomat Princess Leia Organa find themselves stranded on the unfamiliar swamp planet of Mimban after their Starfighters crash land on the way to an important treaty negotiation. Once aground, Luke and Leia find themselves teaming up with Halla, a Force-sensitive, in her search for the Kaiburr Crystal, an ancient artifact that amplifies Force powers for those who wield it. But there is an Imperial presence on Mimban, and it doesn’t take long for word of the Kaiburr Crystal to make it back to the Empire’s chief enforcer, Lord Darth Vader…
Review: “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” holds an important position within the Star Wars canon. It is the first novel in what would eventually become known as the Expanded Universe (EU): Star Wars tales beyond those portrayed in the films.
Star Wars: Rogue Planet
Story: 12-year-old Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker steals away from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant long enough to participate in a dangerous and highly illegal race that makes pod racing look safe by comparison – but this time, an assassin tails him, an alien with a lust for the blood of a Jedi. Anakin’s master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, barely saves the boy, bringing him before the Jedi Council for a disciplinary hearing. Just when Anakin expects to be ejected from the order of the Jedi, a mission is assigned to Obi-Wan, who reluctantly takes the boy along. The two travel to the hidden world of Zonoma-Sekot, a planet on the edge of known space renowned for its organic ship-building technology. Another Jedi was sent there several months prior, and has never been heard from again. Obi-Wan and Anakin are to investigate the ship forges and try to locate the missing Jedi in the process. Unbeknownst to them, however, an unscrupulous Republic commander named Tarkin also wants a glimpse of Zonoma-Sekot…and then he wants to take it over, using the planet’s unique technology as a part of his own grand schemes of conquest.
Review: Holy cow! A Star Wars novel which doesn’t absolutely disappoint and annoy me? My friends, you have no idea how much of a miracle this is. I’ve been underwhelmed about the Star Wars books since Timothy Zahn originated the unique legacy of Star Wars authors getting it wrong in every important way back in 1991.
Han Solo At Stars’ End
Story: Han Solo and his co-pilot Chewbacca run afoul of the Corporate Sector Authority when they try to hook up with a pirate outfit in order to repair the Millenium Falcon. Unfortunately, the proprietor, Doc, has disappeared. But his daughter, Jessica, an old flame of Han’s, makes a deal to do his repairs for free if he can rescue her father. They must team up with a pair of droids and variety of others who have also lost loved ones to try and penetrate the Authority and rescue the missing people.
Review: “Han Solo At Stars’ End” marks the beginnings of the “Han Solo Trilogyâ€, set in the years prior to the original Star Wars. It sees Han very much in “scoundrel†mode, often thinking about himself above all others. Of course, his heart of gold shows through, too, but for the most part, it is his more ruthless nature that is on display here.
The Honor Of The Queen
Story: With her exploits at Basilisk Station having become the stuff of Royal Manticoran Navy legend, Captain Honor Harrington finds her next challenge a bit more daunting. With Manticore’s enemies, the People’s Republic of Haven, trying to gain a foothold in a star system close to Manticore space, a fleet – including Honor’s new HMS Fearless, a massive battlecruiser named in honor of her first command – is dispatched to the planet Grayson to open diplomatic relations and gain a foothold for Manticore as well. The somewhat backward Grayson is primitive both technologically and socially, with its patriarchal society regarding women as the property of men – and when the Graysons see a woman in command of the Manticoran fleet arriving at their planet, the reactions range from curious to openly hostile. Worse yet, the Graysons’ sworn enemies, the government of the planet Masada, are the same, only they hold to a fanatical desire to wipe Grayson off the star charts – and they’ve found a willing ally and weapons supplier in the People’s Republic of Haven. Honor is tasked with a mission to ensure a treaty is signed between Manticore and Grayson, but before long she’s not sure if she’s welcome, or safe, among her new allies.
Review: The slow-building sequel to David Weber’s first Honor Harrington book, “The Honor Of The Queen” shows an evolving universe, evolving characters and an evolving writing style. Compared to “On Basilisk Station”, this book suffers from much less of the momentum-killing tendency to drop 16 tons of exposition and technical backstory into the middle of a gripping battle scene. When things happen in “The Honor Of The Queen”, Weber wisely allows the action to thunder down the tracks on its own steam; the result is a breathless page-turner.
On Basilisk Station
Story: Commander Honor Harrington, a promising if unconventional up-and-coming command officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy, arrives aboard her new command – the outdated cruiser Fearless, whose armaments have been stripped to make way for an experimental new weapon, the grav lance, which proves to be effective in fleet exercises…but only until its first use, after which the Fearless is pummeled in the fleet’s wargames. As punishment, Harrington, the Fearless, and her new crew are assigned to Basilisk Station – a backwater customs inspection posting on the frontier of Manticore space usually reserved for officers and ships fallen from favor. Worse yet, the ship currently commanding the Basilisk Station operation is due for a refit, leaving Fearless and her limited resources to cover an impossible area of space. When Honor deploys her crew to cover all of the bases and conduct the routine inspections, she is met with protests – apparently, no officer dumped at this posting has ever actually carried out the inspection duties. And that suits the neighboring rival government of the People’s Republic of Haven just fine – they’re planning to take Basilisk Station, the planet Medusa, and Basilisk’s strategically valuable wormhole junction away from Manticore. But Haven’s plan is dependent on Manticore’s long record of lax customs enforcement – and no one counted on Honor Harrington and the HMS Fearless uncovering the invasion plan, much less single-handedly stopping it.
Review: The kickoff of David Weber’s cult favorite Honor Harrington series, “On Basilisk Station” has a lot of ground to cover, from setting up the characters, the universe, their intricate political situation and the history that led to all of the above. The manner in which Weber accomplishes this task is something I would describe as elegant clumsiness. The author has worked out his universe, and why it is the way it is, in painstaking detail; if there’s a single fault, it’s frequently Weber’s timing in putting the story on pause to deliver enormous chunks of backstory. Make no mistake, he picks points in the story where the background information is directly related to the action at hand, but this doesn’t alter the pacing-killing fact that he puts the book’s climactic space battle on hold several times to tell you about, for example, the evolution of FTL travel in the Honorverse. It’s interesting stuff, but it’s appendix stuff (and the book still has an appendix containing more background information!), especially when the voice in the back of my skull is screaming “But there’s a bloody great space battle going on right now! Why are you telling me this now?”
The Salmon Of Doubt
Story: The writings of the late Douglas Adams (of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy fame) are gathered into four categories. “Life” collects essays by (and interviews with) Adams on the subject of his life, career, and reactions to seemingly everyday happenings; “The Universe” widens the scope to include Adams’ love affair with technology, computers, science and conservation; “Everything” covers everything else (including the author’s fascination with religion and evolution), and “The Salmon Of Doubt” collects the best drafts of the Dirk Gently novel Adams left unfinished at the time of his death.
Review: I think it goes without saying that Douglas Adams left us far, far too soon. I’ve been taking a crash course in bittersweet reminders lately as I’ve alternated between this book and the 3-CD Douglas Adams At The BBC set, which also chronicles his many interviews and early radio work. It’s brought back forcefully my feeling that Adams will go down not just as one of the 20th century’s most influential writers, but in time will be recognized as one of its foremost speculative thinkers as well.
The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts
Story: The original broadcast adventures of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Trillian, and quite a few characters who didn’t make it into the novels based on the series.
Review: This recent “10th anniversary” reprint of the complete radio scripts of the BBC’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio shows – which, for those who didn’t already know, predate the books, TV show and Infocom game, by the way – is much more of what I’d like from a script book. The scripts aren’t interrupted by the commentary; the commentary is instead placed at the end of each half-hour script, and includes such amazingly obscure and useful information as what music was licensed for use in each program, how casting decisions were made, and the origins of situations, characters, and so on.
Echoes Of Honor
Story: Although she and several of her fellow Manticoran and Grayson POWs escaped from the shady head of State Security for the People’s Republic of Haven, Honor Harrington and her two shuttles of escapees have still been stranded on the Havenites’ prison planet of Hell for months. Without the benefit of the food drops for the actual prisoners on Hell, Honor and her people are both worse off and better off than those in the prison camps. But she hasn’t given up, and with her crewmates – and the Havenite defector who helped them escape – she begins to put into motion an elaborate escape plan, involving taking over the central StateSec base camp (which also happens to control Hell’s deadly array of orbital defense plstforms) and then waiting for the next inbound prison ship. While her officers try to whip the freed prisoners of Hell into an effective fighting force, Honor prepares to spring a trap from deep inside Haven territory – and she aims for nothing less than freeing every POW and political prisoner on Hell. But back home, as far as her family and friends know, Honor Harrington and her surviving crew have already been executed.
Review: “Echoes Of Honor” is the most atypical book in the entire series for numerous reasons. The setting of the story, dictated by the cliffhanger ending of “In Enemy Hands”, takes Honor Harrington off the bridge and plunges her into the middle of bloody guerilla warfare. Previous books have shown her to be more than capable of defending herself, but the series hasn’t really covered ground engagements extensively. As usual, Weber lets us peek into Honor’s mind at the tactics underlying the whole thing, and it all seems to make sense, even if the strings of coincidences that make it all work stretch the envelope a bit. (This book may well contain the costliest game of chess-by-mail in literary history.)
Star Wars: Death Star
Story: In the months leading up to the activation of the Empire’s devastating new space station/weapon, the Death Star, a variety of people find themselves aboard the immense vehicle, discovering that it’s practically opulent compared to other Imperial installations (or Imperial prisons for that matter). But when the time comes for the Death Star to unleash its full power upon defenseless worlds populated by countless innocent lives, all in the name of restoring the Emperor’s vision of “order”, they each begin to rethink their lives as cogs in the Imperial machine…and some even dare to dream of joining the Rebel Alliance, if only they can escape the confines of the Death Star itself.
Review: Remember the Babylon 5 TV movie In The Beginning, which demonstrated that nearly all of the show’s main characters had met at some point in the past, even if they didn’t remember those meetings ten years later? Combine that with the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Lower Decks, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what “Death Star” is all about: a diverse group of characters who, just as their stories are getting interesting on their own, suddenly have to intersect with the events of Star Wars (or, for you insistent revisionists out there, A New Hope).
Battlestar Galactica 2: The Cylon Death Machine
Story: On the run from the evil Cylons, the human’s ragtag fleet of ships, led by the mighty Battlestar Galactica, find themselves boxed in by attack vessels that continually whittle away at their camoflage. All the while, the Cylons are nudging the fleet towards the hidden Cylon garrison on Tairac, where they hope to destroy the entire fleet in one swift stroke. But Commander Adama finds help from two unlikely sources: the ranks of Galactica’s prisons and a colony of humanoid clones enslaved to the Cylons on Tairac. But on the icy planet, Captain Apollo, Lt. Starbuck and the other members of the Galactica crew don’t know if they can trust any of their new allies or if there is a way to stop the Cylons before Galactica’s slow march to destruction reaches its end.
Review: Before I talk about the book, I need to clear up my position on the whole Galactica franchise. I have very fond memories of the original series, though I haven’t seen an episode in over a decade. (I will soon remedy this thanks to my recent purchase of the complete series DVD box set.) I also have a strong loathing for the “re-imagined” new series, which I feel strays as far away from the positive message of the original series as it possibly could.
Now, “The Cylon Death Machine” goes a long way towards illustrating why I think the original series is superior to the current one. It comes down to the nature of the humans and the Cylons. In the current series, the humans and Cylons are indistiguishable, and not just because they look alike. Cylons are simply different people. I suppose this is intended on the part of the series creators, but it makes the whole conflict dull and uninteresting to me. You see, I already have a gripping drama between opposing human factions that I can pay attention to, the real world. I don’t need or desire to have it re-created, in space, with some Hollywood-type’s personal take splattered all over it. In the original series, the Cylons were true aliens, with an entirely different view of life. This comes off very well in the book.
Life, The Universe, And Everything
Story: Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect are rescued from years of mind-numbing isolation on prehistoric Earth by a freak time warp and a hovering, but nonetheless elegant, sofa. They wind up on Earth, at Lord’s Cricket Ground, a mere two days before the planet will be annihilated by the Vogons, but here they witness an alien incursion of another kind: killer robots from Krikkit descend upon the field to retrieve one piece of a key that could unlock their ability to destroy the entire known universe. Slartibartfast appears in his own unlikely spacecraft, the Bistromath, to whisk Ford and Arthur away on a desperate mission to stop the Krikkit robots from wiping out everything. It is a mission in which they will utterly fail.
Review: For many years, I was convinced that – aside from “Mostly Harmless” – “Life, The Universe, And Everything “was my least favorite. I reread it recently during a bit of a Douglas Adams binge, and quickly discovered that – aside from “So Long And Thanks For All The Fish” – it’s actually my second favorite.
The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe
Story: Having escaped from the planet Magrathea by the skin of their teeth, Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian – with paranoid android Marvin in tow – are once again in deep trouble, with the Vogons hot on the trail of the Heart of Gold. Normally, the ship’s extensive computer banks could come up with a tactical solution to all this, but unfortunately, they’re all occupied by a priority instruction: Arthur wants a cup of real tea, not synthesized tea. Zaphod has to rely on help from beyond the grave, which leads him on a terrifying adventure to Frogstar, the most evil planet in the galaxy. Surviving this encounter with nothing but his natural cool, Zaphod rejoins his comrades for a quick bite at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. And that’s where the trouble really begins.
Review: So there’s good news and bad news.
And then there’s trivia. “The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe”, based loosely on material from episodes five through twelve of Douglas Adams’ phenomenally successful BBC radio series, was the novel that put Adams on the U.S. bestseller lists (though, for some unknown reason, didn’t fare quite as well in Britain). However, I think I may know why the British audience didn’t embrace it quite so wholeheartedly. And I’ll get to that point in due course.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
Story: A seemingly typical Thursday throws Englishman Arthur Dent for a loop as he witnesses the destruction, in rapid succession, of his house and then the entire world. That he witnesses the latter event instead of being caught up in it is solely thanks to the intervention of his quirky friend Ford Prefect, who turns out to be an alien in disguise, researching Earth for a publication known as the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. After escaping Earth’s demise, Ford and a dazed Arthur wind up aboard the stolen starship Heart Of Gold, whose captain, the two-headed Zaphod Beeblebrox, is out of both of his minds. Zaphod, traveling with Trillian (the only other surviving human), is on a quest to find the legendary planet of Magrathea, hoping to plunder its wealth. What he doesn’t anticipate, however, is that the Magratheans might not want their wealth plundered.
Review: I’ve held off on reviewing “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy” for far too long, mainly because it’s the incarnation of the story that most fans are the most familiar with. I’d rather educate them about the radio series (which inspired the books and every other version of the story that came later), or the computer game, or some other obscure versions of the story. But two things inspired me to go back, give the book a re-read, and report my findings: the fact that a big-budget, big-screen version of “Hitchhiker’s Guide” is on the way, and the recent appearance of a Cliff Notes-style study guide to this first novel in the series.
A study guide? To the “Hitchhiker’s Guide”? Almighty Zarquon, but I’m getting old.
In Enemy Hands
Story: Promoted to Commodore after helping to turn the Manticoran Alliance’s fortunes around in the Silesian Confederacy, Honor Harrington is no longer in command of a single ship, but an group of ships dispatched to routine convoy duty in disputed space. When the People’s Republic of Haven, whose revolutionary government has just barely survived a mass assassination attempt, moves to take back a system conquered by Manticore, Honor and some of her most loyal crewmates past and present find themselves in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and in custody. But despite the change of government at Haven, Honor’s “crimes” at Basilisk Station have not been forgotten, and she and Nimitz are sentenced to death.
Review: A serious shake-up after some of the previous Honor Harrington books settled into a nice pat formula, “In Enemy Hands” puts familiar characters on unfamiliar ground, and puts a fair few of them out of commission, and it does it without coming across as too cliched. And clearly author David Weber is setting up strands of plot for future consumption, and this time I can’t wait to see where they’ll lead – or how one of the series’ few honest-to-God cliffhangers will be resolved.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Story: As has been the case with all of the Star Trek movie and telelvision book adaptations since, Roddenberry embellishes the first movie’s storyline with a great deal of off-screen plotting which we didn’t see on film. Much of this backstory was itself embellished upon in the very brief Lost Years series of Trek novels published in the early 90s.
Review: Perhaps the most interesting elements that Star Trek’s creator introduced here were found between the lines, in footnotes and in the introduction attributed to Admiral Kirk himself. The introduction speaks of a new breed of human, a bland and conformist herd of sheep, from which Starfleet officers are different due to the “individuality” Starfleet affords them (which must make Starfleet the most unusual military service in the history of Earth!).
The Dominion War, Book One: Behind Enemy Lines
Story: According to this book, whose events occur in the gap between the events in the fifth season finale and sixth season premiere of Deep Space Nine, the new Enterprise has been involved in the same desperate defensive battle as the rest of Starfleet. Then an unexpected reunion takes place – the Enterprise rescues a Bajoran freighter near the Badlands from Dominion attackers. But this Bajoran ship is under the control of the Maquis, and its captain is Ro Laren, formerly the Enterprise’s Bajoran navigator who later abandoned Starfleet to join the renegades and defend her people.
While Picard and Riker are initially wary of Ro, and she herself fully expects to be thrown in the brig for showing her face again, the rebel does come with a disturbing piece of news: since the Bajoran wormhole at Deep Space Nine has been made inaccessible by the Starfleet minefield, the Cardassians are attempting to create their own artificial wormhole in the Badlands, allowing Dominion reinforcements to take over the Alpha Quadrant. Picard and Geordi, in disguise, join Ro’s crew and embark on a dangerous mission to derail the Cardassians’ construction timetable on the artificial wormhole.
Review: The first Star Trek fiction I’ve gone out of my way to buy since the initial four-book New Frontier set, this first entry in the Dominion War series of books helps to answer a question that many fans have been asking: where has the Enterprise-E and her intrepid crew been during the Federation’s war with the Dominion?
A Rock And A Hard Place
Story: The same Starfleet officer exchange program that once put Riker into a life-threatening situation aboard a Klingon vessel now sends the Enterprise’s first officer to the icy planet of Paradise, a remote outpost whose population of colonists are trying to tame its ecosphere. Taking Riker’s place on the Enterprise is Commander Quentin Stone, an officer with a colorful history and a legendary unstable temper. Somehow, Stone has stayed in Starfleet despite this trait which has endangered his career and others’ lives, but his career may not survive a tour with the more rule-bound Picard in command. And on Paradise, unnaturally fierce creatures, an inhospitable environment, and an old friend’s teenage daughter may be the death of Will Riker.
Review: I’ve probably mentioned it once or twice before, but I make little time these days for the Star Trek fiction publishing program. Too many of the novels I’ve read under the imprint of any of the Trek series have turned out to be merciless stinkers, though there was once a time when I did go out of my way to read Peter David’s books. And though many a fan would probably disagree mightily, I still think “A Rock And A Hard Place” may be the best Trek novel ever to hit wood pulp. It captures the flavor of the series and its characters, and it brings a rather wild guest character into the mix to challenge them. (And if you spot a wee bit of a resemblance between Quentin Stone and Mackenzie Calhoun, the captain of David’s later Star Trek: New Frontiers novels, I seriously doubt that it’s a coincidence.)
The City On The Edge Of Forever
Story: Harlan Ellison’s complete original script, with revised drafts, for the legendary Star Trek episode is presented in its entirety, along with lengthy essays by Harlan on the story’s creation and the rewriting of its already storied history by various other parties, including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
Review: This volume reprints the original draft, and several subsequent revisions, of Harlan Ellison’s multiple-award-winning, career-defining, critically acclaimed, and seemingly life-ruining Star Trek script, The City On The Edge Of Forever. A lengthy essay opens the book with the full background of the episode’s birth from Harlan’s own inimitable point of view. Numerous people have taken credit for City‘s success over the years, and just as many have been more than happy to lay the blame for any perceived faults in the story at Harlan’s feet. In this book, Harlan lashes out at all of them. Every last one of them. In a way, maybe “lashes out” is too gentle – he positively breathes fire at many of his former colleagues.
Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series
Story: This outstanding and surprisingly thick tome tracks the progress of the attempt to revive the original Star Trek series in the 1970s which eventually mutated into something we now call Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Review: Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, the authors who brought us 1994’s wonderful “Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, have truly outdone themselves with this book, which follows the inception, development and pre-production of the second Star Trek series which never was, as well as the studio decisions which caused its metamorphosis into the first of many feature films. The book stops short of following Star Trek’s evolution to the big screen, though the authors drop a hint that they might be working on such a volume. I’ll be among the first to buy it if they should do so, based on their work here.
The Planets
Story: The Planets is, quite simply, one of my all-time favorite books, a mind-boggling and impossible-to-pigeonhole anthology of scientific essays and short stories from some of the best science fiction authors on the planet. The Planets is a brilliant combination of facts, speculation, and artwork, each section of the book focusing on one of the planets in our solar system, as well as the asteroids, comets, and Earth’s moon, and how humankind could change it – or how it could change us.
Review: Though it’s most likely out of print now, this book is one of my most prized literary possessions. Smartly-written factual essays combined with mold-breaking science fiction short stories made for a book whose contents have challenged and awed me since my early teens. (Somehow, the follow-up book, The Stars, edited in much the same staggered science/science fiction format, didn’t thrill me as much.)
The Encyclopedia Of Soviet Spacecraft
Story: After a brief introduction on the dawn of the Soviet space program and its pioneers, this book offers a concise, launch-by-launch, mission-by-mission catalog of the entire space program through 1987. Launch sites and dates, crew rosters, and mission accomplishments are noted, along with a surprising number of photos and diagrams. In some cases, though, the mission details and even the physical details of the craft are still conjecture, despite the author’s best efforts, due to the secretive nature of the Soviet space program at the time.
Review: This book urgently needs updating.
I found “The Encyclopedia Of Soviet Spacecraft” quite unexpectedly while doing a bit of used book browsing, and my curiosity was piqued to say the least. If you’ve spent any time visiting this site, you’ll know that I’ve read and reviewed gobs of technical, historical and autobiographical texts on the U.S. space program, and on humanity’s push into space as a whole. But never before had I seen a book so detailed in its focus on the other half of the space race.
Babylon 5: To Dream In The City Of Sorrows
Story: This book tells the tale of a curiously hazy portion of the series’ history dealing with a very significant character – B5’s original commander, Jeffrey Sinclair, and the events that unfolded between his sudden assignment to Minbar (after actor Michael O’Hare departed from the show between the first and second seasons) and his reappearance and subsequent final departure in the show’s third season. The story also manages to fit in how Catherine Sakai – Sinclair’s fiancee – dealt with his sudden disappearance, as well as the origins of a character who has only recently become sorely missed in the B5 universe: Marcus Cole. There are guest appearances by Delenn, Kosh, Kosh’s successor, and Garibaldi, as well as the recurring Minbari Grey Council gadfly Neroon and – for good measure! – at least one or two characters from the comic books (remember, they’re official too, even if they weren’t exactly high art). You’ll find out where Sinclair got that great honking scar across his face, and discover that he can chew out a Vorlon just as well as Sheridan can.
Review: I remember being somewhat disappointed with the first Babylon 5 novel published in 1995, and also reining my funds in more tightly, I opted to pass on the latest line of licensed books, unless they branched into the area of behind- the-scenes expositions (which they later did, with mixed results – see above). But this latest entry in the Babylon 5 series of novels was different for many reasons.
Blake’s 7: Their First Adventure
Story: When his government-enforced brainwashing begins to wear off, former resistance leader Roj Blake is convicted for a crime he didn’t commit and sentenced to life on a penal planet called Cygnus Alpha. During the prison ship voyage, Blake meets several other prisoners with no love for the totalitarian Federation: expert computer hacker Avon, hard-bitten smuggler Jenna, good-hearted (but, alas, also weak-hearted) thief Vila, and a gentle giant named Gan who is prevented from using deadly force by a violence-inhibiting brain implant (also courtesy of the Federation legal system). Combining their talents, Blake and the others turn the tables on their captors, seizing control of the prison ship, but their hijacking attempt doesn’t last long. Still en route to Cygnus Alpha, the ship encounters a larger craft of unknown alien origins, and the prison ship skipper loses several men trying to board and salvage the alien vessel. He then decides to use Blake and the other prisoners instead, but they survive the initial onslaught of the alien ship’s auto-defense systems, undock from the prison ship, and make a run for it. Though Avon and Jenna are skeptical, Blake insists on using their new vehicle – dubbed the Liberator – to go to Cygnus Alpha and free more of the prisoners.
Review: A light-speed adaptation of the first three episodes of the BBC’s cult TV classic Blake’s 7, “Blake’s 7: Their First Adventure” rockets through three hour-long scripts with all the literary verve of an early Doctor Who novelization by Terrance Dicks. (That is to say, little if anything is added to the existing text of the scripts.) In fact, the Doctor Who novelization comparison is apt since, for some baffling reason, the trio of Trevor Hoyle’s Blake’s 7 novelizations seem to have been aimed squarely at a younger audience.
Fire In The Valley: The Making Of The Personal Computer
Story: An enthusiastic but fair retelling of the early days of the personal computer industry, ranging from the days when college geeks competed for mainframe time, to the birth of Microsoft, Sun, Compaq and Apple, to the modern-day internet browser wars (and the litigious atmosphere thereof).
Review: This book first came to my attention as the inspiration for the sometimes lamentably mixed-up TNT movie The Pirates Of Silicon Valley. If anything, Pirates merely served to drive the authors of “Fire In The Valley” to update and re-publish their book – and hopefully the movie drove curious viewers to delve into the whole story in print.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Story: Determined to destroy Lord Voldemort’s horcruxes, the keys to his immortality, Harry and his friends Ron Weasely and Hermione Granger forgo returning to Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft and set out on a quest to bring an end to the horror once and for all.
Review: Quick Note: I could go on endlessly about this books, but I’ll try not to. Unfortunately, due to its nature, it is unlikely that I will be able to avoid the occasional spoiler (though I will keep away from the major ones). If you haven’t read the book and want to know nothing, don’t continue.
It’s important when discussing “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” to recall something author J.K. Rowling said concerning its predecessor, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. She said that “Half-Blood Prince” was really only half a book, the other half of which is “Deathly Hallows”. She said that it would not work completely without its other half. That was certainly true and is, perhaps, even more true when it comes to the second part of the story.
Astro City: Life in the Big City
Story: This collection of standalone stories illuminates different corners of the fictional universe of Astro City. Among the stories: The city’s leading superhero tries to be everywhere at once, and berates himself for every wasted second as he longs for just a moment of his own. A small-time hood learns a hero’s secret identity, and tries to figure out how to profit from the knowledge. A beat reporter gets some advice from his editor on his first day on the job. A young woman tries to balance the demands of her family with her own hopes and desires.
Review: There are many smart people in comics who argue that the superhero genre is totally spent, stuck recycling old stories and old archetypes and doomed to tell superficial power fantasies, no matter how much the hot new creators of the moment try to dress them up.
Kurt Busiek’s Astro City proves these critics wrong. In Astro City, Busiek, Anderson and Ross have created a wonderfully rich setting, a city with a history and character of its own that feels as real and as diverse as any American city. The only difference is that Astro City is full of superpowered individuals, and has been for at least 75 years. Some of these characters are allegories for established heroes published by DC and Marvel – analogues for Superman, Wonder Woman and the Fantastic Four (among others) appear in this volume. Others are wholly original creations, allowing Busiek to take various archetypes in new directions.