The Year's Reading So Far...

I like taking Goodreads's yearly challenge to read X many books in a year. My goal this year is 12. That's modest, averaging a book a month. It's only June and I've completed 7 book so far. Here they are in no particular order:

The Martian

61 Hours

Battlefield Earth 

The Mists of Osorezan 

Beautiful Chaos

Judgement of the Judoon

Fahrenheit 451

I've enjoyed all these books. All except Battlefield Earth were first time reads for me. 

How about you, readers? Come across any good books lately? Do you have your summer reading list already planned? 

As always, thanks for reading! 

Virtual Reading Shelf

Here is my virtual reading shelf. It doesn't cover every book I've read recently, I did read a few hardcopy books. I mostly read ebooks and I prefer doing them on iDevices using iBooks. I can't stand the Kindle app. It's ugly and awkward to use. I thought you might like a look into my reading habits.

Classic Doesn't Always Mean Good

I’ve tried reading classic books, especially SF books. Most of the time, I don’t like them. I guess I’m a product of the modern age. I like the here and now. I’m sure literary critics will think it is a cardinal sin, but just because a book is considered a classic doesn’t mean I should automatically like it.

Sometimes it is the style it is written in. I have never finished The Lord Of The Rings or The Hobbit because Tolkien has such a dense style. Every sword has a name, and every race has three or four names depending on the which other race is talking about them. I like the story and the world building is phenomenal. But the books are a difficult read. It happens to me when I read Sherlock Holmes as well. Especially when the characters (usually Holmes’s clients) go into such extricating and poetic detail. Nobody talks like that. It’s really frustrating.

I have difficulty with old SF because of the old science. I’m not saying every SF books nowadays have to be accurate and fact checked 1000 times. But there are some old SF books where the science is blatantly wrong. I’m sure when it was written, the facts hadn’t been proven, but somethings just seemed laughable when I read them. Star Trek The Original Series is a little like that. Excellent stories, great characters, but I can’t get over the 60s-ness of the show. I love the classic crew but at the same time I’m laughing at costumes and music and science.

Not all classics are bad. I’ve read The Phantom Of the Opera, Treasure Island, Dune, and others and have enjoyed them. But it is okay not too like the classics. Just because you love vampires doesn’t mean you have to thinkDracula is the best vampire book written. Make up your own mind. Love what you want to love. Make your own list of ‘classics’ you’d read over and over. It doesn’t have to be the same as everyone else’s.

Thanks for reading.

Book Review: Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Lost Era: The Buried Age

I'll be reviewing Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Lost Era: The Buried Age by Christopher L. Bennett. (What is it with him getting stuck with these unwieldy titles? Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock and Star Trek: Enterprise - Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures are two that spring to mind).

The book is part of an umbrella title called the Lost Years, various Star Trek novels that serve as prequels, covering parts of history not shown or talked about on-screen. Bennett's focuses on Captain Jean-Luc Picard, covering about eight years of time, starting with the destruction of his ship the Stargazer, and ending just before he takes command of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

The book deals with an event that affects the galaxy, with literally trillions of lives at stake. The main alien race, the Manraloths, have technology thousands of years ahead of the Federation's, and it borders on super science. An example is using the event horizon of a black hole to store information for virtually all eternity. The technology could have been used as deus ex machina, but Bennett presents it with hard science and in the end, the technology doesn't sound so far-fetched.

Most of the TNG regulars make an appearance in the book, the big exceptions being Crusher, Wesley, and Riker. When Data is recruited for Picard's mission, I was taken aback, thinking the author just wanted a way to bring the characters together; I'd always imagined that the main bridge crew hadn't met before the events of the pilot episode Encounter at Farpoint. However, Bennett points out that most starship captains can pick their command crew, so it makes sense Picard wouldn't just pick his officers from reading their file. Trio and Data have significant parts later on the story, and there are appearances by Yar and Worf. While they seem just thrown into the story at first, their reasons for meeting Picard before serving together on the Enterpise come together nicely and doesn't feel forced. Many characters from various episodes make appearances or are name-dropped, but if you don't know them or forgot about them it's okay, a working knowledge of TNG isn't needed to enjoy this book.

The focus is on Picard and his feelings over losing the Stargazer and his reluctance to rejoin Starfleet. The book tries to cover the journey from Picard the fun explorer to the stern Picard we meet at the beginning of TNG. Bennett does an adequate job and most of the time I could hear Patrick Stewart's voice as I read Picard's lines. Data's lines were spot on, in my opinion, as were Guinan's. Bennett does a little more telling than showing when it comes to characterization but I think he did an adequate job of Picard's journey as a character.

All in all, this a good book and one worth looking into if you're a Picard fan. It gives us another view of his character and an epic, cosmic mission to save the galaxy.

The Book Versus The Movie: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

A few weeks ago I saw the movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It was interesting and I knew the book had been somewhat popular, so I decided to read it. After finishing it yesterday, I decided to give my view on the two.

The book is told like a biography, using the author's narration, but the majority of it is told through Abe's notebooks; selected journal entries detailing his life. Along with these entries are few photographs. The fact that the book is set up like that, as a "real" account from "lost" sources is fun and seems like a good idea. But the very thing that seems to be fun is its greatest weakness.

It reads like a biography, a dry one at that, and constantly flips viewpoints, as we go from Seth Grahame-Smith's third-person narration to Abe's first-person point-of-view and back again. While the majority of the book is from Abe, the constant back and forth is distracting. It would have been better to stay with one POV. I've never been a fan of first-person and feel that if the book had been told more traditionally, in a third-person POV, it would have benefited greatly. It would have been more of a story, a narrative, than a hodgepodge of notes.

The biography approach creates a series of vignettes, since it covers Abe's life from age nine to his death. This creates a disjointed narrative, entire moths are lost between chapter breaks, characters are mentioned once or twice. It reads more like a summary of his life.

The mash up is interesting, however, and the author gets kudos for weaving fact and fiction well together. The problem with the book isn't its story but its approach...

...Which was not a problem in the movie version. Adapted by Seth Grahame-Smith from his own novel, it is interesting to see the differences between the two, even though they were written by the same person. Grahame-Smith obviously knew what would work for the screen and what wouldn't: instead of trying to cram in as much of his original novel verbatim as he could, he crafted a slightly different story and stuck with a single narrative approach.

While many of the scenes and plot points from the novel are present, many have been truncated, characters eliminated, and in the case of Rufus Sewell's character Adam, newly created for the movie. And most of this benefits the movie. The thing the book was lacking the most was a villain. While Abe was fighting vampire's, there was no one to direct his anger to, only to vampires in general. Without a villain, there was nobody for the reader to root against. Abe's struggles seemed somewhat meaningless.

The movie, while jumping through time somewhat disjointedly, benefits from a continuous narrative and a villain. Adam is a constant throughout the film and a focal point for Abe. The story, and Abe's fights, now of a focus, a goal, something the book severely lacked.

Style-wise the movie is very nice, from the Russian director of the Nightwatch series and Wanted. He knows how to stage action sequences (where else are you going to see a vampire pick up a horse during a stampede and throw it at another person?) and has visual style. All of the actors did a good job with their parts.

 This is a case where I feel the movie is better than the book. The book was unique, but dry and flat. The movie benefits from a straightforward narrative and loads of visual style.

Book Review: Only Superhuman

I've never posted a book review before, but since I had made some posts on Facebook saying "I'm looking forward to this," I thought I should.

Only Superhuman is written by Christopher L. Bennett and is a hard-science take on superheroes, in a science fiction setting. Without giving too many details away, the main plot is about Emerald Blair, a member of the Troubleshooters Corps, a group of modified humans who maintain law and order in the colonies established in the asteroid belt region beyond Earth. When a conspiracy is discovered to enslave all of mankind, Blair's loyalties are questioned when all is not what it seems to be.

This is Bennett's first original novel, a project he has been working on for twenty-plus years, and I'm happy to see him have his pet project come to fruition. Until now, Bennett's novels have all been media tie-ins, mostly for Star Trek. His stories always have a hard-science slant to them.

First the good. Blair is a likable character, fun and funny. She sometimes uses puns, both amusing and groan-inducing, but it isn't Bennett being funny. It's Blair corny sense of humor and she knows her jokes are bad. It's all part of the fun. The characters are distinct, and while they may not have the over-the-top powers of their comic book counterparts, each Troubleshooter has their own unique power or ability. You do get some of the archetypes: the super strong one, the hyper intelligent one, etc., but I never felt these were copies or rip-offs of existing characters. The science in the book is plausible without bogging down the story in explanations or too many scientific terms (a pitfall of some of his earlier works). The pacing is fast, which is good for an action story and their are plenty of nods to superhero characters, especially in some of the names. Bennett is very good at world building and he knows Blair's universe and how it works.

Now the bad. For my personal taste, there was too much sex and nudity. Bennett has spent most of his time writing Star Trek novels, which seems to have strict rules about nudity and sex, as in, there is almost none at all. While it gets hinted at and talked about in the two Department of Temporal Investigations novels by Bennett, nothing really happens or is shown. With Only Superhuman, Bennett seems to be making up for those restrictions. While I have no problem with Blair being sexual or sexually aggressive, I do feel it was too much, shown too many times. After several intrudes in the book, I was thinking "Okay, I get it! She likes sex! Let's move on." It didn't have to to with Bennett's writing ability, it just seemed sometimes unnecessary. And while I have no problem with Blair as a character being comfortable being naked, there were a few times when I felt it was, again, not necessary for the story. Sort of like in horror movies, where the first victim takes off her clothes with her back to us, hears a sound, turns around so we cane see her nude, then gets in the shower. Really? Was that shot necessary? Nine times out of ten, no. Like I said before, it seems to me Bennett was making up for all the sex he couldn't put into the Star Trek books. The sex scenes and nudity aren't graphic, just too many of those kinds of scenes.

Another thing I didn't like was not knowing how strong Blair was. They always said she was strong, enhanced beyond the norm, but we never learn how much. It is implied she can bench press a ton, but we never see that. I know Bennett wants to keep things realistic, but this was half comic book as well as SF, and the former half wasn't really shown. Descriptions of lifting things, bending things, showcasing Cowboy's gun skills, are never showcased. That's part of the appeal of a good comic book novel but was sadly never written in this one. But, this is also part of Bennett's pitfalls, he is not good at physical description. He mentions plasma guns and other weapons but never what they look like.

However, I do recommend this book. The good points outweigh the bad. The characters are funny, well-written, Blair's history is thought out and detailed, and the world building spot on. I'm hoping for a sequel.

Smashwords Forum and SmashReads

You've heard me mention Smashwords a few times on my blog. It is a free ebook distributor; they take your manuscript, convert it into an ebook along with an uploaded cover image, and distribute it to major ebook stores like iBookstore, Barnes and Noble, and others, as well as offering it on their own site in a variety of formats. Every author on the site is self-published and the variety of books offered is amazing.

There is a forum, while not officially associated with Smashwords (although I think it should be, and I hope it will be), that is a gathering of Smashwords authors and readers. A new section of the forum, SmashReads,has just opened up. In it, readers can share recommendations on authors and stories they have found on the Smashwords site. The sub-forum is split into sections based on length. I'm also partly biased on this section since they chose my selection for its name. :)

I'd highly recommend joining this forum if you're an author, reader, just thinking about getting something published, or looking for something new to read. Sign-up is free and there are many opportunities to interact with the authors and give feedback.

Here is the link: http://smashwords-forum.proboards.com/

As always, leave comments below, and thanks for reading.

No update in a while...

It's been a while but I'm still here. I've been plodding my way through The Super School Uniform. I'm currently thinking how to best stage my next action scene. This sequence is somewhat important because it will reveal what the aliens, the Noigel, look like without their protective suits, along with what kind of weapons they use. I'm going for a Predator/Jem'Hadar kind of thing without hopefully making the Noigel TOO similar to them. If anyone has any cool alien designs/inspirations they'd like to see, please tell me. I didn't think of the Noigel designs when I wrote the outline, I figured I would just make it up when I got to that point in the novel. Well, it's here now, and stumping me more than I thought it would. I guess I'll plan ahead better when I write my third book.

Anyway, I've also been reading. I'm trying to alternate my book this year; swapping between Stephen King, Jeffery Deaver, Star Trek, and something I normally wouldn't read. I'm currently reading The Bourne Identity. So far it has just been okay. Maybe knowing what he is, because I've seen the movies, is hindering my appreciation, but the book seems to be just a series of "follow the money and meet people who give you clues." The story heavily involves banks and money and people who work for people who work for a person who works for a person that wants Jason Bourne dead. I'm about halfway through and I hope I will finish it. I tried reading The Three Musketeers and The Time Traveller's Wife but didn't finish them. Maybe one day.

I joined the site Goodreads so I can get recommendations on books that I normally might not read. My reading selection is somewhat limited and I'm trying to expand that (hence The Bourne Identity and The Maltese Falcon). I also search out new authors on Smashwords. I'm hoping to come across some good stuff this year.

As always, leave your comments below and thanks for reading.

Reading: iDevice Vs. Physical

I'm currently reading Deception Point by Dan Brown on my iPad. The first time I ever read an ebook it was on my laptop. It was awkward and hot, even with a heat absorbing pad on my legs the MacBook's bottom got pretty warm. Turning pages by hitting an arrow key just felt strange, not to mention the weight resting on my legs. I liked a paperback better.

After I got an iPhone I began reading more ebooks. The screen size definitely took some getting use to. But after that adjustment period I began to see the appeal, especially since ebooks take up so little disk space. If the iPod was "a thousand songs in your pocket" (as the slogan went) then an iPhone or iPad is "tens of thousands of books in your pocket." Practically a library with you at all times. And it is for that very reason I read ebooks now and rarely buy physical books. With so many books to choose from and so many different ways to get them, I'm now reading books I probably wouldn't have if I had had to buy them in a bookstore. I simply put a big library on my iDevice and when I'm done with one book, I just scroll through the library and read something else that catches my eye.

The downside, for me at least, is that in exchange for having a massive library that I can get for free or very little money, not all ebooks are properly formatted. Formatting, for me, is important and poor formatting can take me out of a story quickly. If one of my ebooks is poorly formatted I will often look for another copy that's been done better. Thoughts that haven't been italicized, paragraph breaks in the middle of a sentence, spaces between letters in a word all throw me for a loop and make have to reread the sentence. The two worst offenders, in my opinion, is either paragraphs that have not been indented or just run on or that there are two lines of space between every paragraph. Those drive me nuts. While I do that type of formatting on my blog, it is because each new paragraph is a new topic or thought. It shouldn't be like that in a novel.

I'm curious about the current pricing court battles and how they will affect ebooks in the future. In my opinion, ebook prices at the major retailers are way too expensive. Sometimes an ebook costs more than its paperback counterpart. Why should that be so? I know digital publishing is a new frontier and the companies are trying to adjust to it, but it seems pretty easy to think that lower prices would attract more customers.

Back on the brighter side, I prefer ebook reading. I love the ability to take out a book, any time and any where, and read it. If I hate what I'm reading, I can switch to something else immediately and not have to wait to get back home or go to the nearest bookstore to get something else. Syncing across different devices is great too, sometimes reading on an iPhone is more appropriate than reading on an iPad, like at the doctor's office or bus stop.

That's it for this post. Thanks for reading.