Diane Carey launched a cross-generational story that swept through all four of the then-existing series, The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. Each novel featured a standalone story that connected with the other tales, and the first featured Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise. Set a very short…
Category: The Book Shelf
Transformation (1988) – Whitley Strieber
Communion when it came along stunned and shocked the world. It partially pulled the concept of ‘alien’ abductions into the mainstream, and Strieber did his able best to share his own experiences with these visitors. A couple years later in 1988, Strieber released a second volume, Transformation, that expanded on his continuing experiences, the reach…
Mexican Gothic (2020) – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Mexican Gothic is a wonderfully lush, and haunting novel, embracing all the familiar tropes of the Gothic genre, romance, the old dark house, family secrets, and the hints of something preter- or supernatural all juxtaposed into Mexico of the 1950s. We’re introduced to Noemi, a vivacious, smart, stubborn, flirtatious young woman who is still looking…
Star Trek: The Rings of Tautee (1996) – Dean Wesley Smith, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Rings of Tautee is a fast-paced Star Trek adventure that is set during the original five year mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk. Responding to a subspace disruption, the Enterprise arrives in the Tautee system, followed quickly by the Farragut and four Klingon cruisers, to discover that the…
Phasers on Stun!: How the Making (and Remaking) of Star Trek Changed the World (2022) – Ryan Britt
I have one complaint about Ryan Britt’s examination of Star Trek, it’s too short! It goes by at warp speed, sharing anecdotes new and old, and taking us through Trek’s entire timeline up to 2022. The series, the movies, the fandom are broken into separate chapters and Britt delivers an easy-to-read, occasionally brilliantly funny examination…
Star Trek: The Return (1996) – William Shatner with Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Judith Reeves-Stevens
William Shatner with the Reeves-Stevens at his side, pens the second volume of his Shatner-verse Star Trek novels, and while a little too self-indulgent in some aspects, it’s not a terrible tale, and hints at some cool Borg ideas that don’t wholly conflict with what was later established by Star Trek: First Contact, and events…
Paradise 1 (2023) – David Wellington
Orbit Books takes the reader to a far-distant solar system and exposes them to fear in the new novel, the first in a series, by best-selling author David Wellington. An officer of the Firewatch, Petrova, and a doctor, Zhang, who may not be all there, are shipped off on an AI-controlled ship, accompanied by a…
End of Watch (2016) – Stephen King
The final novel in the Bill Hodges trilogy, End of Watch, adds a bit of the supernatural flavour that King is known for as Brady Hartsfield, the Mercedes Killer from Mr. Mercedes returns for a final confrontation with retired police detective Hodges, his partner Holly Gibney, and their friend Jerome. The thread of material woven…
Finders Keepers (2015) – Stephen King
Finders Keepers is the second book in Stephen King’s Bill Hodges trilogy, though he, Jerome and the wonderful Holly Gibney don’t show up until about halfway through the tale. That doesn’t mean King doesn’t dole out another captivating tale, rather the reverse. We’re introduced to Morris in the late 70s. He’s arrogant, and while not…
The Graveyard Apartment (1993) – Mariko Koike
Don’t delve into this book looking for answers and explanations. There are horrible things at work in and around the apartment building that is so central to the story, but no explanations will be offered and that can make things scarier for some, letting their imagination run wild, or disappointing for those who need everything…
The Mind Reels 