A long time ago, in 1978, in a galaxy not so far away, many of us were scarred for life, by watching, with our indulging families, The Star Wars Holiday Special, an abomination that has never been re-aired, though it’s animated sequence introduced us to Boba Fett before he arrived in 1980’s The Empire Strikes…
Category: The Book Shelf
Star Trek: Picard – The Dark Veil (2021) – James Swallow
Simon & Schuster delivers another tale set before the first season of Star Trek: Picard with The Dark Veil by James Swallow, this time centering the story on the U.S.S. Titan, and her captain William T. Riker, its counsellor, and the captain’s wife, Deanna Troi, their young sun Thaddeus (which makes what we learn of…
The Hardy Boys: The Missing Chums (1928/1962) – Franklin W. Dixon
Frank and Joe Hardy are back in their fourth adventure, The Missing Chums. This quick-paced, fast read book sees the brothers asked by the local Bayport P.D. to help investigate a local shantytown, while their father, Fenton, the renowned detective is called in to investigate a series of national bank robberies… and then there’s one…
Star Trek: Picard – Last Best Hope (2020) – Una McCormack
It has been a while since I slipped into a Star Trek novel. I’m still back on The Original Series, and the last one I read was 1995’s The Ashes of Eden, the first novel that introduced the Shatner-Verse version of Trek novels. But I was eager to see how the newer novels tied in…
Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series (2019) – Aaron Harvey, and Rich Schepis
I remember when I first heard about Star Trek: The Animated Series. It was the early 80s, and I seem to recall having received a Best of Trek book one Xmas or birthday. It was a compilation of some of the most popular articles and stories from Trek magazine, an unofficial Star Trek fanzine. Inside…
The Thirteen Problems (1932) – Agatha Christie
I’ve had so many books on the go, I haven’t been able to continue my exploration of Agatha Christie’s work, and was delighted when I had a chance to dig into one again. Her next published work was a collection of short stories, entitled The Thirteen Problems, which featured her other famous character, Miss Marple….
A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) – Ursula K. Le Guin
I had never read the Earthsea books as a youth. I think as previously mentioned, the only fantasy book I read when I was younger was The Lord of the Rings, and I never tackled anything after that, because how do you top that? I’ve found over the past few years, however, that I’ve been…
Communion (1987) – Whitley Strieber
Whitley Stieber experienced something. In fact, according to his writing, he’s been experiencing something all of his life. It’s influenced him, his writing, and the events and those around him. Strieber, like countless others, believes he was abducted. He doesn’t use the word aliens, he uses the word visitors. Because he doesn’t claim to know…
The Three Body Problem (2008) – Liu Cixin
Wang Miao and Ye Wenjie are the central characters in a vast cast in this epic Chinese novel that is the first in a trilogy, also known as The Three Body Problem. Treating its subject matter with intelligence, and pouring on the science, the story takes us through the first steps of contact with an…
Foundation and Empire (1952) – Isaac Asimov
The second book in the foundation series ups the stakes for humanity a bit, as we get a glimpse inside the still crumbling Empire, and the reclusive Foundation and the traders that have sprung from it. We learn that the Foundation is in someways becoming corrupt as well, as some despotism is occuring, and it…
The Mind Reels 