I stumbled across the name of this book on a search for something fun and scary to read. Intrigued by the idea, I snapped up a copy and blazed my way through it insanely quickly. This is the definition of a white-knuckle literary roller coaster. It’s a perfect beach read, or just something to read…
Category: The Book Shelf
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1992) – J.M. Dillard
This week’s Trek novel is the film adaptation of the last big screen voyage of the crew of The Original Series, J.M. Dillard adapts the screenplay and fills it out with some additional character building scenes which add some nice depth to the events that unfold. Captain James T. Kirk and the majority of his…
Goldfinger (1959) – Ian Fleming
This week’s 007 is the seventh novel in the series, and while it bears some similarities to the film that would eventually spring from it, it is also very much it’s own thing. Secret Agent James Bond finishes up a mission in Mexico, like a pre-credits adventure, which does get alluded to in the film…
Be More Wonder Woman (2020) – Cheryl Rickman
Hope and courage. They can sometimes be found in the most unlikely of places. Who would have dreamed that a character created ninety years ago would still be such a powerful presence in the realm of pop culture and perhaps the most recognisable Amazon ever? And who, in this time of great upheaval as the…
Star Trek: The Rift (1991) – Peter David
This week’s Trek entry to the Book Shelf is fun, combining the Pike era, with that of Kirk to give us one big story. I liked a lot of it, there’s some stuff in something referred to as the World Mind with Kirk at the climax that felt a little hokey, but the rest of…
Sawkill Girls (2018) – Claire Legrand
So I needed to try something different this week, to break up the cycle of books I’ve been reading, but obviously, I had to find it interesting and enjoyable. Claire Legrand’s Sawkill Girls is just that. I came across the title in a list of books to fill that Stranger Things craving, and was duly…
Star Trek: Legacy (1991) – Michael Jan Friedman
More voyages with the starship Enterprise this week, as I dig into another of The Original Series novels from Pocket Books. Set during the original five year mission headed by Captain James T. Kirk, Friedman gives us a Spock story, that ties into his earlier missions with Captain Christopher Pike, who also makes appearances in…
Dr. No (1958) – Ian Fleming
I dig into another classic James Bond novel by Ian Fleming this week. Up this time is the sixth novel in the series, and one that served as the basis for the first film. The story stays fairly close to what has been explored in the film, with a subplot involving bird guano and conservation,…
Star Trek: Renegade (1991) – Gene DeWeese
Gene DeWeese delivers a pretty standard Trek tale for this week’s instalment of the Book Shelf. This is his third Trek novel, and while it’s not a horrible tale, it’s just a run of the mill story. Set during The Original Series, the Enterprise is called to a pair of warring planets to mediate their…
Lovecraft Country (2016) -Matt Ruff
This week I dove into Matt Ruff’s brilliantly entertaining Lovecraft Country, which takes all the things you love about a good Lovecraft story; otherworldly horror, science fiction mixed with horror, and some other familiar horror tropes, the creepy doll, the haunted house, and deliver it without Lovecraft’s far too prominent racism. As much as I…
The Mind Reels 