The Human Adventure continues as I dive into the next Star Trek novel released by Pocket Books. This one falls into the sub collection known as The Lost Years, filling in the time between The Original Series and The Motion Picture. The first book was simply known as The Lost Years, written by J.M Dillard,…
Category: The Book Shelf
From Russia With Love (1957) – Ian Fleming
This week I dove into Ian Fleming’s fifth James Bond novel, and the one that was most closely adapted for the big screen, though SPECTRE is slipped into the film version, whereas in this tale it is simply east versus west as SMERSH, the Russian spy organisation comes up with a plan to humiliate the…
Star Trek: Ghost-Walker (1991) – Barbara Hambly
Well, that’s three for three. The past few Trek novels have not wowed me, or even held my interest, though the Human Adventure definitely continues. This one shouldn’t have been such a surprise for me because I wasn’t a fan of her other Trek novel, Ishmael, and there’s still one more to come. We’ll see…
Equal Rites (1987) – Terry Pratchett
I head back to Discworld for this week’s Book Shelf, and delve into the third tale from the Terry Pratchett created universe. This story takes us in a different direction, leaving behind the characters introduced in the previous volumes, but gives us another hilariously magical tale. Young Eskarine is a girl, she is the eighth…
Star Trek: Home is the Hunter (1990) – Dana Kramer-Rolls
The Human Adventure continues as this week’s Trek tale continues to give us stories from the time period following the events of The Motion Picture. All well and good, but like the previous novel, this one feels like a bit of a miss as well. I love the setting of the book, I just couldn’t get…
Absolution Gap (2003) – Alastair Reynolds
I return to Alastair Reynold’s Revelation Space universe this week, with this, the third novel in the ongoing storyline involving the Inhibitors and the struggle of humanity, in all its forms, to escape extinction. We are introduced to a slew of new characters in this titanic space opera, while reacquainting ourselves with old friends. The…
Star Trek: Enemy Unseen (1990) – V.E. Mitchell
The Human Adventure continues, but they aren’t always outstanding. Sure, of late, there has definitely been an uptick in the quality of stories in the series of late. Unfortunately, Enemy Unseen by V.E. Mitchell didn’t do it for me. Originally written to be part of the five year mission, Paramount and Pocket Books changed the…
Diamonds Are Forever (1956) – Ian Fleming
The fourth James Bond adventure by Ian Fleming is on my book shelf this week, and I dug into it eagerly. Despite some troubling moments of racism, 007’s literary adventure in this book is damned enjoyable, and you can see a number of themes and locales survived the jump to the big screen with Sean…
Star Wars: Extraordinary Droids (2020) – Simon Beecroft
This week sees another release from DK Canada’s Star Wars library, focusing on those wonderful, amazing and Extraordinary Droids. This entry in the DK Books Star Wars series is definitely aimed at the younger readers, filled with big full page pictures of droids, and a descriptive paragraph for characters both familiar and new. The book…
Black Widow: Secrets of a Super-Spy (2020) – Melanie Scott
Don’t despair Marvel fans, just because the new Black Widow film had to be delayed due to the pandemic, doesn’t mean you can’t learn all there is to know about her in the new Black Widow: Secrets of a Super-Spy now available from DK Canada. This one is a great read, and author Melanie Scott…
The Mind Reels 