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Taking Wing wasn't the best Star Trek book out there. returnreturnIf you want to read this I highly recommend rewatching Star Trek Nemesis. So much of what goes on in this story is related to that practically immediate predator in the Star Trek universe. The book focuses on the beginning of Riker's next part of his life journey after TNG as the captain of a new starship Titan. Much of the story is focused on his relation ship with one Admiral Akaar and his judgment of Riker's new role with more than one person upset that he made his wife part of the senior officers. returnreturnI didn't realize how much say a Star Fleet captain gets a say in the makeup of his crew, but there was much emphasis about Titan, at Rikers' request, having the most diverse crew in star fleet history. About 30 character are brand new to the universe, and many of them belong too species never seen before on T.V., such as the ships surgeon Ree, a Pahkwa-thanh, who basically looks like a dinosaur, a raptor who eats raw meat only. It's a little hard to keep track of. Certainly not enough to be meaningful for this story. I know its the start of a new series but a good book should be well enough to stand on its own. returnreturnThe beginning is pretty good, and the ending is very good, but the middle is a real drag. The intricoes of Romulan politics isn't for everyone. If there was an easy way to get you to skip it I'd recommend. returnStill it's enough for me to put the next book in my library book queue. returnLets hope for more in Titan #2.

This book was pretty good, but one thing it is not is Juvenile fiction: sex, murder, adultery,orgy, i don't want to expose my young adult to any of that. Thankfully it wasn't too graphic, though the description of the Tsar's sons hemophilia was more than enough to make me queasy and put the book down more than once.returnreturnThe first part is told like a fairy tale, I'm usually not too big on symbolism, to the point I argued with my hush school English teacher that it didn't exist. Regardless it's quite clear the bear is the Russian people and vlad and Leo are Trotsky and Lenin.returnreturnI almost thought that part was actually more interesting than the actual historical fiction part with English author Arthur Ransom and his Russian mistress. I was surprised that Ransom returned to England to be with his daughter for a time after the fairy tale told of the foreigner with the briefcase having Russian air in his lungs for the rest of his life.returnreturnI still don't understand why he wanted to leave his wife Ivy, and I couldn't imagine my wife making my life so miserable that I would be willing to live thousands of miles from my daughter.returnreturnAll in all it was a nice quick read before bed a few nights and I would be willing to pick up a couple of the real Ransom's books.returnreturnI was disappointed in how little of the actual October revolution there was in almost 300 pages.

I went into listening to this audio-book not really knowing a lot about it save its title and that it was popular enough to have been made into a movie. returnreturnThis is not really a science fiction book at all, even though the title would lead you to believe. The Time Travel of the title is no Jules Verne character but a 21st century heart throb who has some kind of disease that forces him into other points in time without his ability to anything about. He can't take anything with him, so he always shows up naked, so he spends most of his time running and trying to find clothes. Somehow one of those naked adventures was to meet a 7 year old girl who would end up being his wife. returnreturnAt the beginning they author made it very clear that there are no multiverses, there is no possibility of screwing up the past or the future, stuff just happens. returnreturnThe worst part of it, however, is the overly descriptive passages about dead babies. Clair and Henry loose something like 5 different kids, eventually learning that they are time traveling out of Clair's womb without the needed connection to mom to survive. This is the main reason it took me months to finish it, because I kept having to turn it off due to how nauseated it made my stomach. returnreturnI liked the audio-book included two different narrators depending on whether the chapter was told from Henry or Clair's perspective.

I have read dozens of Heinlein's books and have like most of them. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of his most well known works and yet I'm just reading it now. I had put it off in part because the first few pages are pretty dry so when I picked it up in the library years ago, i put it right back. Secondly some of the stuff I had heard/read of it didn't sound great, sentient computers, line marriages and the like. But it was so much more than that. returnreturnThe story of the luna prison planet revolution and declaring their independence certainly used much of the language and imagery from the American revolution, including choosing the 4th of July as the date of their declaration, butt there is much more wound up. There are images from the Russian and French revolutions as well and this mid 21st century moon has more history in common with Australia than any other single Terran nation. returnreturnThe fact I read this during the height of the Isreal-Palestinian war of the 2020s and the #NoKings movement probably heightened my feelings at the time that revolution was inevitable, and I needed to leave my part of the world and find where I could be part of history. Thankfully my friend talked me off that cliff. Gravity is not in our favor and we have no rocks to throw. returnreturnLike any revolution the story has both the fighters/doers and the board room antagonizes. If you are looking for an action-adventure story this might have too much of the latter for you. I loved both. Radical ideas of how to select representatives I particularly enjoyed. returnreturnThat "sentient computer" was pretty much just AI that had been properly queried to plan a revolution told in 1960s computer jargon. It also was trying to get enough data to determine what was funny. Even in our protagonist thought Comrade Mike was his best friend. returnreturnI also felt that Lloyd James narration of the audio book was amazing.

I don't know why I keep reading these heavy theology books. Well I do know why, I'm hoping to learn more about my own faith so that I can better communicate to those who need more there there in order to believe. Yet I went away from this not really learning anymore than I did from reading discroptions of this work and the author's a Wikipedia page.returnreturnBasically we know hell is a real place. Jesus made this quite clear. The Church but can verify if someone is in heaven (the Saints who have been beatified) but we have no way of verifying for certain that someone is in hell. The Bible teaches that God desires that all men be saved, so who are we to claim that God does not save all men?returnreturnPersonally I am not a universalist (someone who believes everyone will go to heaven) but I hope and pray that God is.

Rucka was one of the authors who contributed to the late 90s "Batman No Man's Land" event over the course of 83 separate comics. He writes the novelization in a way that gets the story across while still wanting to go out and buy 83 twenty-five-year-old comic books. returnreturnThe story goes that an Earthquake destroyed much of Gotham City, and then a hurricane and because it would cost so much to repair, and Gotham was already notorious for being a government sink hole due to all the crime the feds declared it a No Man's Land and was cut off from the rest of the country, blew up the bridges, put mines in the seas and told Gotham good luck and good riddance. returnreturnThe normal baddies stayed behind: Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, Poison Ivy & Black Mask. Plus the to be expected regular dudes just trying to make it in gangs. Most of the government leaves, only a dozen or so of the GCPD are left, including Gordon, because no other police force he applied to wanted someone who needed a myth to do his policing for him. returnreturnIt's certainly a look at how anarchy could occur in our modern age. I read most of this over 3 days. Even at >400 pages the end felt like it came too soon with a particular billionaire, no not that one, saving the day. returnreturnA few interesting notes, we see three different Batgirls here, including Oracle. A Batman who disappears, who practically forgets who Bruce Wayne is. A police force that has to become a gang themselves in order to have any chance of policing. And a particular clown who shows up just when he's wanted least. returnreturnI was somewhat disappointed in Poison Ivy. She shows at the very beginning of the story, and throughout the book she is hinted at to be laying low in the Park, but is never seen from again, even when the park is destroyed.

I gave this book as a gift to my father years ago when I was hoping to get him to do something other than watch T.V. westerns all day. He got so into it that by the next time I visited he had borrowed like a dozen books in the series from the library. He said he stopped reading them when he realized it was a romance. I wanted to see what he got all fusted about. returnreturnHow you couldn't figure out it was a romance within the first few chapters, I have no idea. But not like trashy romance novel with a bare-chested man on the cover and steamy sex scenes more the widow who doesn't need no man, and the mountain man who don't need no woman who think they hate each-other end up needing to rely on each other. returnreturnStory starts with Andrew Jackson trying to organize a nation wide wagon train to settle the Oregon Territory in hops of strengthening the American claim to the property. But spies from Britain and Russia join the wagon train as pioneers with an intention to sabotage. They will do anything to stop the wagon train so that they can claim the territory. returnreturnI'm not that familiar with this history beyond playing Oregon Trail on the Apple II, but it seems believable. Explanation of why women who don't want to leave the comfy east coast seem pretty likely related to the inability for them to own property on their own. returnreturnThe train grows while they make their way across the U.S. from Long Island to Pennsylvania, to Ohio, Illinois and finally to Missouri. Our heroines have to learn a full new way of life, whether its one learning to shoot, another learning to care for others, and the tomboy learning to admit to herself she is still a lady. returnreturnThe wagon train is a new adventure, but also a way to start over, whether from a failed business venture, a life as a call girl, or a conviction of murder. Everyone has to learn to pull their weight, and new families are built. All while having to avoid deadly snakes, stampeding buffalo, and men of all colors and sizes that don't end up quite like you expect. returnreturnA light quick read that covers serious topics without taking itself too seriously. I'm putting the next NEBRASKA! in my queue.returnreturnPhil Gigante is a great reader his characters are top notch, but it still felt a little weird, primarily because I've listened to him read many books in the Stainless Steel Rat series that it felt weird to have him in the American frontier.

While this is the 28th book in our main DS9-Relaunch series but it's also the first in the "side-quest" THE FALL series. As such David George III spends a lot of the first half of the book trying to bring new readers upto speed as well as detailing the new Deep Space Nine to all of us. He did so in an interesting fashion through a memorial service and a dedication, but it wasn't particularly thrilling and really easy to put down. Got a little better in the second half but it was odd explanation of getting around security by using a "projectile weapon" rather than a phaser and a weird intertwined story of an experience inside the celestial temple.returnreturnI'll probably pick up the next one, but probably not soon.

Although its book 5 in the series the library doesn't have books 2-4. And allegedly they aren't an interconnected story so you can read them in any order, like Fandemonium's Stargate SG-1 series

V: The Second Generation is an independent novel authored by Kenneth Johnson the producer of the original 1983 V Miniseries, the only part of the V "universe" that Johnson owned the IP rights to. Its written in a way that it should be able to stand on its own so if you've never read or watched anything in the V francise you should be fine to pick this up. However, if you have, I recommend re-watching the the original miniseries first. If you've watched "The Final Battle" or the '85 or '08 T.V. series, or read the earlier spin off books, it can be confusing following this. The Visitors never left Earth, the've been here for over 20 years and the lizard people have continued to control world affairs and are still stealing our liquid water and our second generation has grown up under their brainwashing "knowing" that the Visitors arent' only our friends but the only reason the human race still exists. Much of the original heros are still here, save Mike Donavan who has assumed killed in '91 during a raid in france, and much of the world wide resitance was destroyed in '99. For the most part I like this book, but it was written oddly. It started very interesting with new aliens shoing up in their rural hunting cabin and our fisherman super excited by their naked bodies. But I don't know why they had to kill them. Sometimes it is hard to keep straight because Johnons switches scenes/perspectives so quickly. Sometimes he adds the double line break to indicate and sometimes he doesn't. Its clear that he is more use to writing for T.V. than writing a novel. I appreciated the tension between Diana and the new Visitor commandant Jeremey and "The Leader" finally coming to earth. I was surprised how the "half-breeds" where treated as slaves and despised by most everyone but their own families. The descriptions of the new alien Zenthi and their are they with us or are they not was treated very well. The closer I got to the end the more I wondered if it was going to get all tied up or if this was intended to be the first in a series that didn't occur. It has a happy ending, if inconclusive.

V: The Second Generation is an independent novel authored by Kenneth Johnson the producer of the original 1983 V Miniseries, the only part of the V "universe" that Johnson owned the IP rights to. Its written in a way that it should be able to stand on its own so if you've never read or watched anything in the V francise you should be fine to pick this up. However, if you have, I recommend re-watching the the original miniseries first. If you've watched "The Final Battle" or the '85 or '08 T.V. series, or read the earlier spin off books, it can be confusing following this. The Visitors never left Earth, the've been here for over 20 years and the lizard people have continued to control world affairs and are still stealing our liquid water and our second generation has grown up under their brainwashing "knowing" that the Visitors arent' only our friends but the only reason the human race still exists. Much of the original heros are still here, save Mike Donavan who has assumed killed in '91 during a raid in france, and much of the world wide resitance was destroyed in '99. For the most part I like this book, but it was written oddly. It started very interesting with new aliens shoing up in their rural hunting cabin and our fisherman super excited by their naked bodies. But I don't know why they had to kill them. Sometimes it is hard to keep straight because Johnons switches scenes/perspectives so quickly. Sometimes he adds the double line break to indicate and sometimes he doesn't. Its clear that he is more use to writing for T.V. than writing a novel. I appreciated the tension between Diana and the new Visitor commandant Jeremey and "The Leader" finally coming to earth. I was surprised how the "half-breeds" where treated as slaves and despised by most everyone but their own families. The descriptions of the new alien Zenthi and their are they with us or are they not was treated very well. The closer I got to the end the more I wondered if it was going to get all tied up or if this was intended to be the first in a series that didn't occur. It has a happy ending, if inconclusive.

I first read this in 7th grade and it has ever since been my favorite book of all times. One of the only novels I've read multiple times. Just as good in 2020s as it was in the 1990s (and the 1930s when it was written). The story of a mouse named Amos that lives in Ben Franklin's hat and is indirectly responsible for all of the good things in his life, and all the bad things where when he ignored Amos.