Children And Farmers...In Space

I have just enough time to throw together a quick rambling today so lets get right to it shall we?  Today's ramble is brought to you by The Children of Hamlin by Carmen Carter and is one of the early Star Trek: TNG books.  After the not so enjoyable experience of my last Star Trek book, I turned to one my favorites when I was younger, and I still very much enjoy it.  I am going to assume everybody reading this knows enough about the show that I don't need to rehash and will jump into the synopsis.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The USS Enterprise gets a distress signal and diverts from it's current mission of delivering a group known as the Farmers to their new home planet.  They get to the distressed ship just in time to rescue a small number of people from the ship.  Turns out that the ship was carrying Andrew Deelor, a Starfleet operative and his mysterious companion Ruthe.  Deelor was on the ship to work negotiations with a reclusive species known as the Choraii.  The aliens live in a loose society of traveling ships made of a bubble like structure and are willing to destroy whole civilizations for the smallest amounts of metal which is crucial to their survival.  It was this need for metal that brought the Choraii to the Federations attention in the first place.  They massacred every adult on an outpost known as Hamlin and all the children disappeared.  Now thirty five years later they have discovered that the children were taken by the Choraii and have had children of their own and Deelor's job is to negotiate for them back.  The Choraii are very difficult to negotiate with as their language is music based and they do not use visuals. Through out the negotiations the crew has to deal with the Farmers who not only eschew technology but are very vocal about being stuck on the ship.  A child and an older man are traded from the Choraii ship. The young one does pretty good once they figure out how to deal with him, but the older one eventually ends up dying.  When approached Ruthe says it is because he grew up in a world so different that being "rescued" was too much of a shock.  With the humans rescued, the ship heads to the Farmer's new world where they discover another massacre similar to what happened at Hamlin.  They also discover that the only child on the world is missing.  They track down the Choraii ship responsible and Ruthe negotiates for the child.  The trade turns out to be Ruthe for the child.  Ruthe was a child that had been "rescued" around 11 years of age and has been secretly searching for what she considers her home ship ever since.  There is much discussion about the ethics, morals and rules when it comes to this complicated situation, but in the end everybody has to move on.

I have always enjoyed this book, ever since I started reading them at the age of 10.  I think I liked this one so much because it featured children and Dr. Crusher, two of my favorite things at the time.  I still enjoy it for it's portrayal of such an alien species, culture and environment and  how one has to think a different way when dealing with them.  There is all the things that make Star Trek...well Star Trek in this book and as a huge fan I love it! The allusion to the story Pied Piper of Hamelin with the children being taken, the music being how the aliens communicate (Ruthe uses a pipe to "talk" with them) and the children's reluctance to leave the Choraii environment is very well done without being to extremely blatant.  The writing is pretty good, it flows nicely and switches between characters very smoothly.  There is not too much character introspection, and the author did not try and read too much into very established characters.  This book gave me the perfect combination of familiarity with my beloved Enterprise and loved characters and a bit of the exotic and alien with the absolutely strange and wonderful Choraii.  This is why I love SciFi, this is why I love rereading old favorites and this is why I love Star Trek.  Over all a solid entry into a wide and varied series.  I give it 7 out of 10 grapes and recommend it to anybody who loves this show/series as much as I do.

Fighting Fiction In Space

Hello all!  I think I have time for a quick rambling before I head back to the grind.  Today's book is Gulliver's Fugitives Star Trek: The Next Generation by Keith Sharee.  Summer by the pool always puts me in the mood for SciFi and I love Star Trek TNG so this sounded like a good idea.  Was it a good read?  First, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

First of all, I'm gonna just say I'm gonna write this like anybody reading it is already a Trekkie and knows the characters I'm talking about.  The books are written with the assumption that the readers, if not already fans of the show, at least have a basic knowledge of the cast and setting.  If you are not part of this group...well...it's on Netflix so you have no excuse :-)
Councilor Troi finds herself in a trance that seems to transport her mind to a world filled with fantastic beings.  She manages to wake herself up, but is disturbed and goes to the Captain with her feelings of concern about a possible alien presence.  Meanwhile the crew has discovered a planet where a lost ship may have crashed ten years earlier. The crew contacts the planet and they are told that a boarding party will have to come aboard the Enterprise to make sure that no contraband or instances of the dreaded Allpox are present.  Two men and a couple of machines beam on board and fairly quickly start freaking out.  Apparently, the planet (called Rampart) is populated by a human colony that left year many many many years ago and established a world built around a lack of any fiction.  To maintain this strict adherence to facts, the government uses a combination of filtering helmet's that filter out any supposed "fiction" and deadly machine's called one-eyes that pretty much shoot lethal blasts of radiation at anybody's who's brain waves register in the fiction zone.  All kinds of hell breaks loose when the one-eyes detect the ever present fiction that thrives aboard the varied enterprise, and considering that the people of Rampart believe that even aliens are a work of fiction, you can see how a ship that employ's various races and species is in trouble.  The Rampart crew captures Captain Picard and the one-eye's wreak destruction upon the Enterprise.  A landing crew consisting of Riker, Data and Troi goes down to rescue Picard and are immediately captured themselves.  All except Councilor Troi who falls in with the Dissenters, a group of people who take on the names and persona's of various fictional characters and rebel against the fictionless government. Picard and Riker are to be "blanked" a process in which people who suffer from the Allpox (which is what they call fiction) have their mind completely erased and a new personality is inserted.  This is the only way the government can work around killing most of it's population.  More chaos and crazieness ensue.  The Dissenters stage a major demonstration and Picard and company are rescued.  Geordi and Worf with some help from the crew save the Enterprise and it is revealed that one of the Rampart guys is actually the brainwashed captain and sole survivor of the missing ship.
Troi discovers her trances are a result of a strange movie she watched based on the mythologies of Earth and the crew moves on to their next adventure.

Soooooo...this book was stupid.  I can't think of a nicer way to put it.  I usually enjoy the Star Trek books, they let me explore a vast universe that I love in greater detail, but this book was very very juvenile.  I think what really killed it for me was the writing.  For most of the book the writing felt cliched, trite and stock.  The author only attributed the simplist of emotions or thought process to very well established characters, dumbing down people who have been shown over and over to be smart, making characters with great depth one-dimensional, attributing all kinds of insta-relationship emotions to characters who were only around for a short while.  It actually took me a really long time to read because I kept having to put it down to unroll my eyes.  The concept was ok I guess, even though we all know that humans are creative by nature, and the standards of fiction on Rampart are especially strict, though I will give it to the author that he acknowledged if the government killed all the dissenters there would be no one left.  I'm not going to spend a lot more time on this 'cause there was just not a whole lot to it.  Essentially I felt like I was reading a very very basic fan fiction version of a Star Trek story.  I give this story a 3 out of 10 Zen bows and am looking forward to reading a GOOD Star Trek story.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Space The Final Frontier

Ahhhhh OMGOMGOMG EEEEPPPPIICCCC!!!!!  Sorry fan girl moment.  Got to stay up past my bed time last night and go see the new Star Trek: Into Darkness movie and it was wonderful.  Just like the first movie it gave a nod to all the best pieces of the original while definitely becoming it's own movie.  Extra cool was the fact that all of my favorite geeky girl shows seemed to be represented by various actors, we had Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Who, Fringe I mean seriously a girl could go crazy happy with all the dorky goodness.
SPOILER ALERT!

The movie gave all kinds of direct and indirect homage to the original film everything from direct moments (think KHAN!!!!) to more subtle ones such as switching up the relationships between people (Carol now being the daughter instead of the mother).  Of course if you haven't seen the original than you probably have no idea what I am talking about and are rolling your eyes if you have even read this far :-)  Since this is a book blog I am going to leave you with some of my favorite SciFi short story collections so you too can see all of the wonderfully odd ways this amazing genre can make your summer great.

Federations

One of my favorite things about scifi is the new worlds and organizations that appear out of necessity when you go full scale universal.  All of the stories in this collection are part of some sort of federation.

The Starry Rift

My baby sis actually recommended this one to me and boy was it a perfect choice.  The stories in here are fresh and varied.  The one by Neil Gaiman, who I usually think of as a fantasy guy was seriously entertaining.

Get Off the Unicorn

While not strictly scifi in the sense we are used to, this collection has everything from high tech scifi, to the more subtle blurring of fantasy and scifi.  A great one to take a look at if you are not a hard core techie.

The Last Mimzy

This collection is just insane, with stories published as early as the 1940's it is far ahead of it's time.  This collection offers everything from humor to head scratcher's to true tragedies.  This is for a true die hard fan of Science Fiction

Star Trek: The Amazing Stories

Of course I can't write a post about Star Trek awesomeness without including a bit of biblio Star Trek love.  This is a collection of short stories based on all the various incarnations of the Star Trek franchise from some of the best authors out there.

Hopefully this will give you a little summer scifi reading to fill in all those long hours in a car, train, airplane, bus or space shuttle that always seems part of getting to where ever it is you are going for your summer fun.  Happy reading everybody!

Where No Bookcase Has Gone Before

With the warmer weather approaching my thoughts turn to the stars and all things SciFi.  I have been watching all my favorite space shows, alien movies and reading all my futuristic books.  Here are a few items to help you explore your scientific nerdy awesome side.

Tardis Bookshelf

Books, a way to make sure the inside contains more then it appears from the outside

Lightsaber Bookends

Use the force to keep your books where they belong

Stargate Bookshelf

Ok ok I know it isn't an "official" Stargate, but I think it looks like one and it's my blog...so there :-)

Star Trek Bookend

A classy way to add some geekery to your home

Captains Chair

Now you can read in comfort and command your underlings all at the same time.

I am well aware that there are several uber geeky super awesome neato nerdy shows that I did not mention, that just means there is more for another post :-)  Happy reading everybody!

I Think It's The Plauge

Blech blech blech, I've been pretty sick these last couple of days.  To sick to even read, which for me is like being at deaths door!  I am finally starting to feel a bit like a human being and am ready to get back to my reading and rambling.  All of this ickyness got me thinking about books I've read, were illness plays a major role.  I like books that feature a disease, mostly because I am in the medical field and find all of that stuff fascinating.  I like how a disease can be used in many ways, it can be a weapon, an equalizer, a catalyst.  Sometimes the goal of the story is to find a cure for the disease, other times it is trying to make a life after the disease has ravished the world.  Sometimes it is used to bring various people together in tragedy that would never even look at each other before and other times it is used to tear loved ones apart.  I like how different genre's deal with illness, depending on if you are reading fantasy, scifi, historical fiction, etc. there are a ton of different ways to approach it.  Here are a few of my favorite books were sickness, disease and illness play a main role. (I know most of these are part of a series, but they are still really good!)

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern- This book is a stand alone novel in the Dragonriders of Pern series of books.  This book deals with an illness brought over from another part of the world that very few people had immunity to.  The book shows us the progression of the disease from it's first victims all the way to finding a cure in the blood of the few people who have a natural immunity to it.  This is the first major world wide illness to hit this planet in a very long time, and it is awesome to see all of the different and creative things they do to not only find a cure and vaccine, but to figure out how to get it out to the people as well.

Briar's Book- This is one of the books in the Circle of Magic series.  When a plague comes to Summersea, Briar and his friends must use their specific magic to assist the scientists in finding a cure before the whole country dies.  One of my favorite parts of this book is the mixing of magic and science and the feeling that both are just pieces of the same puzzle.  I always felt that magic and science were buddies in real life and this book does a great job showing that.

The Two Princesses of Bamarre-The Grey Death is a fatal disease that is ravaging this imaginary country.  The shy and quiet Princess Addie is content to stay safe in her castle, away from the disease and all it's nasty effects.  When her beloved sister falls ill with this fatal disease, she decides to be the one to try and fulfill an ancient prophecy to try and save her sister.  This book is less about the illness itself and more about the effects it has on the people who are not sick.  The fear they have for themselves vs the fear for their loved ones and the lengths one is willing to go to try and fix it.

Cinder- This retelling of Cinderella has the unusual twist of a plague that is ravishing the home of our heroine. When Cinder's adored stepsister falls ill, she is sent to the futuristic scientists to "volunteer" as a test subject.  This is totally acceptable because Cinder is a cyborg and not seen as fully human.  The implications that a person can be classified as less then human because of certain mechanical body parts, and the ability for this government to condone the often fatal testing of cures on these beings makes a pretty hefty political statement that one is not used to seeing in a fairy tale.  This is a good one for thinking about cost vs benefit in finding a cure for a disease that could kill millions, is it worth it to lose a few lives in the search for a cure?

Star Trek: Double Helix Series-This series of six books set in the Star Trek universe span a whole timeline and touch every piece of the franchise.  It is essentially a series about a tailor made disease that pops up over different times and places.  Over the six books the disease evolves and is meant to do different things, but their are pieces that tie them all together.  These are some of my favorite Star Trek books, not only do they touch on every character in every time period, but they again focus on every aspect of the disease.  Everything from it's origin, to the cure, to the social and class repercussions, to the motive in making and using such a heinous disease, all kinds of cool fun stuff!  I loved all six books and now that I have been talking about them, think that this may be my summer reread series.

What do you think of books about diseases, illness and plague's?  What aspect do you find most intriguing, the scientific, the moral and ethical, the social, the emotional?  How weird am I that I find all this germy stuff to be so fascinating?

When I Was Older Then You

It is my little bro's birthday today, not gonna mention his age 'cause that would make me even older, but I still want to wish him a Happy ** Birthday.  When he was little he hated that he was younger then me and one of his favorite phrases was "when I was older then you" which still makes no sense to this day :-) He was also (and still is) Super Dork Boy, he had this insane obsession with Star Trek: The Next Generation and especially with Geordi LaForge

Geordi LaForge

He got our whole family hooked on the show and I still have many happy memories of Saturday nights eating popcorn while watching my Bubby (lil bro) geek out over this wonderful show.  As an avid reader I also got hooked on the books, here are a couple of my favorites.

Q-Squared

Anything with Q in it is AWESOME!

A Rock and a Hard Place

I love the older books, very space opera

Double Helix: Infection

Loved this little mini-series of books that crossed all forms of the series

To all you dorks, nerds, and geeks out there please raise your mug of butterbeer and wish my Bubby a Happy Birthday!

You Will Always Be James T Kirk To Me

Happy Birthday to William Shatner!

Star Trek Memories

Shatner Rules

Up Till Now