The Manhunt Pool by Nancy Debretsion

I enjoyed this one very much.

It had all my favourite characters from DS9; Odo, Bashir, Quark and Garak.

It certainly kept to the darker version of Star Trek that was the Deep Space 9 series.

There is death, intrigue, politics and humour.

Every time I read a quality short, it makes me want to either binge on some episodes or start reading a novel.

This collection of stories from "unknown" writers impresses me with it's quality.

Foodist by Darya Pino Rose, Ph.D - Book Report #233

This was a terrific book to give dieters a dose of reality.  To help people relax in pursuit of a new healthy eating plan.

In it she recommends eating real, whole, natural, unprocessed foods.  This is where the secret of weight loss without deprivation lives.   

You'll have to cook for yourself a lot more but you will benefit from all of the micronutrients and phytochemicals that are bountiful in fresh veggies and fruit.

One of her catchphrase is that "Life Should Be Awesome" - don't deny yourself the pleasures of life that food can provide.  You don't have to be an orthodox dieter.  Live life.  Have that burger, once in a while, if it makes you happy.  

You eat 21 meals in a week; if you slip from your path once or twice that means you've stayed true 90% of the time.

I recommend this book highly, especially for somebody who is just starting to venture into healthy eating.

Darya Rose's website - http://www.summertomato.com/foodist

The Façade of Fate by Michael Turner

I liked this one. It played with time travel and the Prime Directive.

Sisko, Dax and Worf are ambushed by the Jem’Hadar and, just when it looked like our heroes were at an end, they are hurled into the future.

There they find the Federation much changed.

How they react, the relationships they build and what they do about this future depends on their training and their values.

It was an interesting test of the Prime Directive.

The Seen and Unseen by Chris Chaplin

This was an exploration of the Reman society.

The species was introduced in the movie Nemesis.  They were an oppressed slave race of the Romulan empire.

I found the story a bit ponderous.  Although it did a good job of filling out the society in terms of the movie I wanted it to come to some more satisfying conclusion.

But it did what the best of Star Trek does, it reflects our past back to us, to allow us to see our mistakes.

The Sunwalkers by Kelli Fitzpatrick

The Enterprise is dispatched to a world to lend assistance in a medical emergency.

The story centres on Beverly Crusher, her struggle to come to terms with having to say goodby to Wesley and how that separation speaks to her abilities as a mother.

The story felt like a found script for an episode that was never shot. But, I guess, all these stories will feel that way, considering the length of them. 

As in all good Star Trek this story works on more than one level. Sure there is the adventure of the mission, but from it there is character growth.  This made the story satisfying. 

Kelli Fitzpatrick's website:  https://kellifitzpatrick.com/

Kelli Fitzpatrick

The Ultimate Parent Guide for Protecting Your Child on the Internet by Ariel Hochstadt

I was delighted to receive an email from EB. 

She had read my review of Black Code by Ronald J. Deibert  and noticed that I had posted a link to Stay Safe Online and their initiative National Cyber Security Awareness Month.

EB encouraged me to read The Ultimate Parent Guide for Protecting Your Child on the vpnMentor website.

Don't let the title stop you from reading the post.  You don't have to have kids to benefit from it.  My kids are in their 20's but have suffered from some of the threats listed and I discovered that I was also quite vulnerable.

The blog post covered eight broad subjects:

1.  Mobile phones and apps
2.  Streaming content and smart TVs
3.  Gaming consoles and online games
4.  Social media
5.  Cyberbullying
6.  Privacy and information security
7.  Viewing inappropriate content online
8.  Online predators

It is surprising how much data leaks from our devices and how the default settings protect us very little.  It is important to take the time to tighten things up a bit.

I was captivated by topic 6 and followed many of the links in that section.  I spent at least 30 minutes exploring my iPhone's settings, turning off location services, creating a longer lock-screen password and beginning to set up the built-in VPN settings.

I would say, after reading how vulnerable we are on public WiFi hotspots, we are much better off paying extra for a bigger data plan from our carriers than the convenience of using such free services.

Remember, if a service is free - YOU are the product.  Gmail, Facebook, Twitter all the things we download, use, but do not pay for are mining our data for their own purposes.  It is a sobering thought.  We are living through the Wild West phase of the internet and it is a pretty lawless environment so far.

I highly recommend reading the article, but try not to lose faith.  You may read it and think that things are hopeless.  But with organizations like vpnMentor and Stay Safe Online there is a wealth of information that you can use to minimize your exposure.

Some of the advice given is as simple as tweaking a setting and forgetting about it.  Other protections take a bit of work on your part but it really is worth it.

I want to thank EB for the email and for reinvigorating my desire to make things a bit more difficult for the hackers.

A Christmas Qarol by Gary Piserchio & Frank Tagader

This was a fun riff on Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol.

In it, Q decies to throw Picard into a simulation of the classic tale.  But something goes wrong - when he snaps his fingers it's not Jean-Luc who is forced to play the role of Ebenezer Scrooge but Q himself!

Honestly, this was an absolutely charming story. Not only did it capture the spirit of Christmas it also was a story of hope for the Star Trek universe.

Hard to believe these writers are amatures. 

Very well done indeed.

Gary Piserchino's website:  http://garypiserchio.com/wp/

Frank Tagader has no dedicated website but his Goodreads link is:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13994748.Frank_Tagader

Star Trek: Enterprise The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre - Book Report #232

I won’t lie: I found this book tedious. Mostly because I was uninterested in the guests aboard the Enterprise. 

It made perfect sense; a new captain should be assigned an easy, shake-down cruise. Time to get to know the ship and its crew without putting much stress on them. 

So, brand new Captain Kirk takes on a traveling Vaudville show and is instructed to visit all the distant star bases to lift morale by taking the act “on the road.”

The idea of the book was a good one but I did not enjoy the circus performers and the fact that Kirk was instantly attracted to one of them.

There are some added characters; a Vulcan juggler who is emotional, a new alien race is discovered drifting through Federation space and Klingons come to mix it all together. 

Sounds like it should work, right?  Except it doesn’t.  It was exceedingly slow, far too introspective and just boring to read.  I’m not the kind of reader that needs a fistfight in every chapter but this book takes its time to get going. 

Having been published in 1986 it’s conceivable the author was under strict control not to do anything alarming to the franchise. So maybe I’m not being fair. 

But it all comes down to whether I enjoyed the story or not. 

I didn’t. 

To bad too. I was really hoping for something a bit more fun. 

Okay, that was quite a bit of bashing the book. It wasn’t all bad: there were some parts of the book that I did like. 

Since this is an origins story it was a lot of fun to read how Sulu came aboard, the bad feelings the senior crew held comparing Kirk to the departed Captain Pike, how Scotty treated the new captain and how Chekov was always on board the ship. 

That last point filled in the gaping plot hole from The Wrath of Kahn.  How Kahn recognizes Chekov even though he wasn’t on the TV show until the season after his appearance. 

So it did work on some levels.  It just didn’t capture my imagination. 

Vonda N. McIntyre's website - http://www.vondanmcintyre.com/