Raymus by Gary Whitta

I do love these kinds of collections, where they fill in little corners of iconic stories and movies.

This one bridged the events of Rogue One and A New Hope.  In the opening sequence of the original movie, the rebel ship, Tantiv IV, was boarded and the captain questioned while being lifted off the deck and strangled.

This is his story.

Princess Liea has the Death Star data in her hands and the ship is trying to escape the star destroyer.

This was a personal war story.  One where the main character suspects that this is when his part in the struggle will come to an end.

We know just a little bit more about this poor man who died shortly after the opening credits. In movies, death is meaningless.  But here we come to understand how each body had a story, a history of its own.

A strong start to a giant collection that was published to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of the first movie.

Gary Whitta's website - http://www.garywhitta.com/

Gary Whitta

In Panic Town, On The Backward Moon by Michael F Flynn

Talk about the look and feel of a space western.

The story starts in a saloon, where a stranger walks in, and leaves something valuable with the owner of the establishment. 

This is the kind of SF I love; high tech, set in the future but still populated by recognizable people.

The object stored in the saloon's safe was stolen and the person who stole it has made enemies all over Mars.  Now he is dead and the object is gone.

In my mind's eye I could see all the dust, grit and roughness of life on Mars.

Flynn was able to create a giant backdrop in few pages.  Once I was done reading the setting lived on in my head.  The world he created was so rich, I felt as though I had read a novel.

Terrific stuff.

The Rise of the Graphic Novel by Stephen Weiner - Book Review #241

Like my previous post about short stories and novellas this book, about the history of the graphic novel, has given me permission to dig into the collection I have in my basement.

I grew up collecting comics in the 1980’s and witnessed the birth of the form myself.  It was a nostalgic ride through my days browsing the comic shops.

While reading the book I added many titles to my wish list on the Edmonton Public Library’s website.

This was a very approachable exploration of the form.  The chapters were short and the book was well seeded with panels from the graphic novels discussed.

An informative read that reignited my joy of sequential art.

Reflection by Aaron Wright

A fascinating story about the right to self determination, end of life and responsibility to others.

Reed Ellis has a terminal illness, which will see him suffer greatly in his last few years.  He has filled out all the required paperwork and is now waiting through his required “cooling off” period in the hospital he has chosen to end his life.  

While the days pass his sister cannot stand by to watch, believing that he should not be taking this action.  She leaves him to die alone.  In his room the hospital AI befriends him.  Through this relationship perspectives change.

It was a kind, warm and sobering story. 

I am glad I read it. 

Ocean by Warren Ellis - A Graphic Novel

This is the kind of Science Fiction I crave.

A straight-ahead mystery in a far off world.  Jupiter's moon Europa, in this case.

Something is lurking in the depths, under the ice, and it's not nice.

But then there are people and corporations who are also not nice, that want to exploit the discovery.

Enter Inspector Nathan Kane of the United Nations who is sent to investigate and prevent any profiteering of the discovery.

Things get dangerous and deadly very fast but then the story settles into a threat of violence rather than an all out gunplay.  It's teamwork and intelligence that drives the adventure to its wild end.  The majority of characters that moved the plot forward were women, which I found very refreshing.  Not one damsel in distress among them, these gals were in charge of their roles.

I liked the story very much, which was enhanced by the rich, clean art.  Chris Sprouse gave the story the immense scale the setting needed.  The spotless order of the interiors gave it that old-style, shiny Science Fiction feel that has been gone since Star Wars came along and made things gritty.  It was a nice change.

It is rare to find science fiction that does not rely on some kind of techno-magic or alien monster to drive a story.  The trick is to make the setting interesting and fill it with people we recognize.  Technology should be advanced but it doesn't need to bee too far out.  Guns shooting bullets on a space station is a recipe for disaster, but if you change the slugs to acid capsules that only burn organic matter, that's an advancement we can relate to.

If you can get your hands on a copy of this, you will be happy with the work.

Art by Chris Sprouse

Gate Crashers by Patrick S. Tomlinson - Boork Review #240

I want to thank Tor Books for continuing to expand my library to new and unusual authors.

This is billed as SF comedy, which got me interested right away.  To do good comedy you have to be confident in your knowledge of the genre.  I thought Tomlinson did an excellent job of it. The book was at times absurd but he never allowed himself to go over the top in the way that Douglas Adams got lost in his own creativity.  No.  The story was well thought out and planned.

Where the humour worked best was in the relationships between the crews of the Magellan and the Bucephalus.  It was people being people in a strange situation that gave rise to most of the humour.

I must say I was captivated by Tomlinson’s take on the First Contact trope.  Humanity has pushed into interstellar space but FTL has not been achieved.  Even with this limitation the exploration crew of the Magellan discover the actual limits of space, at least to humans.

An artifact is found drifting in space and, after it is brought on board to be examined, well, everything changes.

Honestly this was a lovely book, filled with warmth to humanity but absolutely cognizant of how ridiculous we can be.

I was very happy that the heart and soul of the book was the out-of-his-depth scientist Felix Fletcher and the level-headed captain of the Magellan, Alison Ridgeway.

To give you some idea of the comedy I’d say the antagonists are similar to the ones found in the movie The Fifth Element and that is as out-there as the characters get.  The rest of it has the feel of The Orville.  It’s an interesting blend of the competently humours meeting an overconfident race that has been its apex for centuries.

The book works perfectly as a stand alone novel but it has certainly been set up for sequels.  According to the author’s website there will be at least two more instalments.

I look forward reading more from this author.  Lucky for me this is not his first novel.

NOTE -  I loved the inclusion of the sketches of the ships.  Publishers need to do that kind of thing more often.  A little illustration here and there adds much to the visuals of a story.

Check Patrick S Tomlinson’s web page at:  http://www.patrickstomlinson.com/

Patrick S Tomlinson

Gaia’s Children by Lawrence Buentello

Space is big.

So big that if you are a colonist on a new planet, there is essentially no hope of a rescue.

The Colony Organizers are responsible for discovering candidate planets, analyze the planets’ suitability, “seed” them with a human population and to support that colony as best they can. 

But when that support can take decades to arrive you best be prepared to make due..

When Persephone crash lands on the colony world of Aeolus, her mission to help repopulate the colony, with improved DNA, is threatened.  She is the only member of the crew to have survived.  Most of the ship was destroyed beyond use.  However the ship’s AI and part of the surgical suite remained useful.

With these limited resources she does her best to help a dying colony that does not want it.  They’ve not only fallen into a Darwinian situation they have written his ideas into law.

This was a sad story of hope, circumstance, despotism, and points of view colliding. 

I was taken into the story by the immense isolation described here.

Wonderful work indeed. 

You can read the story online at Compelling Science Fiction:  http://compellingsciencefiction.com/index.html

The President’s Brain Is Missing by John Scalzi

I use to love watching The West Wing; the dialogue, the intelligence of the characters and the humor all worked so well that I kept coming back to the show.

This story was a lot like that, okay the premise was silly, but all good science fiction plays with the question, "What If?"

So you go with it; a dim-witted president discovers that he cannot keep his head under water when he goes for his morning swim and he's feeling rather light-headed, come to think of it.  The resident doctor does some tests and sends the president to bed for some rest.

A meeting is called for the senior staff in the oval office.  The doctor's discovery is discussed and a plan is set in motion to discover how this could have happened.  And why is the president not dead, you know, by being without a brain?

What follows is a terrific romp with intelligent people trying to unravel a mystery that is utterly impossible but they have to deal with it.

Like The West Wing this story had excellent dialogue and that sharp Scalzi that made it a joy to read.  I actually put it down once just to savour it.

Honestly, this could be filmed.  It would make a terrific episode of The Veep.

Find John Scalzi here:  https://whatever.scalzi.com/

John Scalzi

Short Stories and Novellas.

Image from the article.

I read a terrific article on the WIRED website:  HOW TECHNOLOGY SHAPES THE WAY WE READ by some poor, uncredited staff member.  It tells the story of the resurgence of the novella and how it is the perfect format for our society today.

I must say the I completely agree.  I am often overwhelmed by the commitment involved in a series or even stand alone novels.

Way back, when the paperback revolution was underway, books often came in around 150 pages.  These were tightly plotted and sparse that got to the point of things.  But then, in the past few decades, books began to top out over 400 pages, my guess is to justify the cover price; readers wanted quantity over quality.

How often have you read a chapter knowing full well that it is nothing but filler?  I once read a Star Trek novel that took three pages (!) to answer the door.

Anyway, the article was rather liberating to me.  Short stories and novellas are often only available to mystery and science fiction readers in magazines or anthologies.  After reading the piece, I felt I had permission to enjoy myself, to read a short story or novella and appreciate it for what it can be - a story well told.

Although I've given short stories their fair share, here on my humble little blog (usually posted on Wednesdays), I've always felt that it is not "real" reading, you know?  Novels are the thing.  I've often felt that some of the best short stories could have easily been expanded into a novel.  But maybe that's not quite right.  Maybe I liked it so much, because it was just the right length, that it left me wanting more.

I went straight to Chapters Indigo and bought the first TOR.Com ebook that appealed to me.  It was by John Scalzi, more on that in my next post.

Sunrise on Mercury by Robert Silverberg

The story is of a follow up mission to land in the Twilight Belt of Mercury. The band of area that is neither on the night side, being too cold, nor being exposed to direct sunlight, which would bake the crew and ship into ash. 

The mission is threatened by a suicidal member of the crew. 

When we discover why the crewman threatened himself and the mission, well, that’s what makes the story interesting. 

Nicely done. Although the dialogue felt a bit stiff, it still held my interest. 

I found the story fun and interesting. I couldn’t help thinking that it would make a terrific Netflix Original series. 

Robert Silverberg's website: http://www.robert-silverberg.com/index.html 

A Walkabout Amongst The Stars by Lezli Robyn

Yes.  I really liked this one.

One of my favorite space fantasies is to seek out one of  the Voyager probes, polish the Golden Record, refuel the tanks and restock the RTGs and send it on it's way.

It's like archeology.

In this story, somebody beat humans to it!  All of Voyager 1's systems mysteriously power up after going dark two years before.

Tyrille Smith goes out with her AI robot, IRIS, to investigate.  I loved that robot, by the way.  What a wonderful companion.

It's a mystery that turns into a sudden first contact event.

My goodness this was terrific fun.

I must seek out Leslie Robyn's work. - https://lezlirobyn.com/

The Race For Arcadia by Alex Shvartsman

What an excellent and unexpected story.

There is a new race to a distant planet.  The Russians want to be first to land a person on it, for the prestige and glory of being first.

But it's a risky mission.  Knowing that the Chinese and the Americans are committed to their own landings, they embark on a daring one-way trip.  By making the ship smaller and lighter Russia can beat the other countries to Arcadia.

This was particularly relevant given the recent discussion of mounting a one-way trip to land people on Mars.  Thankfully that idea has been canceled.

Still...

The Russian mission takes the idea of making the ship lighter one step further and that gives the story a sinister, dark twist.



This was imaginatively thought out.

Loved it.

Alex Shvartsman's website - https://alexshvartsman.com/

How Democracies Die by Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky - Book Report #239

The sobering takeaway from this book is: democracies are actually very fragile. It can take only one person, with dictatorial qualities, to unravel decades, even centuries of democratic governance.

By exploring worldwide democratic history, the authors shine a light on the current sitting president, Donald Trump. 

It’s fascinating to learn how calamities from one era can significantly affect the future.  Take 9/11 and the Patriot Act as an example of how future presidents can leverage the act’s power and further erode the rights and freedoms that are the pillars of modern democracy. 

The intense polarization of political views and their parties, got its start in the 1970’s with Newt Gingrich and his viscous verbal attacks on the opposition.  He broke with an unwritten rule of respect and diplomacy. 

Obviously there is much more going on in the two parties than just one person.  Gingrich just marked a change in tone. 

The authors make some interesting connections with civil rights and the current political climate in the United States. 

What I kept coming away with is the fragility of our democratic systems. They only work if we believe, trust and respect them.  Supreme courts can be packed with politically aligned justices.  Filibusters can be abused to the point of making governments impotent.  Respect for the executive, the house and judiciary have been eroded. 

In order to keep democracy working politicians must respect the rules and customs that have been observed over the decades and centuries.  Once the unwritten rules of decorum and respect are broken democracy itself can unravel.

It was a chilling subject - the fragility of democracy. 

More information about the authors -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Levitsky
and - https://scholar.harvard.edu/dziblatt/home

Steven Levitsky (left) and Daniel Ziblatt

Excalibur by Jack McDevitt

This one was so believable I actually looked up the fictional NASA mission the story was about.

What if Voyager 2 saw something unexpected when it passed Neptune?

A reporter stumbles across a mission called Arkon 1, but when he starts asking questions about it he is met with some resistance. 

I was rather disappointed the story only ran for 11 pages.  I wish it could have gone longer. 

Well done indeed. 

Jack McDevitt's website - https://www.jackmcdevitt.com/

The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change by Al Gore - Book Report #238

My goodness this was a "BIG" book.

That's right:  All caps, bold, italics and in quotation marks.

Each chapter could have been a book in and of itself.  Which made this volume overwhelming and, at times, made me throw up my hands in frustration, thinking that the troubles of our time are just too big to take on!

I wanted hope and, sadly, like so many of these kinds of books, the discussion was thin on solutions.  But, as I started to think on it, the reason answers are not provided is for the simple reason that they have not been thought of yet.

Peter Diamandis is fond of saying that the world's biggest problems are the world's biggest business opportunities.  And he's right; living here on the prairies I'm personally worried about drought, but the world is lousy with water.  In my mind desalination will be a world wide game changer.  If that one problem alone could be solved, scarcity of fresh water, so much of our problems could be solved.

Imagine - pipelines filled with drinking water, instead of oil. Wow!

Al Gore takes on the world in this book.  Like I said, it's a big book.  He discussed:

Table of Contents:

1. Work: The World of Work in the New Global Economy
a. An Introduction to the Global Economy
b. Outsourcing
c. Robosourcing
d. Automation in the Financial Industry
e. The Redistribution of Wealth

2. Power: The Shifting of Power from Nation-States to Multinational Corporations
a. The Rising Power of Multinational Corporations
b. The Declining Power of the United States

3. The Internet: The Global Mind
a. The Rise of the Internet
b. The Internet of Things, and ‘Big Data’
c. Global Democracy
i. Overthrowing Dictatorial Regimes
ii. Reforming Established Democracies
d. The Dangers of the Internet

4. Biotechnology
a. Biotechnology in Food Production: GMOs
b. Biotechnology in Medicine

5. Demographics and Natural Resource Depletion
a. Population Increase
b. Displacement of Peoples: Xenophobia and Urban Stress
c. Environmental Stress
d. Techno-Optimism
e. Techno-Pessimism
f. The Solution: Reforming GDP

6. Climate Change
a. The Problem
b. The Effects: The Threat to Food and Freshwater Sources, and the Displacement of Peoples
c. The Solution

See what I mean?  These are intense subjects.

I was glad I took the time to get through it.  There once was a saying, "think globally and act locally," this book illustrates that there is an abundance of problems to tackle and you can make a difference even if you choose to work on one or two things yourself.

If you can start a business to solve a problem, so much the better.

Highly recommended, but hang on to your optimism it will be challenged by Al Gore.

His website is here - https://www.algore.com/

Tombaugh Station by Robin Wayne Bailey

Scientists and engineers going slowly crazy on the surface of Pluto.

What started off quietly and tense devolved into an action piece that did not seem to fit the first third of the story.

Although beautifully realized with the emotional repercussions of volunteering to work on a one-way mission to advance science and humanity. The battle sequence could have been edited out and the story would still have worked.

The story is centered on the death of a fellow old-timer scientist of Tombaugh Station, one of the first to land on Pluto.  There is something strange about the death, too many things went wrong all at once.

Nothing grabs me more than a mystery in space.

Too bad the author tried to make it two kinds of stories at once.

It did not work for me.


Robin Wayne Bailey's Wiki pages is - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Wayne_Bailey

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A Heinlein - Book Report #237

This was not what I was expecting.

I mean, come on!  It was published in 1965, in the middle of the Apollo program!

Instead of an adventure story about colonizing the moon, building the infrastructure or mounting some kind of rescue, it was, instead, a handbook on how to mount a revolution.

It was political.

It was rather dull actually.

I know I'm going to get a lot of rolled eyes from those people who are real Heinlein fans.  I suspect he was trying to develop his own kind of libertarian paradise and couldn't make a novel work on Earth.


So yea.  It wasn't for me in the same way that Infomocracy wasn't.

It's not like it was badly written it simply was not a subject that interested me, so I was let down by it.

Coma Kings by Jessica Barber

This was a heart warming story that seemed to go in one direction then made a quick twist into vulnerability.

I know that’s not much of a review.

What’s it about? You might ask. 

Jacking into a VR game and how easy it is to be lost in it. 

But that would have been too easy to write. Instead there is a poingnancy to it that was unexpected. 

It was very well done. 

It just goes to show that genre fiction can be much more than cliché. 

Brokenomics by Dina Gachman - Book Report #236

A light and fluffy self-help, personal finance book.

There was lots of humor but very little in the way of nuts-and-bolts money management strategies.

One of my favourites was the advice to think of your shittly little apartment as a vila and you'll feel better, thinking it's a quaint little place in an exotic location.

I laughed with the author, it's good advice - to make the best of things and not to focus on things you don't have.  So much of our problems stem from what our culture depicts as a success or "the way to live."  There is no right or wrong way.

The title of the book sums up the focus - how to live a happy life on what you can afford.  Don't go into debt, if you can help it.  Chasing The American dream is a fiction.

It was a good book to read, but I wouldn't keep it on my bookshelf.

Anda’s Game by Cory Doctorow

A wonderful and inspiring story.

Since I agree with Doctorow’s stance with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, I enjoy reading these very same problems played out and solved in his fiction. 

Anda is a young English girl who loves gaming but struggles with the male-dominance of the culture. She is also struggling with her own real-world self-esteem. 

The story tackles balancing an in-game life with the real world.  And how the real world can intrude in the game world. 

There are some important subjects explored here, which makes reading it so very satisfying to me. 

Recommended. 

Cory Doctorow's website - https://craphound.com/

Waking Dragon by Prof. Peter Navarro - Book Report #235

This was a comprehensive look at the influence and future impact of a rising China.

The audiobook was part of the Modern Scholar Series which are recorded lectures taught by university professors.

It was primarily a course on the economics of a modern China.  But it also looked deeply into environmental and social impacts the country's role as the world's factory floor.

Let's face it, the world is a big, complicated and messy place.  So is China.

I liked the course, in that it illuminated the inner realities of the country and, if things are not managed carefully, how conflicts can arise.

I found it sobering.

The only downside to the series were the questions at the end of each lecture.  Which were not questions at all but a terrible way to recap the salient points the professor wanted to make. 

Prof. Navarro's Wiki page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Navarro

The Dreamer and the Dream by Derek Tyler Attico

Wow!

This took one of my favourite episodes of DS9, Far Beyond the Stars, and revisits the life of Benny Russell.   The 1950’s writer has spent the past six years in the Queens Borough Mental Institution. 

He’s been incarcerated there since being fired from his job at  Incredible Tales magazine.   He has fallen into his creations, that of a black captain of a space station, choosing to live in his mind's imagination. 

But now, 1959, he is on the cusp of being released.  However the power of the worlds he created are influencing his reality. 

Like I said - wow!

This was so much fun to read. I tore right through it loving every flashback to 1959.  I was completely taken in by the meta nature of the story and how the author tied the world of DS9 to Benny Russell and further tied his reality to how Star Trek influenced our own society. 

Well done indeed. 

I continue to be impressed by the quality of storytelling in this collection. 

Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free by Cory Doctorow - Book Report #234

This was a fascinating subject but, after a while it just went over my head.

Learning about how to deal with intellectual properties on the Internet, which is nothing more than a copy machine.

The basic thrust of the book was to say that it is better to allow the downloading and sharing of content on the Internet.  Treat it as advertisement and people will likely pay for more.

He used a street busker as an example, most people just walk on by, some stay and listen leaving nothing in the hat but others will.  Those that do will leave enough to pay for and make the effort worthwhile.  When you combine those that listened without paying and those that did, they may tell others about your work who may or may not pay but the audience will grow.

He also makes a good argument on how digital locks, DRMs, simply do not work.

The truth of things is that these are the Wild West years of the Internet and it will take time for things to shake out, correct themselves and develop fair (for the most part) structures.

One thing I found interesting was Doctorow's insight in the streaming music services.  The current belief is that these services are paying ridiculously low royalties to the artists.  But the truth is that it is the record labels that are collecting the royalties, getting fat in the process, and it is THEY who are not distributing the money.

Anyhow, I found the book interesting even though much of it eluded me.

I love learning about the worlds within worlds we live in.

Recommended.

Cory Doctorow's website - https://craphound.com/

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/

Stars, Won’t You Hide Me? by Ben Bova

For a last installment in a very good collection this one was mind-blowing in its scale.

Holman wakes with the ship's computer AI asking for instructions.  Where should we go?  The ship has been damaged in an attack but it is repairing itself.

Humanity has been at war with The Others and they have come back to exterminate every last person left alive.

Not only did the include faster-than-light travel but  it is an intergalactic chace story.  Humanity has been judged as unworthy to continue existing.

This was a terrific epic that could easily have been made into a complete series of novels.  Bova did a great job of succinctly telling a giant story by showing us what happened to one single man.

The 50-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, Book Two by Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross - Book Review #231

This was a giant addition to the previous book.

Once again it is just packed with insights some readily known others scathing.  But it still manages to make me wonder how the shows ever made it to the screen.  There was so much interference by the creators, studios, networks that all managed to dumb down the product.

What rally made me unhappy was how the powers that be consistently underestimated the audience.

As I've mentioned before, I love the DVD extras that are part of most movies you can buy.  This filled that desire so very well.

I've enjoyed these volumes as audiobooks and I must say that the productions was very well thought out.  It was not just read by one person.  Since the books is nothing more interviews thoughtfully laid out to make a cohesive narrative, the producers of the audiobook hired a cast of narrators which made following along that much easier.  It would have been very easy to lose track of who was doing the talking had it been read by only one person.

I had no idea how scripts were written for the show, when you have that many people writing and making changes along the way to production, the original idea of an episod was often completely lost in the process.  How I would love to read the originally intended stories in book form, just to get an idea of what could have been.

The only example of that is Harlan Ellison's City on the Edge of Forever, which has been made into a comic book and released as a novela under his own name.  What was intended and what was delivered is actually quite disappointing in comparison.

I loved this series of books.  If you like knowing what happened on the set an in the writers room, then you'll love these books.

Highly recommended.