Desperate Hours by David Mack (Book Review)

Star Trek: Discovery was one of the most hyped new television shows of last year. Following on such legends such as Star Trek: The Original Series, or Star Trek: The Next Generation to name a few, the show promised a great deal in a kinda-sorta-familiar era of just a decade prior to the first events of the Star Trek: The Original Series. However, for me the show failed to live up to its hype, primarily because the protagonist was uninspiring and the scripts more so. Plus the writers seemed intent on changing around too many things and the entire show is a big visual and narrative dissonance from what we know of the Federation of the times.

Desperate Hours by Star Trek stalwart David Mack attempts to fill in some gaps left in the viewer’s understanding of who the show’s protagonist Michael Burnham is. She is a brand-new character for the show, and in this novel David attempts to show who she is and why she does what she does on the show, among other things. For me, the novel proved to be an even more disappointing experience than the show, as it seemed to rely too much on internal conflict and… disagreements among Starfleet officers. It just failed to deliver on its own promise.

Note: Some medium spoilers about Star Trek: Discovery are mentioned here.

Crash by Guy Haley (Book Review)

The original review can be found at The Founding Fields, here.

The Exodus Towers by Jason M. Hough (Book Review)

The original review can be found at The Founding Fields, here. This is the second novel in the Dire Earth Cycle series.

The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough (Book Review)

The original review can be found at The Founding Fields, here. This is the first novel in the Dire Earth Cycle series, published by Del Rey Spectra and Titan Books.

X-wing: Wedge’s Gamble by Michael Stackpole (Book Review)

The original review can be found at The Founding Fields, here. This is the second novel in the X-wing series, originally published by Bantam Books.

X-wing: Rogue Squadron by Michael Stackpole (Book Review)

The original review can be found at The Founding Fields, here. This is the first novel in the X-wing series, originally published by Bantam Books.

Star Trek: Legacies Trilogy (Book Review)

On September 8, 2016 the Star Trek fandom marked a significant milestone, the 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series, the groundbreaking show that changed television and science-fiction forever. In fact, all of last year was dedicated to this celebration in a number of ways, such as the release of multiple novels from Simon & Schuster as well as the release of the third movie in the rebooted franchise, Star Trek: Beyond. It is indeed a celebration like none other because what Gene Roddenberry and others created all those years ago still has huge ramifications for all of us.

The Legacies trilogy is part of this grand celebration, bringing together fan-favourite writers like Greg Cox, David Mack, Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore to present a riveting story that goes all the way back to the core history of the series itself and features none other than Number One. An away mission gone-wrong in hostile territory, a promise fulfilled after eighteen years, interstellar conflict, spies and espionage, Legacies has everything that has come to define Star Trek over the years and is a great series to read, even for any newcomers to the franchise.

Path of the Warrior by Gav Thorpe (Book Review)

The story of Warhammer 40,000 isn’t just about the superhuman Adeptus Astartes or the mortal men and women who live and breathe to defend the Imperium of Man. It is also the story of the various xenos species who inhabit the galaxy, whether that be the brutal Orks, the ravenous Tyranids, the broken Eldar, the aspiring Tau or any of the others. And as such it is always great to see the differing perspectives, although as far as the Tyranids are concerned, there’s not much of a perspective there. Even the Orks are better narrators in that respect!

Path of the Warrior is the first novel in Gav’s Path of the Eldar series. It explores the Eldar society of Alaitoc Craftworld through the eyes of an artist-turned-Aspect Warrior, Korlandril, who must confront his past and his prejudices and his relationships with those around him if he is to succeed on the Eldar Path. There is little direct action in the novel and it is instead very much a philosophical story, as befits the Eldar that is about. And I certainly enjoyed it to a degree, enough at least that I am looking forward to continuing with the rest of the series.

Teen Titans: Earth One Vol.1 (Comics Review)

The Teen Titans are one of the most prominent of DC’s superhero teams, primarily because it is based around legacy superheroes such as Wonder Girl and Robin and other young heroes like Starfire and Beast Boy. Over the years, the Teen Titans have carved out quite a niche for themselves, even transcending the comics with shows like Young Justice and Teen Titans Go! which have proven to be popular as well. So it was no surprise that when DC began to roll out its series of Earth One storylines for its premier heroes like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, that they’d delve into the Teen Titans as well.

Teen Titans: Earth One Vol.1 repositions the team in a timeline that is very different from the current comics storyline. This is a trend that follows on from the other Earth One graphic novels, where the characters and their stories are reinvented and have their own continuity separate from the main comics-verse. Written by Jeff Lemire and art by the Dodson Duo, it is an interesting read that brings together some classic characters such as Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy and others, but it also falls short by a significant margin because the story can be incomprehensible at times.

The Terrans by Jean Johnson (Book Review)

Towards the end of last year, Jean Johnson brought her Theirs Not To Reason Why military space opera series to a close in a grand fashion with Damnation, the fifth and final novel in the series. In this series, she introduced an amazingly detailed setting where our hero was a psychic soldier who takes on the entire known galaxy and reshapes it to battle a menace that no one else could even fathom. It was a fantastic series and by the time I was done reading it, I wanted to read more. But the series was done, and all that was left was the promise from Jean that this year we would go back in time to the First Salik War, the interstellar conflict that put Earth on the big stage and which ultimately segued into the events of Theirs Not To Reason Why.

The hero of The Terrans is a former regional politician named Jacaranda MacKenzie who is selected to be the political ambassador of humanity’s first deep foray into the rest of the galaxy, as the United Planets Space Force launches a massive first contact project on the back of several precognitive visions experienced by numerous powerful psychics. Yep, psychics affirming a first contact mission. We know from Jean’s previous series that this setting is populated by numerous psychics of various abilities, and that is something that she does a great job of in this new series, introducing us to many of the pros and cons of such people, especially within the context of a first contact mission.

John Carter: Warlord of Mars #5-6 (Comics Review)

It is all well and good to have your hero triumph over villains who just aren’t on the same level as him. It is always thrilling to have Superman go up against low-key baddies, for example, but the true thrill only comes when he goes up against Darkseid, Brainiac or Lex Luthor, say. The same holds true for John Carter as well. It is awesome to see him fight against rogue Tharks and the other dangers of Barsoom, but when he is faced with another superhuman like Captain Joshua Clark, that’s when things get really interesting.

Having seen how their rivalry came about in the previous issues, and just why Clark hates Carter so much, issues #5 and #6 get down into the nitty-gritty of their final battle against each other, to decide who is the better man after all. And writer Ron Marz certainly doesn’t pull any punches in that regard. He keeps everything focused on the end-goal, and ends the first arc of the series on a great note. Similarly, artists Abhishek Malsuni and Roberto Castro do their best and the art on the series is as good as it was in the beginning.

Ms. Marvel #13-15 (Comics Review)

Last time we were with Kamala Khan aka the new Ms. Marvel, Loki crash-landed a prom party and she rightly schooled him for his scheming and planning, in addition to some great heroics in general. That’s one of the most endearing things about the title and the character because G. Willow Wilson has made Ms. Marvel into a very fun and relaxed title that occasionally deals with real world issues but never gets too heavy with the allusions so that you go and think “geez, not this again”. More than a year on since release, and Ms. Marvel is still one of the best titles on the shelves, and for good reason!

Taken together, issues #13 through #15 of Ms. Marvel are about Kamala exploring more of her Inhuman legacy and also learning more about herself and fighting against everyday challenges borne out of the patriarchal bias of society. G. Willow Wilson has taken a somewhat similar line before, using Kamala’s adventures as social commentary in one way or another, but she really hits it out of the park with these three issues, and the art by new-to-series Takeshi Miyazawa impresses as much as that of Adrian Alphona before, making for a very seamless transition.