The newly-relaunched Shiny Shelf has posted my review of the Legion of Super Heroes epic graphic novel Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds. Check it out.

Shiny Shelf has published my review of John @Scalzi’s novella The God Engines. Hit up the link and share your thoughts.

Shiny Shelf has published my review of Star Wars: Death Troopers, the recent horror novel (yes, horror!) that takes place in that galaxy far, far away. Hit up the link and let me know what you think!

My review of the latest Star Trek: Vanguard novel, Precipice, is now up at Shiny Shelf. Go check it out, you know you want to.

My first article for Shiny Shelf is now up, a review of Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker. Enjoy.

What to buy?  Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk hardcover?  Star Wars:  Clones Wars Season 1?  Or just the Clone Wars Season 1 Guide?  Final Crisis hardcover?

Decisions, decisions…

Amazing old-school cover to The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov.

Last Updated: 10/21/2009

If you’ve read this site for a while, you know that I love the Star Trek: Titan series of books, chronicling the adventures of Riker and his crew of the USS Titan as they spearhead a new era of exploration for Starfleet. Star Trek: Titan has been describe by former Senior Editor and creator of the series, Marco Palmieri, as “The Original Series in the Next Generation time frame.” While looking through some stats for my site the other day, I noticed that the highest number of hits from Internet searches this month were from people looking for information on “USS Titan”. So, I thought I’d put together a sort of mini-guide, cobbling together information and try to give someone new to the series a decent introduction. I will be updating this page as time goes on.

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Synthesis is the latest entry in the popular Star Trek: Titan novel series, with well-regarded British writer James Swallow taking the reins this time around. In Synthesis, Titan encounters a race of sentient machines, whose civilization is losing a conflict against a vast and barely comprehensible enemy known as the Null. If the machines fail, the Null could pose a threat to all life in the galaxy, and beyond.

This is why I love the Titan series; Swallow deftly intermixes high-concept science fiction with compelling drama and action. Swallow raises questions about prejudice and machine / AI’s right to life in a way that is fresh. In doing so, he casts a mirror on the diversity of the crew with a twist, while avoiding any heavy-handedness. The world building Swallow treats us to is on par with Christoper L. Bennett’s work, which is to say, fantastic. The Sentry Coalition are an intriguing species, and specifically their member, SecondGen White-Blue. White-Blue, by necessity, is the most fleshed out of the Sentry, and develops the character with a careful hand that made it one of my favorite in the novel. Swallow also does a wonderful job in capturing the crew members’ voices, who come across and authentic and not merely as ciphers.

The criticisms are few. I did not care for the use of Minuet in the novel (the visual, not the character / AI underneath of it). The AI using that “disguise” could have looked like anyone, really, and very little, if anything, would have been lost. In fact, Titan’s AI could have been very interesting character arc over a number of books; it was a bit of a shame to see it truncated here (though, again, necessary). And (certainly out of the author’s control) the cover was what I like to consider a “cheap pop”; to easily draw in the readers who will recognize Minuet’s face, even though it never conveys an actual scene in the novel. I just didn’t care for it.

The Titan series continues to push ahead with its tenet of being “the Original Series for the Next Generation era,” being about Star Trek’s core purpose of exploration. Swallow does the series justice with Synthesis, continuing the high quality that has been a hallmark since the beginning. Highly recommended.

Rating: A

Open Secrets is the fourth volume in the popular Star Trek: Vanguard novel series, taking place concurrent with the original series and chronicling the events concerning a starbase in a remote region of space called the Taurus Reach and an operation to unlock the mysteries of a genome and technological remnants of an ancient and extremely powerful race.  That is Vanguard’s premise at its most basic; it says nothing of the complex politics and military ramifications involving several races, including the Klingons and Tholians.  Popular Trek author Dayton Ward takes the reigns solo on this volume, writing the volume based on a story by himself and his usual writing partner, Kevin Dilmore.  Open Secrets picks up in the aftermath of the previous volume, Reap the Whirlwind. Starbase 47 commander, Commodore Reyes, has leaked top-secret information on Operation:  Vanguard, leading to a court-martial and trial.  The Klingons begin to make bold moves into the Taurus Reach,  and intelligence office T’Prynn faces a psychological battle that will change her life forever.

Open Secrets resolves a few dangling plot threads from the previous books in the series, and as is typical for an ongoing narrative, leaves a few more.  Ward’s writing style is straightforward, with lean prose and solid pacing that, for the most part, briskly takes the reader through a lot of territory.  Open Secrets has a rather large scope, another hallmark for the series; not only covering a number of characters and locales, but over the course of months.  As with his previous entry in the series, Summon the Thunder, you feel like you’ve read through an entire season worth of material by the time you are done with the novel.  It is a credit to Ward as a writer that the novel, for the most part, rides along smoothly.  Only in a couple of parts does the plot drag a bit.  For example, T’Prynn’s internal, dream-like struggle gets repetitive and then is resolved rather abruptly.  This is probably just a nitpick, and is not that bad considering her current character arc reaches its conclusion.

Ward has done another great job in the latest Vanguard entry; he has a love for the era and it shows.  He is able to evoke a variety of drama in this novel: court room, political, military, diplomatic, and does it with ease.  New station commander, Admiral Heihachiro Nogura, is very well fleshed out and is wisely developed as a very-much different type of officer than Reyes.  Open Secrets continues the very high quality for the Vanguard series, and thankfully we only have to a wait a few more months until volume five, Precipice.

Rating: A