Tag: #scifi

Star Trek: Picard: The Last Best Hope — Una McCormack

By 5t4n5

Star Trek: Picard: The Last Best Hope -- Una McCormackThis needs to be read before Star Trek: Picard (the new TV series), or at any time after you begin watching it and wonder what happened to Picard that lead him to becoming an Admiral and then leaving Star Fleet.

This is a very well written story covering everything we need to know to more enjoy the series including how Picard met Raffi and their history; when and why Raffi started hitting the booze; Picard’s history with Elnor; the Romulan exodus, supernova and Picard’s part in it; the synth rebellion on Mars including Bruce Maddox and Agnes’ history; and many other things besides.

There are a few glaring omissions in this book: it becomes very clear that the Romulan sun did not go bang naturally, that there was something nefarious going on which was deliberately covered up by the Tal Shiar.   I can only imagine one reason for not exploring this further in this book and that is because it will be dealt with in further seasons of the TV show — or another Una book?   Whichever it is it certainly has the potential to stir up a huge bowl of gagh for our future Trekkie entertainment cravings.

So yeah, a must for all Trekkies.

Una’s Page

#scifi #startrek #unamccormack

For Want of a Nail — Mary Robinette Kowal

By 5t4n5

For Want of a Nail -- Mary Robinette KowalA wonderfully written short story about an AI whose handler, having dropped it, is having quite a few repair problems to deal with.   As the story unfolds we get to learn that the AI has far worse issues than just the repairs it needs.

If you like AI stories then this is a really good one.   And best of all it’s free, just click on the cover pic.

Mary’s Page

#scifi #maryrobinettekowal

Nova — Samuel R. Delany

By 5t4n5

Nova -- Samuel R. DelanyHaving previously read Babel-17 i was very much hoping this was just as good: so i did have very high expectations and it certainly had a lot to live up to.

So, yes, i did set out rather biased when i began to read this book, and while i have to say that it didn’t quite meet with my expectations with regards to Babel-17, it was still a very enjoyable read.

Samuel certainly has his own style, very arty, very high brow, and also very imaginative: Nova holds it’s place as one of the books which gave birth to the cyberpunk genre.   But where Babel-17 felt like a timeless read, Nova did feel a little dated to me, like it’s from the 1960’s or something.

But dated or not, it certainly has earned a deserving place in the “SF Masterworks” series.

Samuel’s Page

#scifi #sfmasterworks #samuelrdelany