Borg Cube Advent Calendar Week 4

Borg Cube Advent Calendar 
Week 4

Day 21.

Not a full sized mug (which would have impressed me regardless of the artwork) but an espresso cup which is a thing I guess.

Day 22.

A pencil sharpener, words fail me....

Day 23.

After some recent items I'm pleased to see a pin,

Day 24.

A Borg Shadow Caster and you know this may be the best item in the calendar.

Standing Alone by Christopher G. Nuttall

 

Standing Alone by Christopher G. Nuttall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Standing Alone is the second novel in the Cast Adrift series by Christopher G. Nuttall and I have to say it really hit the mark. We return to the Earth which was given its independence from the Alphan Empire five years ago and having already fought one war from an aggressive neighbour is rapidly gearing up for major conflict with the Pashtali who are a Galactic level civilisation. If Earth can not control and regulate the regions of space they have possession of then by Galactic Law the Pashtali are free to invade and well do anything they want. Alas Earth despite a rapid building programme lack certain technologies to create ships to rival the Galactics and have had not enough time to create at least a modern space navy. The star systems they are charged with controlling are in chaos (helped by outside forces) and with no help from their former overlords or nearby alien civilisations Earth is on its own.
Standing Alone really delivered on the promise of the first novel extending plot lines along a natural path and building upon races and galactic politics only hinted at. As was expected Christopher also delivered some outstanding space battles with a nod towards ground troops as well. The technology used by both sides made a lot of sense and the cast of characters worked very well in the circumstances they were thrust into and ultimately gave this reader a few hours of great storytelling and enjoyment, looking forward to book three.

View all my reviews

The Vacuum of Space by Julia Huni

 

The Vacuum of Space by Julia Huni
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I heard an interview with Julia Huni on a podcast I listen too and the discussion about her novels was interesting enough to have me pay Amazon a visit and buy the first novel in the Space Janitor series. The novel is centered on a lowly "bot" technician (Triana Moore) on a far flung space station (Kelly Kornienko) whose "Bots" discover a dead body, her troubles have only just begun as she is visited by station security and then by a Special Agent for the Board named Tiberius O'Neill y Mendoza bin Tariq e Reynolds and finds herself mixed a series of murders, political fall out and all the other things when dealing with the privileged upper crust of any society.
The Vacuum of Space was entertaining and I easily got caught up with the day to day life of Triana which slowly became more chaotic and dangerous as the days past. I've bought the second novel in the series which says more about my opinion than any number of words here.



View all my reviews

Christmas Movies 2021 (Part 4)

Christmas Movies 2021 

(Part 4)

The Christmas Lodge

One of my regular seasonal movies starring Michael Shanks and Erin Karpluk with additional faces from the BC acting pool as seen on Stargate. It has some religious leanings but brief enough not to be considered one of the "propaganda" movies you see these days. All in all a warm movie with some good characters and a happy ending.

Klaus

A delight when it premiered on Netflix a few years ago and the more traditional animation still holds up backed with some good voice acting riding on the back of a very beautiful story.

Serendipity

A favoured romcom watched mainly during christmas as I tend to think of it as fitting for this time of year. John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale are perfectly cast and the movie has great supporting actors.

Borg Cube Advent Calendar Week 3

Borg Cube Advent Calendar 
Week 3

Day 15.

Stickers which are always useful and already applied.

Day 16.

A very significant piece of metal described as a paperweight in a classic design.

Day 17.

Early Ben Sisko pin, you know when he had hair because he would have been too intimidating otherwise.

Day 18.

The artwork of Juan Ortiz is pretty spectacular, I already have The City on the Edge of Forever framed on the wall and these postcards are just as nice.

Day 19.

If you can't tell this is a metal bookmark, would not have guessed that without the hint from the included card.

Day 20.

A folding plastic "case" for a travel card or similar. Gotta say it's hard to drum the enthusiasm for some of these items.

Day 21.

An espresso mug, my thought whenever I see such a mug is WTF humanity so no real joy here.

Christmas Movies 2021 (Part 3)

Christmas Movies 2021

Part 3

The Santa Clause

This movie probably shouldn't work as there are certainly some dark elements lurking below the narrative but Tim Allen excels as the reluctant Santa Clause who has to deal with life and work problems.

The Santa Clause 2

Tim Allen returns as Santa in a much lighter and funnier story as he is tasked to find a Mrs Clause who turns out to be played by Elizabeth Mitchell.

The Christmas Chronicles

Kurt Russell plays Santa in this Netflix movie and does it with style. An entertaining family movie which has become a classic.

The Lemon Drop Kid

Bob Hope plays the Lemon Drop Kid a small time hustler who gets into debt to a mob boss, he has less than a month to pay back $10000 or he won't see Christmas Day. Cue little old ladies, charity Santa's and a love interest. A fun movie from the old days.

Die Hard

You can't really go wrong with this high action, suspenseful movie set in a LA tower block on Christmas Eve. A lone New York cop is pitted against a dozen well armed bad guys and Bruce Willis delivered perhaps one of his best theatrical performances of his career. Oh, Alan Rickman comes pretty darn close to stealing the show.

While You Were Sleeping

Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman deliver a wonderful feel good movie in this comedic seasonal movie as a mixup in an ICU ward has Sandra (Lucy) believed to be the fiance of a man in coma. Embraced by his family she experiences all that was missing in her life including romance.

Christmas Movies 2021 (Part 2)

Christmas Movies 2021
Part 2

Trapped In Paradise

A comedy crime caper sent in the small town of Paradise which is visited by three brothers

who plan to rob the local bank. Afterwards failing to flee the town the brothers experience the kindness and hospitality of the townsfolk while being chased by the FBI. 

The Muppet Christmas Carol

Henson Productions at their best as they take the classic tale and merge live action/muppets in a musical drama/comedy interpretation. Michael Caine is magnificent.

The Bishop's Wife

Cary Grant, David Niven and Loretta Young bring to life the story of an Angel sent to

provide guidance to a Bishop whose family is suffering as he struggles to fund the building of a cathedral. Sounds a little dull but the acting is spectacular and the movie full of warmth and humour.

ELF

A modern classic as we follow Buddy the ELF (who is actually human) from the North Pole to New York as he looks for his father. Hilarity ensues with a little romance and feel good elements thrown in. Zooey Deschanel exceels and has a great voice.

Borg Cube Advent Calendar Week 2

Borg Cube Advent Calendar 

Week 2

Day 8.

I don't think I would have thought of this but something certainly different.

Day 9.

A Fridge Magnet, feels solid as you would expect and I like the design.

Day 10.

I think I approve of all thing metallic, feels worthy and of course looks great.

Day 11.

Another Pin, great for the collector.

Day 12.

A Tea Towel, I like the artwork.

Day 13.

A drawstring bag intended for spectacles ala Kirk in ST:II but emblazoned with Disco.

Day 14.

A metal IDIC key ring, looks good and always useful.

 Christmas Movies 2021

And so it begins, the festive period where I don't have to go to work and can indulge in christmas movies and catch up on some tv series I simply didn't have time for earlier in the year.

We begin with a couple from Hallmark who turn out a lot of movies but every now and again one of them just comes out very very good and these are two good well made and entertaining stories.

The Christmas Train

An eclectic group of people travel together on a 3000 miles journey

across the USA on the run up to Christmas Day.

The movie has a great cast and at heart is a romance with a twist or two.

Every Christmas Has a Story

A huge fan of Colin Ferguson who never fails to deliver great performances and as the put upon producer and former boyfriend of Lori Loughlin's character (Kate) leads to some good chemistry and drama plus lots of comedy.

Borg Advent Cube Week 1

Borg Cube Advent Calendar 

Week 1

Did I need this, well no I didn't but I did want it so here we are ☺

Day 1

Well they didn't open big but any Trek fan would see this playing card set as worthwhile.

Day 2

Pins are quite popular now so a solid reward unless you already have this one.

Day 3

Now this was impressive, feels very solid and looks like it's worth more than you would expect.

Day 4

An art print on well sturdy paper entitled "Vashti" which I figured out was from Picard.

Day 5

It was inevitable that socks would be involved somewhere...

Day 6

They are doubling down on Pins which if you like that sort of thing is great.

Day 7

Original Series Coasters, quite nice and well made.

So that is the first week over with. A couple of nice items, a couple of well ok fair enough and two that I know many collectors will love. Overall positive given I knew we were not going to wowed by the items at the calendars price point.

The Edge Of The Universe by Andrew Maclure

 

The Edge Of The Universe: Book Three in the Unwilling From Earth Series by Andrew Maclure
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well here we are reading about the continuing adventures of Mark (Friend of the People) a lone human recruited into a galaxy spanning military force who fight for truth, justice etc etc. When The People request aid from Mark and Sah Lee (Sally) who commands the pre-eminent independent army (currently at around 2 million members) in a war against an aggressive expansionist race known as the Slarwin and at the other end of the known universe it poses many questions and concerns. Mark and Sally along with the inner circle have to decide if this is within their remit and even they are capable of fighting this sort of campaign even with some under the counter and not so under the counter aid from The People. While the novel certainly has its share of action and confrontation this is just as much if not more about how this mixed group of beings interact and handle the situations they are put in. Thankfully if you are reading the third novel in the series then you probably like the characters as much as I do and thus there is a lot to be gained by the insights and backstory provided, quite a lot of humour as well and that's never a bad thing.

View all my reviews

The Joy Machine by James E. Gunn

 

The Joy Machine by James E. Gunn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The highly successful colony world Timshel which offered its beauty and almost eden like perfection to vacationers from across the Federation had for two years now isolated itself from the galaxy. With no information the Federation had sent two separate individuals to the planet and apart from one brief communique nothing had been heard from them. Captain James Kirk and the Enterprise are tasked with solving this mystery and with some personal contacts on Timshel Kirk may succeed where others failed. Kirk makes a clandestine entry onto Timshel from the Enterprise which uses some fancy warp physics to at preset intervals make contact with Kirk but stay off the planets sensor grid but events soon spiral out of control.
The secret Timshel has been hiding is slowly revealed to Kirk as he learns an AI experiment proved to be wildly successful to the point where though the delivery of pure "joy" using machine interfaces the adult humans on the planet have put aside "normal" day to day concerns and only work under the guidance of the "Joy Machine". This story by Theodore Sturgeon was for the original series but never got beyond the pitching process and was later adapted by James E. Gunn for publication in 1996 during the boom time for Trek paperbacks. In many ways it's different enough to be embraced by the non-canon stories of the time but still retains elements we have certainly seen in the televised show which is no surprise. As a Trek novel this was perfectly acceptable with only one minor gripe and that was how the Enterprise itself was affected by the Joy Machine and the consequences there of, it felt silly and throwaway, perfect I guess for an epilogue but not a novel.


View all my reviews

X-Men Planet X by Michael Jan Friedman

 

X-Men Planet X by Michael Jan Friedman


First off I have never been a great fan of the TNG novels and certainly never read any X-Men comics so this novel is not an obvious choice for me but I am a fan of Michael and truth be told the ebook was on offer so why the hell not. From what I gathered this is the second novel that features this crossover and events from that are referred to here but I don't believe that caused any issues as the events are just as much of a mystery to Picard and crew as they are to Storm and her comrades. What we have is a group of the X-Men appearing on a starbase, causing some havoc and finally being reunited with the crew of the Enterprise. On the planet Xhaldia a number of young people are undergoing some traumatic transformations and obtaining physical and/or mental powers and surprisingly their government does not handle the situation well. Events begin to spiral out of control as the "transformed" break out of detention and then are targeted by an invading alien military force. Thankfully Xhaldia had called for help before losing communications and the Enterprise is on its way along with some very powerful and motivated mutants.
The story was paced well and I had no trouble letting myself be immersed into the narratives (which merge later) but I think I would have gotten a lot more out of the novel if I was a fan of the original X-Men rather than what FOX offered via the movies. Give it a go though, it was certainly interesting as Worf and Wolverine become buds.

View all my reviews

Best Destiny by Diane Carey

 

Best Destiny by Diane Carey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Best Destiny turns back the clock and sheds some non-canon light on the teenage years of one James Kirk, the story covers two separate time frames with the first showing James as a rebellious teenager and the other as a Captain looking at the end of his career. The focal point is the planet Faramond and the events that surrounded the discovery of a race vastly more technically advanced that the Federation and who seem to have as a species packed their bags and vanished into history.

Commander George Kirk with help from Captain Robert April arrange to take Jim on a cruise to Faramond for a ribbon cutting event in the hopes he can reach his wayward son before anything too serious happens. Jim is playing fast and loose with rules and regulations and roping other people into his games, it's only a matter of time before events spiral out of control and something happens that can not be fixed. The kicker is that Captain April is taking out the Enterprise and even the already jaded Jim Kirk is in awe of her beauty and power, of course he tries not to show it. April, George, Jim and some crew take one of the shuttles as Enterprise makes a call on another world but the shuttle is ambushed by pirates, badly damaged and with casualties Jim has to learn some very painful lessons in what it means to really lead people and be prepared to sacrifice all for the benefit of those who may never even know what you did.
Decades later the constitution class USS Enterprise is coming to the ends of its life and on its final voyage its sensors pickup an energy surge which is only associated with the explosion of warp engines. The source is a starship in the Faramond system, records indicate it's likely to be the Excelsior Class USS Bill of Rights under the command of Captain Alma Roth (former officer under Kirk). Captain Kirk does not believe in coincidences and provides records to both Spock and McCoy on events so long ago and orders his ship towards Faramond. James Kirk is again looking at life that may not hold many more wonders and has to face his mirror image yet learns that the journey is never going to be complete, there will always be one more world, one more civilisation and that will be enough to spur on this Captain, this ship and this crew.

Best Destiny by Diane Carey is one of the novels that played a part in my own personal Star Trek canon, I like this Jim Kirk (similar it has to be said to the Kelvin Universe) and no question that drawing upon her own novel Final Frontier helped greatly in continuity. The novels asks many questions of its core characters and the two timelines with varying technologies and challenges work well for the narrative and while the experienced Captain Kirk and Enterprise are pure Trek it's perhaps the young Jim with his father and April that hold the limelight. This era of Star Trek and Diane's own take on a young Kirk may not be for everyone but it works for me.

View all my reviews

Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor

 

Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The fourth novel in the series focuses on the perhaps inevitable fracture of the Bobiverse as the replicants drift ever so slightly apart as the generations multiply, it seems there is no such thing as a perfect copy or perhaps events do indeed shape the mind in small almost immeasurable ways even for what amounts to software. As factions form within the community Bob himself attempts to track down the long lost Bender and he is successful but in that success the battle lines are drawn and even the organics associated with the Bobs suffer and/or exploit the chaos.
Heaven's River is my favourite of the four novels, I liked the evolution of the Bobs and humanity as well as the complications of the non-human elements of the galaxy. The Quinlan culture and the technology behind it was fascinating and shows wonderful creativity coupled with insights into individuals and society as events impact upon them.


View all my reviews

The Wounded Sky by Diane Duane

 

The Wounded Sky by Diane Duane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Wounded Sky is one of those Star Trek novels that is so high on my scale of all things good and proper in Star Trek it's ridiculous but this story is that good. It kicks off with a description of the ship in warp and that's like nothing you've ever read, it gives the novel such heart and soul you wouldn't believe and then we get to the actual story.
The Enterprise is chosen to test a new drive system designed by K't'ik a member of an arachnid race famed for their design and technology, the "inversion drive" manipulates areas of subspace and twists natural laws and is able to fling a vessel to wherever it needs to be in zero time and the testing has gone well. The drive is installed despite Scotty having said nothing would be fitted to the ship without his full understanding but it works flawlessly, or does it? A mind bogglingly distance away from the Enterprise the strain of breaking "natural" laws has consequences and slowly but surely the very fabric of the universe is being torn apart. During the "inversion" which was supposed to occur in zero time hence no actual frame of reference for the individual the crew start to experience events and other minds, their collective souls are mingling and realization emerges that they have to journey to the focus of the tear and attempt to fix the problem or life will cease to exist.
The Wounded Sky gets the regular characters of Star Trek spot on and Diane as with all her work effortlessly weaves in new characters who can easily take center stage when required. K't'lk is glorious a true alien being who is accepted by all and yet her story has a solid foundation, same for the minor characters we meet who are on the crew but never appeared on screen. The story has scope that defies belief especially compared to contemporary Star Trek novels of the time and I'll admit the concepts and ideas presented were discussed into the wee hours with friends many times. This novel really has to be read to do it justice and while Diane presented some of basic plot ideas in her screenplay for the TNG episode "Where No One Has Gone Before" that was a pale imitation of this piece of science fiction.

View all my reviews