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I'm currently half-way through my annual re-read of A Night in the Lonesome October, by Roger Zelazny.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
I'm reading up on post-Nemesis Star Trek novels from around 2005 onwards. Read USS Titan Taking Wing, then Death in Winter and now Articles of the federation. They all tie together loosely, they're of varying quality, but they're all better than the writing in "Picard"...

I loved that whole “post-Nemesis relaunch” period. There were bad books, sure, but the tone of the setting and the connection to the optimistic Starfleet of the TNG era made even the bad books enjoyable to read. And the good ones were brilliant.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I always found him to be better at short stories. His original three Foundation books are more like a sequence of novellas rather than full novels, which is likely why I remember them fondly while I feel the rest of his Foundation novels and later Robot novels blow.

Same goes for Heinlein.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
I'm reading up on post-Nemesis Star Trek novels from around 2005 onwards. Read USS Titan Taking Wing, then Death in Winter and now Articles of the federation. They all tie together loosely, they're of varying quality, but they're all better than the writing in "Picard"...

I loved that whole “post-Nemesis relaunch” period. There were bad books, sure, but the tone of the setting and the connection to the optimistic Starfleet of the TNG era made even the bad books enjoyable to read. And the good ones were brilliant.

Can you recommend some? So far I'm focussing on the arc about Romulus, not sure I'm interested in the following Borg incursion. After articles of the federation I think I'm continuing with Titan 2 because Donatra is there, then maybe the Destiny books.
Articles of the Federation on the one hand is interesting because of its setting, we never saw much of the federation president. On the other hand it's pretty uninspired, oh so it's US-president IN SPACE, I'd like my Trek to show me more utopia and interesting societies.

I don’t remember the second Titan book well, but I enjoyed the series a lot, especially Orion’s Hounds, Synthesis, and Sight Unseen.

For Romulan stuff, they are involved in the Typhon Pact books, especially Rough Beasts of Empire, although that one starts out a bit slow. It also follows A Singular Destiny, the sequel to Articles of the Federation that handles the aftermath of the Destiny series and its Borg incursion. The Typhon Pact books show us a lot about the other Trek baddies, such as the Breen and Tzenkethi. I found Gorn book weak, though.

The Cold Equations series are loosely connected stories, but generally good. I think the first one brings back Data and does a really excellent job justifying his return.

If you like to see a lot of continuity woven together into a single story, Watching the Clock uses the Department of Temporal Investigations to connect together all the time travel shenanigans from the TNG era along with the Temporal Cold War from Enterprise into one grand story. The Buried Age is about a pre-Enterprise-D Picard weaving together all of the deep history nuggets and weird lore outliers when he discovers a billion year old being alive in a stasis field.


The different series share a lot of continuity for events such as the Typhon Pact or the Fall or Section 31, but near the end they started producing more stand alone stories if that’s what you are looking for.


Someone made a huge reading order flow chart that illustrates all the connection.

Reading the final Shardlake novel, Tombland, by CJ Sansom. Very talented author and historical researcher, great stories and the history feels very authentic. I'm really sad that he passed away recently and there won't be any more.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:



Someone made a huge reading order flow chart that illustrates all the connection.

Oh my... I've been searching for something like this, big thank you!

 Nevelon wrote:

 Just Tony wrote:
I never got around to reading the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, but I recently picked up a boxed set of the books. The only problem now is that my work schedule is not conducive to reading time. It's next up in the queue, though...

I’ve read the first one. Not a fan. Tried the second one a couple times, just can’t get into it. Have the 3rd, never made it that far.

I know Asimov is one of the greats of sci-fi, but I’ve never been a fan,

I also read the first one a little while ago. It was very disappointing. I think it just hasn't aged well. Would definitely have recommended reading the first one to see how you like it before buying a whole box set.

Currently on “Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires”

Always been interested in the beginnings of organized crime in America. Instead of rewatching Boardwalk Empire, I’ve decided to go the more historic/factual route.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:



Someone made a huge reading order flow chart that illustrates all the connection.

Oh my... I've been searching for something like this, big thank you!

I think my brain just broke after trying to read that on my mobile.

But when you are done reading those, read the Coda trilogy. It's the end of the Pocket Books Star Trek 'Verse.

I would have preferred no ending to that continuity over the ending Coda gave us.

I read a book called Carthage: A History at my local college library.

Should I be concerned that most of the "academic" ancient history books I can find at my local libraries are from 1973 through 1985 or so? I have a feeling that all these resources on Ancient History are themselves rather ancient now.

Are there really no newer books on Ancient History topics? I know there are, but my local libraries are not getting them!

 Easy E wrote:
I read a book called Carthage: A History at my local college library.

Should I be concerned that most of the "academic" ancient history books I can find at my local libraries are from 1973 through 1985 or so? I have a feeling that all these resources on Ancient History are themselves rather ancient now.

Are there really no newer books on Ancient History topics? I know there are, but my local libraries are not getting them!

New books are expensive, probably not a lot of incentive to buy them if the older ones are not checked out often. Plus if you miss the limited print runs they become really expensive secondhand

Also I suspect proportionally less books get written in the internet age.

One of my friends heard me lamenting the cost if big stompy mechs in 40k, and bought me a copy of BattleTech: BattleMech Manual (which is apparently a version if the game that is solely 'Mechs only.


I'm sure I won't have any trouble reading this Rulebook, the Age of Darkness 2nd Edition Rulebook, and 40k 10th Edition Rulebook, and Zone Mortalis and what did I just download? The new Kill Team.... I think...

I'll be fine... won't I?

 Haighus wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
I read a book called Carthage: A History at my local college library.

Should I be concerned that most of the "academic" ancient history books I can find at my local libraries are from 1973 through 1985 or so? I have a feeling that all these resources on Ancient History are themselves rather ancient now.

Are there really no newer books on Ancient History topics? I know there are, but my local libraries are not getting them!

New books are expensive, probably not a lot of incentive to buy them if the older ones are not checked out often. Plus if you miss the limited print runs they become really expensive secondhand

Also I suspect proportionally less books get written in the internet age.

To add to this, big boy scholarly histories tend to not move nearly as fast as little boy popular histories.

To this day, McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom and Foner's Reconstruction remain the go to texts on 'big history' for the Civil War and Reconstruction. Both books were written in the 80s. Both books remain the most complete works from a history on either era and no one is really chomping at replacing them since it's not clear how or why you would for now. Rather, newer books and research are narrower books and more focused on specific topics.

On top of that, for some topics... I mean what do you do? All sources for Carthage are at this point well known and well worn. There's nothing new to publish in history. Further research will hinge more on archeology. Archeology is harder still. Archeologists tend to talk through journals as its rare for any of them to do so much work that they're write a whole book about it. The field can move so fast in some areas any book would be obsolete between starting it and publication!

It's not weird that the only books you can find on some topics are from the 70s and 80s. That was the last big surge in many fields where post-modernism and the New Left movement saw a revisionist wave and then a counter rerevisionist wave in many areas of history and when historians last did a big wave of massive incorporation of archeological data into their own materials.

History in some of these areas has slowed down since, and as previously mentioned, the work is mostly being done by archeologists but archeologists don't write books like historians do.

There's also knowing the books exist in the first place. Academia, whilst being more open than it ever has been in the past; is also somewhat a closed world of its own. A good number of books are well known to the experts, but a general librarian or person on the street won't have any idea of them at all.

Even those of the amateur persuasion can sometimes be totally clueless about the texts if they've not been through formal education and kept up with a few of the key reference/source/publishers.


Honestly I lament the fact that a lot of key text books and such are often super high priced items that just price out many people who are not super keen and dedicated (and have the resources to keep buying)

You're not kidding about archeologists not writing like historians. One of the absolute best books about the history of Judaism is the driest affairs I've ever slogged through.

Yonatan Adler's The Origins of Judaism: A Historical and Archeological Reappraisal would be at the top of my recommendation list, if he had written the book with someone with a little bit of flair.

 Overread wrote:
There's also knowing the books exist in the first place. Academia, whilst being more open than it ever has been in the past; is also somewhat a closed world of its own. A good number of books are well known to the experts, but a general librarian or person on the street won't have any idea of them at all.

Even the experts might not be aware of any. I don't know of any books on my current field, and any that do exist are probably well out of date. Everything is from published articles rather than books. I am working in a niche area but that also means the pace of change is comparatively slow.

True and the opposite can also be a problem - from fields where its so small the pace is slow and individual contributions might be so quiet as to not get noticed; through to fields where they are alive with so much change that actually keeping up is a challenge as there's a vast sea of information being added too all the time.

There is no Antimemetics Division


There is no Antimemetics Division is an SCP tie-in novel (although one review says they removed all references to the SCP Foundation in the kindle version), a nonlinear narrative constructed from vignettes and time-hopping fragments. If you enjoy the SCP stories or cosmic horror, this is a great read. It has just the right mix of creepy, weird and a little bit silly that all the best SCPs have.

Currently re-reading in anticipation of the newest and craziest book in the series set to come out next week;

DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL

I know it sounds dumb as hell. But it's pure genius fun. It's free on Amazon Kindle or whatever so I heartily recommend giving the first book a go. You're welcome.

Right now? Great Darkness Saga, Valedor. I finished the entire Jack Kirby run of New Gods this week.

Yes, including The Hunger Dogs.

I'm slowly getting through Jurassic Park and really enjoying it. What a great premise, what a good book. Even with the egregious exposition. It's no wonder it's such an enduring story in western culture.

Speaking of enduring masterpieces of western literature that will uplift the human spirit and inspire future generations to never ever play Eldar or Thousand Sons, I am reading the culmination of the epic Dawn of War trilogy Dawn of War: Tempest by the master storyteller, C.S. Goto.

What a wonderful journey these books have been. I'm sure everyone who has picked up these darlings of prose, will agree with me.

Yep. The best of the best. I can't imagine a better book or a more worthwhile purchase. This might be the greatest thing I've ever had my hands on from Black Library.

It's just too good to put down.

Strontium Dog, the Starlord Years

A pretty special treat from the 2000ad Ultimate Collection, as I’ve now had the privilege of reading the original Stront stories, as published in its short lived sister volume, Starlord.

And it’s pretty solid. Still some way to go before it became a stone cold classic (such as when it delved into the nitty gritty of Stront’s world).

Always a treat to see the earliest strips of a beloved character.

 Hulksmash wrote:
Currently re-reading in anticipation of the newest and craziest book in the series set to come out next week;

DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL

I know it sounds dumb as hell. But it's pure genius fun. It's free on Amazon Kindle or whatever so I heartily recommend giving the first book a go. You're welcome.

DCC is pure fun, and one of the rare cases where, IMO, the audiobook is better than the printed version. Totally worth checking out.

grahamdbailey wrote:

 Hulksmash wrote:
Currently re-reading in anticipation of the newest and craziest book in the series set to come out next week;

DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL

I know it sounds dumb as hell. But it's pure genius fun. It's free on Amazon Kindle or whatever so I heartily recommend giving the first book a go. You're welcome.

DCC is pure fun, and one of the rare cases where, IMO, the audiobook is better than the printed version. Totally worth checking out.

In full agreement with this. Was turned onto DCC by friends a couple weeks ago and am eagerly awaiting the new book about to release. It is a very interesting blend of genres that has surprisingly more depth than one might expect as it progresses.

 ikeulhu wrote:

grahamdbailey wrote:

 Hulksmash wrote:
Currently re-reading in anticipation of the newest and craziest book in the series set to come out next week;

DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL

I know it sounds dumb as hell. But it's pure genius fun. It's free on Amazon Kindle or whatever so I heartily recommend giving the first book a go. You're welcome.

DCC is pure fun, and one of the rare cases where, IMO, the audiobook is better than the printed version. Totally worth checking out.

In full agreement with this. Was turned onto DCC by friends a couple weeks ago and am eagerly awaiting the new book about to release. It is a very interesting blend of genres that has surprisingly more depth than one might expect as it progresses.

Yes!!! I have all the audio books. Or should I say Audio PRODUCTIONS. They aren't one person reading the books trying to do different voices. It's excellent.

And yes, it's surprisingly deep as it progresses. The next one is gonna be a banger! Monday can't come soon enough!

 Hulksmash wrote:

Yes!!! I have all the audio books. Or should I say Audio PRODUCTIONS. They aren't one person reading the books trying to do different voices. It's excellent.

And yes, it's surprisingly deep as it progresses. The next one is gonna be a banger! Monday can't come soon enough!

I tend to avoid audio books since I am the type that finds themselves getting distracted away too easily when it's not visual, but even I am considering giving the audio versions of DCC a try because I can very much see how that could really add a lot if done well (and from what I hear they do indeed do the series justice with the audio)!

I'm the same way. I very much have squirrel issues even when I'm driving when it comes to attention but I can lock in on these pretty darn well. And it really does just add a lot to it. I find myself reading in the studio voices when I'm reading instead of listening (I'm doing a reread right now and kindle and audible sink up so when I go from car to house it stays in the same spot).