Cochrane’s Reading List

The Corps is finally committed to memory. I finished Book IX (yes, that’s 9, for those of you who’re not Roman numeral savvy), which was the latest installment from W. E. B. Griffin. It was, by far, the most awesome novel of the series, which pretty much means to me that this is a far better series than The Brotherhood of War ever was. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed reading Brotherhood, but The Corps was far more interesting, paced correctly (which is a good thing), had the proper balance of dialogue and action.. and in some cases, sex. Now before I get hit by the pr0n police, he’s not explicit by any means, but he just gives you enough to let you know how the character perceives attraction and just fades to black appropriately. There’s no need to be explicit and he’s mastered sexiness without having to describe sex. I wish I could master that part of writing, because any time I try, it turns out looking like some piece of shit fic off of alt.sex.stories.

Now that I’m done with The Corps, I turned my attention back to the latest offerings in the Trek universe, courtesy of Pocket Books. This weekend, I tore through the two Stargazer series books by Michael Jan Fredman. This new book series chronicles the first command of Captain Picard of the USS Stargazer with his former chief of security-turned-first officer Commander Gilaad Ben Zoma. All of the characters from his way earlier book Reunion are here, including Vigo.. but Jack Crusher has yet to make an appearance. I do have some problems with the portrayal of the technical aspects of the story, but barring the technical mistakes, Michael Jan Friedman weaves a wonderful set of event/character stories. He’s humorous when he needs to be and the story moves decently. Both were page turners, though the first story moreso than the second… except I’m lying. I turned pages faster on the second story (Progenitor) than the first (Gauntlet), but not for the right reasons. The first story deals with a very young twenty-eight year old Captain Picard, a week after having assumed permanent command of the Stargazer. The story centers around an Admiral who doesn’t think Picard is good enough for command, and throws him to the wolves… literally. Picard has to hunt down a pirate named the White Wolf. Point is, the story was great. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I think I enjoyed this story much better than Peter David’s Excalibur series. The second story… centered around the chief engineer and some major cultural tryst that Picard and Ben Zoma and the chief med had to go with him to do, leaving this Lieutenant Commander Wu (second officer) in charge. While Picard et al were out of contact, Wuu was charged to rescue a science vessel… and you know what? I loved the Wu story so much more than the shitty Picard side of the book, that I just skipped the Picard side entirely. Once he left the ship, I could have cared less about what happened to him on the planet, because it meant absolutely nothing to me. It was fucking boring. The Wu story was interesting, action-filled, and character-driven and I liked it a lot.

What’s next? I’m not sure. I just ordered the rest of the Eagle series from Amazon, and I’m hoping it’ll arrive today. Eagle is a political intrigue story that I picked up the first book to and I read it in an hour, it was that good. So, I’m hoping to sink my literary teeth into the rest of the series this week.

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