The War of the Prophets

Posted on March 8, 2011 by smellincoffee

Star Trek Millenium: Book II, The War of the Prophets
© 2000 Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
372 pages

Riker reappeared on the virwer, eyes afire with rage. “The War of the Prophets is coming! Choose your side, Emissary — because this is your war now!”  – p. 408, The Fall of Terok Nor

When Captain Sisko and the rest of the Ds9 crew recovered three lost Bajoran artifacts — the lost Orbs of Jalbador — they thought a great mystery and the murderous schemes surrounding it had finally been put to rest. When when the three orbs spontaneously gathered together and opened a second wormhole, glowing crimson,  the Defiant and all aboard her were thrown into the future while attempting to escape the destruction of Deep Space Nine.  They found themselves trapped in a nightmarish future, where Klingons, Cardassians, and humans were all but extinct species — where the remnant of Starfleet which remained is allied with the Borg and dedicated to the wholesale destruction of Bajor –a Bajor which is the seat of power for a new, mighty empire intent on enacting the Apocalypse.

Defiant jumps 25 years into the future and is immediately caught between the opposing forces: the Ascendancy need Sisko alive to fulfill prophecy, while Starfleet is determined to kill or capture Sisko to prevent his taking a role in the things to come. Gone is the Prime Directive and Starfleet’s scientific, diplomatic culture:  the universe may very well be doomed if Bajor is not eradicated. It’s a bizarre, disturbing future the authors introduce us to, and when Defiant’s crew is captured by both warring parties, the readers are able to see how truly demented the powers that be have become. Weyoun, formerly an agent of the Dominion, is now Kai of the Bajoran people — and while he happily waits for the universe to end in two weeks, Starfleet —  and specifically, Fleet Admiral Jean-Luc Picard and Captain Nog — are sending a timeship 25,000 years into the past to prevent cosmic catastrophe.

Sheer morbid curiosity in this strange world kept me reading the first time, but now I enjoy it more for the fun the authors had with their characters. Kira is the only weak point, reduced to a religious fanatic who yells “That’s blasphemy” and does little else. Garak, the station’s longterm resident Cardassian and former covert operative for the Obsidian Order, gives a unique perspective on the end of things, commenting surreally as he awaits the inevitable.  The drama ramps up toward the end, when Starfleet’s master plan is supposed to unfold….but it all goes to hell.

I had no intention of reading this so soon after The Fall of Terok Nor, but I picked it up to read with supper…and didn’t stop until I was done. If I can find the third book, I just may read the entire trilogy in as many days.

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Top Ten Dynamic Duos

Posted on March 7, 2011 by smellincoffee

This week the Broke and the Bookish are discussing powerful duos — best friends, nemeses, and couples.

1. Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling)

These two are tied together by prophecy, destined for mutual destruction — for neither can live while the other survives. Potter’s role in Voldemort’s first defeat, his rebirth, and his eventual downfall drive the Potter series. They’re also tied together in a more…personal way, which i’ll not mention for those who haven’t read from Order of the Phoenix on.

2. Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw  (Robots series, Isaac Asimov)
Elijah Baley is a curmudgeonly detective who doesn’t like robots and has no interest in space. Naturally, he’s paired with a robot and sent into space to solve crimes. I loved seeing Baley mature to the point that he regarded Daneel as a friend.

3. Gene and Phineas, A Separate Peace (John Knowles)
These two are best friends, but the relationship is clearly unhealthy and  antagonistic at times. I’d comment further, but for fear of spoiling a classic for someone who’s not read it…

4. Risika and Aubrey, In the Forests of the Night
Risika and Aubrey are both vampires taken by the same woman, Aether, and locked in a relationship of mutual hatred.  They are two of the most powerful vampires living, and both pride and contempt for the other keep them one from acknowledging the other as greater. Their cat-and-mouse game drives the book until they finally descend into a final conflict.

5. Kirk and Spock

The picture that launched a thousand fanzines…

Possibly cheating even that their relationship first appeared on television, but it’s been further developed in countless novels. Besides, I’d be remiss in not mentioning them! According to Michael Okuda,  Kirk and his two best friends were complements of the other:  Spock represented logic, McCoy humanistic emotion, and Kirk the strength of will. (Okuda contributed heavily to TOS and TNG: his comments on the trio come from “The Conscience of the King”‘s text commentary.)

6. David and Goliath, Hebrew texts
You undoubtedly recognize the reference and know what it means, but I doubt that many people are aware of the original story — in which a boy, disgusted by the cowardice of his kin, takes up the sling and throws rocks at a giant’s head,  knocking him unconscious and then slaying him with his own sword.  That’s actually more impressive to me than the stone-throwing, because how did a little kid manage to saw off a grown man’s head with a sword bigger than himself?

7, Sherlock Holmes and Mr. Watson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
It’s been years since I read any of the Holmes stories, but these two sprang to mind fairly quickly upon reading the subject for this week.

8. Horatio Hornblower and William Bush (Horatio Hornblower series, C.S. Forester)

Hornblower and Bush are introduced in Captain Horatio Hornblower, and the A&E movies show their meeting. Their close camaraderie — Bush is as close to a friend as Hornblower ever has in the book series — makes the end of the Napoleonic wars particularly poignant. Hornblower is marked by his formality, reserve, and introspection, but he and Mr. Bush are obviously fond of each other:  Bush, the ever-faithful lieutenant, made Hornblower more human.

9. The Narrator and Merlin, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain
The narrator is a 19th century man thrown back into the 700s or so, where he decides to remake the medieval world into a semblance of his own. Progressive and intellectual, his greatest foe is Merlin — who represents tradition, authority, and superstition. When I read this for the first time, I remember despising Merlin and even today…

10. Sidney Carton and Charles Darnay, A Tale of Two Cities & A Far Better Rest, Charles Dickens and Suzanne Alleyn.

The lives of these two lookalikes converge repeatedly before and during the French Revolution, and their love for the same woman will save the one and redeem the other.

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Teaser Tuesday (8 March)

Posted on March 7, 2011 by smellincoffee

Ah, teaser Tuesday time again.

“And the sea-monsters here are extraordinary,” McLean went on, “like dragons, wouldn’t you say, John? Pink dragons with green spots?”
“Indeed, sir,” Moore said, then gave a start as he belatedly realized the brigadier was teasing him.

p. 51, The Fort. Bernard Cornwell

Garak regarded the doctor warily, the reptilian nobs of his forehead bunching together in deep furrows.”Oh, doctor, I’m afraid that in matters of mysterious deaths, I am entirely bereft of experience.”
Quark took some comfort in noting that no one in the infirmary seemed to believe Garak any more than they believed him.

– 108, The Fall of Terok Nor. Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

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The Fall of Terok Nor

Posted on March 7, 2011 by smellincoffee

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Millennium, Book I, The Fall of Terok Nor
© 2000 Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
464 pages



The Millenium trilogy was, prior to Destiny, the most epic story ever approached in Trek literature, and  in fact even spawned a PC game — a third-person action/adventure shooter called The Fallen.  It’s a story of the past and future, of grand mythology, in which the good guys battle for nothing less than the existence of the Universe — and lose. It brings together characters from all the Next Generation-era shows,  and is responsible for many of my favorite scenes in Trek literature. But it all started when an Andorian merchantman of questionable repute was found dead in the lower levels of the station…and flooded  Deep Space Nine with mysteries.

The investigation of the Andorian’s murder leads to two more bodies — old bodies, which had been fused into the station‘s bulkheads at some point around the Day of Withdrawal, when the Cardassian Union ended its occupation of Bajor and abandoned its ore-mining station — a day, strangely enough, that three of the station’s residents who were around back then can’t remember.  Suddenly smugglers are coming to the station in droves, which frustrates Captain Sisko mightily, given that he’s in the middle of the Federation’s equivalent of World War 2.  All the little threads seem to lead to three religious artifacts, the Red Orbs of Jalbador — which could open a second wormhole. Though dismissed by most Bajorans as apocryphal,  the various smugglers, a sect of Bajoran cultists, and three Cardassian operatives pretending to be humanitarian officials are all quite obviously interested in finding them.

This first volume of the trilogy is an impressive start: mystery and adventure seem to end in resolution, only things to go badly wrong: Terok Nor ends with the destruction of the station and the DS9 crew aboard the Defiant being thrown into a nightmare.

I had no intention of re-reading this: I just found the first volume while digging through a trunk of books looking for The Ancestor’s Tale,  and foolishly opened it up to see if it was good as I remembered. I read 200+ pages that very night and 200+ more the next day. It would appear my fond memories do it justice.

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Reap the Whirlwind

Posted on March 7, 2011 by smellincoffee

Star Trek Vanguard: Reap the Whirlwind (Book Three)
© 2007 David Mack
464 pages, including a ‘Vanguard Minipedia’, which combines a glossary and dramatis personae. 


 
Cover art by Doug Drexler, depicting the scoutship USS Sagittarius being pursued by a Klingon cruiser
 At the edge of known space, at the borders of three great powers — the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the Tholian Assembly — lies the mysterious Taurus Reach, a region dominated by solar systems bearing the mark of having once been the seat of power for an ancient, immensely powerful, organizations. The Federation is eager to learn the Reach’s secrets, but given the immense power they may unearth, their investigation must be done largely in secret. Vanguard Station sits at the edge of the reach, but only a select few of its officers know its importance in administrating this top-secret project. Lives have already been lost, but this pandora’s box is only just beginning to spill out its contents — and they will change the lives of individuals aboard Vanguard and stagger the powers involved.

David Mack created the Vanguard series with this vast mystery already in mind, and in Reap the Whirlwind the drama skyrockets. The Federation’s secret is costing lives, and the awakened power is increasingly unpredictable and aggressive. Reap is easily the most eventful book in the series thus far, radically changing the destinies of several of Vanguard’s officers by book’s end. Commodore Diego Reyes commands most of the reader’s attention, as he struggles to keep a lid on a situation that proves more deadly by the day. Meanwhile, the resident agent of Starfleet Intelligence realizes her manipulations have consequences, both personally and professionally. Though there’s a fair bit of character development, the rise of the ‘Shedai’ and the havoc they wreak predominate the novel. Reap also introduces Dr. Carol Marcus, and given that ‘Clark Terrell’ is also present, it looks like this novel may tie-in to The Wrath of KHAAAAAAAAAAN! KHAAAAAAAAAAAAN! KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! 

Even though some of my favorite characters are being sorely absused, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.


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Confessions

Posted on March 3, 2011 by smellincoffee

Confessions
Augustine of Hippo, 354 – 430
Translation © 1961 R.S. Pine-Coffin
346 pages

At the age of nineteen a young man encountered the golden voice of Cicero. Inspired by Cicero’s lush oratory, this boy began to pursue the love of wisdom, philosophy; truth. Ultimately this journey brought him to the faith of his mother, to the Catholic church, and he became a saint — molding the minds of generations to come through his books, now part of the canon of western literature. Confessions records the ten years Augustine spent shifting from Manichaeism  and contempt of Christianity to becoming an ardent saint, one with an impressive talent for self-loathing.

The bulk of the Confessions is a prayerful biographical narrative, in which Augustine monitors his slow transformation — constantly lamenting over the errors of youth and offering earnest prayers of thanks and adoration toward the god he eventually found. Following his conversion-in-heart and conversion-in-fact, Augustine muses on memory, the senses, temptation, and theology before devoting a final book to more praise. The praise and adoration Augustine lavishes upon his god and the church are rivaled only by the amount of scorn he heaps upon himself, others, the cares of life, and earthly pressures. The man is a prodigy, a raging Puritan before his time. I found this self-debasement rather dreary and depressing, and it’s part of the reason I’ve been pecking at the book since mid-November while thinking of Augustine as “that miserable bishop” and “Gloomy Gus”.  This is not a man who I want to emulate.

I approached the book in the first place as a student of philosophy and the humanities, and I hoped to find in Augustine a brother-spirit. This was not the case, for in spite of his praise and quest of ‘truth’,  Augustine accepts the dogma of scriptures freely, never so much as questioning it, and regards those who are interested in the world with derision. The Platonic contempt for material things is fully present here, and rather than studying science, Augustine would advise us to keep our minds on more spiritual things, like the dozens of pages he devoted to sorting out what ‘Moses’ really meant when he wrote that God created “the earth and heavens” and that earth was a ‘formless void’, where ‘darkness was upon the face of the deep’.  He wrote page after page, which I read in utter bafflement. Theology, like debating the meaning of the trinity, often has this effect on me, for it seems no more potent than debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It’s minds like Augustine’s that made the medieval world, and I do not say that as a compliment. In principle, I admire his desire to find truth and to be a better person,  but I found nothing of inspiration here. I appreciated his skepticism toward astrology and horoscopes (which he developed through reason and the lack of evidential proof), and  I gleaned some historical knowledge from his biographical account — for instance, the Academics were still around in Rome at this time, and apparently influenced by the Skeptical belief that nothing could be known for certain — but that was it.  Augustine is a man whose mind was fixated on the ethereal, consumed by ideological commitment.  He’d make an excellent Muslim (very keen on submission to God, this one) or a Christian puritan, but…as someone who regards ‘orthodoxy’ as a word more obscene than any of George Carlin’s famous “seven”, I felt discouraged by his utter lack of spirit.

Reading the book did help me though, in that it made me realize how easily the contemplative life can turn people into sanctimonious sourpusses. As someone interested in this kind of reflection, but also insistence on enjoying life, it prompted me to decide to err on the side of pleasure — in Bernard Cornwell’s words, to be more of a cavalier than a puritan.

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The Fort

Posted on March 3, 2011 by smellincoffee

The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War
© 2010 Bernard Cornwell
480 pages

It’s the summer of 1799, and Britain’s attempts to restore their wayward colonies to the Crown are not going well. Following the battle of Saratoga, the French and Spanish have declared common cause with the rebels. Though the course of the war has moved to the southern colonies, Britain has seen fit to establish a small outpost at the mouth of the Penobscot River (in what is today Maine) in order to establish a safe harbor for fighting privateers and provide sanctuary for political refugees, particularly Loyalists fleeing persecution.  In response, the Massachusetts and Continental governments have sent a fleet to drive the invaders away. They find the outpost, Fort George, still in the early stages of construction — and scarcely defended, for its commander lacks the men to take even the high bluffs on the river. The Fort begins with the arrival of the British in what they call ‘New Ireland’ and carries through the last weeks of July until the defeated party flees downriver, utterly ruined.

The Fort  is a remarkable departure from Cornwell’s usual approach. Instead of focusing on one central character and have him live through the events of history, Cornwell instead draws on an ensemble cast of historical characters, both American and British (specifically, Scottish soldiers and Royal Marines). His main characters are a generally sympathetic lot, with the exception of the emotionally turbulent Lieutenant Colonel Paul Revere. The Americans tended toward the grumpy, though, and I far more enjoyed the company of General Francis McLean, commanding the fort, and his young ward John Moore — the future Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore.  They were consistently in high spirits despite the presumed certainty of their defeat,  and both possessed a wicked sense of humor that left me looking forward to their viewpoint sections. Cornwell also ties the chapters together with excerpts from historical letters, memos, and other literature concerning the battle — including a legal document indicting one of the book’s characters for disobedience and cowardice, and letters from the ever-pleasant General McLean. Unlike Redcoat, The Fort contains plenty of combat, both on land and on the river. I didn’t realize that there were rivers big enough for frigates to move through — rivers are fascinating areas for battle.

This is a fascinating, generally untold story of the American Revolution:  definitely above average if not Cornwell’s best.

Related:

  • Jeff Shaara’s Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause, his novels of the war. (And speaking of which, his Pacific War novel is due in May….!)
  • Cornwell’s own Redcoat, which focuses more on character drama than combat, but which enthralled me.
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The History of Japan

Posted on March 3, 2011 by smellincoffee

The History of Japan
© 1918, 1947 Kenneth Scott Latourette
282 pages

““Under a Wave off Kanagawa”, Katsushika Hokusai

In Fall 2009 I took a class in Japanese history and enjoyed it tremendously, but given that it’s been well over a year, I figure I’m due for a refresher. My home library carried this slim narrative, which did the trick despite being a bit dated — the most current revision was written in 1946, only months after Japan surrendered and ended the last conflict of the Second World War.

After describing the initial settlement and climate of the Japanese islands (complete with lovely photographs), Latourette begins the long story of the Japanese empire (legendarily declared thus in 660 BCE, around the same time Egypt and Assyria were arguing over who should rule Egypt). It’s remarkable to me that a single institution has managed to survive over 1500 years of history, though largely in an impotent fashion. Japan was more strongly unified under the varying shogunates — military administrations — but emerged as a world power only in the late 19th century, when the warlords were ousted and the Emperor “restored”.  Modernization — and westernization, for the new government formed itself by drawing from various European powers like Germany and France — followed, and Japan shifted from late-medievalism to modernity in scarcely more than a couple of decades, a remarkably dramatic transformation. Japan also pursued economic growth in the tried-and-true way of Europe’s great powers and the United States — invading other people, borrowing their resources, and turning them into markets for goods. This eventually led to war, defeat, and revival — though the book doesn’t cover Japan’s resurgence.

Latourette is a generally fair author, easy to read for the most part. He doesn’t have the patronizing tone I would’ve expected from an author of this period, though his partiality amused me at times. He cheerily reports the ‘peaceful‘ Perry expedition’s role in opening Japan up to the west by saying it was fortunate that this was led by the United States, who had no interests in the Far East.  When writing on the increase of tensions between the United States and Japan, he finally admits the presence of American interests by saying it was the ‘unavoidable result of the force of circumstances’ that the United States happened to be all over the Philippines and Guam. I’m not sure I carry his meaning.  Did a freak storm carry the US Navy all the way across the Pacific where it bumped into the Spanish navy and accidentally threw invasion troops into the islands, where they were trapped for four years?  Did Spain refuse to treat in peace with the United States unless America agreed met them on the field of battle in Manila? Inquiring minds want to know what this unavoidable force of circumstances was.

Aside from that, which elicited more laughter than anything else, the book proved amply adequate (by which I mean it skirted the line between average and above average)  at reminding me of what I’d learned in class previously. Indeed, it supplemented my knowledge because it placed more emphasis on Japan’s rivalry with Russia than I’d witnessed in class, and the author frequently paused in his general narrative to explain how Japan was transforming from decade to decade, economically as well as socially.  It’s thus useful, but dated — and apparently obscure, because I couldn’t so much as find a cover for it.

Related:

  • A Modern History of Japan (Andrew Gordon)
  • Peasants, Rebels, Women, and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan, by Mikiso Hane. These two books were used in my course, along with Kokoro, but that’s a novel. 
  • The Japanese Experience, W.G. Beasley, which I read in preparation for said class.
  • Our Oriental Heritage, Will Durant, which covers the ancient-to-modern histories of India, Japan, and China along with the ancient-era Mesopotamian history.
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These Weeks at the Library (15 Feb – 2 March)

Posted on March 2, 2011 by smellincoffee

The tail end of this month has seen me finally getting around to reading some history, H.G. Wells’ The Outline of History consuming the better part of the week before last. I’ve also been reading from The History of Japan, and finished With Wings Like Eagles, an excellent narrative of the Battle of Britain.  It stands out along with The Revolutionist, a novel of the Bolshevik Revolution and the first thirty years of the Soviet Union.  That marked my first time reading Littell, and if it’s any indication of the kind of quality I can expect, I may dive into his The Company, a history of the CIA,  at some point in the future.  Outstandingly gritty.

In addition, I completed the Typhon Pact miniseries with Paths of Disharmony,   which provides a stunning political shakeup to the Trek  litverse.

Selected Quotations:

…two smart brigs, both armed with fourteen six-pounder cannons and both anchored close to the Warren, flew the Massachusetts Navy flag, which showed a green pine tree on a white field and bore the words “An Appeal to Heaven””.
“An appeal to nonsense,” Saltonstall growled.
“Sir?”  the midshipman asked nervously.
“If our cause is just, Mister Conigsby, why need we appeal to heaven? Let us rather appeal to force, to justice, to reason.”
“Aye aye, air,” the midshipman said, unsettled by the captain’s habit of looking past the man he spoke to.
“Appeal to heaven!” Salton sneered. “In war, Mister Conigsby, one might do better to appeal to hell.” 

p. 21, The Fort. Bernard Cornwell.

Eppler collected his thoughts. “A self-appointed vanguard has come to think of itself as the working class in whose name it speaks. So first the vanguard party substitutes itself for the entire working class, yes? Then the party organization substitutes itself for the entire party, yes? Then the Central Committee substitutes itself for the party organization, yes? You see where it leads? It is inevitable! One day a single dictator will substitute himself for the Central Committee, yes?”   

[…]

Lili, furious, cried, “In the name of what cause do you betray us?”
Eppler smiled tiredly. “In the name of common sense,” he said. “In the name of pure Marxism. In the name of the millions of people who will suffer if this king of communism has his way, yes?” Eppler addressed himself to Zander. “I started to tell you one night when I had a bit too much to drink. You remember, yes? This Lenin of yours is taking communism down the wrong road. No good will come of it. No good at all. He is an elitist, yes? He creates elites. And he — yes? — he is the elite of the Central Committee. He is making footsteps, yes? After him others will folow in his path. The dictatorship of the proletariat will become the dictatorship of a single man.”

p. 76 and p. 147, The Revolutionist. Robert Littell.

Lenin was not amused. “There are no accidents in history, young man,” he said. Suddenly his brow pleated like a curtain. Was he in pain, Znder wondered, or was he thinking about what lay ahead? “There are only leaders who correctly analyze the forces at work,” Lenin mumbled, “and then exploit this knowledge.”
Which was another way of saying, Zander thought, that a revolutionist is someone who gives history a push.

p. 138, The Revolutionist. Littell.

Potentials for next week:
I’m almost done with The History of Japan, and — having finished that volume of Wells which so grabbed my attention — I’ve returned in earnest to The Confessions.  I’ll also be reading Bernard Cornwell’s The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War and (assumedly) another Trek novel, probably Reap the Whirlwind, third in the Vanguard series.

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Top Ten Books Gathering Dust

Posted on February 28, 2011 by smellincoffee

Not every book purchased gets read immediately, despite our best intentions. This week the Broke and the Bookish are revealing the identities of long-term residents of the To-Be-Read piles, stacks, and mountains hiding in their homes.

1. A Man in Full, Tom Wolfe
I only bought this book last week, so strictly speaking it shouldn’t count — but I’ve been “meaning to” read this book for well over a year now, because one of the characters quotes repeatedly from Marcus Aurelius and has been the inspiration for some people to study Stoicism.  I’ve been going to the W’s and pondering this book once a month or so for many months now, and every month I find that the book is still big and is still set in the business world.  Last week I noticed it had been discarded, and so snapped it up.
2. Stiffed, Susan Faludi
I heard about this book in sociology class, specifically in my “Gender Roles and Culture” class….then I saw it in the library’s bookstore and picked it up. I’ve read the first few pages several times.

3. Asimov’s Guide to the Bible, Volume II: The New Testament (Isaac Asimov)

I read the first volume in this series in the summer of 2008, I think, and purchased this in the fall of 2009. Still haven’t gotten around to reading it, but I certainly don’t regret buying it — as with many other rare Asimov books in my collection, the price for finding a copy has risen sharply.  I say carpe diem and buy the books whenever I spy a good opportunity.

4 Marcus Aurelius: A Life, Frank McLynn

Purchased this in the spring of 2010, intending to read it over the summer. Hasn’t happened yet but it will: I’m particularly interested in Aurelius’ philosophical life.

5. Triangle, Isaac Asimov

My used copy was purchased without a dust cover, but this appears to be from the same edition.

Triangle contains the original Empire trilogy. I purchased it in…oh, the fall of 2008, and in the years since I’ve read a third of it. I want to finish the Empire series this year, though, so it may be stricken from the list at some point this year.

6. The Captain’s Table anthology

This book collects…four or five books into one very BIG book. I bought it because at $2, it was a bargain on Amazon. Never read it, though, nor even started to. I would’ve, but last year I started getting back into Trek literature and reading dozens of standalone novels set in the new shared continuity.

7. A People’s History of the World, Chris Harman

I bought this in the spring of 2010, thinking it to be a summer read.  Since then it’s sat on my shelf, though I read the first couple of chapters alongside Will Durant’s Our Oriental Heritage.

8. ….that Michael Crichton anthology containing several novels which I also picked up in the library discard bookstore and can’t even FIND now.
I can’t remember its title, or any of the books in it. But I paid .50 cents for it, and it’s…somewhere in my bedroom, hiding under stacks of books.

9 & 10. Various Isaac Asimov science books.

I bought a dozen or so paperback science texts by Asimov last summer and haven’t gotten around to them yet.  I mostly bought them because I’m an…Asimovophile and seeing several shelves full of Asimov books all arranged in a neat row pleases me. I do intend on reading one of them soon, though — “The Wellsprings of Life”, which I purchased with birthday money.

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