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THE ENTROPY EFFECT - Vonda N. McIntyre

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STAR TREK WEEK It's time for some reminiscing as the last (first) time I read this book was when it first came out in 1981. Anything that was Star Trek (and for me it was especially any new stories rather than toys) was hungrily devoured. This was the first original novel to be published by Pocket Books (though let's be clear ... this was not the first original Star Trek novel. There were 16 original story novels published by Bantam before Pocket got the rights). In the story - Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are tasked with transporting a once-brilliant, now extremely dangerous criminal physicist Dr. Georges Mordreaux to a rehabilitation center. Mordreaux is accused of promising to send people back in time but instead murders them. Shortly into the voyage, Mordreaux escapes his Enterprise confinement, gets onto the bridge, and in front of the entire bridge crew, murder Captain James T. Kirk. Always one to see possibilities, Spock must travel back in time to prevent the...
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STAR TREK Volume 2 - graphic novel

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STAR TREK WEEK  For those who aren't strong Star Trek fans and/or who haven't given much thought to the various incarnations of the series, when the 'new' movies came out, directed by J.J. Abrams and starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, this has been referred to as the "Kelvin timeline." I'm not going to go into an explanation about this - there are entire websites dedicated to this and it would be easier, if interested, to check out one of those.  But it's important here because author Mike Johnson has taken what I think is a rather brilliant approach to this. Assuming that the Kelvin timeline is an alternate universe or alternate timeline, still with people known as Kirk, Spock, Uhuru, etc and have similar but not identical experiences, we've got 79 episodes-worth of existing stories to explore - to see how they might be different.  And that's what Johnson does here, taking the very general story from the original series' episode ...
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THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MR. NOBODY - Ahmed Taibaoui

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 I tend to be very leery of books that advertise some literary award on the cover.  In my experience, most literary award winning books are winners because of how they played with form rather than substance and I've rarely enjoyed a literary award winning book and this was no exception. In a suburb of Algiers an unnamed man escapes a troubled past by caring for an old man with dementia. When the old man dies, the unnamed care-giver disappears without a trace. A local police detective is called upon to investigate the old man's death and the disappearance of the unnamed man. The investigation takes the detective to many locations where he meets people who crossed-paths with the now-gone care-giver. Slowly the detective forms a picture of the missing man and it is a dark and dangerous picture. This was slow.  Very, very slow. And slow in itself isn't always bad, but I never felt like it was going anywhere. And, frankly, it didn't. I was drawn to this because of the title....
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BRANDED OUTLAW - L. Ron Hubbard

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Lee Weston has been summoned, by his father, to hurry back to his family ranch in New Mexico. But when Lee arrives, he finds that his father has been killed and the ranch has been burned down. There's no doubt in Lee's mind that Harvey Dodge - owner of the largest ranch in the territory - is responsible. Determined to get his vengeance, Lee heads into town and ends up in a gunfight with several of Dodge's hired hands. Wounded and now finding himself on the wrong side of the law, Lee goes on the lam to tend to his wounds. While hiding out, he is discovered by a beautiful woman who nurses him back to health. In addition to being quite beautiful, the woman is also strong-minded, a quality Lee finds very attractive. They quickly fall in love with one another but Lee later learns that she's the daughter of Harvey Dodge. Can he kill the man who killed his father, and still get the girl? I quite enjoyed this story. It's no secret that I enjoy reading westerns and fiction f...
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TYRANT LIZARD QUEEN - Riley Black

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Who doesn't like dinosaurs, right? Even my 2 year old grandson knows what a dinosaur is. They're on toys, they're on his pajamas, they're on TV shows! The first half of author Riley Black's book is a narrative, with an anthropomorphic T-Rex, looking for a safe place to lay her eggs, find food, and then to protect her young and teach them how to hunt and scavenge for food. Honestly, I didn't enjoy this.  I am not a fan of non-fiction that is written like fiction - giving people words and intentions that we really don't know they had. Doing this for animals take this, which I already don't like, and magnifies it. We don't really know the thought pattern of modern animals (birds and alligators - two dinosaur-related species - are still a bit of a mystery), how can we hope to know what a creature who live a millennia ago thought? I nearly gave up on the book, but decided to power though and see where it was going to go. Then I got to the second section i...
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THE SPLIT - Gigi Nally

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Kota feels fortunate to have a job driving supplies across zombie-infested South Carolina. Everyone contributes to the common good and everyone shares equally.  Not like the chaos on the other side of the wall. That's why 'the Split' - those who care about everyone, like on Kota's side, and those who only look out for themselves, like on the other side. Sharing equally is helpful because has her little sister to look out for. But once in awhile those searching for food and supplies run into zombies and on occasion they'll run into people from the other side of the Split - even though everyone is supposed to stay in their own zone. This is how Kota comes to be captured and taken to the 'wrong' side.  These people aren't the self-absorbed villains she was led to believe they were.  Even in captivity she's allowed a lot of freedom. She stays - more as a guest than a prisoner - with the handsome Jasper. She can't help developing feelings for him, and...
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THE INNOCENTS - Bridget Walsh

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A series of murders are occurring in Victorian London and it's brought theatre workers Minnie and Albert together again. These current murders bear a striking connection to a historic tragedy in which nearly 200 children were killed in a theatre - though it does take a little time for Minnie and Albert to make this connection. And of course,  working in the theatre themselves, they have some unique insights into how things work, both on and backstage, as well as 'front of house.' I enjoyed the historical aspects here. As a retired theatre professional, I do enjoy reading fiction with people who work in the field. Of course the author needs to get the details right or I get caught up in what's wrong instead of following along with the story. There is some time spent with a performing monkey (and its kidnapping and ransom demand), which is a little strange, but performing animals, particularly monkeys, was fairly common in the Victorian days. I appreciated this bit. With ...
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