canon origins of the borg

read  star trek destiny  three novels in one   by david mack  this is the  canon trilogy that  at last gives a credible origin for the borg  finalyy getting away  from Vger or  as part of a failed medical experiment  light years away  three novels  gods of night, mere mortals and  lost souls  make a raygun rip roaring space opera combining  characters starships types, planets and aliens  form all the post TOS star trek franchise from next generation to   enterprise and set  15 years after the best of both worlds sets the stage fro a  galaxy wide  Borg war   probably the best  star trek novels I have read  as they are so familiar even to the Gorn and Tholians   but on the negative side when you have read one paragraph about a Borg cube being destroyed by star fleets  secret weapon you do not expect the same scene again  and again   across three books  and that the Borg origins come late but already guessed  and in one of many subspace temporal wormholes  all the way back to  events in    Earths prehistory

the Atlantis code by charles broclaw is the opposite poorly written  an airport novel full of hot air and   dull Vatican  villains and Russian   gangsters   the Atlantis code is sub dan brown even to  the finding  of anachronistic  Christian gnostic  type secret scriptures as the  big secret  in Atlantean  ruins


ode to the sea  a national trust poetry book  mix of sea fevers , rimes of ancient mariners and odes to mermaids  and   rock pools  interesting but  a companion table book


 A complete guide to the soul  by Patrick harpur the cover blurb asks  Who am I? What's my life's purpose? Where am I going when I die? and the back cover calls this important  book  well the  cover questions are not answered and it  mainly another book on  neoplatonist thought  diamons and psyche  with added freudian dreams and jungian symbols 







 not had many interesting or vivid dreams fro months   mainly dream of college campus  and catching public transport  these must be my inner fears 

Star Trek voyage of the TV argosy

read star trek a brief guide by Brian J  Robb as an avid 40 year  trekkie  believed this book would tell me little did not already know despite most of my reading being technical  manuals and star fleet chronologies
useful read ( but as expected you can find the same info on wikis and fan sites ) spending equal time on all the franchise from early roddenberry pilots to next generation and the other ones  all the way to  a good chapter on unfilmed  episodes  and  plot ideas with less on the usual actor memoirs and   studio politics

lot of interesting info  ie  from  early next generation  casting of  Roy (The Invaders) Thinnes as Picard ,  pre  movie star Wesley snipes as Riker and Jenny Agutter  as Dr Crusher - useful to  wonder what first contact woud have been like with Tom Hanks in the role of zefrem cochrane   and that first contact was originally to be called   Star trek Renaissance with Picard and leonardo da vinci taking out the Borg
some excellent detail on what we did not see ie a 1970s planet of the Titans  (Star trek play on chariots of gods) Star Trek phase II new series of 1978  and   the planned   next generation  movies  "Star trek  Prime Directive " and "Star trek Stardust"

good chapters only went to prove that Deep space Nine started well  with  good plotlines tacking colonialism and gender stereotype but ended up in dominion war  Ray gun battles, that Voyager honestly did make it up as it went along  and that Star trek Enterprise  has some good story arcs  such as temporal cold war  and  founding of the federation but gave up on these early in the shows run  ended up  replaying old 1960s ideas  but at least that failure saved us from other series ideas such  star trek academy(cadets  lost in space) and star trek federation( the 30th century federation  treking in andromeda galaxy )
the book only went to prove that as I know from experience it is truly  possible to draft the story board for a complete two season  star trek series  on one side of A4 on  a wet sunday afternoon   yes I am looking at you   Star Trek Glory ( the aftermath of a  Galaxy wide Borg Dominion war ) and Star Trek  Resistance ( an alternative history where Earth lost the  pre federation Earth-Romulan  war)
Despite mention in the book of  Star trek 2012 (Star Trek Evolution? )  still waiting for this to be released it is now Star Trek 2013  latest rumour that Benedict Cumberbach is playing either  Khan wrathing again or  the lesser known TOS character Captain Garth  or  an English accent villain with PSI powers    "Montagu Fanshaw- Cholmondeley"   and it will be bigger and character led  rather  than bringing in Klingons this time instead of Romulans  but that is what they said about DS9  and voyager

 the best art you have never seen 101 hidden  treasures from around the world  by julian spalding    picture book guide on treasures in private collections , artists homes or in museum basements from  parts of buddhas to  painted over religious art  from art hidden by hate to art hidden by concepts  useful links at end to ever present websites  and  museums world wide


 the projection of britain  a history of the GPO film unit  a dry academic work a series of articles that given the small subject matter often tell the same story twice  but does its best  to make films about phones and mail boxes  interesting as did the original  film makers  on what is best understood by watching the films on you tube check out len lye and night mail   two examples of the best

a brief history of the grail  giles morgan   a compact detailed book  with less emphasis on new age glastonbury   and arthurian  victoriana  as usual in this subject  covering without comment  all the pre celtic legends to grail myths of dan brown  and the  quest films  of george lucas and peter jackson

 now the jubilee is over all we have is the twiiter comments of  a n even more regal person Fearne cotton  veteran kiddie TV  and trending pop show presenter   taking offence at  every criticism  of peoples opinion  her  poor TV presenting at the jubilee Events
you could tell all the tweets replying to complaints  were from Fearne Cotton as each was probably  prefaced  with "Do You Know Who I am! "
or I just judging

lets have another enemy bigger than the borg!!!!!

read a star trek voyager novel children of the storm, just like the series scripts in which the voyager crew on their second mission to the delta quadrant meet another enemy one which has obliterated the borg once and for all and is suprise suprise -non corpereal and extremophile instead of the usual stick on ears and earth morals however despite early promise the tale goes no where except as a usual star trek script

what can you expect from a novel with the TV characters playing their usual roles and room for two appendices at the end one showing starship classes and crew complements. the other the names of the main bridge crew of each ship

the mammoth book of dracula ranging from original bram stoker to spoofs and rips off of i am legend from deathless dracula fighting the nazis (twice) to post nuclear war vampires shows that fundamentally vampire tales are a one trick pony

second chance at eden stange to read a story by peter F hamilton only thirty pages long a lot of backstory from the great trilogies such as the first voyages of the lady macbeth and the invention of bitek some approaching asimov others off target

slaughter on a snowy morn by colin evans the story of the stielow murder case and the crooked testimony and phoney forensics that nearly sent a man to the chair in 1915-1918

this is the second book this year that has governor charles whitman as a crooked politician who having killed charles becker ( satans circus by Mike Dash ) now hopes to ride to the white house via another high profile murder case with the same doubtful evidence