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Best Starfleet combadge design: 2360s oval, 2370s rectangle, future timeline outline style, alternate timeline rank bars, whatever options from nuTrek I haven't watched
Best Starfleet Combadge design
2360s oval
2370s rectangle
future timeline outline style
alternate timeline rank bars
tricom
Badgey
Hello! I got a whole shelf of old Star Trek novels from a yard sale and I'm deciding which to read first. Unfortunately none of them are D. Duane. Can you tell me what other Trek novels/authors you've enjoyed?
At the moment, I have far more trek books than I've actually read, partially because I have no self-control when it comes to acquiring them, partially because, when I started to mine them for blog content, reading them started to feel like homework (I thought I put marking pages with tabs behind me after grad school). This is also tough because Diane Duane's novels tend to be far and away my favourites (Spock's World, Doctor's Orders, and The Wounded Sky are all brilliant), but you already knew that! They're also a large chunk of what I've read. I've also read a bunch of Blish novelizations and some of the movie novelizations, which are fun but don't quite count in the same way, since they are retelling known stories.
However, there are a few I can recommend. I really enjoyed A Contest of Principles by Greg Cox, which feels like a real extended TOS episode; our main trio all have plenty to do, and the relationships are very fond and very true to the series. Shell Game by Melissa Crandall also has the character relationships I'm looking for. (Actually, both of these at one point pair Spock and Bones together while Kirk angsts from the sidelines while doing his own part of the mission, which is apparently a fruitful scenario).
J.M. Dillard also knows the characters really well. I enjoyed The Lost Years a lot, though it must be said that it is basically the crew breakup novel because it bridges from the show into TMP, so you'll just have to rewatch the movies after to remember that it all turns out all right in the end.
Jean Lorrah's The Vulcan Academy Murders is fun as long as you don't go in expecting a mystery you can't solve in 30 seconds and just want to appreciate the characters and learn more about Sarek and Amanda.
Brad Ferguson's Crisis on Centaurus is worth it for the backstory look into Jim and Bones' first meeting, as well as giving us some time with Joanna McCoy.
I can't actually fully recommend Carmen Carter's Dreams of the Raven, which has a very strange and queasily unethical romance subplot that doesn't land for several reasons and an unsatisfying ending, but it's an interesting look into McCoy with amnesia (and it did let me coin the term "Character Fondness Power Differential" while writing the review).
This ask did, however, remind me that I need to start making a dent in my book collection before buying more (I store them where I can't see them, so I'm constantly surprised by how many I actually have). I think I'm reading Howard Weinstein's The Covenant of the Crown next.
If you search my "trek books" tag, you'll see more!
Gender/linguistic question: When someone has multiple preferred pronouns (like she/they), is it normal to use different sets of pronouns in the same sentence? Like, "They were wearing thick socks to keep her feet warm." I ran across a fanfic the other day that did this and found it a little confusing, but if I were writing something about a character that used multiple pronouns I'm not sure I'd know the best way to do it. Thoughts?
So on a professional “I edit things for money” level, I would call this an as-yet unaddressed grammatical question that should be handled on a case-by-case basis, mostly defined by what is most coherent in the situation. On a more casual “I read and write a lot” level, I mostly opt for splitting things sentence by sentence, because it’s a bit confusing to have multiple pronouns in the same sentence referring to one person. Unless you’re trying to be confusing. In that case slap pronouns in there in whatever order speaks to you. Highly recommend No Violins Allowed et al, the cardinal Bifrost Incident fic and also my personal favorite piece of writing of all time in terms of Spicy Pronoun Use.
Was it ever really explained why Kaine lost his spider-sense? My headcanon is that it was the Kravinoffs killing him because there was all that talk about the Web of Life being broken, but something tells me it was supposed to be because of what happened during Spider Island.
To the best of my recollection it wasn’t -- I really like your headcanon that it’s a result of Grim Hunt, especially since I think that if that was the case then theoretically in Kaine breaking the connection to Kraven in Scarlet Spider v2 it could allow for the spider-sense to kick back in, and I think it would be interesting to see him handling the regular version of it, no visions, etc. But you’re probably right and it’s supposed to be the whole Spider-Island thing with Kaine having to be the one to kill the Queen. I don’t really reread Spider-Island a ton because while there’s some stuff I like in it (Kaine, the entertainment factor of everyone in New York without powers turning into giant spiders) I find the story on the whole some really grating Slott writing. The less I think about “the way of the spider” the better.
(Scarlet Spider v2 #1)
I’m doing a big Clone Reread now though idk if I’m going to just get up to Peter Parker #75 and Ben’s death or if I’m going to keep going past that with other clone stories, but if I do keep going it’s going to be something I keep in mind for sure.
oh dang I must have missed that one! New question then: What are some cool things Brenneth has made that she's proud of? Does she do a lot of personal projects on the side, or does she only make stuff she knows she can sell?
Oh, y’all, a fun fact I learned at the Met recently:armorers and weapons-smiths often made children’s toys! Brenneth makes children’s toys. They’re much more detail-oriented than mostof the things she makes—Brenneth specializes in weapons, although she’s beenknown to make some armor, usually as a collaborative effort—and she finds thefinicky little bits satisfying to work with. It also helps that she’s fully capable of grabbing red-hot iron with herbare hands if she feels like it, which makes finicky little bits much moreconvenient than if she needed to wear gloves. She takes requests and does not charge, which Crispin needles her about—herpayment scale is flexible to say the least and it gives him hives in aprofessionally mortified sort of way—but she refuses to budge. She’s not proud of those toys in a technicalsense (they’re…fine, they’re just fine, but they’re nowhere near herusual expectations for herself) but she likes to make them and she’s proud ofhow happy they make people, so she’s happy.
In terms of personal projects, Brenneth sometimes makesstuff for herself, or for Crispin, but she doesn’t really believe inmixing work and hobbies anymore than she already does (which is…a lot), so shetries to do non-metalwork for stress relief.
Best Alexander Rozhenko: Tiny Child, Awkward Teen, Irresponsible Time-Traveller Adult
Best Alexander Rozhenko?
Tiny Child
Awkward Teen
Irresponsible Time-Traveller Adult
I had a crummy day today but your spones memes make me smile :) thank you
Thank you! Honestly, I figured people would yell at me for reblogging so many old Spones memes in a row, so I'm happy you're enjoying them :)
I read the DFZ series because of your post recommending those books - loved them! I'm going to start reading the Heartstrikers series now, but I hit a wall ordering them from my local bookstore - are they only available through amazon/kindle?
I think so, yeah. Other people with more knowledge and experience than I have had more to say about Amazon and indie publishing, but suffice it to say, it ain’t good out there.
That being said, I’m so glad you liked the DFZ! I adore the whole universe and I would die for Chelsie Heartstriker so 10/10 do recommend, Amazon’s supervillainy aside.
