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Okay-- this month I'm doing things a little differently than normal. This month is all books I had really high hopes for when I purchased or received them. Not only will I discuss the book itself but whether or not it met those hopes. Oh- and you know that annoying thing I did a lot last year when I didn't know if I'd be able to finish a book in time for the deadline? Well it happens here. We start with a Star Trek book.
My favorite character on Star Trek: The Original Series was Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy. After hearing about the pitch for an episode called Joanna, I've always wondered what it would be like. Several writers in comics and novels have included little hints and often contradictory references to her. Finally there was a book that at judging least by the cover had her and her relationship with Bones in the forefront. How could I say no?
- Star Trek: Crisis On Centaurus By Brad Ferguson:
This book fails for several reasons. First being the most violations of the show not tell rule I've seen in any Star Trek book I have ever read. The second problem is that Ferguson seems to lack understanding of three ideas that are essential to the Star Trek universe. 1) All the big corporations no longer exist in Federation space. Money doesn't even exist on a day to day level. Yet for some reason the book is full of characters with American Express Cards, Coca-Cola and has several chapters set at a Hilton hotel. 2) Separate nations on Earth don't exist. For some reason people have to answer to their home countries Government as well as their planet and the Federation. Valarie between nations are all soccer based in Roddenberry's view of the 23rd century. 3) Most importantly, at least in the Original Series era- no crime, even terrorism, can get anyone the death penalty save for violation General Order Seven. (I know nothing about little people with big heads and I was nowhere near Talos IV at the time.) All of these are crucial to Roddenberry's vision of the future and but there they are. The story itself might be entertaining enough but it is not Star Trek. It is almost like he took a pre-existing story and stuck Star Trek characters in it. Who does he think he is- Theodore Sturgeon? The story itself deals with Kirk and company being sent to deal with a group of domestic terrorists on Alpha Centauri. The hunt eventually leads him to find the KKK in space and ultimately to the ending of the Orson Welles classic Touch of Evil. There is a subplot about malfunctions on the ship that cripple everything but the plot goes nowhere and is eventually written off as a freak accident involving black holes.
Did it live up to my hopes: No. To add insult to injury- the promise on the back cover of this being a story about Bones and his daughter? It's not. Sure, the plot is in there but it is a Kirk story 90% of the time. Not only that so many of the details of Kirk's life given in this story diverge from what we know so much that it doesn't even seem like Kirk. The only character who really seems like their classic self throughout the book is Chekov.
This next book is a bit of an oddball. I'd seen Attack of the Show! a few times while waiting for other things to come on G4. I loved Olvia Munn's all too brief run on The Daily Show. So when I found her book for a buck at a Borders closing sale- I bought it. Well technically it was a remainder book marked down to $4 but that was 75% off. I had high hopes for it because I'm a straight male geek. I'm genetically hardwired to find her absolutely hilarious.
- Suck It, Wonder Woman! by Olivia Munn with Mac Montandon:
If you're a fan of Olivia Munn's work on Attack of the Show! or The Daily Show, chances are you'll like the book. Simple as that. It's got a lot of quirky stories from her childhood. A few show business stories and a lot of geek humor. I blame the fact that it didn't sell well on the fact that she wrote the book about three years before anyone outside the geek community knew who she was. It was also released around the same time as Sarah Silverman's 'The Bedwetter'. This book actually one ups Silverman- in that the show business stories play less of a role and when they do are much less congratulatory. Munn is a lot more likely to make herself look like an idiot while still being endearing. Aside from grammar mistake that I thought the book had one other flaw. The Star Wars: A New Hope reimagined as Princess Leia's Twitter feed chapter included Yoda. Any real geek would know Yoda doesn't show up until Empire Strikes Back. Not only that, but I don't think the two of them ever met.
Did it live up to my hopes: I went into it thinking I'd get a few laughs from someone whose comedy sketches I have found to be really funny. What I got was a fairly amusing look at the life of a female geek and at least one essay on how their minds work. She was nice enough to include a chapter on how I can use that. Only I'm not sure I have the confidence to put it into practice but you never know. For that alone it was worth the read.
Another series of books that I like (overall) is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Yes, I'm the first to admit that most of the stories done after his return from the dead were nowhere near as good as they were before his unassisted trip over the falls but bad Holmes is certainly better than a lot of detective stories at their best. So without further ado--
- His Final Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
This collection of short stories is in many ways leaps and bounds over the last short story collection and possibly even exceeds the quality of the previous volume 'The Valley of Fear'. There aren't that many continuity errors. Some of the mysteries are rather difficult to solve but don't seem to be as clearly deus ex machina. Furthermore, Doyle seems to have found his sense of humor. (He mocks his own limited vocabulary when describing brutal crimes in the wryest and most British way possible.) All of these elements have made Holmes stand out amongst many other detectives of the period. The Dying Detective is one where we know Doyle isn't going to kill Holmes a second time. The whole fooling the bad guy trick works as well as it does because while we are given the same information as Watson, we the reader, have probably figured out more of what is going on than he has. (Though at least two details skipped right past me.) The tale in the collection 'His Final Bow' strikes me as the worst of the bunch because it is strictly speaking not a mystery story. It's a spy tale and one that doesn't quite work. While there is definitely a sense of finality to the tale- it doesn't feel like it should have been Holmes last adventure. Apparently Doyle agreed and eventually wrote more Holmes stories.
Did it live up to my hopes: Yes. I was hoping for better than the last two Holmes collections I read and that's more or less what I got. I may finish this collection after all. Even if the last batch is as abysmal as I've been told.
Now for a totally different type of crime novel- one about a certain Showtime starring serial killer. or rather the books which made the TV series possible. That's right it's time for:
- Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay:
The book and TV Dexters are very different animals. Literary Dexter has no conflict. He is very much the apex predator. Astor and Cody are different too. Imagine if Wednesday and Pugsley weren't comedic characters. The book hints they may eventual become his apprentices. Literary Vince Masouka is well--- he's more Vince Masouka than Vince Masouka and just leave it at that. The story is one so gruesome it could never fully be brought to TV, though parts of it were but so out of context that it barely counts. What does remain is very much a disturbing and darkly hilarious novel. It's not funny ha-ha. It's funny as in 'Did they really just do that?' It's so gruesome you either crack up or get sick. As you read through the books you know ethically and logically you should be rooting for Dexter to catch the bad guy. Which he kind of does and he kind of doesn't. You also know you should want Doakes to catch Dexter for all the horrible things he's done. However, Lindsay does a very good job of taking an unrepentant sociopath and making him seem like a reasonable person. You want him to succeed if only because maybe the bad guys deserve it. (Which I personally don't believe but the book almost sells me on it.) Dexter delivers a distracting trip into a dark domain which lies within us all and makes us understand the need for the unconscionable.
Did it live up to my hopes: Yes. I don't like to admit it but there is a part of Dexter I can really empathize with.
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