Fractured Horizons by Anthony James

 

Fractured Horizons by Anthony James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The conflict between the Human Planetary Alliance and the Daklan continues unabated with humanity slowly but surely losing ground. The potential treasure trove of technology captured by Captain Carl Recker and his crew remains in potential as Recker is given a new command and orders to seek out more of the mysterious alien technology. Once again he and his crew find themselves as underdogs in the race to discover the remnants of a third alien race and surprisingly evidence is revealed to account for a fourth. The sheer enormity of the technology being discovered makes the Daklan and Human war machines pale into insignificance and when such tech is deployed the two finally begin to talk.
Fractured Horizons was a more enjoyable read than the first more so because I was now familiar with the world and its technology as well as Anthony's writing style. The potential narrative of a third novel is compelling and I recently purchased it for reading in the new year.

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Ishmael by Barbara Hambly

 

Ishmael by Barbara Hambly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this novel, I've read it over and over and my paperback is rather worse for wear:)
Ishmael is a fairly simply story at its core, a man out of place who finds a purpose, friends and family in a community so different to what he was raised to understand as normal. In terms of Star Trek it's a story of Spock who is captured on board a Klingon freighter which is showing some strange energy readings, it vanishes as Kirk and the Enterprise look on helpless to do anything. Spock awakes in a cot in a cabin in the Seattle woodlands being tended to by an Aaron Stemple. Spock has no memory of who and what he is but is accepted by Stemple and soon learns to integrate with the Seattle community albeit one four centuries prior to his birth.
The novel has a wide selection of new characters all of which are entertaining to read about, they merge well together and push the narrative forward and while it may be pushing the bounds to believe Spock would thrive in this environment his stumbles and victories are highly satisfying. If anything it's the more "Trek" aspect of the story that suffers, the investigation into the Klingon mission is quite shallow even though the Karsid element and the Drelb are very interesting additions. Ishmael is a very good read and very entertaining but maybe not for every Star Trek fan, for me it's one of my favourite go to novels when I want some Trek.

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The Illustrated Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

 

The Illustrated Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the first novel from Terry Pratchett I ever read and this latest hardback release adds some beautiful artwork by Paul Kidby. The story takes place in Ankh-Morpork and has two major plots which eventually twine around each other with humour, satire and an all to real reflection of the real world and our society. The first story is all about Carrot who as a baby was the only survivor of a wagon party destroyed in the mountains, taken in by dwarfs he was raised but eventually his adopted parents had to reveal the truth and he was sent to the city to have a human made of him. As a volunteer for the City Watch he ends up being dumped into the Night Watch and well the rusty wheels finally begin to turn and the City will never be the same. The second story is the devious plan of an unknown individual influencing the members of a secret society to use magic to create a dragon and use it to punish those that believe to have done them wrong and eventually to set the scene for a "hero" to appear, banish the dragon, unseat the Patrician and install said devious dude in the position of power. Naturally a revitalised Night Watch and the Plot to destabilize the city clash and well by then you will be enamoured with the characters, writing and sheer style that was Terry Pratchett.

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