VOY Dark Matters: Shadow of Heaven

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “It had been strange to be without a weapon on this planet and downright unsettling to be without a combadge. A dozen times a day he’d find himself tapping his chest, trying futilely to communicate with someone. It had gotten so that the children teased him, lifting their right hands and touching their left […]

VOY Dark Matters: Ghost Dance

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4/5} “The survivors were of two minds. Some thought they had displeased their gods, the Crafters, in some way and that to atone they needed to devote themselves totally toward an agrarian life. Others were angry, and wanted to be able to defend themselves should this ever happen again. The two drifted apart.” Star Trek: […]

VOY Dark Matters: Cloak and Dagger

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “They could probably take on the Federation with their present number of dark matter-cloaked vessels. But the Triumvirate, true to their Romulan heritage, wanted to wait until their was no risk at all. They didn’t want to fight the Federation. They wanted to sweep in with a victory so overwhelming that the round-ears wouldn’t […]

Classic vs. modern: SF & fantasy novels

Posted by Dave Switzer under My thoughts

It’s nearly impossible to come up with the best 20 SF novels — but 40 is doable. I thought it might be interesting to split them into 2 groups, old vs. new. Here are the best 20 SF novels from the classics (up to 1990) and the best from the modern period (1991+). Classic Modern […]

Stealing Worlds

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{5/5} “Rivet Couture‘s an alternate reality game where colonialism wasn’t as successful as in the real world. In Rivet Couture, the American Revolution never happened, and the lands west of the Adirondacks were never annexed by European settlers… There are Indian and Chinese empires, free African nations, and places like Dreamtime, which is unexplored Australia. […]

A Hidden Place

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4/5} “She took a chance, you know, telling us anything at all. But she needs somebody. She can’t live out these two weeks without somebody to bring her food, somebody to help her through the Changes — somebody who’ll know and somebody who’ll do it anyway. You know anybody else who’d do that?” A Hidden […]

Star Trek: Voyager — Seven of Nine

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “Seven now realized what a violation she had been a part of. The destruction of the individual. She had heard and, to borrow a human phrase, rolled her eyes at Captain Janeway’s ranting about humans and other sentient beings would rather be dead than assimilated. Now, she realized that the captain was right.” Star […]

Star Trek: Voyager — Marooned

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “The crewmen now assembled had long since learned to live under Starfleet rules and tender their own talents to all their benefit. Chakotay wanted to tell them, these rough-and-tumble upstarts from once upon a time, how very proud he was of them.” Star Trek: Voyager — Marooned by Christie Golden, published in 1997 Voyager […]

Star Trek: Voyager — The Murdered Sun

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “A few rulers throughout the ages had been hard, or as Linneas might have put it, ‘wise,’ enough to be trusted with the secret — that the great glory of Blessing was obtained only with slave labor and killing a system’s sun. But there had not been many. For the most part, the truth […]

Star Trek: Voyager — The Escape

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “Only a few people in each Period knew the truth about the future in Real Time. That was one of the many reasons why it was so forbidden to travel instead any 500,000 year Period. If knowledge of the Near Future got out, it would destroy the society.” Star Trek: Voyager — The Escape […]