The Disinherited? Death Count? Spartacus? It's all a blank...



Adding the back cover text of the Pocket Star Trek novels to my website has been a little more interesting than I expected. I've probably never even read most of those blurbs before, because I buy every Trek book and don't need to be sold on it. So I am constantly surprised by just how badly written so many of those back covers are (I'm up to the end of 1993 now). Clunky prose, grammatical errors, spelling mistakes... it really is surprising.



What's also surprising is looking at the front cover art and the back cover text and realizing I remember next to nothing about a lot of these books. I don't have a great memory anyway, but how is it I can remember so much about books I hated, whereas the complete oeuvres of some past Trek writers made no longterm impression at all?



It may also be that it's the time these books are from. The Richard Arnold Effect was some time away from ending, so the books were written under a heck of a lot of constraints. But I think it's the writers and editors to some extent, too. We're in a golden age right now for Star Trek novels. Sure, there are one or two writers whose best days seem to be behind them. But there are more strong, new writers than we've ever had before. The Deep Space Nine relaunch has not had a single stinker yet, despite (or maybe due to) being written largely by relative newcomers to the world of Trek novels. Five of the six Lost Era novels would have been among the best Trek novels of any year.



I just have to remember not to take this all for granted.



Meanwhile...



The Enterprise Vulcan trilogy is off to a good start. I watched the Friday and Sunday night showings, something I don't think I've done before with Enterprise. Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens are off to a good start. I find myself hoping they'll have the time some day to write an Enterprise novel.



I'm not trying to find more TV series to watch, but Laura and I have watched the last few episodes of Corner Gas and we're hooked. It's a sitcom, yes, but there's no laugh track, no annoying kids, and a nice sense of place. And it's not deliberately dumb and trashy the way Trailer Park Boys is.



Happy 41st Doctor Who Anniversary, everyone!



Tomorrow night, PBS is showing the final episode of Regency House Party, which has been pretty entertaining. (Though they should have shown us more of Kim Newman's visit to the house.)



And speaking of the Regency era... I'm reading that book The Blighted Cliffs now, and it's turning out to be more of a murder mystery than a nautical adventure. It's also played less for lusty laughs than the marketing would suggest. I'm quite enjoying it, and I'll read more. I doubt I can say the same for the comparatively cliched Kydd books by Julian Stockwin.



(Now playing: R.E.M., "The Worst Joke Ever," Around the Sun.)