This book is the fifth entry of the “Tarzan” original prose novels.
TARZAN, LORD OF NO MEMORY
The book seriThe worst entry in the series so far!
This book is the fifth entry of the “Tarzan” original prose novels.
TARZAN, LORD OF NO MEMORY
The book series seemed to get on direction on its third entry, but then, Edgar Rice Burroughs decided to make the fourth book a forced introduction for Korak, son of Tarzan, and he failed in the same way than Boruto or Gohan weren’t able to fill the shoes of their own mighty fathers, but even that I think was mainly due that the author didn’t give his own origin story to Korak, but a pale mirror of Tarzan’s origin lacking of imagination.
But, now it’s even worse, since Korak is not mentioned or appearing, and the motivations and development of Tarzan’s tale here are going from selfishness to irritating cliché.
Lord John Clayton of Greaystoke is having finacial problems… really? He is Tarzan, for Christ’s sake! He doesn’t need money! He can live happily in a tree house eating bananas! As he does in the movies, you never watched Tarzan needing any money in films or TV. So, since conveniently Tarzan knows where Opar, the lost city of gold is hidden, he decides to have a quest, not to help people in need, not to rescue anybody, nope, he does it looking for gold and jewels to become rich again, wow, bravo Edgar, great motivations for our daring hero.
There are two villains in this tale, first, Albert Werper, a Belgian, former miitary, who decided to ally to Achmet Zek, an Arab, and both plot to kidnap Jane Clayton, wife of Tarzan (who seems only serves to be kidnapped in Tarzan’s stories) and demand for a huge ransom (of course, first, they don’t know about financial troubles of Tarzan, and second, it’s quite dumb to kidnap the wife of the hero, that never will go well for the bad guys).
Werper arrives to Greystoke Estate (because, Tarzan instead of having a humble but cool house in a tree, he has an expensive house in the middle of Africa! And later, he complains of having money shorcuts!) under a false identity, just in time to come along in the quest for gold and jewels of Tarzan, because is smart to include a complete stranger in your personal trip to a secret city full of gold and jewels! Geez!
But, that’s not the worse! Oh no, my friends, when Tarzan and company (Werper and a group a Tarzan’s loyal Warriors) arrive to Opar and they are in the chamber full of gold and jewels, a stone hit Tarzan’s head…
…and guess what?
Of course, the mother of all clichés! Tarzan loses his memory!!!
GEEZ!!!
At that point, there is a horny priestess trying to get inside of Tarzan’s loincloth, meanwhile the Arab indeed kidnaps Jane (that after being traumatized in previous books for similar situations, here, she is calmed trusting beyond any doubt that Tarzan will rescue her) and I won’t detail any further to avoid spoil the resolution of the story, but definitely this was the worst book in the series that I’ve read so far, it’s not like the previous entries were any real good but here, we are hitting bottom…
…thank God for the films and TV series, if not, I don’t think Tarzan would ever become the icon that it’s nowaways.
This book is the fourth entry of the “Tarzan” original prose novels.
KORAK, SON OF TARZAN
Indeed, it’s aThe son of Tarzan has his own adventure!
This book is the fourth entry of the “Tarzan” original prose novels.
KORAK, SON OF TARZAN
Indeed, it’s a different entry in the series since suddenly the main character of the book isn’t Tarzan but Jack, his son, now 10 years old, following his life until he became 18 years old. The novel is well written but honestly I didn’t like the way that things happened, there are a lot of conveniences, but it’s clear that at least in Tarzan novels, the conveniences, are the backbone of how the stories are developed, but that wasn’t the problem, but that Jack due circumstances he needs to grow up without the support of his parents, in the middle of the jungle, even finding his own female romantic interest, all in one single book.
I didn’t like since it’s like a forced copy of his dad’s origin, where I think the cool thing of being Tarzan’s son would be having Tarzan at his side to learn from him, but no, Burroughs decided that Jack would be living alone during a good part of the book.
Ten years after of the events of previous entry, Jane Porter is traumatized due her kidnapping and having to rescue (along with Tarzan) his son, Jack, therefore, they returned to England and never to return to Africa.
Meanwhile, Alexis Paulvitch, the villain in the two previous books (it’s becoming tiresome that there aren’t any new villains in this saga, Paulvitch never got famed like Lex Luthor or The Joker as to consider it as an iconic well remembered nemesis of Tarzan, so I’d like to read about totally new villains) was having a bad life in Africa, and when he’s able to return to England, on the back trip, he meets, Akut, an intelligent ape who became ally of Tarzan in the third book, and Paulvitch used him to become famous once back in England.
The news of a smart ape reaches the Clayton manor, and while Jane didn’t want Jack to go to see the show of the smart ape, Jack sneaks out anyway, Tarzan (now known as John Clayton) follows him and recognized Akut and talks to him, something that Jack got amazed, and finally Tarzan tells to his son, about his origin and adventures in Africa.
Jack decides to free Akut and Paulvitch trying to take revenge on Tarzan, he pretends to help Jack, but things got wrong and Akut kills (finally) Paulvitch, but that makes Jack panicked and gets deep into the African jungle fearing to be found guilty of Paulvitch’s death. By them, Jack is able to communicate with Akut and something ridiculous is that Jack is renamed Korak, since Akut can’t pronounce Jack. Sure, since “Jack” is something harder to pronounce than Korak! Don’t get me wrong, Korak is a cool hero name, and certainly he wouldn’t go fighting evil in Africa as “Jack”, but the reason of changing to Korak is kinda absurd.
Korak lives for years in Africa learning in similar way than Tarzan did, even he conveniently finds the same tribe of smart apes that raised Tarzan, and he finds a abused girl of almost the same age than Korak, that he decides to protect, but what begins as a kinda sibling relationship with years become someting romantic.
I don’t like this story since Jane should be becoming crazy, first she got traumatized for the kidnapping of her and his son, and now, she doesn’t know anything about his son for like seven years!
I am not telling the final part since I tell too much already. It’s not a boring adventure or anything, but definitely is not the way that I’d like to read about the teenage years of Tarzan’s son, since in the movies, you see him being raised by Tarzan and Jane, all three as a family.
This book is the second entry of the “Barsoom” original prose novels, featuring the hero known as John Carter of Mars.John Carter of Mars returns!
This book is the second entry of the “Barsoom” original prose novels, featuring the hero known as John Carter of Mars.
IMPRISONMENTS AND GODS
Well, this second novel was kinda dissapointing since all the exciting about John Carter OF MARS in the first entry was kinda diluted since a good part of the second book, John Carter is imprisoned here and there, dealing with self-appointed gods (that I think they were too relevant characters for not being at least mentioned in the first novel), later there are grand-scale action battles but I think that Burroughs didn’t self-restrict him using aburd quantities of ships and troops, but I have to admit that it was cool that John Carter OF MARS was in absolute command of the Hellium army.
Other thing that I didn’t like is that John Carter OF MARS is put into romantic situations with other two women, while he is properly married to Dejah Thoris and even he had a son with her, in fact he is returning to Barsoom (as it’s known Mars for local species) searching for his wife and son, and he’s involved with other two women, it’s true that they are more in love with him than he would be in love with them, but still I don’t think that it’s correct to put more romantic interests when he’s already married, it’s not like other action heroes that they may have romantic relationships with several women but they are still single.
And yet another thing that I didn’t like is that the book is left with a tremendous cliffhanger to be resolved in the third book leaving the feeling that you didn’t have a proper resolve in this second entry of the saga.
Obviously I will read the third novel very soon, but still I like that each book would have some proper self-contained solution, they may have still stuff to conclude but having a satisfactory ending on each adventure of each book.
The USS Voyager’s fleet deals with new and old foes!
This book is a tie-in original prose novel of “Star Trek: Voyager”. The sixth in the Expanded The USS Voyager’s fleet deals with new and old foes!
This book is a tie-in original prose novel of “Star Trek: Voyager”. The sixth in the Expanded Universe line of this spin-off series.
ENEMIES’ AFTERMATHS
The Full Circle fleet is divided due the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy book crossover event, but USS Voyager under command of Captain Afsarah Eden, along with USS Galen and USS Hawking remain in Delta Quadrant space but soon enough they find a Starfleet shuttle under attack of what it seems to be a Borg cube, and they discover that the crew of the shuttle aren’t other than Tom Paris, B’Elanna Torres and their daughter Miral that they need to fake the deaths of B’Elanna and Miral to escape from the fanatics of the Warriors of Grehtor.
After that, the remaining ships of the fleet begin to suffer several malfunctions in their systems including the Slipstream Drives but also with the protocols that avoided to the deflector dishes to open “gates” to the fluidic space, home of the Species 8472, in the middle of all this, they make first contact with a cooperative society made of six different alien species, but they are secretly worshiping the Borg and offering live tributes to them, however the Indign (as they named themselves as society) ignored the current status of the Borg.
Meanwhile, Seven is grieving for her late aunt, and Chakotay does all in his power (with the assistance of Icheb and Sveta) to help her to cure her mental state that it’s disturbed too for the Borg collective connection, and soon enough Chakotay decides that the best option is to reunite with the USS Voyager and the remaining Full Circle fleet.
Obviously this is like the overall premise or introductory plots, I won’t spoil how all this would be solved.
I liked this novel, finally the “old gang” is reunited again and dealing with the aftermaths of two of their most formidable enemies, if not the two most formidable that they faced during the first tour through the Delta Qudrant…
…ignoring that the USS Voyager and the Full Circle fleet are yet to face their most challenging villain in the next book!
This book is the third entry of the “Dragonlance” prose novels series, also this is the third and final booDragonlance Chronicles comes to an end!
This book is the third entry of the “Dragonlance” prose novels series, also this is the third and final book of the “Chronicles” trilogy. This is part of the franchise of “Dungeons & Dragons”.
EVERYBODY GOES TO PALANTHAS
This book while may be shorter than the previous two, it’s quite convulted and packed with too many situations. I don’t know, maybe the authors realized how much they still want to tell and there was only one book left in the planned trilogy (while obviously the Dragonlance book series continued with other novels).
Tanis, Laurana, Raistlin and almost everybody are converging in Palanthas, but not quite they met there. Kitiara, a villain introduced in the second book is doing her best to ruin the romantic relationship between Tanis and Laurana.
Laurana, named here the Golden General, at first she’s easily the best character, doing everything right and awesome…
…just to fall in a dumb trap and being captured almost the rest of the book. I don’t like how they were managing Laurana, since she was easily my favorite character so far in the trilogy. I don’t know if there was an odd solution to avoid to steal spotlight to Tanis, the main character of the story, but I don’t like when the authors try to decided for us, what character we must like or support. If Laurana could be treated better in the second half of the book, definitely I'd rated it better.
There are cool battle involving good and evil dragons, along with dragonlances (the only weapons that humans without magic can use to kill evil dragons).
Also, besides Kitiara (that she’s despicable but also cool villain), there is the fearsome death knight, Lord Soth, and the goddess of evil Takhisis (that that it’s not a mere cool title, she’s indeed a goddess of evil!).
But, never fear since the good gods (at least one of them) has been in the shadows since the beginning doing his best to put the heroes in the right paths to avoid that evil may triumph.
This book is a tie-in prose novel of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.
Captain’s Log:
The USS Enterprise-D is assigned to servA hilarious adventure!
This book is a tie-in prose novel of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.
Captain’s Log:
The USS Enterprise-D is assigned to serve as scenario of a wedding with relevant socio-commercial importance, since it’s the union of the two most influential families of the Tizarin, a spacefaring humanoid alien species, informally known as “Nice Ferengies” since they are like space gypsies, doing comercial trade with many alien species in the space territory of the Federation, but more relaxed and easier to negotiate than the Ferengi Alliance, therefore Starfleet considered a priority to give assistance in any possible way to the success of the wedding.
Senior Staff:
Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Commanding Officer) Cmdr. William Riker (First Officer) Lt. Cmdr. Data (Operations Manager & Second Officer) Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge (Chief Engineering Officer) Dr. Beverly Crusher (Chief Medical Officer) Lt. Worf (Chief Security Officer) Counselor Deanna Troi (Ship’s Counselor) Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher (Helmsman)
A FUNNY FEELING ABOUT THIS
This a Star Trek adventure with lots of comedy, actually the narrative is conducted to be intentionally funny. Star Trek isn’t strange to funny stories, since the TV series have their share of “funny episodes” but not always they work well. In the very ST:TNG, there are “funny episodes” like “The Naked Now” and “Qpid” that in my personal humble opinion, I don´t think that they worked well, even mass popular episodes such as “The Trouble with Tribbles” in ST:TOS, it wasn’t of my taste; however, in the TV series of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, while it’s one the darkest spin-offs of the franchise, curiously enough, I think it has the most brilliantly written funny episodes of the franchise, such as “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”, “Bar Association”, “Little Green Men”, “Our Man Bashir”, “Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places”and “Trials and Tribble-actions” (I didn’t enjoy the original episode but this sequel was awesome), where they’re genuinely funny but smartly treating the characters in logical situations. Since one thing is true comedy and other is forced ridiculousness.
In any case, I think that here, in this prose novel, with the masterful pen of Peter David, this funny adventure works wonderfully and it’s a shame that it wasn’t pick to be developed as a TV episode, since I’m sure that it could be a truly great and popular TV episode, but as I researched, the Star Trek office at Paramount was even hesitant to publish it as a prose novel and it was until the insistence of Majel Barret (wife of Gene Roddenberry (creator of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation) and also the actress who performed Lwaxana Troi in ST:TNG (and Nurse Chapel in ST:TOS, for not saying also the voice of the titular ships’ main computers in ST:TNG, ST:DS9 and ST:VOY) that the novel got green light, and the bet paid off since quickly became one of the most popular prose novels of the franchise and even in its audio book form, it counts with the voices of Majel Barret and John de Lancie (actor who play Q).
Q MEETS LWAXANA TROI… NUFF SAID! WELL, THERE’S KARLA TOO!
Between the wedding of the heirs of the Graziunas and the Nistrals, the two most influential families of the Tizarin, occurs the oddball meeting of two of the most popular guest characters of ST:TNG, Lwaxana Troi, a powerful telepath Betazoid, mother of Deanna Troi, ambassador of Betazed and “the daughter of the Fifth House of Betazed”; and Q, member of the Q-Continuum, with God-like powers and usually trying to put humanity on trial or just doing some mischief to the crew of the Enterprise (and eventually the USS Voyager too!).
Lwaxana, since she is the most respected ambassador of Betazed, she is one of the honored guests to the wedding, however, she is causing many headaches to her daughter, Counselor Deanna Troi, since Lwaxana is presented to the event wearing mourning attires since she is in “duel” for the “social death” of Deanna, since due Deanna’s age, in Betazed is considered that she “lost” her chance to get married.
The headaches don’t end since Q, the mischiveous god-like being appears, and Captain Picard is stressed out right away, specially when the first thing that Q does is sending Picard to space, traveling in a matching speed along the Enterprise!
And since the headaches seem to travel in trios but pairs, Wesley Crusher has the most unusual headaches of all (and that’s saying a lot since we are talking of Lwaxana Troi and Q in the first two headaches), in the shape of a slave girl, of name Karla (such humanly normal name for a blue-skin woman) given to him as an appreciation gift by Serah, heiress daughter of the Graziunas.
The book is hilarious and entertained, maybe if I’d say something against, I think that the climax lacked some of difficulty, since it’s solved in kinda easy way, but still this a truly great prose novel of Star Trek: The Next Generation that I recommend a lot.
This book is the first entry of the “Barsoom” original prose novels, featuring the hero known as John Carter of MaJohn Carter of Mars begins here!
This book is the first entry of the “Barsoom” original prose novels, featuring the hero known as John Carter of Mars.
HE’S NOT JUST JOHN CARTER, BUT JOHN CARTER OF MARS
While the character of Tarzan is widely more known (mainly thanks to movies and TV series) and because of that, the saga is even more prolific in number of books in its collection (26 books of Tarzan against 11 of Barsoom), however, Edgar Rice Burroughs begins with Barsoom aka John Carter of Mars saga (actually both first books were published in 1912, but A Princess of Mars was before than Tarzan of the Apes), certainly the character of John Carter of Mars and his “Barsoom” prose saga is also quite popular and it served of inspiration for many following sci-fi writers such as Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein, but also inspiration for real scientists like Carl Sagan.
John Carter of Mars isn’t that known by masses since he hasn’t being developed in many movie/TV projects but the ill-fated Disney’s live-action film John Carter (why the heck they took out the part “of Mars” for Christ’s sake?! That’s the coolest part of the name!), but anyway, he’s easily one of the three major sci-fi heroes of the early 20th century along with Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.
GREEN V. RED: DAWN OF MARS
John Carter, a former captain of the Confederate army, is now searching for gold and when he thinks that he got lucky, he’s attacked by Apaches, and esxaping from them, he went into a cave where suddenly he’s transported to planet Mars, that locals names “Barsoom” (hence the title of the book series). There, John Carter meets two major species, “Green Martians” called themselves Tharks, with six arms and Green skin; the others are the Hellium, more humanoid-like race but red skin.
Something important is that John Carter develops great strenght and super agility thanks to the lesser gravity and lower atmospheric pressure on Mars (something to ponder about since this was published in 1912, easily 26 years before of the publishing of Superman who gains similar abilities thanks for coming from another planet too).
John Carter became respected by the Tharks, making an important friendship with Tras Tarkas, one of the war chieftains of the Tharks’ tribes, but also get into some trouble with them, since he decides to rescue, Dejah Thoris, the princess of Hellium, but later he’s crucial to help in an alliance between the Tharks and the Hellium against the city-state of Zodanga, ancient enemies of the Hellium.
It’s obvious that John Carter (or Mars (I never get tired to say the full name!)) falls in love with Princess Dejah Thoris, getting married and therefore he became…
…Prince John Carter…
…OF MARS, of course!!!
And they lived happily ever after (at least for nine years, that honestly is way more than many literature couple can say that they enjoy!) until a new major crisis involves the whole world of Barsoom…
…but I’ve been telling more than enough…
…I won’t spoil the climax!
While more popular (or at least more known) is the llterary saga of Tarzan, something that I really like here, in this first book of Barsoom, is that since the first book, you have just the kind of sci-fi pulp adventure hero that you want to read about, instead of Tarzan that you have to endure two books until having on the third entry in the shape that you really want to read about the character.
Therefore, between the two major sagas by Burroughs (obviously he wrote several other book sagas), I found more enjoyable to read the first book about Barsoom than my reading experience with the first two novels of Tarzan.
This book is a tie-in prose novel of “Star Trek: The Original Series”. The first part is developed during the coAn adventure crossing generations!
This book is a tie-in prose novel of “Star Trek: The Original Series”. The first part is developed during the command of Captain Christopher Pike, right after the events of the TV episode “The Cage”; and the second part is developed during the command of Captain James T. Kirk, set between the events of the movie “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” and “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”.
HAIL THE MASTER STORYTELLER
I read this prose novel after knowing the sad news that Peter David, the author, passed away. He is my favorite Star Trek novelist. He did a lot of stuff, not only prose novels of several franchises and movie novelisations, but in the Star Trek franchise, even he was the first authorized to make an original prose novels spin-off Star Trek: New Frontier which was so successful that opened the path to other prose novels spin-offs, also he was prolific and respected in comic book works for DC and Marvel, including the co-creation of the Spider-Man 2099 character; and even he wrote TV episodes for several projects including the co-creation of Nickelodeon’s Space Cases TV series along with iconic Billy Mumy.
Easily the half of my favorite Top10 of Star Trek prose novels were written by Peter David, curiously enough, the uneven numbers: One, Star Trek: The Next Generation Imzadi; Three, Star Trek: The Next Generation Q-Squared; Five, Star Trek: New Frontier – Captain’s Table Once Burned; Seven, Star Trek: The Next Generation Before Dishonor; Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation Vendetta. And right after reading this novel at hand, I plan to read Star Trek: The Next Generation Q-in-Law, that I don’t know why I waited so long to read it and I wouldn’t be much surprised if it could get into the Top10.
Star Trek: The Next Generation Imzadi isn’t only my favorite Star Trek prose novel, but also it’s my favorite tie-in prose novel featuring in my all-genre Top10 of novels in general. So, if you haven’t read any Star Trek prose novel, you never will be disappointed if you choose any work by Peter David (there are certainly several other good stuff by other authors, my own Top10 has other half of works written by other authors), but Peter David in Star Trek is almost always a safe bet.
Hail the master storyteller. You’ll be missed. Thanks a million for your excelent work!
TWO GENERATIONS OF THE ENTERPRISE
The first part of this adventure is set right after the events of “The Cage” (the first pilot commisioned for the Star Trek TV series and that since it was unaired, later the footage was used in “The Menagerie” two-parter) having Captain Christopher Pike under command of the original USS Enterprise, counting with Number One (known nowadays as Una Chin-Riley in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) as his First Officer, a younger Mr. Spock as Chief Science Officer, Dr. Boyce as Chief Medical Officer and Lt. José Tyler, ship’s navigator.
In the first part, the USS Enterprise makes first contact with the Calligar, an alien race that they lived very far away from Federation space but it’s possible to make contact through an unstable rift that serves as passage to unite two points in space. The Calligar are isolationists but its “Master Builder” (the term that they used for their political leader) is willing to make contact since their resources aren’t what they used to be since they ruined their homeworld forcing them to live in massive artificial orbital stations.
Lt. José Tyler begins a romance with Master Builder’s daughter provoking a rupture in the fragile diplomatic negotiations, along that the rift becomes unstable again and the USS Enterprise is barely able to return to Federation space.
Thirty years later, the infamous rift is becoming stable once again, and now the USS Enterprise-A under command of Captain James T. Kirk, set after the events of the movie Star Trek V: the Final Frontier but before the events of the movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (it’s amusing to notice that this adventure is happening first in the beginning of the original TV run, and later, in the final stages of the movie era of the Original Series crew), where Starfleet doesn’t want to risk the stablitiy of the rift with the size of a starship, therefore they only used shuttles now. Captain Spock, now First Officer, and Chief Engineer Scotty take a Federation diplomatic team to try a second time to forge an alliance with the Calligar, the team has Tellarite and Andorian representatives (two of the Federation founding species) and the famous Dr. Richard Daystrom.
The daughter of the original Master Builder is now the current Master Builder and she travels through the rfit aboards the USS Enterprise-A where she encounters again with José Tyler, now with the Rank of commodore (Kirk was admiral but events of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home provoke his demotion to captain once again) and Ambassador Robert Fox (it’s truly great the way that Peter David is so crafty employing obscure Star Trek characters that may did just once appearance in the original TV series but using them in such logical way without contradicting the canon).
The new Master Builder wants to stay in Federation space and she asks for asylum, provoking anger in a Calligar faction that kidnaps the Federation team, provoking a diplomatic incident that Tellarite and Andorian ships arrive demanding the liberation of their representatives making harder the work of Kirk and his crew trying to solve in a peaceful way the situation.
While I am fan of Peter David and I already say that he’s a safe bet to read in Star Trek, I didn’t imagine that this novel would be so good and entertained. Maybe it’s not something to fit in my Top10, but definitely is one cool novel that I recommend to any Trekker....more
This book is the third entry of the “Tarzan” original prose novels.
TAKEN, TARZAN STYLE
This third The Lord of the Jungle fights for his family!
This book is the third entry of the “Tarzan” original prose novels.
TAKEN, TARZAN STYLE
This third entry in the series of Tarzan is finally getting the tone that I¿d been expecting since the beginning. Finallly, Tarzan is an action hero that you’re eager to read about, and the story is something easy to grasp, without detours or pointless sub-plots.
Tarzan got married with Jane in the previous book and now they’re having a male baby, that they named Jack (it was unexpected that Tarzan’s son has such normal name since in the movies, “Boy” was an iconic character, but I have to admit that it’s only logical that their son, who is the heir of the Greystoke lore, should have a normal name). Tarzan builds a home in the jungle (but it’s a normal house, not something in a tree like the movies, more practical and logical, but you can’t deny that a house in a tree is totally appealing cool) and also they have their family estate in London.
Old enemies (well, not that old, from the previous book), Nikolas Rokoff and Alexis Paulvitch, escape prison and they have a vendetta against Tarzan and now his new family is the easy target, where the villains kidnaps first Jack, and later they set a trap to kidnap Jane too, leaving Tarzan isolated in an island separate from his family.
Now, almost a centrury before the iconic Taken (starring Liam Neeson), Tarzan has to find unexpected and bizarre allies (the title of this novel links to these allies since they’re beasts (a mighty panther and a tribe of smart apes (along with a cunning warrior)) in that hostile island to find a way to escape from there and begin his desperate quest for his wife and son.
The first novel was an uneasy experience since Tarzan is no hero at all, and the second book was kinda transition, but happily this third entry is the kind of story about Tarzan that I was wishing to read. I am truly glad that I didn’t drop the book series. So, my humble recommendation is if you want to enage to read Tarzan prose novels, you need to endure those first two books, or you can dive right into the third novel since it’s not that hard to understand what happened before.
But definitely, this is a really cool and entertaining novel about Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle.
This book is a tie-in original prose novel of “Star Trek: Voyager”. The fifth in the Expanded UniverThe USS Voyager returns to the Delta Quadrant!
This book is a tie-in original prose novel of “Star Trek: Voyager”. The fifth in the Expanded Universe line of this spin-off series. And it’s the first under the pen of Kirsten Beyer who took over from Christie Golden (she wrote the initial four books) the “Star Trek: Voyager” expanded universe novels and she remained as the sole author of the series until the ending of the expanded universo of this particular spin-off.
EVERYTHING IS A CIRCLE, A FULL CIRCLE
Christie Golden was being responsible of the initial take of the expanded universe of Star Trek: Voyager narrating its adventures back again in Federation space, right after the ending of the TV series. Golden did a fair job and while some stuff wasn’t thst exciting, still the series was solid enough, however the high powers gave the helm of the Star Trek: Voyager expanded universe to Kirsten Beyer and she remained as the sole author of the rest of the expanded novels until the official closure of the entire Star Trek expanded universe (those prose novels set right after the events of their TV series, that with the start of new TV series such like Picard and Lower Decks, the expanded universe once an official cannon continuation in prose novels, turned to be a parallel universe with an joint ending, since nowadays, there are new Star Trek novels but usually set in some moment during their seasons on air).
Beyer was so respectful with the previous work of Golden that in this first novel of her run, she took a great part of the book to tied up those loose ends of Golden’s plots, specially the stuff about B’Elanna and her daughter being chased by Klingon fanatics (that honestly I never was that interested in that sub—plot, and it's kinda the main reason that I didn't feel it to give a higher rating to this particular book. I'm confident that once Beyer would develop in full her own storylines I will enjoy better her following books in this series).
The final part of the novel prepared and it gives start to the new era of USS Voyager returning to the Delta Quadrant, but now as the flagship of a whole fleet of starships, everyone equipped with Quantum Slipstream Drives (a kind of drive able to travel way faster than regular warp and in that way being able to travel to the distant Delta Quadrant but without being left stranded there, the Voyager is finally able to travel between quadrants and even being able to receive assistance from more starships if necessary (and trust me, they will need it since the initial fleet won’t remained intact much time in the following books).
The mission of the Full Circle fleet is doing an exploratory trip to the Delta Quadrant in an official Federation representation to establish formal alliances with the worlds in that space sector.
However, events in other book, Star Trek: The Next Generation “Before Dishonor”, will make impossible that Admiral Janeway would lead this “Full Circle Fleet”, but don’t worry, in the following books that it will be fixed (and not matter how unpopular is that novel by some people, I read it and it’s awesome, one of my favorites, so go read if you want (but I can understand that in that moment, could make angry to many Voyager fans) but I have the advantage of knowing that things were solved in following books.
Therefore, Admiral Willem Batiste is the commanding officer of the initial run of the Full Circle fleet and Captain Afsarah Eden, the initial commanding officer of the USS Voyager, Eden takiing charge of Voyager operations and Batiste in charge of the whole fleet. (But don’t worry, in following books Janeway and Chakotay will return to those positions to the pleasure and easiness of the fans of the series).
This a prose novel which is part of the “Fear Street” original book series.
HIGHSCHOOL IS KILLING TIMES!
R.L. Stine always Great mystery indeed!
This a prose novel which is part of the “Fear Street” original book series.
HIGHSCHOOL IS KILLING TIMES!
R.L. Stine always delivers, sometimes isn’t all that bloody that you may expect but always keeps you entertained, and in this time, not only you’re entertained but it’s a truly great mystery where I have my suspects but the clever devil R.L. Stine surprised me once again with someone that I didn’t think about. Well done, R.L. Stine!
Eva Whelan is our leading lady in the narrative. She’s a highschool student at the infamous Shadyside High School. Her best friend is Tania Darman, and she’s running for being Homecoming Queen.
There are other four girls looking for the title too, Julia Moran, Mei Kamta, Dierdre Bradley but the real rival in the contest is Leslie Gates which was good friend of Tania in the past, but nowaways Leslie is quite hostile toward Tania.
Sandy Bishop is Shadyside HS Football Captain and current boyfriend of Tania but it seems that he’s not totally loyal to her since he has being seen smooching with some girl.
There is Jeremy, new Tania’s stepbrother and majoy crush for Eva, which it seems that he has some kinda dark past.
Also, Keith Hicks, who is a close friend of Sandy, is doing a film project to get a portfolio for his intentions of being College Film student, and he’s hiring all the bunch (or at least the main bunch) for the movie project.
Maybe the bodycount isn’t that impressive in this book, and always I expressed my complains about the bodycount in R.L. Stine’s books, but honestly, this novel is well written and the mystery was so good that since I wasn’t able to pinpoint the killer here, that I don’t mind and definitely I consider this book between the best ones that I’ve read by R..L. Stine.
I’ve watched the film adaptation (from 1968, just five years after the publication of the noVisionary novel!
BETTER BEING NOVELIST THAN PROPHET
I’ve watched the film adaptation (from 1968, just five years after the publication of the novel) starring Anthony Quinn many, many MANY, times and I love the movie. However, I’d never read the novel and I thought that it was about time. The novel is quite different in several things, it’s not something bad, and obviously it’s the original story, but since I’m more familiar with the movie, it was weird to notice so many differences, and again, since I’m more used to the film, I think that I prefer the movie version than the original novel, but I am not saying that it’s a bad book at all, since it’s not, it’s a novel pretty well written.
I knew since several years that the movie was adapted from a novel, and I researched a bit about the author, and I’m convinced that Morris L. West was some kind of psychic with the ability of predecting the future, BUT he was smart, too smart, and instead of writing poems impossible to decipher, or being considered a madman, he was smart and more profitable, and he opted to become a novelist and using that access to key future facts and making a fictional story around it.
Why? Easy.
In this novel, you have a Russian (Ukrainian specifically) from the then still active Soviet Union cardinal named Kiril Lakota that became the first non-Italian Pope in modern times. This novel was written in 1963.
In real life, you have a Polish (in a Poland controlled by the Soviet Union) cardinal named Karol Wojtyla that became Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian Pope in modern times. This happened in 1978.
And remember that in real life it was unthinkable to consider having a non-Italian Pope in the 20th Century, therefore in the novel was considered farfetched fiction in the 60s, but a historic event in 1978.
And if you’re thinking that it was an amusing coincidence…
…in 1998, the same author, Morris L. West wrote Eminence, a fictional novel about an Argentinean cardinal becoming Pope…
…in 2013, an Argentinean cardinal becoming Pope Francis.
Fifteen years before of the real events!
Once again, fifteen years before!
One time, maybe, but striking the lightning twice? Mmh.
And I haven’t researched other books by him, so I can’t say of other “coincidences”.
As I told you, it’s better, and more profitable, being novelist than a “madman prophet”.
Well done, my friend Morris!
Of course, the lives of his fictional characters are quite different, and in fact he was inspired by other real life cardinals to portrait their characters, but the really spooky is the incredible “coincidences” not once but twice that he foretold in his novels.
YOU ARE PETER
The Ukrainian Cardinal Kiril Lakota is released from a Russian gulag and sent to Rome in the hopes to have some political support from the Vatican to the Soviet Union since it was about to enter in a very possible nuclear war with USA. Almost at the same time, the current Pope dies and a conclave named Cardinal Kiril Lakota as the new Pope taking the name of Kiril I.
The world is having a lot of troubles including a devastating famine in China.
In the movie, the crisis is merged from Russia and China due the famine instead of the possible nuclear war with USA. Also, the involment of the Pope in the crisis, is quite more direct with hard implications in the movie, instead of the novel where his approach is more diplomatic without compromising the financial welfare of the Vatican Estate.
But in the novel, Pope Kiril decides to make pilgrimage in other countries, something that none recent Popes had ever done but remaining in the Vatican (something also similar that John Paul II did in his term).
The Pope Kiril is advised by Cardinal Leone in the novel and while he’s relevant in the movie, their confidence is totally harder in the novel, where in the movie is Father David Telemond (Jean Telemond in the novel), that in the novel he’s a relevant character but not having the friendship shown in the film adaptation. While, the personal sub-story of Telemond is almost the same in both versions.
George Faber, an American journalist is present in both versions, but in the movie he doesn’t have any close relationship with Kiril. In this, I have to admit that I prefer the novel version of this character.
The novel have an unique character to this written version that it’s Alexi Goryachev, which is a Soviet diplomat that helps a lot to Pope Kiril to understand the complexities of world politics.
At the end, I lived quite enough the novel. I celebrate having decided to read it. But I do prefer the movie version, but I have to admit that since I am quite more familiar with the film, it’s logical to prefer that other version of the story....more
I watched the film adaptation the night before the news of the sad decease oThe road to heaven is paved with bad intentions.
NOT SO SHARP TEETH
I watched the film adaptation the night before the news of the sad decease of Pope Francis, I just decided to watch the movie since it was Holy Week and I hadn’t watched it yet and I thought that it was an adecuate moment. The next day came the sad news and I thought that since I already watched the movie, it was a kinda adequate moment to read the book. I don’t think that it was something morbid since in the story isn’t clear which Pope is about (of course, the author was heavily inspired in Pope Francis, but still is something open to interpretation or criteria).
The novel and the film are quite alike, therefore I think that it was a fairly good adaptation, just with two key differences about the ethnics of two characters, Jacopo Lomeli (the main character), an Italian cardinal and the dean of the cardinal college (and also he’s appointed to manage the conclave process), is played in the film by Ralph Fiennes and his heritage at the movie is Brittish and named Thomas Lawrence there; the other difference is with another cardinal named Vincent Benitez, remained the same name but in the book is Filipino and in the movie is Mexican, that other cardinal was created “in pectore” (the Pope made him cardinal but remain secret).
The story is interesting but I think that it lacked of some teeth, since the Pope dies and there isn’t the single doubt of any foulplay and considered since the beginning a natural death (that it was but there wasn’t any inquiry or doubt about it) and each favorite cardinal to be elected the next Pope has some dark secret or questionable actions, but at the bottom are clearly sins or criminal actions but kinda mild in my humble concept, specially since in real life I’ve heard about quite worse deeds made by members of the Catholic Church (by the way, I am Catholic and huge fan of Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II, but I can’t deny that many Catholic priests have commited awful actions and many times they haven’t properly judged or punished).
Maybe that’s why I expected some polemic in the book, and while there is polemic alright, I think that it was quite moderated and the author lacked some teeth. I think that if you’re gonna touch polemic issues about sensitive institutions in a fiction work, well, you have to go all the way and made it as impactful as possible or the fact of writing the book is kinda pointless or missing a relevant opportunity.
Still, it’s a very well written book, with a grasping narrative style, and with interesting characters, but certainly it could be a lot more polemic if the author would want to be bolder.
This book is a tie-in work and the second original prose novel of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”.
A VERY DIDiplomacy is the best path to peace!
This book is a tie-in work and the second original prose novel of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”.
A VERY DIPLOMATIC MISSION
You’re always complaining that you don’t get to see enough real examples that some of the instructors are teaching the last generation of cadets, not the next generation. You can’t say that about Pike. He was here a couple of years ago. And he was onboard ship a couple of months ago. He’ll know the score.
The story is set during of the second season of the TV series, after the trial to Una Chin-Riley is resolved. But the story is developed in two sets of time, in 2233, when Una Chin-Riley i son her last year on Starfleet Academy and in 2260, on the second season of the TV series. Switching between those two dates, between chapters.
If you’re looking for a Star Trek novel about diplomacy and the looking for the best option to reach peace without falling into firing phasers, this can be easily one of the best option ever printed in the franchise.
I like it too, since I feel that this was a better option to start reading prose novels of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds instead the first novel, The High Country, since over there, you have very fragmented the crew on the Surface of a planet, but here, you have the crew working together onboard the Enterprise desperately reaching a way to optain the peace between two societies of a same planet without having to use violence.
In the first part you have Christopher Pike, still an ensign and on forced sabbatical due a situation that it will require a formal audience, so meanwhile he is giving some optative course at Starfleet Academy, where Una Chin-Riley is convinced by Lt. Commander Pelia to attend those courses. Also, she is giving assistance to a civil organization in charge of helping refugees from other planets.
On the present, the Enterprise is ordered to be the place to make a diplomatic meeting where is attending representatives of the same alien race that Una Chin-Riley met for the first time on her days at the last year of Starfleet Academy.
This is really enjoyable novel that you’ll enjoy if you’re looking for a story where two societies of a same worlds are more alike that they want to admit and Pike’s crew is giving their best to find a way that both factions can find a mutual peaceful future.
This book is the second entry of the “Tarzan” original prose novels.
TARZAN, LORD OF CONVENIENCES
This second entThe Lord of the Jungle returns!
This book is the second entry of the “Tarzan” original prose novels.
TARZAN, LORD OF CONVENIENCES
This second entry in the series of Tarzan is a lot better about the topic of racism that while Tarzan becoming king of an african people tribe, because obviously since he is white, he will be their king, I just don’t feel the strong racism sentiment of the first book, so I believe that Edgar Rice Burroughs was understanding that racism obviously wasn’t the smart path for the success of his character.
However, the first part of the novel isn’t what I expected since Tarzan is doing anything but being in the Africa. He began feeling out of place and avoiding getting married with Jane Porter, later he decided to travel to Europe and on the seaship’s trip, he got involved in troubles with a villain known as Nikolas Rokoff, later he arrived to France and ended becoming a special agent for the French Ministry of War in Algeria (because that was what a Tarzan’s fan want to see him doing, right? Wrong!)
After some adventures in Algeria, he’s on another boat traveling to Cape Town and onboard he meets Hazel Strong, who is nothing more than Jane’s best friend! Geez! Burroughs is the master of conveniences! Because, he finds again Rokoff and his henchman, and he is taken off the ship falling in the sea, where he manages to reach shore…
…to the precisely same African shore where everbody seems to arrive in the first book! Geez!
Well, the good thing is that finally Tarzan in on African soil again, and soon enough he saves a Waziri tribe member (see? Tarzan now saves them and not teasing them like in the first book) and even he saves the entire tribe from a hostile raid and due that he is named king of the tribe.
The Waziri tribe is rich on gold and Tarzan finds out that it’s due that they know the location of a mythical city known as Opar, and since he’s king now (it’s good to be king!) and orders them to take him there (maybe he’s not racist anymore but ambitious about gold is new hobbie).
Opar is inhabited by ape-like men and Tarzan is captured but since he knows to speak ape language, he manages to gain the trust of a priestess there, which bought him time to be able to escape.
Meanwhile Jane Porter, her father, Professor Porter, and her new fianceé William Clayton (Tarzan’s cousin), and along her best friend Hazel Strong (because obviously they were able to find each other) arrived to Africa (because once again, conveniently they are invited to travel to Africa. No good reason but it seems that anybody in the cast don’t know anything better than travelling to Africa once and again. I mean, Tarzan should be in Africa, but the rest of characters conveniently arrived to Africa by accident or intentionally but without a clear motive).
Nikolas Rokoff arrives to Africa too, but at least since he’s the villain, well, he needs to be where the hero is, right?
Tarzan is struggling all the book, since he doesn’t feel to belong to any place or any race, which makes the character a lot more interesting to read than in the first novel.
I won’t detail anything more, since I’d spoil the climax of the book, but I can tell you that while there are too much conveniences in this narrative, definitely is a better reading experience than the first entry in the series, and the novel has a very good ending.
This book is the first entry of the “Dragonlance” prose novels series, also this is the first book of the “ChroniclesDragonlance saga begins here!
This book is the first entry of the “Dragonlance” prose novels series, also this is the first book of the “Chronicles” trilogy. This is part of the franchise of “Dungeons & Dragons”.
DRAGONS & WARRIORS
I never played Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game and I don’t foreseen to ever playing in the future, but I was curious about the franchise in its area of prose novels, so I decided to read some of them, I don’t plan to read them one after another, but sometime to time, I think that they will be plenty of entertained reading alright, and well, while also I don’t plan to read all of them, I thought that it was wise to read the first one (along with the other two in the trilogy) that it began Dragonlance, one of the most popular modules of the game (also in the future, I plan to read some stuff from Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft).
It’s not my first cup of tea in epic fantasy since I already read the trilogy of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and it’s no wonder that I found some similitudes and influences here in this first book about character types and ambiance, since it would be absurd that any author of epic fantasy wouldn’t read those books too since they are the best and most influential in the literary genre.
Dragonlance happens in a world known as Krynn that it was supposed to be under the care of the True Gods but people haven’t heard anything about them in many time and now The Seekers, leading a new sect are planning to take religious control of the world though the assistance of the Dragon Highlords that they have vast armies of reptilian-like soldiers in their command along with powerful big dragons too. The events are set in the continent of Ansalon.
In this first book, the action is managed through the fellowship of eight companions that after some adventures by their own, they promised to reunite after some time and that time comes…
Tanis Half-Even: Main protagonist, leader de-facto of the group, he’s a half-ef bastard.
Sturm Brightblade: Honorable knight.
Goldmoon: She’s not part of the original group but becomes a relevant character almost only second to Tanis. She’s the daughter of a tribe chied, bearer of the Blue Crystal Staff (this is huge in the book, trust me) and eventually became the first true cleric of the good since a many, many, MANY time, with the power of healing.
Riverwind: He wasn’t part of the original group either and he’s Goldmoon’s bodyguard and he’s in love of her too.
Caramon and Raistlin Majere: Twin brothers, but Caramon is a muscular mighty warrior, not so smart, while Raistlin is a frail figure but with cunnin mind and usually he’s not trusted by the group as much they do trust in Caramon.
Flint Fireforge: He’s a grumpy old dwarf and old friend of Tanis.
Tasslehoff Bufffoot: He’s a halfling type of human named kender (he’s like a hobbit but streetwise).
To the group will unite:
Laurana Kanan: She’s a gorgeous elven princess in love of Tanis, but he declines her love since he’s supposed to be in love with Kitiara Uth Matar (half-sister of the Majere brothers but she’s absent of the settled reunion). People think that she’s a defenseless princess but she’s not affraid to prove that she’s more than capable to engage in battle.
After their fateful reunion, the group will be attacked several times by Draconians, the footslodiers of the Dragon Highlords, and after looking for a lost city, they will end helping to liberate a lot of slaves from a cruel mines’ work, obviously there will be plenty of dragons for your own joy!
I won’t ge tinto details to avoid spoils, but certainly any fan of The Lord of the Rings and any other epic fantasy genre works, will enjoy a lot to read this novel.
This book is the second entry of the “Dragonlance” prose novels series, also this is the second book of the “ChroniclesDragonlance saga continues!
This book is the second entry of the “Dragonlance” prose novels series, also this is the second book of the “Chronicles” trilogy. This is part of the franchise of “Dungeons & Dragons”.
MEN MADE PLANS AND GODS LAUGH OF THEM
The brave group taken the refugees at the end of the first book to the dwarven city of Thorbardin, and while they are grateful for the asylum offer, soon enough , since they’re humans, there are problems to adjust to live inside of mountain, away from the sunlight and lands to cultivate vegetables.
Therefore the mighty group decide to make a new trip to the city of Tarsis, which is by-the-sea, however once there, things aren’t what they expected, and they have to think of new plans about the refugees provoking that the group got separated in two different parties and unaware of the fate of each other.
I think that this book isn’t as strong as the first, maybe since almost everybody of the main protagonists were already properly introduced and developed in the first entry (with a particular exception of Laurana, that definitely is one of the most interesting characters, rising from a spoiled princess to a very capable warrior lady), therefore, this sequel is more plot-driven than character-driven, that myself I don’t prefer a particular narrative option, better if the author can combine both options, but here was felt like reading a series of facts without much emotion involvement.
This book is a tie-in original prose novel of “Star Trek: Voyager”. The fourth in the Expanded UniveThe USS Voyager under command of a changeling!
This book is a tie-in original prose novel of “Star Trek: Voyager”. The fourth in the Expanded Universe line of this spin-off series. And it’s the second part of a duology arch known as “Spirit Walk”.
ALL THE ACTION WAS LEFT FOR THE SECOND PART
Here, there is the conclusion to the events displayed in the first part Old Wounds, that for obvious reason I didn’t spoil much about the cliffhanger. I won’t say who was the changeling in the first part, but here, it’s impossible not telling plainly that the changeling is impersonificating Captain Chakotay, meanwhile the real one is imprisoned in Loran II, along with his sister, Sekaya, that it’s said that she died to the rest of the crew to explain her absence.
The Changeling was able to remain under disguise for several years and affecting in insidious ways here and there in the policies of the Federation, but he’s sick with the virus created by Starfleet to deal with the Founders during the Dominion War, therefore, the Changeling frees Crell Mosset, a Cardassian War Criminal known as the Butcher of Bajor (it’s like the Cardassion version of Third Reich’s Dr. Joseph Mengele), he appeared as a hologram version in a Star Trek: Voyager episode when The Doctor needed his medical expertise to deal with a complicated sickness, and he appeared too in a prose novel of Star Trek: The Next Generation titled The Battle of Betazed, he is taken in custody but the Changeling manages to get him free and now they share an alliance where each does his best to help with the goals of the other.
Lt. Harry Kim and Dr. Jarem Kaz are the first to notice the deception but it’s not easy to prove since Mosset applied to the Changeling a substance making him almost impossible to distinguish from the person that he’s copying. They are sure about it but they can't prove it without risking to be charged of mutiny.
Meanwhile, Admiral Janeway, Lt. Cmdr. Tuvok and Lt. Cmdr. Paris are in a diplomatic mission trying to convince several delegations to avoid to take the decision of abandoning the Federtation, since they are uneasy with all the situation during the Dominion War and fearing that the Federation may enter into a newer conflict in the near future.
This novel definitely is a lot more interesting to read than the previous one, and where you have a compelling conclussion to the events at hand but leaving open to further adventures in the series....more
This book is a tie-in original prose novel of “Star Trek: Voyager”. The third in the Expanded Universe line The USS Voyager is back on duty again!
This book is a tie-in original prose novel of “Star Trek: Voyager”. The third in the Expanded Universe line of this spin-off series. And it’s the first part of a duology arch known as “Spirit Walk”.
VOYAGER’S NEW CREW
Some old, some new, the USS Voyager was stripped from its Future Borg enhancements and now is back on duty with a new captain and command crew…
Commanding Officer: Captain Chakotay, promoted by request of Admiral Janeway and assigned to command the Starship Voyager.
First Officer: Cmdr. Andrew Ellis, nicknamed “Priggy”, is an uptight by-the-book officer that Starfleet Command assigned to “supervise” the work of Chakotay, because he was a fomer Maquis, the Starfleet Command isn’t totally convinced that Chakotay would do a good job. Chakotay wanted Tom Paris as his First Officer but Starfleet Command wasn’t thrilled at all to have two former Maquis as captain and first officer in the same starship.
Chief Security Officer: Lt. Harry Kim, promoted from his previous position as Operations Manager, now he’s the head of security onboard. I’m not much convinced of that decision but he’s always the ship’s wild card, doing anything that anybody else wasn’t the proper choice to do it. It’s not clear who is Second Officer now, but I guess due seniority and being a veteran of Voyager’s original 7-year trip, that Harry should be the next in command after Chakotay and Ellis, but’s it’s my personal assumption.
Chief Medical Officer: Dr. Jarem Kaz, a joined Trill, but he hadn’t the proper preparation to receive the Trill symbiote, and now he’s having some adjustment troubles with his previous host personality that was a Maquis killed by Cardassians during the Dominion War. Jarem treated and to avoid the death of the Trill symbiote, with the assistance of an EMH, he joined with the symbiote. Jarem appeared in the previous two novels and became a trusted ally of Janeway and Chakotay. He’s civilian, not Starfleet Officer.
Operations Manager: Lt. Lyssa Campbell, a veteran of original Voyager´s trip but she wasn’t part of the main cast (so far I know she was created for prose novels).
Chief Engineering Officer: Lt. Vorik, a male Vulcan and also veteran of original Voyager´s, he was part of the main cast but he did appeared as recurrent character on the TV show.
Ship’s Counselor: Astall, she’s a female Huanni, that it’s an alien race with great skills to deal with other’s emotions and also she’s having eidetic memory. She’s civilian, not Starfleet officer.
Chief Science Officer: Lt. Devi Patel, a female being from Earth, India.
Helmswoman: Lt. Akolo Tare, a female being from Earth, Polynesia.
Along with them, you have…
Sekaya, she’s Chakotay younger sister, she’s civilian but assigned temporarily to USS Voyager as “Spiritual Advisor” for helping in their current mission of transporting a group of people to the planet Loran II, in the middle of Cardassian territory and where they left their families and friends there.
Ensign David Chittenden, fresh from Starfleet Academy, he’s named as an engineering Prodigy, but he’s not that skillful in matter of personal interactions.
Ensign Thomas Stefaniak, one of the transporters’ chiefs.
SO MUCH TRAVELING, NOT THAT MUCH ACTION
The USS Voyager is assigned to serve as transportation of a group of colonizers that they had to escape from Loran II, a planet that was in the middle of Cardassian territory, but since the Dominion War is over, they are returning to meet again their families and friends, but they lost communications with them and it’s unknown how they might been now.
The book is adequate to make character developing with the “veteran” characters along with new characters, but besides that, you don’t have much action in this first entry of the duology, it’s pretty clear that all the “good stuff” was left for the second (and final) book of the duology. Therefore, while I enjoyed well enough the reading, I couldn’t rate it with a better qualification, since there wasn’t much happening of susbstance here.
And it's not because Janeway isn't Voyager's captain anymore, since I think that Chakotay is doing a pretty good job as the new captain, but the lack of action in this first part made quite hard to rate it better the book....more
This book is the first entry of the “Tarzan” original prose novels.
THIS ISN’T THE TARZAN THAT I REMEMBThe Lord of the Jungle began as a racist!
This book is the first entry of the “Tarzan” original prose novels.
THIS ISN’T THE TARZAN THAT I REMEMBERED
I am fan of Tarzan, maybe isn’t in my top list of favorite franchises but certainly I enjoyed several classic movies starring Johnny Weissmüller, also other live-action movie like Greystoke with Christopher Lambert, and while the TV series with Ron Ely wasn’t something that I was crazy about, I still remembered some good episodes like the one where Tarzan plays as arbiter in some kind of olympic gams between tribes in the jungle, but I think that I prefer (so far) the animated adaptations like the Filmation animated TV series (awesome series) but certainly if I have to pinpoint my most favorite Tarzan project would be the Disney animated adaptation.
He was a cool hero in every single mentioned project, therefore it was a real shock to me when I read this very first prose novel which gave origin to everything and founding out a character who isn’t heroic but even mean against the African tribes showing clear signs of racism, even in the story are moments almost like saying that there wasn’t much difference between apes and African people portraying them like violent and even raping tendencies.
Therefore the early film live-action adaptations (there were even silent movies way before the Weissmüller era) were a true blessing since I guess that in the original prose novels’ sequels, Tarzan rapidly turned to be the hero that we all remembered…
...I plan to read some other books from the original series but certainly trusting that Edgar Rice Burroughs indeed had understood that if he wanted to publish more Tarzan material, it should be showing a heroic Tarzan like we all prefer…
…well I do hope that it’s the case, until reading I’d be certain.
TARZAN, THE RACIST
Tarzan’s origin story is known by almost eveyone but due the films and TV series, which shows a very different Tarzan from this very first origin prose novel but many key elemets are here…
…Tarzan born as John Clayton II, Viscount of Greystoke, in the middle of the jungle, he is son of a British lord and lady that they were marooned in an African coast after suffering a mutiny in the boat that they were traveling. Both parents died (his father is killed by Kerchak, leader of an ape tribe) and he’s “adopted” by this ape tribe where Kala, a female ape plays as his new mother (and she had lost her own ape son after dropping it while being chased by Kerchak), in this tribe, the child is named “Tarzan” that in their language means “White-Skin”. This said tribe is an unknown species referred as “Mangani” (I guess that the author chose a new species to justify some humanistic behaviour that it was kinda complicated to believe in more regular ape races).
Tarzan grows up in the Mangani tribe knowing that he is different and years later he finds the cabin of his late parents and through books he learned to read English, but not speaking it since he hadn’t heard it yet (honestly not matter how smart could be Tarzan, I find quite farfetched that he was able to learn how to read English without any help of anybody else and having growing up in the middle of a jungle surrounded by apes). Tarzan finds the knife of his human father and owns it after killing a gorilla, but even later he challenges Kerchak and kills him too with the knife.
An African people tribe settles in a near region and Kala is killed by one of the tribemen. Tarzan avenged his adopted mother but after that Tarzan is no hero, not even an antihero, since he’s no longer seeking justice but started to make cruel pranks on the people of the African tribe, showing clear signs that he feels superior to the men in that tribe but also he now feels superior than any ape too.
When Tarzan is like 21 years old, another group of white people gets marooned in the African coast (how many white people can be marooned in the same dang coast?!) but that’s not all since between the group there is William Cecil Clayton, usurper of the British heritage of Tarzan (two groups of white people get marooned in the same dang coast…
…but also in both groups are there members of the same dang family?!! Geez!!!).
In the marrooned group there is also certain American girl named Jane Porter and if you knew a bit about Tarzan’s history, you can bet that this is hugely relevant.
Also, in the marooned group there is a French naval officer, Paul D’Arnott (since it seems that this second group was like the United White Nations, with Britsh, American and even French people, all together in the same merry marrooned party). This man is quite important since he's the one who teaches Tarzan how to speak English and "civilized" him.
I won’t get into further details since I’d be spoiling everything. I don’t regret having read the novel, but certainly wasn’t the initial portrait of the character that I was expecting. But I do hope of finding a true heroic man in the following novel when I’d have the time to engage them.