... How Like a God

I just finished Being Human by Peter David. I hope the links work for it. As you may have noticed I use pictures from Barnes and Noble for the books and as compensation I link to the purchase page for the book there as well. That has worked great for every other book I have put on here. This book however doesn’t appear on B&N’s web site. It’s like they don’t acknowledge its existence. It’s funny cause even if they don’t have a copy or picture of other books they usually have a page and allow you to search affiliated book stores for copies. So instead I used Amazon. I’m just not sure how stable the links are. But enough about that, lets ramble on about the book.

As I’ve said before I like the way Peter David writes, and this book is no exception. David takes on one of the first journeys with Captains Calhoun and Shelby on their own ships, the Excalibur and Trident. They each have their own missions- that end up being related, big surprise. What really makes this story is that David works some old characters and adversaries into it. As mentioned this is the first book with Shelby’s new crew. One of the crewmen you meet is Lieutenant M’Ress, a Caitain or feline race. She is supposed to have been displaced in time from The Enterprise captained by Kirk. Her character actually did appear on the Star Trek: Animated Series. David does nice things like that, but her appearance is explained in another book he wrote that isn’t in this series. Now I want to get that one. That’s the one annoying thing about David’s stories. He has no problem referencing anything he has done in previous books, and he always does it in a way that gives you all the information you need but not as much as you want. In the end you want to get the book to see what the hell he’s hinting at. Some call it good marketing, but I call it a way to pump me for money. Right now it seems to be working. Also David reaches back to The Original Series to the episode “Who Mourns For Adonais?” for adversaries in this book. As usual he expands on what was originally done and integrates it into the ST universe well. It’s really enough to make a ST geek giggle like a schoolgirl. I didn’t giggle, but I did sit bolt upright in my chair when I figured it out. Yeah I have problems.

Anyway, this is an excellent continuation of the series. I used to point and laugh, or at least chuckle under my breath, at people that followed some of these book series. Mostly because some of them were just poorly written and weren’t very cohesive. David has fought that by creating his own space to work in, with his own characters and some minor ones no one else was using, and by integrating well with the history of the series. I like it. The only downside is that it makes me want to buy more books, and this one is “To Be Continued.” Oh well. The prices we pay for entertainment.