Short Fiction, the Internet, and Everything.

I have been reading what you would call short fiction since I was very young (is there anything that more epitomizes short fiction than a Little Golden Book?)  and I was probably 9 or 10 years old when I got my first magazine. I am reasonably sure it was a copy of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine; I still have a couple issues from back then, though not all of the ones I read by any means.

To have lived through some of the heydays of fantasy and sci-fi short fiction and the magazine boom only to then to see it falter, almost disappear completely, and then start to recover was an interesting experience.

A trek into the Treks: Star Trek: The Next Generation

 My previous post in this series, A trek into the Treks: Star Trek: Enterprise was a long time ago. I hadn't realized it had been that long and I thought I should write the next installment before I forget all about ever getting back to it.

 While I grew up watching Star Trek (TOS) and The Animated Series in syndication I really consider The Next Generation (TNG) to be my Star Trek. It was the first Star Trek I actually watched first run and there is something to be said for having to wait a week between episodes. Not already knowing what is going to happen before you watch it because no one (outside the crew) has seen it yet. At the time, it was so modern looking, so smooth and polished (Corinthian leather comes to mind) though let's not look back at it now, it seems even more dated than TOS does now.

The Books That Captivated My Youth…

Most of the books I read nowadays are epic fantasy. There is nothing I like more than to start a series where the books are 700 to 1000 pages long and there will be 10 or so books in the series. (Think Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan) It wasn't always like that though, when I was much younger science fiction was all I read.

As I believe I have mentioned before most of my childhood is lost to my memory, this includes a number of the books that I read. Some titles, however, stick in my mind and they left a lasting impression and I can still remember the stories to this day.

The earliest books that I can actually remember reading were written by Isaac Asimov and they were part of the Lucky Starr series. I still have all of these books in paperback in my library. These books would compare most effectively to the Tom Swift (third series) books which I also remember reading though I liked Lucky Starr more. I first read these when I was 8 or 9, but I have re-read them many times since then and they stand up really well. This is not something I can say about Tom Swift (any of the five separate series).

A trek into the Treks: Star Trek: Enterprise

Being the geek that I am it could only have been a matter of time before I posted about Star Trek. Since I started my second re-watch of Enterprise yesterday I thought this would be a good time to talk about it.

I want to start by explaining my history with Star Trek and where Enterprise fits into it.