Steve Barnes

Odd it isn't presumed common sense today.

Revisado: 08-07-18

To alliterate on his name, Sam's case for science-based morality is succinct, sensible, straightforward, simple, and I suspect something found in many people's intuition but seldom spoken only for want of permission by affirmation it exists elsewhere. For those people, Sam has stepped up to assert it first. For those to whom it hasn't occurred, he walks the listener dutifully through his reasoning, stopping here and there to survey and consider all logical paths before proceeding to the following step.

Matching his text, Sam's own narration is characteristically articulate and placid – easily preferable to a hired reader.

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That's my Q.

Revisado: 10-01-16

Growing up, John de Lancie defined my idea of the “omnipotent being” as a carefree, whimsical and somewhat infantile entity. In “I, Q”, his saga-spanning character traits are brought to face with continuum-sized physical and philosophical challenges not thoroughly explored in his series appearances, in an adventure which – for once – places Q at the helm and employs Picard and Data in reluctant supporting roles. Faced with the threat of the end of the universe in the apparent form of the natural termination of time and space, Q wrestles with questions of powerfulness and powerlessness, his own mortality, his ability to work together with the Enterprise officers (of course), relations and quarrels with other Q, the significance of family, and his own attitude toward the divine.

Because it’s larger than life, the story's premises and facts are sometimes as silly as Q is, blowing the proverbial airlock door off the realm of current-day scientific viability and well into that of the wilder imagination.

Not just because he was a co-writer, De Lancie is the only appropriate performer, and his dramatic, sarcastic and intrigued peroration – the delightfully entertaining main attraction here – is tastefully enhanced by sound and music throughout. Though he doesn’t even attempt Picard’s accent (perhaps the only suggestion in all of Star Trek that Q isn’t truly omnipotent), he conveys Data surprisingly well, and has moments of dialogue among Klingons, Romulans, Borg and more.

Marnie Mosiman – a one-time guest actor from The Next Generation and De Lancie’s apparent companion – makes a charming guest appearance in this production as well, bracketing Q’s own story with an evocative prologue and epilogue.

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An immersive prequel to the TV series.

Revisado: 10-01-16

It’s a “new adventure” for the Voyager crew in the way that Shades of Gray is a new adventure for Picard’s. But don’t dismay! Rather than a cobbled-together pastiche of familiar emotional moments due to a writers’ strike, “Pathways” gives some of Voyager’s senior officers their turns to share their backstories in leisurely detail, from their earliest considerations of Starfleet through the moment their stories intersect with Janeway’s.

Each of these stories is alluded to in the series, but revealed as proper chronological sequences in Pathways. The final scenes of these weave directly into moments fans of the series will recall as memories from their time spent watching – probably my favourite aspect of Jeri Taylor’s narrative. The audio version is apparently abridged, but feels like a fully substantial journey totalling just over five hours. As such, the granularly complex feeling of a full-length novel doesn’t seem to have been the goal here, but the relatively simple plot which wraps the backstories has its own arc and revelation, adorning the book instead with the feel of an extended Voyager episode.

Tuvok, Kim, Paris, Neelix and others each occupy a generous chapter to share their disparate narratives. Notably absent from the storytelling handful are Janeway herself, and the chipper but self-centred holographic doctor.

The presence of the latter, of course, is still strongly felt thanks to Robert Picardo’s role as the meta-present narrator, adeptly capturing and propagating the distinct tones and attitudes of his castmates. His articulate, heartfelt and dramatic cadence lends itself to the crew’s various aspirations, altercations and pangs, as does the original musical score provided by a trio of composers, spanning an appropriately vast spectrum of styles. The entire team’s talents comprise a product which is enjoyable, satisfying, and is arguably a supplement – or even appropriate as a prequel for nascent viewers – to Star Trek: Voyager.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Childhood stories, thoughts, and hidden moments.

Revisado: 01-25-16

This first volume of Dawkins' biography is his least typical book. If you're interested in more of what he's known for – writing about science, debating about religion, or his friendships with Douglas Adams, Sam Harris, Dan Dennett or Christopher Hitchens, you'll wind up waiting for "A Brief Candle in the Dark" – the start of that saga was deliberately chosen as this book's stopping point.

This is a book of the memories, childhood years, schoolboy days, and early thoughts that would eventually lead to all that – and those who don't read this particular book may never know about them. Enjoyably, Dawkins does a fair amount of wondering out loud about why children think and behave as they do, volunteering his child self (sometimes as observed by others) as the example.

While other chapters are largely records of his travels and education, he recalls them using his trademark form of prose: a mix of crystal-clear explanatory comparison, open-ended reflection, and liberal indulgence in poetic phrasing and references to literature, sometimes to actual poems. I imagine some will find this dry or long-winded, but I found it a great pleasure – more of a chance to "hang out" with Dawkins, rather than observing him full at work, aiming to maximize the economy of his time or words.

Lalla Ward joins Dawkins in the more specialized and minor role of the reader of quotes from Dawkins' mother, who contributed her own memories during the book's writing. Dawkins is one of my favourite narrators as well as authors. I hear his voice in his written text, but any of his readers who consider him strident or hostile undoubtedly don't. Where some read his words and "hear" condescention, Richard's actual voice conveys lightheartedness and humour.

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