The Vital Abyss by James S.A. Corey My rating: 5 of 5 stars An interesting short story from the perspective of a protogen researcher. All throughout I was trying to figure out if this is someone who will be (or was) in one of the main novels, or if it's just world building and expansion (no pun intended). In the end (once I was done reading) I read through the summary on the wiki

Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey My rating: 4 of 5 stars And here I thought that this was going to be a 'simple' version of: crew goes on holiday while the ship is in dry dock so that they can take care of personal stuff (and of course learn some personal stuff from the past). Did that happen? Of course, but around half-way ... BAM! all hell breaks loose! The final line of the

Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey My rating: 4 of 5 stars Interesting continuation of the series. We've now moved onto a more colonial part of the adventure (new worlds to explore an colonize), and all the perils that come with it. I do wonder if we'll find out what happened to the old civilization that built the portal system and the protomolecule. Part of this book reminded me a

Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey My rating: 5 of 5 stars Interesting story as it has unfolded. The thing I don't get is this: are these gates to other galaxies (think Stargate with the Ori supergates)? other parallel dimension (sort of like sliders)? or just other dimensions period? Seems like there is plenty of work for the crew of the Rocinante to go around after this book ;-)

Star Trek: Waypoint #6 by Gabriel Hardman My rating: 3 of 5 stars Interesting collection of short stories from the Star Trek Universe. I think my two favorites were Naomi Wildman's comic, and the Phase II era stories. Reading the stories in this anthology made me wonder if we'll see any Phase II era stories pop up in the future.  It might be an interesting look in an alternate

Airship Enterprise: The Infernal Machine by Brian Denham My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was something that had come across kickstarter a while back (before I really looked at kickstarter). It is an interesting take on Star Trek through a steampunk lens. I am not all that interested in steampunk as a genre but this wasn't a bad story. I think for Trek fans you'll find enough to keep

Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues #4 by Erik Burnham My rating: 3 of 5 stars This comic book series wasn't that bad but it really felt sort of like a rehash of the movie in the setup. I wonder if this was meant to be a reboot, or kickstart, of a Galaxy Quest series of comics, and they just didn't get the response that they needed to continue to create new materials in this universe.

Z Nation #6 by Craig Engler My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was an interesting side story to the Z-Nation series. The writers somehow managed to make this universe more disturbing with zombie cows, zombie whales, and cruise director that takes over a cruise ship and enslaves the passengers. One of the things that isn't really addressed in most zombie shows and movies is whether or not

Before playing the latest and greatest in Wolfenstein gaming, I ended up (last summer) playing through an original xbox era game (thanks, Backward Compatibility!) titled "Return to Castle Wolfenstein".  This game was originally released back in 2001, and I had tried playing a demo of it on my Power Mac G3 at the time, but the thing was so choppy I, disappointed, put it down (and totally

Thinking Collaboratively: Learning in a Community of Inquiry by D. Randy Garrison My rating: 4 of 5 stars Interesting book to read, especially the section on Leadership as it connects to the community of inquiry framework. When the CoI was recommended to me (for my dissertation), I didn't really think a ton about it because the only context that I had encountered it in was classroom