The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
1922, 2013, Kindle e-book
no isbn
192p.

After being wowed by the recent Luhrmann film based on this novel, I thought I'd get a copy.  And I was not disappointed!  Set in 1920s New York, a mysterious and rich young man named Gatsby throws massive parties nearly every night.  He befriends his neighbour, a bonds salesman, but not everything is as it seems.

I found the movie to be quite emotive, and the book was too.  I knew nothing of the story before I saw the movie - it has themes relevant to today (interracial marriage vs. gay marriage).  It is beautifully crafted, I love the words and turns of phrase.

Alien3 by Alan Dean Foster

Alien3
Alan Dean Foster
1992, 1993, Warner Books, New York
0751506672
186p.

Novelisation of the third Alien movie in which Ripley crash lands on a prison planet and discovers a xenomorph has also come along.

This is not a bad story, I really enjoyed the movie and the novel is very similar. However, at times it read like there was more than one author - it could have done with a bit more editing.

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The Stars' Tennis Balls by Stephen Fry

The Stars' Tennis Balls
Stephen Fry
2001, Arrow Books, London
0099727412
484p.

Ned Maddstone is the son of a politician with the world at his feet. He goes to a great school, is captain of the cricket team and has a wonderful girlfriend. Then he is kidnapped by a group of men and his world is turned upside-down.

I really, really enjoyed this black comedy. Fry is a very good writer - I love his way with words; he uses big words without sounding pretentious (unless that is exactly what he wants to sound like!). And the uber-violence is a nice distraction for when you're at work. lol.

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Aliens by Alan Dean Foster

Aliens in The Complete Alien Omnibus
Alan Dean Foster
1986, Warner Books, London
0751506672
241p.

Book based on the sequel to the science fiction classic Alien, Aliens. Ellen Ripley returns to Earth after spending over fifty years in hypersleep and then must journey back to the planet where she encountered the alien to again face her nightmare.

Like the first book, this one had more detail than the movie (which I watched not long ago). I think maybe some of the stuff that was on the original screenplay but ended up on the cutting room floor is in the book. It's no great work of literature, just a bit of action-fun-dumbness.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation: Crossover by Michael Jan Friedman

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Crossover
Michael Jan Friedman
1995, Pocket Books, New York
0671896776
305p.

When Ambassador Spock is captured with a group of Romulan unificationists, Admiral McCoy joins the crew of the Enterprise D to rescue the Ambassador. At the same time, Montgomery Scott decides to attempt a rescue mission of his own using a stolen century-old starship.

This had all the ingredients for an excellent Trek novel. The three great officers from the original Enterprise teaming up with Picard's crew in order to fight Romulans. However, the writing style was dull and the story dreary. I was disappointed in this one.

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Dr. No by Ian Fleming

Dr. No
Ian Fleming
1957, 2002, Penguin, London
no isbn
309p.

James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of fellow agent Strangways and his secretary. Bond's investigations lead to the mysterious island Crab Key and the even more mysterious caretaker of the island, Dr. No.

Bond books follow a formula: maniac+torture+girl+henchmen+strange-death-for-the-bad-guy. And this novel delivered on all counts. I'm surprised at how much like the book the movie is, usually they only take a few elements out of the book, but the Dr. No movie (which I just watched the other day) is very similar to the Dr. No book. Well, apart from the strange-death-for-the-bad-guy, which I would have LOVED to see in the movie!

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Star Trek: How Much for Just the Planet? by John M. Ford

Star Trek: How Much for Just the Planet?
John M. Ford
1987, Titan Books, London
1852860189
253p.

A Starfleet survey vessel finds a planet with an abundance of dilithium. But the Klingons also want the dilithium and the Federation must compete with the Klingons to gain trading rights with the planet's inhabitants. The planet's rather eccentric inhabitants.

Crazy, crazy story. This was simply an insane book - brilliant but insane. I loved it.

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Walking Ollie by Stephen Foster

Walking Ollie
Stephen Foster
2006, 2007, Short Books, London
9781904977889
189p.

Writer Stephen Foster decides to adopt a dog from a shelter. He brings home Ollie, a Saluki-Greyhound mix, with a number of personality problems.

This author is very British! I enjoyed reading about the dog-ownership culture in Britain, which is a bit different to here in Australia. He nearly lost me with the "real dogs are big dogs" swipe early on, but it's a delightful story about an obviously traumatised puppy.

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Masuto Investigates by Howard Fast

Masuto Investigates
Howard Fast
1967, 1977, 2000, ibooks, New York
0743400224
387p.

This book contains two stories featuring Masao Masuto - a Japanese-American Beverly Hills cop. In the first, a film producer is murdered, followed by an actor; investigations lead to an incident - a gang rape - which occured years before. The second story is of a stamp-dealer who is murdered with no apparent motive.

The character of Masao Masuto is annoying, though after reading two stories in succession, you kind of get used to him. He never says what he is thinking, which I guess is good for the plot progression, but highly unrealistic.

I found the second story to be far and above better than the first - perhaps that's because it was written ten years later and is a little more modern, although both stories are a bit dated.

Despite characters you want to throttle, unlikely plot progression and dated police procdures, these stories kept me reading as I wanted to know the ending!

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Alien by Alan Dean Foster

Alien
Alan Dean Foster
1979, 1993, Warner Books, London
0751506672
218p.

This is the novel based on the movie of the same name, printed in an omnibus edition along with Aliens and Alien 3. The crew of the cargo ship Nostromo are awoken from cryosleep by a distress call emanating from a planetary system they pass though. When they arrive, they discover a deserted ship on the surface of the planet, which is hiding a horrific surprise.

I've never seen the movie, which is shameful, as this is one of the seminal science fiction movies, and one of the only few to have a female hero. I will have to go see the movie now because the story is brilliant. Sure it's predictable, but it's a wild ride.

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Thunderball by Ian Fleming

Thunderball
Ian Fleming
1961, 1989, Johnathon Cape, London
034042561X
234p.

This is a novel based on the screen treatment by K. McClory, J. Whittingham and I. Fleming. A prototype aeroplane carrying two nuclear warheads is stolen by an organisation known as SPECTRE. James Bond travels to Nassau (of course) to investigate.

Classic Bond. Whilst having more detail than the movie, this is still your typical Bond adventure. Bond is cheeky and ruthless, the stakes high, and the girl strong and independent yet fragile as a kitten. There's nothing ground breaking, it's just a safe spy thriller with all the staples of the genre.

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Double Helix: The First Virtue by Michael Jan Friedman and Christie Golden

Double Helix: The First Virtue
Michael Jan Friedman and Christie Golden
1999, Pocket Books, New York
0671032585
271p.

The final book of the Star Trek Double Helix series. Set outside of television universe, it focuses on Captain Picard when he was in charge of the Stargazer. The Stargazer is sent to investigate a series of terrorist attacks which are set to start a war between two alien races.

This was an interesting read in that it is set outside of the normal Trek universe, and features Commander Jack Crusher along with Ensign Tuvok. It was hard to keep a track of all the different characters in the first half of the book, and a couple of the chapters just felt like padding.

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Making Contact: A Serious Handbook For Locating And Communicating With Extraterrestrials edited by Bill Fawcett

Making Contact: A Serious Handbook for Locating and Communicating with Extraterrestrials
Bill Fawcett
1997, Avon Books, New York
0380731541
387p.

A great guide filled with very useful information about what to do in case of an alien encounter. For example, carry 18 coins around in your pocket so you can demonstrate your knowledge of the solar system, and wear heavy-duty boots, but not steel-caps because the radiation will cause them to heat. The book also includes some alien visitation/UFO sighting stories which were extremely interesting. And it gives a variety of theories about UFOs and aliens, and the possibility to extraterrestrial life. I especially liked the part about Tectonic Stress and Electro-Magnetism.

There are a lot of contributors to this book - some of the authors are very dry, others write quite well, with a bit of humour thrown in for good measure. It's a little tongue-in-cheek in places, as you'd expect.

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My Brother's Keeper by Michael Jan Friedman

My Brother's Keeper
Michael Jan Friedman
1999, Pocket Books, New York
0671019210
270p.

Just after having to kill his friend Gary Mitchell on Delta Vega, Kirk returns to Earth for the funeral service. He reminisces about an incident from the past where Mitchell, Kirk and Spock fought a Klingon threat.

This wasn't written all that well, but the plot was interesting. I enjoyed reading about some of the pre-history of The Original Series TV show, from before Mitchell was killed on the planet. One thing that annoyed me about the writing was that the author kept saying "his friend Mitchell" or "his friend, the navigator" ... I mean, we get it, Mitchell and Kirk were friends!

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Jack Finney
1954, 1989, Fireside, New York
0671682113
216p.

Small town Mill Valley, California becomes the centre of an alien invasion, whereby the inhabitants of the town are slowly being taken over. Dr. Miles Bennell discovers this plot and attempts to thwart it.

This is a fantastic book! I love the slight parody tones it gets at times - great for something written in the 1950s. It was a very lineal story which is a relief from the overly-complicated stuff I've been reading lately. A nice 'string-of-pearls' plot. I know at the start of the book the author says not to read it if you don't like open endings, but in my opinion it didn't leave too many questions unanswered.

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