With the summer winding down, I guess it's time to leave the summer vacation magical island of Risa. Interestingly enough I did not spend a ton of time in STO this summer. I did log in once a day for a quick "Fly High"mission to get this summer's freebie ship, but there wasn't much to keep me around.  I don't think I participated in any other Lohlnut gathering activities.  I had stacked

Assassin's Creed: Brahman by Brenden Fletcher My rating: 5 of 5 stars I think this is my favorite comic story to date. While you do have the who assassin/templar thing going on, the protagonist is just a regular Joe Schmoe working for Abstergo.  His significant other is of an Assassin heritage (something she doesn't know) and ultimately becomes a victim

Assassin's Creed: Volume 3 Homecoming by Anthony Del Col My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was an OK story. Reading it made me wonder if they had more in mind as a continuation to this, or if it just fizzled.  It wasn't bad, but it was also not super exciting. Publisher's summary:The Brotherhood of the Assassins is in trouble. Resources depleted by their

Assassin's Creed: Assassins Vol.2: Setting Sun by Anthony Del Col My rating: 5 of 5 stars Fun continuation to the first volume.  The animus components of the story take place in the Incan Empire during the Spanish invasion. This is not addressed in the comic book or the lore, but I'd love to get more background as to how the Assassin Order's numbers dwindled

The Dark Veil by James Swallow My rating: 5 of 5 stars Interesting story! Felt a lot like a Titan series novel, but being set in Picard (and probably in a different 'universe') there were notable differences in crew composition on the Titan. I'd gladly read more Titan stories set in the TV universe.From the book jacket: The Alpha Quadrant is mired in crisis...Within the

Assassin's Creed: Assassins Vol.1: Trial by Fire by Anthony Del Col My rating: 4 of 5 stars Interesting story. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the past life/animus sequences take place in Salem during the Salem Witch Trials and the hysteria that ensued.  Of course, it was all a templar ploy ;-) I do like that at the end of the individual comics they've

Death's End by Liu Cixin My rating: 4 of 5 stars Well...that was an interesting ending... It wasn't bad, but it did feel very nihilistic.  I suppose the opposite view might be a continuous renaissance, but still, it felt a bit bleak.  Overall throughout this series, I felt that we were witnessing the increasingly bad decisions of humanity. It was still

Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was a satisfying ending to the series.  I was surprised by the epilogue, but maybe I shouldn't have been surprised? ;-). Of course, Amos was going to make it to the end, one thousand years later!  This book series, to me, is basically about the rise and fall of human empires, and all the

 I came across this synopsis a while back which gives a bit of background on Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda.  This was a show that went off the rails after season 2 (IMO), but had great promise.  There was a thirst for sci-fi and syndication back in the day, so two concepts by Roddenberry made it to Tribune entertainment.  Good ideas, but failed to follow through (probably TV exec

Star Trek: Mission's End by Ty Templeton My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is probably the 4th ending to the original series that I've read or seen on screen (through some fan film.)  Interesting. It keeps with the Strange New Worlds, New Life, and New Civilizations theme.  The mission aliens were not humanoid, they weren't even warp-capable on their own,