Adam David Collings's Blog, page 8

Nerd Heaven Podcast

Nerd Heaven is my podcast. I discuss works of science fiction and fantasy in TV and movie form. My initial focus will be on Star Trek Picard, but I will add other things as time goes on. Star Trek will always be an important back-bone of the podcast.

You can listen to the podcast in audio form, or on youTube. Check it out in the following locations below.

Official Podbean Site.
Listen on Youtube
iTunes link coming soon
Episode List

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The Riftwalkers And The Pierced Veil by Robin Parrish – Book Review

Transcript

The Rifwalkers is an ongoing saga of short books, structured like a TV series. Five books make up a season. If you are at all familiar with me, you know I love this type of format. Each book has its own story, but there is a grander story or arc being told behind it all. Kind of like a bingable show on Netflix.

So what’s it about?

Sarah Corden is an FBI agent with a mysterious background. She is tasked with recruiting the even more mysterious Duncan Wolfe to help as a consultant. Holes are appearing in the veil between our world and the spirit realm. Angels and Demons are coming through and battling over a small town, and Duncan is an expert in this kind of thing. Is there something in the water, or are these real supernatural events? I got a lot of X Files vibes from this story.

It becomes apparent that something real is going on in this town, when sick people are suddenly cured, and dead crops begin to revive.

Rounding out the cast is Snyder, Sarah’s FBI partner. He has much less regard for Duncan, which brings in some nice character tension between those two.

Both Sarah and Duncan have mysteries surrounding them, and the world itself presents additional mysteries. Some of these mysteries are revealed, some of these revelations pose additional questions, and some mysteries are left for further exploration. This clearly demonstrates that the author has a plan and is wanting to earn our trust.

The book also explores the dynamics of a small town, when industries change, livelihoods are affected, and people choose sides.

The whole town is up in arms over the newly opened Steel mill. And these volatile emotions are feeding the supernatural rift, making the problem bigger.

The book does a good job of balancing the fantastical elements with some good down-to-earth human drama.

Book 1 of this series, The Riftwalkers and The Pierced Veil, does everything a pilot episode should do. It introduces both the characters and the setting. It sets up the premise and raises a lot of attention-grabbing questions. It’s a full story in it’s own right, but it establishes a much larger story, and it ends on a powerful hook (not a cliffhanger as such) that entices you to jump into book 2.

This book also introduces a villain that promises to be a recurring thorn in our heroes sides. Who is he? What does he know about these rifts. There’s a lot of stuff teased here.

Dotted through the book, are illustrations, taken in-universe, from Duncan’s journal. These provide some extra colour to the world, and some humour.

The riftwalkers series are supernatural thrillers, incorporating elements of science fiction and fantasy. If you’ve read any of Robin Parrish’s book before, you’ll know he’s good at mystery and suspense, set against mythic worlds that pull you in and make you want to know more. These same elements are present in Riftwalkers and the Pierced Veil, but I get the impression we’re just scratching the surface of what the author has in store for us.

Another thing this book does well is subtle foreshadowing. It’s the kind of book you might want to go back and read a second time, to pick up on all the things you didn’t notice the first time around. And because it’s relatively short, that’s not such a big commitment.

One of the interesting themes that comes out of this book is how we see things. At one point, Sarah is struck with something that would be considered a disability. Something to be viewed in a negative light. However, as the story goes on, it becomes evident that this is something else entirely. While she’s lost one ability that we all take for granted, she’s gained another. You might almost call it a super power. It makes me think about the things we face in life. We’re often so quick to see the downsides of everything. Sometimes, we miss the unexpected gift or blessing in our circumstances. I think that’s an interesting challenge for us.

I loved this book and I heartily recommend it. It will especially appeal to you if you enjoy TV shows like The X Files, Fring, and Warehouse 13. But don’t misunderstand me. This book doesn’t feel like any type of copy. Riftwalkers is very much it’s own unique thing.

Robin Parrish is a fantastic storyteller, who is very underrated, in my opinion.

I hope more people will check out his work so he can get the recognition that he deserves.

And if you like books that are structured like serialised TV shows, you might also be interested in my Jewel of The Stars series. I’m adding the first episode to Wattpad, one chapter per week, where you can read it for free, or you can get the whole book for just 99 cents.

I’ve got exciting developments coming up on this channel, including a bit of a re-brand, and the option to listen to some of my content in podcast form. Expect the launch to happen this coming January, just in time for Star Trek Picard, which I’ll be examining episode by episode.

Until then, keep geeking out,

And I’ll see you.

Out there.

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Encouragement for Authors – Cover Reveal – Dear Author by Laura A Grace

I’m gonna be honest with you. Being an author can be hard. Especially when you’re in the early days and things haven’t taken off. When you books are not selling and nobody shows up to your launch. These are just expected speedbumps along the way. It takes a lot of determination and grit to be an author. You can’t give up in the hard times. But in these hard times we can use a little encouragement. Lucky for us, the amazing Laura A Grace has written a book that will be sure to provide encouragement for authors when they need it the most.

Introducing Dear Author: Letters From A Bookish Fangirl by Laura A Grace.

 

Dear Author: Letters from a Bookish Fangirl

Laura A. Grace

Genres: Self-Help, Motivational

Publication date: December 3, 2019

About the Book

Think your words might not matter? Think again.

Words have the power to change lives, especially when they are used to create meaningful stories. In this collection of letters, bookish fangirl Laura A. Grace addresses topics related to every writer’s journey. From “character conversations,” to embracing one’s unique writing style, to celebrating a release day—there is a letter for every author no matter where they may be in sharing their story with others.

“Dear Author” includes six illustrations by Hannah S.J. Williams.

Signed Paperback — Amazon — Barnes & Noble — Book Depository (Coming soon!)

Pre-Order Goodies Form

About the Author

Laura A. Grace had a lifelong dream of getting to know authors behind the covers of her favorite reads. Little did she know that one day she would become an author too! Now an avid book blogger at Unicorn Quester and writer of clean, Christian manga, Laura creatively balances her passions of supporting indie authors and feeding her readers new stories. In between, she wields plastic lightsabers with her children and binge-watches anime with her husband. Join her quest to find wandering unicorns for your favorite authors at unicornquester.com!

Website — Newsletter — Facebook — Twitter — Instagram — YouTube

 

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Book Launch Live Q&A Video

I’ll be doing a special Facebook Live video on Saturday 26th October to celebrate the launch of Jewel of The Stars Episode 2.

The event will take place at 11:00 AM Eastern Australian time (8:00 PM Central Standard Time on Friday 25th October)

I’ll be answering questions, reading a passage or two, and giving an exclusive first look at the trailer for the book series.

Watch it on my Facebook Page

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Jewel of The Stars Episode 2 Up for Pre-Order

Episode 2 of Jewel of The Stars, A New Reality, is now up for pre-order. Check out the awesome cover and be sure to grab your copy today.

Get it Now

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What Should You Watch Before Star Trek Picard?

Transcript

Star Trek Picard is coming out early next year, and you’re wanting to relive some of the glory days while you wait for Jean-Luc’s next adventure.

Or maybe you’re interested in this new show, but you didn’t watch the Next Generation back in the day, so you want to get all caught up.

Either way, you might be wondering, what should I watch before Star Trek Picard. Well, have no fear. I’ve put together a list of my recommendations.

Number 1.Star Trek: The Next Generation: Best of Both Worlds.

We know the Borg are going to play an important role in Star Trek Picard, and while this isn’t the very first time we see them in Star Trek, it is the one that really impacts Picard as a character. And frankly, it’s one of the best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, so why wouldn’t you want to watch it again?

The events of this two-parter have a profound impact on Picard. He will never be the same again. But in a lot of ways, this is Riker’s episode. It’s a time of growth for both of them.

You can bet that in some ways, the events of this story will still be haunting Picard as he has to come face to face with the Borg once more.

Number 2: Star Trek: The Next Generation – Family

You can’t watch Best of Both Worlds without following it up with Family. This episode takes the time to really explore the emotional impact of Picard’s harrowing time with the Borg. It’s a beautiful character piece. In addition, we get to meet some of Picard’s family. If this episode doesn’t make you emotional, you’d better check your soul, because you might not have one.

Number 3: Star Trek: The Next Generation – I Borg

This one continues to explore the impact of Best of Both Worlds on Picard, but it also introduces us to an important character that we know will be showing up in the new show. Hugh. A Borg drone who begins to regain his individuality after being disconnected from the collective.

Number 4: Star Trek: The Next Generation – Descent.

I swear, not all the items on my list are Borg episodes, but this one brings back Hugh and explores the impact his individuality has had on the collective. This two-part story is the last time we’ll see Hugh on screen until we see him in Star Trek: Picard. The episode also gives us some character development for Data, who we know will show up in the new show in some form.

Number 5: Star Trek: The Next Generation – All Good Things.

No Borg in this one. This is the finale episode of TNG. In this story, Picard is travelling through time between three different time periods, the present, the time of the pilot episode, and the far future. And by far future I mean, well, roughly the time that Star Trek Picard is set. The general consensus is that it’s about 4 years prior to Picard, but some of it is open to interpretation.

In this episode, the characters all acknowledge that what Picard saw was a possible future, and the one they experience could be quite different. And we know this is true since the Enterprise D (which showed up in the future) was destroyed in Star Trek: Generations. This is just a great story, which is full of easter eggs for the whole of TNG, but it’s interesting to see one possible interpretation of the time the new show will be set in.

Number 6: Star Trek: First Contact

This is worth watching simply because it’s a great movie, my favourite Star Trek movie, in fact, but it gives us another encounter between Picard and the Borg. During the course of this story, Picard comes to term with the fact that he hasn’t yet let go of all the hurt and pain from his experiences in Best of Both Worlds. It’s all still there. Dealing with this will be a constant battle, probably for the rest of his life. This all climaxes in a fantastic scene between Picard and a character called Lily, played by Alfre Woodard.

Number 7: Star Trek Voyager: Scorpion

Another character that we know is returning in Star Trek: Picard is Seven of Nine, another borg drone, who, like hugh, regained her individuality after being disconnected from the collective. Scorpion is one of my favourite Voyager stories. In it, we first meet Seven of Nine. The end of this episode lead directly into the next one.

Number 8: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Now, this episode really explores the transformation that Seven is going through. And it’s quite a different experience for her, than it was for Hugh. The episode also deals with the character of Kes, who leaves the show at this point.

Number 8: Star Trek: Nemesis.

Yes, I know, it’s the movie that everyone hates. I’m not gonna tell you this is a great movie, but it’s important. First of all, this is the last time we saw Jean-Luc PIcard on screen. We know from the trailer, that the events of this movie have an impact on where Picard and his fellow crewmates are at the time of Star Trek: Picard.

In particular, the events that surround Data. So I think it’s worth revisiting this one. If it’s not your favourite, then, you probably haven’t seen it in a long time, so that alone gives it a sense of novelty. So get caught up with this one, because it’s events will matter.

And Number 10: Star Trek (2009)

This is the movie that kicked off J J Abram’s Kelvin universe. And while the events of this movie take place in an alternate timeline, the inciting incident that caused the creation of that alternate universe took place in the prime timeline, where Picard is set. Alex Kurtzman has told us that the destruction of Romulas has had a significant impact on Jean-Luc Picard’s life. We don’t know all the details, but it’s a good assumption that Picard was tasked with helping the Romulan refugees that were left behind by the loss of their homeworld. We’ve seen several Romulans in the trailer for the new show. So this movie gives us some important groundwork for that.

Now I’m going to be going back and watching everything on this list myself. And I’ll be sharing my thoughts on all these stories right here. Maybe you’d like to do the same. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any of those episodes.

But this is just my list. What would your list look like? What would you include that I haven’t? Would you exclude any from my list? I’d be interested to find out.

If you love Star Trek, you might be interested in my book series, Jewel of The Stars. It’s about a cruise ship in space that has to flee into unexplored space when Earth falls to an alien occupation. Now they have to learn to survive amongst all these strange new worlds, but they’re not exactly prepared for this. Jewel of the Stars is a flying hotel full of tourists. Book 2 is coming out in a few weeks, and book 1 is just 99 cents. I even have a free prequel story called FAll of the HMAS Adelaide, which you can get at adamdavidcollings.com/free

So live long and prosper.

And I’ll see you … out there.

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Sierra Adventure Game Marathon for Sick Kids

This year I’m participating in Extra Life, a charity where people play games to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. They provide finances for very sick children whose parents often can’t afford life-saving treatments.

I’ll be holding a special live show on my youTube channel on Saturday the 9th of November, where I’ll play some classic computer games from my youth, with a primary focus on Sierra Adventure games. King’s Quest, Space Quest. All the old favourites. I’m even going to play Police Quest II, which I’ve never played before.

And I might throw in a little Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D for some variety amongst all the Sierra games.

Along the way, I’ll share some memories I have of these classics of 20th-century culture.

You can tune in, enjoy the show, and make a donation if you want. You can even chat with me live. Think of it like a telethon on TV.

You don’t even have to wait for the event. You can start donating now if you like, at extra-life.org/participant/AdamDavidCollings

The show will start at 8:00 AM Eastern Australian time. That’s 6:00 PM Friday night in American eastern time, or 3:00 PM Pacific time. I’ll be finishing around 3:00 PM Australian time.

So lots to look forward to. I hope to see you on the 9th of November. And thanks for helping the kids.

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Diverse Similarity by Sharon Rose – Book Review

Transcript

G’day humans. Today I’m talking about the science fiction novel Diverse Similarity by Sharon Rose.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of the Stars. And if you love to geek out over science fiction and fantasy, be sure to click the subscribe button and bell.

Diverse Similarity is a book that delves deeply into the culture and differences between various alien races.

The protagonist is Kena, the only human serving in a multi-racial crew on the Starship Ontrevay. Their mission is primarily scientific exploration in nature, which gave me some of the Star Trek vibes that I crave in a sci-fi book. But this story is very much its own thing.

One of the interesting things we learn in this book is that every species has what’s called emfrel. Kind of a telepathic scent that they emanate. This emfrel can be distracting and uncomfortable to other races so if they’re going to spend any significant time with each other, they need to acclimate to each other. Humans, it turns out, are especially sensitive to emfrel, but we never knew this until we started encountering other species.

This is really interesting because it’s adds something new and unexpected about what it means to be human. Often in sci-fi, we’ll encounter other races, and those races have interesting new abilities or aspects to them. But humans usually tend to be the bland, base, species with no special abilities. This book twists that around as we find that in some ways, we are the odd ones out. We are the weird ones.

Actually, that doesn’t surprise me. We are pretty weird.

Another difference that is explored, is the makeup of what it is to be human. Most species have two aspects to them, the physical body, and what they call the sarit, which kind of encompasses the mind and the spiritual aspect. But humans are said in this story to have three components, the body, the mind and the spirit, all as distinct. And these concepts are considered real. When an unknown race doesn’t understand that humans are spiritual beings, rather than saratial beings, and treat her accordingly, it causes damage to our hero. And this is all tied into the idea of telepathy. Humans are one of the few races that can’t initiate telepathic contact.

The story, while heavily character-driven, has two main plot segments. The first deals primarily with relationships on board the ship, as they investigate a space mystery. The second is more outwardly focussed and is more suspenseful, involving dangerous natural forces and an alien race that we have a very tentative peace with.

While quite distinct, these two parts are very much linked together and form one cohesive story.

This is another book that has difficult to pronounce names, which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I think maybe it’s just a personal taste thing. There is one race who have no vowels in their names at all, which is a big stumbling block to me as I read because I don’t know what to say in my head when I see one of these names. Interestingly, we learn through the story that these names do have vowel sounds in them, causing difficulty for characters in-universe, and it even explains how to pronounce then names of major characters, but this came a little late in the book for me, and honestly, I was too lazy to bother memorising them. It was, however, great worldbuilding.

The main antagonists in this book are the PitKreelaundun, another tongue twister, although there’s a lot of meaning behind that name. They remain a mystery for much of the book, but when they are explored, they’re explored with a great deal of depth. We learn some interesting things about them, their culture and their history.

The book also explores some ideas of mercy and forgiveness. This can be hard to do. When a character is portrayed as being seriously violated or wronged in some way, by an antagonist, I sometimes struggle when the character later finds forgiveness in their heart for that antagonist, even though I very much believe in forgiveness and grace. In a fictional setting, we yearn for the guilty to get what’s coming to them. In the case of diverse Similarity, it worked for me. The conflicting desire for justice, and appreciation of mercy somehow worked together. So big props to the author for that.

Sharon Rose has created a vivid rich world populated by fascinating alien races. Most of the conflict in this story comes out of genuine and logically-understandable cultural differences and misunderstandings. It makes me appreciate how hard it would really be to form a meaningful peace and friendship with an alien race, because, you’re likely coming from such different backgrounds, that everything is going to be interpreted wrongly. And sometimes, no amount of words can help alleviate those misunderstandings.

If you like alien-based science fiction that digs into the cultures and biology of the different species, then you should check out Diverse Similarity by Sharon Rose. I think you’ll really like it.

And if you like the sound of this book, you might also want to check out my review of No Road Among the Stars by A Walker Scott

, which is another book I think you’ll like.

Talk to you next time.

live long and prosper.

I’ll see you out there.

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Doctor Who Comics

Just for fun, I create a four-part Doctor Who comic story. Click the cover to check it out.

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The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Review

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