Writer's Blog: Sargasso Sector

Douglas Adams is the author of The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This is a great book certainly but it's not one I expected to find a reference to in a Star Trek book. Yes in this story the crew of the USS da Vinci discover an infinity improbability drive.

Well not quite. In this they call it an Uncertainty Drive. (p590) Strange things start to happen to crew such as - "The lift doors opened and...a kangaroo hopped onto the bridge..." (609) This is the best story in the Grand Designs collection. As I said in a previous post the other stories were meh. They had some interesting parts but on the whole they weren't so good. Although I enjoyed Sargasso Sector I feel it is misplaced in the Star Trek universe. The science in Star Trek has never exactly been great but in universe it is, theoretically, supposed to make sense. As this is not a holodeck story there is no real justification for the strange goings on. Perhaps this is just me being pernickety.

Nevertheless this was a good story and made some interesting statements about probability.

Writer's Blog: Grand Designs

I recently finished Grand Designs. Its a book in the Star Trek Corps of Engineers series.

This series has many ups and downs in quality. I think that the more recent stories have not been as good as good as some of the earlier ones. In this book the majority of the stories just get a meh from me. However I have to make an exception for Sargasso Sector. While I think that its author, Paul Kupperberg, is new to Star Trek it is a good story. I shall be discussing it fully in my next post. That should be in a few days. In the meantime you can buy the ebook here or the whole book.

Writers Blog: A Late Delivery from Cardiff

It has now been over a week since my graduation. I meant to post this last week but stuff kept getting in the way. So finally there it is my graduation photo. - Or rather a graduation photo.

It was a strange event but probably worth while. Yes, okay I admit it, mum and dad were right about the importance of graduation. Of course if I hadn't gone I would have thought that that was the right choice. I probably wouldn't have realised my mistake until sat with my grandchildren with no picture to show them! By the time I have grandchildren they'll be asking why the picture is 2D and or not moving! And the cost of their university education will be astronomical.

Now that university is finished I'm on the hunt for a job. In the mean time I hope to be posting far more frequently. So see you soon!

Writer's Blog - Symbolism

'A symbol is anything that stands for anything else. Of course, all language is symbolic - the word 'dog' has never yet bitten anybody - however, the literary forms referred to as symbolism are: metaphor, simile and allegory.' (43) Writing a Novel.
The chapter goes on to list the purposes of symbolism.

1. To Demonstrate a Concept


2. To add a further dimension


3. To sneak behind the rational mind

These concepts are rather complicated. Basically the emphasis in this section is that writing is a form of lying. "love is not at all like a rose, nor the moon like a balloon) P44 Meaning that words are already an agreed symbol. If there was some undeniable truth to words then there wouldn't be many languages.

I think the most interesting thing discussed in this section is the importance of names. It talks of how the wrong name can carry too much weight and not work in the story.

I remember hearing that Captain Jonathan Archer in Enterprise was originally to be call Jackson Archer.This was shelved when it was realised that there was only one Jackson Archer in the US. So it was then decided to call him Jeffrey Archer!

I have occasionally searched for the names of my characters. As I write this I seem to remember talking about this before. Of course its impossible to cover all possibilities. I might give a character a name that rhythms with a famous American chat show host. So on the whole I think worrying about such things is a little silly. When we consider the international nature of publications every name will sound silly somewhere.