How Times Have Changed

Last week while I waited for my wife to have outpatient surgery, I read a short story from Kevin J Anderson's anthology War Of The Worlds: Global Dispatches. It imagined Winston Churchill in South Africa meeting a character from H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain novels. 

 

I also read End Of The Line, a free short story I downloaded from Book Funnel. It concerns two immigrants trying to escape certain death in Central America by sneaking into the USA via Mexico. It's a particularly vivid portrayal of the difficulties faced by illegal immigrants, and serves as a prequel to a novel Jeff Kerr will release later this year.

 

While she had surgery, and then slept in Recovery, I read three issues of Bishop War College. For more, see my review of Bishop War College #4.

 

 

During the week, and later when my wife had to spend two nights in the hospital, I read A Contest Of Principles by Greg Cox. While Kirk oversees an election on one planet, McCoy goes missing on another. Spock follows the doctor, but gets kidnapped for his troubles. I haven't finished it yet, but it's nice to read a new novel set during the period of the original series. 

In my youth, I hunted for Star Trek books in bookstores, and comics on convenience store spinner racks. I rarely found everything I wanted, and few original novels set during the original series had been published. Now I read comics online, and can read books on my phone and kindle. Maybe I'm easily impressed, but I'm still a little in awe of how radically times have changed.