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I actually have been getting a few books finished, amidst all the other jumble of my life. Here are some quick reviews.

Book rankings in each section from 1 (bleah!) to 3 (yeah!)

Star Trek: New Frontier #13 – Gods Above, by Peter David

• Summary: [2] David wraps up some long-dangling plot lines in his series. In so doing, he deals with the rest of the gods (the ones still hanging around, no matter what that romantic Apollo said), kills off one character, and sort of kills off another. And kills off an NPC, Perry Mason-like, to set up next book’s adventure. Lots of death, a few chuckles, the usual humor, but not the best of the series by a long shot.
• Entertainment: [2] David’s sense of humor, comic timing, and puns are all in usual evidence, but matters seem rushed, and some of characters get short shrift. On the other hand, he also shows he’s willing to run his leads through some major changes, so bonus points for that.
• Profundity: [1] Gods need worship. People need Gods. Triumph needs sacrifice.
• Re-readability: [2] I’ll reread it next time I read the full series, but I wouldn’t re-read it on its own

Star Trek: New Frontier – No Limits, edited by Peter David

• Summary: [2] David lets some other kids play with his toy, in this series of short stories by various sf and ST authors dealing with significant background occurances in the lives of the various characters of the STNF universe. David himself contributes the best of the bunch, the tale of Calhoun and Shelby’s honeymoon. Definitely for completists.
• Entertainment: [2] I use to read a lot of sf anthologies, but with the demise of the sf magazine market, for the most part, novels are the order of the day. This book demonstrates why, as the stories vary wildly in entertainment value, writing style, and interest. Most of the tales are straightforward narratives, many of them are far darker and more disturbing than David’s usual fare. A few writers capture the tone of the regular series — David Mack’s Kebron installment is the best at that. The rest are not much to write home about.
• Profundity: [1] Not a whole heck of a lot, despite a lot of literary posturing.
• Re-readability: [1] Eh. Most of these tales, to the extent they’ve been previously hinted at, could have remained obscure backstory just as easily.

Star Soldiers, by Andre Norton

• Summary: [3] Classic pulp space opera at its best. This is actually a repackaging of two other Norton novels, Star Guard (which I’ve read many times) and Star Rangers (which I’d not). Norton exemplified the best of high adventure in space when I was growing up, and these two classic tales — complete with all the set pieces that Norton sheened to a high polish, from blasters and stunners, so psi talents and the Patrol — span either end of what might loosely be called her Future History. They date from 1955 and 1953, respectively, and are fine examples of that Silver Age of SF.
• Entertainment: [3] Norton can play all the Campbellesque mythic tropes as well as any other writer, and write war tales as well as anyone can today. Good stuff.
• Profundity: [2] Loyalty, tolerance, integrity, and freedom are all critical to the health of our society. Sing it, baby.
• Re-readability: [3] This is the meat loaf of comfort food, er, reading to me. I’ll wear this out the way I’ve worn out so much of my Norton collection.

Demon Night, by J. Michael Straczynski

• Summary: [2] The fledling work of Joe Straczynski, this tale channels Stephen King, complete with strange loners with mysterious powers, shadowy forces of evil from the past, and a catalog of interesting New England townsfolk, most of whom you know will be dead by the end — or worse.
• Entertainment: [2] Joe’s first novel, from back in 1998, it’s been out of print almost ever since. And, sadly, one can see why (and understand why it would never have been printed again, save for the subsequent fame of the author). It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that it’s not that good. Or, put a different way, it reads like an amateurish first novel, with creaky language, awkward storytelling, and every cliche King had already established. On the other hand, it does have some good dialog in places, some interesting elements foreshadowing JMS’ later works, and the plot is overall fairly solid, if somewhat conventional.
• Profundity: [1] Great evils upon little evils feed.
• Re-readability: [2] I expect I’ll pick this up again, some day, sure that it was better than I remember it being.

WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program, by Pete Earley and Gerald Shur

• Summary: [2] My semi-annual non-fiction book, this tells the tale of the origins, growth, and challenges of WITSEC. While its failures make for more exciting reading, its successes are even more amazing. Despite occasionally explosive scandals, recidivism among WITSEC participants has been far lower than for the general prison population, and the good it’s done seems to far exceed the irritation or outrage at what some crooks have managed to extract from the taxpayers.
• Entertainment: [2] Solid crime storywriting, with a good reminder of how powerful the mob (et al.) were before the WITSEC program got mobsters to break omerta. The book also does a good job, in many instances, of showing how difficult it was, even in the best of situations, for folks to break all ties to their former lives and start over somewhere completely new, sometimes with no legal job experience. It’s worse for those who have committed no crime, but are innocents who have witnessed something that could put mobsters, gangsters, drug-runners and the like away, but only at the cost of everything they have save their lives. The book also does an interesting job describing the internal politics of Federal law enforcement, where your boss’s support (or lack thereof), new administrations, publicity-seeking congresscritters, and internecine rivalry between the FBI, the CIA, the DEA, local law enforcement, and even various branches of the US Marshalls (who are in charge of WITSEC) can make or break the program.
• Profundity: [2] Crooks are scum, but they’re people, too. Second chances work for some, but not for others, and it’s really tough to know which ahead of time. Geraldo Rivera is a jerk and a half.
• Re-readability: [2] Definitely. It’s actually quick, easy reading, and episodic enough that you can easily pick it up for a couple of minutes and not feel cheated.