I’ve been a fan of Star Trek on TV and on the big screen for years. However, the only Star Trek books that have been able to catch my attention are the Star Trek: New Frontier series. This series of more than a dozen books has fascinated me since they basically gave free reign to the author, Peter David, to create his own crew and ship to explore the galaxy.

This has recently changed when I picked up a couple of books based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, entitled Resistance and Before Dishonor.

This two-part series relaunches a franchise that was torn to pieces after the last movie, Star Trek: Nemesis. With Data dead, and Commander Riker and Counselor Troi off to a different ship, these books introduce a new set of supporting characters around familiar faces (Picard, Crushed, Worf and LaForge). We also go back to meeting one of the most intriguing ennemies in Star Trek lore: the Borg!

I actually started reading the second book by mistake, since it was written by Peter David, and am now going back through the first book. Both are captivating reads that I recommend if you have any interest in the Star Trek universe.

I’ve become a fan of the Stargate universe over the last two years, first by reviewing the season DVD box sets, then by watching every episode of the great Stargate: Atlantis. I was then intrigued when I read about a third “series”, Stargate: Horizon. Horizon is a fan-created series that is set seven years after SG-1. They assume that the Stargate project has eventually gone public on Earth and that people are starting to get used to the thought that aliens might be walking among them. Of course, there needs to be bad guys for a series to work so there is a new race of aliens that is menacing Earth in SGH. Instead of filming episodes, the Horizon project currently publishes scripts for their episodes on their site. I will be reading through these episodes where I get a chance.

Coinciding with the release of the movie, the fourth and fifth chapters of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is coming to BBC radio starting today. The first two phases dated from the 70’s. Phase 3 was then produced last fall and was quite funny to hear. Phases 4 and 5 should be just as good. If you don’t live in the UK, just look around the net. There are a few places where these episodes can be downloaded from.

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, then you’ve probably already heard the news that the sixth Harry Potter novel will be published on July 16th 2005. The title of this new opus will be “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. I’m a bit behind in my Harry Potter reading myself, but my wife is eagerly awaiting this one.

A new Tom Clancy novel has been announced and it looks quite promising. Instead of focusing on Jack Ryan, now president of the United States, this new book entitled The Teeth of the Tiger will star Jack’s son in his quest to enter “The Campus”, a stock broker firm by day that identifies and counters terrorist threats by night. This seem to open up a whole new chapter in Tom Clancy books.

Cowboy Bebop: Shooting Star is an alternate telling of the famous television show that contains all the same intrigue, adventure, action and gritty noir ambience of it’s screen counterpart. A fantastic yarn in its own right, this two-volume series is a perfect addendum to any Cowboy Bebop collection. The first volume will be coming out on April 8th and the second volume on June 10th 2003.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be published on June 21st, 2003. You can pre-order it already.