Goodreads reviews - The Vulcan Language

Book: The Vulcan Language.  4/5. Goodreads review also here. 

This book is a compilation from the Vulcan Language Institute which includes a Vulcan grammar, various glossaries, and also a section about Vulcan lore and culture.

Pros
-The geeky factor. I mean, it's a VULCAN grammar, and I'm having a blast learning this language :D . This book and the content on the website is a great opportunity to learn Vulcan.

-There are quite a lot of vocabulary lists, including separate topics (food, occupations, science, etc), as well as a general dictionary.

-Quite a lot of the grammar lessons include exercises, and there are also some sections with Vulcan and English dialogue (both dialogue from the TOS movies and original translations of Star Trek Spock quotes), useful for practice and translations.

-And finally, the last section of Vulcan lore includes interesting info about the history and culture of Star Trek Vulcans.

Cons 

-Although you can learn Vulcan fairly easily with these lessons once you know where everything is, the grammar in this book is often badly disorganized, and the grammar itself does not follow a logical (no pun intended xD) order at all sometimes - Basic topics such as pronunciation and punctuation come after a whole section introducing various topics of Vulcan grammar, the basic copulative sentence also comes after more complex topics such as a whole summary of verbs and verb-to-noun formations, grammar and quote sections are mixed together...

It's definitely not the most logical or helpful way to organize a grammar, and it shows that this book was basically a copy-paste of the website contents of the Vulcan Language Institute which is lacking the very much needed effort of organizing it all together better so that it’s easier to follow and to learn the language :S As a working grammar it does need some work.

-Some topics such as stress were ambiguously explained or missing, and I had to make use of YouTube videos in order to understand it better. Videos are also a great help to learn Vulcan and complement this book nicely, though!

-The culture and lore section could be a bit better organized as well. The rather random order of topics also shows the copy-paste nature of this book, but most of all what I sorely missed was notes and references to where all the lore info came from. While I could recognize the TV series Trek canon that I know when I came across it, I was often left wondering about where many bits of information came from, be it from the series (also, which series), the book and extended material canon, or fanon. The way this section is written and organized, there’s a bit of everything mixed up and it’s hard to know which is which.

Topics such as the kolinahr, pon farr and kul-ut-kal-if-fi (more on Vulcan culture regarding women and feminism will be coming on here sometime in the future, because I have a lot of things to say :S xD) I found to be well-researched in the TV canon (probably because there’s also more material available), and include useful bilingual texts in Vulcan and English. Other topics contain a lot more extended-material-canon and fanon info that I also appreciated as a compilation, and I do think it’s also valid information when it delves deeper into a topic which was not as explored in the series, and especially when it does so without contradicting the series canon – but it kept bugging me a lot not to have notes, references and a bibliography just to know where everything comes from (as Memory Alpha and Beta do).

-Finally, there are also some typos and inaccuracies in this lore section (the stated lore contradicts the TV canon a couple of times, that I could find), and a couple in the grammar section as well.

Overall, I think this is a great way to learn Vulcan and delve into Star Trek's Vulcan lore, and I totally recommend this. I just wish the grammar were better organized in a more practical and (ahem) logical way, and that the lore and culture section included notes and references (and a bibliography for everything) detailing where each piece of information comes from. But apart from that, I'm pretty hyped about learning Vulcan :D Dif-tor heh smusma! 

Goodreads reviews - Doctor Who audiodramas: I Am the Master

Geoffrey Beevers' Master (promotional pic from Big Finish covers). Palpatine vibes xD

Audio: I Am the Master, a Big Finish short trip written and performed by Geoffrey Beevers.

 5/5. Goodreads review also here. 

Geoffrey Beevers' engaging monologue as the Crispy Master is equally creepy and charismatic as he recounts, from a literal soundbooth xD, how he came to rule and cause the destruction of a planet.

As well as revelling in his evil power games, the Master also includes in his storytelling a surprising amount of social criticism as he explains how he exploits a series of societal factors for his benefit - from capitalism, politics and environmental issues, to people's hypocritical binary ideas of good and evil, to how distorted ideals for egalitarian and utopic societies can create oppression, war and totalitarian regimes very easily. Loved this take, combining actual legit social critique with an exploration of the Master's amoral logic and pragmatism which he uses to destroy and gain power.

Some quotes of this that I quite liked:

 "Another thing that helps - helps me, that is, which is what ultimately counts - is that life forms can always be convinced that they are the goodies, pure and virtuous, and that some other life form is evil and must be destroyed! That's really the most helpful handle to have if you want to create death and destruction - 'Oh look, over there are some really bad people! They're not good, like you and me! Why don't you go and kill them?' Haven't you noticed how the so-called goodies usually end up killing just as many people as the so-called baddies? So, what does it really matter if  the goodies win, so long as there's lots of destruction (...). I find that's a comfort, when I'm feeling a bit depressed, to remember - evil always originates in the attempt to eliminate evil in others. And the winner of the battle will always call themselves goodies anyway by definition, so I find there's a big area there that I can really exploit. Another ares is the whole thing of unintended consequences. People can start out oh so confident, with all kinds of good intentions, but they just don't think of the terrible side effects. But I mustn't give away all my secrets. I don't want people aware of what I'm doing when I hypnotize them."

"Recently I've become quite interested in the destructive power of ideas. It is evident that the bright ideas of one generation can feed the disasters of the next. All it needs is simplification and distortion. Let me illustrate this with the aid of your own, miserable civilization: 'Love your neighbour' in the right hands can become the Inquisition. 'Men should be equal' [not women, heh] can become Stalinism. Freedom can become - well, you get my meaning. Simplify and distort."

And we also have a bonus final ASMR 'hipnosis-in-progress' session with the Master whispering 'And you will obeeeey meeee' into the in-universe microphone inside his TARDIS disguised as a sound booth lol xDDD  

Beevers' Master's 'crispy' gone-wrong incarnation from "The Keeper of Traken"