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Visual Map in Books Pages: 1 Reply

dbrowning
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Witty Wildcat
(Felis sylvestris)

Posts: 27
   13th June 2015, 13:04    
Jim,

Just a quick shout to say you still have the best and most visually appealing chronology map for Trek Lit.

Donnie
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Jim
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Site Owner

Posts: 385
   20th June 2015, 04:55    
Thanks.

Always pondering ways to improve it though... any thoughts? I'm thinking about:
- Spreading Enterprise onto a second row to make space for more books
- Splitting the image into multiple parts so it loads quicker and is less complex to update
- Modelling the data in my reviews, so each review shows a link to the previous & next books in each series
- Moving the key to the top to make it more prominent
 
     
 
dbrowning
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Witty Wildcat
(Felis sylvestris)

Posts: 27
   21st June 2015, 05:40    
Jim,

#1 Just this AM I was looking for the key and went to the top first, recalling after a moment it is at the bottom. So, yeah, I think the key at the top would be good.

#2 Just looked at the page again and I can see why you're thinking spreading Enterprise onto a second row. I really like how you distinctly set out the year information both at the top and along the side as a framing device both visually for the page and for chronological purposes. I like being reminded when books were set vis-a-vis where the most recent / furthest in time books are set. I can see that expanding Enterprise will be necessary as CLB seems to be moving his books along at a fairly rapid pace, chronologically speaking.

#3 As for splitting the image . . . I'm not sure what you mean, but it's your site, so if it makes it easier to update, etc., then go for it.

#4 Modelling the data in my reviews, so each review shows a link to the previous & next books in each series--this is a great idea.

#5 I would remove the Top Books review column. If you wanted it on that page . . . then maybe at the bottom? It gets in the way visually. In fact, I never really noticed what those books were until just now when I was pointedly observing the page. I tend to ignore things that for me feel "too busy."

#6 It's not your current intent on the page, but if you had the inclination what about changing the Post-Nemesis orientation to include the post DS9-finale books beginning with The Lives of Dax, A Stitch in Time, and The Left Hand of Destiny books. There are not that many books set prior to Nemesis that still impact the current narrative as much as those books through The Never Ending Sacrifice (other than the A Time To books).

Thanks for the question. I'll look forward to whatever changes you make.

As an aside, I liked Uncertain Logic better than you. I liked it much better than Tower of Babel. I thought the characters were handled much better than in Tower, though I did enjoy CLB's work at making sense of the many and varied Rigel worlds and species. I'm reading Armageddon's Arrow now.

Cheers.

Donnie
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Jim
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Site Owner

Posts: 385
   8th August 2015, 00:48    
Update!

- Removed the Right Hand Column and made the main image wider, allowing me to fit Sacraments of Fire in roughly the right place.
 
     
 
dbrowning
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Witty Wildcat
(Felis sylvestris)

Posts: 27
   9th August 2015, 05:50    
Jim,

Wow. I just finished "Sacraments of Fire" earlier this week (and can't access your site at work!) and planned to read your review of the book today. I hopped over to the reading order page to access the forums and saw the new look.

It looks great, even better realized than I had imagined. Kudos. Do you like it?

Regarding the book, we had similar thoughts; I gave it a 5 though. I experienced the rush and excitement that I've not felt in quite a while reading Trek, certainly not since The Fall miniseries but possibly going back to when I first discovered there were novels set after DS9 had ended its run. Not surprisingly, I realized that it made sense for me since DS9 as a series and its post-series novels have been my favorites and this was the first DS9 book in a while. (I really disliked "The Missing.")

George and McCormack are the current authors who seem best to understand and reflect what made DS9 great, and I hope they continue to write. I'm interested to see how those books might be rendered with Benjamin and the Robinson going off to the Gamma Quadrant--whether that will unfold in a DS9 novel or something else.

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Visual Map in Books Pages: 1 Reply