Ghoulish Song

Ghoulish Song
by William Alexander
Recommended Ages: 10+

Kaile lives on the poorer, south side of the river the cuts the magical city of Zombay in half. Her parents run a bakery; her younger brother deserves the nickname Snotfish; and her late grandfather was one of the musicians who played every day on the Fiddleway, the bridge that links the two halves of the city. He taught her to play, and he claimed his music helped keep the bridge from falling apart. But that's the farthest thing from her mind one disastrous day when she risks her mother's displeasure, and worse, by showing kindness to a troupe of goblin minstrels. One of them thanks her by giving her a flute carved from bone, which will only let her play one tune on it; and the first time she plays it, her shadow separates from her.

I realize that whenever that happens to you or me, lighthearted hijinks ensue. But in Zombay, not having a shadow means you're dead. Despite her protests, Kaile is declared dead. Her family holds a funeral for her. She is driven out of their home. No one will look at her, talk to her, shelter her, or help her. It could be worse. In the old days, they used to cut up people suspected of being the unquiet dead, or ghouls, and bury pieces of them in separate graves. At various points in her adventures, Kaile meets one person who is willing to maroon her on a haunted island that could flood at any moment, and another who very politely tries to push her into a furnace. So, having a shadow that doesn't stick to your heels isn't as much fun as you'd expect.

Shade, as Kaile calls her shadow, can suddenly talk to her; or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, Kaile can suddenly hear her voice. Despite the understandable tension between them – Shade has a lot of reasons to resent being Kaile's shadow – they have to stick close to each other if they ever hope to, er, stick together again. Meanwhile, a flood is threatening to wash out the Fiddleway, and something is wrong with music on the bridge. Kaile tries out to be an official musician, but that doesn't go her way, either. Before she can save herself, she (and her shadow) will have to save her family, her city and everyone who has turned their backs on her.

I'm amazed that forgiveness isn't a more explicit theme in this book, considering that a lot rides on Kaile pulling off heroics on behalf of people who have rejected her – which is to say, pretty much everybody. But being honest with oneself is a big theme; taking responsibility for one's own faults, and not taking for granted any of the blessings in one's life. Zombay is an eerie, strange place with ghouls, goblins, men who have replaced some of their body parts with gear-work, people who trade in ghastly goods, and a river haunted by terrifying spirits that become increasingly restless as the floods draw near. Knowing, too, that the author is a descendant of Spanish-speaking immigrants to the U.S., I wonder if there's any significance in his decision to design Zombay with a wealthy Northside (north of the river) and a shabby, working-class Southside. But really, the magic seems to flow with the river itself, under the Fiddleway, along the floating market, the focal point of so many other colorful details and imagination-grabbing ideas. It's a rich place to visit, stirring up a variety of emotions and provoking bendy streams of thought.

This is a companion to the book Goblin Secrets, by the author of A Properly Unhaunted Place, A Festival of Ghosts, Ambassador and Nomad. Try not to confuse this William Alexander with a couple other authors by the same name.

Strange New Worlds, Season 1

My reviews of seasons of different Star Trek series have tended to be based on DVD-watching binges months or years after the episodes were first broadcast. It gives me a little tingle to reflect that this is my first time covering a season of Trek immediately after the season finale aired. Just watched it today on Paramount+, and with that I might just cancel my subscription unless the streaming service hurries up and says, like, "We'll be airing Season 2 starting in two weeks" or maybe, "Tune in for the next 10 Thursdays for the second half of Prodigy Season 1."

Arguably a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 – or, as some fans prefer to think of it, the real follow-up to the original Star Trek pilot of 1965, "The Cage" – SNW features the Starship Enterprise (registry no. NCC 1701) before it was captained by James T. Kirk. Its captain is currently Christopher Pike, originally played by Jeffrey Hunter (Jesus in King of Kings), later by Bruce Greenwood in the Kelvin timeline films, and now played by Anson Mount (late of Hell on Wheels). First officer is Commander Una Chin-Riley, a.k.a. "Number One," originally played by Majel Barrett (a.k.a. the original Nurse Christine Chapel, Lwaxana Troi and the voice of the Enterprise computer on Star Trek: The Next Generation), who happened to be married to Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, and here played by Rebecca Romijn (Mystique in the X-Men films and Eve on The Librarians), who happens to be married to Trek cast member Jerry O'Connell (Ransom on Lower Decks). And the science officer is, of course, the half-Vulcan, half-Human Mr. (Lt.) Spock, previously played by Leonard Nimoy from "The Cage" on through 2009's feature film reboot, as well as Zachary Quinto (late of Heroes) in the Kelvin timeline movies. Here, he is played by Ethan Peck, the grandson of Gregory, who starred in the teen TV series 10 Things I Hate About You and played Kelso in childhood flashback scenes of That '70s Show. What we know about these characters going in, or find out during this season, is that Pike struggles with foreknowledge of his awful fate in a reactor explosion, less than a decade in the future; Number One has a secret that's going to bite her on the butt sooner or later; and Spock hasn't fully committed yet to purging his emotions and is a bit insecure about where he fits in either Vulcan or human society.

In the sickbay we find Nurse Chapel, played in this case by Australian model/actress Jess Bush, as initially a civilian doing genetic research who develops a tragic crush on the emotionally unavailable, and also engaged-to-be-married, Lt. Spock (his fiancee, T'Pring, is played on multiple appearances by Gia Sandhu). Meanwhile, the chief medical officer is Dr. Joseph M'Benga, who appeared in two TOS episodes played by Booker Bradshaw and is now played by Nigerian-born actor Babs Olusanmokun. His little secret, up to a certain point, is the terminally ill daughter, Rukiya, played by recurring guest Sage Arrindell, whom the doc keeps in the medical transporter to slow the progress of her disease.

Up on the bridge is Cadet Nyota Uhura, with Celia Rose Gooding playing a younger version of TOS's communications officer (originally played by a racial boundaries breaking Nichelle Nichols, and later by Zoë Saldana). Best known for playing Frankie in the Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill, she plays a younger Uhura who isn't sure she's cut out for Starfleet, but doesn't know what else to do with herself and her linguistic genius. Then (moving from left to right) is security officer and third-in-command Lt. La'an Noonien Singh, a descendent of genetically augmented war criminal Khan, who at this point was last heard of in the late 20th or early 21st century and was one of the reasons the Federation has a thing against being genetically modified. She's played by English actress Christina Chong, who once appeared on Doctor Who and also starred in the British police procedural series Line of Duty. Her main character notes include being all-business and fanatical about security, and harboring childhood trauma from surviving a colony that was destroyed by the reptilian Gorn.

At the helm is hot dog pilot Erica Ortegas, played by Colombian-born actress Melissa Navia as a high-spirited, wise-cracking junior officer with no other specific character notes other than a broad suggestion of butchness. Playing the ship's chief engineer, Hemmer, and a member of the Andorian subspecies known as the Aenar (cf. Enterprise Season 4), is vision-impaired actor Bruce Horak. A gruff father figure, particularly to Uhura, his character was designed with a built-in exit hatch, as this SPOILER review will point out in due time. He's the guy with the funky face ridges, antennae, albino-pale skin and filmy eyes, who compensates for his blindness with other senses that humans don't have, including a bit of telepathy and prescience. He actually doesn't appear in that many episodes, and there's a big question mark about whether he'll return for Season 2, but despite not being developed very much, his character showed promise this season.

Other significant recurring or guest characters include Adrian Holmes (19-2, Red Riding Hood) as Admiral Robert April, Pike's predecessor as captain of the Enterprise; Dan Jeannotte (Good Witch, Reign) as Lt. Sam Kirk (James T.'s older brother, a life sciences officer); Paul Wesley (The Vampire Diaries) as Capt. James T. Kirk; and André Dae Kim (Degrassi: The Next Generation) as a baby-faced Transporter Chief Kyle.

So, here's a quick run-down of this 10-episode season, which (thank the Great Bird of the Galaxy) aren't one big serialized story arc but actually 10 free-standing episodes. In the self-titled episode Strange New Worlds, April recalls Pike from a leave, during which the captain is reconsidering his entire career, to rescue Una from a first contact mission gone horribly wrong. The episode deftly introduces all the main characters (except Hemmer, who is barely glimpsed) and preaches a sermon about conflict threatening to destroy a world before it's ready to turn toward the stars. Children of the Comet faces the Enterprise with an ancient comet, or maybe it isn't a comet so much, that appears to be on a deadly collision course with a pre-warp planet. The trouble is, anything they do to try to stop the collision riles a spacefaring alien cult that calls themselves "Shepherds" and that consider the comet, or whatever, to be holy. The episode focuses on Uhura's unique abilities and gives credit to the possibility of something like divine intervention.

Ghosts of Illyria explores an abandoned colony of a race that practiced genetic modification, which is verboten in the Federation. It also reveals what Una's secret is (just guess). Memento Mori is about the Enterprise's cat-and-mouse chase with a Gorn ship, a superbly suspenseful episode that unearths some of La'an's buried memories. Spock Amok is a romantic comedy romp in which Spock and T'Pring perform a ritual to get to know each other better, and inadvertently switch bodies. It also starts the clock on Christine's slow-burning attraction to Spock. Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach is the episode where Pike helps ensure that a child, designated as the "First Servant" of his world, makes it to his "ascension" to what turns out not to be so much a throne as a torture device that will drain his lifeforce to power a levitating city.

The Serene Squall takes its name from a pirate ship that attacks the Enterprise, but the entire affair turns out to be a ruse to blackmail T'Pring (who runs a logic restoration center for Vulcan criminals) into giving up one of her inmates – hinted to be a certain seldom-mentioned half-brother of Spock's. (Cf. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.) The Elysian Kingdom is the one where Dr. M'Benga steps onto the bridge and finds himself in the world described in the fantasy novel he has been reading and re-reading to his daughter. There turns out to be one of those incorporeal entities behind it, offering Rukiya an alternative to spending what's left of her life in the transporter buffer. All Those Who Wander is the season's horror episode, taking place on an Enterprise-like ship that has crashed and become a hatching ground for baby Gorns. They're kind of like a mash-up of Predator and Alien, with heat vision and that whole "bursting out of people's chests" thing, and let me just say, not all of the main characters make it out of this one alive.

The season concludes with A Quality of Mercy, in which Pike spots an opportunity to save the life of a future Starfleet cadet who is destined to die in the accident that will leave him (Pike) paralyzed and deformed. As he's contemplating what to do about it, a future version of himself materializes, offering a bizarro It's a Wonderful Life opportunity to see what the world will be like if he doesn't take it on the chin. The episode reenacts TOS Season 1's "Balance of Terror," only with Pike in the captain's chair instead of Kirk, and because of who he is in contrast to Kirk, the result is what future-Pike calls "end of the world stuff."

It's kind of an odd way to bring Pike and Kirk together, and looked at from a certain angle it might be interpreted as saying Kirk would be a better captain than Pike – an odd position to take in a series in which Pike is the hero. Really, the lesson (for Pike at least) is that you can't mess with the timeline. And the dreadful reality, from his point of view, is that he and the cadets involved in the accident are just going to have to go through it, despite what he knows about what will happen. You could say his situation parallels that of the Romulan commander in this episode, as far as facing-up-to-an-incredibly-grim-duty goes. Just imagine the strength it would take to do that, especially with nearly a decade for his imagination to play with it. Ouch.

My overall judgment is that this is an almost blameless Star Trek series. Every episode was excellent, and the season as a whole was terrific, with satisfying story shapes, well-written dialogue, fine acting and beautiful production values. It consistently succeeded in all the ways the latest crop of live-action Trek series has failed and failed and failed again. I'd only quibble about a few things. First, "Woke Trek" stole a few of its patented "rubbing the audience's noses in radical gender politics" marches, which seems inescapable but at least was done with a little more subtlety and not in such a way that it stalled the momentum of the storyline. Second, the show purposely burned up at least one of its main characters without really even trying to fulfill all of their potential; only a hint dropped by the actor in an interview, suggesting that his Trek career may not be over, mitigates this sense of waste. And finally, there are some cute things the show tries to get away with, like suggesting that the Gorn (a cold-blooded species with practically nothing in common with humanoid lifeforms) communicate in a Morse Code-like replacement cipher based, apparently, on the English language. For just one example.

Nevertheless, I'm happy to report that I'd have a hard time coming up with Three Scenes That Made It For Me without just going with the first three that randomly come to mind: (1) In "Spock Amok," Spock and his betrothed explain to Pike that they've switched bodies and T'Pring (in Spock's voice) adds, "You can likely tell the very clear differences between our mannerisms," to which Pike deadpans, "Yeah, totally." (2) The game of brown dwarf chicken with a Gorn ship in "Memento Mori." (3) Pike screaming "Stand down!" at Erica in "A Quality of Mercy," a tipping-point moment when it becomes heartbreakingly evident that he's the wrong captain at the wrong time. Don't mess with the timeline, kids!

Of course, I could have made a lot of different choices. They're coming at my brain already, so I'd better cut this short.

A Festival of Ghosts

A Festival of Ghosts
by William Alexander
Recommended Ages: 11+

On the second page of this book, hero girl Rosa looks down from a great height (and she hates heights), and the author tells us, "Her heart grabbed both lungs to steady itself." It was just about the fastest a book has gotten a belly laugh out of me, and I think it's also a good example of the type of writing William Alexander does – always keen to find an original and colorful way to say something when the average author would probably settle for the same-old, same-old. I noticed it in a previous book in which Rosa was repeatedly described as saying nothing, loudly. Part of it goes toward vividly depicting his main character with her offbeat charisma. Rosa is a disruptive character, in a sense that some people (like her friend Jasper) recognize her as having a positive influence on her community, but others (like the hostile Talcott family) blame her for everything that has gone wrong since Rosa and her mother moved to the town of Ingot.

Before the Diazes arrived, Ingot was widely known as the least haunted place in the country. Athena Diaz is a librarian, which is to say, an appeasement specialist, dedicated to quieting the unquiet dead and the restless memories that cling to places, books, people and things. But there's another school of thought about how to deal with ghosts, called banishment – only, it doesn't work long-term, and when it backfires, the fallout can be deadly. This is what almost happened to Ingot soon after the Diazes arrived, and although Rosa and Jasper managed to save everyone's lives, things haven't settled down since then, and now both the living and the dead are restless.

One of the issues at stake is the fate of the town's Renaissance festival, which gave a purpose and a made-up sort of history to the town when it didn't seem to have one of its own. But the festival grounds have become a battleground now, with memories of the reenactors taking ghostly form (even when the people in question are still alive) on one side, and the long-banished spirits of the town's copper miners taking the other. Meanwhile, at the town school, spiritual disturbances somehow connected to Ingot's tragic, early history are stealing the voices from students and teachers alike. These problems add a weight of responsibility to Jasper and Rosa that no kid their age should have to bear, but it's specially theirs because, in the first place, Jasper has quickly grown to become the town's first-ever ghost horse whisperer and, in the second place, the root of much of the evil going on in town has a personal connection to Rosa.

It isn't all spookiness and horror, though. I mean, there's plenty of that, despite the fact that Rosa and Athena's worldview makes ghostly hauntings a lot less scary than you'd expect. Except when they aren't, which is what makes it a story. Some of these ghosts are understandably pissed, and at least one of them is sickeningly mean, but dealing with them isn't about slaying them or banishing them; it's more about negotiating with them and giving them something they want. And when you dig down to the root of Ingot's problem's, naturally, there's somebody very much alive behind it all, and what they're doing is the most chilling thing in the whole book. But again, let me stress that there's also whimsical magic, lighthearted fun and wamrth in this book, with characters who grow, surprises and thought-provoking solutions to mind-blowing problems.

This is a sequel to A Properly Unhaunted Place. William Alexander either teaches in the Twin Cities or at the University of Vermont. I've been given conflicting information about this, although I've sensed a certain influence of the Twin Cities on his writing (such as the weather term "snizzle," which was coined by a local TV meteorologist there). Anyway, he is also the author of Goblin Secrets, Ghoulish Song, Ambassador and Nomad.

The Gargoyle at the Gates

The Gargoyle at the Gates
by Philippa Dowding
Recommended Ages: 10+

Toronto's two living gargoyles, Gargoth and Ambergine, have been happily reunited and now divide their time, mostly, between the rooftop of Candles by Daye (Cassandra's New Age gift shop) and the small, gated park across the street. Their young friend Katherine still visits several times a week, and a new boy-next-door called Christopher becomes a new friend. All would be well, except The Collector is still hanging around, watching and waiting for his chance to recapture Gargoth, whom he considers his private property.

It's a disturbing case of evil obsession, and it brings our kind-hearted, winged friends into their direst danger yet. It almost seems like it could be the end of two living works of art who have already endured so much during the past 400 years. Meanwhile, however, they have friends they don't even know about, and one of them is closer than you'd expect. For on the other side of Toronto lives a teenager who's just gotten to know his estranged grandfather and the strange creatures that live in his English garden. Maybe Gargoth and Ambergine aren't so alone after all. And maybe there's a safe place in the world for beings like them.

This is the third installment in the "Lost Dragon" trilogy, an early series by Canadian author Philippa Dowding that is unaccountably rare and hard to find. Despite being very compact, it's a sweet and emotionally touching story with a unique magic and multiple plot threads in play. Having previously read nothing else by Dowding but Everton Miles Is Stranger Than Me, I find my interest in her work rejuvenated after zipping through this series. Again, she is also the author of Firefly, Oculum, Oculum Echo (coming in October 2022), The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden and the six "Weird Stories Gone Wrong," including Jake and the Giant Hand, Myles and the Monster Outside, Carter and the Curious Maze, Alex and the Other, Blackwells and the Briny Deep and Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet.

The Gargoyle Overhead

The Gargoyle Overhead
by Philippa Dowding
Recommended Ages: 10+

Katherine has a gargoyle living in her Toronto backyard. His name is Gargoth; he's over 400 years old; and although he tends to be grouchy and rude, he has a tender heart that yearns for the only other living gargoyle he knows: Ambergine, who was separated from him for 148 years and with whom he had only briefly reunited before they were separated again.

Katherine and her grown-up friend, Cassandra, are determined to help the gargoyles get back together. For example, Cassandra lets Gargoth set up a candle-lit beacon on the roof of her New Age knick-knack shop. As for Ambergine, she knows how to fly (unlike Gargoth) and uses that ability to search for him from the night sky. It seems like it should take no time for the two lonely hearts to find each other. But someone else is trying to find them, and he's Gargoth's worst enemy, the reason for half the years the gargoyles have been kept apart. Chillingly known as The Collector, he's always a step away from recapturing Gargoyle – and when Katherine, Cassandra and Ambergine mount a desperate rescue, that proves to be a trap as well.

For such a thin book (only 148 pages, including the "about the author" blurb) this story packs in a lot: Magic and wonder, suspense and action, hilarity and touching sorrow, and interspersed between present-day chapters, the moving story of Gargoth's long and often lonely life. He tells Katherine and Cassandra about his first friendship with a human, their adventures together, how he met Ambergine, and what brought them to the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris on the night he was first captured. He keeps to himself a few not altogether tragic chapters that followed, and it is Ambergine who relates Gargoth's first rescue from The Collector. Put it all together and you have an all but epic tale of a magical creature's long life, up to the present, and every page of it touches the reader's feelings in one way or another.

This is the second book in the "Lost Gargoyle" trilogy that kicked off Canadian author Philippa Dowding's career; the other installments are The Gargoyle in My Yard and The Gargoyle at the Gates. Dowding is also the author of Firefly, Oculum, the "Nightflyers Handbook" duology and the "Weird Stories Gone Wrong" sextet. While her other titles are more widely distributed, you may have to browse used booksellers to find reasonably priced copies of this trilogy. It's worth shopping around for.

'I ain't got no body,' Star Trek style

How many times, across all the Star Trek series, have the captain and crew bumped into aliens that didn't have a physical form? Bodiless spectres? Godlike entities? Let me see if I can count 'em. No promises that I won't miss a few. As it is, it makes quite a playlist, if that's the kind of Trek episode that turns you on. Note, TOS = The Original Series; TAS = The Animated Series; TNG = The Next Generation; DS9 = Deep Space Nine; VOY = Voyager; ENT = Enterprise; LD = Lower Decks; SNW = Strange New Worlds. Numbering is in order of first broadcast, except that TOS S1 (season 1) E1 (episode 1) and E2 are the two pilots for that series, and the numbering follows accordingly.

• TOS S1 E4: "Charlie X" - Youth has trouble readjusting to human society after being brought up by the godlike Thasians. Eventually they take him back, for his own good and everybody else's.
• TOS S1 E17: "The Squire of Gothos" - Trelane turns out to be an adolescent incorporeal alien.
• TOS S1 E18: "Arena" - Vastly superior aliens force Kirk to dance with a reptoid alien.
• TOS S1 E26: "Errand of Mercy" - The Organians aren't as helpless and humanoid as they seem.
• TOS S2 E9: "Metamorphosis" - The incorporeal alien who loves Zephram Cochrane finds a way for him to love her back.
• TOS S2 E13: "Obsession" - It's a cloud of sweet-smelling gas, but it's also a blood-sucking predator.
• TOS S2 E14: "Wolf in the Fold" - Redjac travels from world to world, possessing people and using them to kill.
• TOS S2 E20: "Return to Tomorrow" - Once freed from the gizmos that have kept their minds on ice, they can't survive without possessing humanoid bodies.
• TOS S3 E4: "And the Children Shall Lead" - The psycho children's "friendly angel" isn't so friendly, really.
• TOS S3 E5: "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" - Medusans, don'tcha know.
• TOS S3 E6: "Spectre of the Gun" - Vastly superior aliens force the crew to reenact the gunfight at the OK Corral.
• TOS S3 E7: "Day of the Dove" - S**t-stirring entity feeds off conflict and violence.
• TOS S3 E18: "The Lights of Zetar" - Evil ghosts possess Scotty's girlfriend.
• TOS Film 5: "The Final Frontier" - What does God need with a starship?
• TAS S1 E3: "One of Our Planets Is Missing" - A cloud creature feeds off the energy of planets.
• TAS S2 E3: "The Practical Joker" - An energy being plays pranks on the crew.
  
• TNG S1 E1: "Encounter at Farpoint" - Q.
• TNG S1 E4: "The Last Outpost" - The energy alien took a humanoid form, for display only.
• TNG S1 E5: "Where No One Has Gone Before" - The Traveler can also travel as pure energy. I think. Maybe he's just good at phasing from one reality to another.
• TNG S1 E6: "Lonely Among Us" - Energy alien runs amok on the ship, possessing people.
• TNG S1 E7: "Justice" - Higher-dimensional lifeform reveals itself as "God" to a pleasure planet.
• TNG S1 E9: "Hide and Q" - Q again.
• TNG S2 E1: "The Child" - Energy being impregnates Deanna.
• TNG S2 E2: "Where Silence Has Lease" - Incorporeal being does cruel experiments on the Enterprise.
• TNG S2 E16: "Q Who?" - Q again. Also, the Calamarain.
• TNG S3 E3: "The Survivors" - Old guy turns out to be an immortal energy being.
• TNG S3 E5: "The Bonding" - Energy alien passes itself off as a dead crew member.
• TNG S3 E13: "Deja Q" - Q again.
• TNG S3 E26: "Transfigurations" - Guy ascends to a noncorporeal plane of existence.
• TNG S4 E10: "The Loss" - 2D creatures cause Deanna to lose her empathy.
• TNG S4 E15: "Power Play" - Evil ghosts possess members of the crew.
• TNG S4 E23: "Imaginary Friend" - Energy being messes around with a crewman's child.
• TNG S6 E15: "Tapestry" - Q again.
• TNG S7 E6: "Phatasms" - Interphasic creatures feed on the crew.
• TNG S7 E14: "Sub Rosa" - A ghost makes sweet, sweet love to Beverly.
• TNG S7 E20: "Journey's End" - Wesley joins the Traveler.
• TNG S7 E25: "All Good Things..." - Q again.
  
• DS9 S1 E1: "Emissary" - The wormhole aliens, a.k.a. Bajor's prophets
• DS9 S1 E6: "Q-Less" - Q again.
• DS9 S1 E9: "The Passenger" - A criminal entity hops from body to body.
• DS9 S1 E13: "The Storyteller" - Really more of a figment of a village's collective imagination
• DS9 S1 E15: "If Wishes Were Horses" - Entities grant wishes to study humanoids' imagination
• DS9 S2 E9: "Second Sight" - A lovely woman turns out to be another woman's psychic projection
• DS9 S2 E24: "The Collaborator" - The Bajoran prophets again.
• DS9 S3 E16: "Prophet Motive" - The Bajoran prophets again.
• DS9 S4 E16: "Accession" - The Bajoran prophets again.
• DS9 S5 E5: "The Assignment" - The pagh-wraiths
• DS9 S5 E10: "Rapture" - The Bajoran prophets again.
• DS9 S6 E7: "Sacrifice of Angels" - The Bajoran prophets again.
• DS9 S6 E21: "The Reckoning" - The Bajoran prophets & pagh-wraiths again.
• DS9 S6 E26: "Tears of the Prophets" - The Bajoran prophets & pagh-wraiths again.
• DS9 S7 E1: "Image in the Sand" - The Bajoran prophets & pagh-wraiths again.
• DS9 S7 E2: "Shadows and Symbols" - The Bajoran prophets & pagh-wraiths again.
• DS9 S7 E17: "Penumbra" - The Bajoran prophets again.
• DS9 S7 E18: "'Til Death Do Us Part" - The Bajoran prophets again.
• DS9 S7 E19: "Strange Bedfellows" - The pagh-wraiths again.
• DS9 S7 E25: "What You Leave Behind" - The Bajoran prophets & pagh-wraiths again.
  
• VOY S1 E1: "Caretaker" - The banjo man is a being made of sporocystian energy.
• VOY S1 E6: "The Cloud" - There's not only coffee in that nebula; it's a life form.
• VOY S1 E11: "Heroes and Demons" - Energy aliens accidentally beamed aboard.
• VOY S1 E12: "Cathexis" - Entity possesses members of the crew.
• VOY S2 E10: "Cold Fire" - Another sporocystian lifeform.
• VOY S2 E18: "Death Wish" - Another Q episode.
• VOY S3 E11: "The Q and the Grey" - Another Q episode.
• VOY S3 E15: "Coda" - incorporeal alien tries to feed off Janeway's soul.
• VOY S4 E2: "The Gift" - Kes goes incorporeal
• VOY S5 E12: "Bride of Chaotica!" - Photonic aliens try first contact via holodeck
• VOY S5 E18: "The Fight" - Chakotay uses vision quest to communicate with aliens
• VOY S6 E23: "Fury" - Kes comes back from incorporeality, pissed
• VOY S6 E25: "The Haunting of Deck Twelve" - entity indvertently brought on board
• VOY S7 E18: "Q2" - Q and Q Jr.
  
• ENT S2 E18: "The Crossing" - Incorporeal aliens take over crew members' bodies.
• ENT S3 E8: "Twilight" - subspace parasites infect Archer's brain.
• ENT S4 E11: "Observer Effect" - Those rascally Organians, again
• Discovery S2 passim: The ship uploads an alien data archive so vast that it's practically sentient.
• Discovery S4 passim: The Federation is threatened by aliens so incomprehensibly superior that they don't perceive humanoids as a life form.
• LD S1 E4: "Moist Vessel" - a crewman ascends to the incorporeal plane
• Prodigy passim: A Medusan serves as a main character
• Picard S2 E10: "Farewell" - Traveler-Wesley returns.
• SNW S1 E3: "Ghosts of Illyria" - What are those energy things, anyway?
• SNW S1 E8: "The Elysian Kingdom" - The incorporeal entity's name is Debra.

The Gargoyle in My Yard

The Gargoyle in My Yard
by Philippa Dowding
Recommended Ages: 10+

The gargoyle in Katherine's back yard doesn't fit in well with the other garden statues. They're all obviously sculptures; the gargoyle is alive. Also, it gets into fisticuffs with one of the dwarves, tramples Katherine's mom's award-winning asters, and generally acts rude. At first, Katherine worries about her parents finding out. Then she and her dad learn that her mom already knows, and the family takes steps to get to know the gargoyle better.

His name is Gargoth, and he's lived for over 400 years. Somehow, he arrived in Toronto in a crate with another living gargoyle, but the two were separated in a candle shop and he's desperate to find her again. Katherine agrees to help him in his search. But first, she and her family must adjust to having a little, winged creature in their garden that eats, drinks, talks and feels obligated to protect the family – even from trick-or-treaters. Keeping him secret puts a strain on the family, but it also has heartwarming rewards as Gargoth becomes almost part of the family.

Katherine, her parents, their cat Milly and the gargoyle in their garden share almost a year's worth of experiences in this brief, quickly read chapter book – experiences ranging from humorous to alarming, with stops at magical, mysterious and touching. How do you take a gargoyle to a piano lesson? What do you give a gargoyle for Christmas? How do you get rid of one, and what if you're not sure you want to? For all these questions and more, inquire within.

Philippa Dowding is the award-winning Canadian author of Firefly, Oculum and its upcoming sequel Oculum Echo, the "Nightflyers Handbook" series (The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden and Everton Miles is Stranger Than Me), and the "Weird Stories Gone Wrong" stories (Jake and the Giant Hand and at least five more). This book also has at least a couple sequels: The Gargyole Overhead and The Gargoyle at the Gates. Maybe because it's from Canada, I had my best luck finding this book via online used booksellers; also, I'm afraid, well organized information about its author and her works is hard to find, even on her own website. Fantastic Fiction hasn't heard of her, and her Wiki page doesn't mention this series. Try Thriftbooks and/or Abebooks dot com.