The Corps of Engineers and Slings and Arrows lend themselves to print collections but the others don't, and at this rate it will be a long time before there are enough titles for the other series to collect. I wonder if a new 'catch all' title like 'Star Trek - Tales of Starfleet' would work for printing the assorted ebooks ?
The thing is, I don't know that it was ever an issue of his being promoted again. He was only demoted following the events of The Search for Spock. At the outset of TMP, he accepted a grade reduction to captain so that he would be allowed to command the Enterprise during the V'Ger mission (hence the change in his uniform and rank braids) and (allegedly) for a time thereafter, including the Belle Terre mission. Other novels have him commanding Enterprise on a mission to something called the Aquarius Formation. Ship of the Line takes place in 2278 and states clearly that he's returned to the admiralty by that point, as Spock has replaced him as Enterprise captain following the ship's assignment to Starfleet Academy. Kirk is in command of the vessel (and Spock is first officer) for a brief cameo because the Enterprise has been temporarily returned to active duty due to the emergence of a Klingon threat near the Typhon Expanse, but the novel's text makes it plain that Kirk has joined the faculty at the Academy and is no longer commanding the vessel on a regular basis, similar to the arrangement he has at the start of TWOK. --Sran
^Following up on my last post, Kirk was definitely in command of Enterprise during Ex Machina, a novel written by Christopher. This book took place in the weeks immediately following The Motion Picture and was the Enterprise's first mission since the V'Ger incident. --Sran
I've been wondering if they might eventually do what some of the other series I've read have done, and include the e-books as extra content in the end of future books.
Huh. The other three were going to be purchased regardless, but I was on the fence about this one, since I wasn't too fond of Mr. Mariotte's other ST efforts. However, this sounds like an interesting enough premise that I'm going to have to give it a try anyway. Curse my non-existent willpower!
I'd hate to think how many film/TV makers, and authors would have gotten one less sale if it weren't for my utter lack of self-control.
Just putting my 2 cents worth in. I love the TOS stories set in the 5YM. The more the better. And I am using my hard earned dollars to pay for them. Its just hard to get them where I live. Decades I use to buy all the books as they came out in my country. There were some great books and also some duds way back in the 70s. But they were few and far between. I check out every 2nd hand bookshops to get the old pocket books and current bookshops to get the latest releases. The few post-5YM books I have read have been real duds. I apologise respectively if any of the authors here wrote them. I'm not talking the quality of the writing. Just the stories and characterisations. There was one I remember where Spock was acting in the theatre. Spock and Kirk were barely aquaintences That put me off post-5YM for life. If they write more 5YM stories I'll probably buy them if I can.
^"Acting in the theatre?" The only post-5YM novel I can think of that might fit that description is How Much for Just the Planet?, which is far from a typical novel for its period or any other.
Ignoring the "post-5YM" moniker, it sounds like Enterprise: The First Adventure to me (which would be pre-5YM).
^Hmm, yeah, that would fit the "Kirk and Spock were barely acquaintances" description. But I can't understand how anyone could mistake that for a post-5YM novel, when it says The First Adventure right there on the cover.
Wasn't there also some odd Spock-on-stage references in Denny Martin Flinn's "The Fearful Summons"? He co-wrote ST VI and this novel was a highly-anticipated movie-era story that seemingly left many readers underwhelmed. Ah: http://books.google.com.au/books?id...epage&q=spock actor "fearful summons"&f=false
^Ah, okay. That is also a book that I think few people would consider at all typical of post-5YM fiction. And of course it's actually post-TUC fiction, which is quite a distinct period from the TMP era.
Its "The Fearful Summons". Just pulled it out of my collection. Just not my type of book. I think I'll stick to the 5YM books as long as they keep doing them. I knew it was after Kirk's retirement. I thought that everything after TOS was post-5YM. Sorry I didn't realise thats the terminology for the TMP era.
If its the one I'm thinking if, it was truly awful - one of the worst books I've ever read. I seem to recall a smiling Spock...
^Spock smiled in "The Cage," and when Uhura was singing to him in "Charlie X." And given his emotional epiphany in TMP, Spock smiling in the movie era isn't really out of character. The Fearful Summons has many, err, issues, but I wouldn't call that one of them. Well, sure, in the sense that the Internet age is post-WWII -- it's technically accurate to call it that, but too broad to be informative. Think about it: from "Turnabout Intruder" to ST:TMP is about four years. From TMP to The Undiscovered Country is twenty years. So a book like Ex Machina or The Covenant of the Crown is 4-5 times closer to the 5YM era than it is to a book like The Fearful Summons. "Post-5YM" covers an enormous span of time, and it should go without saying that a book set after TUC, with Kirk around 60 years old, Sulu off on his own command, the Enterprise decommissioned, Spock exploring a diplomatic career, and the crew having gone their separate ways except for occasional special missions, is not the same sort of tale as one set in the mission right after TMP, with Kirk just over 40 and the crew still pretty much the same as before except that Chekov's the security chief, Chapel's a doctor, and Spock has gained more balance between logic and emotion. Not to mention that the relatively small number of books set in the movie era have been written by many different people over the course of more than three decades, so it would make no sense to expect any uniformity among them. You can't judge an entire era based on a single entry -- especially not The Fearful Summons, which... well, let's just say it doesn't have many fans.
Two things I remember from The Fearful Summons: -Kirk being chatted up by a telepathic Phylosian in a bar. -Sulu's Vulcan science officer exclaiming, "What in Hades?!"
I did read about half of "Mind Meld" about 4 years ago and thought that was pretty interesting before I misplaced my copy. Might be time to find it again. I'm sure thats a later era novel.