Star Trek Federation: The First 150 Years

[Therin of Andor]

T'Girl wrote:

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I will want to at least thumb through this prior to purchase, and likely a used copy will be what I buy.

Similar books have usually had a "display only" copy for riffling, with the rest shrinkwrapped or packaged in some way.

I'm happy to support this venture - at essentially any price, but the pre-sell is cool - since it's the kind of thing I'd been hoping would come out decades ago. The artwork on the video clip is wonderful!

I wonder if some of Joe Corroney's work was originally done as a proposal for an IDW project? IDW didn't pick up a license for "Star Trek: Enterprise" comics, but this would give him a way to illustrate some Archer scenes, as suggested by the video clip.

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=178678
I actually own both the Andorian and Tellarite costumes depicted in the great Archer speech framegrab in this other thread. It's a gorgeous pic.

[FrontierTrek]

The publishers just sent us a few exclusive images from this book - you can see them here: http://www.trekcore.com/merchandise/150yrs_images.html

The detailing is REALLY nice!

[Christopher]

Okay, definitely some differences from the novelverse, in which Bryce Shumar already captained the Essex in 2156, and Carlos Ramirez still captained the Intrepid at that time (as he canonically had three years earlier in "The Expanse").

[BillJ]

Shouldn't it be 'Captain's Starlog'?

[Plaristes]

Christopher wrote:

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Okay, definitely some differences from the novelverse, in which Bryce Shumar already captained the Essex in 2156, and Carlos Ramirez still captained the Intrepid at that time (as he canonically had three years earlier in "The Expanse").

Any retcons you can think of to reconcile these?

[Christopher]

I don't expect this book and the novelverse to be compatible, and I don't see a need to try to fit them together. They're from different publishers and they each do their own thing, just as the novels and comics do. Trek fiction has always offered a variety of alternative takes on material beyond the canon, and I've always thought that was part of its charm. I'm currently writing my own version of the first years of the UFP, and it should be interesting to see how Mr. Goodman's version differs.

[King Daniel into Darkness]

Trekweb.com have posted a positive review: http://trekweb.com/articles/2012/11/...50-Years.shtml

[Christopher]

And that's two uses in the cover blurb of "intergalactic" mistakenly used to mean "interstellar." Why does everybody get that wrong? You wouldn't say going to the corner store was interstate commerce or flying to Paris was interplanetary travel, so why do we constantly see "intergalactic" used to describe stories set entirely within one galaxy or even one star system? That never stops bewildering me.

[Deranged Nasat]

Christopher wrote:

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And that's two uses in the cover blurb of "intergalactic" mistakenly used to mean "interstellar." Why does everybody get that wrong? You wouldn't say going to the corner store was interstate commerce or flying to Paris was interplanetary travel, so why do we constantly see "intergalactic" used to describe stories set entirely within one galaxy or even one star system? That never stops bewildering me.

I think most people are given the impression early in life that the universe can be divided into two parts for purposes of relevance: there's the planet Earth, and then there's "outer space" (a generalized "everything else"). Which in practical terms is understandable, I suppose. I think the basic idea of that simple distinction stays with people, and so not much thought goes into "outer space" as a locality in which distance and categorization have to be taken into account; that sort of thing is reserved for Earth. Even though they know otherwise intellectually, the impression that's left on their mind from a very young age is that space is just one big vaguely defined place removed from Earth matters, and automatic attention to practical distances and accurate communication of such is very much an Earth matter, or so I assume?

[Christopher]

But the blurb is on the outside of a work supposedly published in 2311 by members of an interstellar civilization. You'd think they'd get it right.

I know it's a minor thing to gripe about, but the rampant abuse of "intergalactic" has been a pet peeve of mine for decades. The most egregious example is probably in the TV-listings description for the original Total Recall, which called it "intergalactic intrigue." Earth to Mars? Intergalactic?! *sob*

[Kooz]

Intragalactic maybe?

[Christopher]

Kooz wrote:

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Intragalactic maybe?

That is a correct term for it, but it's simpler just to say "interstellar" -- or "interplanetary" within a single system. "Intragalactic" is a term that would be most meaningful to use in a context where there actually is intergalactic travel so that it's a meaningful contrast. But there aren't that many SF franchises where literal intergalactic travel is a common practice. There was Andromeda, which despite the name spanned six galaxies (the three big spirals of the Local Group and three unspecified smaller ones). The Stargate franchise spanned multiple galaxies. In Marvel Comics, the Kree, Skrull, and Shi'ar empires are in different galaxies. And there are a number of prose fiction series on an intergalactic scope, like James Blish's Cities in Flight, Iain M. Banks's Culture series, and others (and my own "Hub" stories in Analog encompass a number of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies). It's more common for a series to be concentrated within a single galaxy -- usually the Milky Way for something like Star Trek or Babylon 5 or Asimov's Empire/Foundation series, or sometimes a fictional one like Star Wars's "galaxy far, far away" (which remains strangely nameless to this day even though every bit character in every movie has been given a full name and detailed life story by this point).

[Deranged Nasat]

Christopher wrote:

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But the blurb is on the outside of a work supposedly published in 2311 by members of an interstellar civilization. You'd think they'd get it right.

No arguing with that.

I've got an idea! Seeing as it is 2311, let's pretend the publication is part of an expanded USS Universe Hyperwarp ploy, as revealed in Serpents Among the Ruins! The Federation media confidently declares that intergalactic travel is now practically upon them, and releases this book as an oh-so-quaint summary of its history to date, that now-concluded period when it wasn't on the cusp of extraordinary propulsion breakthroughs, really, honestly.

"Starfleet scientists guarantee that within ten years every Federation family will have a holiday home on a planet within Andromeda"

My (frankly brilliant ) idea is also why the history the book relates differs from that given by the novels, because it's all propaganda designed to confuse and worry the Romulans.

[Therin of Andor]

Federation: The First 150 Years by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

Omigosh, I got my copy tonight, at Galaxy Bookshop in Sydney, Australia - and it's amazing! The box is huge! Review is coming!

The author was inspired by the Goldsteins' "Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology", and it is very reminiscent of that set-up. Lots of easter eggs from Treklit!

Andorian Headknocker added for sense of scale.

[King Daniel into Darkness]

What about the USS Kelvin? It should be part of both histories and I'm really curious if/how they reconciled the enourmous ships of the last movie with the far more modest ones of The Original Series. Or does the book avoid any of the 2009 movie's pre-incursion concepts?