I realize Broken Bow was a novelization produced on an extraordinarily short schedule, but surely John Ordover (whom I presume was Carey's editor on the book, as he was her editor on everything else in that era) could have bled a red pen on some of these. Though, for all we know, he did, and what's left in the published book is mild by comparison.
I think what got through actually made the story a whole lot better than what we saw in the TV episode. This one of a few times where the novelization was better than the actual episode.
Eh, I felt this was one of the weaker ones actually, aside from the mess hall scene and the implication that sabotage might have been occurring. There wasn't much of a difference between the novel and the script, which made it less interesting and enjoyable to read. If it had been based on an earlier script draft (like STXI's novel) or Carey had expanded on something interesting without the snark, it might've been a good read.
Broken Bow: The Novel (ENT) was better than Emissary: The Novel (DS9). Emissary is one book that I've tried to read on multiple occasions and I've never made it past Chapter 9 before it just ran out of gas.
The novelization of "Emissary" is very different from the episode; J.M Dillard worked from Michael Piller's original script.
I can't speak to this particular project, since I had absolutely no involvement with it, but I can testify that things get crazed sometimes. I remember editing a movie novelization (which shall go nameless) where the studio unexpectedly moved up the release date, so that I suddenly lost months out of my production schedule and the book had to go to press, like, yesterday. I confess: I barely glanced at the final revisions before rushing them down to Production and, at the time, was preoccupied with trying to get the cover art approved ASAP. This is less than ideal, of course, but publishing isn't always pretty. And I got the book out in time for the movie!
This almost certainly has to be the case. I have two unsubstantiated theories: First, that it was kind of pushed through without the editor really touching it, trusting the veteran Star Trek writer. The remarks are so obvious it makes it difficult to read the book, I find it difficult to understand how an experienced editor could read through it and approve it without lining out those items. Second, the editor did go through and mark those things off but somehow an earlier draft accidentally get sent over instead of the corrected one. This kind of thing has been known to happen, even in Star Trek books (though I can't remember which ones, maybe Killing Time?) so it seems plausible as well. Perhaps I shouldn't be speculating, but the whole thing just seems so odd to me that I'm really curious how this happened.
I'm just glad that Diane Carey isn't writing the novelizations the JJ Abrams Star Trek movies. I'm afraid to read what she'd put in it.
I had that same feeling reading her last few books, the Challenger ones. I think it was Chainmail that in particular gave me that feeling? (Its the one that ended in the cliffhanger.) I felt like I was reading a rough draft that had never been touched by an editor. Or, perhaps it was edited but only for spelling and grammar but not content. The whole thing was filled with the sort of tortured mixed metaphors Carey is famous for but much, much worse. I actually considered starting a quote thread like this one so we could all have a good laugh, but I never got around to it. I pretty much decided at that point I was going to read the next Challenger book to see how the cliffhanger resolved itself, and then I was never going to read a Diane Carey novel again. Even though I'm a big fan of her early TOS work. Of course, she hasn't written any more so that was not a problem. I remember at the time, the word on this board about why she left was that she was off "pursuing her own projects" but I thought it was really strange that she would leave a cliffhanger unresolved. I always wondered if something happened and she was asked not to return. This thread explains a lot!
Well, the end of the cliffhanger was stupidly stuck in that Gateways omnibus book that had the ends of all the Gateways stories, so it's not surprising you didn't find it. To be honest, it wasn't that great an ending (it's pretty enraging when you read it the first time).
Hmmm. I did read the Gateways omnibus. (I hated that marketing ploy too, by the way. Even though I let them sucker me into buying it in hardback.) I thought the Challenger series ended with one of the characters facing the death penalty on some planet, and his captain trying to decide what to do about it. Maybe she resolved that and I've just forgotten. That was so long ago, now.
No, you're right. Zane Bonifay was slated for death, but we never saw it play out. I loved Challenger-- Carey's best stuff since the early days, I think. Shame it never went anywhere. Shucorion was badass.
^I didn't see that as a cliffhanger. Sometimes a character isn't rescued. Sometimes their sacrifice is the resolution of the story.
But the book ended before his actual death, didn't it? Or, at least, that's what I remember. If he had just died, that'd have been different. His head was on its way to the noose, but she ... left him hanging?
"It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known." Sometimes the story ends with the character on the way to the final sacrifice rather than after they die. That doesn't mean it's a cliffhanger; it just means the writer is exercising discretion, or letting the character go out with dignity.
Interesting, I never thought of it that way. Maybe because it was billed as the start of a series, so at the time I read it I expected a next book. A Tale of Two Cities was a standalone. In any case its what we're left with because she'll likely never write any more books. At the time I just assumed she planned to resolve the situation in the next novel. Since there was never a resolution I always sort of imagined, like you said, oh well he just died. But I always thought she was just setting up the next book in the series.
Don't be silly. A Tale of Two Cities was the prequel to The Wrath of Khan . . .or maybe The Dark Knight Rises. I get confused sometimes.