Brannon Braga: Not a Diane Carey Fan?

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by SpaceCadetJuan, Apr 8, 2013.

  1. hbquikcomjamesl

    hbquikcomjamesl Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Huh? Not Spock's World? Not The Wounded Sky? Not some Greg Cox or Vonda McIntyre opus?

    I don't even remember what Avatar was about. Probably a direct consequence of having read every ST novel and short story that has appeared in officially-licensed printed form (as well as at least one that hasn't). They tend to run together after a while. And yet, a few, like most Diane Duane, most Greg Cox, and both of John Ford's pieces (just to name a few) stand out. And a few, like The Starless World, World Without End, the ever-popular Devil World, and anything Marshak & Culbreath wrote (for Bantam or Pocket) stand out for how bad they are.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2016
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  2. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Thanks. I admit I'm flattered to be lumped in with Vonda, who was actually one of my old writing instructors, way back in 1984, along with such Trek luminaries as Norman Spinrad and David Hartwell.
     
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  3. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Ship of the Line reads like an unfinished, unedited book. I don't know where the blame lies, if Carey ran out of time or if John Ordover didn't have the time to do an edit on the manuscript. It was probably a joint failure. It needed a rewrite, and it needed an editorial hammer.
     
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  4. Jinn

    Jinn Mistress of the Chaotic Energies Rear Admiral

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    I'd presume because it is the (sort of) start of the DS9 relaunch.
     
  5. zarkon

    zarkon Captain Captain

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    I'm not sure why a new reader of trek would want to straight into the ds9 relaunch. Much of it wasn't even very good.
     
  6. Jinn

    Jinn Mistress of the Chaotic Energies Rear Admiral

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    The newer stuff, but the original relaunch novels up to Warpath are widely regarded as really good, aren't they?

    Though the less episodic format of the series may be off putting to people used to... Well pretty much all of Trek, save for Enterprise Season 3 and the Dominion War arc in DS9.
     
  7. Stevil2001

    Stevil2001 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It's been a long time since I read them, but I loved and treasured Avatar when it came out, and I remember Abyss, Twilight, This Gray Spirit, The Left Hand of Destiny, Rising Son, and The Never-Ending Sacrifice as all being excellent, and enjoyed most of the others up through Unity. I found most of the Worlds stories to be so-so, and wasn't a big fan of Warpath and the books that followed. But that's a much better hit rate than most Star Trek books.
     
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  8. Kor

    Kor Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I love snarky meta-commentary.

    I don't think I ever got around to reading any of Diane Carey's non-TOS Trek stuff. My respect for her just grew immensely after reading this thread.

    Kor
     
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  9. DS9forever

    DS9forever Commodore Commodore

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    DS9 2000 - 2009 is still the benchmark of quality Star Trek for me.
     
  10. Idran

    Idran Commodore Commodore

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    It's not snarky or commentary in her Broken Bow novelization, though; it's blunt insults with no real wit. There's no cleverness in how she approached any of her criticisms of the episode, and no insight into the shortcomings of the pilot. None of it rises above the level of just outright saying "this is horrible" over and over again. It's all either attacks or nitpicking. And it's not even integrated well into the work, it's basically grafted onto the pilot so blatantly you can almost see the seams.
     
  11. flandry84

    flandry84 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    The thing I remember most from Ship of the line was that forced chumminess of the Bozeman's bridge crew.It seemed to me at the time that Carey was indulging in a covert handwave to some of her sailing buddies.
    And all the sailing terminology...Geez,we get it..she liked sailing.
     
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  12. Desert Kris

    Desert Kris Captain Captain

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    I've gravitated towards older novels, that are more stand alone, with a small amount of gradual continuity networking, mainly because I'm a slow reader. I'm just not going to be able to catch up on and appreciate the continuity that is developing in Trek lit right now. Plus, I'm a bit more of an old school fan, and even though I grew up with TNG, I had a solid foundational grounding with TOS before TNG came along. So TOS books are what I'm looking at mainly, and interestingly enough it's been the books of Diane Duane, John Ford and Vonda McIntyre that I've started out with, for reading Trek more regularly.
     
  13. Phoenix219

    Phoenix219 Commodore Commodore

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    I was reading Trek novels in the late 80s/early 90s when i was in elementary and middle school, and i'm quite sure I would appreciate a lot of them a LOT more now then I ever did then. I definitely remember reading Foster/Blish adaptations and Best of Trek books on the bus in elementary school. As it is, I remember very, very little.... vague memories of the Trek IV novelization, one about some brain eating alien vultures or some sort that plucked brains right of heads (NO idea what book that may have been), and the Trelane/Q book.... I remember having a lot of books in my hands, but I'll be damned if I can remember any real details lol.
     
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  14. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Dreams of the Raven by Carmen Carter.
     
  15. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Not only the DS9 relaunch, it was one of the first big stories in the overall modern novelverse.
    I'd have to completely disagree, the entire line of novel from Avatar - Warpath, is one of favorite Trek eras, and they were IMO some of the most consistently awesome Trek books ever. While it did get a bit hit or miss after that, most of the DS9 books since then have at least been good.
     
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  16. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    I never understood the hate for it. It was the new book I'd just read and enjoyed when I found the online Trek BBSs and accidentally wandered into a sea of anti-Carey sentiment.
     
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  17. Desert Kris

    Desert Kris Captain Captain

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    I'm willing to bet that revisting some of them will be a very different experience. For some reason, when I was much younger, I couldn't get the hang of Vonda McIntyre's prose. I don't think I would have understood and appreciated the depths and nuances of John Ford's The Final Reflection if I had tried to read it at a younger age; ever since I read it a year or so ago, I keeping picking that one up and skimming it...I very much look forward to revisiting it properly.

    To tied it back in to the original topic a little, I've read Diane Carey's Final Frontier several times, and it's a different experience every time. When I was much younger, it was a dauntingly large book. On another occasion, it connected solidly with me as a fine maiden voyage for the original Enterprise. On another occasion I read it after having read Best Destiny, and with an understanding of the controversial political opinion that is behind the story's plot. I still think it's a fun adventure story, and a fascinating look at two characters (George Kirk and Robert April) who serve as forerunners of what Captain James Kirk will be in a single person (yet had his own relationship with two others in a similar symbiosis).

    Christopher has already been able to pinpoint the book about the brain eating alien vultures as Dreams of the Raven which I thought was an average yet solidly entertaining novel...featuring my favorite cover art for a ST book.
     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2016
  18. Saul

    Saul Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It seems such a shame to me if this is why there were no more Diane Carey Star Trek novels. I love her stuff with Captain April.
     
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  19. Leto_II

    Leto_II Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    ^ At least we're getting something of a continuation of her April-era stuff with the TOS Legacies trilogy. While I've never been all that fond of Carey's political moralizing, her vision of the early, original NCC-1701 crew was always an interesting one.
     
  20. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Yep, we lifted April's crew pretty much directly from Carey's books, aside from inventing some new crew members to serve the needs of our own plot.
     
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