The cover is gorgeous, but the story descriptions really create that lost sci-fi world in my mind exceptionally well. Love the addition of the price tag!
All great stuff! Of course . Really nice job on the latest one - looks quite a bit thicker than the Blish adaptations.
Thanks everyone! In case no one's sussed it, that cover is loosely based on this: The first edition is probably the least spectacular so you'll get a kick out of what's to come! Thanks. Where possible, I've used the actual episode related blurbs from the original editions. I've since discovered that not all episodes got blurb mentions, so I've had to create my own. Ideally you would not know which is theirs or mine. There's a reason for that and it has to do with those early ACE editions not being "double novels" requiring them to be thick enough to be book length....but not so thick that the later Bantam editions couldn't have about 5 stories or so per book. Thanks Albertese! This whole thing turned into a bigger task than I thought it would be, so it's good hearing that someone digs the whole concept to begin with. I think you'll like this one : The second volume in the venerable series contains: 1. Return Of The Archons - The U.E.S.S. Hood under the command of Richard Barstow investigates the loss of an earlier UESPA ship at planet Beta III 2. Turnabout Intruder - Dr. Janet Lester lures former lover, Captain Mark Enwright and the U.E.S.S. Intrepid to Camus II where she switches bodies with him and then tries to murder him. 3. A Private Little War - U.E.S.S. Yorktown captain Robert April returns to the planet Nerual and is shocked to find that one of the tribes has been given advanced weaponry by the Andorians. 4. By Any Other Name - The U.E.S.S. Potempkin under the command of Heihachiro Nogura encounters alien invaders from the Andromeda galaxy. 5. The Enemy Within - Captain Edward Fitzpatrick returns. While beaming up from planet Alpha 177, a transporter mishap splits the captain in two. The last two stories are notable for being written by other authors. Real world issues, combined with a waning interest in the series prompted Roddenberry to slowly bow out. His editor at ACE convinced him to let other authors continue writing and expanding the UESPA universe. This volume is also notable for the stories featuring the return of April and Fitzpatrick as recurring characters would factor heavily in the series moving forward. *Artist's Note* There are three different era's to the whole UESPA concept. Most of the captains in these early volumes are guys who were the older commodores in the original series. The Cage will jump the series up about 10 to 15 years and will focus on the next wave of captains like Pike, Decker, Tracy and so on. Also, the cover of U.E.S.P.A. 5 upthread is no longer valid. The stories in it are different, plus the Constitution class ship won't be that well defined until the later covers. I think I've got that cover slated for volume 10 now.
And the next volume Volume 3 continues the UESPA saga. By this time Roddenberry was focusing on other pursuits but still found time to edit the stories. This volume is notable for being the first without a story written by Roddenberry. He still received cover credit as creator and editor. It is also notable for containing the first Starbase 11 story, one of two recurring locales in the series. The stories in this volume are: 1. The Empath - Captain Rod Travers as well as his science and chief medical officer are made to suffer a bizarre experiment to test the worthiness of a strange young woman with the power of healing. 2. The Immunity Syndrome - Captain Fitzpatrick returns, this time exploring a mysterious zone of darkness. 3. All Our Yesterdays - A female thief on an alien world meets a strange man named Stocker who speaks to disembodied voices. Thousands of years in the past, a political prisoner trapped in a frozen wasteland meets two men who claim to be from the far future. 4. The Devil In The Dark - A silicon based life form is wreaking havoc on Starbase 11 at the site of a Janus Mining Corporation camp. This is the first Starbase 11 story. 5. The Mantrap - Captain Ronald Tracy and the U.E.S.S. Exeter arrive at planet M-113 and find a creature that drains the salt from men's bodies. This is the first appearance of Ron Tracy.
These are great. With their not-quite-Enterprises these are like a cross between the old Bantam covers and the Best of Trek books - both of which have my favourite cover art!
Love the verisimilitude the little price stickers bring to the books. In reality, I hated those things as they always left sticky residue or tore a piece of the cover loose when being removed. Now they just make me nostalgic. Sir Rhosis
These are so great. I love the covers and I love the concept of the "stories" dealing with various captains in a common universe and not just the single Kirk/Enterprise setting that grew out of the demands of TV. If you're not careful, you'll inspire a line of actual Trek books like "Seekers". (Were those yours too?)
Thanks CC! I think you'll get a kick out of another quirk like that in volume 4 below. We'll see who spots it first. Glad to hear it! I was curious as to how people would react to that approach. But I needed several stories set there in order for the big crossover in "Court Martial" to have that "everyone crosses paths" vibe. LOL! I had forgotten those books, but yeah, I think I was channeling them subconsciously. Unfortunately the Bantam editions are moving towards a more familiar Constitution config starting with the below cover. Good god I know the feeling! I still pick up used books, so it doesn't generate the feeling of nostalgia in me. Yeah, that's part of the appeal. Though since I'm limiting myself to captains only seen on the classic show, the overall series will start rotating out a group of captains for the second era, and another for the third era. We're entering the Pike, Decker, Tracy era right now. The "Seekers" covers were done by ArcasArt aka Rob Caswell. I love his covers, but we differ in approach. His Bantam's come from a "re-mastered" place, using CGI, whereas mine are attempting to go for a painted look. As for inspiring a series of actual books.....In my opinion the concept works better if left to the imagination of each person. Thanks again all and here's the cover to Volume 4: The fourth Bantam edition proved popular as it it introduced us to a new generation of ships, captains and crews, though many ships simply took the names of ships already mentioned in the series. The 16th book in the series "A Taste Of Armageddon" jumped the series forward roughly twenty years or so and gave us a new generation of captains flying the old ships. There are brief mentions of a new class of ships in "The Lights Of Zetar" and "Dagger Of The Mind", but we don't get our first glimpse of it until "The Cage", which is also the first appearance of Christopher Pike as well as his first officer Christine Barrett. A Taste Of Armageddon - Captain Steven Garth travels to Eminiar 7 to unravel the mystery of a long lost Earth ship find himself and the crew of the Excalibur caught in a deadly war fought by computers. The first appearance of Garth. I, Mudd - Space Rogue Harry Mudd returns to antagonize Edward Fitzpatrick with an army of androids. This is the first appearance of the android Norman. The Lights Of Zetar - Captain Matt Decker and the crew of the Armstrong encounter a spaceborn will-o'the-wisp, the last echo of the people of Zetar Dagger Of The Mind - The return of Ron Tracy has him dealing with an escaped fugitive who describes sinister goings on at the Tantalus Penal Colony. The first appearance of Helen Noel. The Cage - After dealing with a native uprising on Rigel 7, Christopher Pike and the newly christened U.E.S.S. Enterprise seek out the survivors of a spaceship crash on Talos 4, where Pike is taken prisoner to create a slave race. The first appearance of Christopher Pike and the Constitution Class ship Artist Note: Keep in mind that unlike the actual Bantam editions, these are collecting books that were published individually. Until I have the actual back blurbs for individual books done, some of the info is subject to change. Up to this point, I think we're standing on solid ground. I'm still trying to work out the Romulans / Klingons. My approach to both, especially the Klingons, will be.....interesting. So that Andorian reference in one of the earlier descriptions could change. Enjoy!
All I got is maybe this.. Spoiler: a guess The angle of the ship is similar to the one in this TMP poster, though not the same.
Love how "Dagger of the Mind" features Captain Tracy when that character and the "fugitive" from the mental ward were played by the same actor. (Morgan Woodward, who seems to still be alive.)
That version of the Starship looks familiar. Is it based on one of the early designs for the E? I think another BBS member did a 3d rendering of that a couple of years back. And I couldn't help noticing that it's the "first" appearance of Norman. Can't wait to see where he turns up next!
Yes and no. Unfortunately I implied a graphic element when it wasn't. But yeah, the angle is similar to the original TMP poster, which "in-universe" would be a tribute not to that poster, but to the original cover for "The Cage"....No, the quirk was this: Good spotting that! As far as I know, no. Originally I was using screencaps for the early covers, then realized that on a lot of covers back then, the ships were rarely accurate anyways and I could just build a quick and basic version of them. Versions that didn't have to be pitch perfect. I wanted the warp engines to look more like rocket engines on the early covers before evolving into the more familiar type engines. As for Norman....Originally he had a larger role in a later story (still does) but I needed him to be around for a bit for that story to have any real resonance. I may take a break for a bit and try to figure out some of the character arcs for the various characters. Originally only Kirk would've had one since we see him Spoiler: his fate move up in rank and then die in "Doomsday Machine".