So we're undoing Indistinguishable from magic?

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Tom Riker, Oct 30, 2012.

  1. Starbreaker

    Starbreaker Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    yI loved the first half of Indistinguishable From Magic and liked the second half. The characterization of Geordi was great and it was great to see him take center stage in a novel.

    I was kind of annoyed at all the familiar characters in the novel, but I understood when David said it was an editorial decision to have him include familiar characters. What irks me about that is that there are some very popular novels that had little to no familiar characters. Fire Ship had only a few pages of the Voyager crew and there were long stretches of the Destiny children that focused on Erika Hernandez, who was only in three episodes of Enterprise, surrounded by barely known characters. It's not Trek fans are so picky that they can't read ST books unless there is a first or second tier character on every page.

    As far as canon/continuity/whatever, I'm okay with it. Federation is considered one of the best books in the entire line and that book is seriously apocryphal.
     
  2. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I call it doing the job we're hired to do. If you're hired as, say, a production illustrator on a movie, it's not a "submissive mindset" to be an illustrator rather than trying to do the director's job or the star's job. It's just fulfilling your own responsibilities as opposed to someone else's.

    Star Trek does not belong to us. And I'm not saying that just as a matter of copyright law, but as a matter of creative ownership. The way I look at it is this: If a universe I created in my prose writing became successful enough that it got opened up to other writers in, say, a shared-universe anthology, I'd want to reserve the right to have the final say about the content of the other authors' stories about my characters and creations. I'd want to remain the final arbiter of what was "real" and what was a valid representation of those characters, those ideas. So I think it's only right that if I'm working in someone else's universe, I respect their ownership of their creations the same way I'd want others to respect my ownership of mine. That's not submissiveness, it's professional courtesy and the Golden Rule.
     
  3. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    Indeedy. I'm far from a submissive person, but when you play in somebody else's sandbox you go in knowing that others - including the sandbox owner - play there too.

    (I've been doing this for 20 years, and it kind of unnerves me that people might misread the thread and think that's what bugged me, without the specific context)
     
  4. KRAD

    KRAD Keith R.A. DeCandido Admiral

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    I can so totally see that over the title of your next book on the cover, David:

    "Far from submissive!"
     
  5. zarkon

    zarkon Captain Captain

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    supramissive

    should be a thing
     
  6. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    Hey, would be a good title for a Fifty Shades parody... Hm...
     
  7. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Maybe if it explains why Geordi and Leah are no longer an item.:D

    50 Shades of Geordi (and he can't see any of them)
     
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  8. Daddy Todd

    Daddy Todd Commodore Commodore

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    I would SO read that book...
     
  9. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    Has to be his memoirs of being a prisoner of Lursa and B'Etor...
     
  10. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ^I had a really great joke post, but after that last one...... it's not so funny.
     
  11. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    Sorry.

    I saw the inevitable parody book in a shop today, Fifty Sheds Of Grey
     
  12. Lindley

    Lindley Moderator with a Soul Premium Member

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    Out of curiosity, how far off in the timeline is IFM from Geordi's appearance in "Timeless"?
     
  13. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    The alternate future of "Timeless" is in 2390.
     
  14. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    7 years then, right?
     
  15. Csalem

    Csalem Commodore Commodore

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    There is also another real parody book called Fifty Shades of Earl Grey...