Frustrations with Trek lit...

[stardream]

I like Blackmer. I hope no one kills him off. Killing off characters has almost gotten boring, in books and on TV. It's no longer shocking. I've reached the point where I have ceased to care about characters at all because of the whole 'anyone can die' scenario. I don't want to be that way, because I do like to care.

 

[jaime]

I'd say Blackmer is the only new and indistinguishable Deep Space 9 character (he's so bland that I had to look up his name just now), that's more a TNG problem right now. The issue with DS9 is more that the new and interesting characters that were introduced back when aren't really used much anymore either. I want to see more Prynn, Candlewood, and Phillipa in the new DS9 books.



It illustrates that some of us sometimes want that. Like I said earlier, that honestly has no appeal to me at all, and I'm pretty sure JD said essentially the same thing, for two examples. I'm all about long character development and world building over time, and I'd love to get back to the DS9/SCE relaunch schedule of spending multiple real-life years on a single continuous in-setting year.

Ironically Blackmer is the only one who's name I do remember. Largely because Ro spent most of the Bacco fallout worrying about him by name.
I went back years ago and was reading about that quasi romance thing that seemed to be building up with the Andorian crew member before the whole Typhon Pact thing and the secession....but we have just had too many time jumps to care about the crew. It's the same reason I decided the Foundation story by Asimov wasn't for me...it wasn't about characters, it was about the politics. There was no point investing in characters because they will be gone before the book finishes.

I have no problem spending a few years on one year in novel...the reverse at the moment is painful to read. I am not even sure if two weeks have passed in universe or six months...I mean there had to be time for two federation elections, but so much on Ds9 seems to occur in about a fortnight after the new station opened.....and none of it goes anywhere. Who is in charge of the hospital? Did Bashir ever do anything in the hospital before getting stuck in a character cul de sac for all time? Will Sisko ever clear his email inbox because that's basically all I remember him doing for the last few books. We are treading water horribly, and the station itself has less identity than some of the new characters. When Ds9 started it made sure to have stories about locations on the station itself to set up the locale for the station. And it had character. The new station...not so much. Even ignoring my personal dislikes for the design decisions, or the decision to destroy the old station, there is just no geography for a reader to hang the story on. The old station was described as claustrophobic...the new station is decidedly not. Because it's a very badly filled in city. I know there's the ops (or whatever we call it now) which is basically 'the office' and there's Quarks...and a hospital...and a park..the never again mentioned memorial...and the people live somewhere. But there's no mental model for it like you can get with a starship, and because it's not the familiar station, there's no sense of place. Every story may as well take place down on Bajor (as I assumed we were going to get for a while when the old station was destroyed. We also pretty much skipped the grieving for that.) or in San Francisco. It's just occurred to me that in many ways, the closest mental model for the new station is probably one based on Babylon 5. Which means we have skipped a groove and ended up in the wrong franchise, but does explain why only characters that can be analogues for the B5 style of story are getting any work (and quark) in the main ongoing ark. Ro isn't Michelle Forbes...she's Claudia Christian or Tracey Scoggins.

 

[RandyS]

We could try writing to Pocket books and ask them to do a massive reset on the 24th century books. I wonder if that sort of thing even works anymore?

 

[jaime]

We could try writing to Pocket books and ask them to do a massive reset on the 24th century books. I wonder if that sort of thing even works anymore?

Did it ever?
It does need sorting out though. At the very least they need to increase the publishing schedule so they can normalise a status quo.

 

[flandry84]

Dunno but this thread seems,to me at least,the sort of thing a good editor would be reading anyway.

 

[DeepSpaceYorks]

On one hand I think the idea of e novellas featuring stories set within the timeframe of the various TV series is a really excellent one. However, on the other, more selfish, hand I don't have any kind of e reader so would be unhappy with this idea. Maybe if they were collected together like the Mere Anarchy novellas were at the end of the year? I'd like that.

 

[Christopher]

However, on the other, more selfish, hand I don't have any kind of e reader so would be unhappy with this idea.

If you're able to read and post to this BBS, then you have a kind of e-reader. There is e-reader software available for every kind of computer, tablet, phone, and other device, and you can download it for free anywhere that e-books are sold.

 

[DeepSpaceYorks]

If you're able to read and post to this BBS, then you have a kind of e-reader. There is e-reader software available for every kind of computer, tablet, phone, and other device, and you can download it for free anywhere that e-books are sold.

I find it almost impossible to read a book on my phone screen but don't mind reading a forum on it for a few minutes. I feel the same way about my desktop unfortunately. It's entirely a situation of my own preferences.

 

[Christopher]

^Well, you said you didn't have any kind of e-reader. You do have them; you just don't like the kinds you have. Which is a valid choice, but it's not the same thing.

 

[VDCNI]

Personally I don't think it needs a hard reset particularly if that means bringing back the Borg.

Voyager is doing fine and I hope we see more of the new direction for Titan.

TNG just needs some time without major events to give the newer characters more care and attention and to end the us and them feel between the TV characters and the rest.

DS9 is a bigger problem. It's already been semi relaunched with the destroying the station books but unlike the original DS9 relaunch almost nothing has been done with the characters. It's amazing the contrast between how vivid the original relaunch characters were compared to this current bunch of nobodies. Losing the two driving forces of the relaunch in Kira and Vaughan, to no good purpose, has really hurt the series.

 

[Christopher]

Why would a reset even be needed? Trek novels have never had a single all-inclusive continuity. The novelverse ties most modern books together, but there have always been exceptions that stood apart from it -- the Shatnerverse, Crucible, a number of the TOS standalones. I think that a couple of years ago there were two TMP-era e-novellas that came out close together, and one of them directly contradicted Ex Machina while the other was consistent with it. There's no mandate that everything has to be consistent with the novelverse, so there's theoretically no reason that there couldn't be more out-of-continuity novels existing alongside the main novel continuity.

 

[Jinn]

I think that a couple of years ago there were two TMP-era e-novellas that came out close together, and one of them directly contradicted Ex Machina while the other was consistent with it.

TOS: Shadow of the Machine and TOS: The More Things Change.

 

[RandyS]

You guys are taking my "reset" comment too literally. All I meant was that I'd like to see more 24th century books set in the shows' time frames not that they need to have Q wave his hand and everything reverts back to the way it was, or something along those lines.

I don't even have a problem with the novels as they currently are seeing as how I no longer read the 24th century stuff. But, novels with the 24th century casts as they were on TV would bring me back.

 

[RandyS]

You guys are taking my "reset" comment too literally. All I meant was that I'd like to see more 24th century books set in the shows' time frames not that they need to have Q wave his hand and everything reverts back to the way it was, or something along those lines.

I don't even have a problem with the novels as they currently are seeing as how I no longer read the 24th century stuff. But, novels with the 24th century casts as they were on TV would bring me back. A balance of the two would be fine.

 

[Jarrod]

One of the things that makes me sigh about this thread are the conversations strings that go like this:

"I would love to read more books set during the show's time period."

"Go read a TOS book."

I have read every Star Trek fiction book that Pocket has put out. Every. Single. One. And to be honest, TOS and Enterprise are the series that are at the BOTTOM of my list of favorites.

I also prefer my books to be books. Made of paper. Not pixels.

 

[Jarrod]

Star Trek: The Next Generation turns 30 next year.

1996, when Star Trek: The Original Series turned 30, we got 4 books set during the Series, as well as a Shatnerverse book.

Fast Forward 20 years..

What book will be out on the shelves that month?? When September comes around.. what will be the showcase book of the month during the TNG 30th Anniversary? A Voyager book. The month before? An Enterprise book.

Based on the current release schedule, during the TNG 30th Anniversary month the most recent novel to have the words Star Trek: The Next Generation emblazoned on the cover will have been released at least 4 months previously. And while I am looking forward to "Hearts and Minds" immensely... it is hardly being touted as a celebration of all things TNG.

At this point, I feel that the novel line is really losing touch with the source material.

 

[Christopher]

I also prefer my books to be books. Made of paper. Not pixels.

Books are made of words. There were books in existence before there was paper -- books written on clay, papyrus, bark, leaves, whatever. What we tend to think of as a "book" -- a bunch of stacked rectangular pages bound together on one side and held within a cover or jacket -- is actually called a codex, and it's just one possible format for a book.

 

[Desert Kris]

Books are made of words. There were books in existence before there was paper -- books written on clay, papyrus, bark, leaves, whatever. What we tend to think of as a "book" -- a bunch of stacked rectangular pages bound together on one side and held within a cover or jacket -- is actually called a codex, and it's just one possible format for a book.

I love that word...I just didn't quite understand what it meant. And now, it's my new favorite word. Fun prospect to contemplate regarding all my books as codices now!

 

[Idran]

You guys are taking my "reset" comment too literally. All I meant was that I'd like to see more 24th century books set in the shows' time frames not that they need to have Q wave his hand and everything reverts back to the way it was, or something along those lines.

They're probably taking it literally because someone actually did propose literally that up-thread and they thought you were going along with that.

 

[Idran]

Books are made of words. There were books in existence before there was paper -- books written on clay, papyrus, bark, leaves, whatever. What we tend to think of as a "book" -- a bunch of stacked rectangular pages bound together on one side and held within a cover or jacket -- is actually called a codex, and it's just one possible format for a book.

And I bet that when the codex format was originally supplanting the scroll format in the West around the 4th century (which was what people used to think of when they said the etymological antecedent of "book"), you'd see people saying things along the lines of

I prefer my books to be books. Rolled. Not stacked.