I love the shorter chapters in Enterprise War, JJM. it really gives the book this fast, intense feel. And it actually makes it harder for me to put the book down. I'm loving the book, and it's going in directions I wasn't expecting. Which is always a plus. I'm about 120 or so pages in.
Star Trek: Discovery - The Enterprise War
- Thread starter JJMiller
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Hmm, I never really considered that there was a marketing reason for the size of chapters. I'm definitely a shorter chapter person. I think anything more than 5 or 6 pages starts to get a bit on the longish side. Like I mentioned I'm reading Diplomatic Implausibility, a 240 page book with 11 chapters (if you include the prologue and epilogue, though they are a bit shorter than the primary chapters). That's an average of 22+ pages per chapter. That's way longer than I prefer and it can feel like a chore to get through those chapters.....though I'm enjoying the story so far so that does help. A good story can forgive many sins
If I didn't care for the novel then it really would feel like a real slog.I read an earlier Voyager book a few weeks back that had even longer chapters. About the same number of pages with just 9 chapters. That story was fairly decent, but the long chapters really bugged me in that book.
I don't like to stop reading within chapters. I prefer to read a chapter (or 2 or 3 depending on how much time I have).
I was in a anthology of longer works a while back — initially, mine was the only work with chapters. The publisher subsequently decided all of them should be chapterized. I think it helps the digital and audio readers most of all just in providing some kind of marker saying where they are.
Wow, you weren't kidding about the short chapters. I just got my copy yesterday and I was thinking maybe 30 to 40 chapters. I didn't realize there was 74 chapters
Is that a record for a Star Trek novel? I think you may have broken a record for most chapters . But it is a long book too so it's probably not all that comparable to a MMPB.Still, I'd rather have a lot of shorter chapters than a few long chapters. This book will be next on my list once I finish Diplomatic Implausibility.
Short chapters work for me.
No idea what's a record, but the Prey books were all in the 60s. This one would've rung in just under 70, but I decided a certain subclass of short scenes should be labeled as independent chapters. That's easier on the users who do have tables of contents (digital, audio).
Waaay more time is put in figuring out the divisions between chapters and sections and whether prologues and epilogues should be numbered than you'd imagine possible!
Waaay more time is put in figuring out the divisions between chapters and sections and whether prologues and epilogues should be numbered than you'd imagine possible!
I'm reading the book now and just happened to come across this discussion. I thought I'd take a look since it was speculating about the book before it came out.
To my great surprise (and joy), I discovered the author participating in this thread. The insights into writing are wonderful. Thank you very much!
To my great surprise (and joy), I discovered the author participating in this thread. The insights into writing are wonderful. Thank you very much!
I finished this book last night I thought it was an interesting story.It was nice to see character story arcs for the Enterprise crew and I really liked to see alien characters the Boundles and Rengru and their backstory.And how certain characters changed over the year in the nebula.
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Like another poster somewhere said the Boundless also reminded me of the Xindi from Enterprise. did you draw inspiration from them for the boundless?
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Not in the slightest — because I had never seen that season at all, nor heard any more than the species' name before last week. Looking into it, that was apparently the fall/spring when we had a new baby and when I was writing two books for Marvel in addition to a full-time job. I don't even know if there was a Super Bowl that year!
So no overt or implied connections there, just a coincidence. I was actually probably more inspired by the Breen (as written in the novels) and a certain armor-wearing sect I've written for another franchise which shall remain nameless.
Well, that explains the line implying the Delphic Expanse was still a thing, when it dissolved (or, at least, the hazardous conditions within it) at the end of that season.
Pretty sure I know what happened — I Googled "star trek bermuda triangle," which took me here. Serves me right for relying on a summary!
(Perhaps it can be finessed that Connolly meant people back then still went in even though they knew better — rather than people today still went in.)
(Perhaps it can be finessed that Connolly meant people back then still went in even though they knew better — rather than people today still went in.)
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Yeah, I was reminded of them too. Well, them and the novel-verse Breen, as you also mention.
Those two groups probably may parallel the Boundless more closely given their armor and recruitment of outsiders — though there's of course differences in aims and outlook. If I ever catch up on streaming, I'll be able to compare and contrast the Xindi myself.
I used several of the Knights of the Old Republic comics to delve into the logistics of turning nomadic clans into something that could (nearly) conquer the galaxy in a short time, as described in the video game; it was a difficult thing to layer over what we'd already established about them, and so a lot of the stories wound up being about the conflicts all that cultural upheaval caused. With the Boundless, I wanted to take a swing at a military culture operating on a much narrower geographic scale during a longer time-frame — with a specific goal and with few qualms about what they were doing. The Boundless are believers; the recruits who aren't don't last long.
I used several of the Knights of the Old Republic comics to delve into the logistics of turning nomadic clans into something that could (nearly) conquer the galaxy in a short time, as described in the video game; it was a difficult thing to layer over what we'd already established about them, and so a lot of the stories wound up being about the conflicts all that cultural upheaval caused. With the Boundless, I wanted to take a swing at a military culture operating on a much narrower geographic scale during a longer time-frame — with a specific goal and with few qualms about what they were doing. The Boundless are believers; the recruits who aren't don't last long.
I don't remember the exact phrasing offhand, but I do remember thinking that all it was missing was one word. Oh, wait, I switched to eBooks because of the whole TBP thing, this isn't tedious anymore.
"People [had] still wandered into the Delphic Expanse even though they knew better." There we go, all fixed.
I was just looking on Chapters website since I was wondering why I haven’t received my copy and I see that Chapters is showing the paperback book as “Sold Out” online.
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