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Spoilers KEL: The Unsettling Stars by Alan Dean Foster Review Thread
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We recently had Alan Dean Foster on Literary Treks to discuss this novel. It was a wonderful experience getting to talk to someone who has had so much to do with the history of Trek! Plus, we enjoyed The Unsettling Stars!
Literary Treks 302: What If A.I. Becomes Mommy?
Literary Treks 302: What If A.I. Becomes Mommy?
I think that is almost certainly the first time I've heard ADF's voice. Thank you. I vaguely recall at least one convention I attended (a "free con" at a local shopping mall, where Stephen Goldin and Kathleen Sky shared a stage around the time Trek to Madworld was released, and possibly also one or more Southern California Creation events) had him scheduled, but I somehow missed him.
I still regard the present opus as being not even remotely ADF's best work, though. I wonder if the ending he was required to pull (and apparently isn't at liberty to even discuss publicly) might have elevated my opinion.
Then again, even ADF at his worst (which this isn't) is still, IMHO, better than a lot of stuff out there (and light years ahead of The Opus [and author] Which I Will Not Publicly Name).
I still regard the present opus as being not even remotely ADF's best work, though. I wonder if the ending he was required to pull (and apparently isn't at liberty to even discuss publicly) might have elevated my opinion.
Then again, even ADF at his worst (which this isn't) is still, IMHO, better than a lot of stuff out there (and light years ahead of The Opus [and author] Which I Will Not Publicly Name).
Interesting. Listening to him talk about his perception that, in the movies, the characters aren't so different from their tos counterparts surely helps me understand that if the novel feels too much like tos to me it isn't because the author is deliberately ditching the kelvin trek characterization. It simply is his perception that they are 'the same'.
I disagree and that's why, obliviously, I notice a lack of 'kelvin trek voice' in his characters.
I don't consider things like spock/uhura or the destruction of vulcan the only real differences. In fact, I actually believe that important things like that relationship are a product of the characters not being quite the same because they live in a different context shaping them. For one, kelvin Spock embraces his feelings more than tos Spock did. .or at the very least he isn't delusional about his dual heritage and he doesn't try to pass for a Vulcan only who is oblivious about 'how to human'. .
That is not to say I cannot imagine that relationship possibly happening in tos too, but it would itself be a bit different from its kelvin counterpart because it would be shaped by different context and characters.
And the destruction of vulcan is huge. Tos Spock never had his own father admitting to him that his feelings ARE vulcan too. There are literally scenes, phrases, said by tos Spock that I could NEVER imagine kelvin Spock saying especially with him being in a relationship with a human and after the loss of his mother and the key scene he has with Sarek.
Of course, you could argue that, from a meta level, the tos version of the characters were in large part influenced by the era (the 60s) so, from that perspective, it isn't crazy to believe that tos Spock would have shared far more similarities with kelvin Spock were him written nowadays. See the Spock from Discovery too (who honestly makes it seems Nimoy's Spock had a regression by the time we see him in the series)
If the show was made nowadays instead of the 60s, all the characters would be more like their kelvin version.
It isn't just Spock who is more contemporary, it's Uhura and Kirk too. Everything is.
However, tos still is what it is and in my mind there are two different versions of these characters and honestly, I like that. I find it a fascinating concept.
Hence why if I read a kelvin trek novel it must feel like ...a kelvin trek novel to me. It has to be something I could never read in a tos novel. They can't be interchangeable.
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Since we released our episode of Literary Treks with Alan Dean Foster, we've heard from many listeners that this is the first time they've heard his voice or have heard him interviewed. He was very gracious about being on the show and offered to come back again. I'd love to interview him about his Star Trek Logs books.
Never heard thebvoice of ADF, thanks!
AT LAST I HAVE IT AFTER TEN LONG YEARS
AT LAST I HAVE IT AFTER TEN LONG YEARS
It's been a long time, getting from there to here.
It's been a long road, but my time is finally here!
Love is all around, no need to fake it.
You can have the town, why don't you take it.
You're gonna make it after all, . . . Oh, wait. Wrong show.
I finished the book this morning, and just started listening to the Literary Treks interview, and I just wanted to point out as soon as I heard it that, apparently, even Alan Dean Foster has fallen for the urban legend that Alan Dean Foster ghostwrote the novelization of TMP (okay, okay, his phrasing is ambiguous, and he was probably referring to his work on the actual movie, but in-context, it sounded like he was talking about novelizing that film). I giggled.
Funny: I did not get that impression at all.
That's funny, because during that interview, we directly talked about the novelization, and the fact that he DIDN'T write it whatsoever. He did do the initial story for TMP, and we did talk about that as well.
It was the part at the very beginning where he was talking about how he was recruited to do the novelization of ST09, the way he listed the reasons (paraphrasing, "My other novelizations, my original novels, and, of course, The Motion Picture"), the way it was thrown in with his other prose work made me think for a moment he was still talking about writing books when he mentioned TMP. Of course, towards the end of the interview, you talked about his contributions to the film (and not the novelization) in more detail, but I hadn't heard that part yet when I wrote the post feeling like a funny had been made.
I was kinda reminded of Mutiny on the Enterprise, a book from the early eighties, where the crew rescues a woman who compels those around her to a view of absolute pacifism, right as the Enterprise is about to enter a possible conflict.
Not quite the same, but some similar elements.
I just read Ward's "Agents of Influence" and this one back-to-back". Took me back to the days when two books a month was the standard thing. But, funny, when we read these I'm assuming most of us do them as "head movies" where we don't just read, say, Kirk's lines but mentally hear Shatner speaking them. Toggled right to Pine, Quinto, Saldana, etc.
I'm more than halfway through, listening via my Storytel subscription. I quite like how the actor manages to differentiate between the characters without overdoing it. The story is sufficiently mysterious to keep my interest. However, I have a question. Did I miss something or did it not occur to anyone from the crew to ask the Perenoreans 'Why are the Dre'kalak so angry with you?' :-)
Even if somebody did, it's unlikely they'd be able to come up with a meaningful answer, as it quickly becomes obvious that
they don't really understand the problem themselves.
Well, that's entirely correct, I agree -- still, it seemed like a reasonable question to ask on part of the crew who just rescued the colony ship...
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