Star Trek novels by authors of color

[tgiokdi]

[QUOTE="Link now dead..."[/QUOTE]

Way back machine has it: https://web.archive.org/web/2016120...not-editing-new-star-trek-strange-new-worlds/

 

[Lonemagpie]

This thread feels somewhat more relevant right now.

Yeah - and in Pride month too, given that POC were a large driving force behind Stonewall and leading to Pride.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

“I edited Star Trek: Strange New Worlds for ten fun years. It was a wonderful project that helped fans and new writers tell Star Trek stories. I was very proud of the work I did on that and the fine writers I was lucky enough to buy stories from. This new incarnation is a scam to suck new writers into one of Simon and Schuster’s vanity publishers. Avoid this contest at all costs.” – DEAN WESLEY SMITH
Link now dead...
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/not-editing-new-star-trek-strange-new-worlds/

Way back machine has it: https://web.archive.org/web/2016120...not-editing-new-star-trek-strange-new-worlds/

Thanks for tracking those down, guys.

 

[Derek Tyler Attico]

I was just asked this very question by someone that knows I've written Star Trek short stories and wanted to pick up a Star Trek novel. I've read some fantastic Star Trek novels from Trek writers, some of which are good friends, but I had to admit that I had no idea how many people of color had written Trek novels over the years. I could only think of two offhand. I just presumed there were many more –– but only four?

To the best of my knowledge, there have been over 400 Trek novels from Pocket Books and over 800 since Trek novels started 53 years ago. In all that time and all that change, a franchise dedicated to diversity couldn't have had just four contributions from persons of color –– could it?

Really??

 

[Tenacity]

/\ part of that is going to who (poc) step forward..

 

[Derek Tyler Attico]

/\ part of that is going to who (poc) step forward..

Please tell me if I've misinterpreted your statement, if I'm reading it correctly you've made an interesting presumption that persons of color have not stepped forward. The SNW series has already proven multiple times this is simply not the case.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Hmm. While I don't give a rodent's defecatory orifice about the ethnicity or gender of a writer, so long as the book is good, it seems a bit silly that books about a milieu in which gender, ethnicity, and species are irrelevant to a person's value are dominated by male authors of European ancestry.

(And as to vanity houses, well, assuming my own opus ever reaches publishable condition, rest assured I will generate PDFs myself [since I'm a Xerox Ventura Publisher geek, all my reference hardcopy is already typeset], and either have them converted to offset plates [and learn to run an offset press at the International Printing Museum], or release them free on the Internet under some variant of the GPDL, before I would do business with a known vanity house.)

 

[Rigel]

Although it should be noted Wilson Cruz, who is himself an advocate for homosexual representation on television, gave the book and its depiction of the Stamets-Culber relationship his endorsement.

iirc, both Cruz and Rapp said they loved it.

 

[JWolf]

I'm not looking for Str TRek books specifically because of the author's race or gender. I'm just looking for a good story.

 

[Christopher]

I'm not looking for Str TRek books specifically because of the author's race or gender. I'm just looking for a good story.

And you get better stories if there are more diverse authors creating them, rather than if systemic inequalities exclude many good storytellers. As Elie Weisel said, neutrality benefits the oppressor. As long as systemic equality exists, you can't pretend that ignoring the problem equals fairness.

 

[Thrawn]

I'm not looking for Str TRek books specifically because of the author's race or gender. I'm just looking for a good story.

Ok.

Posit 1: Only white people (with nearly zero exceptions) write Star Trek novels.
Posit 2: You don't care about posit 1; you only want the best stories.

Conclusion: one of the following things must be true:
A - you think that minorities write worse stories. Which is racist.
B - you think minority writers would write good Star Trek stories too, but they haven't been. Ok, so why is that? Well, either they don't want to, which means that something about the work itself is racist (something that, as a Star Trek fan, should bother you), or they do want to but something has been happening to systematically exclude minority writers who would write those stories. Which means the industry / hiring process / commissioning process / etc is racist, which should bother you.

Either way, when you post that statement, you are either saying "I'm racist" or you are saying "something about Star Trek publishing is racist, but I don't care"... which is also saying something racist. It's a silly thing to say, and a Star Trek fan should know better.

 

[Christopher]

If all you want is good stories, then you should support removing the barriers that exclude good storytellers because of their race and gender. If you ignore the problem and settle for the status quo where those barriers exist, it works directly against the desire for good stories, by limiting the number of good storytellers. So saying "I only care about good stories so I don't care that bias exists" is a contradiction in terms.

 

[BillJ]

I'm not looking for Str TRek books specifically because of the author's race or gender. I'm just looking for a good story.

Larger pool of potential authors should lead to better stories.

 

[JWolf]

Ok.

Posit 1: Only white people (with nearly zero exceptions) write Star Trek novels.
Posit 2: You don't care about posit 1; you only want the best stories.

Conclusion: one of the following things must be true:
A - you think that minorities write worse stories. Which is racist.
B - you think minority writers would write good Star Trek stories too, but they haven't been. Ok, so why is that? Well, either they don't want to, which means that something about the work itself is racist (something that, as a Star Trek fan, should bother you), or they do want to but something has been happening to systematically exclude minority writers who would write those stories. Which means the industry / hiring process / commissioning process / etc is racist, which should bother you.

Either way, when you post that statement, you are either saying "I'm racist" or you are saying "something about Star Trek publishing is racist, but I don't care"... which is also saying something racist. It's a silly thing to say, and a Star Trek fan should know better.

I don't know about all the writers who have written Star Trek novels. I don't know who is a minority or not.

If someone who can write good stories is a minority writer, I'm all for it. I'm for anyone who wants to write Star Trek stories who can do a good job to be able to do it. What I really dislike is when someone gets hired to write Star trek who cannot do a good job. I am not racist. Most of the time, I'll know if the author is male or female, but I won't know any more then that unless there is an author photo. I don't go looking up the author to see if the author is a minority or not. Minority or not, you are a person with the same rights as everyone else.

 

[JWolf]

Larger pool of potential authors should lead to better stories.

My issue is that there have been good authors writing Star Trek who are no longer doing so who I think should at least be asked back to write more.

 

[BillJ]

My issue is that there have been good authors writing Star Trek who are no longer doing so who I think should at least be asked back to write more.

I’d rather mix in new authors than just keep bringing back folks who have already written Trek. New perspectives are a good thing.

 

[Christopher]

Minority or not, you are a person with the same rights as everyone else.

It is contradictory to claim to believe that while simultaneously dismissing the effort to achieve equal rights as a non-issue you'd rather ignore. That belief, if it's sincere and not mere lip service, is an obligation to act, not an excuse to avoid the issue.

 

[JWolf]

It is contradictory to claim to believe that while simultaneously dismissing the effort to achieve equal rights as a non-issue you'd rather ignore. That belief, if it's sincere and not mere lip service, is an obligation to act, not an excuse to avoid the issue.

TBH, I would not mind seeing some more Trek Books by new authors. And then again, another idea I have is to have new authors team up with experienced Trek authors.

 

[Sci]

Moving more directly on-topic -- as TV Star Trek keeps growing, I really hope that S&S starts publishing ST novels from authors of more diverse backgrounds.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I don't think RandyS was talking about anyone in this thread. I believe he was complaining about so-called "social justice warriors". SJWs are known to be extremely hostile to any opposing opinion and often have an intense hatred for straight white men.

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