I didn't know it was her, though I figured out what she had planned. In keeping with TOS tradition for the criminally insane, she is not killed, but rather sent to a mental health institution.
Spoilers KEL: More Beautiful Than Death by David Mack Review Thread
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I didn't know it was her, though I figured out what she had planned. In keeping with TOS tradition for the criminally insane, she is not killed, but rather sent to a mental health institution.
Having made a comment about this book in the "Star Fleet Academy" books thread, I thought I'd better reread the book to make sure that I was being fair about it.
I commented that the book seemed short and I see from reading the author's acknowledgements that the book is a little short and was intended to be a bit of a lighthearted book so that comment stands but is explained.
Also I said the book had a YA feel to it. I stand by that comment as well although, again, that's partly due to the lighter nature of the book.
Thinking about it, one of the problems with Kelvinverse books is that we have only 3 films-worth of "canon" and characterisation. The main characters are very young - new graduates of SFA - with a couple of older characters (Pike and Scotty) and some slightly older characters (Spock who is young in Vulcan terms, McCoy). Essentially many of the characters are immature. Now that fits very well with YA but perhaps not so well with "adult" novels. There's an additional problem that, while there's very little SFA in other iterations of ST, it's hard to find other situations that would be particularly suited to the Kelvinverse as opposed to the Prime timeline. If you write a book about the Kelvinverse, how do you find a plot that couldn't just be the Prime crew? There doesn't really seem much point in writing specific Kelvinverse books except for SFA.
I commented that the book seemed short and I see from reading the author's acknowledgements that the book is a little short and was intended to be a bit of a lighthearted book so that comment stands but is explained.
Also I said the book had a YA feel to it. I stand by that comment as well although, again, that's partly due to the lighter nature of the book.
Thinking about it, one of the problems with Kelvinverse books is that we have only 3 films-worth of "canon" and characterisation. The main characters are very young - new graduates of SFA - with a couple of older characters (Pike and Scotty) and some slightly older characters (Spock who is young in Vulcan terms, McCoy). Essentially many of the characters are immature. Now that fits very well with YA but perhaps not so well with "adult" novels. There's an additional problem that, while there's very little SFA in other iterations of ST, it's hard to find other situations that would be particularly suited to the Kelvinverse as opposed to the Prime timeline. If you write a book about the Kelvinverse, how do you find a plot that couldn't just be the Prime crew? There doesn't really seem much point in writing specific Kelvinverse books except for SFA.
I'd say the key is to focus on those elements unique to Kelvin, like the destruction of Vulcan, or the character elements that are different, like Kirk's more delinquent upbringing, Spock & Uhura's romance, Carol Marcus being in Starfleet and having evil-dad issues, Scotty having Keenser as a sidekick, that sort of thing.
Although you're right that it's a challenge to come up with character-based stories about characters who've only been in three movies. In retrospect, my Seek a Newer World manuscript was my most superificial novel, since I had only the first movie to work with and couldn't give the characters as much depth and texture. When I reworked it into The Face of the Unknown in the Prime timeline, I was able to add a lot more depth to the characters and situations since I had more history to work with.
We do have the prime universe stories to potentially re-tell in light of new circumstances. (Although I hope future stories don't limit themselves to that)
And I suppose when authors write about characters they themselves have created, they have even less starting material to draw from than three movies, several comics, a few novels, and a few Prime universe references that still apply. But they can make them be anything they want, whereas prime Trek writers have lots of characterization/universe history to draw from.
The Kelvinverse is in a "sour spot" - enough information that you can't make it all up, not enough information that you can extrapolate character's reactions, motivations, etc the way you can with TOS.
And I suppose when authors write about characters they themselves have created, they have even less starting material to draw from than three movies, several comics, a few novels, and a few Prime universe references that still apply. But they can make them be anything they want, whereas prime Trek writers have lots of characterization/universe history to draw from.
The Kelvinverse is in a "sour spot" - enough information that you can't make it all up, not enough information that you can extrapolate character's reactions, motivations, etc the way you can with TOS.
IDW's ongoing Kelvin comic did that for a time, and I didn't care for it, since it didn't make sense that the same events would happen in nearly the same way almost a decade earlier. Plus it seemed pointless to retell a story we'd already seen with just minor changes. The only ones that were really interesting to me were the "Operation: Annihilate" retelling, because it told the story very differently in a way that allowed Sam Kirk to be a major character and dealt with his backstory from the deleted scenes of the film, and the loose retelling of "The Apple," which took an "Everybody lives!" approach to the redshirts that was a nice counterpoint to the original episode's gratuitously throwaway treatment of them.
The difference is that with tie-in fiction, we're limited by the franchise owner in what we can invent about the characters. We can build on what was established onscreen, but not extrapolate too far beyond it.
These all may affect how characters react to an as-seen-on-TOS plot; not so much the problem itself, unless it's a problem on Vulcan (and "Amok Time" is already taken now, unless
another grief stricken Vulcan mistakes Spock for her dead betrothed and he pretends to be that one so she won't have a breakdown
As I said, I see no value in retelling TOS plots. The comics tried that and it didn't work very well. The whole reason the Kelvin films branched off into a different timeline in the first place, not to mention featuring younger versions of the characters nearly a decade earlier in their careers, was so that they'd be free to tell new stories with the TOS characters rather than be hamstrung by existing continuity. Expecting the same events to happen is missing the entire point of the Kelvin timeline, or at least what was supposed to be its point until Lindelof insisted on redoing Khan in the second film.
My point was that the way to generate stories in Kelvin is to focus on an element unique to Kelvin as your starting point. That's the exact opposite of rehashing TOS plots. Yes, that may just be a matter of characterization, but many plots are conceived specifically in order to explore an aspect of a character or advance their personal arc. You start with the character aspect, then come up with a situation that reveals or challenges it.
Although, again, that's why it would be easier to come up with Kelvin ideas if there had been more than three Kelvin stories, so that we had more information about the characters to work with.
A good many TOS stories may not have happened to anyone by the time Kirk's Enterprise is supposed to have gone through them; still others may happen to other ships and crews instead.
What little information we have about the characters becomes easy to fall back on, but we risk making everything about the aftermath of Nero rather than merely following it.
Anyway...
Kirk never did decide if he believed those other people who had died before were him in another life or not.
What little information we have about the characters becomes easy to fall back on, but we risk making everything about the aftermath of Nero rather than merely following it.
Anyway...
Kirk never did decide if he believed those other people who had died before were him in another life or not.
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No, that's just one of the story elements distinct to Kelvin. Anything else the films established about the characters and the universe could be fair game.
I've begun to compile a list. https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/plans-for-any-more-kelvinverse-novels.314409/page-2
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