Some people find it harder to comprehend than others, or they think it slows the pace of the story.
Author Habits That Annoy You
- Thread starter Captain Dax
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Oh, that (including non-Trek authors) would become endless. I recall early Michael Stackpole non-Trek novels where characters would frequently “say things with their eyes”, I.e. “He looked at me as if to say he was sorry for all he had done. I looked back, and knew he could see in mine that I forgave him.” (Or something like that.). I found myself imagining the exchanges getting longer, with one character asking the other with his eyes what sort of sandwich he should bring back from the tavern, and the other one specifying, etc.
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As an initial matter, I don't generally have a problem with getting extended insight into the non-main characters' thought processes. (Recall that my comment was offered as the opposite of an earlier complaint about featuring new characters too much). These characters are wholly of the author's invention (or are elaborations upon existing characters only briefly viewed in the series) and so the author has a tabula rasa on which to work- to give them whatever motivations, habits of mind, pasts and futures they see fit. Go wild, as long as it's done well.
I do not see this being the case with the main characters. In the series, those characters were vehicles, the embodiments of certain predictable traits, through which we could encounter new worlds, strange phenomena etc (e.g., kirk as courageous hero, and the spokesperson of a virtuous and honorable federation; spock as the hyperrational outsider; mccoy as spock foil and stand-in for red-blooded 20th century observer, or what have you). The focus was on those new worlds and phenomena, and the main characters' response to same, in word and deed. There was some character development, particularly with the revelation of some of Spock's internal conflicts of self, but not too much, and nothing resembling character arcs spanning across the series. (None of this is a complaint; done right, this mode of storytelling is very effective, and I believe in TOS it was done right).
As I mentioned, I have found the TOS novels' attempts to explore the inner world of those characters to either (1) make ultimately bland observations consistent with the respective character 'types,' inadvertently underscoring the relevant sparseness of the inner life we were shown in the series and, paradoxically, making the characters seem even less real or (2) add 'new' aspects to the characters' inner life that seem immediately false to me and take me out of the narrative. This is just a personal preference, of course, not a normative argument as to what TOS novels must or must not be. Others may feel differently.
As to your immediate response, there is nothing mindboggling about my statement, logically speaking. If I don't care for extended explorations of the main characters' internal points of view, it does not matter to me that tie-in fiction is the only place I can get such explorations. I don't care for them.
It's a story, not an almanac of interesting information. At some point, the addition of scientific explanations (or characters' back stories, or narrative asides, or anything else) may interfere with the overall flow of that story.
I recently saw someone else lamenting (in a non-Trek context) that there was less "interiority" in modern novels in general. Because authors are thinking more cinematically, purposely or otherwise, or because modern readers have less patience for anything that doesn't briskly move the plot along?
Granted, it can be a balancing act. If the characters are too much in their heads at every moment, constantly thinking about everything they say or do, the book can get lost contemplating its own navel. On the other hand, a book in which the characters have no inner life is just playing with action figures.
Digression: back when I actively reviewing submissions for Tor Books, I would sometimes get frustrated by manuscripts that were full of big, fun, chewy SF ideas, but in which the characters were just stick figures with no inner life whatsoever, which meant that the books had the emotional temperature of tepid water. Such books read like purely intellectual exercises -- all ideas, no characterization -- so I ended up rejecting them.
(The fantasy version of this is the book in which the author has put 99% of their effort into the world-building, working out the maps and mythology and history to a fine detail, then peopled it with cardboard characters that never feel like actual flesh-and-blood people.)
I enjoyed reading all of the 4400 novels over a decade ago, immediately after watching the complete series on Netflix as a new viewer.
Coincidentally, The 4400 premiered in 2004, was cancelled after four seasons with a total of forty-four episodes, and received four novels. Also, the 2021 reboot (which I haven't seen) was cancelled after four months on the air.
Dayton Ward's Wet Work and your Vesuvius Prophecy are set during the series and your Welcome to Promise City and David Mack's Promises Broken constitute a postfinale duology.
Were there any discussions or ideas about additional novels?
I bought all four as ebooks through the Kindle Store and recall Amazon notifying me via email years later that they'd all been removed for digital purchase but that I'd retain access to them in my library. Anticipating that this might not remain true indefinitely, I used free software to remove their DRM and create permanent offline copies, which is the only way to ensure that corporations can't commit legalized theft of your digital purchases. I'm glad I did, because upon checking just now, I discovered that they're no longer in my Kindle library nor even in my digital purchase history.
Do you know why all four 4400 books are no longer officially digitally available?
From Wet Work:
Though the majority of the broadcasts were dominated with reports, updates, and conjecture about “the 4400,” Lona also had managed to learn a few other interesting bits of information. In the time she had been gone, President Clinton had served two terms, after which his wife was elected to the Senate, and President Bush’s son now held his father’s former office. The United States had suffered a horrific terrorist attack on its own soil three years earlier, taking thousands of lives and triggering protracted conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. A second space shuttle, Columbia, had been lost in flight, everyone and everything appeared to have a “website” as well as a cellular phone, and three additional Star Trek television series had come along.
Interesting times, indeed.
From The Vesuvius Prophecy:
“It’s possible,” Marco conceded. “The ECT could have stimulated the production of promicin in his brain.” The newly discovered neurotransmitter had already been linked to the myriad abilities displayed by the 4400. “It’s hard to say. We still don’t know enough about what activates the returnees’ latent abilities. Or how exactly ECT works, for that matter.”
“In any event,” Diana pointed out, “there’s another mystery that still needs solving. What does Gorinsky want with Cooper DeMeers?”
Good question, Tom thought. A Star Trek calendar on the wall reminded him that DeMeers had eluded them for nearly forty-eight hours now. A nagging sense of urgency gnawed away at his patience.
From Welcome to Promise City:
The way Marco’s 4400 ability worked, he needed to visualize a location before he could teleport there. He usually focused on an actual photograph as a mental trigger, but would a CGI facsimile suffice? He suddenly wished he’d spent more time testing the limits of his ability, despite NTAC’s policies to the contrary. “Maybe. I hope.”
Collier watched the exchange with interest.
Marco checked to make sure his cell phone was charged. The display screen informed him that it was a quarter after two in the afternoon. He realized there was no point in stalling.
“Okay, here goes nothing.” He rose from his seat. “Wish me luck.”
“Hold on,” Meghan said. “If you do get where you’re going, you don’t want to be recognized.”
Good point, Marco thought. They had to assume that Tyler’s cell was being monitored. He racked his brain for an appropriate disguise, then rummaged through a foot-locker over by his futon. It took him a moment or two to locate the item in question, but he soon extracted a bumpy rubber Klingon mask, left over from a Halloween party two years ago. (Last year’s party had been canceled out of respect for fifty/fifty.) Clutching the mask, as well as a pair of winter gloves, he hurried back to the computer area. Here’s hoping today is not a good day to die.
Meghan eyed the Klingon mask, with its bristling fake fur and prosthetic ridges, with bemusement. “You do know this is a reconnaissance mission and not a Star Trek convention, right?”
Jed Blue cracked a rare smile. Jed Red chucked to himself. Collier sighed.
Tess, a refugee from the 1950s, looked like she didn’t know what a Klingon was. “Star Track?”
What does "out of respect for fifty/fifty" mean?
No Trek references in Promises Broken, apparently!
To answer the 4400 queries:
Pocket Books had a four-book contract to do 4400 books. When the TV series was cancelled, we used the last two books on the contract to wrap things up. Unless those books had sold very well, there was little incentive for Pocket Books to renew the license, given that the TV show had been cancelled.
Have no idea about the ebooks, I'm afraid. That's way above my pay grade, and I'm technologically illiterate anyway.
My memories are dim (those books were a long time ago), but I think fifty-fifty referred to some new drug that gave fifty percent of users super-powers, but killed the other fifty percent, resulting in massive casualties. So a bad time for party.
Thanks for remembering those books! I enjoyed writing them -- and I remember Dave Mack and I making plans for the last two books in a bar at Shore Leave one year.
Pocket Books had a four-book contract to do 4400 books. When the TV series was cancelled, we used the last two books on the contract to wrap things up. Unless those books had sold very well, there was little incentive for Pocket Books to renew the license, given that the TV show had been cancelled.
Have no idea about the ebooks, I'm afraid. That's way above my pay grade, and I'm technologically illiterate anyway.
My memories are dim (those books were a long time ago), but I think fifty-fifty referred to some new drug that gave fifty percent of users super-powers, but killed the other fifty percent, resulting in massive casualties. So a bad time for party.
Thanks for remembering those books! I enjoyed writing them -- and I remember Dave Mack and I making plans for the last two books in a bar at Shore Leave one year.
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Ah, so there would've been four books set during the series, but the cancellation gave you the opportunity to create a postfinale duology instead!
Yes, I remember now. Collier planned to expose the whole world to it.
Cool! Did you read each other's (and Dayton Ward's) 4400 books?
Yes, to all of the above.
One more observation: my first 4400 book (written while the show was still being produced) had a much more rigorous approval process since it was set during the series. After the series was no longer a going concern, we had a much freer hand with those last two books.
One more observation: my first 4400 book (written while the show was still being produced) had a much more rigorous approval process since it was set during the series. After the series was no longer a going concern, we had a much freer hand with those last two books.
I mean, properly speaking a science fiction story is one in which, if you remove the science from the plot, the story collapses. Granted a lot of Trek stories aren’t that; but in plots where the science actually matters, some stab at an explanation of it is a lot more satisfying to me than some “It’s a TECHnicrotic TECHulator! Quick, adjust the TECHtron frequency flow!” “You did it, Captain!” exchange, which just comes down to “He waved his magic wand and the problem was solved.” — ie, in story terms, the problem didn’t matter, we just threw in a verbal speed bump to fill in thirty seconds.
(Nor is this the same as cutting a bunch of technical terminology down to “Reverse course!”, which is reasonable, since reversing course is an actual action a ship can obviously take; no magic verbiage waved.)
Yes, Star Trek did the TECH-magic-wand a lot, especially in the TNG era. It was a bug, not a feature.
It also allowed something to be done to a character that they likely wouldn't dare (at the time, or now) do to an onscreen series regular - make him an alcoholic.
I don't think it's annoying at all (just funny) that Christopher L. Bennett belabors reconciling onscreen Trek in matters where it contradicts itself. I always highlight the instances in his books. It's fun.
Were you required to add, change, or remove anything?
I laughed out loud at Tess (played by Summer Glau in the show) asking about "Star Track."
Honestly, that was 17 years ago. I just remember the outline bouncing back and forth a bit as we tried to figure out where to insert a standalone story into the show's serialized storyline.
Not uncommon, btw, when you're dealing with a show that's still in production. But after the show is dead, you don't have to worry about stamping on any ongoing or future plotlines. Gives you more freedom.
I can think of one author who uses the word "smirk" as meaning "a wry smile" and that irritates me as it alters the meaning of passages. This might be a difference between American English usage and English usage.
My other general irritation is more to do with evolution of language across the years. For example "passed on" used to be the usage: now it's "passed". (As a snob, I think it should be "dead" anyway), But in universe the expression should not have changed.
My other general irritation is more to do with evolution of language across the years. For example "passed on" used to be the usage: now it's "passed". (As a snob, I think it should be "dead" anyway), But in universe the expression should not have changed.
(I still say “passed away”, myself.). I get irritated at apparent linguistic shifts too, such as the apparently universal replacement of the “-ove” verb ending with “-ived” (and “-one”, as in “shone”, with “-ined/shined”). And good lord, “slain” becoming “slayed”…!).
Think differentLY, dammit.
Yet weirdly, I find these in copies of books that I’m -sure- are older than the word shifts themselves, which rather suggests somebody’s running around replacing my old books on the sly.
Now I don't have as much trouble with some of those because they are "correct" usages and sometimes the preference for one or the other is different depending on your side of the pond.
The adverb/adjective error is not acceptable in written formats and should not get passed an editor ... but then I'm a pedant.
What you do in your own home is none of my business, but please do not discuss DRM removal here.
(And yes, I am familiar with your views on this topic, but please note that this was not an invitation for an off-topic dissertation about copyright.)
I think with MJF, my big issue is how often he seems to rely on using apostrophes in alien names. Seems sometimes like every alien species or even individual has at least one apostrophe, if not more. Just kinda wish there was more variety in his way of saying “this is an alien.” But it’s really just kind of a pet peeve over an actual irritant.
I’ve been over before how DRG drags out everything that takes place in his books. Often it just feels like he stretches time out to a ludicrous degree. Last time I read The 34th Rule, a chapter opened with the entry of Kira into Quark’s in a way that made it seem important, then went on for I think at least a page and a half about details that had nothing to do with anything. And this is before we get to how he handled post-Destiny DS9…
I’ve been over before how DRG drags out everything that takes place in his books. Often it just feels like he stretches time out to a ludicrous degree. Last time I read The 34th Rule, a chapter opened with the entry of Kira into Quark’s in a way that made it seem important, then went on for I think at least a page and a half about details that had nothing to do with anything. And this is before we get to how he handled post-Destiny DS9…
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