DS9 lags now!!

[myselfeneye]

I've been doing my best to keep up with all of the new DS9 books that have been coming out, but I keep finding that there have been cameos and whatnot that I was oblivious to! Apparently the characters show up a lot in the Starfleet Corps of Engineers books, and there were also cameos in books like "Gemworld". So there's actually plenty of new material featuring those characters, if I'm that hungry for more DS9 literature, and my goal is to collect it all and then read it in chronological order.

My problem is that the series itself seems to be advancing too slowly. TNG and Voyager are already putting out books that are set after Nemesis, while DS9 still hasn't caught up with Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant!

I should clarify--one of the things I LOVED about DS9 as a series was the fact that everything was so well fleshed-out, from setting to characters to plotlines that arced through season after season. I'm glad they're as descriptive as they are and that not much time passes within or between them. I just wish they'd come out a little faster. How do the rest of you feel about this? Do you think they should be putting out post-series DS9 material just a little faster, or are you happy that they're taking the time to, supposedly, really focus and give us quality work?

 

[jgdst]

I'm torn It's great that DS9 has continued at its own pace, and saves you a lot of that "Well what were they up to for the time between <DS9-R novel> and <latest VOY-R>?"

On the other hand, I know what you mean about wanting to see DS9 catch up to post-Nemesis...

I don't think the series would allow to write a post-NEM novel, then hop back to post-WYLB era. Which I actually think is a testament to how much detail and care has been taken with the relaunch.

I'm eager to see DS9 catch up, but it'd be to the detriment of the series if it did it in the course of a book or two. I'm quite happy to wait patiently for each new release. (I definitely wouldn't say no if they decided to up the number of releases per year though )

 

[Therin of Andor]

I keep finding that there have been cameos and whatnot that I was oblivious to! Apparently the characters show up a lot in the Starfleet Corps of Engineers books

A lot? No.

there were also cameos in books like "Gemworld".

?

"Gemworld" was published way back in Feb 2000 and "Avatar" in May of 2001. Aren't you thinking of the brief scene which previews a few "Avatar" characters in "TNG: Maximum Warp"?

My problem is that the series itself seems to be advancing too slowly.

Why is that a problem?

 

[Therin of Andor]

I don't think the series would allow to write a post-NEM novel, then hop back to post-WYLB era.

What? What about "Hollow Men", the Una McCormack novel which followed up an episode, "In the Pale Moonlight"?

What about the recent "Terok Nor" trilogy?

And we've also had the post-WYLB novel, "Rising Son", which "hopped back" to follow Jake's story.

 

[jgdst]

That isn't quite what I meant by going back and forth in the timeline. For instance, Terok Nor doesn't really count as the majority of it is the backstory to the DS9 series itself.

What I meant was, if the crew were to take part in a post-Nemesis story (I'm assuming the early-mid 2380s?), it wouldn't make much sense to then go back to the late 2370s to pick up that thread of storylines...

To try and help describe what I mean... if season 4 of Enterprise really had finished with These Are The Voyages, you'd know for the rest of the series that the main characters (assuming they're all present and correct) were never in any real danger, because you know their futures. (Unless of course, you take TATV with a pinch of salt )...

Likewise, if a post-NEM novel had characters that had presumably joined the crew in the interim, there's an interesting situation there of introducing new characters. Though I suppose that opens up the possibility of seeing how their own stories lead them to joining the DS9 crew.

The relaunch series has its own continuity to follow now, so I think it would have the same effect as if the TV series had danced around the timeline.

Hmm, I still don't feel like I made the point I want to... but hopefully this helps a bit

 

[Therin of Andor]

The relaunch series has its own continuity to follow now, so I think it would have the same effect as if the TV series had danced around the timeline.

The TOS Pocket Books have always danced around the timeline, and have stretched from pre-"The Cage" to beyond "Generations".

One DS9 character is said to feature in the upcoming "Destiny" trilogy, set post-"Nemesis", and yet the DS9 Relaunch will continue at its own pace.

After "Stone and Anvil", PAD deliberately jumped "New Frontier" three years so he could refer back to the "missing" years and fill in the mysteries over time.

 

[jgdst]

After "Stone and Anvil", PAD deliberately jumped "New Frontier" three years so he could refer back to the "missing" years and fill in the mysteries over time.

Ahh, see, I forgot about that

In retrospect, I suppose it wouldn't matter either way what they did with the series, but I've only just got into the relaunch (I've not even got around to TNG or VOY yet!), which is why I'm happy for it to carry on at its own pace

 

[JD]

One DS9 character is said to feature in the upcoming "Destiny" trilogy, set post-"Nemesis", and yet the DS9 Relaunch will continue at its own pace.

Spoiler: Announced DS9 Characters in Destiny

Actually it's four , Bowers is Ezri's First Officer, Leishman is her cheif engineer, and Tarses is her CMO.

 

[myselfeneye]

To be honest, I'm not sure what I think is in Gemworld...haven't read it. What I do know is that on some sites which list a chronology of the Relaunch, it's listed as additional material (cameos and whatnot). Maximum Warp definitely counts, in my mind, as at least a cameo that can be plugged into the chronology just as additional material, because I am what one might call a continuity whore. So anything at all that I can stick in between two DS9 books and say "this is when it takes place, and it's relevant", I want, and I want to organize it all and read it in order. In a way, filling in the gaps can make a story seem less broken. Then again, it's the nature of cameos and crossovers to make a story feel more broken instead of less, in a way.
I'm also sticking the comics in there, just because. N-Vector and Divided We Fall aren't too bad, though the art in N-Vector could use a little improvement.

It's not a problem, per se, that the pacing is slow. Just that the stories don't come out fast enough, that's really all I was trying to say, Therin. Like I said, I'm glad that it's taking so many books for the timeline to advance, and I'm actually enjoying the contrast between DS9 and New Frontier, my other favorite Trek series...Peter David is an amazing author, and I have to say I've learned a lot just from reading his work. I think I have a similar style that, with time, I can hone and make my own.

In any event...is anybody else out there as much of a continuity nut as me?

 

[Christopher]

Possibly the reason for those sites listing Gemworld as a DS9 cameo is because Melora Pazlar plays a central role in it.

 

[Jono]

I don't have a problem with the novels going at their own pace in terms of the Star Trek timeline, it is just the gab between novels that really gets me in the real world. There seemed to be a huge gap between the previous novel and then Unity, and then between Warpath and Fearful Symmetry. I know a lot of it is outside the control of the publishers and editors with things such as authors getting pregnant and whatnot, but it is not easy to remain interested in a novel series when there is a really significant gap between the novels.

That said I've really enjoyed the novels when they have come out, it is just a bit frustrating to be waiting to wrap up a storyline/continue moving the storyline along for a long time. You eventually run the risk of people losing interest in the story because of the span of time.

 

[Therin of Andor]

it is not easy to remain interested in a novel series when there is a really significant gap between the novels... You eventually run the risk of people losing interest in the story because of the span of time.

How do you cope in the wider worlds of science fiction and general fiction, when sequels to many novels are sometimes decades apart?

 

[nx1701g]

As long as the novels continue their excellent stories I have no problem with the time between the different series. I'd rather have a fleshed out history than something rushed.

 

[JD]

Yeah. I mean it's not like we were ever actually promised that we would get one book from each series every year. Just because it happens alot doesn't mean that it will happen every time.

 

[Jono]

it is not easy to remain interested in a novel series when there is a really significant gap between the novels... You eventually run the risk of people losing interest in the story because of the span of time.

How do you cope in the wider worlds of science fiction and general fiction, when sequels to many novels are sometimes decades apart?

Thankfully when I was four or five I wasn't really into reading sci-fi or fiction novels, so I've never had to find out.

 

[Omega Particle]

The only disadvantage with the time-lag that I can think of is that we know that nothing hugely, OMG-WTF-is-that?! major will happen to the galaxy (such as, for example, the upcoming 'Destiny' trilogy promises to be - or at least has been hyped up to be) in the upcoming DS9 Relaunch novels until they synch up with the forward-progressing storyline.

However, is that such a bad thing? That kind of stuff should be held back until there's a real hunger for it. The DS9 Relaunch can tell excellent stories that wouldn't have any major impact on the galaxy around them, and so would mean that it wasn't referenced in novels set further down the line like Titan or the TNG Relaunch.

I don't think there's any problem with the time gap, to be honest, and DS9 shouldn't be artifically sped up if it sacrifices some cool story-telling along the way.

As for the gap between novels, we are priviliged as Star Trek fans to receive 12 normal books a year, with a number of trade paperbacks and hardcovers on top of that. Thank God there are enough of us purchasing enough copies to warrant that pace of release, considering the lack of televised Trek right now. For that reason, I'm insanely happy about how many books that we get a year, and considering many fans have to wait several years between installments of their favourite series, we are truly fortunate to get books at the pace we do, even if we'd prefer a new DS9 Relaunch novel every month.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Thankfully when I was four or five I wasn't really into reading sci-fi or fiction novels, so I've never had to find out.

Well, in that case, you should realise that ST fans are incredibly spoiled by comparison to the fans of science fiction ongoing book series.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The only disadvantage with the time-lag that I can think of is that we know that nothing hugely, OMG-WTF-is-that?! major will happen to the galaxy

I dunno. PAD still hasn't explored the UFP/Selelvian War yet, and that happened in the three year "New Frontier" gap between "Stone and Anvil" and "After the Fall".

 

[Omega Particle]

I dunno. PAD still hasn't explored the UFP/Selelvian War yet, and that happened in the three year "New Frontier" gap between "Stone and Anvil" and "After the Fall".

I haven't read 'Missing in Action' yet, though it's sitting on my shelf, but my impressions of the UFP/Selelvian War from what I read very recently in 'After The Fall' was that it was more of a regional conflict like the Cardassian Border Wars, rather than the kind of event that I was referencing (I was thinking more like the Dominion War, which has a cross-series impact).

And I guess, that probably puts even more of a 'who cares?' on the time lag between the DS9-R and the TNG-R, TTN and VGR-R. After all, the Cardassian border conflict was going on and warranted barely a mention throughout the early part of TNG (I know that's because they hadn't come up with it yet, but that shows that conflicts, even fairly major ones, can happen without being widely referenced throughout the UFP.)

So I guess we won't be seeing any Dominion Wars the Second between 2376 and 2381, but then who really wants that? I just want to see the kind of awesome stories that we've come to know and love from the DS9-R. That'll keep me satisfied!

 

[Idoliside]

Even if the writers decide to jump forward suddenly (and technically in Destiny they will be) there will always be people (me included) wondering about those missing years. So let DS9-RL continue whilst we are all enjoying it! Theres alot of time in the universe, more than enough for someone to read Captain Kira's reaction to voyager coming home ("who?")