The State of Star Trek Literature

[Angstromdweller]

1. How do you feel the Trek book line has done in the last 12-15 months?

While I've only read a few of the 2009 releases so far, I like what I've heard about most of the rest. I prefer the 24:th and 22:nd century series in general, so the number of those was good.

Wether the sales are good or not, I can't really say. In an ordinary book store there is in general several shelves of Star Wars books and maybe a single Trek book if you are lucky. But you probably wouldn't find any other sci-fi tie-in novels either. Seems to be some Swedish cultural thing. I've always bought my books online, usually from amazon.co.uk.



2. What specifically have you liked in regards to the entire Trek book line in that time? Any favorite novels?

While I've not read that many yet, I bought everything I am going to read at some point: Shards and Shadows, A Singular Destiny, Over a Torrent Sea, Full Circle, Open Secrets, Troublesome Minds, Losing the Peace, The Soul Key, The Never-Ending Sacrifice, The Romulan War, Unworthy, Synthesis, Precipice. I'm not interested in New Frontier.

Those I've read are Empathy from Shards and Shadows, A Singular Destiny, Troublesome Minds, and The Romulan War.
A singular Destiny is the one I can say was great. A needed overview after Destiny, and fun to see so many old and new faces. Good to see the Aventine and crew again.
I have little doubt that I will appreciate the Titan, Voyager and TNG entries.
Haven't read a single book in Vanguard or the DS9 relaunch yet, so I can't really say anything about those more than that they are on my to do-list.



3. And what specifically have you disliked in regards to the Trek book line of the last year or so? Any bad or disappointing novels?

I'm not very interested in the mirror universe in general, but I wanted to see what Christopher could do with it. Empathy was unfortunately rather forgettable. I don't think any of his strengths as an author had a chance to come through.

I have mixed feelings about Troublesome Minds. The plot and world building was interesting, but it has the same problem that I have with TOS in general. I can't pin point it, but there is a difference in the way that serialized books are written compared to the self contained and a prefer the former. That is why I look forward to reading Vanguard.

The Romulan War was good and I have no problems with the way the plot is unfolding, but as others have said, it is a little lacking in spirit. And I would like to see some more happening on the Enterprise itself.



4. Any new recurring trends or themes in the last 12 months have you noticed? Anything you've liked or disliked about them?

Well, obviously that we are post-Destiny. And I find it a rather interesting new landscape. Concerning the more critical voices above, I can understand your opposition to the decision of causing all this destruction, but not how it was portrayed. Sure, some characters couldn't handle thing so gracefully. But when they failed this time, many others stepped in, and together they did quite well. Isn't that one of the points of Star Trek, as well as humanism, that we can be stronger and better people, but recognizes that that doesn't always come naturally, and that we have to help each other to elevate all of us?



5. What editorial decisions and changes from the last 12-15 months have you like or disliked?

As I understand it, Palmieri had an approach to the book line that is more in line with how I prefer it, so it was sad to see him go. It is of course unfortunate that Clark had to go as well, but there is nothing else to do than look to the future, and from the bits of information we have got, Jamie Costas(is that right?) seems to have done some agreeable decisions.

Although I think there were a bit too much TOS this year, old as well as new, It is unfortunate that the JJ-novels were put on hold. I wanted to read at least some of them.



6. What changes would you like to see in the Trek book line? Be it production choices or story editorial decisions?

From what we have heard of 2011 so far, it sounds like we are in good hands; DTI shows that pocket continues to be bold enough to try more unconventional novel ideas, and we get new entries in Voyager and Vanguard. At least one new entry in Titan and TNG each would be fine.

And since it is the 10:th anniversary of Enterprise, a new Romulan War novel should be a given, and an anthology set during the series would be great.

 

[Trent Roman]

Or stop judging the novels by the back cover blurbs alone.

Covers, synopses, reviews and comments found online (word of mouth, minus the mouth). How else would one judge whether or not a piece of prospective entertainment is something worth the expense of time and money to purchase and consume, my cachinnating friend?

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[kkozoriz1]

I stopped following the DS9 relaunch after Warpath. The whole mirror universe story and the seemingly endless delay just killed my enthusiasm for it. Reading that the series will be doing a multi year jump to the future just sealed the deal for me. Which I really regret because up th that point I was really enjoying it.

vanguard has been great although it's been a little too heavy with the in-jokes and appearance of TOS related characters. Carol Marcus I could see but the chice of Admiral Nogura just left me cold. It makes the universe seem too small if half the people showing up know Jim Kirk. It's a new series, let it make it's on way. Having a shared universe doesn't mean that everything has to tie together.

Titan is on the edge for me. When it's firing on all cylinders it's great. When it's called back to service the multi-crossover of the year instead of being "Where no one has gone before" I lose interest. Titan should almost feel as alone as Voyager was. I'm giving it until they Typhon Pact. If they somehow end up back in the Federation or something similar I won't be continuing it.

Haven't picked up The Romulan War yet because the price difference between American and Canadian prices is too much. The currencies have been near par for a number of years and yet the books still command a premium I'm not prepared to pay for anything over a paperback.

Haven't been reading TNG or Voyager. No interest in Voyager and very little in TNG. Wish Worf had been left out of the crew. Would have liked to see him grow beyond rather than returning to the Enterprise again. Honestly, how often is he going to go back to that ship, with the movies and now the books.

 

[kkozoriz1]

I stopped following the DS9 relaunch after Warpath. The whole mirror universe story and the seemingly endless delay just killed my enthusiasm for it. Reading that the series will be doing a multi year jump to the future just sealed the deal for me. Which I really regret because up th that point I was really enjoying it.

vanguard has been great although it's been a little too heavy with the in-jokes and appearance of TOS related characters. Carol Marcus I could see but the chice of Admiral Nogura just left me cold. It makes the universe seem too small if half the people showing up know Jim Kirk. It's a new series, let it make it's on way. Having a shared universe doesn't mean that everything has to tie together.

Titan is on the edge for me. When it's firing on all cylinders it's great. When it's called back to service the multi-crossover of the year instead of being "Where no one has gone before" I lose interest. Titan should almost feel as alone as Voyager was. I'm giving it until they Typhon Pact. If they somehow end up back in the Federation or something similar I won't be continuing it.

Haven't picked up The Romulan War yet because the price difference between American and Canadian prices is too much. The currencies have been near par for a number of years and yet the books still command a premium I'm not prepared to pay for anything over a paperback.

Haven't been reading TNG or Voyager. No interest in Voyager and very little in TNG. Wish Worf had been left out of the crew. Would have liked to see him grow beyond rather than returning to the Enterprise again. Honestly, how often is he going to go back to that ship, with the movies and now the books.

 

[JD]

Yeah, but Worf was back on the ship in Nem. so they really had no choice. Although I actually do agree that him being back the Big E does seem like he's backtracking a bit. At least he is the XO in the books now, so he's not doing the exact same thing.

 

[William Leisner]

Since you are participating in the thread... I would like to see your thoughts on the questions that the original poster posed.

That would be interesting William.

Not dreaming of speaking for Bill, but while it might be interesting, surely it puts him in an invidious position, given he's one of the authors who is the subject of these discussions?

Oh, that's really a non-issue. The issue is the dozen-plus other books written by people I consider my friends and professional colleagues. It's simply not cool, IMO, to climb up on the internet soapbox and start dissing these guys and gals and their work in this kind of forum, whether directly or indirectly.

 

[pookha]

Ok, like I said before, I'll give you guys ASD, and LtP. But from what I remember the post-Destiny destruction really plays a very small role in the other books. The after effects of Destiny really play a very small in OATS, it's pretty much just the first few chapters, and once they get into the events on the planets it pretty much takes a back seat to the stuff going on there. This is even more true for Synthesis, which is pretty much unconnected to Destiny once they run into the story's new aliens. As for Full Circle, the first half of the book takes place years before Destiny and features plenty of Janeway, and once it does get into the post-Destiny timeframe it focuses on setting up the new crew(s) and mission which just happens to take place after Destiny.

actually the after affect of destiny runs all through "synthesis" because it colors how the crew of titan view the aliens they encounter during it.

there are a lot of mental and emotional scars both from destiny and previous encounters of the borg among the crew of titan.

now i did like how it was handled in synthesis .

 

[BillJ]

That would be interesting William.

Not dreaming of speaking for Bill, but while it might be interesting, surely it puts him in an invidious position, given he's one of the authors who is the subject of these discussions?

Oh, that's really a non-issue. The issue is the dozen-plus other books written by people I consider my friends and professional colleagues. It's simply not cool, IMO, to climb up on the internet soapbox and start dissing these guys and gals and their work in this kind of forum, whether directly or indirectly.

Can't say I'm not disappointed. Also can't say I'm suprised. I am suprised that you feel discussing what you think works and what you think doesn't work in broad strokes constitutes dissing your colleagues. Especially if the criticism is just how you honestly feel as a Trek fan.

Why exactly would you even be posting in a State of Star Trek Literature thread if you feel that your status excludes you from talking about the topic at hand?

 

[Mike_King]

Sorry if some of this is repeated, but here is my take:

1. How do you feel the Trek book line has done in the last 12-15 months?
Nice fresh arcs with the Typhon Pact and Romulan War (finally!) have kept me interested.

2. What specifically have you liked in regards to the entire Trek book line in that time? Any favorite novels?
Romulan War book was a good start to the story; both Vanguard novels were fantastic; really liked A Singular Destiny

3. And what specifically have you disliked in regards to the Trek book line of the last year or so? Any bad or disappointing novels?
DS9 jumping forward to get in line with Typhon Pact novels - I think there's more stories in there to tell before the Typhon Pact books.

4. Any new recurring trends or themes in the last 12 months have you noticed? Anything you've liked or disliked about them?
Nice to see some of the "others" get some tree time - Aventine, the new Department of Temporal Investigation novels (what a great idea), Vangaurd (need more!)

5. What editorial decisions and changes from the last 12-15 months have you like or disliked?
The timing of Inception and Children of Kings just always seemed odd to me. Even before the Abrams-verse versions were scrapped. It almost seemed like it went something like this - hey we have a couple of good TOS books, but we need to get them on the schedule before the Abrams-verse books - so lets push a couple of other things back after the summer and get these two books out there. Nothing bad to say about either book - Inception is still in my to read pile - but with those and the Saavik book, it just seemed the timing of these books didn't fit with the others Some great work is being done with Vanguard, the Romulan War and leading up to the Typhon Pact books - that's what I think should have been the early Spring books.

6. What changes would you like to see in the Trek book line? Be it production choices or story editorial decisions?
Do more with the Romulan War (yes, I'm a broken record) - this has so much potential.

 

[Christopher]

the new Department of Temporal Investigation novels (what a great idea)

Not novels, just one novel. No current plans for any more.

 

[LightningStorm]

1. How do you feel the Trek book line has done in the last 12-15 months?

Taking each book on their own I think things are doing OK, for the most part (of the ones I've managed to get around to reading) they've been good with one exception. But taken together as a line I've found my excitement for most of them to be waning greatly.

2. What specifically have you liked in regards to the entire Trek book line in that time? Any favorite novels?

Regarding the entire line, I can't say as anything in particular was all that good. I want to say that the building anticipation of the Typhon Pact and the potential cold war type scenario is a good thing, but of the past year only one book worked to build that up (A Singluar Destiny) all of the rest of the anticipation for it has come from discussions on the BBS rather than tidbits in the books themselves.

Specific novels I liked the most from the last year: A Singular Destiny, Open Secrets, The Never Ending Sacrifice, and Precipice. With the winner for Best Book being: Open Secrets.

3. And what specifically have you disliked in regards to the Trek book line of the last year or so? Any bad or disappointing novels?

Relating to my answer to number 2, I'd have to say the lack of anticipation of the Typhon Pact within the books themselves. Also, while I have no problem with the darker direction of Trek, I do agree that the various series seem to have lost their uniqueness due to being so heavily tied back to Destiny. And the way they are being made to be unique again feels artificial and forced. Titan (and all of the Luna-class ships) going back out to deep space to explore is IMO a mind-bogglingly bad idea and doesn't make a lick of sense. Voyager's mission, while much more believable also doesn't ring true to me given the level of devastation that took place in Destiny. And then there's the fact that the Voyager fleet is stocked with resources that could be used to help devastated worlds. I mean seriously, you sent out a huge fully staffed state-of-the-art medical ship that as of the start of the mission has nothing to do, when you have thousands of people dying and suffering right here at home?? Seriously? You also wasted several brand new slipstream drives on these ships on the off chance that an enemy (who was more devastated than you were) is still out there when you could have used all of those ships to send relief efforts to people right here at home faster and save thousands (millions? billions?) of lives that you KNOW need help. Someone needs to be impeached, or court-martialed, or thrown in jail as this just strikes me as criminally short-sighted.

As to specific books I didn't like: Over a Torrent Sea. I forced myself to get past the half-way point and tried to continue from there, but couldn't. I eventually put it down and don't plan to pick it up again. Given the greatness of Orion's Hounds, this was a huge disappointment for me.

4. Any new recurring trends or themes in the last 12 months have you noticed? Anything you've liked or disliked about them?

Kinda hard not to notice the Editorial Musical Chairs. Also the impact (or lack thereof) of the new movie. It feels like Pocket or somebody really fumbled the ball with this one. Movie comes out with next to nothing from Pocket alongside it (even if just a bunch of other TOS novels) then the next year (now) we get TOS overload where it seems out of place having prime-universe TOS books so bunched up together as some sort of movie audience grab and then an announcement and then subsequent cancellation of the books that actually do tie into the movie. Yes, clearly Pocket wasn't in on the cancellation but the whole ordeal still doesn't look good.

Now one thing that until this year seemed like a good trend but was apparently not a trend was that last year's schedule was EXTREMELY balanced with just about every series getting at least one book and most getting two. Which is funny because last year is a year I could have excused for being TOS heavy, what with the new TOS movie and all.

5. What editorial decisions and changes from the last 12-15 months have you like or disliked?

For this one my answer is the Voyager Relaunch. Both for like and dislike. I dislike the specific decisions made like going back to the DQ, not bringing Janeway back (hell killing her to begin with really), and even the whole B'Elanna/Miral secrecy. However while I dislike the decisions to go those routes, I am able to step back and say "OK, now that they are on this path that I'd rather them not be on, are they at least telling good and interesting stories on that path?" And the answer to that is an emphatic Yes. So they may not be where I'd prefer them but at least where they are can be enjoyable.

6. What changes would you like to see in the Trek book line? Be it production choices or story editorial decisions?

I'd like the Abrams-verse books to see the light of day.
I'd like Janeway to come back (I don't even care how).
I'd like to have a book or two that covers the 5-year jump for DS9.
I'd like Marco to come back to editing.
I'd like Peter David to stick to writing NF novels and not venture into other series.
I'd like to see a lot more Section 31 and/or Starfleet intelligence focused books with espionage and intrigue. Hopefully Typhon Pact will focus more in this area.

 

[PaulSimpson]

Not dreaming of speaking for Bill, but while it might be interesting, surely it puts him in an invidious position, given he's one of the authors who is the subject of these discussions?

Oh, that's really a non-issue. The issue is the dozen-plus other books written by people I consider my friends and professional colleagues. It's simply not cool, IMO, to climb up on the internet soapbox and start dissing these guys and gals and their work in this kind of forum, whether directly or indirectly.

Can't say I'm not disappointed. Also can't say I'm suprised. I am suprised that you feel discussing what you think works and what you think doesn't work in broad strokes constitutes dissing your colleagues. Especially if the criticism is just how you honestly feel as a Trek fan.

Why exactly would you even be posting in a State of Star Trek Literature thread if you feel that your status excludes you from talking about the topic at hand?

In the same way that I can - I haven't posted a full reply for the reason that Bill gave in his response to me, but you can respond to comments made by other people...

 

[Therin of Andor]

but the chice of Admiral Nogura just left me cold. It makes the universe seem too small if half the people showing up know Jim Kirk. It's a new series, let it make it's on way.

And, of course, if they had chosen to use Admiral Noname, someone would be saying, "Hey, why didn't the authors have some balls and take the opportunity to use an admiral we barely know from TOS and expand upon him instead of wasting the position on someone totally new?"

 

[Stevil2001]

but the chice of Admiral Nogura just left me cold. It makes the universe seem too small if half the people showing up know Jim Kirk. It's a new series, let it make it's on way.

And, of course, if they had chosen to use Admiral Noname, someone would be saying, "Hey, why didn't the authors have some balls and take the opportunity to use an admiral we barely know from TOS and expand upon him instead of wasting the position on someone totally new?"

This strikes me as about unlikely a reaction as you could get.

 

[Lonemagpie]

but the chice of Admiral Nogura just left me cold. It makes the universe seem too small if half the people showing up know Jim Kirk. It's a new series, let it make it's on way.

And, of course, if they had chosen to use Admiral Noname, someone would be saying, "Hey, why didn't the authors have some balls and take the opportunity to use an admiral we barely know from TOS and expand upon him instead of wasting the position on someone totally new?"

This strikes me as about unlikely a reaction as you could get.

Having spent nearly 20 years writing tie-ins, actually that is *exactly* the reaction you get. From editors as well as readers...

 

[Steve Roby]

On the issue of why there are so many more Star Wars books than Star Trek books in bookstores, the explanation is simple. Star Wars is more popular. Way more popular. The other half of the puzzle: Star Trek was at its peak of mass popularity nearly fifteen years ago, and until the Abrams movie, it was declining steadily. What more explanation does anyone need?

 

[Christopher]

but the chice of Admiral Nogura just left me cold. It makes the universe seem too small if half the people showing up know Jim Kirk.

But as of TMP, Nogura is the commanding admiral of the entire Starfleet. So it stands to reason that he'd know every flag officer, including Kirk. And hey, Nogura had to be somewhere before he attained that post. Why not Vanguard, which is surely one of the most important places in the quadrant as of the 2260s?

Besides, Nogura is a character who was peripherally referenced in one movie and never even seen onscreen. It's not like he was Kirk's bosom chum who served alongside him for 15 years or something. So it's not really that much of a coincidence. More like Six Degrees of Separation.

And coincidences do happen. I've sold four novelettes to Analog magazine, and I happen to live just a block away from the house where the editor of Analog used to live decades ago.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Having spent nearly 20 years writing tie-ins, actually that is *exactly* the reaction you get. From editors as well as readers...

Thank you. And, I'm sure it's already been made here several times, too, IIRC, just not necessarily with Nogura and "Vanguard".

This strikes me as about unlikely a reaction as you could get.

You're new here, aren't you?

 

[Dayton Ward]

For what it's worth, our original outline for Open Secrets featured an entirely new character to replace Reyes, and it was suggested that we replace that character with Nogura. We even had the "small-universe syndrome" discussion, but ultimately decided it would be more fun to flesh out to this character that everybody's heard of, yet has only been seen once or twice, and his characterization has never been consistent from appearance to appearance.

So, as you can see, David's observation on the writing (and editing) of tie-ins is pretty much spot on.

 

[Therin of Andor]

For what it's worth, our original outline for Open Secrets featured an entirely new character to replace Reyes, and it was suggested that we replace that character with Nogura. We even had the "small-universe syndrome" discussion, but ultimately decided it would be more fun to flesh out to this character that everybody's heard of, yet has only been seen once or twice...

V