What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write it?

[captcalhoun]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

Dale Brown.

not that da Vinci Code fuckwit.

Dale Brown is an ex-USAF bomber pilot who writes techno-thrillers in which test pilots from the secret High Technology Aerospace Weapons Centre at Groom Lake routinely save the world with their latest hi-tech mad modified bomber.

having him do something with some interstellar crisis and a maverick starship designer takes out a highly classified new starship and saves the day, doing the right thing, whilst breaking the rules and ignoring the asswipe politcians who command him but only care about political expediency could be fun.

 

[Hugh Cambridge]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

Lois Mc Master Bujold coud write a very good TOS book, Robert J Sawyer for a TNG one (he wrote a novel which looked like a Trek Novel and was good), Peter F. Hamilton, Aaron Allston.

Also, I saw on a website that Philip Jose Farmer did write one, I would have liked to read it if it is true.

 

[Relayer1]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

Case in point - RTD did a fabulous job as showrunner bringing back Dr Who, and for the most part wrote the characters very well but dropped the ball badly when it came to a lot of the sci-fi.

In what sense?

Off the top of my head - humanity 'X' million years in the future always looking pretty much like most thinkers reckon it would look like in the next century with tech to match, the Tardis towing the Earth and numerous others...

 

[Jarvisimo]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

While I'm not at all a fan of Mister Clancy's politics, his fiction was one of my inspirations when I wrote my first two novels, A Time to Kill and A Time to Heal.

Hm, I haven't read A Time To ... yet (scheduled for soon after Vanguard though, so at some point later this year). Could you elaborate on which aspects of Clancy's writing inspired you?

Also, Diane Carey was an outspoken political conservative (and now a politician with a libertarian bent), and she authored more than a few fairly influential and well-regarded Star Trek novels in her day.

Truth be told, I'll admit to frequently being proven wrong about just what views people can reconcile with a love for Star Trek. Just recently there was an interesting thread over in the TNG forum were some people were quite outspoken in favor of capital punishment, which I would have at least thought very unlikely in a Trek fan given how strongly and frequently it objects to the idea. I'd imagine if I had such views I'd be constantly annoyed and going "bah, humbug" watching it or something .

And the series which Duane loved the most was TOS was never more than essentially a conservative programme (even with its slight and often over-estimated racial depictions). It is thoroughly humanist mid-century, modernist depiction of the future, containing an almost colonial approach to the world-made-universe, and being couched in mid-century scientific awe (compared to the unrefined 1980s-90s postmodernity of TNG and - more particularly - DS9). And TOS also retains many of the conservative trappings of a wild west in space, though in this instance it is the military not the sheriff or gun-toting vigilante who are the heroes. I think Duane's books continue much of the militarism and intervensionism, but she then she contributed a wonderful non-humanist depiction of trek-verse as well.

 

[Jarvisimo]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

I've noticed that many of these authors, especially Clancy, & resultant suggested ideas are 'action'-focused. Yet many (though not all) critically acclaimed Trek episodes, such as The City on the Edge of Forever, The Measure of the Man, The Inner Light, Duet, The Visitor, In the Pale Moonlight, etc., do not have any action in them at all. Are there authors who would write more emotional or intellectual trek and whose dramatic foci would not be brought to bare through action (though they might use it well) but in the other narrative pursuits.

 

[Jarvisimo]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

Case in point - RTD did a fabulous job as showrunner bringing back Dr Who, and for the most part wrote the characters very well but dropped the ball badly when it came to a lot of the sci-fi.

In what sense?

Off the top of my head - humanity 'X' million years in the future always looking pretty much like most thinkers reckon it would look like in the next century with tech to match, the Tardis towing the Earth and numerous others...

RTD is definitely not a hard SF writer, yah? SF is not defined by being scientifically possible, surely. Many SF writers do not write hard SF, yet write good 'speculative' science fiction? [I say this not actually liking Dr Who that much]

Certainly Star Trek suffers from similar imaginative failure, by putting into the future almost unchanged the late-20th/early-21st century society, and (not that I am opposed to these) very American approaches to the world, including depicting the future with what are American political, legal & educational systems? RDM's BSG did the same, except in its gender depictions. Firefly tried not to, with its wonderful Chinese-English synthesis and essentially libertarian political beliefs (the other side of the western genre?), but was sabotaged by being a tv program that had to contain enough familiarity for its audience (and that was shot in America).

 

[Captain April]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

Bernard Cornwell could write something quite exciting I'm sure. Also Dan Abnett would provide a very action oriented story. Perhaps Dmitry Gluhkovsky, who wrote Metro 2033, might provide a different perspective on Star Trek. Ben Bova might also be a good choice, especially for a TOS novel.

 

[Christopher]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

Also, I saw on a website that Philip Jose Farmer did write one, I would have liked to read it if it is true.

Not quite -- IIRC, what happened was that he adapted one or two rejected TOS pitches into original works of fiction.

 

[Hugh Cambridge]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

^Do you know if they can be found somewhere ?

 

[Daddy Todd]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

He's been dead for 27 years, but I think I would've enjoyed a Star Trek novel (TOS, clearly) by A. Bertram Chandler. I'm a big fan of his "John Grimes" space operas, which were written between the late '50's and early '80's. He could have captured the essence of early TOS, which always seemed to have a postwar, almost anti-"beat" vibe. Long before became pure '60's cornball (Turd Season, I'm looking at you) the earliest episodes drew upon the wartime experiences of Roddenberry and other writers. Chandler could've done something interesting with that.

 

[Daddy Todd]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

^Do you know if they can be found somewhere ?

Just one that I know of: the short story "The Shadow of Space" was published in the November, 1967 issue of Worlds of IF. It was collected in Farmer's 1971 collection Down in the Black Gang.

Maybe the Phase II guys could adapt it back into an episode. That would be kinda cool.

 

[Hugh Cambridge]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

^Thanks, I will try to find this one

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

He's been dead for 27 years, but I think I would've enjoyed a Star Trek novel (TOS, clearly) by A. Bertram Chandler.

Ooh, that takes me back - I'd completely forgotten his very existence, but, now that you mention him, I know I read a bunch of them when was about 12 or so....

 

[Daddy Todd]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

I'd completely forgotten (Chandler's) very existence, but, now that you mention him, I know I read a bunch of them when was about 12 or so....

Baen is in the process of republishing the John Grimes novels as big TP omnibuses. They mostly hold up pretty well -- with the exception of a few howlers, like Spartan Planet and its sequel, The Last Amazon.

 

[Greg Cox]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

I'm on a James Rollins kick right now, and it occurs to me that he could probably do a seriously cool historical treasure hunt through the Star Trek universe, featuring intrepid amateur archaeologist Jean-Luc Picard . . . .

 

[Yevetha]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

L. Neil Smith:
Ralph Offenhouse's Quest for the Nagusship.

 

[Sci]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

L. Neil Smith:
Ralph Offenhouse's Quest for the Nagusship.

Wrong state. Offenhouse is serving as Federation Secretary of Commerce in President Bacco's administration. He's not a Ferengi, though I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out you can buy Ferengi citizenship.

 

[Yevetha]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out you can buy Ferengi citizenship.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[PKS8304]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

Orson Scott Card could write a decent series about Starfleet Academy or even a book about Wesley Crusher during his time there and after when he became a Traveler

 

[Jarvisimo]

Re: What authors (who do not write Trek lit) would you like to write i

Neil Gaiman in full allusive mode tackling Trek, writing it not in his pulp style (like 1602) but in the (admittedly aloof & demanding) literary manner that is typical of his literary works (and which compares with Wolfe).

Whether the lyrical and diffuse style of Sandman and its constant recourse to literature and history, or the more contemporarily fashioned discussions of American Gods, I wouldn't mind.