Just got my copy. There are definite advantages to having a Barnes and Noble member card...
Star Trek Federation: The First 150 Years
- Thread starter F. King Daniel
- Start date
Here's an article on the book - featuring a very serious-sounding quote from me
http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCABRE8AT1C620121130
http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCABRE8AT1C620121130
I'm pleased that (so far) the response to this book has been favorable. I've been a fan of ST since I was 5 years old, watching it on the tube with my parents (1974 or so). I almost always overly research the projects I'm working on and I did so more on this project than any other. Being told (that) I was going to be illustrating things that had never been seen before in the ST universe was (about) 80% thrilling and 20% nerve wracking. Going into a project like this, you know that it's going to be held under the microscope...as it should whenever something like this is created for passionate fans.
I was privy only to info pertaining to pages I was working on, so I can't wait to have my copy in hand, so I can absorb this beastly book as whole! I look forward to hearing more thoughts on this book after it's release.
I was privy only to info pertaining to pages I was working on, so I can't wait to have my copy in hand, so I can absorb this beastly book as whole! I look forward to hearing more thoughts on this book after it's release.
The artwork I've seen so far in the previews and video on youtube is fantastic!
I really like the Enterprise painting of Archer and the vulcans and Andorians that's shown on the youtube video.
I can't wait to get my hands on one of these! I watched Larry Nemeck's video preview and it looks to be something special.
Doctor Who has a similar book series called 'The Brilliant Book' with lots of 'in universe' things. AND we get an audio reprisal of George Takei as Admiral Sulu!
I wonder if they're considering a follow up? Is it cheeky of me to ask before seeing the first one?!
There'll be so much to cover - Q, the Borg, tonnes more First Contacts, Reunification, DS9, Dominion War, Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, Shinzon etc.... 
Doctor Who has a similar book series called 'The Brilliant Book' with lots of 'in universe' things. AND we get an audio reprisal of George Takei as Admiral Sulu!
I wonder if they're considering a follow up? Is it cheeky of me to ask before seeing the first one?!
There'll be so much to cover - Q, the Borg, tonnes more First Contacts, Reunification, DS9, Dominion War, Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, Shinzon etc.... The video preview was inspiring. It was very surreal (for me) to watch. At the end, George Takei's voice might as well of said, "Welcome aboard, Mark." because that's what I felt like. The wonderful weight of able to contribute, even a little bit, to Star Trek cannon is not lost upon me.
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I'm sure all of that will depend upon how well this book does.I wonder if they're considering a follow up? Is it cheeky of me to ask before seeing the first one?!
In all honesty, I blame the Beastie Boys.
I didn't buy the Star Trek Vault book a while back. But will be getting this, somehow... if only because there should be more illustrated reference books like it. Even with online resources, the book seems like a great idea to me - depicting speculative events before and between different incarnations of the show.
It would be nice if it somehow ties in with the Enterprise books, including Christopher's one in the works. But I'm assuming David Goodman (while a contributor like Mike Sussman) probably hasn't read them and its authors not had access to his thoughts. Although I know they certainly conferred with Manny Coto when undoing a certain character's demise in the finale. It doesn't matter too much and hopefully they'll be wiggle room enough to fit the two together. Both are going for the same end points, I'd imagine. The tougher bits to reconcile, would be if they've really gone to town on showing us what the uniforms and starships look like immediately after 2161. Since that's what "The Rise of the Federation" is describing.
It would be nice if it somehow ties in with the Enterprise books, including Christopher's one in the works. But I'm assuming David Goodman (while a contributor like Mike Sussman) probably hasn't read them and its authors not had access to his thoughts. Although I know they certainly conferred with Manny Coto when undoing a certain character's demise in the finale. It doesn't matter too much and hopefully they'll be wiggle room enough to fit the two together. Both are going for the same end points, I'd imagine. The tougher bits to reconcile, would be if they've really gone to town on showing us what the uniforms and starships look like immediately after 2161. Since that's what "The Rise of the Federation" is describing.
Just from the previews I've seen, it's clear this book and the novel continuity are taking different approaches. (There's a page with Bryce Shumar commanding the Intrepid during the Romulan War, when the books establish that he's already in command of the Essex by that point.) And as I've said, I don't see the need to force them together. Star Trek tie-ins over the decades have routinely offered multiple interpretations of offscreen events, and that makes them a richer experience than if you had to settle for just one version of how a given event might have unfolded.
Virtually everything he posts sounds like it could have come from Sheldon Cooper's lips.
This may be the first negative review of this book, but for $100 I expect more book than we get in this package. Star Trek Vault and Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History (which both have $40.00 price tags) offer a LOT more than we get here. The talking pedestal might add another $10 in value to this package, which means this thing is just about 100% overpriced. Very disappointed.
^Wheras, the UK Amazon price has gone up, from £49 to £67
There will be a test on caviar with every purchase to ensure all who do are sufficiantly rich
There will be a test on caviar with every purchase to ensure all who do are sufficiantly rich
Since Trek reference books are few and far between these days (attributed to lackluster sales, if I recall) then I don't mind paying a little extra for this book. It's a very handsome volume, and while the pedestal is a gimmick, it would suit the decor of a Trek collector, although it really shouldn't be a 24th century style LCARS interface, but hey, maybe Memory Alpha was the first Federation organization to use that particular OS!)
Further, the retail price is almost never what is being charged, and for those who wait, you may find these discounted further in it's life cycle. Perhaps without the pedestal. But I believe this book is an Amazon exclusive, so unlikely to find in a store reduced somehwere like all DK visual guides seem to go the route of.
I have really enjoyed the book, and would gladly pay for another volume that covers the next 75 years or so (up to 2386, which should cover most of non-JJ Trek TV and movies, but might be just shy of the Hobus supernova, I think)
And while I have to say I appreciate the effort put forth in The Romulan War books to weave in all the little bits of Romulan War info put forth in the various Trek tv/movie productions (including TOS lore that is hard to rectify, such as no warp drive for Roumlan ships) the Federation book created a more believable (but different) summary of the events, even if they just flat out ignored/contradicted a few "canon facts". Since Trek itself has taken liberties with it's own established continuity, I can accept it without crying foul.
There's plenty of "easter eggs" or continuity porn here too, but since the book represents a broad history rather than the more detailed storytelling of a novel, they don't seem to stick out as much, but rather blend in more organically.
That said, I'm most interested in "The Rise of the Federation" next year, in the hopes that it further fleshes out early Fed history in an exciting way.
Further, the retail price is almost never what is being charged, and for those who wait, you may find these discounted further in it's life cycle. Perhaps without the pedestal. But I believe this book is an Amazon exclusive, so unlikely to find in a store reduced somehwere like all DK visual guides seem to go the route of.
I have really enjoyed the book, and would gladly pay for another volume that covers the next 75 years or so (up to 2386, which should cover most of non-JJ Trek TV and movies, but might be just shy of the Hobus supernova, I think)
And while I have to say I appreciate the effort put forth in The Romulan War books to weave in all the little bits of Romulan War info put forth in the various Trek tv/movie productions (including TOS lore that is hard to rectify, such as no warp drive for Roumlan ships) the Federation book created a more believable (but different) summary of the events, even if they just flat out ignored/contradicted a few "canon facts". Since Trek itself has taken liberties with it's own established continuity, I can accept it without crying foul.
There's plenty of "easter eggs" or continuity porn here too, but since the book represents a broad history rather than the more detailed storytelling of a novel, they don't seem to stick out as much, but rather blend in more organically.
That said, I'm most interested in "The Rise of the Federation" next year, in the hopes that it further fleshes out early Fed history in an exciting way.
By the time Hikaru Sulu is an admiral, maybe there would be LCARS interfaces. It's a 24th century presentation of old history, as would be any Part 2.
When the book was first announced, I was reminded of the Memory Alpha briefings on (from memory) Vejur, Khan, Spock's Resurrection, the Whale Probe, Sybok, etc, on the most recent movie DVDs.
Included in io9's gallery of pages is an afterword by the author supposedly added 75 years after it originally came out, i.e. 2386. And there are some extra materials that wouldn't have been known about at the original publication date, like a diagram of a joined Trill's anatomy. So it seems the conceit is that this is the 75th-anniversary re-release of a book from 2311.
Not in the US. I asked at a local Barnes & Noble, and they said they don't have it in the brick-and-mortar stores, but it is available for home delivery.
Not sure if "further" is the word, since from what you say, it sounds like F:TF150Y (or would that be F:TFCLY?) portrays a rather different version of history from what the ENT novels have shown. More like "differently," I guess. But in the novel format, I do have the room to explore that particular period in more depth, especially if there's more than one volume of ROTF.
Has anyone gotten theirs yet?
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