STAR TREK BADLANDS

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by timothy, Mar 28, 2011.

  1. timothy

    timothy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    susan wright's duolgy is it worth reading ?
    :confused::confused::confused:
     
  2. shanejayell

    shanejayell Captain Captain

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    I didn't really like it, honestly. It was very predictable, and because each chapter was a flashback, there was no feeling of jeopardy in the emergencies they were dealing with.
     
  3. timothy

    timothy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    is this the same author who did dark pasions dulolgy ?
     
  4. shanejayell

    shanejayell Captain Captain

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    I didn't read Dark Passions, so I dunno.

    (The title 'Dark Passions' amuses me. It sounds like a soap opera.)
     
  5. Dancing Doctor

    Dancing Doctor Admiral Admiral

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    Yes, Susan Wright is the one who also wrote the Dark Passions duology (which, in my opinion, deserves a follow-up. I really enjoyed those two books).

    And I thought the Badlands duology was okay. I do agree with shanejayell about the predictability and lack of jeopardy.
     
  6. T'Ressa Dax

    T'Ressa Dax Captain Captain

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    It's been so long that I barely remember. I think they were okay.
     
  7. ProwlAlpha

    ProwlAlpha Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I thought Badlands was terrible and Dark Passions was okay due to the lesbianism.
     
  8. Turbo

    Turbo Changeling Premium Member

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    I actually liked Badlands. For once, a generation-spanning story actually had a good method of tying TOS to the modern series. The TNG segment was rather weak, though, and the VOY segment would have been better if it had just focused on the Maquis. The TOS and DS9 segments were both pretty good.
     
  9. Janos

    Janos Commander Red Shirt

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    When does the DS9 component happen? Before the end of the TV series?

    I believe the Voyager one is pre-TV series.

    TNG & TOS components happens when?

    Is this duology as reviled as the last few posts?
     
  10. James T. Vader

    James T. Vader Lieutenant

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    I started reading it, Kirk was in Sickbay and TOUCHED HIS COMBADGE. I was done. If you are that clumsy i don't want to keep going
     
  11. TJ Sinclair

    TJ Sinclair Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    ^Yeah, that's a typical error of Susan Wright's work, honestly. Beyond those kinds of lack-of-attention-to-detail issues, her plots are generally weak, her characters wooden, and her prose is mind-numbingly bland at best and completely asinine at worst.

    Nothing she's ever written is worth reading. I gave it several tries, including her Voyager novel Violations, the TOS Gateways book One Small Step and Starfleet Academy: The Best and the Brightest, and yes, The Badlands. Every single one of them is a complete and utter nightmare. She's, IMO, the worst Trek novelist in history.
     
  12. bfollowell

    bfollowell Captain Captain

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    I've never read any of her work other than the Dark Passions duology, but that was more than enough for me. To me, it was some of the worst TrekLit that I've ever read. When I look at some of the other non-Trek novels that she's written, I have to ask myself, who the heck thought she might be a good fit for TrekLit?!

    Just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

    - Byron
     
  13. James T. Vader

    James T. Vader Lieutenant

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    You mean, "Hi I'km Susan WRight and I"m Bi-Sexual, therefore EVERY FEMALE IN THIS BOOK WILL BE TOO?"

    Those books were the worst.
     
  14. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Fifth season, shortly before "In Purgatory's Shadow" (i.e. the time when Bashir had been replaced by a Changeling).


    Right. Both it and the VGR installment of the similar The Brave and the Bold crossover duology are crammed into the brief period between Janeway getting command of Voyager and the ship getting lost in the Badlands. (I believe the B&tB one is chronologically first.)


    As far as I recall or can determine, the TOS installment is your typical late-5-year-mission setting, while the TNG is sometime in the 5th season of that show, about three years before the VGR portion and five years before the DS9 portion.
     
  15. Csalem

    Csalem Commodore Commodore

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    These were one of the earliest Trek books I bought and enjoyed them at the time but now all I can remember about the TNG portion was Riker being shaved by Deanna...
     
  16. bullethead

    bullethead Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    At least it was appropriate for the Mirror Universe, because apparently every woman was bisexual there.
    Yeah, B&tB was first because it was Tuvok infiltrating the Maquis several weeks to a month before the events of Caretaker, then Badlands was Voyager leaving DS9 and getting to the Badlands before getting wisked away. IIRC, Evek committed suicide in Badlands, but I don't know if the rest of Trek Lit ever mentioned that.
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^Evek is still alive post-DS9 in A Stitch in Time, so The Badlands evidently doesn't fit into the main novel continuity.

    And yes, Dark Passions is the only Susan Wright Trek work I know of with multiple bisexual female characters. Wright did pioneer the portrayal of LGBT relationships in Trek Lit with Jayme and Starsha in The Best and the Brightest, though back then it had to be kept subtle and implicit; but I can't recall any instances in Wright's other Trek Lit. Although of course many other authors of various genders and orientations have included LGBT characters and couples in their work since then, which is just a natural part of representing human diversity as Star Trek is supposed to do.