They haven't said "postponed" either.
As I said, the term used by the then-editor was "for now", IIRC, which still sounds more like "on hiatus" or "postponed" than outright "cancelled". I was careful
not to say "postponed". The only term used here
by an editor was "for now".
Which isn't a promise that they will be published -- just an acknowledgment that things were still somewhat indefinite at the point that press release was issued. But that was four years ago, and the books are still nowhere to be seen, nor has there been any effort to develop any alternative Abramsverse prose tie-ins other than the YA books. I think by this point it's wise to stop holding your breath.
I've told you over and over again that continuity and "story difficulties" are not the issue.
By continuing to state that, you realise you only
increase the mystery.
Which is exactly the point: that you don't know enough about the situation to make any assumptions about what the reasons are for the cancellation or what might happen in the future. The wisest and most honest answer to give anyone who asks those questions is "I don't know."
Huh? No, to order four sets of extensive revisions at the point where the novels were being set aside would have been impossible before the second film's script had even been finalized.
Again:
That was four years ago. There would've been plenty of time over the past year or two to revise the books, or replace them with new books, and get them on shelves as a tie-in for
Into Darkness, just like IDW did with the comics.
For Orci & Kurtzman to provide a list of areas that were off-limits for tie-ins would have breached the secrecy Bad Robot was enjoying spinning about the plot and antagonist of STiD.
Not true. That didn't stop Orci from keeping the IDW comics consistent with the film. And he wouldn't have had to breach confidentiality about the villain just to tell us what subjects to avoid. This is routine for any tie-ins to ongoing series. Marvel and Lucasfilm faced the same issues decades ago with the original
Star Wars comics. Lucasfilm told Marvel to avoid telling stories about certain subject areas, like confrontations between Luke and Vader, or advancing the Luke-Leia relationship. They didn't have to breach any confidences, just give broad guidelines about what topics to avoid. These are easy matters to deal with and don't require cancelling tie-in lines.
I thought you were the one who once talked about one thin comic manuscript per month being easier/faster to oversee than four thick novel manuscripts while Orci & Kurtzman were absorbed with the writing of the movie?
I don't remember if I said that, but for one thing, they finished writing the movie well over a year ago. For another thing, the novels weren't that thick, only about 80,000 words apiece. For another thing, they've put out over two dozen Abramsverse comics by this point, which is probably a comparable amount of verbiage to three or four novels. Even if I did say that before, even if it was true at the time I said it, enough time has passed that it no longer applies.
I wasn't assuming inevitability. I thought I carefully worded that I thought that "it's reasonable to expect" that four bought and paid for novels will eventually get published once the trilogy has been completed.
Which is still wrong. It is not reasonable to
expect that at all, for the reasons I've explained. It would be far safer to expect that they
won't be published. I'd like it if they were someday, but I'm not holding my breath, and neither should you.
I doubt the accountants are losing sleep over a loss sustained four years ago on a measly four mass-market paperbacks.
Well, if the pay is only "measly", then I guess you're right. Maybe those accountants got fired when they let Marco and Margaret go?
It's a matter of proportion. We're talking about a huge publishing company that puts out hundreds of books a year. The entire
Star Trek line is just a minor fraction of Simon & Schuster's total business. All businesses sustain losses in various ways. But they're often willing to eat those losses so long as they make enough total profit to offset them.
You hear that, Lt. Cheka Wey?: I was wrong and the novels might never come out after all!
I wish you wouldn't take this so personally. Pointing out the facts is not a personal attack, just an attempt to clarify things. There's no shame in being wrong -- only in being too stubborn to admit and correct it.
Reading between the lines of what Christopher's saying here, it sounds like the issue is really with Bad Robot.
I'm not saying that. I have no idea whether that's the case, and I'm not trying to blame anyone.
Now, it's possible that I'm misreading what Christopher is trying to say without saying directly, in which case none of these will apply.
I honestly don't know enough to say anything for sure about the real reasons for the cancellation. Mainly what I'm saying is that it's best not to speculate, because whatever guesses you make are likely to be wrong. And I'm saying, specifically, that it's not true that the books have only been postponed for continuity reasons; if that were the only problem, it could easily have been overcome by now. And I'm saying, don't hold your breath. It's not impossible that the books could be resurrected someday, but for now it's safer to assume they won't.
