ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoilers!)

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Sho, May 14, 2013.

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Rate Star Trek Into Darkness.

  1. Outstanding

    5 vote(s)
    31.3%
  2. Above Average

    4 vote(s)
    25.0%
  3. Average

    6 vote(s)
    37.5%
  4. Below Average

    1 vote(s)
    6.3%
  5. Poor

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. Sho

    Sho Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    [​IMG]

    As was the case with the first feature release of J.J. Abram's Trek reboot, the official novelization of Star Trek Into Darkness has been penned by Alan Dean Foster. It's scheduled for release on May 21st.

    The blurb already provides some bits of information not in the movie AFAIR (dating the story relative to the 2009 movie's, hinting at the backstory of Kronos):

    Simon & Schuster seems to no longer provide excerpts since their website redesign went live, but Amazon.com has a "Click to look inside" feature for this one already: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/147671648X/

    Side note: I've chosen to go with "ALT" as the label for alternate reality releases for now.
     
  2. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    Is "ALT" really necessary? I can't imagine anyone on this board that doesn't know the Star Trek 2009/Star Trek Into Darkness background?
     
  3. Kertrats47

    Kertrats47 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    ^ Well, it's not exactly "TOS"... "ALT" works as well as anything else, I think. "NST" for "New Star Trek" maybe?

    Eh, I think "ALT" is fine.
     
  4. Sho

    Sho Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    It's probably not really necessary in this case, but all the other standard review threads (literally all of them, because we went through the backlog and renamed them) carry a label like that, and we might well see non-novelization novels set in the alternate reality at some point. It also means you can easily get a list of review threads ordered by the branch of the franchise they pertain to by sorting my little ranking table alphabetically by the title column.

    Chalk it up to a slightly obsessive sense of order maybe? :)
     
  5. shanejayell

    shanejayell Captain Captain

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    I'll probably wait until this hits the library. The last movie book was pretty bleh...
     
  6. Relayer1

    Relayer1 Admiral Admiral

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    Wow, its £13 - nearly $20 !

    Pretty much every movie adaptation ends up remaindered in 'The Works' after a month or so. I'll pick one up for £1.50 then...
     
  7. xortex

    xortex Commodore Commodore

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile



    Kinda reminds me of that scene from Planet of the Apes where the astronaut is erecting a small United States flag.
    :guffaw:
     
  8. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    I was just able to download this onto my Kindle. :techman:
     
  9. Kertrats47

    Kertrats47 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    Just posted my review. My analysis kind of devolves into a discussion of novelizations in general rather than this one in particular, just so you're forewarned!
     
  10. Relayer1

    Relayer1 Admiral Admiral

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    Is there anything 'extra' in it, or don't adaptations do that anymore ?
     
  11. Kertrats47

    Kertrats47 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    Maybe a couple of lines of dialogue here and there, but not really. There were no extra "scenes" that I could discern, at any rate. Others, please feel free to correct me on this if I'm wrong.
     
    Oz Trekkie likes this.
  12. ATimson

    ATimson Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    More than a few extra lines of dialogue - for example, the novelization "explained" that Harrison really beamed up to a ship in orbit with the portable device, then went to Qo'noS. I noticed a number of other expansions as well, that seemed to be "made for the page" rather than cut material.

    But yes, I don't remember there being any extra scenes.
     
  13. Kertrats47

    Kertrats47 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    Ah, right! I forgot about that one. Although it still indicated that he used transwarp beaming from the ship, but that it used all of the power of that ship if I recall correctly. That made more sense to me than what we saw in the film.
     
  14. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    From your review:
    It's more likely that Foster just didn't know what things would look like, just what was described in the script. Maybe he could've gotten some reference photos for certain things upon request, but given how secretive Bad Robot is about its movies, a lot might have been off-limits.

    As for the idea that most readers of the novelization would've already seen the film, that might be true today, but I think the original reason for novelizations was to make the story available to people who hadn't seen the film. Back in the days before home video and Netflix, many people might never have gotten to see a movie if they missed it in the theater, unless they caught it rerun on TV sometime. That's also probably why past novelizations were freer to take liberties with the films' stories: because they were designed to work as standalone books for readers who had nothing else to compare them to, and thus the writers' decisions were based on what would make the best book rather than what would be faithful to the screen version.

    Then again, I grew up in the days when movies tended to stay in theatrical release for months, even a year or more. And novelizations often came out before the movies they were based on, as for instance with the Star Wars novelization (also by Foster, though published under Lucas's name). I think the idea was that if people liked the novel, it might make them want to see the movie version. (Or maybe it was to blur the line between original movies and movies based on books, since the latter might have had more prestige.) And we were more a family of readers than moviegoers. So it was pretty normal for me to read the novelization first, sometimes more than once, before I finally got around to seeing the actual movie, whether in the theater or when it eventually showed up on TV.
     
  15. Kertrats47

    Kertrats47 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    Actually,

    The above is from Startrek.com's interview with Alan Dean Foster, found here.
     
  16. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    ^Ahh, okay. Interesting. As he says, that's pretty unusual for novelizations.
     
  17. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    It's more than unusual. It's practically unheard-of.

    I've written or edited over a dozen movie novelizations and the author never saw the movie first, aside from maybe an advance peek at trailer.
     
  18. Sto-Vo-Kory

    Sto-Vo-Kory Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    The extra bits also include an explanation of Carol Marcus' accent, why McCoy didn't just draw blood from one of the other augments, a completely different "super ice cube" solution for the super volcano, extra info on how their torpedo switcheroo actually worked, and a wildly different take (in my opinion) of the private scene between A. Marcus and Kirk in the first half of the movie.

    What we didn't get in the book was any new information on the aliens or new crew members*. I think a crew member is identified as Bradley and some of the Captains and ships are IDed in the emergency meeting at Starfleet HQ, but that's about it. Also still no reason given why Carol Marcus needed to change her clothes in a shuttle craft while speaking with Kirk.

    I think Foster did a much better job with this novelization than the previous film's. It felt much more substantial and polished.


    *Keenser is identified as a Roylan, but I couldn't remember if this information was given in the previous novelization or revealed here. Also unsure if it matches the name given in his origin story in the comic series either.
     
  19. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    I felt the reason was clear enough in the film; she was changing into a flight suit and time was of the essence. Maybe not the best reason, but I understood what the reason was supposed to be.


    The name of the Roylan species was first established in Star Trek Ongoing issue 14, which tells Keenser's origins in flashback.
     
  20. Enterpriserules

    Enterpriserules Commodore Commodore

    Re: ALT: Star Trek Into Darkness by A. D. Foster Review Thread (Spoile

    There might not be any extra scenes, but this book does let every scene in the film breathe more. Each conversation has much more too it and therefore provides the reader with a richer and fuller story understanding than what you get in the very fast paced movie. I love the film, but Foster's work here shows us that there are times when a little more conversation in key plot-point scenes adds to the movie immensely. JJ could learn to let the characters have more time to talk and scenes breathe so the plot makes sense more easily. Star Trek works best when characters have time to interact with each other and talk. :bolian: