Mind Meld is one of the several novels that take place on the E-A soon after TUC even though TUC was supposed to be the last mission of that crew aboard the E-A.
News about early 2014 schedule
- Thread starter Defcon
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To be fair, Mind Meld actually explains that. The crew is on leave, awaiting their final orders (they're wondering if the ship will be repaired or scrapped) when she's placed on special diplomatic duty, reporting to Ambassador Sarek, for the duration of the novel. I think most of the post-TUC novels explain why the ship in still in service, which means you get this hodgepodge of decommissionings and recommisionings.
Well, the first three TOS hardcovers to come out after TUC were all set just after it, but each one handled it differently. Best Destiny started out with the ship heading for decommissioning, but the events of the novel led to that decision being reversed -- something I was amazed Carey was allowed to get away with in that era. Shadows on the Sun, conversely, had the ship coming in for decommissioning on schedule, in keeping with the end of the movie. But then Sarek completely ignored the end of the movie and had the ship still in service without any explanation.
Of the later post-TUC/pre-GEN books, Mind Meld is the only one where the crew is still serving together on the Enterprise. The Ashes of Eden shows the decommissioned E-A's destruction, and the ship doesn't appear in The Fearful Summons or The Last Roundup.
It seems like such a strange choice to set so many stories during this specific period. If you're so keen to tell a story with that Enterprise-A crew, what's wrong with a story set in 2292?
At the time, I think I was still viewing the novels as more interconnected, since I assumed the reversal from Best Destiny carried over into Sarek.
Wow I didn't realise that "Sarek" was post TUC but there it is on the back cover "After the events of STAR TREK VI:THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY". 
I suppose now thinking about it, it has Amanda dying and she was alive at least until TVH.
So this begs the questions that have already been asked:
1. Why are most TOS books set 5YM?
2. Why no Abrams Universe books?
3. Why are other Trek series books set after/before the TV series/movies (is that correct - I don't read them?)
Is the answer to 1. that there are people like me who mostly want 5YM, or because the timeline after the first 5YM is in debate?
Is the answer to 2. that Bad Robot wants to control the reboot universe :waves fits at Abrams:
I suppose now thinking about it, it has Amanda dying and she was alive at least until TVH. So this begs the questions that have already been asked:
1. Why are most TOS books set 5YM?
2. Why no Abrams Universe books?
3. Why are other Trek series books set after/before the TV series/movies (is that correct - I don't read them?)
Is the answer to 1. that there are people like me who mostly want 5YM, or because the timeline after the first 5YM is in debate?
Is the answer to 2. that Bad Robot wants to control the reboot universe :waves fits at Abrams:
These were the first three once-a-year hardcovers that came out after TUC, as I said. The hardcover format meant they were higher-profile, and maybe it was considered appropriate for them to be "current" -- similarly to how the DC comics mostly kept current with the films' timeframe.
Or maybe it's that Diane Carey, Mike Friedman, and Ann Crispin all independently felt they had one more story to tell after the "final adventure." Evidently Christie Golden had the same desire when she later wrote The Last Roundup.
As for The Fearful Summons, that book was written for one specific reason: to recycle the abandoned "Kirk reassembles the crew" sequence that was supposed to open TUC. So it had to be set in a time when the crew had gone their separate ways.
As for The Ashes of Eden, Shatner tended to base his Kirk novels on where he was in his own life, so naturally he set his story after Kirk's retirement.
As for Mind Meld, I have no idea why it was set there instead of between TFF & TUC.
Which would've been easier to buy if Shadows on the Sun hadn't come out between them.
Although it's easy enough to assume the books take place out of publication order -- say, the events of Best Destiny cause a temporary postponement of the decommissioning, then Sarek and Mind Meld happen, then the decommissioning goes ahead after all and Shadows on the Sun happens, followed by The Last Roundup and The Ashes of Eden. That's how the chronology in Voyages of the Imagination does it, anyway.
So this begs the questions that have already been asked:
1. Why are most TOS books set 5YM?
2. Why no Abrams Universe books?
3. Why are other Trek series books set after/before the TV series/movies (is that correct - I don't read them?)
Is the answer to 1. that there are people like me who mostly want 5YM, or because the timeline after the first 5YM is in debate?
Is the answer to 2. that Bad Robot wants to control the reboot universe :waves fits at Abrams:
1. Most TOS books are in the 5-year mission because that's the most popular setting. Apparently movie-era books don't sell as well -- though TWOK-era books are evidently a safer bet than TMP-era ones.
2. There have been Abramsverse books, the young-adult Starfleet Academy novels, though there don't seem to be any more of those coming up. Otherwise, Bad Robot seems content to focus on comics and video games.
3. The books based on the shows other than TOS tend to be set after the series because there's more storytelling freedom, since characters can grow and change. Particularly for something like DS9, which was heavily serialized, there's not as much room to fit in stories during the series. But TOS was always a more episodic series and so standalone stories that put everything back in the box at the end seem to be better-received by TOS fans.
Plus, the later series were left open-ended so there's more future to explore, as opposed to the TOS characters whose futures were roughly charted over the course of the movies--and where we already know the future of the Federation up to the TNG era.
Granted, there are still nooks and crannies in the 23rd Century left to explore, but it's not like the 24th Century where you can keep on going without bumping into the pre-established continuity of the Next Next Generation!
I think that last may have come from John Ordover rather than Christie Golden, as The Last Roundup was originally announced as a trilogy by Diane Carey (books #98 - 100).
^Oh yes, that's right, I remember now. It was supposed to be the conclusion of the numbered-novel era, finishing it off with #100, so I guess the idea was to make it the (latest) final adventure of the full original cast. But when the plans with Carey didn't work out, they turned it into a non-numbered hardcover instead -- probably because they'd lost time by having to restart, and one book took less time than three.
It was just one thing that sprang to mind from the many 'issues'.
Yes, Spock does occasionally exhibit emotion, but this smile was a very ordinary thing without the slightest hint that it may have been in any way unusual.
Not the biggest issue with a thoroughly rotten book...
Probably won't be an early 2014 release, but it seems as if yet another eBook novella is coming. Scott Pearson tweeted the following today:
And one from Block & Erdmann!
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=223018
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=223018
Why not? Paula Block was around Trek fanfic before most of us. One of her old fanfics (from the print zine Menagerie #14) was republished in the first "Strange New Worlds" collection, when she was one of the judges.
http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Controlled_Gene_Kelly's_Feet
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Controlled_Gene_Kelly's_Feet
Why not?
Maybe because posting a link to a thread you just created in another threads stinks of processed meat that comes in a tin and has it's own museum dedicated to it.
Maybe because posting a link to a thread you just created in another threads stinks of processed meat that comes in a tin and has it's own museum dedicated to it.
Oh for goodness sake. I thought people in this 2014 schedule thread might have missed the post I just made elsewhere, so I added a link.
If trying to be helpful is "spam", then I'm guilty. Tell it to the Moderators. Forget it, I'll report myself. Do you want me banned for a few weeks or permabanned?
No need to be so melodramatic, if you wish to report yourself, go ahead.
As for posting in here and making a thread, maybe if you had left it a day or two to see how the thread panned out, you may have a point, leaving it a matter of minutes, nah, doesn't wash really does it.
As for posting in here and making a thread, maybe if you had left it a day or two to see how the thread panned out, you may have a point, leaving it a matter of minutes, nah, doesn't wash really does it.
It's stating to look like we might have a monthly e-book series of novellas again, starting next year.
How long have you been a Mod here?
It's not a case of "how the thread pans out"? At all. I was attempting to notify people who might be interested and, in the past, people have objected to links back to Facebook pages. In the past you have objected to me repeating the text of a post. (I thought linking to a thread, instead, might be more appropriate. If I hadn't done it, someone else would have, and I'd be admonished for starting a new thread instead of putting it in the 2014 thread.)
But is it really your business to keep me on the straight and narrow?
