DS9 - 'Second Season Cliffhanger' by Diane Carey

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Kinggodzillak, Mar 29, 2020.

  1. Kinggodzillak

    Kinggodzillak Captain Captain

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    Browsing Trek book lots/bundles on Ebay, and found a DS9 collection of numbered novels and novelizations, including a book I've never seen before. 'Second Season Cliffhanger', by Diane Carey,

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    Is this an early version of The Search novelization, or a rare/foreign variant with bonus chapters at the start covering The Jem'Hadar? The Search is included in the lot too, but that book starts off with the DS9 crew running the battle simulations they mention at the start of The Search part 1; there's certainly nothing that could justify the snappy title of 'Second Season Cliffhanger' or the description 'novelization of the cliffhanger' if this is just The Search with a different cover.

    Can't find any mention of this book anywhere online, so...anyone have ideas what this is?
     
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  2. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The badges are on the wrong side. Cursed book.
     
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  3. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Are you sure those are legitimate images? I wondered if the cover might be photoshopped for some reason, though looking at the spine image, there is a bit of creasing visible on the title, suggesting it's for real. Hard to be sure, though.

    It looks like some sort of a placeholder cover mockup, though how it could've ended up on a released paperback is beyond me. Not to mention that if the novelization was actually written, edited, typeset, etc., they must have known the titles of the scripts it novelized before the book came out. So it makes no sense that a cover like this would exist.

    Another problem is that the second season didn't really have a cliffhanger. "The Jem'Hadar" did have an ominous ending that set up the next season's opening, yes, but it wasn't a cliffhanger in the truest sense. A cliffhanger is a pause at a moment of maximum peril and suspense within a single story (like Riker ordering "Fire" or Voyager's crew being stranded as the Kazon fly off in their ship); this was the end of the story, with the heroes rescued from their immediate peril, but with the warning of other perils to come in the future.
     
  4. Kinggodzillak

    Kinggodzillak Captain Captain

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    I cropped out the relevant section of the pictures from the listing. I'm guessing we can't post direct Ebay links here, but if you search 'Star Trek Deep Space Nine PPB Novels Saratoga Siege Tempest Emissary Lot of 27' you should see the bundle auction from 'brightlightbookseller', based in the US, which has the original pics of the full set. They're also offering TOS/TNG/VOY bundles too, so it looks to be a real book and the seller isn't aware they've got something rare there.

    Now I want to get hold of it even more, just in case it has a quick recap of The Jem'Hadar followed by 'TBA' and a lot of blank pages!
     
  5. hbquikcomjamesl

    hbquikcomjamesl Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I swear I've seen that cover before, and yet it isn't on any of the DS9 novels (I looked). Neither is it on the one DS9 nonfiction book I could see on my shelf.
     
  6. tgiokdi

    tgiokdi Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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  7. Dayton Ward

    Dayton Ward Word Pusher Rear Admiral

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    Holy crap that's hilarious. :rommie:
     
  8. Avro Arrow

    Avro Arrow Vice Admiral Moderator

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    That's bizarre! :lol: I'd be tempted to buy it just to see, but it would cost me C$95 to purchase and get it shipped here, so... no.

    As @tgiokdi mentioned, the cover is just this promotional cast photo:

    https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net...ision/latest?cb=20060920143431&path-prefix=en

    I'm wondering if it's maybe not an end-of-season cliffhanger? Was a novelization of, say, "The Maquis", parts I and II ever contracted, then cancelled? I also thought of maybe "The Homecoming" / "The Circle" / "The Siege", but the blurb refers to the cliffhanger and the conclusion, so that makes it sound like it's only a two-parter.

    If you do end up getting it, please share here what you find out! (I also wonder if it might be worthwhile to contact the seller to see if you can get a photo of the back cover?)
     
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  9. tgiokdi

    tgiokdi Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    @Kinggodzillak I'd be super interested in adding that to my site if you happen to win the auction!
     
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  10. Mysterion

    Mysterion Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It's very similar to the cover of the Emissary novelization - wonder if it came from the same photo shoot. Looks like the cast is in the same set location and this just a different pose.
     
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  11. tgiokdi

    tgiokdi Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Emissary looks like it's on the Promenade, maybe near the spot that Jake and Nog always dangled their feet, while this one looks like it's over by the transporters in ops, right by Dax's science station?

    https://www.startrekbookclub.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/31/2009/03/515BJs1KT3L._SL500_.jpg is the version I'm familiar with at least.
     
  12. Mysterion

    Mysterion Vice Admiral Admiral

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    You're right. And Kira's got a different hairstyle as well. Nevermind.
     
  13. KRAD

    KRAD Keith R.A. DeCandido Admiral

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    I've pinged John Ordover, who was one of the editors at S&S at the time, to see if he can shed any light on the subject.
     
  14. tgiokdi

    tgiokdi Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    My second small bet is this is an advanced reader copy.
     
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  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    If it were an ARC, it would say so on the front cover, including a "Not for Sale" warning.
     
  16. ATimson

    ATimson Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Could that dress be on the back cover instead of the front? I notice that there's no price on the spine either, so it doesn't seem likely to have been an edition meant for sale.
     
  17. Brendan Moody

    Brendan Moody Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I don’t think every paperback published in those days had the price on the spine. In the full photo of the book spines in this eBay lot, John Vornholt’s Antimatter doesn’t have a spine price either, probably because that many characters in a single word in the title didn’t leave room. Cliffhanger would create the same problem.
     
  18. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I doubt it, since publishers seem to consider it important to make that distinction.

    Plus there's still the anomaly that if the book was actually written, then surely the title of the adapted episodes was already known. All I can think is that maybe some early placeholder mockup cover got mixed up with the real cover somehow.
     
  19. hbquikcomjamesl

    hbquikcomjamesl Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    If so, then we could have the equivalent of the "Inverted Jenny" airmail stamp, that is almost beyond price.
     
  20. KRAD

    KRAD Keith R.A. DeCandido Admiral

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    Okay, according to John, who was the junior editor working under Kevin Ryan at the time, the powers-that-be at Simon & Schuster assumed that DS9 season 2 would end with a season-spanning cliffhanger, and the cover was solicited pending revelation of the title. Paramount kept insisting that they weren't doing a cliffhanger, but the cover was made anyhow and given the September slot, eventually replaced with the novelization of "The Search."

    John has no idea how that cover got on an actual book, since there were only solicitation cover flats done. It's possible that some copies of The Search had that cover put on it somehow -- or the eBay seller got his hands on a cover flat and wrapped it around another book.....