Any love for the Bantam books?

[Warped9]

Around 1971 not long after I discovered Gold Key Star Trek comics alongside the Batman comics I got from the corner variety store I discovered James Blish’s adaptations of the original episodes in a section of books at the corner drugstore. I was constantly on the watch for new volumes. The bonus was when I found Blish’s original novel Spock Must Die! which I’ve read several times since and it remains my favourite Star Trek novel. The ‘70s were a time of hunting out every one of the slowly released Bantam novels. And back then fullsize paperbacks ranged from only about 60 or 75 cents to about $1.25 or $1.50. We thought we were getting robbed when books began creeping up over $2.00! Today I still enjoy the scent that comes from flipping the pages of a new paperback book I’m engrossed in.

Looking back I recall one or two others besides Blish's novel being decent enough at the time. I'm wondering if it's worth hunting them out again since some of them were reissued not too long ago.

Any thoughts?

 

[Dayton Ward]

^ Yup. I still remember getting all giddy whenever the local Woolworth's had a new Blish adaptation or one of the other books on the spinner rack. Same with the old "Fotonovels."

 

[Warped9]

I don't think I ever had any of the photonovels--not sure why. I found the prose adaptations more interesting even without pictures.

Joe and Jack Haldeman each had at least one novel to their name but I'm blanking on the titles at the moment.

 

[Christopher]

Joe Haldeman wrote Planet of Judgment (one of the best of the Bantam series) and World Without End (not so much). Jack C. Haldeman II wrote Perry's Planet (not even close).

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I love Spock, Messiah! It's cheesy, trashy, smutty goodness. Also, the exclamation point in the title kicks it into the stratosphere.

 

[Warped9]

Joe Haldeman wrote Planet of Judgment (one of the best of the Bantam series)...

Yes, that's the one I'm thinking of. Thanks.

 

[captcalhoun]

i didn't think much of Planet of Judgement. for one think the constant references to them carrying 'ray guns' as well as phasers irritated the crap out of me.

 

[KRAD]

As a kid, my favorite of the Bantam books was David Gerrold's The Galactic Whirlpool. Rereading it more recently, I now recognize the self-indulgence, overwriting, and the constant grinding the plot to a halt for a lecture that my teenaged self missed.

It's still a nifty book, mind, but if I'd tried reading it for the first time in my 30s, I wouldn't have made it past the godawful first page.

 

[Christopher]

As a kid, my favorite of the Bantam books was David Gerrold's The Galactic Whirlpool. Rereading it more recently, I now recognize the self-indulgence, overwriting, and the constant grinding the plot to a halt for a lecture that my teenaged self missed.

It's my favorite too, in large part because of the self-indulgent overwriting and plot-halting digressions. I loved those little asides he threw in, filling in odd bits of humorous background on the universe. I was disappointed when I found Gerrold didn't do that sort of thing in his other novels.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I was constantly on the watch for new volumes. The bonus was when I found Blish’s original novel Spock Must Die! which I’ve read several times since and it remains my favourite Star Trek novel. The ‘70s were a time of hunting out every one of the slowly released Bantam novels.

As a new fan in 1980 discovering ST fandom via ST:TMP, the most frustrating thing about the Bantam ST novels was that there was no definitive list. The only way to know about titles you were missing was to read the little "Have you also read ______________?" messages inside.

I remember the day I celebrated in a poky little suburban newsagency (a drugstore without drugs) after finding "World Without End", which I hadn't even heard of. How frustrating and exciting it was to know that the treasure hunt must continue: each new find would carried another title inside, for which I now needed to go looking.

Every time I thought I'd completed my set, there was more out there! The Star Trek Welcommittee had no list available, so they mentioned "Books in Print". I went off to the NSW State Library and checked every volume from the 60s through to 1982, finally satisfying myself I had them all. The frustration for Australian collectors was because we not only had the Bantam printings (of original ST and the James Blish adaptations of TOS), but also the Corgi UK versions! This made keeping one's collection consistent almost impossible. If I saw a new title in Corgi (which also did Alan Dean Foster's TAS adaptations for the UK), did I grab it and replace it later with a Bantam, or did I just wait patiently"?

"Devil World" was exciting: my first "new" ST novel from a "New Release" shelf, IIRC! Then came "Perry's Planet", which I'd actually seen listed in a "Locus" a few months before. "The Galactic Whirlpool" was so eagerly awaited: "Starlog" had carried preview chapters rather like the Titan ST mag does today! (Amazing to know some content in advance!) Then came "Death's Angel" - I was very disappointed by it, only to discover, at ST club meetings, that a few fans were calling it the best novel they'd ever read.

And "Locus" was promising that finally, the oft-delayed "The Entropy Effect", the first from the new license holder, Pocket Books, was coming from an award-winning science fiction author, Vonda McIntyre. The delay was because Pocket had to wait for all of Bantam's contracted novels to come out and Sky's "Death's Angel" had been that last one. I'd never heard of McIntyre, but the local SF community even seemed to be interested.

With so much new product coming these days, I'm unlikely to be able to do more than skim the Bantams every so often. Although they are steeped in nostalgia, they don't hold a candle to most of what''s coming out now.

 

[Christopher]

EDIT: Okay, this is bizarre... this post is in response to BaloksPuppet's post below it. Apparently this board has a glitch that when different posters have their clocks set differently, the board fails to correct for the discrepancy. So please read BP's post below and then return here to read this.)

I remember really liking the story for The Galactic Whirlpool but being very annoyed at the writing. Am I mistaken or did that come out after Pocket had already acquired the rights to the Trek novels?

Actually Death's Angel was the last novel under Bantam's contract. The last three Bantam novels, Perry's Planet, The Galactic Whirlpool, and Death's Angel, all came out after Pocket's TMP novelization, and DA came out just two months before the first original Pocket novel, The Entropy Effect. So yeah, Pocket got the rights in 1979, but had to wait for Bantam's contract to expire, or something.

The only one I've re-read recently was World Without End. It's not great, but it's so short that it's worthwhile. I liked the attempt to further explore Uhura's character. And it was the first time I'd ever heard of a Dyson's sphere, a concept which really intrigued me. Every time I've encountered one in a story since then, I'm reminded of World Without End.

I think you're referring to The Starless World by Gordon Eklund. That was the book that featured a Dyson Shell and an Uhura focus. (I don't say Dyson Sphere because that's actually a spherical cloud of solar collectors surrounding a star. It's often misinterpreted in fiction as a solid inhabited shell of the type depicted in Starless World, TNG's "Relics," and elsewhere.) World Without End features a much smaller spherical megastructure, a Bernal Sphere, an asteroid-sized artificial habitat with rotational gravity.

 

[BaloksPuppet]

I think you're referring to The Starless World by Gordon Eklund. That was the book that featured a Dyson Shell and an Uhura focus. (I don't say Dyson Sphere because that's actually a spherical cloud of solar collectors surrounding a star. It's often misinterpreted in fiction as a solid inhabited shell of the type depicted in Starless World, TNG's "Relics," and elsewhere.) World Without End features a much smaller spherical megastructure, a Bernal Sphere, an asteroid-sized artificial habitat with rotational gravity.

Oh, you're right, it's The Starless World I was referring to. Man, my memory is just totally shot.

Edit - and this is in response to Christopher's post above which is in response to my post below. Weird.

 

[BaloksPuppet]

Hmm... I remember really liking Death's Angel. I was amused by Kirk's ichthyophilia, enjoyed the little mystery, and was surprised by the resolution. I haven't read it since the early 80s, but it's one I wouldn't mind reading again.

I remember really liking the story for The Galactic Whirlpool but being very annoyed at the writing. Am I mistaken or did that come out after Pocket had already acquired the rights to the Trek novels?

The only one I've re-read recently was World Without End. It's not great, but it's so short that it's worthwhile. I liked the attempt to further explore Uhura's character. And it was the first time I'd ever heard of a Dyson's sphere, a concept which really intrigued me. Every time I've encountered one in a story since then, I'm reminded of World Without End.

But the ones that stand out the most in my memory are The Price of the Phoenix and The Fate of the Phoenix. When I read the former, I had no idea there was a sequel out there and I was quite distressed by the ending. I didn't find Fate entirely satisfying, but I still enjoyed the duology overall. I know that Marshak and Culbreath aren't everybody's cup of tea, but I think these two books worked pretty well.

Again, except for World Without End, I haven't read any of them since the early or mid-80s, but I have very fond feelings towards the Bantam books. I like the idea of TOS books that are extrapolated entirely from the original series with no influences from the movies or later series. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with those newer books and their newer influences, it's just that the show I fell in love with and watched over and over and over when I was a kid was TOS, so books which only reflect that sort of time capsule really appeal to that kid still inside me.

Plus, the Bantam books had some really great cover art. Not all of them, but the way they looked in the bookstore sure did make them irresistible to me.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Hmm... I remember really liking Death's Angel. I was amused by Kirk's ichthyophilia, enjoyed the little mystery, and was surprised by the resolution. I haven't read it since the early 80s, but it's one I wouldn't mind reading again.

I thought the whodunnit worked very well - I fell for every red herring Kathleen Sky threw at me.

I think my main problem was the cutsie names of the aliens. The little ambassador who looked like a pyramid was named Hotep. The aquatic lady, Sirenia, had a watery, mermaidy name. The black felinoid was called Neko (which means Beckoning Cat, Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money Cat or Fortune Cat in Japanese). Aquatic ambassador Agnatha is named after a Terran jawless fish. And so on...

By the time "Death's Angel" came out I was taking my ST - and ST aliens - very seriously and there was a bit too much whimsy and coincidence in this.

 

[Christopher]

I think my main problem was the cutsie names of the aliens. The little ambassador who looked like a pyramid was named Hotep. The aquatic lady, Sirenia, had a watery, mermaidy name. The black felinoid was called Neko (which means Beckoning Cat, Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money Cat or Fortune Cat in Japanese). Aquatic ambassador Agnatha is named after a Terran jawless fish. And so on...

Actually neko is simply the Japanese word for "cat," period.

But it's not just the names, it's the aliens themselves, all of which are just either giant talking Earth animals (cat, koala, bat, lamprey, pillbug, etc.) or creatures from mythology (a vampire). It was more like something out of a Disney cartoon or Usagi Yojimbo than a science fiction novel about alien life forms. Okay, Tellarites are somewhat piglike, and Caitians are catlike, but it was just way overdone here.

Death's Angel is also notable for featuring the most blatant Mary Sue character in the entirety of professional Trek literature.

 

[Steve Roby]

i didn't think much of Planet of Judgement. for one think the constant references to them carrying 'ray guns' as well as phasers irritated the crap out of me.

I don't remember that, but if I had to guess, I would suspect that Haldeman may have used Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual as a reference source. That book identified a particular TOS prop as a ray gun.

In the 1970s the Bantam and Ballantine Trek books ruled my world. Many of them haven't aged well, but they're historically significant and even the worst are no worse than the worst Pocket novels.

 

[Christopher]

^^Haldeman's books do have their own distinct take on Trek's technology and universe, but in the context of the '70s, that wasn't surprising. There was a lot less locked down about the details of the universe back then, and more freedom for novelists to use the onscreen Trek universe as a jumping-off point for their own imaginative worldbuilding rather than being pressured to conform to an absolutist canon. Haldeman is, and was, an acclaimed, award-winning science fiction author, so who's going to tell him he can't introduce his own ideas and interpretations? Planet of Judgment may not be set in the Trek universe as we know it, but that doesn't make it less worthwhile.

 

[AstroMike]

Don't forget about The Price of the Phoenix and The Fate of the Phoenix. They were interesting books in their own right.

A friend of mine always referred to the Bantam books in high school as "afternoon books" in that he would borrow one from me and read it that afternoon. We both appreciated the longer Pocket books when they arrived and the different approach.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Actually neko is simply the Japanese word for "cat," period.

Tell that to the dictionary site that turned up in my Google search. I was giving it all 'cos if I assumed just "cat" on my own I'd surely be wrong.

 

[Warped9]

^^Haldeman's books do have their own distinct take on Trek's technology and universe, but in the context of the '70s, that wasn't surprising. There was a lot less locked down about the details of the universe back then, and more freedom for novelists to use the onscreen Trek universe as a jumping-off point for their own imaginative worldbuilding rather than being pressured to conform to an absolutist canon. Haldeman is, and was, an acclaimed, award-winning science fiction author, so who's going to tell him he can't introduce his own ideas and interpretations? Planet of Judgment may not be set in the Trek universe as we know it, but that doesn't make it less worthwhile.

True.

What bugs me about some of the more contemporary books isn't so much the adherence to what has been established onscreen, but rather the sometimes almost incessant referencing to onscreen "canon" almost as if the writer was hellbent on proving their encyclopedic knowledge of Trek.