Are the Voyager novels not as popular?

[Therin of Andor]

So they actually did follow through on all of that then? Most of the other comments I've read about those said they didn't really end up living to all of that, and turned out to be fairly normal TOS stories.

That was my point. Seemingly, John Ordover's original plans were overruled as not being true enough to the spirit of TOS. What turned up in bookshops was not what he'd discussed online a year earlier. Just speculation on my part, but marketing may have thought they wouldn't sell. The covers of the first batch ended up with large portraits of Kirk and Spock.

The Graf books were fairly normal TOS stories, from what I remember (I can't find my copies right now). I want to say with a heavy Sulu/Chekov/Uhura/Scott focus like their other TOS books (instead of the Big Three), but still main-cast focuses.

The extensive cast included:

*ALDEN
*BOMA
*CHAPEL, Christine
*CHEKOV, Pavel Andreievich
*D'AMATO
*DAVIS
*DePAUL, Sean
*FISHER
*GIOTTO, Antonio
*HADLEY, [Bill]
*HANSEN
*JAEGER, Karl
*KELOWITZ
*KULESSA
*KYLE, John
*LESLIE, Edward
*MARTINE, Angela
*MULHALL, Ann
*PALAMAS, Carolyn
*PALMER, Elizabeth
*RAND, Janice
*RHADA, Tora
*RILEY, Kevin Thomas
*RUSS, John
*SANNER, Zap
*SINGH
*SMITH, Yuki
*STILES, Andrew
*TRACEY, Karen
*TOMLINSON, Robert
*TORMOLEN, Joe (mentioned as deceased)
*WASHBURN, Richard
*WRIGHT, Diane

Bolding denotes original names to this sequel.

 

[Infern0]

Really, isn't it kind of pushing it that so many live to the 2370s? Yeah, I get it, life spans are longer, but I was always under the impression that McCoy living as long as he did was a rarity. Making it to 150 would be like getting to 100 is today, it happens but is pretty damn rare. But the novels make it seem everyone from TOS is around and active at 120-130. Even "Mr Adventure!"

I could see Chekhov being still alive, he was around 20 years younger than McCoy, I think he was born roughly in the middle between McCoy and Elias Vaughn, who is around 100 in the DS9 relaunch

It seems like in Trek that 100 years old is more like 55-60 years old now, so Chekov would be like a current man in his mid to late 60's

150 = 100
100 = 60
50 = 40

That's how it seems to me that "Trek age" works compared to current age

If that makes any sense

 

[zarkon]

So they actually did follow through on all of that then? Most of the other comments I've read about those said they didn't really end up living to all of that, and turned out to be fairly normal TOS stories.

The kirk/mccoy/spock etc stuff is the minority of the book.

And a bonus, Kevin Ryan nailed writing kirk/mccoy/spock, but just about every new character he writes is great too. Personally, the way it ended up was pretty much a perfect mix for me as a reader. Would have loved more books like this(and by him, come to think of it).

 

[Enterpriserules]

When we talk to DRGIII on the latest Literary Treks and he reminded us that the only way to get the stories we want is to support them with our money. So want to see more DS9 or the Accendants? Buy the books that have to do with DS9 and be vocal about your support! So I encourage everyone to support the latest DS9 books and Voyager books if you want to continue to see more of them. Same goes for Chris' new Enterprise book that I cannot wait to read!

 

[DS9forever]

I bought George's Allegiance in Exile just for the DS9 connection.

 

[Enterpriserules]

I bought George's Allegiance in Exile just for the DS9 connection.

Hope more people do the same for DS9, Ent and Voy!

 

[BillJ]

Well there's just nothing keeping them from continuing the idea. Why not keep going now?

Because people really don't care about those characters. When I pick up a TOS book, I want to read about Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

Much like I don't really care about Elfiki, Chen and Choudhury in the TNG books, I have no emotional investment in them.

 

[Greg Cox]

Well there's just nothing keeping them from continuing the idea. Why not keep going now?

Because people really don't care about those characters. When I pick up a TOS book, I want to read about Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

Just like nobody picks up a Sherlock Holmes novel hoping for exciting new developments in the lives of Mrs. Hudson and Inspector Lestrade.

 

[Enterpriserules]

Well there's just nothing keeping them from continuing the idea. Why not keep going now?

Because people really don't care about those characters. When I pick up a TOS book, I want to read about Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

Much like I don't really care about Elfiki, Chen and Choudhury in the TNG books, I have no emotional investment in them.

I find that if you write a character well I will care about them. So I like in the DS9 relaunch I came to care about Shar, Ellias, Prynn and so many others. In the TNG relaunch I was heart broken when Choudhury died; I want to know more about all the characters.

 

[BillJ]

I find that if you write a character well I will care about them. So I like in the DS9 relaunch I came to care about Shar, Ellias, Prynn and so many others. In the TNG relaunch I was heart broken when Choudhury died; I want to know more about all the characters.

I just think Trek is a different beast when it comes to novels. I can read a generic novel and care about what's going on. But when it comes to Trek, I want to read about the characters I've loved for multiple decades now.

For me, a big part of picking up a Trek novel is the nostalgia factor.

 

[JD]

I'm the complete opposite. When I'm reading Trek Lit I really don't differentiate between TV characters or Lit characters, to me they're all just the characters in the book. I like Choudhury, Cambridge, and Vaughn just as much as Worf, Troi, or Kira.

 

[Enterpriserules]

I'm the complete opposite. When I'm reading Trek Lit I really don't differentiate between TV characters or Lit characters, to me they're all just the characters in the book. I like Choudhury, Cambridge, and Vaughn just as much as Worf, Troi, or Kira.

This is my feeling exactly. As long as it is a well written character and is a part of a good story, I am there.

 

[Thrawn]

...all of which makes it a challenge for an editor, because they have to balance both of these totally rational points of view together. The way I figure it, I'm just in it for good stories; if the story is well-told and in-universe-consistent enough, the fact that I know only the lit characters are going to die and the canon characters are probably coming back to life is something I can live with.

 

[zarkon]

I find that if you write a character well I will care about them. So I like in the DS9 relaunch I came to care about Shar, Ellias, Prynn and so many others. In the TNG relaunch I was heart broken when Choudhury died; I want to know more about all the characters.

Pretty much this. I wouldn't care at all if the crew of the aventine, titan (sans ree), DS9-R & the Ent-e newbies turned into space butterflies(I laughed when Choudhury died).

But

I grew to like pretty much all the new frontier characters, guys like nahrat & harb from the eighties stuff, the errand lower deck guys and KRAD's gorkon crew.

sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it complements whats already there and makes it even better, sometimes it doesn't. Don't want them to stop trying though

 

[Enterpriserules]

I find that if you write a character well I will care about them. So I like in the DS9 relaunch I came to care about Shar, Ellias, Prynn and so many others. In the TNG relaunch I was heart broken when Choudhury died; I want to know more about all the characters.

Pretty much this. I wouldn't care at all if the crew of the aventine, titan (sans ree), DS9-R & the Ent-e newbies turned into space butterflies(I laughed when Choudhury died).

But

I grew to like pretty much all the new frontier characters, guys like nahrat & harb from the eighties stuff, the errand lower deck guys and KRAD's gorkon crew.

sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it complements whats already there and makes it even better, sometimes it doesn't. Don't want them to stop trying though

I really agree! Don't stop trying, because when it works, like Titan and Aventine or DS9-R all I want is more

 

[Greg Cox]

...all of which makes it a challenge for an editor, because they have to balance both of these totally rational points of view together. The way I figure it, I'm just in it for good stories; if the story is well-told and in-universe-consistent enough, the fact that I know only the lit characters are going to die and the canon characters are probably coming back to life is something I can live with.

Yeah, it's a balancing act. You have to keep one eye on the folks who read every book religiously and are very familiar with the TrekLit universe, and the other eye on the casual reader who picked up the book at the airport expecting something just like the TV shows.

(It was the same thing writing the DC Comics novels, btw. I always tried to write for a hypothetical reader who probably had some familiarity with Batman and Wonder Woman and the rest, but who hadn't necessarily read the last seventeen issues of JLA or TEEN TITANS.)

 

[Enterpriserules]

...all of which makes it a challenge for an editor, because they have to balance both of these totally rational points of view together. The way I figure it, I'm just in it for good stories; if the story is well-told and in-universe-consistent enough, the fact that I know only the lit characters are going to die and the canon characters are probably coming back to life is something I can live with.

Yeah, it's a balancing act. You have to keep one eye on the folks who read every book religiously and are very familiar with the TrekLit universe, and the other eye on the casual reader who picked up the book at the airport expecting something just like the TV shows.

(It was the same thing writing the DC Comics novels, btw. I always tried to write for a hypothetical reader who probably had some familiarity with Batman and Wonder Woman and the rest, but who hadn't necessarily read the last seventeen issues of JLA or TEEN TITANS.)

This does get really hard in in comic for sure because they interlink all of them so if you say want the full Superman story you have to read 5 different comics, very frustrating.


With Star Trek books I like loose connectivity because it does make for a rewarding experience when you read them all.

 

[Paris]

This does get really hard in in comic for sure because they interlink all of them so if you say want the full Superman story you have to read 5 different comics, very frustrating.

This is not quite the case anymore at the big 2. Plenty of the comics can be read on their own and you can get a "full story". Take the batman line at DC; you can read any of them on their own and get the full experience. What happens in Detective Comics one week has nothing to do with Batman Incorporated two weeks later. They each have their own story, and reading the other monthlies is not neccesary. Sometimes they have crossover events, but those aren't the norm every month.

On the other side of the coin, books like the various Avengers titles at Marvel are better when you read multiple series, but it's still not neccesary. Each title has it's own storyarcs. A lot of them are way more accessible to the casual reader than trek fiction is

 

[Therin of Andor]

Much like I don't really care about Elfiki, Chen and Choudhury in the TNG books, I have no emotional investment in them.

That's a bit unfair, isn't it? If you were reading an original novel you wouldn't have an emotional investment in any characters. As you read through the book, you should start to build an emotional connection to some of the characters. And then carry this through any sequels.

 

[BillJ]

Much like I don't really care about Elfiki, Chen and Choudhury in the TNG books, I have no emotional investment in them.

That's a bit unfair, isn't it? If you were reading an original novel you wouldn't have an emotional investment in any characters. As you read through the book, you should start to build an emotional connection to some of the characters. And then carry this through any sequels.

My follow-up posts discusses this.