Crucible: The Next Generation?

[Art Vandelay]

I loved, loved, loved the three Crucible books, and sadly, it seems like we're never going to see the additional stories from the cancelled one-volume edition.

Now, a certain television series is celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, and wouldn't it be great if we could get another epic DRG book series celebrating that event?

Building on The Inner Light might make for a great Picard story, though if we're talking about what brought the crew together the way The City on the Edge of Forever did, I guess The Best of Both Worlds might be a better choice.

Also, it couldn't be seven novels, could it?

 

[Sxottlan]

David Mack is doing a TNG trilogy for next year.

 

[Art Vandelay]

^ Yes, but I suppose this trilogy is in sync with the current "relaunch novel timeline".

Crucible paid hommage to the original series while at the same time ignoring all other novels. I liked that.

Also, David Mack writes phenomenal action novels, but I don't see him pulling off the introspective, emotional punch that Provenance of Shadows packed.

Then again, I might suppose wrong.

 

[BillJ]

^ Yes, but I suppose this trilogy is in sync with the current "relaunch novel timeline".

I thought the trilogy was going to be set during the TV series?

 

[Christopher]

Also, David Mack writes phenomenal action novels, but I don't see him pulling off the introspective, emotional punch that Provenance of Shadows packed.

I think you need to reread Destiny: Mere Mortals. The middle volume of the trilogy has relatively little action and is very much driven by characterization, ideas, and emotion.

 

[Thrawn]

^ Yeah. Hernandez's plot from that book is the best thing in the trilogy, and it's all introspective, emotional punch.

But that said: no, this upcoming trilogy isn't what you're looking for, probably, and I agree your idea would be cool.

 

[DimesDan]

^ Yeah. Hernandez's plot from that book is the best thing in the trilogy, and it's all introspective, emotional punch.

I guess it did. All I remember from when I read it was the reference to one of the Columbia crew making reference to her hand and lack of sex life and that it just seemed to just go on and on and on and on and to me personally, it just got a bit boring and was the least favourite part of the Trilogy for me.

 

[Thrawn]

^ To each his own, I suppose, but I found that to be pretty amazingly powerful stuff.

 

[JD]

Yeah, I thought the Hernandez story was pretty amazing too.

 

[William Leisner]

^ Yes, but I suppose this trilogy is in sync with the current "relaunch novel timeline".

Based on what?

I thought the trilogy was going to be set during the TV series?

Based on what?

 

[Art Vandelay]

^ Yes, but I suppose this trilogy is in sync with the current "relaunch novel timeline".

Based on what?

As I said, it is merely a supposition, an informed guess. And it's based on the fact that apart from the Crucible trilogy, all novels are more or less in sync with the current timeline. The cancellation of the one-volume edition of Crucible seems to say (among other things): We're not going in that direction anymore.

I'd be deliriously happy if I were proven wrong.

And to some of the other posters above: David Mack has done great emotional stuff, in Vanguard as well as in Destiny, but in that regard, to me DRG seems to be the most capable.

 

[BillJ]

I could've sworn one of the early comments on this project placed it during the TV series. I could have misinterpreted something

 

[Christopher]

As I said, it is merely a supposition, an informed guess. And it's based on the fact that apart from the Crucible trilogy, all novels are more or less in sync with the current timeline.

Not all of them. The TOS-era novels that have come out over the past couple of years weren't specifically linked to that continuity, and a couple were incompatible with it. (The Children of Kings was in a distinct continuity of its own and Inception's version of Carol Marcus's proto-Genesis research is hard to reconcile with Vanguard.) A number of people here have recently pointed out that New Frontier seems to disregard the continuity of the other novels, even though the other novels tend to acknowledge it. There's also stuff like Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many and the Abramsverse Starfleet Academy books which are overtly in separate continuities.

The cancellation of the one-volume edition of Crucible seems to say (among other things): We're not going in that direction anymore.

That cancellation had nothing to do with any choice of "direction." It was a casualty of the financial crisis of December 2008 and the editorial layoffs and cutbacks that resulted. And as I said above, we've had a number of books since then that were not in the primary novel continuity.

I'd be deliriously happy if I were proven wrong.

Enjoy your delirium.

 

[timothy]

just finished the destiny trilogy as for crucible I liked it did'nt love it. I like how shattner brought kirk back to main timeline of the tng universe even though I know his universe is seperate from the core books though I am not sure why?

 

[Turtletrekker]

^ Yes, but I suppose this trilogy is in sync with the current "relaunch novel timeline".

Based on what?

I thought the trilogy was going to be set during the TV series?

Based on what?

David Mack has confirmed that the trilogy is "Post-Destiny" on his Facebook page.

 

[BrotherBenny]

just finished the destiny trilogy as for crucible I liked it did'nt love it. I like how shattner brought kirk back to main timeline of the tng universe even though I know his universe is seperate from the core books though I am not sure why?

This is the Shatnerverse, not Destiny or Crucible.

They're not in the main continuity because they're not. It was their decision to make.

 

[Christopher]

The Shatner books are aimed at a somewhat different target audience than "regular" Trek novels -- people drawn in by the celebrity name, people wanting big blockbuster stories, people who buy hardcovers rather than paperbacks, etc. Also, naturally you'd give a big star like Shatner the freedom to tell any story he wanted, without being limited by what other authors were doing. So it made more sense to keep them separate.

 

[BillJ]

David Mack has confirmed that the trilogy is "Post-Destiny" on his Facebook page.

That's too bad. The post-Destiny TNG crew holds little interest for me.

 

[BrotherBenny]

David Mack has confirmed that the trilogy is "Post-Destiny" on his Facebook page.

That's too bad. The post-Destiny TNG crew holds little interest for me.

Never judge a book by it's internet description.

David Mack has never written a book that could be considered mediocre or bad, and that goes for his original work too, so I suggest that you wait until you see the blurb at least before you decide. He might actually use the trilogy to take TNG in a different direction and make it more like it was during the later seasons.

Anything is possible with David at the helm. He might be able to change your mind and make you care about the characters.

 

[BillJ]

David Mack has confirmed that the trilogy is "Post-Destiny" on his Facebook page.

That's too bad. The post-Destiny TNG crew holds little interest for me.

Never judge a book by it's internet description.

David Mack has never written a book that could be considered mediocre or bad, and that goes for his original work too, so I suggest that you wait until you see the blurb at least before you decide. He might actually use the trilogy to take TNG in a different direction and make it more like it was during the later seasons.

Anything is possible with David at the helm. He might be able to change your mind and make you care about the characters.

David Mack is a good writer and I've bought many of his books. But I just don't care about the TNG relaunch. And making it more like the later seasons of TNG isn't exactly a selling point either.

Though if they're bringing back Data, that might hook me.