Dear TOS novel writers, it's not you. It's me.

[WebLurker]

I haven't had a major problem with the current TOS novels (although I will concede that I find tracking down older ones to be more interesting, for whatever reason and have found a lot of the recent ones to be lacking something that I'm not sure how to describe).

Frankly, I wish that Pocket Books would start printing stand-alone novels set during the the other TV shows (TNG, DS9, VGR, ENT, etc.). While it's cool that they're expanding the novel-verse timeline and asking what could happen after the shows and movies ended, there are many cases where, when I pick up a Star Trek book, I want to go back to the original setting; to read about when Enterprise-D was still around, Voyager was still wandering the Delta Quadrant, with all the regular characters from the show together, and all that. The new events and stuff are cool and all, but I want to be able to supplement the future events with trips to the past, since it's those settings that mean the most to me.

 

[Jinn]

Voyager was still wandering the Delta Quadrant, with all the regular characters from the show together, and all that.

To be fair, Voyager is still in the Delta-Quadrant (minus the "stuck" part) and all the main characters are still around except Neelxi and Kes.

 

[jaime]

I never read 5ym books. It's just not my trek. I pounce on movie era. TNG relaunch is getting...cold. As is ds9. Ds9 barely resembles the show anymore, though they had an upswing in the last two books. The 'this book happens inbetween' is getting real old real fast though. It's like treading water, and Dax and Bashir may as well have joined Spock Prime.
The Voyager relaunch is consistently good and does have a jot of Neelix and occasional Tuvok.
For me though they all suffer for the opposite reason to the OT.. I find it harder and harder to give a monkeys about new characters, or even Ro, when the guys who should be on the cover are barely getting a line.
So I too would welcome some TV era stories, and would regularly buy movie era if well done like Voyager.
I also accept that for the movie era and TNG there are a hundred books from 20 years ago that fit in there, and fewer for ds9 and Voy...but we are in almost Star Wars EU territory now, where things are barely recognisable.

So yeah... 80s is in. Give us 80s Trek. Don't make me take up writing fan fiction just to get a fix.

 

[WebLurker]

To be fair, Voyager is still in the Delta-Quadrant (minus the "stuck" part) and all the main characters are still around except Neelxi and Kes.

Yeah, but I meant stories set during the TV shows (or the timeframes of any of the movies). While I do like the way some things have progressed (Picard and Crusher getting married was a good call and I do like Christopher L. Bennett's Rise of the Federation series overall), at the end of the day, the TV shows and movies are what make me a fan. It's that stuff that keeps me around the fanbase now and why I read any of the novels.

Basically, I want new episodes to those shows in prose form, not more of the Abramsverse crap or the pushing into the future of the novels timeline that's becoming really different. It's the big anniversary this year, and I really don't have a piece of the action that I can call my own.

 

[stardream]

I find it harder and harder to give a monkeys about new characters, or even Ro, when the guys who should be on the cover are barely getting a line.

I'm had difficulty wading through the Typhon Pact series. Well written stories for the most part so the skillsets of the individual writers are not in question. I'm not all that interested in what the aliens are up to. I enjoyed Lord of the Rings but I didn't need to see all the intrigue that was going on inside Isengard and Mordor. I understand that the reader needs to know why the 'bad' guys are doing what they do but I don't need to see it in such detail. I find myself skimming over those parts so I can get back to our heroes.

 

[Jinn]

I understand that the reader needs to know why the 'bad' guys are doing what they do but I don't need to see it in such detail. I find myself skimming over those parts so I can get back to our heroes.

I am pretty much the opposite. Romulan politics and politics in general were (along with the Voyager relaunch) by far my favorite part of post-Nemesis novels.

 

[Idran]

Same; I love seeing deep dives into alien cultures, especially ones that we haven't gotten much exploration of previously.

 

[stardream]

I am pretty much the opposite. Romulan politics and politics in general were (along with the Voyager relaunch) by far my favorite part of post-Nemesis novels.

I know a lot of people like that sort of thing and I understand from the writers point of view it would probably give them something 'fresh' to do. It can't be easy to try and come up with new ideas for the main group of characters.

 

[Jarvisimo]

I'm had difficulty wading through the Typhon Pact series. Well written stories for the most part so the skillsets of the individual writers are not in question. I'm not all that interested in what the aliens are up to. I enjoyed Lord of the Rings but I didn't need to see all the intrigue that was going on inside Isengard and Mordor. I understand that the reader needs to know why the 'bad' guys are doing what they do but I don't need to see it in such detail. I find myself skimming over those parts so I can get back to our heroes.

You just described an amazing idea! I would love Mordor 'behind the scenes' - really, that would be amazing, bringing depth to an otherwise very monodimensional realm (beyond its internecine violence and suggestions in Numenorean men like the Mouth of Sauron or the wraiths). Which is maybe why I have loved a lot of the Typhon Pact, it brought depth to otherwise very shallow races.

 

[Stevil2001]

You just described an amazing idea! I would love Mordor 'behind the scenes' - really, that would be amazing, bringing depth to an otherwise very monodimensional realm (beyond its internecine violence and suggestions in Numenorean men like the Mouth of Sauron or the wraiths). Which is maybe why I have loved a lot of the Typhon Pact, it brought depth to otherwise very shallow races.

It isn't the most amazing book, and it's not exactly consistent with The Lord of the Rings as written, but Kirill Yeskov's The Last Ringbearer is a pretty interesting take on what the Orcs and the people of Mordor are "really" like. I wrote a review of it here.

 

[stardream]

You just described an amazing idea! I would love Mordor 'behind the scenes' - really, that would be amazing, bringing depth to an otherwise very monodimensional realm (beyond its internecine violence and suggestions in Numenorean men like the Mouth of Sauron or the wraiths). Which is maybe why I have loved a lot of the Typhon Pact, it brought depth to otherwise very shallow races.

I am planning on reading the whole series again eventually because that's normally what I do with a series (and I pretty much consider all of the post-Destiny books just one huge series). I normally don't form a final opinion until a second read-through.

I think it might just be a period of re-adjustment to the new style. I stopped reading the books a long time ago and am still used to the 'stand alone story-reset to status quo at the end' that was common in the earlier books. I didn't care about the details of what the Romulans were doing because I already knew they were up to no good.

 

[Jarvisimo]

Awww but what about the Romulans up to ... 'yes bad'

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Frankly, I wish that Pocket Books would start printing stand-alone novels set during the the other TV shows (TNG, DS9, VGR, ENT, etc.). While it's cool that they're expanding the novel-verse timeline and asking what could happen after the shows and movies ended, there are many cases where, when I pick up a Star Trek book, I want to go back to the original setting; to read about when Enterprise-D was still around, Voyager was still wandering the Delta Quadrant, with all the regular characters from the show together, and all that. The new events and stuff are cool and all, but I want to be able to supplement the future events with trips to the past, since it's those settings that mean the most to me.

This. YES. That's why I avoid anything set later than the shows mostly. I'd like to see what happens in between the cracks. Yes, there's more room to play in the vastly uncovered periods rather than squeeze another story into the well-documented eras, but I liked the spirit, the sense that new things were happening, not just everybody was growing mould.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

It isn't the most amazing book, and it's not exactly consistent with The Lord of the Rings as written, but Kirill Yeskov's The Last Ringbearer is a pretty interesting take on what the Orcs and the people of Mordor are "really" like. I wrote a review of it here.

My review of The Last Ringbearer is here.

It's interesting to me that there's a whole body of Russian Lord of the Rings literature. Besides The Last Ringbearer, there's a sequel trilogy set in the Fourth Age by Nick Perumov titled The Ring of Darkness, there's a retelling of The Silmarillion from Morgoth's perspective, and several others than I'm not remembering off-hand.

 

[RandyS]

I haven't had a major problem with the current TOS novels (although I will concede that I find tracking down older ones to be more interesting, for whatever reason and have found a lot of the recent ones to be lacking something that I'm not sure how to describe).

Frankly, I wish that Pocket Books would start printing stand-alone novels set during the the other TV shows (TNG, DS9, VGR, ENT, etc.). While it's cool that they're expanding the novel-verse timeline and asking what could happen after the shows and movies ended, there are many cases where, when I pick up a Star Trek book, I want to go back to the original setting; to read about when Enterprise-D was still around, Voyager was still wandering the Delta Quadrant, with all the regular characters from the show together, and all that. The new events and stuff are cool and all, but I want to be able to supplement the future events with trips to the past, since it's those settings that mean the most to me.

Agreed, and well put.

 

[redr0bin]

Quoted for truth. For myself, the latter period (The Final Frontier to The Undiscovered Country) in particular, though starting after The Voyage Home in 2286 is also desirable. Looks like we might be getting something along these lines soon, with John Jackson Miller's Prey trilogy (spanning both the TOS movie and TNG eras).

John Jackson Miller is writing a Star Trek series? You just made my day.

 

[WebLurker]

John Jackson Miller is writing a Star Trek series? You just made my day.

He has one already out, Takedown. (I think the upcoming series is a trilogy that explores the aftermath of Star Trek III in the 24th century (Klingons seeking vengeance and all that).

 

[JD]

For a while I did want more TV series era books for the 24th Century series, but then I looked back and realized we've already gotten plenty of those. If you want a series era story outside of the shows, all you have to do is go back to some of the older books. Even the Pocket published books that aren't easily available in paperback are available as e-books now. I think there might be a very, very small handful of Pocket books that aren't available as e-books, but that's it.
And thanks to the Comics Collection DVD almost all of the pre-IDW comics are available on one DVD.
Most of IDW's stuff, which has been most series era TOS and TNG in the Prime timeline, is available digitally. I think right now the miniseries ones not available on Comixology are Crew, The Space Between, and The Last Generation.

 

[redr0bin]

He has one already out, Takedown. (I think the upcoming series is a trilogy that explores the aftermath of Star Trek III in the 24th century (Klingons seeking vengeance and all that).

Gonna have to add that to the reading list once I finish the first couple books of the TNG Relaunch. JJM's Star Wars books are typically pretty damn good, Kenobi especially, interested in seeing what he can do with Trek.

 

[The Wormhole]

I say we should observe the anniversaries of the various series with a novel set during the TV series era, kid of like how Voyager did a TV series story with the String Theory trilogy to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the show. Though I'm not sure a trilogy is necessary for all of them, just one novel would suffice. For example, with TNG's 30th next year have a TV series era novel to celebrate that, and in 2018 it's DS9's 25th, 2020 Voyager's 25th and 2021 Enterprise's 20th.

At the very least, TV era novels for the other series is a good way of putting of dealing with the 2387 "ceiling."