Deep Space Nine Relaunch
- Thread starter Mage
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A whole bunch of storylines in the DS9-R are being dumped though, so it's not as if kkozoriz1's misgivings have no precedent. There were a variety of compelling reasons for this decision, but it should definitely have been handled better imo. Much better. This situation developed over a number of years and a better solution could have been found than simply a "clean break" with stories that fans of the series had been following over the course of many years and many novels.
Beyond that, one reason the original relaunch is being abandoned, from what I can tell, is that the current Pocket schedule simply cannot accomodate the kind of storytelling that was prominent in the early DS9-R, where you had multiple plots involving a single show's characters (primarily) developing over the course of several consecutive novels.
Instead we might end up with a DS9 novel every two years or so. Even with a crossover every, say, 6 years, that's maybe two DS9 novels between crossovers. Obviously the same is true for the other series. So, I don't think we're going to see anything of the intricacy of the early DS9-R anytime soon. Which is a shame, but that is the reality of the schedule from what I can tell.
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kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
The richness of storylines in DS9R would have suffered with the books coming out once every year or two. From Avatar book one (May 2001) through Warpath (April 2006 - after which the wheels came off) there were 12 books in the relaunch as well as the Lives of Dax, The Left Hand of Destiny and installments of Gateways and Section 31. 18 books in 5 years. Is it likely we'll ever see an average of tow DS9 books a year, let alone three? There just won't be enough pages available to tell that sort of story again. With the Big Event stories coming every couple of years there's a big chunk of the slots filled right there. Add in the Abramsverse books once they are allowed to be published and there's even fewer slots available. Once DS9 is expected to followup on stories such as Destiny and Typhon Pact the amount of pages available for DS9 specific plotlines is even less. The same follows for the other series as well to varying degrees depending on the nature of the Big Event.
Says who?????
Says who?????
We get the most books for the series that sell the most.
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
However they do it it'll pale compared to how it could have been done in the continuing DS9-R. There's not as many slots open per year and the continuing plots of the Big Event books to cover as well. Even if the story of Ascendants and the Eav'oq could be wrapped up in one novel that would take care of DS9's slot for the year.
How do you know that?
Who would have thought we'd ever get a nine-volume saga set between "Insurrection" and "Nemesis", two of ST's lesser-successful movies?
I recall being told that we'd never see Arex and M'ress again, after that infamous memo was released in 1989 by the Star Trek Office. And now they are regulars in "New Frontier" novels and comics, and Caitians, Edoans and Triexians (and even elisiars!) pop up everywhere!
I also recall an interview I had with Robert Greenberger in January 1992 where we commiserated that licensed ST could probably never sustain a whole tie-in adventure set on Andor - and yet we've had a short tale ("The Captain and the King" in "Enterprise Logs"), "Andor: Paradigm" (in "Worlds of DS9) and an IDW comic ("Alien Spotlight: Andorians: The Old Ways") - and another novel, "Paths of Disharmony", is forthcoming.
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Therin, kkozoriz1 provides the rationale for that assumption in his very next sentence:
I mean, I think he's being more than a little bit overwrought about all this, but you don't do your argument any favors by ignoring what he actually says.
I mean, if it were me, I'd haul S. D. Perry, Heather Jarman, and DRG3 in there and say "you've got a trilogy to figure out how to tie up all this crap in a way that's awesome", and use that to fill in the missing time as well as progress forward from Typhon Pact and also transition DS9 to a one-a-year series. And something like that is, I suppose, still totally possible.
But I do agree with kkozoriz1 that it seems unlikely.
Nonetheless, that's not the same thing as saying that standalone novels are dead or that the DS9 plot threads will be dropped. As with most things, I imagine we'll get something in between what we want and what we worry about.
But I do agree with kkozoriz1 that it seems unlikely.
Nonetheless, that's not the same thing as saying that standalone novels are dead or that the DS9 plot threads will be dropped. As with most things, I imagine we'll get something in between what we want and what we worry about.
He seems to believe that there will be more, regular "Big Events" that will continue to stymie whatever plans had been laid out and we don't really know that that's a given either. We haven't really had solid information on Pocket's editor(s) responsible for Star Trek since Margaret left. We have little idea of their intentions, and yet people think they can easily predict how the next few years will roll out. The only safe prediction is that the books with the highest sales figures are more likely to be emulated.
The licensed tie-ins have been filling in gaps in canonical ST since the year dot. I have no doubt a perceived "gap" in novel continuity won't stay empty forever.
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
Do you honestly believe there's a possibility of 3/4 of a years output of Trek novels could be devoted to DS9, leaving all the other series to fight over 3 or 4 slots?
We've finally gotten the continuity between novels that many have been looking forward to just in time for the output to be dropped in half and Big Event books that take up a good sized chunk of the space available. Of course, the various series are expected to follow up on the Big Events, some more, some less. After all, why do the Big Thing if it's going to be forgotten in the next book?
If the Big Events are what's driving sales as Christopher says, the longer they can make the follow up's, the better. Once you've got them hooked on the Event, take your time reeling them in.
At what point was DS9 publishing NINE NOVELS in one year?
The most I can remember is four, and for the record, in 2008 - the year Destiny was published - out of the 11 new MMPBs released, four WERE DS9 novels. So it's not unprecedented.
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
It was in response to:
He's holding up A Time To... as an example.
Who says that's how the gap will be filled? That was my example of something Pocket did that was unexpected (at least by me). TNG used to be the biggest-selling ST novel line, but that's because TNG had the highest TV ratings. The DS9 Relaunch took a mediocre-sales book line to a solid-selling book line. Only the marketing people could tell us how that works out in the wash.
And the word count almost doubled.
Of the unexpected. Not necessarily as a template for how DS9's gap will/may be filled.
Agreed on basically all counts. To the extent this is worth talking about, it's because all of this may quite likely remain up in the air at this point. We have the Typhon Pact books this year and then for the moment nothing planned for 2011, meaning that we're probably looking at 2012 for the next installment in the actual DS9-R. Here's hoping somebody comes up with the inspired idea this series deserves.
I'd like to read at least one more novel in the DS9-R before the world ends
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
Or just hand the whole thing over to David Mack who will tell a rip, roaring story that leaves 3/4 of the participants dead
They haven't announced any of next year's trades. So there's a very slight chance we could get more DS9R next year.
Agreed on basically all counts. To the extent this is worth talking about, it's because all of this may quite likely remain up in the air at this point. We have the Typhon Pact books this year and then for the moment nothing planned for 2011, meaning that we're probably looking at 2012 for the next installment in the actual DS9-R. Here's hoping somebody comes up with the inspired idea this series deserves.
I'd like to read at least one more novel in the DS9-R before the world ends
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