Destiny omnibus

[Therin of Andor]

Hm, this makes me wonder which version to read when I finally get around to it - the original one everybody around these parts read and based their opinion on, or the revised edition.

You have the same choice with the revisions done for some of the "Signature Edition" omnibuses (ie. minor date changes in "The Q Continuum"; but a bonus seven-paragraph bridging piece in "Pantheon"). "Duty, Honor, Redemption", which reprints the novelizations of ST II-IV, has had errors corrected, such as "McGivers" for "McGiver" and Sulu's promotion to captain is removed.

http://therinofandor.blogspot.com.au/2008/04/star-trek-signature-editions-if-i-ever.html

Somehow different versions make me queasy .

There's also: the Australian/UK editions of the novelization of TMP (several cool, bonus half-paragraphs explaining who Lori Ciana was); the MMPB omnibus collecting the "Starfleet: Year One" serial (new material and new characters); Kirk's as-screened death in the MMPB of "Generations" (the alternate/original death was in the hardcover); and the "Rihannsu saga" omnibus, "The Bloodwing Voyages", which corrects Diane Duane's original assumption that there was a second five year mission between TOS and TMP and corrects some dates and ranks.

 

[DonIago]

As an editor-type, it's hard for me not to be curious when I hear about such changes, however minor they might be. Woo, alternate timelines!

 

[Sci]

Hm, this makes me wonder which version to read when I finally get around to it - the original one everybody around these parts read and based their opinion on, or the revised edition.

You have the same choice with the revisions done for some of the "Signature Edition" omnibuses (ie. minor date changes in "The Q Continuum"; but a bonus seven-paragraph bridging piece in "Pantheon"). "Duty, Honor, Redemption", which reprints the novelizations of ST II-IV, has had errors corrected, such as "McGivers" for "McGiver" and Sulu's promotion to captain is removed.

http://therinofandor.blogspot.com.au/2008/04/star-trek-signature-editions-if-i-ever.html

Somehow different versions make me queasy .

There's also: the Australian/UK editions of the novelization of TMP (several cool, bonus half-paragraphs explaining who Lori Ciana was); the MMPB omnibus collecting the "Starfleet: Year One" serial (new material and new characters); Kirk's as-screened death in the MMPB of "Generations" (the alternate/original death was in the hardcover); and the "Rihannsu saga" omnibus, "The Bloodwing Voyages", which corrects Diane Duane's original assumption that there was a second five year mission between TOS and TMP and corrects some dates and ranks.

And don't forget David Mack's own The Sorrows of Empire MMPB, which doubled the length of his original short novel from the Mirror Universe: Glass Empires anthology. Including material that sheds a radically different light on Emperor Spock's actions.

 

[JWolf]

^ I fully expect it to be released in eBook format after the trade paperback is published. I'm not sure why it would be delayed, but it's possible they want to give the trade edition time to sell before they add the eBook edition. It might also just be an oversight.

I fully expect no new eBook edition. Remember, S&S stopped producing the omnibus eBooks for the SCE/CoE series. So why would Destiny be any different? Also, by keeping them separated, people will pay more that way.

 

[JD]

^They stopped doing ebooks of the CoE trades? Is that why the What's Past collection isn't available for the Nook?

 

[JWolf]

^They stopped doing ebooks of the CoE trades? Is that why the What's Past collection isn't available for the Nook?

Yes. And you'll find that there won't likely be a Destiny omnibus eBook either. It's cheaper for put out an omnibus eBook. Thus, not doing so gains S&S more money. S&S is an agency publisher. What they do now is for the good of S&S, not for the good of the customer.

 

[JD]

Well, as annoying as it is I can kind of see where it would be redundant to do ebook versions of print collections of ebook stories. The main reason I find it annoying is because the collections were cheaper than getting the individual stories. So I guess if they do a print collection of Slings and Arrows we won't be seeing it in ebook form. I'll be honest, I was holding off hoping to get the collected version, but I guess there's no point now.

 

[bfollowell]

Well, as annoying as it is I can kind of see where it would be redundant to do ebook versions of print collections of ebook stories. The main reason I find it annoying is because the collections were cheaper than getting the individual stories. So I guess if they do a print collection of Slings and Arrows we won't be seeing it in ebook form. I'll be honest, I was holding off hoping to get the collected version, but I guess there's no point now.

Well, that certainly hasn't always been the case. They did do ebooks of the first eleven S.C.E. anthologies, as well as the Mere Anarchy omnibus. It's just been since about 2010 that they seemed to have stopped doing this.

- Byron

 

[Christopher]

I'll be honest, I was holding off hoping to get the collected version, but I guess there's no point now.

We don't know that. Remember, JWolf is only guessing that there won't be an e-book of the omnibus. It's a conjecture, not a fact.

 

[Defcon]

I would say it's a very good guess, though, as every other ST book up to Eternal Tide already has the eBook version listed for preorder (on Amazon at least, haven't checked other sellers, but I assume it's similar). Destiny on the other hand isn't listed as an eBook yet, although it's a march release.

 

[Sho]

FWIW, if there ends up being an ebook after all, I'd be willing to purchase both versions and generate the list of changes between the two by applying a suitable word-diffing algorithm. The output would either compare changed sentences or sentence fragments, i.e. obviously not the whole text would be reproduced. I'd hope that would constitute fair use under the law, but IANAL.

 

[DonIago]

^That would be pretty cool. I wouldn't think that a comparison of miscellaneous sentences (not even full paragraphs, presumably) would fall afoul of anything, but I'm not an expert on the subject.

 

[Christopher]

Nothing wrong with quoting brief passages from a work for scholarly or review purposes, so long as attribution is given.

 

[Kertrats47]

I was definitely hoping there would be an ebook edition, as I wanted to re-read them when the omnibus is released. However, my original mmpb copies are in a box on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, and if past experience is any indication, I highly doubt any of the English bookstores here in Korea will stock the new omnibus.

 

[JWolf]

I'll be honest, I was holding off hoping to get the collected version, but I guess there's no point now.

We don't know that. Remember, JWolf is only guessing that there won't be an e-book of the omnibus. It's a conjecture, not a fact.

I know it's not fact. But given what we've already seen and the fact that S&S is an agency publisher and have done some really stupid things with eBooks, I'd say it's a damn good bet there won't ever be a Destiny Trilogy Omnibus as an eBook.

 

[Destructor]

I've recently been reading the 'Song of Fire and Ice' books, and because they're so massive I've been buying paper copies for reading at home and Kindle versions for reading on my iPhone, iPad and browser Kindle cloud reader apps (yes, I'm a bad employee, when I'm bored I actually have the kindle reader in another tab).

I mention this because one feature of the electronic edition I've been really impressed by is the appendix lookups. So, there's loads of characters by the time you get to Storm of Swords, and I honestly lose track of some of the secondary characters- but if you just hold your finger on a character name for a bit, a pop-up option gives to a brief summary of who they are, so you can keep on reading.

Trek books, particularly some of the 'grand canvas' ones that cross all series' and lean heavily on events from previous TrekLit adventures (I'm reading 'A Singular Destiny' at the moment, this certainly qualifies) could really benefit from this feature- sort of like KRAD and Christopher Bennett's 'annotations' web-pages, but embedded into the text. In all the arguments for/against eBooks, this hypertextuality should really be exploited as a 'feature' of eBooks. Like, I know who Nan Bacco is, but as I've not read 'Articles of the Federation', a little summary of her history might not go awry when I first encounter her in the novel.

 

[Sho]

I usually buy my eBooks with the Adobe Digital Editions DRM (that's what S&S offers on their pages as well as numerous resellers), because it's easy to crack away for personal use and then read in the open-source FBReader on my Android device. FBReader integrates nicely (no, I don't use that garish background personally, and a nicer font) with dictionary apps to perform lookups on text selections and show them as an overlay; the one I use can query MediaWiki instances and thus also Memory Beta.

 

[JD]

I mention this because one feature of the electronic edition I've been really impressed by is the appendix lookups. So, there's loads of characters by the time you get to Storm of Swords, and I honestly lose track of some of the secondary characters- but if you just hold your finger on a character name for a bit, a pop-up option gives to a brief summary of who they are, so you can keep on reading.

They have the same kind of feature on the Barnes & Noble Classics ebooks. I used it quite a bit when I was reading their version of The Time Machine.

 

[Patrick O'Brien]

It's strange, with the popularity of the kindle and other e-readers, they are not releasing an ebook version simultaneously with the paperback (March 13, 2012). Don't publishers profit more from ebooks as there are no printing costs?

 

[DonIago]

As was noted above, they can profit more by forcing readers to buy each book individually for a higher combined price.