Destiny trilogy - speculations

[Baerbel Haddrell]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

Can people who are able to go to Shore Leave to me one big favour? Please ask if the Amazon blurbs are accurate or for the most part accurate. And if whoever is authorized is still not willing to answer this question, I would like to know why.

Controversy sells books but it depends on the controversy. I think this speculation about the available blurbs is not doing anybody any favours – not the fans and not Pocket Books. It would have been different if these blurbs were well written and if they really had a “wow” factor. But they don`t, the contrary. Well, at least to me.

I am not David Mack but I can imagine that the idea that he has to ensure he kills off a few really popular ST regulars in each volume in order to get into the mainstream media is definitely not a compliment, to put it mildly. I know that David Mack can write good action stories but he is not limited to that. And the idea that killing off popular characters means getting the kind of attention – wow, I want to read that! – is under estimating us readers. I don`t want to read such books and such publicity would do much more harm than good.

 

[LightningStorm]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

...the idea that he has to ensure he kills off a few really popular ST regulars in each volume...

Where'd you get this idea? I've seen nothing in anything (not even any of the outdated blurbs) that says (or even hints at) anything about killing off main or popular characters. In fact the blurbs to date insinuate he's resurrecting one, not killing one.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

Can people who are able to go to Shore Leave to me one big favour? Please ask if the Amazon blurbs are accurate or for the most part accurate. And if whoever is authorized is still not willing to answer this question, I would like to know why.

It's probable that official information will be released at or shortly after Shore Leave. The reason why nobody's answered the question yet is that it's preferred to save such answers until the proper time for official announcements, and Shore Leave itself is always the big event for new book announcements. Also because it takes time to tweak and refine things like blurbs and covers, so they often go through changes, and just as a general rule, people don't like to release things that aren't ready to be released. (Would you want your date to see you while you're still half an hour away from being ready?) That's all there is to it.

Unfortunately, Pocket can't prevent Amazon from posting premature or inaccurate information, and the Internet makes it too easy for the general public to get hold of advance catalogues that are meant for retailers and are full of placeholder or rough content that's not ready for prime time.

 

[Defcon]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

...the idea that he has to ensure he kills off a few really popular ST regulars in each volume...

Where'd you get this idea? I've seen nothing in anything (not even any of the outdated blurbs) that says (or even hints at) anything about killing off main or popular characters. In fact the blurbs to date insinuate he's resurrecting one, not killing one.

I think she is refering to one of Therin's comment above.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

...the idea that he has to ensure he kills off a few really popular ST regulars in each volume...

Where'd you get this idea? I've seen nothing in anything (not even any of the outdated blurbs) that says (or even hints at) anything about killing off main or popular characters. In fact the blurbs to date insinuate he's resurrecting one, not killing one.

I remember the first few times I heard about Destiny, it was supposedly going to be something like the Crisis on Infinite Earths of Trek: it would basically toss all current novel series into a blender, mix it up, then spit it back out again in a completely new fashion - it would affect all, and perhaps even *end* all, current series, and begin something totally new.

I find myself hoping this isn't the case.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

I remember the first few times I heard about Destiny, it was supposedly going to be something like the Crisis on Infinite Earths of Trek: it would basically toss all current novel series into a blender, mix it up, then spit it back out again in a completely new fashion - it would affect all, and perhaps even *end* all, current series, and begin something totally new.

I don't know where you could've gotten that impression, but it certainly didn't come from the authors and editors. All that was stated was that it would shake up the Trek universe as we know it; if you heard anything about a DC-style continuity reboot, you must've heard it from a fan who was speculating way beyond the evidence. It just goes to show how easy it is to read huge amounts of stuff into small amounts of information.

I find myself hoping this isn't the case.

Why are you hoping when you should already know? It's been announced that there's a new Titan novel and a new Voyager novel coming out in the months following Destiny, so clearly all current series are not being ended. Definitely affected, but not ended.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

I definitely hope that the one rumor I heard, does not turn out to be true:

Spoiler: Destiny

that Destiny will destroy the Earth

 

[David Mack]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

Lots of rumors, few if any facts. I'll simply say again what I've said all along:

None of you have any idea what's coming in the Destiny trilogy.

 

[Trent Roman]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

It's worth noting that change doesn't necessarily equal destruction. Speculating with no basis whatsoever, one could imagine a scenario wherein the Borg armada said, by the blurbs, to be assaulting the Federation is cut off from the Hive, or perhaps even the Hive is wided out entirely. That leaves a massive population of suddenly re-individualized people within or right on the Federation's doorstep. What do you do with them? Where do you find the resources to help them acclimatize themselves to a life without the collective? What factions and ideologies might emerge from within the morass. Can even a society the size of the Federation accomodate such a massive influx of immigrants from untold number of species and cultures? Something like that might even be more in keeping with Trek's tradition of optimism and (social) self-exploration than Star Wars-style mass destruction.

Not saying that any of the above will happen, of course; just hypothesizing in the dark like everybody else. But I just wanted to make the point that change, even radical change, can be accomplished via addition as well as substraction.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

EDIT: Come to think of it, I know of a better example: the appearance of the Eav'oq at the Gamma Quadrant terminal of the wormhole. The line has yet to pick up on the storyline, but it obviously plunks down a new player in very close proximity to DS9 and Bajor.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

You yourself have said above you weren't talking about the people mentioned in the quote by TrekkieBez you used. All im saying is that you should stop quoting things you don't really want to talk about and just post what you want to say without adding a quote barely related or totally unrealted to what you're saying.

As far as I was concerned, it was a related comment. But you read my comment as being strictly specific to one or two words in a whole sentence. The sentiment of my original post stays: People who read blurbs and then reject the book aren't worth going after. My point was that people who previously rejected a book because of a blurb may well come back to a book after hearing positive word of mouth (or indeed "media hype", of some kind). But, if they are not members of a ST club, readers of ST magazines, or frequenters of ST bbs's, then they'll probably never get that message. Pocket Books can't waste money going after them.

So why are we even talking about these people? Is the point that Pocket Books must write better blurbs?

I have seen you doing it with both full quotes and partial quotes here and over at psiphi.

Pardon me for not posting to your personal high standards.

 

[Baerbel Haddrell]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

...the idea that he has to ensure he kills off a few really popular ST regulars in each volume...

Where'd you get this idea? I've seen nothing in anything (not even any of the outdated blurbs) that says (or even hints at) anything about killing off main or popular characters. In fact the blurbs to date insinuate he's resurrecting one, not killing one.

I think she is refering to one of Therin's comment above.

Exactly.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

I can imagine that the idea that he has to ensure he kills off a few really popular ST regulars in each volume in order to get into the mainstream media is definitely not a compliment

I was simply referring to some bbs regulars' jokes that David Mack had a reputation for high carnage rates in recent books. I'm certainly not advocating that he should/will kill off regular characters, nor that Pocket should do so just to get some publicity for the fiction lines.

As we've seen over and over since the death of Spock in ST II, no one stays dead too long in Star Trek - or science fiction or comics - anyway, and to kill off major characters hoping to sell extra books ends up distressing much of the fanbase, who may then stop reading said books.

 

[Defcon]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

My point was that people who previously rejected a book because of a blurb may well come back to a book after hearing positive word of mouth (or indeed "media hype", of some kind).

I already agreed about the word of mouth part. All I'm saying is that I don't believe that there will be any media hype for the books. And there's nothing Pocket can do to create a media hype for the books, because they are too unimportant for the regular media.

So why are we even talking about these people? Is the point that Pocket Books must write better blurbs?

That would be a good start. To be honest I can't remember one blurb in the last few years that really screamed at me: Read me! Most of the time I buy the Star Trek books because I either like the author or they are part of a series I follow.

But again, up until now I never even mentioned that Pocket Books does something wrong in my posts, you are the one who implies they do something wrong again and again.

Again, all I'm saying is that I don't believe that there will be any media hype for the books.

I have seen you doing it with both full quotes and partial quotes here and over at psiphi.

Pardon me for not posting to your personal high standards.

It's common sense not to quote something you don't want to talk about, not a personal high standard.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

Fair enough, but with the novels as they are now, will the same really happen with "JJ's Star Trek"?

"As they are now" how?

I don't understand. What's wrong with the novels as they are now? If JJ's movie does well, why won't there be renewed interest in ST novels?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

Therin, Defcon, both of you need to cool off a bit. Perhaps agreeing to disagree might be the best viable option at this point.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

It's common sense not to quote something you don't want to talk about, not a personal high standard.

Okay...

 

[Defcon]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

^ Why have you changed your post?

Therin, Defcon, both of you need to cool off a bit. Perhaps agreeing to disagree might be the best viable option at this point.

Maybe, but then again I think we first had to agree on what were are disagreeing on.

But that will be my last post in this topic until some new things come up, probably at Shore Leave.

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

I think the Pocket Books catalog cover for Destiny book 1 is pretty funny, considering it features the NX-01 fighting a Borg sphere. And I couldn't help but notice the "Not final cover" at the bottom. Hey guys, I'm not posting it this time or the "blurbs."

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

^ Why have you changed your post?

We were asked to cool off.

 

[JD]

Re: Destiny trilogy - pretty heavy spoilers

*Changed Following EMH's Post*