Favorite Things in the Novelverse

[WarpTenLizard]

We have a few threads for complaining about the things that annoy us in the books. I love those threads. But even I need to take a break and focus on the positives now and again.

So name one or more decisions from the novels that you really like.

A few of mine:

• The Trill being marsupials
• Jadzia's original surname, Idaris, and her sister's name, Ziranne
• Dr. Jarem Kaz. I love the Trill. Nevertheless....
• Kristen Beyer's epic Order-66 against nearly all of Christie Golden's OCs. Even those I liked. I was sorry to see Jarem Kaz and Akolo Tare go. But even their deaths contributed to the amusing trend. I especially approved of...
• Wacking Lyssa Campbell. I really hope Christie Golden doesn't frequent these forums. But after that bland OC being shoehorned into book after book, Campbell's over-the-top death was a bit of a treat.
• Kristen Beyer's beautiful "Oh no you don't!" retcon of the TNG books' attempts to squash "Voyager." Seven of Nine is "cured?" Only on the outside. B'Elanna and Miral dead? NO; conspiracy to cover up a much cooler storyline. Janeway's victory against the Borg undone, and Janeway killed? Well guess what: Q himself has decided to resurrect Janeway, because she's gonna save the entire multiverse.
• Chakotay's speech about Starfleet's abuse of the Voyager crew, which doubles as a meta call-out to the other "Trek" novel writers' treatment of "Voyager" the series.
• The Chiar from "the Nanotech War"
• The explanation of Fluidic Space in "Places of Exile," as well as Ocampan physiology.
• Trelayne being a Q

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

I have never bought in to the idea of Trelaine as a Q. Sure, they have similar concepts going in, but not just is Trelaine explicitly portrayed as a child and the Continuum is said to not have had children since before memory (even if you want to argue wobbly wobbly timey wimey), but also he is drawing on technology to perform his tricks, while Q and the continuum never need such things.

Also, I think a lot of those references you mention as Beyer “retconing” were more seeded references - a lot of the Destiny aftermath featured author coordination of a kind, so the casualty report was dropping a reference, and the Seven “being human” never seemed to be something that needed to actively stick, just show that the Borg were DONE, given the deep connection they have to her character. Meanwhile I seem to recall that Peter David was hired for Before Dishonor with the idea of killing Janeway, but as he was writing, focus research of some sort told them “this is a bad idea,” and so he had to put in a back door to undo the death quickly and Beyer picked it up from there.

 

[KRAD]

• Kristen Beyer's beautiful "Oh no you don't!" retcon of the TNG books' attempts to squash "Voyager." ... B'Elanna and Miral dead? NO; conspiracy to cover up a much cooler storyline.

Um, no. I was specifically asked by Kirsten to put B'Elanna and Miral in the casualty list in A Singular Destiny to set up what she was going to do in the Voyager novels.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

Um, no. I was specifically asked by Kirsten to put B'Elanna and Miral in the casualty list in A Singular Destiny to set up what she was going to do in the Voyager novels.

Really? I apologize.

I'm very confused now. That makes that plotline of faking the deaths feel a lot more left-field. I havent read the books in a while, but I can't remember that storyline going anywhere. I had assumed it had to be a retcon.

 

[Smiley]

The deaths were deliberately faked to keep some of the worst fanatics who thought Miral Torres was the Klingon messiah off of their trail. This was all covered pretty thoroughly in Full Circle, as I recall (maybe a bit of Unworthy as well?).

 

[WarpTenLizard]

The deaths were deliberately faked to keep some of the worst fanatics who thought Miral Torres was the Klingon messiah off of their trail. This was all covered pretty thoroughly in Full Circle, as I recall (maybe a bit of Unworthy as well?).

I understand the "in-universe" reasons. I was referring to the decision of the writers, or the people directing them, to include that storyline.

 

[Christopher]

I was referring to the decision of the writers, or the people directing them, to include that storyline.

There are no "people directing us." The whole reason they hire us is so we can come up with the story ideas for them, not the other way around. You don't hire a chauffeur and then drive the car for them. The editors do sometimes have a specific thing they want to see in a book, like "kill Janeway" or "have Picard and Beverly decide to start a family," but we figure out how it's done, and everything else in the story is up to us.

And Kirsten's reasons for taking the storyline in that direction are clear enough if you read the subsequent books. Tom and B'Elanna's decision to fake their deaths to avoid the cultists is a choice whose consequences resonate through several novels.