Rust Age. All stuff in the 90s/00s moved towards decay-and-fall of heroes and hopes. Millennium cynicism
I remember the last tryely 'fun' Star Trek novel I read was 'Doctor's Orders', which was out about 89/90, so it seemed like after that things changed. Of course, I turned 15 as well, so it could have been a change in my views as much as everything!
I actually enjoyed this - the grittier feel of DS9, things going wrong for the TNG Enterprise crew in Nemesis and the Destiny sequence; I think it's just a sign of things that start to wither
I don't recall
Star Trek books being particularly cynical until the
A Time To . . . series. The 1990s novels were less freewheeling than those from the 1980s, but they were quite optimistic (outide Peter David's writing, but he'd been writing since the 80s), despite often seeming perfunctory. The only notable cynical trend I remember in
Star Trek fiction prior to the invasion of Iraq was a minor trend toward conspiracy theorism.
This is fairly reflective of mid-1990s to mid-2000s culture, which was generally very positive and hopeful (high employment and the best economic conditions in the history of the country were probably helpful).
- however, as we can see from comics, both DC and Marvel have moved into a new hopeful 'heroic age \ brightest day' style of story telling and views of the characters - I wonder if that'll happen with Trek?
My impression of Marvel and DC is that they are claiming a new, brighter direction, but are presenting stories that are only marginally less cynical (if that). Their comics are still notably depraved, and a far cry from even the early 2000s (
Brightest Day, for instance, began with a graphic depiction of a small bird falling from a tree and breaking its head open on a stone).
What Marvel attempted following their bankruptcy (when Peter Parker became Spider-Man again, and the Avengers and Fantastic Four returned from having been killed in the
Onslaught crossover) was much more of a bright, hopeful direction. Mike Wieringo's
Sensational Spider-Man, Kurt Buseik and George Perez's
Avengers, Dan Jurgens's
Thor, Chris Claremont's
Fantastic Four, and a number of other titles made an honest (and often successful) attempt to return to traditional, clean superheroics (without resorting to pastiche). I don't know that Marvel or DC is capable of optimistic storytelling under their present management.
