Frustrations with Trek lit...
- Thread starter Overgeeked
- Start date
I find there is very little music that does not sound better played by a string quartet. Including that one.
Ultimately people want to buy a brand that is the Brand. In this case, the brand is Star Trek. I have no working knowledge of new Coke, but I get the impression it's a story that applies here. There are things a person buying a Star Trek book expects as part of that brand (or the spin offs) if it's not doing that, it's bad for the brand.
Thanks, I'll check those links out. Like I said, I really want to find something about STO to hook me, just everything so far has left me a little cold.
I don't think any of the changes that have been made have taken away any of the stuff that people are looking for. If that were the case then people would have stopped buying the books, and they would have stopped publishing the current series.
Quite a few books in recent times have got onto the New York Times lists so I assume they are doing ok sales wise.
I didn't have a huge problem with destroying DS9 - if you're going to continue the story then things have to change from time to time and some of those changes like killing off the Borg have been very successful. The problem is if you destroy the old station then to make it still feel like DS9 then it needs as much of the original cast as possible but the books have done the opposite and dumped most of the main cast. Even more unforgivably the recent books haven't done anything to give us new characters to care about so we have bland characters on an unfamiliar station.
The next book looks like it might be back on track at least with Kira and Quark seeming to be the main characters. That should hopefully bring Ro back into focus a bit more, rather than the generic Captain she's been lately, as they are the two DS9 characters she had the strongest relationships with.
I didn't have a huge problem with destroying DS9 - if you're going to continue the story then things have to change from time to time and some of those changes like killing off the Borg have been very successful. The problem is if you destroy the old station then to make it still feel like DS9 then it needs as much of the original cast as possible but the books have done the opposite and dumped most of the main cast. Even more unforgivably the recent books haven't done anything to give us new characters to care about so we have bland characters on an unfamiliar station.
The next book looks like it might be back on track at least with Kira and Quark seeming to be the main characters. That should hopefully bring Ro back into focus a bit more, rather than the generic Captain she's been lately, as they are the two DS9 characters she had the strongest relationships with.
I've given up on the DS9 books as written by Dave the third.
I've read a lot of Trek books over the last two years and I think the focus on the Typhon Pact and politics of the Federatiom could do with a back seat for a few years. There have been great stories but time for something new now. I personally will be going back to New Frontier back catalog novels until Una's next book and the next Titan novel at the end of 2017. I'd like some more standalone unique stories with some ongoing character development.
I've had some issues with DRGIII's DS9 books too, but having problems with one set of books by one author isn't enough to turn me away from all of the Trek books. Even if I give up on DRGIII's DS9 books, there are still DS9 books being written by other people, and TNG, Voyager, Titan, Seekers, TOS, DTI, ROTF books and future multi-series crossovers. There are also Discovery books starting next year, and nothing is to stop Pocket from starting more series in the future.
I never said I would give up on DS9 novels written by other authors, just those as written by Dave the third. I rather enjoyed both The Missing and also Force and Motion. as I get older, I am getting my picky with what I read though and the Dave the Third novels join any written by either Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels, or any recent ones by Chris because life is too short to read stories by authors I don't enjoy.
Some of the recent standalone Ds9 books have been a massive improvement. They have also been the ones that most strongly try to replicate the TV dynamic (having to jump hoops to get that dynamic back in at least one case. They literally have to work to avoid the current set up.) and basically ignore the ongoing non-story. The Voyager books are the strongest line, and Titan is basically just an addendum to the TNG books and general holding space for certain characters, rather than having its own identity. The TNG books are hovering around a certain level, but, Prey excepted (which is also knee deep in Screen continuity callbacks) rarely go anywhere or do anything great. Again there's a bunch of 'sorry who are you?' Characters, and other characters pocketed off for David Mack's personal use. (Data from TNG and Bashir over on DS9)
It's a bit like the Star Wars EU got at the end...bares very little resemblance to the license you are using to pull in the fan monies. 'Realism' be damned, alleged 'stagnation' if sticking too close to the original format be damned, TOS to STVI covers what...forty years? With the books too? They didn't worry about those things, and apparently it's still the bedrock of the books without changing to format much, without padding the roster, and no one gives a flying Tellarite about it being unrealistic that the crew are still together or have come back from the dead.
Have a little faith in the 24th century characters and whether the fans will stick with them...if we are still just about bothering even though Ro could be anyone at this point and even she doesn't know if she's with Quark or RandomNoNameGuyFromThePast then throw us a bone and assume we might actually buy the books enthusiastically if Sisko does something other than check his email and Odo and Kira actually y'know, talk to each other at some point. We'd probably buy a hardback if the whole damn crew was on the cover and interacted with each other and were recognisable as their TV characters. I would buy a three hardback crossover series if they put Data back in uniform and on the bridge of the enterprise, got Bashir back from whichever bad spy spy novel he's in this decade, and put them in a story being themselves. I'll go to a five book series if they get shot of the section 31 and serena nonsense, sort out the Ezra stuff and get the bloody station back. Hell if the station comes back I will buy a frickin hardback a month.
Buy a box set and get a clue editor people.
This! 110% this.
How was Data "pocketed off for David Mack's personal use" he didn't write a single novel with him after the Cold Equation trilogy, which brought him back. All further Data novels (errr one at this point) were written by Jeffrey Lang.
Um, wrong franchise
Not "no one". Can you at least acknowledge that not everyone automatically agrees with you? I mean, what you describe is exactly why I have almost no interest in 5YM books.
It's not like the TOS crew didn't change. We just didn't saw the change happening. The only "odd" thing was them still being together for so long. Frankly I'm okay with TOS being unrealistic and TOS characters never dying, but I prefer everything else with a bit more realism.
The writers are bored with the license so they stretch it to breaking to make it into something else. Bad religious allegory or bad historicalallegory then turns up (that's the SW Eu at the end...though now I mention it...)
I was meaning more generally in terms of audiences for those films. I totally recognise that there are varying opinions, I too don't care for 5ym books, but then, I don't care much for TOS. Those books are for people who do, but there is no equivalent for 24th century apart fromVoyager. There's a happy medium somewhere between stagnation and change for the sake of it, and we aren't in it. (Notice how I only complain about sweeping changes or large character changes....I am quite happy with stuff like the Aventine, and indeed the first Ds9 relaunch was really good. So yeah...I do not disregard a difference of opinion, but there is an issue as I am not the only one talking about it.
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