the spectre of the Borg is still hanging over a bit of the line.
And diehard VOY fans would kinda expect that.
Huh? Then how come my To Read pile keeps growing?there are barely any Trek books coming out these days.
"Barely any"?
the spectre of the Borg is still hanging over a bit of the line.
Huh? Then how come my To Read pile keeps growing?there are barely any Trek books coming out these days.
Ugh. Speak for yourself. I have no interest in zombie stories.
Whereas I've always found the Borg rather dull as a concept. They're not even characters, just a force of nature. It's hard to tell an interesting story about the Borg Collective; the most interesting "Borg stories" out there have been more about how individuals have dealt with being assimilated or liberated, or how survivors of Borg assaults have dealt with their loss. Beyond that, a Borg story is basically either a disaster movie or a zombie flick, and both those approaches have been thoroughly mined by now.
What about a zombie story that explore in depth how a zombie society could work, and how a zombie ecosystem could function?
![]()
What about a zombie story that explore in depth how a zombie society could work, and how a zombie ecosystem could function?
![]()
It couldn't. They're dead.
Look at how many "final ends" the Daleks have had. Look at how many times the X-Men have defeated Magneto, once and for all. Without really trying, I can think of four very easy ways of bringing the Borg back from their permadeath in Destiny. I'm sure anyone could, and they might not even necessarily be the same ideas I've just had.Thought it was really short-sighted by Pocket to end the Borg in a way that offered no wiggle room for future authors of the line.
They're dead.
Can anyone picture a TOS novel with Captain Jenkins, first officer Sulu and Uhura pregnant with Scotty's child?
Federation stripped of its prosperity
Picard stripped of his dignity
the darkling, despondent tone of the setting increasingly unreconizable.
So, again, I ask, what exactly are those who are not happy looking for? I'm not meaning to put anyone down. As I said, you are entitled to your opinions, and I respect that. But I'm really confused as to what people are looking for.
I'm as happy with Trek lit now as I was when I started, back in 2002.That's hardly its "roots", of course, and within this limited span I've seen considerably less change to the nature of Trek lit than many, but so far nothing's thrown me as too unfamiliar. As a general rule, I love the changes and developments that've taken place; for every decision I've disliked, there have been half a dozen that have fascinated me, and I consider most of the new directions highly enjoyable. I'm all for creation of new characters and general expansion of the Trek universe, so long as care is taken with them, so long as they're written with skill. With a few notable exceptions (for me, "Before Dishonor" ranks high among them) this has indeed been the case. Ironically, the biggest annoyance for me in recent years was the canonical development of Romulus Existence Failure. But eventually I was eased around to the understanding that this will offer much potential for interesting stories when the novel line gets to it.
I personally wouldn't want the novels to retain the status quo of the series they're based on, particularly as my favorite of the series was Deep Space Nine, which offered some pretty big shake-ups. I suppose the crux of the problem is how "Trek-like" the novels are, and defining that strikes me as a little like Q attempting to explain "Q-ness". It's difficult to articulate effectively. On the whole, though, nothing so far has made me squint judgmentally and think "this is Star Trek? Not my Trek!" (Well, nothing in the novel line anyway, and that issue's a whole other can of gagh, isn't it?)
I'm just grateful that I've gotten - and continue to get - so many tales from a fictional universe I'm fond of. We're quite, quite lucky. And from an entirely selfish viewpoint, I want to see change in these books, I want to see personal, political and situational development, characters moving on with their lives, characters dying and marrying and having children. I want to see consequences and continuity; all this makes the Trek universe seem more "real" for me, more meaningful. I enjoy having an evolving fictional history into which to immerse myself. So few fictional worlds have this scope - there's Star Wars obviously leading the pack, but that's never been my thing.
Basically, I don't want to go back to the roots, I want the plant to keep growing up, and branching out in many interesting directions as it goes. Which it is; we have Titan, Voyager, Vanguard, New Frontier, etc, and some people only follow some of those branches. Then there are completionists like myself, who like the whole plant. And so far it's all still recognizable as the Trek I first encountered.
Can anyone picture a TOS novel with Captain Jenkins, first officer Sulu and Uhura pregnant with Scotty's child?
No. But, I certainly can imagine Sulu as a first officer a few years own the road and a Scott-Uhura relationship (admittedly, far fetched, but not impossible.)
We use essential cookies to make this site work, and optional cookies to enhance your experience.