Loved the Janus Gate series

[seigezunt]

is this heresy?

I have recently come back to the ST novels through the Crucible trilogy, and was reading the Rihannsu books, but life intervened.

Life has since slowed down, but I have had to pack many of my ST books away (make room for baby!) but I recently found the first Janus Gate book, the only ST book I hadn't packed. I gobbled it up, and went digging through the boxes for the other two.

I really liked this series, despite the extremely odd jacket blurbs which don't describe what actually happens in the books. This had just enough continuity "porn" to keep me happy, and I found I really liked the writing style. Nice pacing, even the quite slow first volume on spelunking. Surprising, since I heard L.A. Graf was a bunch of people. I just wanted to post my enjoyment of this series, and it's made me interested in some of the more recent TOS novels (sorry, I am TOS-only right now, just can't find the interest for the others). I just started the Gary Mitchell trilogy, and it seems fun, too.

Maybe I'll start gobbling up more of the recent novel, and go backwards...though I hear there's a dry spot in the books of the mid-90s...?

*oh, and I guess I will get back to Rihannsu. I got bogged down in the second book a bit...I have to admit I found it a little annoying that it's unclear which era the story takes place...

 

[cmdr_forst]

I enjoyed the Janus Gate trilogy as well. They are part of the "Star Trek: The Original Series" line, an attempt to look at the "minor" characters from Star Trek (I think that was the point, anyway). I remember them being a fun read, much like the Errand of Vengeance trilogy and the still-in-progress Errand of Fury trilogy. The Gary Mitchell trilogy was sort of the same, if I recall correctly. Fun reading, all these trilogies.

 

[Smiley]

These books are in that awkward stage where it's hard to find them in new or used book shops. Once my backlog is gone, I might seek these out again, along with the Errand of ... books.

 

[seigezunt]

Smiley said:
These books are in that awkward stage where it's hard to find them in new or used book shops. Once my backlog is gone, I might seek these out again, along with the Errand of ... books.

I agree. I found cheap used copies of the Janus Gate and Brothers Keeper on amazon, but not so cheap for errand of vengeance, which I'd like to start.

 

[Christopher]

seigezunt said:
...I heard L.A. Graf was a bunch of people.

Usually just two people, Julia Ecklar and Karen Rose Cercone, although Melissa Crandall was also part of L. A. Graf on their first Trek novel, Ice Trap.

 

[Therin of Andor]

seigezunt said:
is this heresy?

Not at all. I loved "The Janus Gate" trilogy and the whole (now abandoned) "lower decks" TOS concept, intertwining new adventures through canonical episodes.

It surprised me that many people reacted badly to the LA Graf trilogy (particularly the spelunking, which I actually found quite suspenseful), and that they preferred the first Kevin Ryan Klingon trilogy (which often reminded me of a commentated sports event as redshirts fell to Klingon blasters).

I wish things had been a little better planned for the "lower decks" concept, though; it had great potential. Following Angela Martine through all her romances and heartbreaks might have been fun, partly why I started doing a matrix of "lower decks" characters. But Ryan's trilogy took place just after Robert Tomlinson's canonical death, so any plans to enrich our knowledge of the couple's ongoing romance and engagement was nipped in the bud, ie. totally abandoned.

 

[David cgc]

The only things that really bugged me were the whole back cover issue (and the accompanying oddity that Young Jimmy Kirk was present for two planetary atrocities), and that all three books unhappened at the end. That was really irritating.

 

[Steve Roby]

Therin of Andor said:

seigezunt said:
is this heresy?

Not at all. I loved "The Janus Gate" trilogy and the whole (now abandoned) "lower decks" TOS concept, intertwining new adventures through canonical episodes.

I liked the "lower decks" idea a lot, too, but I don't think the two trilogies really worked the way the initial posts (from John Ordover, IIRC) suggested. I think the trilogy approach itself was part of the problem.

It surprised me that many people reacted badly to the LA Graf trilogy (particularly the spelunking, which I actually found quite suspenseful), and that they preferred the first Kevin Ryan Klingon trilogy (which often reminded me of a commentated sports event as redshirts fell to Klingon blasters).

I didn't think Janus Gate was LA Graf's best work, but it wasn't bad. Which is more than I can say for the other trilogy, and, yeah, I was surprised by how many people preferred that one.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

About that whole thing with the Janus Gate back covers...why did that even happen? Did the book editors just fall asleep at their desks or something?

How different are the "real" books than what the back covers say?

 

[Christopher]

Covers have to be ready months before the manuscript has to be ready, which I figure is because it takes longer to get the machinery set up to print them and because they need to be available for early promotion. So the cover blurb for a book is based on its outline rather than its final manuscript. If a book has to get a major rewrite done late in the game, it may not be possible to update the cover to reflect it. You just have to go with what you have.

I'm sure that generally in cases like this, every effort is made to keep the manuscript consistent with the pre-existing cover. But I'd assume that in this case, the story needed to be rewritten so fundamentally that there was no way to achieve that.

 

[PaulSimpson]

They were also a trap for lazy reviewers: I remember being sent reviews of the books which gave a great detailed critique of them... unfortunately, based on the plot on the back cover, not what was within!

Paul

 

[seigezunt]

Therin of Andor said:
I wish things had been a little better planned for the "lower decks" concept, though; it had great potential. Following Angela Martine through all her romances and heartbreaks might have been fun, partly why I started doing a matrix of "lower decks" characters. But Ryan's trilogy took place just after Robert Tomlinson's canonical death, so any plans to enrich our knowledge of the couple's ongoing romance and engagement was nipped in the bud, ie. totally abandoned.

I would have liked to have seen what happened to her, after apparently running into a tree in "Shore Leave."

Sounds like I will start something else before starting that Errand of Vengeance trilogy. I'm thinking Ex Machina or the Gary Seven or Garth of Izar books.

 

[JD]

Gary Seven books? Do you mean the Rise of Kahn Noonien Sing books or Assignment: Eternity? Or all three?

 

[Jack Bauer]

I really liked the second and third books. I found the first one boring due to the cave exploration parts. It just bored me to tears.

 

[Therin of Andor]

seigezunt said:
I would have liked to have seen what happened to her, after apparently running into a tree in "Shore Leave."

Maybe that's why she was called Lisa in "Turnabout Intruder". Amnesia.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Babaganoosh said:
About that whole thing with the Janus Gate back covers...why did that even happen?

The LA Graf team discuss it briefly in "Voyages of Imagination". They decided to change the third one quite radically after getting their original proposal approved, not realizing the three blurbs had already been written/printed. Of course, that can be a dangerous way to write a novel, since if John Ordover or Paula Block had not liked their new final version, they would have had to start over.

 

[seigezunt]

seigezunt said:

Therin of Andor said:
I wish things had been a little better planned for the "lower decks" concept, though; it had great potential. Following Angela Martine through all her romances and heartbreaks might have been fun, partly why I started doing a matrix of "lower decks" characters. But Ryan's trilogy took place just after Robert Tomlinson's canonical death, so any plans to enrich our knowledge of the couple's ongoing romance and engagement was nipped in the bud, ie. totally abandoned.

I would have liked to have seen what happened to her, after apparently running into a tree in "Shore Leave."

Sounds like I will start something else before starting that Errand of Vengeance trilogy. I'm thinking Ex Machina or the Gary Seven or Garth of Izar books.

an update, I'm reading the "Brother's Keeper" series, on the third novel now. Not quite as enjoyable, and I can't quite put my finger on why. And it's not because they continuity doesn't quite mesh with Enterprise: The First Adventure.