Marco Palmieri's Star Trek Projects

[Jinn]

How important are A Singular Destiny, Paths of Disharmony and Brinkmanship to the second phase of the DS9 Relaunch? Are they skip-able like Seize the Fire, The Missing and Force and Motion seem to be? Or are they worth reading?

Paths of Disharmony is very important to the story of Shar and if you've got A Ceremony of Losses in your list you should definitely include Paths of Disharmony. The other two are, IIRC, not reall important to the overall DS9 narrative, they just feature Captain Dax.

 

[Stevil2001]

I haven't read The Missing yet, but surely any book written by Una McCormack could not be described as "skip-able." She's certainly the best author recruited by Marco during his time at S&S. (Willing to be corrected if I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.)

 

[Defcon]

I haven't read The Missing yet, but surely any book written by Una McCormack could not be described as "skip-able." She's certainly the best author recruited by Marco during his time at S&S. (Willing to be corrected if I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.)

Posts like this are when I would love to be able to do multiple likes. Couldn't agree more if I tried.

By the way: Marco and Una reunite next year:

http://www.tor.com/2017/03/28/una-mccormack-the-undefeated-announcement/

 

[JD]

Oooooo, that sounds really cool.

 

[20fridge]

How important are A Singular Destiny, Paths of Disharmony and Brinkmanship to the second phase of the DS9 Relaunch? Are they skip-able like Seize the Fire, The Missing and Force and Motion seem to be? Or are they worth reading?

I easily skipped A Singular Destiny at the time. It's a good book but most of the plot developments are easily summarized elsewhere. Brinkmanship sets up some Tzenkethi plot threads that are picked up elsewhere but beyond that it's not "essential" to the overall DS9 story.

As for Paths of Disharmony, I would say that there are some pretty major developments relating to Andor, Shar, and Federation politics as a whole which set the stage for The Fall and progress Shar's are from the first phase of the relaunch.

 

[Christopher]

A Singular Destiny is the transitional work between Destiny and the Typhon Pact narrative. It's the book where the Pact is introduced. It's also 1/4 of the loose post-Destiny book sequence that we informally called "Cleaning Up Mack's Mess," also including TNG: Losing the Peace, VGR: Full Circle, and TTN: Over a Torrent Sea. It doesn't really have any DS9 connection other than the Aventine crew.

 

[Paris]

KRAD's A Singular Destiny should not be skipped, as it was a great read. Brinkmanship kind of leads into Una's DS9: The Missing a bit, and i'd expect it leads somewhat into her next DS9 book, Enigma Tales. Hopefully

Also, I hope that if you skip Force and Motion, that you'll come back to it. It's a side story, but for fans of Nog and O'Brien, it was a great addition to the tapestry.

Maybe you answered it already and I missed it, but why are you trying to rush through everything @ OCD Geek ? You seem to be skipping some great books. Authors like Una McCormack and Jeffrey Lang are terrific, and they only get a trek novel slot every once in awhile..

 

[Idran]

Maybe you answered it already and I missed it, but why are you trying to rush through everything @ OCD Geek ? You seem to be skipping some great books. Authors like Una McCormack and Jeffrey Lang are terrific, and they only get a trek novel slot every once in awhile..

He did, yeah:

I also don't have much by way of expendable income, but I don't want to get anything used to save money. I want to buy everything via ebooks on Amazon. I understand that Trek-lit fandom is a sub-fandom within a cult fandom, and due to that I want some of my money to go to the authors to reward them for their work. Buying all of the intertwined post-Destiny Litverse novels is a major investment, even little by little over the course of several years.

That's why I'm trying to find a good natural jumping off point (like the fifth seasons of Buffy and Supernatural or the eighth seasons of The X-Files and Stargate SG-1) that provides needed closure. I'm cool with buying the Garak and Bashir arcs since they provide further closure to the Avatar-Unity arc and are supposed to be fantastic, but I'm unsure of Rough Beasts of Empire, Plagues of Night and Raise the Dawn. However, it seems I need to read them to get the most out of the Garak and Bashir arcs.

 

[Paris]

^Totally understandable then. Thanks for clearing it up

 

[Thrawn]

I haven't read The Missing yet, but surely any book written by Una McCormack could not be described as "skip-able." She's certainly the best author recruited by Marco during his time at S&S. (Willing to be corrected if I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.)

He recruited Kirsten Beyer, right? Otherwise, yes - agreed.

 

[Christopher]

In other non-Trek news, a new Max Gladstone novella edited by Marco, "The Scholast in the Low Waters Kingdom," has just been published on Tor.com.

 

[OCD Geek]

Alright, I'm just going to dive into the post-Palmieri stuff despite the sheer volume of it. Since the TNG and DS9 relaunches become extremely intertwined post-Destiny I'm going to look at both, minus the mostly self-contained "Alien of the Week" series Titan, as one ongoing megaseries.

Here's my new read list (not counting Vanguard, Beyer's Voyager Re-Relaunch, The Lost Era novel/TNG prequel The Buried Age plus The Lost Era novels/DS9 Relaunch prequels Serpents Among the Ruins, The Art of the Impossible and Terok Nor: Day of the Vipers).

Does this look like it would work okay? (Novels in bold are generally considered to be series highlights. Not that the non-bold ones are considered bad. They're just not as good as the bold ones.)

TNG: Immortal Coil (2002) Lang

DS9 Relaunch: "Season Eight" (10 volumes + novella; Avatar-Unity) 2001-2003

DS9 Relaunch: "Season Nine" (6 volumes; Worlds of DS9-The Soul Key) 2004-2009

DS9 Relaunch side stories

• A Stitch in Time (2000) Andrew J. Robinson
• The Left Hand of Destiny, Books I and II (2003) Lang with J.G. Hertzler
• Hollow Men (2005) McCormack
• Klingon Empire: A Burning House (2008) DeCandido
• The Never-Ending Sacrifice (2009) McCormack
• plus the anthologies The Lives of Dax & Prophecy and Change (1999 & 2003)

TNG: The Tezwa Incident and aftermath

• TNG: A Time to Kill (2004) Mack
• TNG: A Time to Heal (2004) Mack
• TNG: A Time for War, A Time for Peace (2004) DeCandido
• Articles of the Federation (2005) DeCandido

Would skipping the five post-Tezwa/pre-Destiny TNG novels work out okay? They seem to be... not loved, and I'd like to skip them if I can. *ducks* I know. I know, but still.

The Destiny Trilogy and aftermath

• Destiny: Gods of Night (2008) Mack
• Destiny: Mere Mortals (2008) Mack
• Destiny: Lost Souls (2008) Mack
• A Singular Destiny (2009) DeCandido

Post-Pamieri Interconnected DS9/TNG Re-Relaunch

• TNG: Losing the Peace (2009) Leisner
• Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire (2011) DRGIII
• Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game (2010) Mack
• Typhon Pact: Paths of Disharmony (2011) Ward
• Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night (2012) DRGIII
• Typhon Pact: Raise the Dawn (2012) DRGIII
• Typhon Pact: Brinkmanship (2012) McCormack
• TNG: Cold Equations: The Persistence of Memory (2012) Mack
• TNG: Cold Equations: Silent Weapons (2012) Mack
• TNG: Cold Equations: The Body Electric (2012) Mack
• The Fall: Revelation and Dust (2013) DRGIII
• The Fall: The Crimson Shadow (2013) McCormack
• The Fall: A Ceremony of Losses (2013) Mack
• The Fall: The Poisoned Chalice (2013) Swallow
• The Fall: Peaceable Kingdoms (2013) Ward

Okay, here's where it get's tricky. I've never been a fan of "Alien of the Week" episodes. I vastly prefer episodes that have a direct impact on the main characters I love and their home worlds (or major recurring threats like the Borg and Cardassians on TNG). The episodes that only impacted aliens of the week with the characters I care about be relegated to witnesses of their story just don't do it for me. Well, except for Darmok and The Inner Light.

Would skipping the post-Fall "Alien of the Week" TNG/DS9 novels (Takedown, Armageddon's Arrow, Headlong Flight, The Missing) work out alright?

Also, I'm going to hold of on DRGIII's post-Fall DS9 novels (in italics) for right now. They seem to be getting more mixed reactions than DRGIII's beloved early stuff did. I'll wait for the next couple to be released before deciding whether or not to forge ahead with his mainline DS9 novels.

How's John Jackson Miller's Prey trilogy? There doesn't really seem to be a lot of reviews here or elsewhere.

Post-Palmieri Interconnected DS9/TNG Re-Relaunch (continued)

• TNG: The Light Fantastic (2014) Lang
• Section 31: Disavowed (2014) Mack
• DS9: Sacraments of Fire (2015) DRGIII
• DS9: Ascendance (2015) DRGIII
• DS9: Force and Motion (2016) Lang
• Prey: Hell's Heart (2016) Miller
• Prey: The Jackal's Trick (2016) Miller
• Prey: The Hall of Heroes (2016) Miller
• DS9: The Long Mirage (2017) DRGIII
• Section 31: Control (2017) Mack
• DS9: Enigma Tales (2017) McCormack

 

[JD]

Destiny does continue some character arcs from the Titan books, so you might want to keep that in mind. Quite a few people did jump into them as their first Trek books, so you could probably get away with skipping them, but you'd still be missing stuff. The main storylines are "alien of the week" type stories, but there are character arcs that build through the books, so they're not totally standalone. You'd be missing out on Orion's Hounds which is a seriously awesome book. The first book also ties into the post-Nemesis Romulan stuff in Articles of Federation, so if you like that and you want more of that you might want to give it a go. That one ends on a cliffhanger that is resolved in book two, although to be honest that was my least favorite of the first five TTN books.

 

[OCD Geek]

Destiny does continue some character arcs from the Titan books, so you might want to keep that in mind. Quite a few people did jump into them as their first Trek books, so you could probably get away with skipping them, but you'd still be missing stuff. The main storylines are "alien of the week" type stories, but there are character arcs that build through the books, so they're not totally standalone. You'd be missing out on Orion's Hounds which is a seriously awesome book. The first book also ties into the post-Nemesis Romulan stuff in Articles of Federation, so if you like that and you want more of that you might want to give it a go. That one ends on a cliffhanger that is resolved in book two, although to be honest that was my least favorite of the first five TTN books.

Wait. There's character development and subplots/arcs in the "alien of the week" Next Gen and Titan novels? That certainly changes things. I thought they were patterned after the series. As much as I loved certain characters, TNG was far too standalone for my tastes. Aside from a handful of episodes (the annual Data, Worf/Klingons, Ensign Ro/Bajorans/Cardassians, Q and Borg episodes, and the occasional important one-shot like The First Duty or Yesterday's Enterprise) nothing of consequence ever happened to the main characters. They were relegated to being the supporting cast for that week's guest stars to bounce off of 90% of the time.

If the crossover TNG/DS9 relaunch & Titan is more along the lines of Buffy, Doctor Who and Seasons 3-5 of Supernatural (a mix myth arc episodes and "standalone" episodes that are still very much focused on our main characters rather then nearly solely on the one-off guest stars), then that's the Next Gen that I've always craved in my heart.

Those ebook novellas sound really interesting too and have been really well-received. Even the worst one isn't bad; people just say it could have been an amazing novel.

How's this? I'm going the skip Michael A. Martin's Seize the Fire/Fallen Gods since they're hated and it seems as though Swallow and Jackson's Titan novels might ignore them completely. I'll also be skipping DRGIII's post-Fall DS9 novels since they've received mixed reviews and apparently focus mostly on Ro and post-Palmieri newbies (It looks like I can follow the DS9 crew just fine through Mack's Section 31 duology, Lang's Force and Nature, McCormack's The Missing and Enigma Tales and Erdmann & Block's ebook novellas).

That's it though. I won't be skipping anything else. Was Indistinguishable from Magic ever retconned back into continuity, or is it still in limbo?

TNG/DS9 Joint Relaunch: The Post-Destiny Era

• Losing the Peace (2009) William Leisner Feb-March & May 2381
• Titan: Over a Torrent Sea (2009) Christopher L. Bennett Feb-April & July-August 2381 “Alien of the Week”
• Titan: Synthesis (2009) James Swallow Sept 2381 “Alien of the Week”
• Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire (2011) David R. George III Feb 2381-Feb 2382
• Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game (2010) David Mack April & August 2382
• Typhon Pact: Paths of Disharmony (2011) Dayton Ward Oct 2382
• Indistinguishable from Magic (2011) David A. McIntee 2382
• Typhon Pact: The Struggle Within (ebook novella; 2011) Christopher L. Bennett 2382
• Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night (2012) David R. George III April 2382-August 2383
• Typhon Pact: Raise the Dawn (2012) David R. George III Aug-Sept 2383, Sept 2384
• Typhon Pact: Brinkmanship (2012) Una McCormack Nov 2383
• Cold Equations: The Persistence of Memory (2012) David Mack Jan 2384
• Cold Equations: Silent Weapons (2012) David Mack March & June 2384
• Cold Equations: The Body Electric (2012) David Mack July 2384
• The Stuff of Dreams (ebook novella; 2013) James Swallow Oct 2384
• The Fall: Revelation and Dust (2013) David R. George III August-Sept 2385
• The Fall: The Crimson Shadow (2013) Una McCormack August-Sept 2385
• The Fall: A Ceremony of Losses (2013) David Mack August-Sept 2385
• The Fall: The Poisoned Chalice (2013) James Swallow Sept-Oct 2385
• The Fall: Peaceable Kingdoms (2013) Dayton Ward Oct-Nov 2385

TNG/DS9 Joint Relaunch: The Post-Fall Era

• Titan: Absent Enemies (ebook novella; 2014) John Jackson Miller Nov 2385 “Alien of the Week”
• The Light Fantastic (2014) Jeffrey Lang Nov 2385
• Lust's Latinum Lost (and Found) (ebook novella; 2014) Terry J. Erdmann & Paula M. Block Nov 2385
• The Missing (2014) Una McCormack Nov 2385 “Alien of the Week”
• Takedown (2015) John Jackson Miller Nov 2385 “Alien of the Week”
• Rules of Accusation (ebook novella; 2016) Terry J. Erdmann & Paula M. Block Nov-Dec 2385
• Armageddon's Arrow (2015) Dayton Ward Early Jan 2386 “Alien of the Week”
• Section 31: Disavowed (2014) David Mack Jan 2386
• Force and Motion (2016) Jeffrey Lang Jan 2386
• Titan: Sight Unseen (2015) James Swallow Early 2386 “Alien of the Week”
• Prey: Hell's Heart (2016) John Jackson Miller March 2386
• Prey: The Jackal's Trick (2016) John Jackson Miller April 2386
• Prey: The Hall of Heroes (2016) John Jackson Miller May 2386
• Headlong Flight (2017) Dayton Ward 2386 “Alien of the Week”
• Section 31: Control (2017) David Mack Late 2386
• Hearts and Minds (2017) Dayton Ward 2386 “Alien of the Week”
• Enigma Tales (2017) Una McCormack
• I, the Constable (ebook novella; 2017) Terry J. Erdmann & Paula M. Block
• Titan: Fortune of War (2017) David Mack

 

[Idran]

Was Indistinguishable from Magic ever retconned back into continuity, or is it still in limbo?

As far as I know, it was never actually not in continuity with the rest of Treklit, that was just an exaggeration/misinterpretation on the part of the fandom because of some minor bumps. It's never been outright contradicted or anything, and I believe it has been referenced directly since, though I'm blanking on specifics. I'm pretty sure some book referred to Geordi's brief time as captain, I just can't remember what exactly.

 

[Jinn]

As far as I know, it was never actually not in continuity with the rest of Treklit, that was just an exaggeration/misinterpretation on the part of the fandom because of some minor bumps. It's never been outright contradicted or anything, and I believe it has been referenced directly since, though I'm blanking on specifics. I'm pretty sure some book referred to Geordi's brief time as captain, I just can't remember what exactly.

I think one of DRG3's Typhon Pact novels mention the events from Indistinguishabel from magic.

 

[Thrawn]

I know this has gone around a couple times but OCD Geek you really don't want to skip DRG3's post-Fall DS9 novels. In particular, the first two of them after The Fall finish a MAJOR plot line that the DS9 Relaunch leaves hanging at the end of The Soul Key, and despite some excessive recapping along the way the conclusion is awesome.

 

[marlboro]

The OP contains a list of some of the very best trek books, imo.

Would it be an exaggeration to say that Marco Palmieri is one of the top ten or maybe even top 5 behind the scenes guys in Trek history? By "behind the scenes" I mean someone who isn't an iconic actor or writer but still had a major influence on the franchise.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The Canary Trainer is, unfortunately, pretty weak sauce. The concept has promise -- Sherlock Holmes matching wits with the Phantom of the Opera during the Great Hiatus -- but Meyer doesn't execute it very well, and it doesn't help that Sam Siciliano did, at almost the same time, virtually the same story only much better in The Angel of the Opera. If you want to read a Holmes vs. the Opera Ghost novel, read Siciliano's, not Meyer's.

I disagree. I found Meyer's The Canary Trainer a lot of fun. Despite a couple of attempts, I've never been able to get very far into Siciliano's The Angel of the Opera. The opening bit of "That stupid Watson didn't know what he was talking about and totally mischaracterized Holmes; I'll tell you the real story" just irritates me too much. Meyer did that sort of thing in The Seven Per-Cent Solution too, but it worked for me there because it still presented me with a Holmes that I could recognize. Siciliano's version just seems to me like he was too lazy to try and get Doyle's Holmes right.

Great cover, though.

 

[Lonemagpie]

As far as I know, it was never actually not in continuity with the rest of Treklit, that was just an exaggeration/misinterpretation on the part of the fandom because of some minor bumps. It's never been outright contradicted or anything, and I believe it has been referenced directly since, though I'm blanking on specifics. I'm pretty sure some book referred to Geordi's brief time as captain, I just can't remember what exactly.

That and Ed Schlesinger flat-out told me they'd take it out of continuity. Thankfully in the end this seems not to have happened, as others have briefly mentioned some elements from it.