Novelizations worth reading

[JD]

Assassin's Creed incident?

 

[Trent Roman]

I love Rob Sawyer's stuff... In the past week, I've read his two most recent books, 'Rollback' and 'Mindscan'. I find what draws me to Sawyer's stuff is the same as what draws me to Christopher Bennett's. I always feel like I've educated myself in some way, as well as the work causing me to think hard about morality.

Yes, I quite agree - excellant comparison! There's a similar creative outlook in that both take a scientific principle or postulate and then explore the consequences and implications, engaging with the subject matter with thoroughness and nuance.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Timewalker]

Sadly, I must disagree with you. She also wrote the first TNG novel after Encounter at Farpoint. She had Beverly Crusher sashaying around the Bridge, showing how she was both feminine and a competent doctor at the same time... (this forum lacks an appropriate smiley to express my opinion of her writing)

Carey was working from the TNG Bible, which described Crusher in rather sexualized terms, including the phrase "strip-tease queen." It's the same reason Riker is called "Bill" in the book; that's what the Bible said. There weren't any finished episodes when she was writing Ghost Ship, and the way characters were described ultimately didn't match up with the way they were portrayed. Is it awkward to read? Yes. Is it entirely her fault that the book feels off? No.

The Bill/Will difference is trivial. He was called "Bill" in a couple of early episodes (ie. "The Naked Now").

But the characterizations in Ghost Ship are just dreadful, period. There's really no excuse for such clunky, wooden writing.

But Alan Dean Foster remains the best at adapting episodic Star Trek. The Log books are really good, and even the worst clunkers of the Animated Series get decent treatment. The final three were even expanded into novel-length stories, so Foster gave us some wonderful original Trek content.

The final four, actually.

I sit corrected.

 

[JoeZhang]

I wonder, though, if the Assassin's Creed incident may have turned off Barnes on tie-in fiction.

Please explain further.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I wonder, though, if the Assassin's Creed incident may have turned off Barnes on tie-in fiction.

Please explain further.

Barnes wrote an Assassin's Creed trilogy for Pocket, and Pocket killed it when the modern-day Hashashim took offense. Here's some more details.

 

[Christopher]

But the characterizations in Ghost Ship are just dreadful, period. There's really no excuse for such clunky, wooden writing.

As stated, she was working purely from the first-draft bible and the "Farpoint" script, so she had little to go on. And she couldn't risk extrapolating beyond the bible's character summaries, for fear of contradiction by later episodes (although the bible got contradicted plenty, as it turned out). So Carey was kind of stuck with the bare-bones characterizations she had. It would be a difficult situation for any writer.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I always feel like I've educated myself in some way, as well as the work causing me to think hard about morality.

I usually get similar feelings with the SF works of David Gerrold, Larry Niven, Vonda McIntyre - and certainly all of David Mack's ST stuff.

 

[Therin of Andor]

But the characterizations in Ghost Ship are just dreadful, period. There's really no excuse for such clunky, wooden writing.

I remember when "Ghost Ship" came out - and we knew that the author had been given an almost impossible assignment - to somehow channel what Season One would be like beyond a Writers' Guide. Gene DeWeese had little more to go on for "The Peacekeepers". But to hold TNG novels in one's hand... it was even more exciting than finding my first ever ST original novel after seeing TMP on the big screen: "The Fate of the Phoenix"!

Cut Carey some slack here!

 

[Timewalker]

But the characterizations in Ghost Ship are just dreadful, period. There's really no excuse for such clunky, wooden writing.

I remember when "Ghost Ship" came out - and we knew that the author had been given an almost impossible assignment - to somehow channel what Season One would be like beyond a Writers' Guide. Gene DeWeese had little more to go on for "The Peacekeepers". But to hold TNG novels in one's hand... it was even more exciting than finding my first ever ST original novel after seeing TMP on the big screen: "The Fate of the Phoenix"!

Cut Carey some slack here!

Ohmygod. You had to remind me of the dreck that was the "Phoenix" books (Price and Fate). Sad to say, some of the early novels were no more than fanfiction that happened to be in the right place at the right time.

There is ONE Carey book that wasn't too awful -- the one about the Borg. The others, however, were just a tragic waste of trees (naturally, that is my own opinion, not intended to be taken as a Fact).

Of course, there are other ST authors I enjoy who others don't -- opinions vary.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Ohmygod. You had to remind me of the dreck that was the "Phoenix" books (Price and Fate). Sad to say, some of the early novels were no more than fanfiction that happened to be in the right place at the right time.

But, as a new fan in 1980, I had very little to compare them to.

There is ONE Carey book that wasn't too awful -- the one about the Borg.

"Descent"? I was underwhelmed by that one. As an avid Data and Lore fan, I was expecting lots of additional scenes but, IIRC, they were few and far between.

 

[CDP]

I like the Domion war Tng & Deep space nine crossover books . I thought it was good they filled in the missing scenes we didn't get to see on the ds9 series when Jadzia had missions behind the line. Sisko and Martok doing intell work to get Admiral Ross in on the action. And Sisko's friend Captain Charlie Reynolds and his crew that were lost during thr war..

i second these. I liked the gap fillers, and Sisko engineering his posting to the admiralty, and i could visulaise the defints rapid fireing torpedoes designed to punch their way out of the mission to distry the dominions spy array thing-a-me-bob-jobby.

I did find the Tex story line a bit strabnge though (hillbillies in space etc). I can only assume that Diane Carey is a redneck ;-)

best,

CDP

 

[Christopher]

and i could visulaise the defints rapid fireing torpedoes designed to punch their way out of the mission to distry the dominions spy array thing-a-me-bob-jobby.

Those rapid-firing weapons weren't torpedoes, they were pulse phaser cannons.