I can't wait to read Before Dishonor. So many of the reviews say it's just awful. That says to me that it's probably entertaining as fuck but also dumber than shit. That covers a lot of the Peter David experience. His books are rip-roaring fun. Roller coaster rides. Emotional experiences rather than cerebral ones. I'm not one of those folks who watch and read Trek to expand my social conscience and write a term paper. I want to feel an adrenaline rush, have a good laugh and maybe even a good cry. Peter David gives me that.
I'm not so sure about "dumber than shit". Being absurd and over-the-top is not the same as being dumb. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is absurd, and totally over-the-top, but has fully the best and most powerful story about death of a loved one that I've ever seen in any medium. Sometimes insanity of setting allows you the freedom to access emotional truths from a totally different context.
I think Peter David knows exactly what he's doing, and I think his stories can be some of the most powerful in TrekLit in part because of his absurdity.
There's a scene in Stone & Anvil where, I think, he basically explains this to the audience. While at Starfleet Academy in a series of flashbacks to her and Calhoun's time there, Shelby, depressed, comes across Boothby. She tells him he couldn’t possibly understand what’s going on in her life; he says “try me”. She says “my boyfriend is a former warlord who liberated his planet while still a teenager and has been working on fitting in here at the Academy even though he wears our concept of civilization like a cape that he wishes he could toss off at any time.” Boothby replies, “So he’s an outsider, is what you’re saying, trying to become an insider.” And he shrugs. “Seen a ton of those over the years.”
I think that's why this all works, the whole crazy evil-Gribble planet-hatching Redeemer-killing insanity that is New Frontier. As much as the details are ridiculous, the core of the series is in a set of characters living a set of very human struggles, presented sensitively and with a weird but genuine balance of both whimsy and import. In a lot of ways, to me, New Frontier feels more like reality than most serious Trek does, because reality always feels like a series of random obstacles. Reality doesn't really have a meta-narrative, it's just a bunch of crazy shit you have to deal with.
And as with reality, in PAD's writing it’s never the obstacles that are important – it’s the people. It’s admittedly a somewhat absurd craft, but at its best it's every bit the equal of the other greats of TrekLit. And I get a little annoyed every time anyone posts that the key to enjoying a PAD novel is to turn your brain off, be stupid, and enjoy the ride. His books actually make ME think MORE.
, but perhaps you're right - perhaps it isn't PAD's work that's changed but rather my own taste.
