Shouldn't it be a "Biography", not an autobiography? Picard himself didn't write it.
Spoilers Picard Autobiography by David Goodman - Discussion and Review Thread
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It's written as though he did. This is hardly the first time a fictional character is credited as being the author of a real book, Star Trek has even done it before with the STO tie-in novel listing Jake Sisko as its author. This is not a new concept.
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Are you saying Jake Sisko didn't write it?
Though each author also had their own take on how first-persony each book was. In some it was cover-to-cover, in others it was just the story being told, and the framing sequences were in regular ol' third person.
Yeah, I remember the Pike entry being third-person bar parts and first-person story parts. Crazy theory time: Maybe the author recorded Pike's story and Pike recorded the events in the bar, kind of like a "making of".
Books being credited to fictional characters has been happening quite a bit these days. Along with this one, there's the Kirk autobiography, the Nikki Heat books, which are credited to Richard Castle, the fiction lead character of the TV series Castle, God Hates Us All, which is credited to the fictional lead of Californication, Hank Moody. There was also a Lost book credited to a character who died in the plane crash, How to Archer, which is credited to Sterling Archer from Archer, and later this year they are going to be releasing a new in universe Planet of the Apes book which is credited to the Orangutan, Maurice, and The World According to Rick, which is credited to Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty..
That's been going on for centuries. Swift's Gulliver's Travels was presented as a memoir by Gulliver himself. And even though the authors usually used their own names, it was common for 18th- and 19th-century novels (especially genre novels) to be written as first-person narratives by the main characters, either "told to" the author or found and published by them. H.G. Wells's The Time Machine is presented as the author's transcription of the Time Traveller's first-person account to him. Bram Stoker's Dracula is an epistolary novel presented as a compilation of letters, interview transcripts, news reports, etc., and the process by which Mina Harker compiled the novel is itself an integral part of the story, like the prose equivalent of a found-footage horror movie. So this used to be more the norm than the exception, at least in how the stories were told if not how they were credited.
But in-universe nonfiction supplements have been around for decades too. You could say that Star Trek technical manuals and reference books tend to fall into that category, though they're not usually credited to actual Trek characters (aside from Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise). Although there was the ST:TMP novelization with its preface by Admiral Kirk. Twin Peaks had The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer and, I think, a book of Agent Cooper's reports to Diane as in-universe tie-ins. There have been mystery novels credited to Murder, She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher since long before the Castle novels started. Harry Potter had a couple of Hogwarts textbooks, including Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them -- the one case I know of where the tie-in came first and the character second.
I checked this one out from my local library and plowed through it in a couple of days. Like Kirk's Autobiography, I found this one a good, interesting read, filling in a lot of details about Picard and his life pre-Next Generation and even some of his life post-Nemesis. And like before, it challenged my preconceptions about the various supporting characters who've been expanded upon differently in the lit-verse, not necessarily in a bad way but they felt like different characters with the same name.
Like with Kirk, it was good to see Picard didn't just spend all of his time on ships, but also served on some command staffs during certain lulls. And, as one previous reviewer posted in this thread, Picard seems to have run into, served with, served under, or commanded nearly Admiral ever seen in Trek TV - I recognized most of them by name, but had to look up a couple on Memory Alpha and Beta.
The establishment of the position of "First Captain", or the commanding officer of a ship's shakedown cruise before turning command over to another officer was intriguing and not one I can recall seeing in Trek lit before and this book had two: Captain J.P. Hanson in the 2320s (who served as First Captain of the Enterprise-C before Rachel Garrett) and Tom Halloway.
One aspect of this story that I didn't particularly like was that most of Picard's old friends were Captains of the ships destroyed at Wolf 359. I mean, it made sense in the story and helped drive Picard's guilt, but it did seem a little too "small universe syndrome". Also, I missed the characters established in the Stargazer novels, but each of the "replacement" characters worked more-or-less just fine.
The most surprising twist of this story also turned out to be one of my favorites: the fact that Maurice Picard applied to but failed to get into Starfleet Academy.
I do have some questions about the timeline, particularly the post-Nemesis stuff: when did Picard become an Ambassador and Beverly take command of the Pasteur? Was that right after the movie (2379/2380), or a year or two later? And finally having him settle down in France, taking over his family's vineyards, was a nice happily ever after moment.
Like with Kirk, it was good to see Picard didn't just spend all of his time on ships, but also served on some command staffs during certain lulls. And, as one previous reviewer posted in this thread, Picard seems to have run into, served with, served under, or commanded nearly Admiral ever seen in Trek TV - I recognized most of them by name, but had to look up a couple on Memory Alpha and Beta.
The establishment of the position of "First Captain", or the commanding officer of a ship's shakedown cruise before turning command over to another officer was intriguing and not one I can recall seeing in Trek lit before and this book had two: Captain J.P. Hanson in the 2320s (who served as First Captain of the Enterprise-C before Rachel Garrett) and Tom Halloway.
One aspect of this story that I didn't particularly like was that most of Picard's old friends were Captains of the ships destroyed at Wolf 359. I mean, it made sense in the story and helped drive Picard's guilt, but it did seem a little too "small universe syndrome". Also, I missed the characters established in the Stargazer novels, but each of the "replacement" characters worked more-or-less just fine.
The most surprising twist of this story also turned out to be one of my favorites: the fact that Maurice Picard applied to but failed to get into Starfleet Academy.
I do have some questions about the timeline, particularly the post-Nemesis stuff: when did Picard become an Ambassador and Beverly take command of the Pasteur? Was that right after the movie (2379/2380), or a year or two later? And finally having him settle down in France, taking over his family's vineyards, was a nice happily ever after moment.
I just posted my review of this one on YouTube! I really enjoyed it for the most part. David Goodman definitely knows his Trek, and I appreciated how he wove everything together.
I just picked this up and started yesterday afternoon. I'm already half way through and i'm quite enjoying it. My only real question is about Jack Crusher's age. I guess I thought he was closer to Beverley's age, as opposed to being about 6 years younger than Picard. I think Bev was born in 2324, while Jack seems to have been born in 2311 or so. It doesn't really matter, I guess I was just surprised. This would mean he was 40 when Wesley was born, and TNG depicted him as a Lieutenant in the recording he made for Wes. Since he seems to be a very capable officer, i found it odd that he went that long with only 1 or 2 promotions.
anyways...
Maybe this gets answered later on in the book.
And sorry if this has already been dealt with upthread
anyways...
Maybe this gets answered later on in the book.
And sorry if this has already been dealt with upthread
Quick note: was checking out the TP edition of this book and the footnote has been corrected from the earlier hardcover edition.
I've just finished this and was not a fan. It was the most basic connecting the dots on Picard's past, with very little new insight. The only time we really get the kind of "dirt" I'd love from these "autobiographies" is the revelation that Picard didn't like Pulaski and was already planning to oust her when she requested a transfer. The post-Enterprise stuff was of mild interest, and turned out to be a fusion of "All Good Things" and the Countdown comic miniseries.
Chapter 8: 'My night with Vash' was my favorite bit.
THAT is the Picard biog I want to read. With Chapter 13: I was really Wesley's dad.
M
marlboro
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Chapter 17: What Really Happened on Veridian IIII
I won't spoil it for those that haven't read it, but I will say that the chapter ends with Picard sitting on a pile of stones while wearing Kirk's toupee and giggling like a maniac.
I won't spoil it for those that haven't read it, but I will say that the chapter ends with Picard sitting on a pile of stones while wearing Kirk's toupee and giggling like a maniac.
I don't know about anyone else but I feel that Pulaski got a bit of a raw deal from Picard.
Although it is a personal memoir, so you'd expect personal opinions to come through.
A question to Mr Goodman. Did you allow your own fondness or dislike for characters to shine through on the page, or did you rein yourself in?
If I were an author, I certainly would deal harshly with characters I don't like.
Although it is a personal memoir, so you'd expect personal opinions to come through.
A question to Mr Goodman. Did you allow your own fondness or dislike for characters to shine through on the page, or did you rein yourself in?
If I were an author, I certainly would deal harshly with characters I don't like.
This is what can be quite difficult about these type of books - the characters have to have something interesting to say but I couldn't picture JLP ever discussing such stuff about a fellow officer in print...
M
marlboro
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The man needs to write a Futurama/TNG crossover comic.
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