Pocket's '08 -'09 schedule - LOTS of new covers!

[jgdst]

I thought so... I tried to check, but I'm scared of The Man watching me waste company time

Thanks

 

[ATimson]

They don't have to be in the same (totally made-up) "reality" to be part of the same franchise.

But being part of the same franchise doesn't imply coexistence of the actual parts, merely of abstractions thereof. They're scarcely more connected than Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5.

So it's ridiculous to say they "go out of their way to make it impossible to coexist," as if DRGIII were somehow rejecting or repudiating what the rest of us do. He simply made a conscious choice to explore a different variation on the theme. Which, in a sense, is no different from what we're doing in Myriad Universes, just more subtle.

In a sense, yeah, but Myriad Universes sounds like authors are going to be deliberately playing with the divergences, showing previously known events respun; Crucible did things differently, but without that contrast. (Unless it's there--in that case, I think he overdid the subtlety. )

 

[Christopher]

They don't have to be in the same (totally made-up) "reality" to be part of the same franchise.

But being part of the same franchise doesn't imply coexistence of the actual parts, merely of abstractions thereof. They're scarcely more connected than Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5.

That depends on how you define "coexistence." They may not "exist" within the same fictional continuity, but none of that actually exists anyway. The stories only exist as works of fiction for our enjoyment, and it's entirely possible for stories in different continuities to coexist peacefully on our shelves, in our minds, and in our affections. It strikes me as self-defeating to elevate mutual consistency above all other factors in how one judges the value of works of fiction, which are all equally unreal anyway.

So it's ridiculous to say they "go out of their way to make it impossible to coexist," as if DRGIII were somehow rejecting or repudiating what the rest of us do. He simply made a conscious choice to explore a different variation on the theme. Which, in a sense, is no different from what we're doing in Myriad Universes, just more subtle.

In a sense, yeah, but Myriad Universes sounds like authors are going to be deliberately playing with the divergences, showing previously known events respun; Crucible did things differently, but without that contrast. (Unless it's there--in that case, I think he overdid the subtlety. )

So not the point. The point is that whether two works of fiction are consistent with each other or not doesn't matter to their worth as stories. It's an option. That's all.

I mean, really, it's only in the past seven or eight years that there's been any large-scale consistency among Trek novels. For a good twenty years before that, continuity among different books was an occasional, optional thing, even a forbidden thing for part of that time. And consistency between novels and comics was infrequent at best. So the idea that it's some kind of inexcusable aberration for different novels to be in different continuities -- that's either rewriting history or being profoundly unaware of history. There are at least dozens of different, incompatible "realities" that the thousand-plus Trek novels, ebooks, comics, and audio books fall into. The current Pocket continuity encompasses maybe, at a rough guess, about 15 percent of the whole, give or take a few percent.

 

[ronny]

It is cool that there's a continuity between the most of the newer books but I'm not a slave to only liking books in it.

Imzadi and Provenance of Shadows are two of my favorite ST books. And they contradict each other in a rather important way. Totally doesn't matter to me. Both tell great stories.

 

[Cicero]

As things stand, I plan to buy:

Star Trek Destiny: Gods of Night
Star Trek Vanguard: Open Secrets
Star Trek Deep Space Nine: 'The Soul Key'
Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Never Ending Sacrifice
Star Trek Vanguard: (Book Five)

And maybe
Star Trek Destiny: Mere Mortals
Star Trek Destiny: Lost Souls
Star Trek: A Singular Destiny
Star Trek Titan: Over A Torrent Sea
Star Trek The Next Generation: Losing The Peace
Star Trek Titan: (Book Six)

 

[David R. George III]

...on the whole, yes, they [the three books of the Crucible trilogy] go out of their way to make it impossible to coexist with other novels.

Hi, Andrew. I can promise you that I did not "go out of my way" to contradict other works of Trek literature. In fact, as you noted, there are numerous places where the trilogy remains consistent with other novels. The underlying methodology for the series, though, was predicated on a strict adherence to, and even an emphasis on--dare I say it?--canon material. One of the reasons for this was to cultivate a celebration of the original series at its fortieth anniversary, and another was to provide a "jumping-on point" for readers new to Star Trek lit. My only point here is to let you know that at no time did I purposefully attempt to contradict other Trek works.

 

[David Mack]

As things stand, I plan to buy:

Star Trek Destiny: Gods of Night

And maybe
Star Trek Destiny: Mere Mortals
Star Trek Destiny: Lost Souls

Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, man. ;-)

 

[ATimson]

So not the point. The point is that whether two works of fiction are consistent with each other or not doesn't matter to their worth as stories. It's an option. That's all.

I wasn't trying to impart worth, or at least, not to the stories themselves.

 

[ATimson]

Hi, Andrew. I can promise you that I did not "go out of my way" to contradict other works of Trek literature. In fact, as you noted, there are numerous places where the trilogy remains consistent with other novels. The underlying methodology for the series, though, was predicated on a strict adherence to, and even an emphasis on--dare I say it?--canon material. One of the reasons for this was to cultivate a celebration of the original series at its fortieth anniversary, and another was to provide a "jumping-on point" for readers new to Star Trek lit. My only point here is to let you know that at no time did I purposefully attempt to contradict other Trek works.

First, I'd like to apologize; my original statement was definitely phrased unfairly, imparting motive with nothing to back that up.

That said, while I understand that your basis was the canon, there were times where it felt like the points where they didn't adhere to the other stories were done for their own sake, and not because the stories were aided by them. (Most especially the end of the five-year mission, and the Aquarius Formation mission, in the McCoy volume. The differences in Spock's story are more readily understandable by me.)

Still, I should have found a more accurate way of phrasing it than I did, and for that you have my apologies.

 

[captcalhoun]

i'm buying:

Wounds
Destiny trilogy
A Singular Destiny
Over a Torrent Sea
Vanguard #4 and #5
The Soul Key
the MU antho
the Se7en antho
Out of the Coccoon
the next TNG one
Titan #6
Mere Anarchy


all these destiny tie-ins, i feel like a comics fan with Secret Invasion or Civil War...

Star Trek: Titan #5 Over a Torrent Sea

Christpher L Bennet, cover by Alex Ross

DESTINY TIE-IN!!! Who lives and who dies in the latest issue of this USA Today best-selling series?!

 

[David R. George III]

First, I'd like to apologize; my original statement was definitely phrased unfairly, imparting motive with nothing to back that up.

Andrew, no apologies are necessary. I didn't take your comments as some sort of slight, but simply as a misstatement or misunderstanding of fact. I just wanted to set the record straight.

That said, while I understand that your basis was the canon, there were times where it felt like the points where they didn't adhere to the other stories were done for their own sake, and not because the stories were aided by them.

I take you at your word that my choices seemed arbitrary, perhaps even capricious, to you. I can only tell you that I had reasons for everything I wrote.

No big deal. Perhaps my next work, whatever that might turn out to be, will be more to your liking....

 

[Thrawn]

First, I'd like to apologize; my original statement was definitely phrased unfairly, imparting motive with nothing to back that up.

Andrew, no apologies are necessary. I didn't take your comments as some sort of slight, but simply as a misstatement or misunderstanding of fact. I just wanted to set the record straight.

That said, while I understand that your basis was the canon, there were times where it felt like the points where they didn't adhere to the other stories were done for their own sake, and not because the stories were aided by them.

I take you at your word that my choices seemed arbitrary, perhaps even capricious, to you. I can only tell you that I had reasons for everything I wrote.

No big deal. Perhaps my next work, whatever that might turn out to be, will be more to your liking....

Speaking of which, I don't think I've seen this asked anywhere yet - the Pocket schedule said there'd be new story content in the Crucible hardcover. How much story content will there be? They said that about some of the Signature reprints, and there ended up being one or two edits and a couple extra pages. I won't be disappointed if that's the case, I'd just like to know ahead of time, if that's allowed by contract etc.

Thanks!

 

[Therin of Andor]

How much story content will there be? They said that about some of the Signature reprints, and there ended up being one or two edits and a couple extra pages.

That's not my memory of the original SE announcement(s).

We were told that "Pantheon" would have a different internal arrangement and a new bridging piece (which turned out to be seven Guinan paragraphs, about what I expected). "The Q Continuum" was announced as having some stardate corrections, which it did - and the Vonda McIntyre ST II/III/IV novelization omnibus, "Duty, Honor, Redemption", corrected spelling errors for "McGiver" (sic) and re-set Sulu's rank to better match onscreen evidence from the movies.

The bonus material included a few auuthor introductions, plus short (but excellent), author interviews (in the first four books) by Kevin Dilmore. Short text pieces by Terry Erdmann, talking to other ST luminaries, were in the final three.

 

[David R. George III]

Speaking of which, I don't think I've seen this asked anywhere yet - the Pocket schedule said there'd be new story content in the Crucible hardcover. How much story content will there be? They said that about some of the Signature reprints, and there ended up being one or two edits and a couple extra pages. I won't be disappointed if that's the case, I'd just like to know ahead of time, if that's allowed by contract etc.

Without going into detail, I can say that there will be more new content than "one or two edits and a couple extra pages."

 

[ATimson]

No big deal. Perhaps my next work, whatever that might turn out to be, will be more to your liking....

As someone who's greatly enjoyed your prior Trek novels and stories, I hope so.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Speaking of which, I don't think I've seen this asked anywhere yet - the Pocket schedule said there'd be new story content in the Crucible hardcover. How much story content will there be? They said that about some of the Signature reprints, and there ended up being one or two edits and a couple extra pages. I won't be disappointed if that's the case, I'd just like to know ahead of time, if that's allowed by contract etc.

Without going into detail, I can say that there will be more new content than "one or two edits and a couple extra pages."

So this is like Crucible: The Director's Cut with extra footage and such?

 

[Ktrek]

Without going into detail, I can say that there will be more new content than "one or two edits and a couple extra pages."

It would be great David if you could improve on the Spock and Kirk volumes. I would leave McCoy alone as it is one of your finest works. If you did improve Kirk and Spock I might then reconsider purchasing the series again in hardcover. Otherwise it will be the first time a Star Trek HC has been released and I not made a purchase.

Kevin

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Are the rumors of new Crucible novels, in any way true?

Spoiler: Crucible

possibly involving Scotty and Uhura

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

I think Chekov would clearly be the next character in line.

 

[Cicero]

As things stand, I plan to buy:

Star Trek Destiny: Gods of Night

And maybe
Star Trek Destiny: Mere Mortals
Star Trek Destiny: Lost Souls

Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, man. ;-)

For what it's worth, my interest in the first book (and the series) is mostly because you're writing it. The current Borg plot has been awful in concept and execution so far, but I have some hope that the consistent skill of your execution will overcome the deficiencies of the situation.

(I've loved all but one of your novels which I've read - the one was only very entertaining, not outstanding - while I've disliked every book so far released which takes place after A Time To Heal, even though I've really enjoyed some of the new characters, such as Pinero and Kadohata.)