Praise for Christopher Bennett (others?)

[Smitty]

Just a quick note. I started reading Titan novel "Orion's Hound" at lunch today. At the end of my reading time I just finished page 76. Knowing that most Star Trek books make subtle reference to prior episodes and books I saw a reference on that page to "Alexander of Platonius". I quickly went to his annotations section of his website for this book and discovered who Alexander was! Of course!
The praise is for the fact that Christopher created the annotations and posts them on his website . Do any other Star Trek others do that by chance?
Thanks

 

[Paris]

I think that KRAD also does annotations....

 

[TheAlmanac]

This list should help you out.

 

[William Leisner]

^ Unfortunately, my entries on that list went bye-bye when AOL decided offering web space was to long-time loyal customers was just too much to ask of them.

 

[OmahaStar]

You'll notice Andy Mangels, Michael Martin, and Dayton Ward started this. Krad took it and ran. Christopher just jumped on the existing bandwagon, copying what the authors were doing.

 

[Smitty]

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback, I thought others might have been doing it, hence the (others?) part. It really adds a level to the enjoyment of the book. I will have to go look at the annotations of a some of the previous books I have already read. I am sort of new to all the "modern" books that are out now. I have so much to catch up on!

 

[Deranged Nasat]

One of the many, many things I appreciate about Bennett as an author is the time he clearly takes creating these annotations to give us readers more insight into his stories and their creation.

 

[Ktrek]

One of the many, many things I appreciate about Bennett as an author is the time he clearly takes creating these annotations to give us readers more insight into his stories and their creation.

One of the things I appreciate about Chris is that, he is such a damn good writer he doesn't need annotations, but he gives them to us anyway!

Kevin

 

[Bonzo the Fifth]

Annotations aren't a sign of bad writing. Just a convenience for those of us curious about references and callbacks to old, crusty canon. To me, it adds a whole new level of appreciation to some works, and, in some cases, really gets you insight into the writer's mind when they were putting it down. Not to mention, I'm geek enough that I like obscure trivia and those who use it.

Obviously, I, too, am a fan. Hard to pick a particular favorite, but if pressed, I think I'd go with The Buried Age. Fantastic stuff, that.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Annotations aren't a sign of bad writing. Just a convenience for those of us curious about references and callbacks to old, crusty canon. To me, it adds a whole new level of appreciation to some works, and, in some cases, really gets you insight into the writer's mind when they were putting it down. Not to mention, I'm geek enough that I like obscure trivia and those who use it.

Obviously, I, too, am a fan. Hard to pick a particular favorite, but if pressed, I think I'd go with The Buried Age. Fantastic stuff, that.

I've enjoyed all of his books thus far, but Ex Machina and Orion's Hounds are tied first for me.

 

[Christopher]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I do annotations because I've always loved "behind-the-scenes" stuff, and because I love worldbuilding, exploring the details of a universe. The temptation is always to put all your research on the page, but anything that isn't necessary to the story should be omitted. An annotations page is a place to put in all that extra detail that wasn't needed for the story but that some readers might be interested in anyway. (Lots of SF and fantasy novels have appendices for this kind of thing, but that's rarely done in Trek fiction.)

It's also my college training at work: always cite your sources and show your work. And I think science fiction can inspire learning, so I provide discussion and links about the real science underlying my fiction in order to "help you Read More About It," as they used to say after movies and specials on CBS. For me, explaining Trek continuity and backstory references is the smallest part of my reasons for doing annotations.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I do annotations because I've always loved "behind-the-scenes" stuff, and because I love worldbuilding, exploring the details of a universe. The temptation is always to put all your research on the page, but anything that isn't necessary to the story should be omitted. An annotations page is a place to put in all that extra detail that wasn't needed for the story but that some readers might be interested in anyway. (Lots of SF and fantasy novels have appendices for this kind of thing, but that's rarely done in Trek fiction.)

It's also my college training at work: always cite your sources and show your work. And I think science fiction can inspire learning, so I provide discussion and links about the real science underlying my fiction in order to "help you Read More About It," as they used to say after movies and specials on CBS. For me, explaining Trek continuity and backstory references is the smallest part of my reasons for doing annotations.

This is essentially your annotation for the annotations....