Reader's Reference to Trek novels?

[F. King Daniel]

I came across this while browsing Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1449022731

By Alva Underwood. Several volumes are available. It looks like it's trying to be an Encyclopedia or Memory Beta-style reference work for the novels.

Does anyone have any of these? Is there anything not available for free online?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Does anyone have any of these? Is there anything not available for free online?

I bought the first one. It's essentially one fan's encyclopedic guide to the early novels, the kind of thing a fan might have written for a fanzine or newsletter in the 70s, 80s or 90s. Even though I'm a ST book completist, I really haven't felt a burning need to buy more volumes, mainly because it's the kind of book I could have written myself. It's a vanity press, isn't it?; a more professional-looking, square-bound product than the old A4, offset-printed fanzines of yore, but not the kind of book that would sell in commercial quantities.
http://www.well.com/~sjroby/lcars/author.html#under

I like Steve Roby's comment on his website:

"Though the basic idea behind this series of books is a good one, at the current rate of publication, even if Underwood stays with original series novels only, this series may never catch up with the novels being published. Meanwhile, readers interested in certain topics or characters that reappear in several books will have to consult several volumes to get all the relevant information."

You get a more rounded and "official" overview of the ST fiction (plus interview snippets from the authors and editors) from Jeff Ayers' "Voyages of Imagination", even if lacking concordance-style entries.

Is there really a need to do encyclopedic entries for all the original characters/planets/events across such a number of volumes?

And yes, Memory Beta fills the niche for that encyclopedic aspect (and is readily updatable - and free), together with all the freely submitted book reviews from ST fans on Amazon.

 

[Lynx]

I have "Voyages Of Imagination" by Jeff Ayers which I think is a fantastic book. Lot of information in it, including a timeline for he stories (which helped me a lot in my work with the Voyager timeline).

I can also recommend Memory Beta which also has a lot of information.

As for the link to Amazon, I haven't read those books, at least not yet.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Does anyone have any of these? Is there anything not available for free online?

I bought the first one. It's essentially one fan's encyclopedic guide to the early novels, the kind of thing a fan might have written for a fanzine or newsletter in the 70s, 80s or 90s. Even though I'm a ST book completist, I really haven't felt a burning need to buy more volumes, mainly because it's the kind of book I could have written myself. It's a vanity press, isn't it?; a more professional-looking, square-bound product than the old A4, offset-printed fanzines of yore, but not the kind of book that would sell in commercial quantities.
http://www.well.com/~sjroby/lcars/author.html#under

I like Steve Roby's comment on his website:

"Though the basic idea behind this series of books is a good one, at the current rate of publication, even if Underwood stays with original series novels only, this series may never catch up with the novels being published. Meanwhile, readers interested in certain topics or characters that reappear in several books will have to consult several volumes to get all the relevant information."

You get a more rounded and "official" overview of the ST fiction (plus interview snippets from the authors and editors) from Jeff Ayers' "Voyages of Imagination", even if lacking concordance-style entries.

Is there really a need to do encyclopedic entries for all the original characters/planets/events across such a number of volumes?

And yes, Memory Beta fills the niche for that encyclopedic aspect (and is readily updatable - and free), together with all the freely submitted book reviews from ST fans on Amazon.

Thanks! I figured it was something along those lines. I remember being really annoyed at the updated Official Star Trek Encylopedia sticking it's updates at the back, and the Fact Files doing similar. This'd drive me nuts. It does appear to be a rather futile exercise to release 6 or 8 volumes, needing to look up the year of the novel's publication before you'd have a hope of finding the volume with any entries about it.

Still a pretty epic undertaking for one person.

 

[shanejayell]

Yeah, don't look like something I'd buy.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I remember being really annoyed at the updated Official Star Trek Encylopedia sticking it's updates at the back

It was the only way they could crunch the numbers for that update, although it was helpful to people who'd already read the whole earlier (second) edition, cover to cover, because all the new material was in the same place.

the Fact Files doing similar.

What else was "Fact Files" to do? It sold so solidly, it went beyond its original projected length - and new episodes/information kept coming! They even had to add new movie posters to the binders!

In retrospect, they could have held off on an encyclopedic section, but they were attempting very broad appeal. (Those pages were certainly of least interest to me, but mainly because the Okuda books had already covered it so well; I was unlikely to learn anything new.) I knew some collectors who hated "all the ship stuff" in the "Fact Files", while others bought the partwork because of its tech component.

It does appear to be a rather futile exercise to release 6 or 8 volumes, needing to look up the year of the novel's publication before you'd have a hope of finding the volume with any entries about it.

No doubt Alva Underwood started her notetaking long before the popularity of wikis, that do the job so much better.

Still a pretty epic undertaking for one person.

Yep. Did you ever see Larry Nemecek's pro-zine versions of his "Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion"? He did them season by season (five), as the show was airing. Eventually he was able to get a book deal with Pocket.