Not to mention that many of the Janeway fans claiming to have blackballed Kirsten Beyer's novels weren't buying Pocket's VOY novels for years. Forgive me if I'm misremembering, but weren't some of them proudly praising their own free fanfic instead, a source of VOY stories which gave them total control over what they did to the VOY crew.
If Janeway was to return from the dead in the official tie-in novels, I really doubt that Brit and friends would suddenly take a renewed interest in commercial VOY novels.
That's what I remember as well, people who flat out stated they didn't like the books, didn't read the books, and more importantly, didn't buy the books ranting about how they weren't ever going to buy the books until She came back.
You have misremembered I have been a reader of Trek novels for years and years (I actually own the very first Trek novel, purchased when it was brand new on the rack) I watched and loved all the series up to Enterprise, which I didn't enjoy
I even own (and have read) the hard back edition of "Death in Winter." I've never counted but I probably own and have read a great number of Trek Books I also read a lot of other books, have read and loved Science Fiction since probably around 1958 when I was eleven. I have favorite authors that I read regularly. I think Harlan Ellison is probably a big Ass but I will read anything he writes pretty much.
And I write fan fiction. I do not however post on fan fiction.net nor do many of the really good fic writers, and guys there are some very good ones out there. Trek fan fiction has a history of attracting even professional writers beginning with Claire Gabriel, way back in the seventies when fan fiction was mimeographed and mailed.
Your fine tradition of Trek Literature started with people like Jacqueline Lichtenberg and those early TOS fanzines. Many of today’s novelists started out writing Trek Fan Fiction, Jacqueline created her Sime/Gen universe, and there are many more professional writers that started the same way. You really should respect your roots.
I do think if you go and look at the actual threads in question, you will find we were told to go back and read our own fan fiction and to leave the “real fans” alone, as if fan fiction was some dirty little secret someone should be ashamed of.
My daughter and I purchased, supported, and read Trek literature through the Voyager series including the “Spirit Walk” series and “String Theory”, we read the DS9 relaunch until the “Worlds of DS9” turned us off with the treatment of the Trill. We read the “Titan” series and even “New Frontier” and we read NG until “Before Dishonor.”
Already this month I have purchased four books including “The Needs of the Many” based on Star Trek online which includes a living Janeway. You see you don’t even have to write stories about her but she has to be alive and there has to be the possibility that someday a story will include her. This is not an unreasonable goal, and we are not changing what you want to read, we just want her alive.
So I am no longer purchasing Trek Novels that includes the dead Janeway story line. I have no desire to read that and it’s not reasonable to expect me to purchase and support a story line that is IMHO not only depressing fiction but bad fiction. It is also not reasonable to expect me not to protest her death and not to voice my opinion. I will however support any novel that does bring her back, also not unreasonable.
It’s pretty easy to make fun of others you don’t know, it’s easy to discount them, and it’s easy to forget that there are real people behind keyboards on the other sides of your monitors.
Our characters are used to fill out other ships or as cannon fodder. It's not fair, it's not right.
My favorite series is DS9. Right now, aboard the station as a member of the crew, DS9 does not feature Sisko, Jake, O'Brien, Keiko, Odo, Worf, Rom, or Garak - Garak, my favorite Trek character ever. Nor does it feature the first Dax, who is dead, or the second Dax, who is captain of another ship entirely.
My second favorite series is TNG. Right now, aboard the ship as a member of the crew, TNG does not feature Data, Riker, Troi, or Ro (not a regular, but definitely a favorite). Data is dead. Riker and Troi are on another ship. So is Ro.
Please explain to me the lack of parity and fairness?
This point was made during the previous go-round. Repeatedly. And ignored by the Church of the Living Janeway every time.
And repeatedly we have told you that with the exception of Data and Jadzia (my favorite trek character by the way), you have a reasonable expectation of reading about each of these characters even in a different line. There are Riker and Troi stories on Titan, and Ro is on DS9.
Data is a special case, based on a human actor portraying an ageless character and the inability of the actor to play the role within the stated parameters and the technology available in 2002. This was, in hind sight, a bad decision based on the advancement of technology first seen in “Beowulf” and progressing to “Avatar.” The death of Dax was a bad decision on the part of Terry Farrell, and exasperated by the treatment of the Trill in “Worlds of DS9.” The difference is the decision to kill Data was Brent Spiner, the decision to kill Jadzia was Terry Farrell. Not the decision of a Pocket Books editor, or even a producer or a writer.
The Church of the Living Janeway seems to be people who really aren't fans of the Star Trek universe except for stories prominently featuring Kathryn Janeway as captain of Voyager. They see things differently from many of us. It would still be interesting to see them at least try to engage with this point about the DS9 and TNG novels, though.
Problem is every time we try to engage in a reasonable conversation, we get shouted down by the “True Believers in the Second Coming of THE SISKO.”
There are however a number of Voyager fans that are in fact Voyager fans only, but that should in no way exclude them somehow as readers of Trek Books because their interests don't include NG or DS9. As far as I can tell Trek was always about inclusion not exclusion.
Brit
And perhaps it can even loop back to Star Trek somehow.
I'm sure some folks will stay dead, and I hope they stay dead. We'll see if they really stick to it.
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