I think that's how I will now have to imagine him. The idea of a newborn giving out commands to Riker is pretty funny(well, unless you picture the baby in Friday's child, but that's not how I see Akkar).
So What Are you Reading?: Generations
- Thread starter captcalhoun
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Ha-ha, or Picard. It's still weird to see Riker give orders to Picard. I guess we'll get our chance to see Akaar give orders to Riker again, assuming he makes an appearance in the next Titan novel.
You know, I wonder, do the authors read each others novels regularly? I guess that's a loaded question. They obviously know the broad strokes since they sort of pick up where the last story left off. But I wonder if they get a chance to actually read the books by their fellow authors.
You know, I wonder, do the authors read each others novels regularly? I guess that's a loaded question. They obviously know the broad strokes since they sort of pick up where the last story left off. But I wonder if they get a chance to actually read the books by their fellow authors.
Did Vonda McIntyre come up with the origin for Saavik on her own? I thought I heard somewhere that it came from a deleted scene.
Technically we have also seen Akkar, he's on the cover for The Red King.I mean, in general authors of any books have to do that. After all many novels are never seen on screen. But in Star Trek's case, they have to create new characters alongside characters we have seen on screen. And then try to portray them as having the same importance on the ship as established characters. Chen, for instance, is sort of a protégé, or project of Captain Picards, so we have to be able to envision her with Picard. Or when Admiral Akaar dresses down Captain Picard for his involvement in the Tezwa affair. He is an imposing presence in the novels, but is not a character we've ever seen (well, unless you picture the baby in Friday's child, but that's not how I see Akkar
I decided I wanted to take a short break from the Trek books I'm reading, Armaggedon's Arrow and The Badlands Book 1, and started the first collection of the Rick & Morty comic series. I made it all the way through the first arc, which was great. The characterizations were spot on, and the story would easily fit in with the stuff the show has done.
Only the barest seed of it. The script for TWOK established that Saavik was half-Romulan and thus "more volatile" than a full Vulcan, but the filmmakers wisely realized that that didn't make any sense -- not only is Vulcan emotional control learned rather than innate, but Vulcans and Romulans are the same species. What McIntyre did was to create a better version of the original idea, one that made sense because it rooted Saavik's "volatililty" in nurture rather than genetics. She created the idea that Spock rescued the young, feral Saavik from a failed Romulan colony called Hellguard, and that she was the child of a Vulcan taken prisoner by the Romulans. And pretty much every Saavik story in the novels and comics since then has used the Hellguard backstory for her, although with some differences in detail (such as when Spock rescued her and whether or not she was subsequently raised by Sarek and Amanda).
That's another nice thing about the novels. They can flesh out characters like Saavik a lot more. We really don't know a whole lot about her just from the 3 movies she appeared in. But she is featured in a number of novels that really gives a good backstory on her. Also a number of characters from New Frontier that we only see once or twice on screen get a lot of backstory. It's always interesting when an author picks a character from an episode maybe we only saw once or twice on screen, and basically creates a life story for them. Even though it's technically not canon, I find it even enriches the episodes I see them in more. I see Robin Lefler in a different light on her two episodes after reading the New Frontier novels as an example.
A helpful tip: you can hit "Edit" to go back and revise your posts even after you've posted them.
I do it to add thoughts and fix typos all the time.
Nothing technical about it -- it's not canon in any sense unless it shows up onscreen. But that shouldn't matter. Canon or not canon, it's all just stories made up to entertain us. It's all just ideas. If an idea enhances your appreciation of something, it shouldn't matter where it comes from.
Greg, thanks for the tip, that's good to know. I'm still getting used to this site (I'm still trying to figure out why it took me until 2 weeks ago to find it when it's obviously been around for years--I just happened to come across it when I was trying to find out information about 2018 releases).
Christopher--true about canon. I personally consider it sort of technical because I've always considered what I see on screen and the novels I read as part of the entire Star Trek story I follow. If the novels aren't contradicted by something on screen I'm happy to consider it as part of my own canon. They not only expand what we see on screen, they sometimes even try to "fix" inconsistencies that have been known to happen in canon--like how the Eugenics Wars could have occurred, or why the NCC-1701 appeared less advanced then the NX-01.
Christopher--true about canon. I personally consider it sort of technical because I've always considered what I see on screen and the novels I read as part of the entire Star Trek story I follow. If the novels aren't contradicted by something on screen I'm happy to consider it as part of my own canon. They not only expand what we see on screen, they sometimes even try to "fix" inconsistencies that have been known to happen in canon--like how the Eugenics Wars could have occurred, or why the NCC-1701 appeared less advanced then the NX-01.
Just finished Assaulted Caramel by Amanda Flower.
I finished Star Trek: Voyager: Distant Shores: "Talent Night" by Jeffrey Lang.
I'm now reading Star Trek: Enterprise: Rosetta by Dave Stern.
I'm now reading Star Trek: Enterprise: Rosetta by Dave Stern.
No, that was Last Full Measure -- which had a 23rd-century "Trip's alive!" frame story added to it, but was otherwise an early 3rd-season novel about the MACOs. But Rosetta was the one before that, and is set simultaneously with "In a Mirror, Darkly," filling in that gap in the season 4 timeline. It's the only ENT novel set in season 4, and LFM is the only one set in season 3. By the Book and What Price Honor? are in season 1, and Surak's Soul and the Daedalus/Daedalus's Children duology are in season 2.
Just finished re-reading our Christopher Bennett's Ex-Machina, which is every bit as great as I remembered it. I love the exploration of that under-utilized era, the rich development of the alien culture and politics, the characterizations of the cast, especially Spock. It's the kind of book that reminds me why I love Trek.
I was thinking of Last Full Measure as being the Sisko/Nog and TATV retcon story, but I was confusing it with The Good That Men Do. It's been several years since I read those. They were both good books. I'll never forget The Good That Men Do as being one of the few times (maybe one of the only times, I can't think of any others) where a novel retconned a canon story. Though I guess you could argue the way they handled it really didn't undo it per se, but was just history wasn't what you think it was. I was so excited at the time that finally, someone was going to tackle the untold story of the Romulan War, since Enterprise never got the chance to do it. As an aside, I always wished Pocketbooks a Tales of the Romulan War like they did for the Dominion War. There are probably a lot of great battle stories they could do for the Romulan War.
borgboy--I enjoyed Ex Machina too, one of the few more recent novels to take place after TMP (the E-book Shadow of the Machine was another). I remember a lot of the early 80's books took place after TMP as well, if I remember correctly, and of course the entire New Earth series took place during the period (I think that was closer in time to TWOK--it depicts Chekov's transfer to the Reliant)
borgboy--I enjoyed Ex Machina too, one of the few more recent novels to take place after TMP (the E-book Shadow of the Machine was another). I remember a lot of the early 80's books took place after TMP as well, if I remember correctly, and of course the entire New Earth series took place during the period (I think that was closer in time to TWOK--it depicts Chekov's transfer to the Reliant)
It is a real shame we don't have more books in that era or the lost era timelime
I agree. I love any lost era type books, those between TMP and TWOK, TFF and TUC and between TUC and TNG. When you think about it the movies all followed an unusual timeline. The casual movie goer doesn't realize that there was what, 12+ years between TMP and TWOK, and 7-8 years between TFF and TUC. Some moviegoers probably thought it was odd that the newly christened Enterprise-A set out in IV and V, and 2 years later was being mothballed, not realized there was a much longer period of time at play. Or that the newly refit Enterprise from TMP was being put out of commission in III which came out less than 5 years later, not realizing it was more than a decade in universe (thought you could puzzle that one out because they say in TMP it was 2 1/2 years, then they clearly indicate in TWOK it was 15 years after space seed, you could figure TWOK was at least 12 years later)
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