So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Mr Pointy Ears]

Going to start face the music a life exposed by kiss frontman paul"star child"stanley

 

[ronny]

I'll say this, I did like The Murdered Sun the most out of the first 7 numbered Voyager books. I think it was because Golden made Neelix and Kes bit players in the story.

Whereas I like Golden's next VGR novel, the Kes-centric Marooned, even better.

The plot wasn't bad either. Probably my favorite Golden Voyager novel but that is a pretty low bar.

Back then, Golden's novels were considered the best of the VGR tie-ins by a considerable margin. That's why she got the post-finale gig.

OK then, maybe I have something to look forward to. I'm half way through the VOY numbered books and was thinking the only good one of what was left was going to be the Greg Cox novel.

 

[JD5000]

Keith - if it makes you feel any better, I had a few days without net access between my last book and starting Gateways, so I re-read the IKS Gorkon series. I enjoyed it even more on a re-read than I did the first time, and I thought it was a great read last year when I picked it up.

 

[Killie]

Finally read the first ever Star Trek book, "Star Trek 1" by James Blish.

Review is here.

Overall, was nice to remind myself of the original series episodes but some of them just didn't translate to written form.

 

[Christopher]

OK then, maybe I have something to look forward to. I'm half way through the VOY numbered books and was thinking the only good one of what was left was going to be the Greg Cox novel.

Well, if you didn't like The Murdered Sun, you might not like the rest of Golden's output either. But I still think her books were among the best of the during-the-series VGR novels.

 

[KRAD]

oh I do remember that now. sorry, Krad, hadn't read Q & A since it first came out. I think Peter David's Before Dishonor left a horribly bad taste in my mouth. I remember that now. You introduced them, then Peter basically destroyed everything you created, until Christopher did his damage control. If I have time, i'll probably go back and re-read Q&A. I go on vacation in 2 weeks, and I really want to take Destiny with me. I haven't read that one since it first came out, but I remember loving it. I figured it would make good summer vacation reading, before I continue on with the Post-Nemesis stuff.

Thanks! I feel better now. And Christopher deserves all the credit for introducing Choudhury.....

Keith - if it makes you feel any better, I had a few days without net access between my last book and starting Gateways, so I re-read the IKS Gorkon series. I enjoyed it even more on a re-read than I did the first time, and I thought it was a great read last year when I picked it up.

Thank you! I was just rereading those books last year in prep for writing The Klingon Art of War (as well as reading some other folks' Klingon books like The Final Reflection and Kahless), and I'm pleased with the work I did with Klag and the gang...

 

[Christopher]

And Christopher deserves all the credit for introducing Choudhury.....

Well, Dave Mack created the character for Destiny, though she appeared first in Greater Than the Sum and I developed much of her personality (including her spiritual/intellectual side).

 

[KRAD]

^ Which is why I used the verb "to introduce" rather than the verb "to create."

 

[Defcon]

Your book has also made me accept the new crew members like Kadohata and Choudhurry. The earlier books made me lerry towards having new characters "invade" my TNG crew. But you really were the first author to make these people believable and just as real to me as Picard, Geordi, etc.

Well, that's disappointing. I was trying really hard in Q & A to integrate Kadohata, Leybenzon, and T'Lana into the crew. Sorry it didn't work for you.

oh I do remember that now. sorry, Krad, hadn't read Q & A since it first came out. I think Peter David's Before Dishonor left a horribly bad taste in my mouth. I remember that now. You introduced them, then Peter basically destroyed everything you created, until Christopher did his damage control.

If you want to call creating a third (and by far worst) version of the characters "damage control" ....

Still Christopher's worst novel IMO.

 

[Christopher]

I didn't "create a third version," I tried to take what had been established about the characters in the previous books and reconcile it all. Although I was most strongly informed by Keith's portrayals of the characters.

 

[JD5000]

Thank you! I was just rereading those books last year in prep for writing The Klingon Art of War (as well as reading some other folks' Klingon books like The Final Reflection and Kahless), and I'm pleased with the work I did with Klag and the gang...

To be fully honest, I avoided the series originally because I thought any focus on Klingons was bound to be insufferably cheesy and stereotype-dependent. I'm glad I was wrong. I found that what I enjoy about the books I have been reading (note that I'm about a decade behind but making progress) is that I like books that make me feel like I'm reading a TV episode, and the Gorkon books were a pleasant step outside of that comfort zone, while still retaining the 'feel' of the episodes. It felt like those novels would have comfortably fit in with any of the TNG or DS9 story arcs. I will eventually get to your more recent novels, but I'm still a few hundred books off, which is a nice feeling because I know I have years of literary entertainment ahead of me. I haven't even touched the majority of the TOS #'d novels, or Voyager, and I've put down over a hundred in the last year.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Finished No Time Like The Past this morning. Normally I avoid both TOS and Voyager novels, but this one had me intrigued, and I loved it. Captured the feel of the original series very well. Seven has always been one of my favourite characters from Voyager (the other being the Doctor), though in general I didn't like the show much, so having the character in a different context was entertaining.

Now I've finished rewatching Enterprise, I'm going to make a start on the Rise of The Federation novels.

 

[Defcon]

I didn't "create a third version," I tried to take what had been established about the characters in the previous books and reconcile it all. Although I was most strongly informed by Keith's portrayals of the characters.

Maybe you weren't planning to create a third version, but at least to me they felt like that. If everyone thought Peter David's versions of the characters were off/bad, I don't get why his version of the characters weren't simply ignored. Even if you tried to stay close to Keith's version, your's felt like a bad hybrid IMO and I personally enjoyed both Keith's and PAD's characters more than your "reconciled" ones.

 

[Christopher]

If everyone thought Peter David's versions of the characters were off/bad, I don't get why his version of the characters weren't simply ignored.

At the time I plotted and wrote GTTS, Before Dishonor hadn't come out yet. I had the copyedited manuscript mailed to me for reference. I didn't know what "everyone thought," or would think later on -- and of course there are plenty of people who like the book, since there's nothing that "everyone" in Trek fandom ever agrees on.

Indeed, I was hired for the express purpose of resolving the loose threads from Before Dishonor. That was the assignment as Margaret Clark presented it to me -- to tie those threads off in order to clear the board for Destiny. Far from being asked to ignore the novel, I was asked to write its direct sequel. But since that book was part of a sequence, I took the previous two books into account as well, and I did my best to treat them all as a cohesive whole.

 

[JD5000]

I'm on the second Gateways book ("Chainmail", by Diane Carey), and I have to admit I'm having a hard time with it. It's totally throwing me for a loop. I'm not the most sophisticated member of the TrekLit audience, but I'm no dumbass either, and I'm having a very difficult time following it. I'm only about 20% in so I'm giving it a chance - with each new chapter, I expect familiar characters and settings and I'm not getting them. The author presents this sci-fi world that I have no reference to, but is supposed to be set in a fictional world that I am familiar with, and uses terms native to this setting that I seem expected to understand already - but I don't. It's like visiting your hometown and every familiar landmark is missing..

It's possible that maybe my imagination has become faulty by reading novels in the same familiar setting for the last couple years, and I need to branch out a little more. I'm going to finish this one, although I think I'm going to be just as confused in the end as I am now, and put it on a re-read list for sometime in the future.

 

[Thrawn]

Have you read the New Earth books?

 

[JD5000]

Have you read the New Earth books?

Nope.

 

[Thrawn]

Have you read the New Earth books?

Nope.

Well that would explain it - the New Earth books launch Challenger. Without reading those, you're basically watching a mid-season episode of a show without seeing the pilot.

 

[JD5000]

Good to know, thank you. I guess I should research better before buying. Since I'm early in, maybe I should skip this one, finish the series, read the New Earth books and come back to it. The Gateways books don't seem to dependent on one another.

 

[Christopher]

^Right. Most Trek novel crossovers are designed so that the individual installments are more closely linked to their own series than to the rest of the crossover, so you only need to read the ones you're interested in. It's only since Destiny that the crossovers have been more interlinked.