So what are you reading now (Part 4)?
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I started Worlds of DS9: Dominion yesterday.
You know, I've wondered about that. Farscape, SeaQuest, Earth 2, and Lois & Clark, all had only three novels each released in the 1990's. Was it contracted that way or what? I was glad the Babylon 5 novels lasted longer, but of course, it's now a decade since the last of those were released. It's too bad that unlike Star Trek and Star Wars, the rest of these didn't continue. Particularly Babylon 5 and Farscape.
And, House of Cards was quite good. I read it too about three months ago.
Oh, and to stay on topic: I'm reading Imperial Earth by Arthur C Clarke.
^Generally a tie-in contract will start with a finite number of books to test the waters, and whether it continues beyond that depends on how well it sells.
Picked up Titan: Taking Wing. Bought it when it came out in 2005, stopped reading it 20 pages in because all the various Romulan factions confused and bored me. Today I picked it up and I've read nearly 300 pages of it. I think my interests and abilities as a reader have matured in the last five years. 
I seem to remember buying Red King, but didn't find it in my box of Trek books from that period. I'll probably read Orion's Hounds next.
I seem to remember buying Red King, but didn't find it in my box of Trek books from that period. I'll probably read Orion's Hounds next.
Exactly. The FARSCAPE situation was bit more complicated in that the books rights were actually bought by a British publisher. I then acquired the rights to reprint them in America.
The British editor and I basically co-edited the novels. (Although hiring Keith to do HOUSE OF CARDS was my idea.)
FYI, I assume that everyone knows that Keith and Dave Mack are writing the various FARSCAPE comics these days?
I've always been curious, and I suspect you probably couldn't answer this. But why did Jim Mortimore use a pseudonym on the US edition of Dark Side of the Sun? I can see two possibilities -- one, the book was gutted by Henson and it was an "Alan Smithee"/"David Agnew" situation or two, it was the same situation with Lawrence Watt-Evans with "Nathan Archer," creating a pseudonym so that the bookstores wouldn't order his Farscape book based on the sales of his Doctor Who books. It always struck me as curious that he'd use different publication names on different sides of the Atlantic.
That was so long ago I'm not sure it matters anymore. But, that was the first of the FARSCAPE books, we were still figuring what we were doing, there were a lot of growing pains and last-minute revisions, and, yeah, it's possible he wasn't entirely happy with final product. You'd have to ask him.
It would wrong to blame Henson, though. If anything, it was a "too many cooks" situation. Poor Jim was getting input from the tv people, the licensing people, the British editor, the American editor, and, to be honest, we weren't always on the same page. Plus, he was on a very tight deadline since the Brits wanted to publish the first book right away.
Like said, growing pains.
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So the fact that the series I mentioned above got three novels each was a coincidence, or as Christopher said, it depended on the sales?
I'm only guessing, but I'd imagine that 3 novels might be a fairly typical tryout length for tie-in novels. Still, you only cited four series that had 3 books each, and there are plenty of others that have had different numbers of books. Alien Nation got 8, The 4400 got 4, War of the Worlds: The Series got only a pilot novelization and nothing more, etc. So it probably is just luck of the draw. With all the different tie-in series that have been done, it's inevitable that there'd be the occasional recurrence of a given number of installments.
There's no hard and fast rule. Acquiring a tv license is always risky because you never know how long the tv series is going last. You don't want to end up with six books under contract for a show that's already off the air! On other hand, you don't want to go to all the trouble of obtaining the licence and only have one book to show for it. So it's a balancing act. In the case of FARSCAPE, Pan Macmillan chose to acquire three books and I piggybacked on top of that.
Then, just confuse things, I acquired the Farscape Illustrated Companion from a different British publisher . . ..
Then, just confuse things, I acquired the Farscape Illustrated Companion from a different British publisher . . ..
I finished Heat Wave by "Richard Castle" a few minutes ago. It was pretty good, but kinda short, especially considering how the thick it appears in the show. It also felt more like a tie-in for the show rather than a novel written by one of the show's characters.
I'll be starting on Crucible: Spock - The Fire and the Rose sometime tonight or tomorrow. After that I'll probably read the next Typhon Pact novel.
I'll be starting on Crucible: Spock - The Fire and the Rose sometime tonight or tomorrow. After that I'll probably read the next Typhon Pact novel.
I want to pick that up this week, but I have two friends who are begging/hounding me to try Robert Jordan's Eye of the World.
I am close to finishing Frank: the Voice by James Kaplan, and am trying to get into Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past through Our Genes. Still working through The Confessions.
Cool. I'll admit I wasn't actually expecting to you give a definitive yes or no.
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