Some general comments on recent Trek Lit
- Thread starter Tropical_Night
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In all honesty, I'm not that thrilled by the current direction. However, that has nothing t do with the quality of the work, and everything to do with my personal tastes, and what I want to see in Trek stories.
I'll almost certainly pick up Christopher's DTI novel and Indistinguishable from Magic, but besides Vanguard and the current Voyager relaunch, I have no interest in what's coming out.
Like I say, purely a personal preference issue. There's some great work going on, but it's not for me.
I'll almost certainly pick up Christopher's DTI novel and Indistinguishable from Magic, but besides Vanguard and the current Voyager relaunch, I have no interest in what's coming out.
Like I say, purely a personal preference issue. There's some great work going on, but it's not for me.
Well, just to point out, that's actually half of the books on the rest of this year's schedule. That's a pretty good rate of purchase for someone with no interest.
The books are designed to appeal to a variety of fans; I don't think anyone is assuming that every fan should be interested in every book. About half is something they'd probably be fairly happy with.
That's a fair point. Still, I'm unlikely to buy any more TNG, DS9, or Titan novels. Which is a shame, especially since TNG is still my favourite show.
But like I say, you can't please everyone. And I'm not arrogant enough to think the writers should be pandering solely to me.
I would just like to say that I, in general, agree with the OP.
I'm in the minority when it comes to people who seemed to enjoy Before Dishonor - for me, it's miles and away the best of the non-Destiny TNG novels. As Christopher pointed out, the mutineers weren't mutineers per se - they were obeying the orders of a higher authority than Picard.
With regards to the TNG Relaunch, I fully agree - they really needed to settle down on characters and push them through until, at least, Destiny. And this could have been easily done - in my humble opinion.
I also think my main problem with the way the departures were handled was that the new characters were shuffled off the ship, more or less, because Picard didn't like that they didn't kowtow to his every order.
I think the argument that the crew we met in Q&A was to be the new cast until the direction the plot took in BD (the fact that the mutiny made their continued presence untenable) is a bit hard to swallow - all of the novels, as far as we're aware, go through a pitching process of approval and the plotpoint of the mutiny must have come up at some point in that process.
I found Kadohata's leading of the mutiny the hardest to get to grips with - she's not a new arrival on the Big E, she's a woman who's been there for years if I've understood correctly. She should have been part of the old guard - the group who were willing to side with Picard until the world ended.
What I think could have (and, perhaps, should have) taken place would have been that we'd have Sara Nave survive Resistance - her resentment for Picard builds up and then she is the one who leads the mutiny in Before Dishonor.
T'Lana, in turn, was an excellent character - a great foil to Picard who we barely got to know. It's almost like Peter David was the only one who really gave the character a chance to grow.
I hope to heavens that we get a proper DS9 Relaunch (Season 10?) book in the near future in which we can really get our teeth into the status quo of our characters instead of getting glimpses and partial explanations of where they are in non-DS9 novels.
I like the Titan novels - but, for me, Riker and Troi are the weakest characters. I enjoy reading about Melora, Lavena and Ra Havreii.
I'm in the minority when it comes to people who seemed to enjoy Before Dishonor - for me, it's miles and away the best of the non-Destiny TNG novels. As Christopher pointed out, the mutineers weren't mutineers per se - they were obeying the orders of a higher authority than Picard.
With regards to the TNG Relaunch, I fully agree - they really needed to settle down on characters and push them through until, at least, Destiny. And this could have been easily done - in my humble opinion.
I also think my main problem with the way the departures were handled was that the new characters were shuffled off the ship, more or less, because Picard didn't like that they didn't kowtow to his every order.
I think the argument that the crew we met in Q&A was to be the new cast until the direction the plot took in BD (the fact that the mutiny made their continued presence untenable) is a bit hard to swallow - all of the novels, as far as we're aware, go through a pitching process of approval and the plotpoint of the mutiny must have come up at some point in that process.
I found Kadohata's leading of the mutiny the hardest to get to grips with - she's not a new arrival on the Big E, she's a woman who's been there for years if I've understood correctly. She should have been part of the old guard - the group who were willing to side with Picard until the world ended.
What I think could have (and, perhaps, should have) taken place would have been that we'd have Sara Nave survive Resistance - her resentment for Picard builds up and then she is the one who leads the mutiny in Before Dishonor.
T'Lana, in turn, was an excellent character - a great foil to Picard who we barely got to know. It's almost like Peter David was the only one who really gave the character a chance to grow.
I hope to heavens that we get a proper DS9 Relaunch (Season 10?) book in the near future in which we can really get our teeth into the status quo of our characters instead of getting glimpses and partial explanations of where they are in non-DS9 novels.
I like the Titan novels - but, for me, Riker and Troi are the weakest characters. I enjoy reading about Melora, Lavena and Ra Havreii.
That was the intention. But sometimes stories and characters veer in unexpected directions. While there's a tendency to talk about the editors as "showrunners," the creative process on the novels isn't as centralized as it is on a TV show, and individual authors have more say over how their particular books unfold -- particularly an author with the clout of Peter David, for instance. So sometimes an author has ideas that take a series or a character in an unexpected direction, and plans have to change accordingly.
That is categorically untrue. Picard made every effort to reconcile with the officers who led the, err, anti-mutiny. They all left at different times, of their own volition, and for different reasons. Specifically:
T'Lana left because she'd realized that she'd acted irrationally, assuming she couldn't possibly be in error, when as a counselor she should've understood the value of self-questioning. She recognized that she had a problem with her judgment and took a voluntary leave of absence to get her act together, in the hopes that she might someday return to the Enterprise. (See Greater Than the Sum, pp. 80-83.) Unfortunately, she died in the Borg invasion before that could happen.
Zelik Leybenzon accepted Picard's invitation to remain with the Enterprise and continued to serve there for three months after the mutiny, trying to put past events behind him, but once the ship was assigned to another Borg-related mission, he decided he simply didn't trust Picard's judgment where the Borg were concerned and requested a transfer. (Greater Than the Sum, pp. 57-60.) He also became a casualty of the Borg.
Miranda Kadohata remained as a trusted member of the crew for nine months following Before Dishonor, eventually choosing reassignment to a ground posting to help refugees on Pacifica and spend more time with her family. (Losing the Peace, p. 332.)
There can be a difference between what's proposed in an outline and what ends up in the final novel. The outline is supposed to give a sense of what the book will be, but sometimes a book takes on a life of its own and goes in an unplanned direction.
And really, I'm only offering my own interpretation, based on what Margaret said to me when she told me to write out T'Lana and Leybenzon, for why she decided to get rid of them. Only she could give the definitive answer to that. But I'm sure if you asked Keith, he'd tell you that when he introduced Kadohata and Leybenzon, his expectation was that they'd be the regular cast. They were not created as temporary characters. And I don't think T'Lana was either.
If you find that "hard to swallow," I can't help that. But I'm no liar. If I'm not allowed to reveal a truth about the creative process, I simply won't say anything about it. I sure as hell won't make up a fake story.
Don't let the bummed out contingent get you down. Despite some issues towards the end of the relaunch it's some really good story telling. I just picked up everything from Avatar through Warpath on kindle for PC. Bottom line, read and love what you love and leave the rest behind.
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