Star Trek (2009) novelization (finally) announced!

[Therin of Andor]

All things considered, ADF seems like the right one for the task, from both marketing and old school-Trek perspectives. The only things I've read by him are his TAS adaptations, though, so I can't get a really good judge of his writing style from that.

Me too.

I seem to recall that his "Star Wars" (ghosted for Lucas), "Alien", "Alien Nation" and "Transformers" novelizations were well received. I do own the first three, based on recommendations from friends, but never got to reading them.

Does homework:

Wow! "Dark Star" and "The Last Starfighter"! Read those, loved 'em. Ah, and he did the first three "Alien" movie novelizations!

 

[Steve Roby]

He did The Black Hole and Outland, too. I never actually got around to seeing The Black Hole after reading the novelization (got it for Christmas), but I seem to remember the Outland novelization made that movie seem slightly less stupid than it did if you just watched the movie alone.

 

[Procutus]

I seem to remember the Outland novelization made that movie seem slightly less stupid than it did if you just watched the movie alone.

I had similar feelings about his novelization of The Black Hole. ADF's ending seemed to make far more sense to me than the movie itself. The more I think about him doing this new Trek, the more excited I am about it. I think I'll place a pre-order with Barnes & Noble tomorrow after work.

 

[TJ Sinclair]

Of all those mentioned, I'd really only be interested in The Last Starfighter. I'll see if I can track it down through BookMooch.

 

[Star Treks]

Being a sci-fi nerd reader as a kid, I read most of ADFs novelizations before I saw the films they were based on. In general they are really good; hell, he managed to turn the primitive videogame "Shadowkeep" into a really decent fantasy novel.

 

[Thrawn]

He wrote the novelization of "The Dig", right? Because that was also surprisingly solid.

 

[Procutus]

He wrote the novelization of "The Dig", right? Because that was also surprisingly solid.

Refresh my memory; what was 'The Dig'?

 

[Thrawn]

A LucasArts adventure game (and one I never managed to beat )

 

[Star Treks]

He wrote the novelization of "The Dig", right? Because that was also surprisingly solid.

Yes he did.

 

[Daddy Todd]

Amazon has the novelization available for preorder here.

There will also apparently be an audiobook version. I can't find that one for preorder anywhere yet.

 

[Procutus]

^


The May 12 date confirms what they told me at Barnes & Noble when I place my order. I had been hoping to pick it up on the same day that the movie came out, but what the hell. This will prevent me from reading it in one sitting before I see the film, which is what I did in November of 1979 when the novelization of TMP came out.

 

[Dayton Ward]

The 12th is the date in the computer because it's a Tuesday...in this case, the first Tuesday after the premiere. Movie novelizations are almost always released before the film's premiere, or on the date itself if the producers want it that way, which is usually the case with "big" films. In the case of Trek, it's likely the novelization is being "embargoed" in this manner, or else the computer date would've been May 5th, if not earlier.

You can probably count on the book being available May 8th.

 

[Procutus]

You can probably count on the book being available May 8th.

Cool beans! Thanks, Dayton!

 

[DarkHorizon]

And now, the front and back covers and the blurb have been released by TrekMovie:

http://trekmovie.com/2009/03/04/exc...of-star-trek-movie-adaptation-w-plot-summary/

(I turned the covers into a wraparound version at my blog.)

Most interesting...

 

[Saul]

Interesting. I remember that Abrams had said he had written a scene to feature older Kirk in it. Anyone think this got included in the book instead?

 

[Christopher]

Interesting. I remember that Abrams had said he had written a scene to feature older Kirk in it. Anyone think this got included in the book instead?

That's a reach. Generally, novelizers aren't privy to material from alternative drafts of the script. Heck, these days they're lucky to get a copy of the shooting script at all. Any extra scenes you get in a novelization would be scenes that were in the shooting script, usually scenes that were actually filmed, but got cut from the final film.

 

[JD]

Or ones that the author came up with themselves.

 

[Saul]

Interesting. I remember that Abrams had said he had written a scene to feature older Kirk in it. Anyone think this got included in the book instead?

That's a reach. Generally, novelizers aren't privy to material from alternative drafts of the script. Heck, these days they're lucky to get a copy of the shooting script at all. Any extra scenes you get in a novelization would be scenes that were in the shooting script, usually scenes that were actually filmed, but got cut from the final film.

But he did talk a lot with Oric and Kurtzman about it and had a lot of questions to ask so maybe they added that as a side note for him.

 

[Christopher]

Just don't get your hopes up.

 

[LutherSloan]

Anyone else think now that the planet that imploded in the trailer was actually Romulus? The back cover seems to support this (ie. 'A half-crazed mad captain from the future avenging the loss of his world').