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That is true but the economy, especially for booksellers is still in a massive state of flux. The situation may change or we may actually have an editor who will be here after the paint on their door sign is dry. Personal reasons can pop up at any time. Who knows?
There's no guarantee that the previous continuity will be disregarded. There's no guarantee that it will be followed either. That's a decision the editor will make. Too soon to tell.
Listen, I'm sorry if you and I have different tastes in what makes for a good story. Obviously dark stories where people do questionable things aren't as enjoyable for you as they are for me.
But to take my taste in fiction and to try to imply that it must therefore apply to my views of real life? That's just unfair and insulting.
Rounding up the homeless is not a good thing and should be stopped, immediately, period, no ifs, ands, or buts. I may well not mind a story about that, but that doesn't mean I'm not horrified by the thought of it happening in real life or that I don't want it stopped immediately.
The pax galactica is one possible future. I doubt that it's set in stone that the Prime Universe MUST follow that storyline.
It isn't set in stone that any book "must" follow any particular storyline. But I see no reason to think the Destinyverse novels are going to contradict it.
Then I accept that there was no malice intended, and apology accepted.
We are capable of doing horrible things to each other in real life. That's one reason I like my Trek fiction to have a more positive outlook. It helps remind me that we're capable of being better than we are now.
Fair enough. And this is subjective -- but one of the reasons I enjoy that sort of darkness in fiction is that, for me, it helps contextualize the darkness I see in real life, and, when mixed with light, gives me greater hope that the darkness in real life can be overcome.
That's why, for instance, it was so wonderful that Destiny ended with the liberation of every drone in the Borg Collective and the redemption of the Caeliar. That's why I thought it was wonderful to see the Federation tackle -- and solve! -- a huge refugee problem in Losing the Peace.
To make an analogy: I don't want to read Dante's Inferno by itself, and I don't want to read Dante's Paradiso by itself. I want to read the full Divina Commedia, beginning in Hell, passing through Purgatory, and ending in Heaven. And I don't mind if the meta-arc gets dark, then light, then dark again, then light again. To me, that makes the characters and their situations more relateable, and therefore more inspiring for dealing with problems in real life.
Considering the revolving door on the editors office these days, I'd be surprised if any long term plans are followed. However, it does seem that the darkening is with us for a while.
Well, I think that we shouldn't always presume that the editors are driving every larger storyline. These novels are written as collaborative efforts, after all. Margaret Clarke may not be editing the ENT novels any more, but Michael A. Martin's still writing them. I see no reason to think that the writers aren't going to keep TGTMD in mind. Especially since...
David Mack seems to have finally picked up the dangling Section 31 plot thread from the S31 miniseries in 2001, whose ultimate end TGTMD teased us with.
I really think as long as this batch of authors is writing the books we'll be sticking to the same continuity. Unless of course the books get an editor who takes a Richard Arnold approach, but given the popularity (at least I'm assuming it's popular since it hasn't stopped) of the continuity, and the popularity of arc based storytelling in general, that seems unlikely.
After Destiny we were told, this is not the new status quo. Things will get better. The light seems brighter after it's gotten darker. Well, the darkness just keeps on coming. When does it start getting lighter?
That depends how you define "dark". I personally consider a few homeless people (with replicator access, no less) nowhere near as dark as Brenna Covington's story in Voyager's Homecoming.
She was systematically beaten, abused and raped her entire life by her stepfather, eventually driving her insane and then she was killed while trying to remake herself into the Borg queen. No help, no recovery, no nothing. The "better future" of Star Trek failed her (and her mother, who suffered the same abuse) in every way imaginable.
I don't even remember some of those names. It looks like Jen Heddle and Ed Schlesinger are now solely responsible for the media tie-in books. They didn't replace Jaime Costas. I hope that once the economy picks up, they'll hire another editor too.
I don't even remember some of those names. It looks like Jen Heddle and Ed Schlesinger are now solely responsible for the media tie-in books. They didn't replace Jaime Costas. I hope that once the economy picks up, they'll hire another editor too.
I don't even remember some of those names. It looks like Jen Heddle and Ed Schlesinger are now solely responsible for the media tie-in books. They didn't replace Jaime Costas. I hope that once the economy picks up, they'll hire another editor too.
I think it's worth pointing out that both of them have been around since Marco and Margaret were there, so they've been at it (if both of them are doing Trek) for a while and are familiar with how Marco and Margaret were doing things.
It'd just be nice to know that there's a plan in place, a "Where do we go from here?" for where Star Trek Lit in general as well as the individual series in particular are heading, once the 'new' editor(s) (read as: The people in charge) are in place.
Personally, I'd love for Marco to get asked to come back but the likelyhood of that is probably less than zero considering how things went down.
Seeing as the won't even say who the editor is now, I'd say that's unlikely. If we don't know who's editing the books TPTB can swap them out and we won't even know a change has taken place.
With an increased workload due to the loss of senior editors, even with the reduced number of releases, along with the editors making less money, I fear that the editorial changes will be with us for a while yet.
It'd just be nice to know that there's a plan in place, a "Where do we go from here?" for where Star Trek Lit in general as well as the individual series in particular are heading, once the 'new' editor(s) (read as: The people in charge) are in place.
It'd just be nice to know that there's a plan in place, a "Where do we go from here?" for where Star Trek Lit in general as well as the individual series in particular are heading, once the 'new' editor(s) (read as: The people in charge) are in place.
Right. The time when Pocket's editors communicated regularly with the fans seems to have passed. John Ordover, Marco Palmieri, and Margaret Clark all posted regularly online and engaged with the audience directly, but not all editors do that, nor are they under any obligation to do so. So fans need to understand, now more than ever, that a lack of news does not mean a lack of action.
(Heck, even when those folks were in charge, there was still usually a gap of months between the time a project was initiated and the time it was first announced to the audience.)
Another instance where the realities of situation, don't necessarily mesh with the sensibilities of a consumer or the particularities of a pre-existing fanbase.
The direct (albeit delayed) nature of the interaction between the Editors and (of course the Authors) of Star Trek Literature is what got me into reading Trek Lit in the first place. Marco did more for Trek than Pocket knew, and I owe him a debt of thanks.
If not for this very board, I don't think I'd now own the 200+ odd novels I do, or have become fans of Mack, KRAD, DRGIII, CLB, Ward & Dilmore, Cox, McCormack, Beyer, Bick, etc.
Might not necessarily be how things usually work but, with a Tie-In fiction series based on a property like Star Trek, communicating with the Tie-In properties' existing fanbase seems like a terrific way to hook potential new readers, especially those like myself who weren't inclined to Tie-In fiction in the first place.
Guess we'll just have to get used to the "New Reality" of the situation... but I can't imagine a benefit of LESS creator-consumer contact for anyone on the fan side of the table.
To be frank, you don't seem to WANT to be convinced there is going to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Either that or you figure the light is a oncoming train.
Personally I'm finding Typhon Pact a good read, and I'm willing to see where Trek goes from here. I have faith that Trek will grow lighter as Destiny recedes into the past, and I hope that the Pact nations might even change for the better by being forced to work together.
