Ditto. PAD novels and, eventually, the DS9 relaunch, but that's pretty much it until last summer. Since then I've really been catching up.
The Peter David appreciation & discussion thread
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Ditto. PAD novels and, eventually, the DS9 relaunch, but that's pretty much it until last summer. Since then I've really been catching up.
Actually I have read Hitchiker's, and I thought it just as well in both books.I have no idea what TBH stands for!As for the Gerible, it isn't quite as unexpected if you've ever read Hitchhikers Guide where it worked so much better in my opinion. I just couldn't visualise Picard with his pompous ways and formal English speech allowing himself to be threatened by this small furry rodent thing. Its simply to bizarre an image for me!
Q-Squared was the book that transformed me from a casual fan to a lover of Trek, so I certainly owe PAD a lot for that.
The New Frontier series has been absolutely fabulous, and make up the majority of the Trek books I've bought in the last eight years. Even as I became increasingly frustrated with Trek fiction, I continued to love NF. Hell, I have absolutely no interest in comics, but even picked up a couple because they were New Frontier.
I think he had a few missteps with I, Q and Before Dishonor, and I really disliked elements of the third Sir Apropos book. His writing has taken a really dark turn lately, and while that can work, it can also be really depressing.
Still, I liked the first of his new trilogy (Darkness and Light) and look forward to his next NF work.
The New Frontier series has been absolutely fabulous, and make up the majority of the Trek books I've bought in the last eight years. Even as I became increasingly frustrated with Trek fiction, I continued to love NF. Hell, I have absolutely no interest in comics, but even picked up a couple because they were New Frontier.
I think he had a few missteps with I, Q and Before Dishonor, and I really disliked elements of the third Sir Apropos book. His writing has taken a really dark turn lately, and while that can work, it can also be really depressing.
Still, I liked the first of his new trilogy (Darkness and Light) and look forward to his next NF work.
I enjoyed New Frontier for awhile, but I felt like it was getting stale. It didn't help that he started jumping forward in time, and leaving the reader in the dust.
I pretty much agree with the issues in 'Before Dishonor'. After reading that novel, I have decided that PAD needs to stick with NF, and stay out of the rest of ST for awhile.
I still need to read NF 'Missing in Action'.
I pretty much agree with the issues in 'Before Dishonor'. After reading that novel, I have decided that PAD needs to stick with NF, and stay out of the rest of ST for awhile.
I still need to read NF 'Missing in Action'.
He's only done it twice. Once in a comic (WildStorm), to explain why NF had never addressed the Dominion War, and a three year jump so the regular characters would have new mysteries in their back stories. How is that "getting stale"?
Actually the first time jump was to explain a continuity error of two books that were set a season and a half apart in show terms but were only weeks apart in internal story terms. As a comic-book writer, PAD no doubt got in the habit of writing on a sliding time scale (where, say, Peter Parker is perpetually just out of college even though he went to high school in the 1960s), so he let a bit of that slip through into NF. But this being Trek, readers weren't happy with the continuity problem, so he went back and wrote a comic in which the crew jumped forward in time 16 months. And I believe that jump did cause them to miss the Dominion War, but that was a side effect of the decision, not its cause.
I think part of the problem with the recent time skip is there are far less NF books coming out now. When it started there were lots of mysteries set up but we got 13 books over 3 and a half years, now we're on one a year (understandably) it's a little frustrating to see all these questions raised and know the answers could be 4-5 years away...
I think that leaving the Dominion War out of the New Frontier books was a good idea planned or otherwise. The sombre tone that a war that major produces wasn't going to fit into the light hearted Thallonian space bubble that Excalibur exists in.
To put it as kindly as possible, I don't care for the man's Trek work. I've read around 10-12 of his assorted Trek novels. His sense of humor has just never worked for me and I have always felt that his work was WAY too "comic booky". He has always had a serious problem with putting words into the characters mouths that I personally feel they would never say. Obviously I'm in the minority on that.
I would like to see him stay with the NF series and the Trek comics. That way his fans can continue to read his stories and those of us who don't care for him can enjoy the "regular" Trek books.
That said, I actually do enjoy some of his (non Trek) comic work.
I liked his run on the Hulk.
I would like to see him stay with the NF series and the Trek comics. That way his fans can continue to read his stories and those of us who don't care for him can enjoy the "regular" Trek books.
That said, I actually do enjoy some of his (non Trek) comic work.
I liked his run on the Hulk.
If the editors would give any author they want to work for them, but who could piss off some readers their own series and bar them from writing what you call "regular" novels there wouldn't be any "regular novels", since I'm sure for every author there is a group of readers out there who doesn't care for their styles.
I never said that he pisses me off, I'm not one of those weirdos who hate or dislike people that I am not a fan of. I just don't like his Trek work, that is all.
I see what you're saying, but since he was the 1st (and only?) Trek writer to have his own exclusive series I just think it makes sense.
Believe me, I'm not under any illusions that this will ever happen. Just saying that in my perfect universe he would have his own sandbox to play in, maybe something like the Shatnerverse would be a good fit for him. I know I am in the minority on this, just the way I feel about it.
I see what you're saying, but since he was the 1st (and only?) Trek writer to have his own exclusive series I just think it makes sense.
Believe me, I'm not under any illusions that this will ever happen. Just saying that in my perfect universe he would have his own sandbox to play in, maybe something like the Shatnerverse would be a good fit for him. I know I am in the minority on this, just the way I feel about it.
He's not the only one to have his own series, Diane Carey wrote both of the Challenger, Michael Jan Friedman wrote all of the Stargazer books, and so far Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin are the only ones who've written the Ent. Relaunch. And then there's Vanguard, which is pretty much just rotating between Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore and David Mack.
While I am not a fan of the man's writing in general, by any stretch of the imagination, and agree with destro on the "sandbox" idea, given that he seems to be developing his own private continuity and following...
I WOULD like to give a shout-out to his young adult books. I still remember them very fondly indeed, and I can't count how many times I must've read and re-read them when I was little. Many good memories there!
I WOULD like to give a shout-out to his young adult books. I still remember them very fondly indeed, and I can't count how many times I must've read and re-read them when I was little. Many good memories there!
you forgot KRAD's GKN/KE series...
More "comic booky" than tribbles, pah wraiths and prophets, Greek gods, a pick-up truck in space, Shakespeare and Milton-quoting villains...?
I think Trek is often very camp and comic booky, and that PAD is actually quite close to the spirit of the series, particularly TOS.
Indeed, I think he's a hell of a lot closer to televised Trek in theme and tone than the rape, torture and terrorism we are dished up in a lot of Trek fiction these days, and that's why his books are about the only Trek ones I buy these days.
^^But TOS wasn't trying to be campy and cartoony. Roddenberry's original intention was to reject the campiness and cartooniness of other contemporary SFTV and do science fiction with the same level of maturity, credibility, and naturalism of any cop show, courtroom drama, medical drama, or adult Western of the day. He consulted with scientists, engineers, and futurists to advise him on how to create a believable future environment for his characters to occupy, and strove to portray the characters, not as larger-than-life space heroes, but as real people who did their jobs, jobs that just happened to be in space. It's true that the show didn't always succeed in living up to this ideal, that silly ideas slipped through, that realism had to be compromised for the sake of budget, and that the attempts at everyday texture seen in the early first season gradually eroded away. But I consider those to be departures from the intended tone and "spirit" of TOS. Roddenberry wanted a show that was believable and anti-camp. He didn't always succeed, but that was his goal.
And what in the world is cartoony about villains educated enough to quote great literature?
And what in the world is cartoony about villains educated enough to quote great literature?
Yep. One generation's serious and sincere becomes a more cynical generation's camp. When TNG was hugely popular, there was a certain amount of TOS-bashing, on the grounds that it was only worth watching from the perspective that it was camp and funny. Maybe I'm just a humourless geek, but there's plenty of TOS I can watch and enjoy the same way I'd watch TNG. (Not that some of TNG hasn't aged pretty badly as well, but that's getting away from the point.)
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