The Price Of The Pheonix

[Christopher]

Actually, the Phoenix books were towards the end of the Bantam run...

Not really. If we discount 1970's Spock Must Die! as an outlier, Bantam's line of original Trek fiction began in 1976, and The Price of the Phoenix was the third book they published in that period, after The New Voyages and Spock: Messiah! So that one was very early in the run. The Fate of the Phoenix was two years later, in '79, and was the fifth-to-last book they did.

No, I'm specifically thinking of articles where someone would say something like, "The best of the novels are The Wounded Sky, The Final Reflection, the Piper books, and the Phoenix novels." It wasn't just a "Best of Bantam" sort of thing--these people were writing in the Eighties, with the Pocket line already going strong.

Considering how much praise the Piper duology got as well, it occurs to me that this particular audience, (probably) made up mostly of fans with a Seventies mindset, might've gravitated more to those novels with a heavy fanfic sensibility to them--the K/S undertones in Phoenix and the Mary Sue approach in the Piper novels.

I agree that they were drawn to books that felt like fanfic, but dwelling on K/S and Mary Sue is oversimplifying what that means. A large part of it was the difference between the authors who were Trek fans doing it out of love and striving to reflect something of the spirit and emotional impact of the show and characters (however awkwardly) and the ones who were professional SF authors for whom it was a paying gig and who maybe didn't capture those more visceral and intangible aspects. (Of course, these days, mostly you have professionals who are also lifelong fans doing the books, so that distinction no longer applies.)

 

[ProwlAlpha]

I just picked up 17 TOS books at my local library's books sale and I got the black Bantam The Price of Phoenix and The Fate of Phoenix in the lot. I haven't read them yet.

 

[kkozoriz1]

Count yourself lucky that you haven't read them. Bury them in the back yard where you want nothing to grow.

 

[ProwlAlpha]

I'll give them a chance.

 

[GeorgeKirk]

There's a crazy church in my hometown that's going to have a Koran-burning party on 9/11. If they really wanted to make God happy, they'd burn the Phoenix novels instead.

 

[ProwlAlpha]

Are they going to throw in those harry potter books and salute die fuhrer as well.

 

[JD]

There's a crazy church in my hometown that's going to have a Koran-burning party on 9/11. If they really wanted to make God happy, they'd burn the Phoenix novels instead.

Wow, that is really messed up. The Koran burning, not your recommendation.

 

[Captain Robert April]

I suggest folks take all those old phone books that are taking up space, write "Koran" on the cover, and take 'em down. For an added flourish, dressing like SS officers is always a nice touch.

 

[Therin of Andor]

they'd burn the Phoenix novels instead.

Everyone knows a new Phoenix always arises from the ashes. You really want Part 3 of the trilogy that badly?

 

[ProwlAlpha]

Since it is the last part of the trilogy, it will pull out all the stops with a three-way.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Better make it a four way to include the Romulan Commander as well as Kirk/Spock/Omne.

 

[ProwlAlpha]

thats in the reboot.

 

[JWD75]

I've read probably well over a hundred trek novels. Price of the Phoenix is the only one that I never successfully finished despite several attempts to read it.

 

[T'Ressa Dax]

I suggest folks take all those old phone books that are taking up space, write "Koran" on the cover, and take 'em down. For an added flourish, dressing like SS officers is always a nice touch.

They should just wear white bedsheets so no one has to look at their ugly faces. Maybe they'd like to burn a cross too.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Since it is the last part of the trilogy, it will pull out all the stops with a three-way.

According to rumours I heard back in the early 80s, slash fanfic chapter extensions were available on the fannish black market for all four Marshak/Culbreath titles.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Since it is the last part of the trilogy, it will pull out all the stops with a three-way.

According to rumours I heard back in the early 80s, slash fanfic chapter extensions were available on the fannish black market for all four Marshak/Culbreath titles.

But were they really written by fans, or by Marshak and Culbreath themselves?

 

[Therin of Andor]

But were they really written by fans, or by Marshak and Culbreath themselves?

And that would be telling.

 

[Christopher]

Marshak & Culbreath were prominent figures in the fan community themselves, and I believe they did write fanfiction as well as pro fiction, like other early Trek novelists such as Della Van Hise and Jean Lorrah.