If given a choice right now, I'd prefer novels with all-new crews or mostly new crews with a very few characters who we know will never be significantly used again elsewhere. That frees up the author to go wherever they wish w/o having to write to or around the existing character history.
These are the voyages of... what? Really? Who??? Who Cares????
- Thread starter Data Soong
- Start date
Have you happened to check out Seekers yet, on that note?
To give a little more detail than that as well, it's focused on the USS Sagittarius from the Vanguard series, a scout ship with a crew of about a dozen going from planet to planet TOS-style. Only pre-existing screen character on the ship is Clark Terrell from TWOK, everyone else is an original Treklit character, all but one introduced in Vanguard.
Right. The Endeavour crew will show up again in Seekers #4: All That's Left. Fear the Beehive.
--Sran
As I've mentioned elsewhere, after all the TV shows and hundreds of the older novels, I'm pretty sick of the 'Strange New Worlds' planet of the week type stories.
That said, the Seekers stuff is pretty good...
I find myself getting bored if the 'back story' of the featured alien/alien world is described in too much detail.
I DO like some world building and knowing the alien's motivation but when it gets into chapter after chapter after endless chapter of why alien x decides to destroy the Enterprise for the greater good I will lose interest. I find myself getting impatient to know what Picard (or whoever) is doing while we are wandering around in some alien's head.
I DO like some world building and knowing the alien's motivation but when it gets into chapter after chapter after endless chapter of why alien x decides to destroy the Enterprise for the greater good I will lose interest. I find myself getting impatient to know what Picard (or whoever) is doing while we are wandering around in some alien's head.
Original Characters have been a godsend to Trek Literature. They allow events to transpire in such ways that the reader doesn't always know what may or may not happen in a particular circumstance. For me, many of the complaints about original characters don't make much sense as all characters were once new and original when first introduced to the larger trek universe. That isn't to say however that their aren't issues to be addressed with Original Lit Characters...
The issue at hand is a matter of Characterization, Character Development, & Character Focus.
I'd like to think that the majority of the current crop of Authors tend to follow each others' narrative and characterization leads, but for the most part certain authors favor certain original characters over others and certain characters tend to get back-burnered because the authors in question don't have greater or more complete understandings about established original characters style or substance.
Situations where characters you've grown to like in one novel can suddenly and will be acting completely different in other novels DO occur when different Authors are responsible for picking up the ball and running with it sometimes. (Example: Peter David's Before Dishonor - Regardless of the book overall, it's biggest failing in my eyes was always the inconsistency between it's portrayals of certain LIT-ONLY characters like Zelik Leybenzon, Miranda Kadohata, and T'Lana.)
Development of LIT-ONLY characters is essential to their essence and longevity, but isn't always a story priority so several novels can go by with only tangential or background mentions (ie people at duty stations hitting buttons on the bridge, etc.) and it all tends to add up when 10 novels go by and you know the names of characters but haven't had any reason to connect with or become emotionally invested in them. (Example: Dina Elfiki, Aneta Šmrhová, Joanna Faur, or Hegol Den.)
The last big issue is a matter of Character Focus. It's fairly common practice to feature Established Screen Characters (when and where they exist) over Original ones but unless there's a concerted effort made to create Character Focus for Original Characters (Or they admittedly have a special or unique trait about them that makes them inherently memorable) they tend to fade into the background "noise" for most readers as clutter. Just another name in a sea of names.
I myself would like to see MORE focus on Original Characters, not less. I need a reason to care about these people (especially if you decide to "Red Shirt" them down the line to prove the situation was serious)
As others have said, I feel that in many ways Original series like Vanguard, Gorkon, Seekers, and the Cardassian Books have a slight edge over the "Main Series" books in that they're not required to focus on "the ones you already know" and have space to let things evolve more fluidly.
Likewise series like DTI, Corps of Engineers, and Titan have Established Screen Characters yes, but the focus isn't as narrow as a "Main Series" Book would probably be and the majority of the plots aren't focused on just those Screen characters.
Ideally, I'd like to see more attention paid to Original Characters and their primary interactions with other Original Characters.
Corps of Engineers did that right. Voyager has been doing that right, DS9 has (sorta) been doing that right (though I feel like for a new space station it's awfully empty... ) and sadly TNG needs to pick up their game and give their originals the same treatment they've given Chen.
The issue at hand is a matter of Characterization, Character Development, & Character Focus.
I'd like to think that the majority of the current crop of Authors tend to follow each others' narrative and characterization leads, but for the most part certain authors favor certain original characters over others and certain characters tend to get back-burnered because the authors in question don't have greater or more complete understandings about established original characters style or substance.
Situations where characters you've grown to like in one novel can suddenly and will be acting completely different in other novels DO occur when different Authors are responsible for picking up the ball and running with it sometimes. (Example: Peter David's Before Dishonor - Regardless of the book overall, it's biggest failing in my eyes was always the inconsistency between it's portrayals of certain LIT-ONLY characters like Zelik Leybenzon, Miranda Kadohata, and T'Lana.)
Development of LIT-ONLY characters is essential to their essence and longevity, but isn't always a story priority so several novels can go by with only tangential or background mentions (ie people at duty stations hitting buttons on the bridge, etc.) and it all tends to add up when 10 novels go by and you know the names of characters but haven't had any reason to connect with or become emotionally invested in them. (Example: Dina Elfiki, Aneta Šmrhová, Joanna Faur, or Hegol Den.)
The last big issue is a matter of Character Focus. It's fairly common practice to feature Established Screen Characters (when and where they exist) over Original ones but unless there's a concerted effort made to create Character Focus for Original Characters (Or they admittedly have a special or unique trait about them that makes them inherently memorable) they tend to fade into the background "noise" for most readers as clutter. Just another name in a sea of names.
I myself would like to see MORE focus on Original Characters, not less. I need a reason to care about these people (especially if you decide to "Red Shirt" them down the line to prove the situation was serious)
As others have said, I feel that in many ways Original series like Vanguard, Gorkon, Seekers, and the Cardassian Books have a slight edge over the "Main Series" books in that they're not required to focus on "the ones you already know" and have space to let things evolve more fluidly.
Likewise series like DTI, Corps of Engineers, and Titan have Established Screen Characters yes, but the focus isn't as narrow as a "Main Series" Book would probably be and the majority of the plots aren't focused on just those Screen characters.
Ideally, I'd like to see more attention paid to Original Characters and their primary interactions with other Original Characters.
Corps of Engineers did that right. Voyager has been doing that right, DS9 has (sorta) been doing that right (though I feel like for a new space station it's awfully empty... ) and sadly TNG needs to pick up their game and give their originals the same treatment they've given Chen.
^ This really nails a lot of the issues with original characters, IMO. For me, that’s where the early DS9 relaunch excelled. We got a great mix of established screen characters and original characters and nobody got left out as the stories progressed. New and unexpected things happened with the established characters, like Ro and Quark’s relationship and Kira’s new conflicts with religious authorities. We also got fully-realized original characters like Shar, Vaughn, and Taran’atar with interesting and compelling story arcs.
Most of all, the authors were given space for this to happen. Since the series was intended to be ongoing, the stories never felt like one-offs, but rather part of a larger whole. When else have we had something like the Mission: Gamma books, with multiple storylines on both the Defiant and the station playing out over the four books. And one of the station storylines was setting up Unity. Since not everything had to be wrapped up in each book, we got to see the development of Shar’s relationships with his bondmates and their conflicts, Ro and Quark trying to sort out their friendship, and Kira slowly coming to realize that something was very wrong with Shakaar. It was clear that the authors and editor were working together to create stories which were plotted in advance, with a clear sense of where the series was going over the next three, five, or more books.
This is what seems to be missing with the current TNG and DS9 books. (I have only read some of Titan and none of the Voyager relaunch or New Frontier, so I can’t speak for those series.) While Chen has gotten a lot of development (partly because it seems several of the writers find her a fun character to use) and, to a lesser extent, Jasminder Choudhury and Sarina Douglas (partly because of their romantic involvements with established screen characters), most of the rest have faded into the background, as you noted. They’re the Lieutenant Kyles and Nurse Ogawas of Treklit.
While I think that many of the current authors work very hard to maintain continuity and characterization across the books, that sense of where the larger story is headed seems to be lacking. With some exceptions – notably DRGIII’s DS9 books and David Mack’s books focused on Bashir – it doesn’t seem like the authors are free to write a book with very many ongoing arcs. The best they can do is what Dayton Ward did in Armageddon’s Arrow – lay out some pieces that they might be able to pick up in a later book. No one seems to be thinking about what’s going to be happening in the book after the book after the book after the book currently being written.
While the reality of the publishing industry may be that editors simply don’t have the time to work with multiple authors on interlocking storylines, or that readers of tie-in literature just don’t buy books with continuing storylines, I still wish that we could see something closer to the early DS9 relaunch in the current books.
Most of all, the authors were given space for this to happen. Since the series was intended to be ongoing, the stories never felt like one-offs, but rather part of a larger whole. When else have we had something like the Mission: Gamma books, with multiple storylines on both the Defiant and the station playing out over the four books. And one of the station storylines was setting up Unity. Since not everything had to be wrapped up in each book, we got to see the development of Shar’s relationships with his bondmates and their conflicts, Ro and Quark trying to sort out their friendship, and Kira slowly coming to realize that something was very wrong with Shakaar. It was clear that the authors and editor were working together to create stories which were plotted in advance, with a clear sense of where the series was going over the next three, five, or more books.
This is what seems to be missing with the current TNG and DS9 books. (I have only read some of Titan and none of the Voyager relaunch or New Frontier, so I can’t speak for those series.) While Chen has gotten a lot of development (partly because it seems several of the writers find her a fun character to use) and, to a lesser extent, Jasminder Choudhury and Sarina Douglas (partly because of their romantic involvements with established screen characters), most of the rest have faded into the background, as you noted. They’re the Lieutenant Kyles and Nurse Ogawas of Treklit.
While I think that many of the current authors work very hard to maintain continuity and characterization across the books, that sense of where the larger story is headed seems to be lacking. With some exceptions – notably DRGIII’s DS9 books and David Mack’s books focused on Bashir – it doesn’t seem like the authors are free to write a book with very many ongoing arcs. The best they can do is what Dayton Ward did in Armageddon’s Arrow – lay out some pieces that they might be able to pick up in a later book. No one seems to be thinking about what’s going to be happening in the book after the book after the book after the book currently being written.
While the reality of the publishing industry may be that editors simply don’t have the time to work with multiple authors on interlocking storylines, or that readers of tie-in literature just don’t buy books with continuing storylines, I still wish that we could see something closer to the early DS9 relaunch in the current books.
Well said.
Some interesting ideas and observations here. If I ever write a new TNG story in the current continuity, I might try to address it by deliberately setting up a story that breaks up the cast into various subplots, each featuring one "on-screen star" and one or more "literary-original stars." That would satisfy the need to keep the familiar characters front-and-center while avoiding the problem of new characters being pushed into the background. A few books of this sort of mixing and matching might do wonders to better establish the new cast members in readers' imaginations.
I had the chance to see more of Chen's professional abilities having the command of the E-E and I liked the scenes with her taking center stage - uhm seat - so far. And I saw more of Aneta as chief of security and her struggle to meet Worf's expections. So more scenes like the ones between Worf and Smrhova may help to become more acquainted with the litverse characters.
Faur, Elfiki and Harstad need some more exploration. I can hardly judge them because I don't really know them. Away missions, team work, whatever. I'm curious what is in store for those characters.
Faur, Elfiki and Harstad need some more exploration. I can hardly judge them because I don't really know them. Away missions, team work, whatever. I'm curious what is in store for those characters.
I could go for something like that!
Do we have a full "Main Cast" Crew List for each of the current series? If so, how would you rate each character's substance and depth of focus in your own mind?
I still think of each Book series as a "Show" and the various crews as "Cast Members" Some are Main Cast, and some are Recurring Cast... Just remember that Garak was Recurring and I can't imagine DS9 without Elim Garak.
I'm just curious.
I still think of each Book series as a "Show" and the various crews as "Cast Members" Some are Main Cast, and some are Recurring Cast... Just remember that Garak was Recurring and I can't imagine DS9 without Elim Garak.
I'm just curious.
Although Elfiki has had some prominent roles in recent books like DTI I still feel I don't "know" her, nor know what she contributes to the E-E. If she was vanished in the next book I wouldn't notice.
Personally I wish Miranda Kadohata was still on board because when she was introduced she seemed interesting and had a lot of potential. One of the things I liked about her was that she had always been there as a junior officer but in the relaunch was promoted to Ops and Second Officer. I would like to see more of how this change of relationship with the senior staff played out with her. But then we lost her, although she developed more in the short time she was with us compared to others. Like Elfiki.
Personally I wish Miranda Kadohata was still on board because when she was introduced she seemed interesting and had a lot of potential. One of the things I liked about her was that she had always been there as a junior officer but in the relaunch was promoted to Ops and Second Officer. I would like to see more of how this change of relationship with the senior staff played out with her. But then we lost her, although she developed more in the short time she was with us compared to others. Like Elfiki.
I personally feel forced. I feel that the authors I see each year at Shore Leave will hunt me down if I don't buy their novels as soon as they come out..
Some of them are scary...
Mike