Things you can’t STAND about Trek novels

[Greg Cox]

Sci-fi or not, I generally try to avoid having too many names start with the same letter or sound too much alike.

Comes from too many years of reading manuscripts in which major characters are named John, James, Jason, and Josh. Or maybe Marie, Miriam, Melissa, and Melinda.

Granted, this can happen in real life, but in prose . . . not a good idea!

 

[EnriqueH]

That’s like reading “Rarrrrggwwhhhb!!!!” when Chewbacca speaks in a Star Wars novel. Or when an author writes R2 said “BEEEP WOOOT”.

I prefer when a writer describes a mournful toot or paints the picture.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Not simply with Trek books, but with all fiction, I fucking hate the phrase [person] popped [something] into his /her mouth. Bonus throwing the book across the room if this is followed by and chewed thoughtfully.

 

[BillJ]

"Padding" instead of walking. I don't remember which one, but one of the books had that word in it at least fifty times, and it felt like five hundred.

 

[Armus]

Everything after the cover. Those Pocket Star Trek novels had some amazing paintings on their covers and when I was a kid I bought them for that reason alone.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Not simply with Trek books, but with all fiction, I fucking hate the phrase [person] popped [something] into his /her mouth. Bonus throwing the book across the room if this is followed by and chewed thoughtfully.

Don't mince words, "Lonemagpie," what do you really think?

 

[Daddy Todd]

My pet peeve is taking a very specific noun for something from earth, then modifying it with an alien planet. I admit it started very early in Trek history (the Kaferian apples from WNM...) but it really grates.

Instead of saying “Triachian eagle” (for which we have no mental picture, so we just imagine an eagle) how about a short description? “One of the dark blue raptors from Triacus” or something like that.

it’s not a big deal, but it’s common enough to annoy me.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I don't like it when writers actually write Chekov's accent into the book. It just sounds really weird.

Yeah, yeah, we know he talks like that, doesn't mean they have to actually write his dialogue that way. Just leave it to our imagination!

It's less creepy with Scotty, though. Some writers put his accent in as well. It doesn't sound as weird as it does with Chekov.

 

[thribs]

Just the utter disrespect they get from most people.

 

[David cgc]

^Writing in dialect is, generally, incredibly annoying. Especially in a case like the Trek books, where we generally already know exactly what a character sounds like, the same effect can be achieved with diction (though that's more of the case with characters like Trip or Scotty, that ones like Chekov where his distinctive way of speaking is all pronunciation).

There have been the occasional cases where an author gets hooked on a very specific word or turn of phrase for a while, to the point where it becomes noticeable. There was a period around the turn of the century where Peter David was using "t'is enough, t'would serve" in practically every novel he wrote. There was also David Mack and "stygian," but I didn't start picking up on that until after someone pointed it out here, so I can't rule out that he might've been fucking with us a little by using it regularly.

 

[thribs]

I’m not a fan of novels that are overly descriptive. Like inthose Harry Potter books where they spend pages to describe a room. Just get to the point already. I don’t care what colour the rug is.

 

[Indysolo]

I don’t care what colour the rug is.

That rug really tied the room together.

 

[Greg Cox]

There have been the occasional cases where an author gets hooked on a very specific word or turn of phrase for a while, to the point where it becomes noticeable. There was a period around the turn of the century where Peter David was using "t'is enough, t'would serve" in practically every novel he wrote. There was also David Mack and "stygian," but I didn't start picking up on that until after someone pointed it out here, so I can't rule out that he might've been fucking with us a little by using it regularly.

We all have our tics.

 

[thribs]

The thing that really annoys me is when the writers don't make it clear when the story is set. I want to know exactly when the story is set so I know where to place it on my shelf.

 

[Leto_II]

There have been the occasional cases where an author gets hooked on a very specific word or turn of phrase for a while, to the point where it becomes noticeable. There was a period around the turn of the century where Peter David was using "t'is enough, t'would serve" in practically every novel he wrote. There was also David Mack and "stygian," but I didn't start picking up on that until after someone pointed it out here, so I can't rule out that he might've been fucking with us a little by using it regularly.

...Or, speaking of Peter David, him using the word "archly" in what at the time seemed like literally every other chapter in nearly every single novel of his going back as far as I can remember. Always annoyed the crap out of me, even as an otherwise-huge fan of his stuff.

 

[Greg Cox]

I'm overly fond of "just" and "somewhat" and "slightly" and other weasel-words. Need to watch myself there.

And I recently noticed that I tend to use "they made good time" fairly often, usually when I want to hurry along to the next location without wasting any words on the journey.

"They made good time to Gamma Epsilon V," that kinda thing.

 

[tomswift2002]

I recall in one of the “Signature Edition” books (or was it VOI?) one of the authors (Peter David I think) in the interview section said that in one of their novels S&S Audio asked them how to pronounce a name and the author just shrugged and said they had never thought of it.

 

[XCV330]

I don't like it when the studio railroads over what was in a book when the dust hasn't even been settled. I get old books are going to be invalidated to movie and tv canon but .. ok Desperate Hours. Season 2 of Discovery completely invalidated the book. Why did they bother ok'ing this book only to have it be pointless within a few months.

 

[Greg Cox]

I recall in one of the “Signature Edition” books (or was it VOI?) one of the authors (Peter David I think) in the interview section said that in one of their novels S&S Audio asked them how to pronounce a name and the author just shrugged and said they had never thought of it.

Actually, I think that was me. And, yes, it's happened to me more than once.

"Um, I just thought it would look cool in print."

More recently, though, the audio people will often ask you to submit a pronunciation guide, which forces you to figure it out.

 

[DWMarch]

The word "somekinda" when applied to an existing technology:
"They've got somekinda shields blocking our phasers!" No, they have shields and that is what they are for. Just because you have never encountered that specific type does not qualify them for a somekinda.