Treklit Reprints in Relaunch Continuity

[Relayer1]

I mentioned this in another thread and would be interested in peoples opinions.

There are a lot of Trek novels that are not in continuity with the relaunch. Some (probably quite a few) would only need some fairly minor tweaking to fit in - some great books like Federation would need an extensive rewrite, so are unlikely candidates, but others would be pretty straightforward. Would anyone else like to see a reprint program of revised and repackaged novels ?

I certainly would - for what would appear to be fairly minimal effort S & S (and the authors) could get some additional income from the back catalogue and bring the novels to a new generation of readers. There is a precedent with Laurell K. Hamiltons Nightshade a year or two ago.

I'm not advocating this at the expense of the current novels, but perhaps two or four extra releases a year for revised reprints.

Well, how about it ?

 

[Trek Survivor]

I would definitely NOT like revised reprints - altering people's work solely to fit in with a current continuity that not everyone likes (I'm pretty disappointed with how the TNG crew have progressed post-Nemesis).

I don't mind if they reprint earlier novels (and as I recall, wasn't "Nightshade" just a reprint with a new cover to emphasise Laurell K. Hammilton as the writer? I didn't think any of the actual text had been changed - but I might be wrong).

In fact, there are a lot of great stories from the past that could do with a dusting off. But I would not like "minor tweaking". A good story is a good story whether it fits in with somebody else's story or not. All too often continuity gets in the way of a good old adventure yarn.

 

[F. King Daniel]

No, for a couple of reasons.

1. Changing the novels risks taking away their unique flavour. I like seeing different authors interpretations of the Trek universe.

2. Those older books fit into the continuity as well as most of TV/film Trek fits together (see videos in my sig). Why hold the tie-ins to a higher standard of continuity than what they are based upon? Do they need to re-dub "300 years" over the "200 years ago" 1990's references on Space Seed and Wrath of Khan in order to make them acceptable? Nu-uh. It's all broad strokes.

3. Some of those novels that are considered to be part of the current novelverse don't fit as well as you might think. Kirsten Beyer admitted that she ignored every other Q novel out there when she penned The Eternal Tide. The more you dig, the more contradictions you'll find. Look at New Frontier - it's still referenced across the novelverse, yet some here consider it an AU. Look at Ship of the Line, explicitly referenced in Cold Equations #2 yet ignored in DTI: Watching the Clock. Look at the controversy surrounding Indistinguishable From Magic.

 

[Shatinator]

So the Dogma of the Day Rules?

What are you suggesting do a Lucas on the novel-verse.

I would not want to be the dictator taking out this replacing that, based on my own personal canon and agenda. These novels as King David pointed out have there own personal flavor. Also, even though the direction of the novels are all the rage now, what happens when that fades and folks yearn for the originals, what then 'repackage part deux'
nein nein nein

 

[DonIago]

I might be interested in it if and only if the original versions of the novels were republished at the same time.

 

[zarkon]

Not really

apocrypha doesn't tend to bother me.

 

[Relayer1]

That's pretty much a no then...

 

[Kertrats47]

Yeah... you'll have to add me to the "no" column as well. I love a lot of those stories. Read: THOSE stories. I wouldn't want any changes just to cater to the "flavour of the week." And where would the line be drawn? Clearly, The Final Reflection would have to be massively re-worked to fit into continuity, and it's arguably the finest Trek novel ever written. Quality isn't dependent on continuity.

No, leave them as they are. They're the stories that those particular authors wanted to tell.

 

[JD]

It's an interesting idea, but I don't really see the need for it. The only way I could maybe, maybe, see it working is if they let the original author do it themselves. We've seen what happens when somebody other than the original creator starts messing around with stuff like this in the movie industry, we don't need it happening in books too.
It also seems to me like it would be way more trouble than it is worth. Sure it might be fun, but it just seems unnecessary. I really think if people want to read an older book, they're read it whether it fits in with the continuity or not.

 

[Christopher]

I think if it's the sort of thing where only a few lines need to be tweaked, like Greg's fix from "original Enterprise" to "Kirk's Enterprise," then that's the sort of thing most authors would probably welcome the opportunity to do if their books were reprinted. Plenty of authors use reprints as an opportunity to correct errors or refine their books. Indeed, some even choose to rewrite their books rather massively, e.g. David Gerrold with Yesterday's Children and When HARLIE Was One, or Arthur C. Clarke with Against the Fall of Night (which he rewrote into an almost completley new book, The City and the Stars). Fans tend to treat works of fiction as fixed, immutable things, but to their creators, they're the end result of a long process of trial, error, revision, and refinement, and few creators would pass up the chance to make a few more improvements.

So I imagine a lot of Trek authors would be willing to make updates given the opportunity. But if it were done, it should be voluntary, at the author's discretion. In my case, I don't think there's anything I've written to date that's been significantly contradicted by new canon, but there are a couple of minor things in Ex Machina that I wouldn't mind tweaking to reflect stuff we later learned from Enterprise. And I'd welcome the chance to fix the continuity error between Aftermath and Unity, where we both have different versions of Keiko telling Miles about her new job for the first time.

 

[Relayer1]

^That's really the sort of thing I was thinking about - minor corrections like the sex of certain characters offspring, updating a historical reference to take in events in Enterprise etc., removing or replacing minor inconsistences and always, wherever possible, done by the author.

If the Reeves Stevens wanted to update Federation (just for example) that would require a full rewrite and effectively be a new book. Great if they wanted to, but not really what I was getting at...