"Before Dishonor" was when I gave up on Trek lit. Someone REALLY hated Janeway: assimilated, then "dead," then eternity with the Q. My head just about exploded when I finished that one! Oops, I just threw up a little in my mouth thinking about it again!
Ironically enough (considering my intense adoration and support for Janeway now) at the time, her death wasn't as big a deal to me. It was just the sheer amount of fail in the rest of it.
All I remember from Full Circle was..
A. A real novel, unlike that dreck BD
B. Emo Chakotay.
I hated the mirror part at the beginning.
That was too soap opera-like for me.
I'm reading Full Circle right now and am only about 50 or so pages in to it. I love the focus on B'Elanna, Tom and Miral only because Klingon culture has always interested me. So far, not much Janeway, but to me she seems very in character as opposed to the crapfest of BD. There's only so much that the writer can do to try to fix Peter David's interpretation of Janeway (which is basically like a whole 'nother character with the same name.)
The sad thing? I didn't even really realize that Beyer was fixing Janeway. Partly because I had just sort of wiped
BD out of my mind. (I keep accidentally typing
B*E*D. So, my posts would say stuff like "I didn't like the way Janeway was in
BED 
)
^My apologies. I meant to say "She didn't let herself get assimilated in BD."
But I completely agree with your post.
Oh! Well then, never mind.
It's amusing how sometimes a typo or missing word can
completely change the meaning of a post, haha.
I know, right?
While I've never been bothered by the fact that Janeway died in and of itself, I do think that
A) It should have been in a book with "Voyager" on the cover, not "TNG."
B) The book wasn't particularly well-written. (See below.)
Agreed with both of those.
As some other people had said, especially at the time "How would TNG or DS9 fans like it if Picard or Sisko were brought in and killed off in, say,
NF or the
SCE books?"
And we think Janeway fans were outraged...god, could you imagine if Picard were to cross-over in a
VOY novel and die? I can hear the screams now...
That said, if you really did "give up" on TrekLit, I would advise reading the excellent Greater Than the Sum by Christopher L. Bennett (the follow-up to BD; the disparity in quality between the two is staggering), and the equally excellent Destiny Trilogy by David Mack, which is the story that BD and GttS ultimately are leading into. It's partly because those books are so good that I think it's a huge shame that BD was the scattered, over-the-top comic book shenanigans-filled identity-crisis wreck that it is.
Oh, definitely. And the books, for the most part, get much better as time goes by. There's
Unworthy, which picks up where
Full Circle leaves off, and is excellent.
Somehow, when I first read it, I thought it was kinda decent. Not great, but not bad. Maybe it was because it was the first TrekLit I'd read in forever, and I liked the idea of reading books in a running continuity instead of the old "each book coulda just been another episode" formula. But when I really sat down and thought about it later, and re-read most of the key parts of it, I totally did a 180 on it. Now I think it's pretty bad.
Oh wow. I some people who said they went back and read it, and considered it on its own, and thought it was pretty good.
I
Speaking of BD being pretty bad... As I said, the death of Janeway itself doesn't even bother me. But it was not handled well at all. Frankly, I just don't think much of Peter David. To each their own, but I found BD to be... well, I think I made it pretty clear above. I couldn't make it through
Imzadi, Vendetta, or... whichever "New Frontier" book it was that I tried to read, I don't remember what it was called. And Captain Calhoun is easily the most fanwanky, cartoonish, "This person does not fit in this fictional universe at all" character I've EVER seen in TrekLit. So... yeah.
What concerned me is the fact that Peter David has said he has an...antipathy, to put it nicely, with
VOY and Janeway. I had raised the concern that, due to his dislike of both, why would you hire him to write a book where Janeway dies? It got brushed off and there was talk of "professionalism" and "professional writers can write even if they don't agree or like something". Which is bullshit, but whatever.
I've only ever gotten through
Imzadi II. I used to like the
NF books, but I never *really* thought of them as Trek.
And Calhoun just screams wanker.
Still haven't read
Full Circle, though. It's one of those "I'd kinda like to read this, but it's not as high on the priority list as some other books" things, and since I've had trouble finding time to even get to my HIGH priority reading lately...
It's good, especially if you want to know what happens with the
VOY characters (those that are still alive, anyway) after
Destiny. There are times when it feels a bit like a "Seven is the Star!", but other than that it's pretty good.
I keep seeing "Asfarah Eden" and replacing her with "Kathryn Janeway".
Can we make an Earth day a few hours longer? Seriously, that would really help me out.
Amen to that.
Speaking of BD being pretty bad... As I said, the death of Janeway itself doesn't even bother me. But it was not handled well at all. Frankly, I just don't think much of Peter David. To each their own, but I found BD to be... well, I think I made it pretty clear above. I couldn't make it through
Imzadi, Vendetta, or... whichever "New Frontier" book it was that I tried to read, I don't remember what it was called. And Captain Calhoun is easily the most fanwanky, cartoonish, "This person does not fit in this fictional universe at all" character I've EVER seen in TrekLit. So... yeah.
When I tried New Frontier Calhoun seemed like a Frank Frazetta hero, straight out of Barsoom. Even brought back memories of the Tarnsmen of Gor series which is like Barsoom on viagra. But unlike those ripcurling fantasies of another era Calhoun and New Frontier were just try hard comicbooks trying to squeeze themselves into Trek and failing. I was rather taken aback. That wasn't my first attempt at Peter David though. Some years earlier I got a copy of Imzadi because in those days (pre relaunches) it was highly revered in fandom and you could not so much as inquire about Treklit without it being recommended.
Really? Wow...I didn't have that sort of reaction to
NF at first (in fact, I kinda liked the fact that Shelby was given this guy who was the complete opposite, and they used to be/are/were/might still be lovers).
I've never read
Imzadi, so you can see how those recommendations affected me.
What a piece of shit. Seriously, I might have liked it when I was 13. The romantic interests (Troi and Riker) are full of TENSION and not talking to each other moments and misunderstandings.. oh it is so angsty.. and so unlike any adult relationship.
Sounds kinda like their relationship when they're trying to have the baby...
It's when you are at high school and that boy you like who always talks to you DOESN'T and you have to spend the next 5 lunches discussing what this means until it's pulp with your girlfriends.
Like oh my god! You forgot about all the TEXTING that goes on! THE TEXTING! And the gazing and the looking. BUT MOSTLY THE TEXTING!
That is exactly the feel of this stupid book. But then, because this is fanwank fantasy at its pinnacle, the romantic interests (Troi and Riker) end up spending the night in some stressful life threatening situation NUDE. Yes. I can't remember what happened to their clothes. Please don't tell me, I do not care. It's straight teenage fanwank.
Sounds like what happened to Troi and Lwaxana in the episode
Menage à Troi
The only good thing I could say about Imzadi and New Frontier is that while they are not well written they are literature when compared to Before Dishonor which is truly awful writing.
So, Peter David IMHO is a hack.
But apparently a successful one.
Oh and YES the Destiny trilogy is excellent! I had to bleep over all the baby angst but the original characters and storyline, of Erika Hernandez is incredible. I loved it.
It's
epic. Literally.
But then, because this is fanwank fantasy at its pinnacle, the romantic interests (Troi and Riker) end up spending the night in some stressful life threatening situation NUDE.
The only good thing I could say about Imzadi and New Frontier is that while they are not well written they are literature when compared to Before Dishonor which is truly awful writing.
So, Peter David IMHO is a hack.
I like Q-Squared. I really do. But, then again, I'm a bit of a Trelane fangirl.
I never read that one. But I liked
Q-in-Law
Good thing I was never remotely interested in Imzadi. Or New Frontier (I saw an excerpt of a New Frontier novel in the back of a book once and that tiny little snippet was enough to make me facepalm. Calhoun screams "Gary Stu" to me.)
I love "Gary Stu".
But... nude? Seriously?! I'll take something contrived like that in a fanfic (and even then they'd better write it damn well,) but not in some book I have to pay money for. Lame-o.
Or a
TNG episode.
I've never read Q-Squared though I have a copy of it. As far behind in Treklit as I am there would have to be no new Treklit for 10 years before I tried P.D. again--actually scratch that, after B.D. I'm not reading anything by him. I wonder if he's writing any more relaunch installments after the huge panning of B.D.
He seems to be sticking with his
NF stories.
My favorite Treklit authors are K.R.A.D. and James Swallow consistently. Christie Golden has some great moments too.
Agreed on the first two, but Christie Golden really flopped with the
Homecoming/Farther Shore and
Spirit Walk books.
