What is the lowest stakes novel written?
- Thread starter JoeZhang
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There's always that Enterprise novel where half of it is dedicated to the crew's tabletop RPG.
Maybe How Much for Just the Planet? I think it was more a romantic comedy than a tale of mortal peril.
Absolutely my answer. But also, thinking about it, while the stakes in Spock’s World are pretty major, they are also handled in absolutely the lowest stakes way possible.
Which one was that?
By The Book by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch(If I'm remembering correctly)
The Way to the Stars
I don't know if I'd give it to By The Book - sure, the table top RPG plot got a great deal of attention, but the A-plot was about finding a way to get two species who shared a planet to coexist, one of whom was so tightly regimented that they were barely acknowledging Enterprise, let alone the other species who they shared a planet with, simply because they didn't have a protocol for dealing with aliens. Kind of an "offsetting one with the other" kind of thing - A-plot is high stakes, B-plot is minimal stakes.
For the moment, I'm inclined to agree with Starbreaker and go with The Way to the Stars - it's a focus on teenage Tilly, on her school days and then running away from school and deciding to join Starfleet. It's all very low stakes in terms of the perspective - this one individual teenager, rather than necessarily being the fate of governments and cultures.
Which is not to say that it's not engaging or anything - Way to the Stars is definitely one of my favorite Discovery books, precisely BECAUSE of that difference from normal. It is all about the journey of this one character, rather than dealing with those big, weighty, worldshaking elements.
For the moment, I'm inclined to agree with Starbreaker and go with The Way to the Stars - it's a focus on teenage Tilly, on her school days and then running away from school and deciding to join Starfleet. It's all very low stakes in terms of the perspective - this one individual teenager, rather than necessarily being the fate of governments and cultures.
Which is not to say that it's not engaging or anything - Way to the Stars is definitely one of my favorite Discovery books, precisely BECAUSE of that difference from normal. It is all about the journey of this one character, rather than dealing with those big, weighty, worldshaking elements.
Way to the Stars is low in stakes but very high in a good time.
Spot in "A Hard Rain"?
Worf's First Adventure
If we count the YA books, certainly some of those Jake/Nog books are surely very low stakes.
If we could count comics there's the issue of DS9 where they just sit in Quark's bar and tell stories about tribbles
"Lusts Latinum Lost (And Found)" is a pretty low stakes tale, as is "Rules of Accusation".
Bloodthirst is a high-stakes novel, because it has vampires in it.
Imzadi? It's only high stakes if you give a crap whether Deanna lives or dies.
I mean, that's broadly true of anything, right? It's only high stakes if you care about the stakes.
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