What is this? Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek

[EnriqueH]

It's on Barnes & Noble and it has a $75 price tag.

Anyone here seen it?

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gene-roddenberrys-star-trek-douglas-brode/1121122770?ean=9781442249875

 

[Daddy Todd]

It's the "companion volume" to this:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-star-trek-universe-douglas-brode/1121122769?ean=9781442249851

It appears the avalanche of unauthorized Star Trek books "celebrating" the 50th anniversary has started... $75 seems a bit steep for 240 pages, though.

 

[EnriqueH]

Has anyone here read the first book and posted any reviews?

Normally, I'll buy Trek books, no problem, but for $75? I want to make sure it's absolutely worth it.

Does anyone know anything beyond the descriptions?

 

[Kor]

Rowman & Littlefield publishes academic/scholarly books, and those tend to be in that price range.

With books like this I usually wait a while and see if I can find it at a discount on ebay or on Amazon marketplace. Sometimes my local used book chain store ends up getting boxes full of stuff like this and selling them dirt cheap.

Kor

 

[vegaslover62]

For that price, the words had better be etched in solid platinum.

 

[Kor]

^ I still think the price is typical for this kind of book.

I took a gander at the table of contents; the topics are pretty specialized and academic, and the authors of the essays are university professors.

Here are a few examples of chapters in this book:
* "Milton and Rodenberry: Structural Parallels between Star Trek II and Paradise Lost" by Shari Hodges Holt of the University of Mississippi
* "Warp Speed: The Physics of Star Trek" by Phil Kesten of Santa Clara University
* "Minimalist Interiors/Imagined Exteriors: Spatial Complexity in the Star Trek Saga" by Mervyn Nicholson of Thompson Rivers University
* "Sarek’s Tears: Classical Music, Star Trek, and the Exportation of Culture" by Daniel Sheridan of Carleton University

Popular television shows and movies are now an area of solid academic study. This book is definitely a scholarly work, and won't necessarily be fully enjoyed by a popular audience looking for another casual collection of behind-the-scenes anecdotes and interviews with lots of color photos. But YMMV.

Kor

 

[Melakon]

I saw some of those essay titles and it sounded like a $75 Best of TREK paperback.

 

[RandyS]

I saw some of those essay titles and it sounded like a $75 Best of TREK paperback.

I had the same thought. I wonder if they're just reprints of those books? Wouldn't surprise me. Didn't they stop printing those around twenty years ago?

Eh, I still have all my paperback copies anyhow.

 

[Kor]

Considering that the essay authors are current university professors, and that the book is being released by an academic publisher, and the description states that it is aimed at a scholarly audience...

No, this is not a reprint of the old "Best of TREK" fanzine compilations.

Kor

 

[Christopher]

Here are a few examples of chapters in this book:
* "Milton and Rodenberry: Structural Parallels between Star Trek II and Paradise Lost" by Shari Hodges Holt of the University of Mississippi

Huh? Roddenberry had nothing to do with ST II beyond being a "consultant," so I find that a puzzling title.

 

[Kor]

^ Yeah, it always bugs me when scholarly works get details like that incorrect in analyzing popular culture. It's like they dispense with the normal standards of rigor and accuracy that they would use when considering the authorship of Middle English literature, or whatever their specialty actually is.

Once I was reading an academic article that kept referring to "Uhuru" and I wanted to throw it across the room.

Kor

 

[Christopher]

^Well, in their defense, "Uhuru" is an actual, legitimate Swahili name, while "Uhura" was an ethnocentric white guy's attempt to make it sound "female" by adding a Romance-language feminine suffix to it. It's hard for me to get too upset about a "mistake" that's technically more accurate than the "correct" version.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I actually do read the occasional scholarly treatise (and I'm in the middle of writing two myself), but not at that price.

 

[Kor]

^Well, in their defense, "Uhuru" is an actual, legitimate Swahili name, while "Uhura" was an ethnocentric white guy's attempt to make it sound "female" by adding a Romance-language feminine suffix to it. It's hard for me to get too upset about a "mistake" that's technically more accurate than the "correct" version.

True about the Swahili word.

But in 300 years, human naming conventions will be different, and there will also be new surnames such as "Sulu."

I actually do read the occasional scholarly treatise (and I'm in the middle of writing two myself), but not at that price.

One thing I loved about being in college was the ability to borrow and read obscure scholarly books for free from the campus library instead of having to pay $150 for my own copy. Yep, some of these books really do cost that much, and there are articles out there that explain why.

Kor

 

[Harvey]

Here are a few examples of chapters in this book:
* "Milton and Rodenberry: Structural Parallels between Star Trek II and Paradise Lost" by Shari Hodges Holt of the University of Mississippi

Huh? Roddenberry had nothing to do with ST II beyond being a "consultant," so I find that a puzzling title.

A lot of academic work about Star Trek is garbage, but I wouldn't rush to judgment based on an essay title.

 

[Avro Arrow]

One thing I loved about being in college was the ability to borrow and read obscure scholarly books for free from the campus library instead of having to pay $150 for my own copy. Yep, some of these books really do cost that much, and there are articles out there that explain why.

... which are collected in an acedemic book that you'll need to shell out $150 for to find the answer!

 

[vegaslover62]

Here are a few examples of chapters in this book:
* "Milton and Rodenberry: Structural Parallels between Star Trek II and Paradise Lost" by Shari Hodges Holt of the University of Mississippi

Huh? Roddenberry had nothing to do with ST II beyond being a "consultant," so I find that a puzzling title.

Well, the namedropping certainly sounds better than just "Comparing Paradise Lost with Star Trek II" which sounds like something a young fan did for a severely procrastinated report in junior high school.

 

[Christopher]

"Sounds better" may be an excuse for gross inaccuracy in advertising -- even in fiction, admittedly -- but it shouldn't be in a scholarly article. After all, you want your readers to believe you know what you're talking about. If the author can't even attribute the correct source in the title, that doesn't suggest the paper itself would be any better researched.