Whatever Happened to Diane Carey?

[RonG]

The last book of hers I read was the Gateways novel (along with the What Lay Beyond short story.

Has she written Trek stories since? is she scheduled to? Is is known whether or not she reads current TrekLit (and her opinion of it)?

I remember reading most of her Trek novels (other than the old "numbered" TOS novels) and not being overly impressed (too much Kirk-worship and Naval referances IMO), and I was wondering about what other Trek readers thought of her work:
- what was her best Trek novel?
- Worst?
- recurring themes \ characters in her novels that caught your eye?

Comments?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

She is apparently going to write an episode of New Voyages according to their forum. I enjoyed that she brought more of the Hornblower aspect of Trek into her books.

 

[BrotherBenny]

I believe her last novel was Ship of the Line chronicling the maiden voyage of the Big E-E.

 

[Defcon]

- what was her best Trek novel?

Challenger: Chainmail and Captain's Table: Fire Ship

- Worst?

Novel: Ghost Ship

Short story: World of Strangers (the biggest piece of bullshit ever published in the history of Star Trek IMO)

- recurring themes \ characters in her novels that caught your eye?

Like you said her naval obsession is very distracting at times and I sometimes wondered why she even bothered to write SF/ST, when she obvioiusly wanted to write a naval novel.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I really enjoyed the "Piper" novels, "Dreadnought!" and "Battlestations!" when they first came out, but a recent re-read didn't do much for me.

"Red Sector" was just bad. "Ship of the Line" was... odd. Even the TNG books must have the Kirk hero worship it seems.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Fire Ship and Red Sector are my favorite books of hers.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Her Final Frontier should have been the Trek movie!

 

[Steve Roby]

RonG said:

- what was her best Trek novel?
- Worst?
- recurring themes \ characters in her novels that caught your eye?

Best novel might have been her Challenger Gateways novel, because it wasn't a Star Trek novel -- no Federation, no Starfleet, no familiar characters or species (other than humans) from any version of Star Trek, etc -- so I didn't get that sense of wrongness I usually got when she was putting her own spin on something familiar. I don't recall being driven nuts by her prose as much with that one, either. Her first Piper novel wasn't as bad as a lot of her later stuff, either.

Worst? There are a lot of candidates. Ship of the Line. Fire Ship. Red Sector. Final Frontier. I could go on.

Recurring themes: way overdone Hornblower obsession, Kirk lust, TNG-bashing, American conservative political blathering. Aside from creating supergirl Piper, Carey was all about the guys. The few canonical seconds of Morgan Bateson's crew from Cause and Effect show Bateson, two female bridge officers, and one male bridge officer. Carey's Ship of the Line gives Bateson an all-male crew. (But then, that's also the book in which Carey inserts her own 20th century sailing diaries as part of the text, throws in loads of epigrams from Hornblower stories, has a holodeck version of Kirk teach Picard what it really means to be a good Starfleet captain, etc, so it's a good way to be exposed to her obsessions in their purest form.)

 

[Trent Roman]

RonG said:
- what was her best Trek novel?

That I've read: Invasion: First Strike. I can rarely bring myself to care about overexposed characters like Kirk, Spock and McCoy, but Carey managed it in this book.

- Worst?

Ship of the Line is probably the worst offender, for the reasons Steve gave, but Fire Ship (in which Janeway discovers the joys of scrubbing the decks) and Red Sector are pretty dang bad, too.

- recurring themes \ characters in her novels that caught your eye?

As others have said, belaboring naval analogies, shoehorning right-wing politics in a universe rather unsuited to that sensibility, and a pretty flagrant 'Kirk is God' complex.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Ethros]

Trent Roman said:
shoehorning right-wing politics in a universe rather unsuited to that sensibility

Don't think I've read any of her books, out of curiosity can anyone give examples of how she did this?

 

[ryan123450]

I remember hating all the naval stuff in Ship of the Line. It was totally distracting and I just pretty much ignored it. I think I read another of her books that was just as odd. I won't be reading any new Trek that she writes.

 

[captcalhoun]

i've read Dreadnought! Battle Stations! Final Frontier, First Frontier, Invasion: First Strike and Best Destiny and hated all bar I:FS and Final Frontier. I:FS had very little impact on me. i will never read another Carey book.

 

[philbob]

I liked her thing with the Romulans

 

[captcalhoun]

that's Diane Duane

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I enjoyed Red Sector for the most part. I read Ship of the Line, and didn't see much point in it beyond "Ooh, let's bring back that TOS Movie Era dude and the TNG people, and Klingons!!!111!!!"

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Once again, everyone either absolutely loves or absolutely hates Fire Ship and Red Sector, but everyone agrees Ship of the Line is the worse.

 

[Csalem]

Hate to say it but I'd probably rate Ship of the Line ahead of Red Sector as a better book. I despise Red Sector.

 

[Dayton3]

I thought "Dreadnought" and "Battle Stations" were her best.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Emh said:
Everyone either absolutely loves or absolutely hates Fire Ship and Red Sector

Two of my all-time favourite ST novels. Ditto "Final Frontier". And Cadet Piper was a real hoot! The "Challenger" crew was great, too.

My first innocent post to a ST Lit BBS was raving about what a great read "Red Sector" was - I'd just read it, hot off the press - and I had no idea it would unleash the hatred for Diane Carey that was out there; all my local ST friends thought her stuff was very cool! I never noticed her so-called "political agenda"; so call me ignorant of all US politics.

"Ship of the Line" didn't make me angry either - I simply accepted it as the next exciting ST hadcover - except I wondered where Batesman's female crew had gone, and I could see that some TNG/Picard fans might be highly offended by the Kirk holodeck scenes.

It's my understanding that Diane had taken a break from writing to try entering the political scene. Over on Psi Phi ST Books bbs, ST author Dave Gallanter would sometimes post updates on her.

 

[donners22]

There's something about her narrative voice which I find really off-putting at times. It breaks the fourth wall and takes me out of the book.

I did like First Strike and Station Rage, though.