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Which non-trek authors would you like to write a trek novel?

I know he expanded on the TAS episodes. My point is that it wasn't completely, 100% standalone material, as in published separately from the Log books.
 
^Well, all of the last four Star Trek Log volumes (7-10) did contain original stories by Foster. They were sequels to the episodes (and in the case of Log Ten, a prequel and a parallel story as well), but they were definitely original Star Trek fiction by Foster.
I completely forgot about that. :scream:
 
Within the genres of sci-fi, fantasy and the like? The late Iain Banks, for sure! And Alasdair Reynolds. But maybe also someone who would do something distinctly personal with the source, like Patrick Rothfuss or Neil Gaiman or Gene Wolfe (I guess the middle of whom might have once written Trek lit, and maybe the former might if for fun, but the latter would have fit into the 80s era).

But I still, like when I asked this question long ago, would love some more female, non-white or literary authors to write Trek, people who write and think like Zadie Smith or Kazuo Ishiguro or such like. It's great to see Una doing very interesting things like Brinkmanship's critique of patriarchy, as well as her use of non-omniscient authorial voices, or David Mack's lengthy first person narrative in the first Cold Equations book (and there are lots of other wonderfully authorial devices to pick out from recent): it would be lovely to see other such social or authorial devices encouraged and used :D
 
After hearing Octavia Butler talk about her love and admiration for the space program, I believe she would have told one helluva Trek story in prose.
 
^ Ever read Blood Electric? That'll answer your question.

Unless of course you actually LIKE books that are, quite literally, nothing but gibberish. (Hell, even the back cover blurb doesn't make sense.)
 
I had never heard of that before your post. I just looked it now, and all I can say is :wtf::ack:.
 
As wordy as he might be, I'd love to see David Weber take a crack at writing Star Trek instead of making cracks about the pseudo-military nature of the Federation Starfleet.

I'd love to see Jim Butcher tackle Trek, but in all honesty Babylon 5 would probably be more his speed.

I'd say Patrick Rothfuss, but.... I'm not about to give him anymore distractions before he can get Doors of Stone (The Kingkiller Chronicle - Book 3) out the door. [Seriously, if you haven't read THE NAME OF THE WIND yet... just do it.
 
Yes, Tb, Name of the Wind is perhaps one of the best debuts in fantasy and science fiction I've read! Everyone check it out!! Admitedly, Rothfuss is deliberately aiming at being a 'literary' fantasist (like Wolfe, one of his influences), so may not be to everyone's tastes, but I think it is worth trying out for having read it.
 
Name of the Wind is awesome.

I kind of want to see Timothy Zahn. I know he tends to lean more towards dark underbelly of universes, but that's a side I kind of want to see. Episodes like Gambit, the introduction of Calhoun in the first NF book and that side of DS9 really appeal to me.
 
Joe Haldeman did write a Star Trek book.

30 years ago when they had to play in the sandbox.

Actually he wrote two, and it was before anyone was really bothering to police the sandbox. After all, there was no new Trek being made onscreen at that point, and so Haldeman and other authors were given a lot of freedom to expand and reinterpret the Trek universe. Planet of Judgment and World Without End are pretty faithful to Trek lore, but also add a lot of fresh ideas and new angles to things, like the elaborated security procedures and equipment in PoJ and the fleshing out of Klingon culture in WWE. Indeed, PoJ was the first work of Trek fiction to flesh out McCoy's backstory by depicting a version of his breakup with his wife and his decision to enroll in Starfleet. In other Bantam novels, Gordon Eklund's The Starless World created a backstory for Uhura and her father, David Gerrold's The Galactic Whirlpool fleshed out Trek history and Federation culture rather extensively, and so on. The kind of restrictions on creativity that you're thinking of didn't really become a major issue in Trek literature until later.
 
Joe Haldeman did write a Star Trek book.
30 years ago when they had to play in the sandbox.
Actually he wrote two, and it was before anyone was really bothering to police the sandbox. After all, there was no new Trek being made onscreen at that point, and so Haldeman and other authors were given a lot of freedom to expand and reinterpret the Trek universe. Planet of Judgment and World Without End are pretty faithful to Trek lore, but also add a lot of fresh ideas and new angles to things, like the elaborated security procedures and equipment in PoJ and the fleshing out of Klingon culture in WWE. Indeed, PoJ was the first work of Trek fiction to flesh out McCoy's backstory by depicting a version of his breakup with his wife and his decision to enroll in Starfleet. In other Bantam novels, Gordon Eklund's The Starless World created a backstory for Uhura and her father, David Gerrold's The Galactic Whirlpool fleshed out Trek history and Federation culture rather extensively, and so on. The kind of restrictions on creativity that you're thinking of didn't really become a major issue in Trek literature until later.
The Galactic Whirlpool also fleshed out the idea Gerrold talked about in his other Trek books - that of first contact/landing party specialists. He said it made no sense to always have the Captain AND the First Officer constantly putting themselves in danger, and therefore developed the idea of teams of people who were specially trained to do these sorts of things. It was refreshing to see Kevin Riley doing this work.
 
^ That abortive new animated series was going to have a main character who did exactly that: specialize in first contact/protocol issues.
 
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