Why Was the "Strange New Worlds" Book Series Ended?

[TheAlmanac]

Granted I didn't care for it too much or think the stories were very good, but I was curious as to why it ended.

Not to deny that ten years was a decent run.

The stories were not very good anyway.

Man, does my face hurt from all those backhanded, bitchslapping compliments!

--Ted

Yeah, I also find myself rubbing at my reddened cheek...

Ouch, dude.

 

[Jim Johnson]

ISOLATION WARD 4 kicked ASS! (for instance)

That story, written by Kevin Summers, also happens to be one of the few Star Trek stories that made it onto the preliminary ballot for the Nebula Awards. I don't know how many other media tie-in stories or Star Trek stories can say that, but it's not an inconsiderable achievement.

2002 Nebula Awards info, if you're interested: http://www.sfwa.org/news/nebpre02.htm

 

[Timewalker]

How anybody can say "the stories were not very good anyway" is beyond my understanding. Sure, some of them weren't my cup of tea. But some were outstanding -- I can't recall offhand who wrote the one about the origins of the Borg, but I wish he/she would expand that into a novel, because it was EXCELLENT! I got chills reading it, and it's a very logical extrapolation of how the Borg could have been created.

There were two Borg-origin stories in SNW. "The Beginning" by Annie Reed (SNW VI) showed the "birth" of the Borg Queen in the distant past on some unknown world...

"The Beginning" is the one I meant. I don't remember reading the other one.

 

[OmahaStar]

It's a shame they didn't sell well enough to continue, but my gosh, we got 10 years out of it. That's a huge accomplishment.

I didn't care for every story. A few I thought were completely off the mark, but that's my opinion, and the majority more than made up for a few bad apples.

There were a few old standards ... Every volume seemed to have its tribble story, the Borg story, etc., but they were different. The one with the Borg trying to assimilate tribbles was hysterical.

Kudos to all involved.

 

[Man of Steel]

^
That makes sense. No one likes reading their own work. Just like a movie or TV show, where the actor doesn't like watching themselves on screen and try to avoid doing so at all costs.

huh?

No, he meant people wanted to be published in SNW, wrote stories, sent them in, but not enough fans were interested in reading other fans' stories to support the SNW books.

Misunderstood what he said.....

 

[Wowbagger]

I've long wondered how the number of people who sent in stories compared to the number of people who bought the books, and how many of the people who sent in stories bought the books. In the once-plentiful "I sent in my stories" threads, a lot of people gave the impression that they wanted to be published in SNW but had no interest in reading it.

Stupid fans... Damn you, fandom!

Oh, wait.

 

[Leandar]

I have to confess that I thought of this as nothing more than published fan fiction for a long time and so passed on it. However, I recently thought to give it a shot and I've picked up several of the anthologies and just finished book one last night. For the most part, I enjoyed it. These stories were better than I thought initially. I have really got to quit pre-judging these stories based on synopsis or format. lol

 

[Idoliside]

One of my favourite stories is still "What went through data's mind 33 seconds before the asteroid hit" (i may have got the name wrong) from the original SNW. It was a fantastic piece of writing that actually inspired me to read more of Treklit.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Our Million-Year Mission is one of the very best Trek stories ever told in any medium.

Seconded.

 

[Misfit Toy]

But you read at least some of them and maybe even bought a book or two, so thank you for that, at least. Whether it was one of the books I was in or not doesn't matter; that you supported at least a few of my fellow SNW writers is enough to balance out your sweeping generalization.

Thank you.

They are pretty cheap when you get them used.

And the cover art was often interesting.

Normally I wouldn't do this but-

Dude. You couldn't possibly have read all the stories and have that opinion.

I say this after several years of reading Dayton3's posts:

Yes. Yes he can.

 

[JAG]

You are so right.

 

[wew]

Well I never submitted a story, but did purchase every book. I think some of the stories were brillant, others I found kind of "meh".