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San Francisco, 5:08 AM
Wed Dec 2
29 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/24/09
11/24/09
For some stupid reason, they were always very divisive among the fans, but I thought they were excellent, especially once they got to the Sentinels books (which were MUCH better IMO than Carl Macek's goofy story-sketch he had for that ill-fated series).
11/24/09
11/25/09
11/24/09
The novels anymore are just
"What can we take away from the main cast, without killing any original cast, to create more drama?"
11/24/09
Still, other than the whole Killiks/Joiner debacle (those were painful to read), I've rather enjoyed the extension of the franchise in a logical path that the novels have taken since Zahn's original trilogy.
The focus is getting more and more onto the next generation of characters, including Ben Skywlaker and Jaina Solo, plus a number of other characters introduced into the mix from various sources: Corran & Mirax Horn and their kids, Jag Fel, Chief of State Daala, etc
11/24/09
I've enjoyed them too, but there is definitely a lot that could be done if a newgroup was allowed to take a swing at the franchise.
Also, Chewbacca was ultimately expendable, and is the only one to die out of all the books.
Currently, Luke, Leia, and Han still have a very big role in the stories being told, despite their age, and if that's what people want, elt them do a reboot.
Hell, even Boba Fett still gets notice.
#speakup
11/24/09
I would however like the focus to shift away from the movie characters. Del Rey keeps using the argument of '60 is the new 40' but that's just lazy IMO. However we are getting more standalones focusing on minor characters, like the upcoming novel Crosscurrent which takes place shortly after Legacy of the Force and focuses on Jaden Korr, a video game character and Jedi Knight of the younger generation.
11/24/09
I have no idea what Del Ray is going to do after they advance the story another 10-15 years. Besides having at least two massive galactic conflicts during that time.
#speakup
11/25/09
11/25/09
It's far from the same, and as much a reboot as any of the standalone novels or comics were.
Oh well. I've read most all of the books and comics, but I think it would be really itneresting to see a new group of authors take a stab at the series.
#speakup
11/24/09
Tie-in work in general so rarely gets the love it deserves...since io9 has been talking a lot lately about the "ghetto" SF lives in, it's important to note that many fans (unfortunately) place tie-ins in the ghetto's ghetto.
You've definitely covered all the major arcs in tie-in history, I think, and I appreciate that you addressed canonicity in a couple of places--it's a very common debate for fans (especially in the differences between how Star Trek and Star Wars officially deal with it) which probably deserves a post of its own. #canon #continuity
(Given that Greg Bear had already written a Star Trek novel in the Eighties, people shouldn't have been that surprised about the Halo novel, though. ;))
11/24/09
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11/28/09
11/24/09
Second, John M. Ford -- a couple of people have mentioned his Star Trek tie-in "How Much for Just the Planet," but there's another, "The Final Reflection," that does for the Klingons what Diane Duane does for the Romulans, and is a pretty fine s-f novel in its own right.
11/24/09
When the movie came out, I desperately wanted to see it but knew there was no hope since it was rated R and I was 11. So I picked up the book instead.
What a beautiful mindfuck that book was for an 11 year old. It was essentially proto-cyberpunk, painting out a broken dystopian America, with this almost unrelenting bleakness. The wasteland of New York City described in such intense detail. If I had nightmares, I would be dreaming of the drumming of the crazies in the underground tunnels, their minds blown to criminal depths by the widespread use of chemical weapons.
The book has one of the best cityscapes in the long history of dystopian sci-fi. Everything described in beautiful detail, from the zombie-esque crazies underground, to the feudalistic structure of the ruling gangs, to the chaos of the government food drops in Central Park, to small sections of town where people vainly tried to emulate the peace and normality they once had, to the brutal measures taken by the government in processing the prisoners and keeping them from escaping.
The movie pales by comparison and I was deeply disappointed when I finally got a chance to see it.
11/24/09
I loved those books so much. I'm still irritated to this day that the subsequent TV shows and movies seemed to go out of their way to piss on Ford's take on Klingon culture and history.
11/24/09
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11/25/09
11/24/09
great article as well.
11/24/09
[en.wikipedia.org]
[www.personal.leeds.ac.uk]
11/24/09
11/25/09
In addition, original WHO novels (original to the audience, anyway) started appearing in the late 1980s when Target released a bunch of books released on unfilmed television scripts.
11/24/09
11/24/09
The Star Trek: New Voyages Stories were awesome. I read both volumes when I was 8 or 9. There is one story in which the genders of the Enterprise crew get inverted! Kirk wakes up as a woman. I seriously, don't know if I ever enjoyed tie-in fiction more than those books.
They also converted one of my elementary school friends into a Trekkie, and then a full-blown SF person.
11/24/09
11/24/09
Anyone who wants to see how a Trek prequel should have been handled (as opposed to the show Enterprise) would do well to pick up Diane Carey's "Final Frontier." It chronicles the first voyage of Robert April and George Kirk (Jim's dad) aboard the first starship, i.e. the Enterprise. They run afoul of the Romulans, in a portrayal which borrows a lot from Duane's books. It's truly exciting, emotional, wonderful storytelling. The framing story, in which James Kirk is reading his dad's letters written during the crisis, is also very, very good.
It's by far my favorite Trek novel, and stand up just as well today as when I read it at age 12 or 13 - when I begged my mom to buy it for me off the grocery store rack.