It has been reported that no new Star Trek eBooks will be take a hiatus beginning in April. Ebook editions of print books will continue to be released.

According to Keith R.A. DeCandido, “The word ‘hiatus’ was quite specifically chosen. There is a possibility that the original eBook line will be revived in some form or other down the line.”

The last Corps of Engineers ebook was Remembrance of Things Past: Book 2, written by Terri Osborne. Remembrance of Things Past brought the crew of the da Vinci together with Picard’s Enterprise crew. One da Vinci crewmember will be familiar to Star Trek: The Next Generation fans. Sarjenka, a young Dreman girl who was a pen pal to Data in the Next Generation episode Pen Pals, is now an adult who is serving in Starfleet.

Oh well… I don’t see a reason of they ‘discontinuing’ the ebook only series, maybe they’re just trying to sort out how they would manage these.

March 6th, 2008
Categories: News . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

Oh god… we enter “Marshak and Culbreath” territory, someone save us… Fortunately, this were not actually written by them, just gathered by. Unfortunately, they have absolutely no idea of what’s good literature. They were actually fans, recollecting fiction made by fans, so technically this is just published Fan Fiction!

 Ugh, and I hate fan fiction! Why? Because they linger and describe all the wrong things, describing long and lovingly their favorite characters, they put them up in all type of weird situations that are not proper to the series, or to the genre. And the dialogues, ugh! They overuse and overextend the dialogues horribly, repeating and reiterating the same things over and over. Well, to put it succintly, fans do not make the best writers.

But publishers had began to notice the Star Trek publishing phenomenon, so they were really short on stories, so they published this horrible stuff. Well, on the other hand, we have a collection of really different stories, in a very different format. Let’s see:

Ni Var

Well, for starters, it’s nice to have an introduction by Leonard Nimoy, which tries to explain Spocks duality and just further messes up the issue.

Here, Spock is separated in two by a crazy scientist (oh god, the clichés!), and as you might have guessed, one is totally logical by his Vulcan side, and the other is emotional, by his duh!-you-know-what side. The story then tries to examine how each Spock react and delve into his thoughts and feelings… ugh… banal and overdone…

Intersection Point

This one is not that bad. It captures the adventure and the action part of Star Trek, focusing a bit more on Scotty’s character.

The ship somewhat manages to get stuck into a weird singularity-time-space-distortion, and is in grave danger, so someone must fix it out… 

Short and to the point, it could have been made longer, but as it’s a short story format, it fits exactly as it should. Even so, you still feel something was a bit missing, like why go to all this trouble to just say “Whew, that was a close one”…

The Enchanted Pool

Here we go… un-educated readers might jump and shout with glee about it’s “originality”, but this is what I would call a “forced-motif”, forcing a story to fit into another totally different theme, and this is totally out-of-the-water and it feels so.

This is a story about the fabled Arthurian Excalibur sword forced to match up in a Star Trek storyline. Serious science fiction editors reject this type of stories almost immediately.

Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited

A “Meta” story, breaks out of the whole fiction universe entirely. It’s a fan fiction dream: “Oh! What would happen, if, like, the actors, were, like, transported, and like, were taken, and be like, Captain Kirk, and Spock, and be on the real Enterprise?”

Nice as a fan-fiction story, not as good as an actual Star Trek story… At least it’s short.

(Yeah, this was actually the whole plot in the “Galaxy Quest” spoof movie, but that was well done…)

The face on the Barroom floor

A so-so story, about what goes on during shore leave… not very memorable.

The Hunting

Spock and McCoy go on shore leave and some of Spock’s weird vulcan ways puts them in trouble. Nice exploration in character bonding, but not much else.

The Winged Dreamers

A typical alien-on-planet interacts weirdly with the ship’s crew, which will later be beaten to death over and over… An interesting selection of weird it-was-there-all-along alien selection, but it suffers from the fan-fic dialogue problem.

The Mind-Sifter

Weirdly, the best of the bunch and the best of a lot of stories in a while. It has all the elements, time-travel, mind-psyched-out, adventure, action and a big emotional involvement. I do highly recommend this story ven if the rest of the bunch are not that good.

So well, just the last story barely makes it up for the whole book. It would look nice to have different styles of all type of different stories, but it does make it long and tired at the middle of most stories.

February 29th, 2008
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

Oh god, I really do not like novelizations… When I started reading the novels, I naturally started with the Blish ones as they were the first stuff written, but I could not get very far. I kept up until the third book and then just skipped the whole series, and went straight to the original books. I have kept coming up back up to these every now and then, but as they really are just a rehash of what passed on the tv episode, they are really tedious. Maybe if you have not seen the episodes you might appreciate them…

 So I’m skipping ahead on the reviews also… next on the list are the New Voyages…

February 29th, 2008
Categories: General . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

OK, just to update this thing, I’ll write what I’ve been reading lately.

On the Sony Reader (great gadget, get one), I’m trying to finish the third movie novelization, “Star Trek III, The Search for Spock”, it’s just that I really don’t like that much novelizations, but it does has it’s good expansions on some bits, I’ll detail later in a review. To avoid getting stuck, I’ve started “My Enemy, My Ally (Rihannsu 1)” and for a moment I thought it was going to be like “The Final Reflection”, which recounted a story by a Klingon captain, totally disconnected from Kirk and company, but after a bit it got a bit better, so I’m enjoying it more. It seems a lot better written than most of the previous novels, especially as it gives a bit of technobabble, something which has been sorely missing…

 But also, I’ve been hearing some of the first audio novels. I just finished  “Yesterday’s Son”, it was actually hearable, but it was too much abridged for my taste.

 I’m still don’t know if I’ll post reviews on other media, like Comics and Games. Games will be a bit tricky to get up and running, but could be especially interesting.

When I get up to these I’ll post the reviews…

February 28th, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

This is one of the first presentations done to an audience. Shatner sounds like an immature jester, laughing a bit too much at his own jokes, most of them very silly. The audience is actually very hungry for any scraps thrown their way. They laugh at the smallest things, and applause enthusiastically at the rest.

The problem is that the actual content is just a hastily brought together of ’space’ or ’sci-fi’ material, all presented, read or sung by William Shatner.

He first reads a Bradbury poem, “Earthbound”, and then presents a bit of what he’ll present. As usual, Shatner is his usual joking self, so it’s actually enjoyable. Then he launches into a ‘meditation’ bit with a ‘cosmic/space’ background music of travelling through the solar system. A bit weak if you ask me.

The next track is a recounting of flight, astronomy and space stories from various historic times, told very enthusiastically… sometimes a bit too much.
Other bits are: 6 ways to the moon, by Cyrano de Bergerac and an alien description read from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.

Bill then takes questions from the audience. It starts with questions of the upcoming movie (”Star Trek, the Movie”, the first one), which takes a bit of answering as there was a lot of doubts about that at that time. Then other small questions, one by a kid (”How does the transporter work?”), a psyche analysis of the main trio (this is analyzed fully somewhere else, especially the interactions between these three main character, I don’t remember know, but it is very interesting) and other stuff, where Shatner recounts some personal accounts.

The whole thing is actually a bunch of disconnected topics, some about Star Trek, some about other classical stories, and other stories brought up by Shatner. I actually enjoy hearing him talk, even in his usual pause-ridden way, so it’s a great listen for any Shatner fans… but it’s one of many of the productions made riding on the coat-tails of the Trek phenomenon, but without actually understanding what it really makes it tick, it’s just some stuff presented to the hungry fans, and not everything is really worthwhile. If you can find an original recording, it might fetch a good price at a convention.

February 26th, 2008
Categories: Audio Production . Author: sergio . Comments: 1 Comment

I decided to bite in and get this blog it’s own domain name. I will be tweaking a few things here and there.

Please leave your comments!

February 19th, 2008
Categories: General . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

This is a totally valid question, in the face of a lot of excellent literature, even on the sci-fi genre. Or take the classics, what could be better?

First, undoubtedly Trek fiction is not the very best of fiction, … some are barely passable of just readable literature. Very few have been bestsellers or been award nominees.

Even so, they do sell well, and on any reasonably sized book shop there is a complete section just for the Star Trek books and novels.

Why is this so appealing? I personally feel that one of the big attractions is easy to digest science fiction, with well-rounded, lovable characters which we already know well, and all the “rules”, locations, enemies, etc., are also well known, so you can jump right in into the story without having to waste a lot of time in character building and universe exposition. You already know how all the gadgets work, that they have phasers, how they beam from one place to another using the transporter, and even how the ship operates using anti-matter channeled through dilithium crystals!

But I’m guessing people want to get right away to strange science fiction conundrums, time travel paradoxes, strange alien customs and their repercussions, and all the mind-altering stuff that science fiction is known for.

What I think the biggest appeal of the novels, is that it’s expanding the known Trek universe, defining what happened between events you already knew happened. IT gives continuity between the big events, or explores the impact of those events.

The Trek universe has been expanded greatly by the other TV spin-offs, going first 100 years into the future with TNG, and then continuing with the other series. Or 100 years back, into the first voyages with “Enterprise”. So we have at about 300 years of known history on which to play! And even then, we still have a back story, with the Eugenics wars, and the nuclear holocaust of World War III…

Roddenberry had a lot of vision of giving back story to Star Trek. Even on the FIRST pilot, the Enterprise crew were just recovering from a hostile encounter on Rigel VII, which was later expanded and fleshed out in a Comic. World War III was first referenced in “The Savage Curtain” and later shown in TNG and ENT episodes. It’s fascinating to watch how they intertwine all these events into a believable cosmos.

Diving into the novels is a great way to explore what more was added, and how it all works together.

I’m still reading into the first novels, but it’s really nice to see how the mythology is expanding, and how characters and events are added. Well, of course a lot of aliens and planets are introduced just one time and then forgotten, but still some writers are very savvy to integrate the better known into a immersive, multi-faceted quilt.

February 12th, 2008
Categories: General . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

By word of Frederic Pohl, who edited the Bantam novels, “I didn’t really pay much attention to Star Trek“. But James Blish had noticed that the biggest checks he had ever gotten came from his previous Star Trek novels. They were starting to collect some fan stories, which would later appear as “The New Voyages” series of anthologies, but Blish started on writing original novels, even if Bantam and the editores did not think they were anything warranting much attention.

The first adult-oriented original novel written, it tries to get into the later common habit of killing off Spock. (So much in fact, it was later a big plot point on a movie, and his “resurrection” the whole plot on another!)

Here, the Enterprise is sent ot monitor the Klingons, who was apparently seen breaking the “Organian” treaty. On trying to do some “experimental” use of the transporter, Spock is divided in two selves. This whole double self is not the same type that what was done in the “Evil Kirk” episode (“The Enemy Within”), but what I consider to be a very creative, and real good science fiction. That’s a breath of fresh air, as some other novels are just a bunch of tedious space opera. This part of the novel is actually quite enjoyable, where the crew tries to figure out the “mystery” of this double Spock.

It laters does pick up some adventure/action scenes, and to be honest, I was fairly bored and did not pay a lot of attention, but basically the whole thing is that “a Spock must die”. The Klingons are just there to be used as part of the scenery, and the novel breaks a big part of canon at the end (or at least, makes it impossible for a lot of other stuff to happen). This was readily ignored by every other writer. In fact, I think a big problems of the novels is that only the original author carries ‘canon’ between their novels: all others revert back to what was established by the TV episodes. I hope that later on, on more modern books, events are cross-pollinated between novels and authors; it would really enrich the Trek universe.

The last action scenes and the resolution are a bit anti-climactic, but I think the whole explanation of what happens to Spock is really nice and very well done.

Blish understands very well that personalities of the characters, and plays them well, even though some parts of the prose are a bit tedious he carries it off very well. There is an overly fascination with the Spock character, but this is only because of the attention people were giving to him.

This novel is quite nice to read, and some of the best in the early writings. This style of writing is easy to digest, low on description, high on action and not very challenging, but it covers it’s purpose: get a Star Trek novel out there with some good science fiction mixed in. I can easily recommend it, but I know there are a lot more that are much better.

February 11th, 2008
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: 2 Comments

I’m still a bit undecided on how to approach all the fan-based productions out there, they do seem to be quite a bit. I’ll leave it up to you if you would like to stick to “official” adventures, or expand out to fan fiction.

“Star Trek: Defiant” is a serialized audio adventure, released monthly.

They just released their #21 episode, and they claim it’s top ranked in the TV & FIlm podcasts in iTunes.

It looks as a profesionally produced show, but I haven’t listened to it. Maybe when I finish on the “official” stuff I’ll give it a review.

February 7th, 2008
Categories: Fan Productions . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

Novelizations suffer from some big problems, one of which is that it’s very difficult to convey what has already been showed perfectly on screen. Video is a medium where characters attitudes, poise and responses say much more than what the dialog displays. Another problem is that as the scenes have already been established, writers tendo to just fall into what has been potrayed instead of imagining new or more exciting scenes.

Take this scene, where the ship has been overrun by tribbles:

The attendant turned, and upended the pitcher. Three tribbles fell out of it.
It was worse on shipboard. The corridors seemed to be crawling with the creatures. On the bridge, Kirk had to scoop three or four of them out of his chair before he could sit down. They were all over the consoles, on shelves, everywhere.

Here we easily see it’s really missing the whole frustration and desesperation felt by the Captain. And so goes on for the whole story, just duplicating the dialogue of the TV episode. It really misses a lot.

By now, Blish had a notion of the popularity of the Star Trek scene, and was in fact impressed by the quantity of mail he had received for the previous books. He comments on this on the foreword.
He now selects the best scripts, especially those with Hugo nominations.

- Trouble with Tribbles
Fails to grasp most of the comedy of the video, but writes through the story acceptably.

-The Last Gunfight
This one is fairly decent, but only because of the original scriptwriting; it is also very heavy on dialogue.

-The Doomsday Machine
An action packed episode, translates fairly well, but fails to capture the suspense and drama, especially with the constraints of pages.

-Assignment: Earth
A transcript of a failed spin-off attempt by Roddenberry does not give merit to it’s screen implementation, even as a very short story…

-Mirror, Mirror
Another example of a bad transcription:

“What’s the procedure, Scotty?”
“We’re about ready to bridge power from the warp en­gines to the beams. You’ve got to go to the main controls and free the board, so we can lock in. Give us ten clock minutes, then you and Lieutenant Uhura create your diversion, and run like Martian scopolamanders for the Transporter Room.”
“Right. Count down on the time. Five . . . four . . . three . .. two … one … hack.”
“Got you. Good luck, Captain.”

-Friday’s Child
Originally a good episode, but here it reads more like a space opera.

-Amok Time
Blish cops out during the high part of the action, turning dialog into direct script!:

SPOCK: I’ll—I’ll follow you in a few minutes. In­struct Mr. Chekov to plot a course for the nearest base where I must—surrender myself to the authorities. . .T’­Pring.
T’PRING: Yes.
SPOCK: Explain.
T’PRING: Specify.
SPOCK: Why the challenge; why you chose my Cap­tain as your champion.
T’PRING: Stonn wanted me. I wanted him.
SPOCK: I see no logic in preferring Stonn over me.

Etc…

In general, the stories do not read that bad, but after a while you do seem rushed through like a grand european tour: see 7 cities in 2 days!

February 6th, 2008
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments