#holonovels

[mayhaps-a-blog]

Love how reluctant Janeway was to play Queen Arachnia as if she didn't adore period holonovels and wasn't obviously having the time of her life being as dramatic as possible XD

[deepspacenightshift]

The most popular genre of holo-novel on Deep Space Nine right now is Space Pirate Romance, perhaps owing to the fact that Quark’s Bar got a bunch of Space Pirate holo-novels for cheap recently.

“Space Pirates” is a catchall term for pirates that prey on spacefaring vessels, usually involving scrappy renegade crews of Romulans, Ferengis, and Humans, with spicier things like Betazoids and ex-Borg thrown in for good measure.

You are either captured by Space Pirates or you start as one, although there’s a subgenre called “Space Prisoner” where you are some kind of official that captures or is put in charge of a (possibly reformed) Space Pirate or crew. Interestingly, you don’t actually have to do a romance plot to enjoy Space Pirate Romance holo-novels; they feature plenty of action and twists and pure chaotic fun without adding romance.

One of the popular tropes of Space Pirate Romance is “the universal translator is broken”, allowing the unusual experience of trying to communicate with the crew while only hearing their speech as unintelligible murmuring, roaring, chittering, and clicking.

The biggest draw might be the fact that ultimately, the Space Pirates are kind and good. No matter how odd-looking, how foreign, how initially cruel they seem, they always turn out to have—as Humans put it—“hearts of gold”.

[deepspacenightshift]

It’s so hard to find decent non-romantic holoprograms! I’ve heard that it’s different on starships, but it seems like on DS9 you find maybe one in ten holoprograms that aren’t titled “Vulcan Love Slave pt. 5″ or “Taken By Surprise” or “A Gratitude Festival Reunion”.

And if you count out the romantic holoprograms, the rest are... well... unpredictable. Klingon opera, “Heroic” Klingon holoprograms, Human action-adventure stories, educational holoprograms teaching traditional cooking of various species or pre-military Cardassian culture, complex strategy games for seven players, “Existence As A Crystal Being”, “Cuddly Critters For Children”, and “Moonlit Evening Meditation On Vulcan” are some of the ones I’ve seen while browsing.

[flotter4eva]

Does anyone have any good holonovel recommendations?

I like low stakes questing novel. It definitely can't have too much of an overarching plot I only do one session every few weeks because well. Starfleet academy.

[naivara-duneimith]

Hot take: holo-novels are peak self-shipping energy

[nosferatuflow]

I wish we had the Holodeck

I mean, sometimes when I'm in school, I fantasize about how awesome it would be to have it for a study tool. You could either download a tutor or run simulations of whatever you need to study. And on the non-studying benefits, imagine all the possibilities. You could go on that vacation you've always wanted to but couldn't afford, you could create wish fulfillment programs, download holonovels, create your own. The possibilities are nearly endless. But imagine how expensive people would make it in today's world. :P