#treklit

[mailorderfictionalcharacter]

I know Una McCormack has to, like, teach university but when are we getting a trilogy series about Katherine Pulaski cruisin’ the quadrant on a civilian science vessel with her ex-spy trophy husband?

[idran]

I forgot that I never actually posted my recent TrekLit commissions!

First is this one from StrangeOctopus at https://strangeoctopus.deviantart.com/ ! Definitely check out her art, this is great and she is great.

This character is Ensign Torvig Bu-Kar-Nguv, an engineer aboard the USS Titan. He first showed up in the very first novel, Taking Wing, and he’s been a regular character aboard since. (And since promoted to lieutenant, j.g., which I forgot when I commissioned this but oh well~)

He’s a Choblik, a member of a bipedal, deer-like prey species that was uplifted by an unknown people in ancient times, known today by them only as the “Great Builders”. Biologically they’re non-sapient, with no ability to manipulate their environment beyond their prehensile tail, but their cybernetics grant them intelligence and self-awareness, and they’ve continued reproducing the technology through to each new generation.

[mailorderfictionalcharacter]

DS9 Relaunch: Pros and Cons

FYI: The DS9 relaunch is a series of post-canon novels that form their own canon and tie into TNG/VGR novels. The DS9 relaunch is better established than any other “relaunch” series. For a year the DS9 relaunch was put on hold for crossover novels called “Typhon Pact,” so for our purposes, the First Half of the Relaunch was before Typhon Pact, the Second Half was after Typhon Pact.

Pros:

Ro Laren is introduced early on and only grows in importance as the series progresses.

Andrew Robinson (the actor who plays Garak) wrote A Stitch in Time, a fantastic Garak backstory novel.

David Mack and Una McCormack write high quality prose.

No spoilers but Quark gets a great relationship.

Bajoran religion is fleshed out. Specifically, there is a large debate between people who view the prophets as Gods and an alternative sect that views them as benificent aliens.

Garak gets a boyfriend (but it’s not explicitly stated, so boo)

Kira’s plotlines in the first half of the relaunch were frickin’ amazing. They really get Kira.

The first half of the relaunch introduced fantastic new characters, including a commander from SI who wants to take down S31, his estranged ensign daughter, an andorian science officer, AND A JEM HADAR ELDER WHO IS IMMUNE TO KETRICEL WHITE.

ALL ANDORIANS ARE POLYAMORUS and have four genders

The four gender thing makes mating complicated, leading to the Andorian gene crisis, a plotline that goes on for ten years. That level of worldbuilding is fab.

It gets weird at the end but Illiana Ghemor gets a big role

Ezri becomes a captain

S31 is fully explored.

Bashir gets his own novels. The genetic enhancement plotline is actually used to almost its full potential.

Background diversity (lesbian ensigns, etc.) 

Lots of fanservice nods.

A trilogy of books that focus on other alien cultures (Cardassia, Ferenginar, Trill, etc.)

Odo is great? He’s sarcastic and his return from the Dominion makes sense. Also, there’s no special effect budget limitations on his shapeshifting.

Quark is never leaving.

Ezri/Bashir break up (eventually) but idk their whole relationship is surprisingly well done and realistic with room to interpret it as something genuinely sweet and as a disaster mistake from hell.

Cons:

Even though the plot is good, the prose in the first two books is pretty weak. 

David R. George III ruins everything he touches. (Extraneous detail, boring plots, shallow characterization. It’s not all awful but it’s mostly awful). He’s been writing most of the relaunch books for the past couple of years.

Lots of books that should be DS9 books (like S31 Control, which features Julian Bashir, Sarina Douglas, and Elim Garak) are marked as TNG books so you have to know what you’re looking for.

Sarina Douglas/Julian Bashir hellship is canon.

Kira fucks off live in a past reality for two years for no fucking reason because David R. George III ruins everything he touches. She also becomes a vedek, which, ugh.

Sisko? Benjamin Sisko? Who’s he? the protagonist? what a subjective term.

Seriously very little Sisko content I hate it. 

Sisko returns from the wormhole and then leaves Kasidy to angst about being a former Emissary, even though that goes against Avery Brook’s explicit wishes for the series ending.

Una McCormack’s post-canon Cardassia is just...weird? It’s modeled after post nazi-Germany, which isn’t quite right.

All those great new characters introduced in the first half of the relaunch? They go away for the second half and newer characters are shoddily introduced.

By the late second half hardly anyone from DS9 is on DS9. The O’Brien’s come back and inexplicably David R. George will not touch them???

The plotlines in DR George’s novels make no fecking sense? TRY READING A PLOT SUMMARY OF ONE ON WIKIPEDIA I FUCKING DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU ONE CHARACTER DIES IN A TIME LOOP AND THEN TRANSCENDS TO EXIST AS THE SHAPESHIFTING SPECIES THAT ARE THE FOUNDERS GODS FOR FUCK’S SAKES WHY

JULIAN DOESN’T GO TO CARDASSIA FOR ELEVEN YEARS EVEN THOUGH HE GETS AN EXPLICIT INVITATION FROM GARAK FOR PITY SAKES THIS ISN’T EVEN JUST A SHIPPING THING GO VISIT UR LONELY FRIEND YOU GET LEAVE JULIAN

[mailorderfictionalcharacter]

contains ds9 relaunch spoilers

Ds9 Relaunch Novels: Kira becomes a vedek for a bit. Then she disappears into the wormhole for two years and spends time in the past under different identities the Prophets foist onto her. But they bring her back a potential love interest when she returns to the regular timeline!

Me, an intellectual: Kira’s arc has always included religious themes without overtaking her entire arc. In the series and early relaunch, her faith served as a touchpoint for the difficult decisions she made and formed small story arcs. By solely focusing on Kira as a worshiper of the prophets instead of Kira the former freedom fighter and leader, we lose important aspects of her character. Furthermore, as a reading experience it is highly unsatisfying to be thrown into different time arcs and mythologies while things that Kira would care very much about (Bajor’s interactions with the Federation, Odo’s return, Julian betraying the Federation/facing life imprisonment) are going on without her. Kira has always been our proxy for the spirit of Bajor and denying her the opportunity to celebrate what Bajor and, for that matter, Cardassia has become is disappointing. Although it is in character for Kira to serve the Prophets, as a writing decision, it’s really frickin’ disappointing. Also, Kira is a great character and I want to see her. I don’t want Kira to disappear for two years I love Kira. And Kira doesn’t need another nondescript love interest to spice up drama wth. and maybe, just perhaps, the Prophets could have gained a sense of linear ethics/autonomy from all the time they spent with sisko instead of messing with people’s lives willy nilly and making fake people for people to fall in love with. just a thought.

[emchovy]

I wanna make a post about how much I loathe a specific K1raOd0 scene in one of my star trek novels but I'm running into an issue where none of my mutuals would care and the general ST public on this website would probably want to fight me. sigh. forced to silence again by lack of audience for being a bitter hater.

[deepspacevoyagers]

Hnnnnn I read the spoilers about the three Coda books from the TrekCore and TrekMovie reviews and while I wanted to buy them, I'm now thinking otherwise

[fuckyeah-nerdery]

Anyways, this is why I haven’t been posting much on here. Also, I have no idea how I managed to read 15 books in two months.

[carlithiel]

Four New STAR TREK Hardcover Releases Set for 2020 • TrekCore.com

We've got the details on four new STAR TREK hardcover reference books on the way for 2020!