With finishing #7 Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan I finally complete my goal of reading the first 10 books in the Pocket Book Star Trek novel series (naturally out of sequence). Every 10 I intend to do a little summary / analysis of the books in that number range, I suspect that there will be some interesting trends! It's not really an essay yet, just some thoughts.
Warning: This is probably quite dry and boring!
The first 10 books are as follows:
#1 Star Trek The Motion Picture - A novel by Gene Roddenberry - December 1979 - Year : 2273
#2 The Entropy Effect - Vonda N McIntyre - June 1981 - Year - 2270 (after TOS)
#3 The Klingon Gambit - Robert E Vardeman - October 1981 - 2268 (between 'By Any Other Name' and 'Return to Tomorrow')
#4 The Covenant of the Crown - Howard Weinstein - December 1981 - 2276 (between films 1 & 2)
#5 The Prometheus Design - Sondra Marshak & Myrna Culbreath - March 1982 - 2274 (between films 1 & 2)
#6 The Abode of Life - Lee Correy - May 1982 - 2270 (after TOS)
#7 Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan - Vonda N McIntyre - July 1982 - 2285
#8 Black Fire - Sonni Cooper - January 1983 - 2270 (after TOS)
#9 Triangle - Sondra Marshak & Myrna Culbreath - March 1983 - 2274 (between films 1 & 2)
#10 Web of the Romulans - M S Murdock - June 1983 - 2267 (between 'Tomorrow is Yesterday' and 'Space Seed')
There are couple of observations we can make right off the bat:
- The most special aspect of this start to the Pocket Books series is that it starts with a novel attributed to Roddenberry himself. These by the way are not the first published Star Trek books (I wrote about that here) but it is Roddenberry's first and only Star Trek novel.
- There are two film novelisations.
- Six out of the ten books are written by female authors (3/5)
- Vonda N McIntyre, and writing partners Marshak and Culbreath write two novels each (2/5).
- Only two novels take place within the TOS timeline.
This is the only group of 10 books in which there are two film novelisations. Vonda N McIntyre will not write another original Star Trek story until Enterprise - The First Adventure. She will however pen another two film novelisations.
Publishing & Authors Notes
Looking at the publication dates is quite surprising. There is quite a gap between the publication of the TMP novel - December 1979 - and the publication of The Entropy Effect - June 1981 - a gap of eighteen months. Personally, I would want to capitalise on the release and popularity of the TMP novel and schedule the next novel within the next three months, but obviously this doesn't happen and they wait a year and a half for their next release. After the release of The Entropy Effect they then release 3 a year at irregular intervals. Again, why not keep it regular? That way you can have your audience expecting the next book - perhaps publishing worked differently in the 70s... Do you think if I wrote a letter to them they would be able to shed light on the subject!?
Although only two of the novels take place within the TOS timeline, only three of the eight non film novels take place between the two films. Three of the books take place 'after TOS'.
Robert E Vardeman, Howard Weinstein, and Lee Correy were all at this point previously published sci-fi / technical authors. Weinstein wrote an episode of Star Trek The Animated Series, and remains the youngest writer to pen a Star Trek episode.
Marshak and Culbreath, McIntyre, and Sonni Cooper were well known in Star Trek fanzine circles. Marshak and Culbreath had already penned two Star Trek novels under a different publisher, Triangle and The Prometheus Design are continuation of that story, which I think is another really strange decision. Sidetracking a bit, but Marshak & Culbreath reference events in their previous novels under the other publisher along with continually referencing events from the series in foot notes. The absolutely stinks of feeling they have to justify themselves to a wider fan community. I think it's a strange decision to allow referencing to part of the series under another publisher. Marshak was also involved with the production / writing of Star Trek Lives.
Considering the perceived sexism in Star Trek / Sci-fi / Comic fandoms / fan communities, I really did find it refreshing and positive that over half of the novels published in the first ten Pocket Book Star Trek series were published by women. I am however disappointed by the standard of writing, which in my opinion (which is of course subjective) is well below that of their male counterparts. Sure, the men who are published here were already establishing themselves as authors, but, Marshak and Culbreath were also published previously, as was, I believe Sonni Cooper (although I may have misunderstood the forward). I think that M S Murdock is the only author here not to have been previously published.
I know that perhaps I'm a little harsh on some of these novels, and I rip them to shreds if I am feeling inclined, but I feel the excuse of 'but they weren't using professional novelists like they are today' a poor reason for so-so quality in published books. Perhaps it's more the editors that are to blame for the problems with the novels, but even so it's not like the publishing schedule in the mid 90s where they were publishing every month or two - and that is cited as being a period of poor quality. Three books a year isn't really a fast turn over.
I also wonder if certain prejudices against women writers within Star Trek could at least have come from impatience or disappointment with books like Triangle and The Prometheus Design. It's a shame since women were such a massive force behind the fandom. Currently, Star Trek publications are dominated by male writers. The last Star Trek TOS book written by a woman was in 2010. For the last seven years the same male writers have dominated the Star Trek TOS novel scene. I really don't believe that women are not submitting manuscripts!
I know that perhaps I'm a little harsh on some of these novels, and I rip them to shreds if I am feeling inclined, but I feel the excuse of 'but they weren't using professional novelists like they are today' a poor reason for so-so quality in published books. Perhaps it's more the editors that are to blame for the problems with the novels, but even so it's not like the publishing schedule in the mid 90s where they were publishing every month or two - and that is cited as being a period of poor quality. Three books a year isn't really a fast turn over.
I also wonder if certain prejudices against women writers within Star Trek could at least have come from impatience or disappointment with books like Triangle and The Prometheus Design. It's a shame since women were such a massive force behind the fandom. Currently, Star Trek publications are dominated by male writers. The last Star Trek TOS book written by a woman was in 2010. For the last seven years the same male writers have dominated the Star Trek TOS novel scene. I really don't believe that women are not submitting manuscripts!
Story / Theme Trends
Actually, this was tougher than I thought it was going to be.
Usually I'm pretty good at spotting trends and such and I expected there to be perhaps a dominant theme within fan writing (certainly I have noticed it in later novels) but there doesn't seem to be a particular trend.
Ignoring the two film adaptations:
- 1 Time travel story (TEE)
- 2 Kirk-centric stories (TKG, TAOL)
- 1 McCoy-centric story (TCOTC)
- 2 Spock-centric stories (TEE, BF)
- 2 stories in which Kirk is removed from the narrative by death . injury (TEE, BF)
- 3 stories with obvious slash (TEE, TPD, T)
- 2 stories with mild slash subtext (BF, WOTR)
- 1 story tries to expand on Vulcans (TPD)
- 2 stories featuring Romulans as a main faction (BF, WOTR)
- 3 stories featuring Klingons as a main faction (TKG, TCOTC, BF)
- 7 stories feature new species (TEE, TKG, TCOTC, TPD, TAOL, BF, T, WOTR)
- 4 stories which rely on out of character behaviour by one or more characters (TEE, TPD, BF, T)
- 2/3 stories written by men have Kirk as the 'main character' (TKG, TAOL), 1/3 have McCoy (TCOTC).
- The female writers tend to prefer Spock or pairing him off with Kirk (skewed by Marsh and Culbreath). McCoy does not seem to be a favourite character amongst this group.
Themes in the eight non film novels seem to be quite inward looking, in contrast to the original TV series which often dealt with social issues. This set of novels seems to be more concerned with adventure rather than exploring social problems, which is quite strange considering some of the most loved episodes were ones which highlighted current problems.
Themes could be considered as:
- #2 TEE : None. Time travel story, no analogue.
- #3 TKG : Life is diverse. Always thinking the worst of your enemy causes problems.
- #4 TCOTC : Duty over self.
- #5 TPD : None. ((Hurt/Comfort fiction))
- #6 TAOL : Church and State / Traditionalists vs. Progression / Conservative vs. Liberal
- #8 BF : Change is possible. Trust & Loyalty.
- #9 T : None. ((Hurt / Comfort fiction))
- #10 WOTR : Patience is a virtue. Desperate times, desperate measures.
That's probably the best I can come up with. Instead of dealing with 'big' issues like racism etc. the authors have chosen to deal with smaller subjects which deal with internal, personal problems. The exception being The Abode of Life which deals with the always contentious problems of church and state and conservative vs liberal ideals.
That's all the thoughts I have on this for now! If this interests you, let me know what you think! Perhaps there's something I'm not seeing. :)
I love reading your analyses -- you're obviously doing your research, too! Your thoughts on the female authors of the published novels intrigues me; reading these as a teen, they just seemed to carry more emotional depth compared to stories written by male authors whose stories were more "nuts and bolts", procedurals with little character development or insight. Maybe it was just teen angst/hormones reacting! This is one of the reasons I stopped religiously buying the books that they were churning out. It would be interesting how I would feel re-reading those now, several decades later. Also very interesting is your observation that the last female author was 7 years ago. Reasons for this could be perpetual sexism in the genre and/or publishing house, or fewer submissions as you mentioned. With glass ceilings breaking left and right, it would be a sad statement if sexism was at the heart of this phenomenon. Let's not forget the first science fiction is attributed to Mary Shelley, and throughout history many female authors felt the need to hide their identity with male names or initials (something you pull together nicely in your research in Trek fiction). Question: Is this trend true of other Trek incarnations like TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise? I looked into the Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster page about story submissions (http://www.twguild.com/resources/starting3.html). They have so many rules designed to maintain the status quo of the series, it would be hard to make anything unique and interesting. Authors also need an agent representative. No wonder so many people move into fanfic.
ReplyDeleteHello! Thank you!
DeleteI looked up all the authors currently active. There are about three female authors being published at the moment. Two of which have only written the rebooted Voyager novels. Una McCormack is pretty much the only woman writing between series recently - she has a DS9 one coming out in June.
I haven't read any of her books, so I can't say how she is stylistically, but she is a professor of literature and head of a creative writing science fiction dept.
I think perhaps their guidelines are written to invite stories that would appeal more to a male readership than a female readership. It's not in the least bit surprising that the Voyager reboot would be written solely by women, after all, Voyager had the largest female following, didn't it? (Which the execs seemed to be terrified of, so they got rid of the sweet Kess and replaced her with male attention grabbing Seven Of Nine).
Also!
DeleteYou're right in regards to 'emotional depth', and I agree with the observation that male authors are more 'nuts and bolts', but I also think that there should be a middle ground where character exposition meets good story construction - no one at the detriment of the other. Unfortunately I think that in these early books, the female writers have a weaker story element and focus too much on the emotional side of things, this makes the whole book suffer. I know a few later novels I have read do get a better balance (both the male and female authors).
Sorry, for some reason I ended up commenting on my daughter's google profile. I wonder if she will get a copy of this sent to her! I don't remember this happening before. I am so technologically challenged.
ReplyDeleteShe's probably going to get updates of my replies! (Sorry Jess!)
Delete