Pocket Book Star Trek Novels #11 - #20 Review

Previous Post - Pocket Book Star Trek Novels #1 - #10 Review

Gosh, that came around fast!  Time for my second summary / analysis, this time (unsurprisingly) of books ##11 to #20.  Well almost #11 to #20, I haven't read / reviewed #17 Star Trek III - Search for Spock, because a) it isn't essential for the purposes of this review and, b) I don't have the will to read another Vonda film tie-in massacre.  I will read it, don't worry, I'm just currently enjoying not reading it.

Books #11 to #20 are as follows:

#11 Yesterday's Son - A C Crispin - August 1983 - Year: 2270 (after TOS)

#12  Mutiny on the Enterprise - Robert E Vardeman - October 1983 - Year: 2268 (after The Klingon Gambit)

#13 The Wounded Sky - Diane Duane - December 1983 - Year: 2275 (between TMP and TWOK)

#14 The Trellisane Confrontation - David Dvorkin - February 1984 - Year: 2269 (After TOS)

#15 Corona - Greg Bear - April 1984 - Year: 2270 (After TOS)

#16 The Final Reflection - John M Ford - May 1984 - Years: 2230s  / 2270s

#17 Star Trek III - Search for Spock - Vonda N McIntyre - June 1984 - Year: 2285

#18 My Enemy, My Ally - Diane Duane - July 1984 - Year: 2275 (between TMP and TWOK)

#19 The Tears of the Singers - Melinda Snodgrass - September 1984 - Year: 2270 (After TOS)

#20 The Vulcan Academy Murders - Jean Lorrah - November 1984 - Year: 2267 (After Journey to Babel)

Immediate Observations

• One film novelisation - #17 Star Trek III - Search for Spock - Vonda N McIntyre.  Film tie-ins ignore publishing schedule.
• Six out of ten books are written by female authors (3/5)
• Diane Duane writes two novels in this selection.
• Only two novels take place within the TOS timeline.
• For the first time we see a 'prequel' story (2230s)
• 'After TOS' but before TMP is the most popular time period (4/10)

Personally I think that this group of ten are on average a better quality than the first ten.  A C Crispin, Diane Duane, and John M Ford are the strongest writers, though Robert E Vardeman doesn't lag far behind.

Context

So here is where it all starts to get interesting as fans are starting to respond to the quality of the books produced in the previous ten tie-ins.  The rumblings in the fan community about the quality of the novels, within the time period of the next ten we'll see a crack down on the guidelines for the novels.

Fans were complaining about the quality of Star Trek novels.   Some were pointing out that these 'pro-authors' couldn't reach the lofty expectations of those who had read and enjoyed the 1970s fanfiction, propagated in fanzines.  Lisa Wahl in the June 1983 issue of Interstat, suggested boycotting the October and November novelisations (then Timescape).  This was met with opposition by fans who had read the manuscript of Yesterday's Son however as it would interfere with its release.

On the other hand, there was (and is) always a market for even the most derided works, whatever the fandom.  I have myself seen reviews on Good Reads which give books I hated 5/5, praising them as some of the best novelisations available.  It all depends on which narrative is strongest.  At the time of the early Pocket/Timescape Star Trek novels, pro-authors who wrote in report positive feedback and letters from fans.

I have to admit, if I was alive and reading Star Trek novels as they came out, I would have been disappointed with the first ten too, reading the first ten all together was difficult!  Books #11 - #20 seem to have turned a corner quality wise however (well bar TSFS, I don't have to read that to know it'll be tripe) with some super strong authors trying their hand at Star Trek.

It's good to see that yet again the majority of books are written by women in this selection and that the strongest books are also those written by women.

Story / Theme Trends

There was actually a lot more variation in these novels, and there appears to be less of a focus on individuals and more of a focus on the Enterprise and its crew as a whole.  This made it a little harder to pin down the story trends.

Ignoring the film adaptation.

• 1 'prequel' story (TFR)
• 3 stories expand on Vulcan culture (YS, C, TVAM)
• 1 story expands on Romulan culture (MEMA)
• 1 story expands on Klingon culture (TFR)
• 4 stories in which Romulans are involved as a faction (YS, MOTE, TTC, MEMA)
• 4 stories in which Klingons are involved as a faction (MOTE, TTC, TFR,TTOTS)
• 5 stories featuring new species (MOTE, TWS, TTC,C, TTS)
• 1 story with obvious slash (YS)
• 2 stories with mild slash subtext (TWS, MEMA)
• First story with a focus on Uhura (TTOTS)
• 2 Kirk-centric stories (MOTE, TVAM)
• 1 Spock-centric story (YS)
• 3 stories which rely on out of character behaviour (TTC, C, TTS)
• 5 stories rely on strong original characters (YS, MOTE, TWS, TFR, MEMA)
• 2 stories which have Kirk injured as an important part of the narrative (YS, TWS)
• 3 stories continue the theme of entropy and the weaving / unweaving of reality (TWS, C, TTOTS)

McCoy is once again not a popular character as a focus but he is written well generally throughout this selection of novels.

In my previous summary I suggested that the first ten books were quite inward looking, focusing on adventure instead of wider social problems.  In this selection that trend has shifted more towards a consideration of society than the adventurous, wonderment of a select group of characters.

The Klingons and the Romulans are equally represented in these books!  Even to the point of having one Klingon and one Romulan centric book each!

The first 'Uhura centric' story was... and interesting experience, but I've noted it down as relying on out of character actions...unfortunately the out of character, character was Uhura...

Entropy, the nature of it and the importance of it (the necessity of it even) has grown as an important aspect theme / story element.

Writing of original characters was so much better this time around, original, well written.

Poor cinnamon roll Kirk was inflicted with serious injury twice for the sake of the narrative... and some slashy vindication.  Spock gets the emotional trauma, Kirk gets physical trauma.  Bless them.

Themes

• #11 YS : Family.  Different kinds of love.  The role/love of the father. Shame.
• #12 MOTE : Duty over self. Pacifism / inaction is still action.
• #13 TWS : Entropy.  Different kinds of love.  The best self.  Weight of responsibility. God and the soul.  Loyalty.
• #14 TTC : Appearances can be deceiving.  Best of two evils.
• #15 C : Entropy.  Change.
• #16 TFR : Life is a game.  For the greater good.  Appearances can be deceiving.  Different kinds of love.
• #18 MEMA : For the greater good.  Different kinds of love.  Duty over self.  Loyalty.
• #19 TTOTS : Entropy.  Duty.  Different kinds of love.  The best self.  For the greater good.
• #20 TVAM : Crack.   Family.  Different kinds of love.

As I was reading this group of books, I did feel that the same themes were cropping up again and again.  They felt more cohesive as a series although this could be put down to the average standard of writing being significantly better than in books #1 to #10.

However, I do think that TMP has influenced the themes in this selection, which perhaps it wouldn't have in the earlier ones.  Essentially, the fanbase/writers have had time to respond to the themes which cropped up in the movie and this has bled into these novels.  Nobody can dispute the theme that dare not speak its name in TMP - love - and whereas there was no real thematic presence of 'love' previously we see it in the majority here.  And it really is the theme of different kinds of love too, and it seems that Yesterday's Son was the herald for the change in tone with its depiction of two kinds of love, familial and whatever it is between Kirk and Spock.  Heh.  It is doesn't even matter if you think it is romantic or not, it is devotion.

Devotion, duty, loyalty also are strong themes here, although seen in TMP, I think we can certainly look to TWOK 's influence for the proliferation of those themes.

Certainly I think that the films have on the whole influenced the novelists here to look at the wider picture and deal with the bigger issues, bigger questions.  We still have 'smaller' issues like seal clubbing,  or personal human experience like 'family' but the authors are also tackling God and the soul, pacifism, life's purpose, the nature of entropy.  Big concepts for media-tie ins, right? 

Pocket Book Star Trek Novels #1 - #10 Review

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!

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.  :)