Star Trek Books FAQ Mega-Update!

it'd be more like arranging DVDs by director.

 

^^ You're both wrong, because shelving by author makes much more sense because the author's name is right there on the spine, which is not generally true for the screenwriter or director of a movie.

The analogy doesn't work for a variety of other reasons, most of them insulting to novelists, so in the interests of not getting pissed off by people on the Internet when I'm only running on < 5 hours' sleep, I will not pursue that line of thought. *rummages for more coffee*

 

Does anyone arrange their books by title? That's on the spine, too.

 

Yeah, I order novels that aren't numbered or part of an ongoing series (post finale books, SCE/CoE etc.) by the title.

But quite frankly my system for arranging my books is all over the place.

First of all I arrange them by series; inside a series I put the numbered first, then in the case of TNG, DS9, Voy and ENT the "Relaunch"-titles by publication order and then the unnumbered stand alone books by title (in case of Duologies or trilogies they are shelved under the overall name).

All the multiseries anthologies are shelved together with books which aren't part of a specific series by title.

My non-Trek books on the other hand are shelved by the author.

 

I have mine shelved by author:

"Ward, Dayton"

and

"Other"

 

Order I got them, which is the order they came out. I just throw some junk off the shelf and make room as I get new books to add them to the line.

 

Pretty much my system, though all my other media tie-in fiction (which isn't that much compared to my Trek collection) is sorted by series, then author. Quantum Leap, Star Wars, etc. My mother was a librarian, however, and taught me everything she new, so I could easily sort by the Dewey Decimal system. Come to think of it, my current filing arrangement is basically a simplified version of it. Separate by fiction and non-fiction, then genre/subject, then series, then author.

Librarian traits are genetic, I suppose. Oh, wait, I'm adopted. Well, then it's nurture over nature.

 

I arrange my Trek books in the approximate order in which I believe they take place. I do the same thing with the dvds.

 

From another thread (suggesting adding the difference between canon/continuity/official to the FAQ):

Ironically it's not there already. I'll discuss it with Rosalind and see what if anything we want to do with the FAQ (as it's pretty outdated now anyway).

I'd like to see it updated, but Steve Mollmann has stated his schedule doesn't allow for him to do it, I don't think I have all the knowledge of the most up to date info to do it myself (not to mention my schedule isn't exactly wide open).

I actually have an idea about how we might be able to do this and keep it constantly up to date... but I'll run it by my co-mod and see what she thinks before opening the idea up to everyone.

Though, if you all have an idea about this or if anyone wants to volunteer to take on the FAQ, by all means....

 

To make things shiny and clear, I'm putting together a new book FAQ thread. So, are their any suggestions for what should be in the FAQ? Try to avoid, IMO, questions (or ones whose answers) will involve spoilers...

If anyone has any opinions, post 'em... or I *love* PMs. I will reply, tho sometimes it takes a couple days when I have a bunch of huge replies to write.

 

Why did it take so long to publish the next DS9-R books after Warpath?

Why did it take so long to publish the next VOY-R books after Enemy Of My Enemy?

Those seem to show up a lot.

 

The first one- it was an author switch so the book had to be rewritten that caused the delay, oui?

What's the answer to the second question? LOL...

(Note: I already have about... 15 pages of FAQ and notes... umm... wow.)

 

DS9:

Fearful Symmetry was slated to appear about a year after Warpath and finish the arc Warpath assembled from foreshadowing in Bajor: Fragments & Omens and The Dominion: Olympus Descending. However, the first author (Leana Morrow) was dropped from the project for some reason that hasn't been officially given to my knowledge.

The new author, Olivia Woods, was given a lot of freedom from Marco to rewrite the story to her liking, as it would seem he was wont to do. She ended up with a story substantially longer than Morrow's, leaving them with two options - delay further, and publish a really huge book (which makes publishers unhappy), or split half of that story into another book to be completed later. They chose option B.

Thus, Fearful Symmetry was delayed and somewhat small, and the resolution isn't coming until The Soul Key.

Voyager:

Following publication of Enemy Of My Enemy, the author of those books (Christie Golden) became busy with other projects at about the same time the editor of those books (John Ordover) left Pocket. It took a while for them to figure out who was going to handle Voyager; once it landed with Marco, the anniversary trilogy String Theory was in development, and so work on a new direction for the relaunch didn't begin until after that was on its way to being finished.

Marco chose Kirsten Beyer to work with, and they began outlining, a process which was already difficult since it would be creating a new direction for the series. It was further complicated by the Destiny trilogy, and the editors' desire to have all of the stories unified around that trilogy, as well as a decision to take what had originally been two books and unify them into what became Full Circle. So development for the book took almost 3 years, much longer than usual.

PLEASE CORRECT ME IF ANY OF THIS IS WRONG! I'm certainly not perfect; this is just based on what I've gleaned from being around here for the last year.

 

Do I need to read book X before reading Book Y?

NO. you're enjoyment may be enhanced by doing so, but (unless it's a trilogy/duology or some such) it is not a requirement. Any recapping is usually done in the novel anyway.

 

I didn't know all of this... my first thought would be that I love huge books... but given the long delay... this was probably best... I think Woods has a good grip on the stories, and the characters, their actions and personalities.

Good so far, any more?

Edit: Has anyone ever asked why there are gay people books? And if so... why?

 

whaddya mean 'gay people books'? if you mean `gay characters IN the books, yes. thanfully not lately. it was the Dead Janeway of its time. and the answer is, 'why not?' they exist, why not have them?

 

I just can't type... I think the FAQ is... I'll just paste it in this time.
"Why are there gay people in the books?"

And the answer seems kinda obvious. It was seriously a big thing once? Interesting...

 

Yeah. Section 31: Rogue, if I remember correctly, was stupidly controversial for that point. I wasn't even really following the books closely at that point, and I still managed to stumble into some pretty heated discussions.

 

Ookay... o.O

 

it also came up over the first couple of Titan novels.