Anybody ever hear of this book?

[hbquikcomjamesl]

The Challenge, (TOS) by David Miraglia?
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-challenge-david-miraglia/1140962370?ean=9781957220635

It's also listed on Amazon. With mixed reviews.

Seems to be published by an outfit I've never heard of, "Rushmore Press." How did they ever even get a license? Also a rather high page-count

 

[Brendan Moody]

I saw that on Amazon recently. It’s pretty obviously fanfic that the author was unwise enough to publish and start charging money for. It only published a few weeks ago, so the license holder may just not have noticed yet.

 

[David cgc]

They didn't get a license. It's a vanity publisher. It's not unheard of for people to attempt to self-publish their fanfic in a way that appears legitimate (I admit, I have more patience for that than the semi-automated outfits that sell "guidebooks" that are just websites or wikipedia entries printed out).

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/frank-smith-star-trek-e-novels.279010/

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/unauthorized-star-trek-ebooks.279235/

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/underbelly-by-t-r-bryan-a-section-31-novel.306507/

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'm always intensely curious about bootleg Star Trek books. And then when one is eventually uploaded somewhere for free I remember the difference between professional writing and some random fan thinking they can do better. It was ALL IN CAPITALS and was space battle after space battle after space battle.

After the Axanar debacle, I get pissy about people trying to make money off of my Star Trek.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Also a quick Google search brought up this fake 3-book Trek series on Amazon, so whoever nukes the above can take out these too.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I take offense at "self-publication" and "vanity house" being equated.

True self-publication involves either hiring (at the very least) a printer and a bindery, or doing either or both yourself (at the International Printing Museum, we printed the first edition of our lead docent's uncle's fictionalized memoir, The Surgeon Factory, by letterpress, on our own presses, then shipped it off to a bindery, selling out of the entire run in our own gift shop), while a "vanity house" does the very worst kind of subsidy publishing.

There are legitimate purposes for subsidy publishing. Religious denominations (and sometimes individual congregations) may have prayer books and/or hymnals published by subsidy houses that specialize in that sort of thing. But a vanity house, by definition, preys upon authors who have an inflated sense of their own abilities.

I'm rather surprised that (given that one of the top results in a Google search on this "Rushmore Press" was a page of BBB complaints against them) B&N and Amazon even handle their products. What happened to the good old days when a known vanity imprint on a book was a virtual guarantee that no bookseller or royalty publisher would touch it with a 10-foot pole?

Of course, if and when my own novel ever reaches a publishable state, I would put it out on the Web, gratis, under some variation of CC or GPL, as a PDF with no DRM whatsoever, before I would allow it to be published under a known vanity imprint.

 

[JD]

If I do try to get my story published, there's no way I'm going anywhere near one of the vanity publishers or self publishing. I want to know that it's actually good enough to deserve to be published by someone like big name publishers, I want it to be something I can be proud of.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I bought it. It was $2.99, and I've taken steps to make sure I won't lose it when Amazon pulls it. I have (and have read) Wesley Crusher, Teenage Fuck Machine. The Death Wave is on my bookshelf.

The Acknowledgements features this passage of authors the book's author was inspired by or borrowed characters from; I haven't corrected the spelling, and there's one that really hurts:

Kevin Ryan, Alan Dean Foster, Michael Jan Freidman, S.D. Perry, Howard Weinstein, Dean Wesley Smith, Vonda McIntyre, Diane Carey, Diane Duane, David R. George 3rd, William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk, David Mack, Greg Cox, Margret Wander Bonaano, Bernd Perpiles, and Christopher Humberg.

A search through the book turns up characters like Ael, Charvanek, and Morgan Bateson.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

No M&C in the Acknowledgments? No Cogswell & Spano? No Della van Hise?


There's actually a Wesley Crusher, Teenage Fuck Machine? You're sure that isn't another "Requiem for a Martian"?

 

[F. King Daniel]

I have (and have read) Wesley Crusher, Teenage Fuck Machine.

Review please.
EDIT: These are likely more entertaining than the book itself.

EDIT 2: Everyone stop what you're doing and listen to the audiobook
Trigger warnings for everything up to and including necrophilia.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Review please.

How to describe WCTFM? I'm not sure Kitty Glitter ever saw NextGen, because everything about it is wildly out of character. It's more like Grand Theft Auto 3 fanfic with Star Trek names. It is hilarious in a "you've got to be kidding me" sort of way: Moriarty caps Picard in the 'nads, Wesley bangs a girl in the Circle-K that he (or maybe it was Meow Solo) killed just moments before, Geordi (until he gets assimilated by the Borg) is Wes' homeboy.

I'm not sorry I bought and read WCTFM.

 

[KRAD]

The Acknowledgements features this passage of authors the book's author was inspired by or borrowed characters from

I don't know whether to be relieved or insulted that I didn't make the cut.......

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I don't know whether to be relieved or insulted that I didn't make the cut.......

I'd be relieved.

 

[TrickyDickie]

Seems like Wesley is a parody (take that any way you wish) . The Challenge may not qualify as such, so may not be protected by fair use. They may pursue the author, just as they did Janet Walker for The Reckoning. Hey, at least the artwork is much cooler than on hers.

 

[Ronald Held]

Since this is fanfic, I should not bother buying and reading it?

 

[JD]

I guess that depends on how you feel about fan fic. I've never read any myself, but some people do seem to enjoy it.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

They may pursue the author, just as they did Janet Walker for The Reckoning.

How did I not know there was a sequel to The Prometheus Design?

 

[JonnyQuest037]

How to describe WCTFM? I'm not sure Kitty Glitter ever saw NextGen, because everything about it is wildly out of character. It's more like Grand Theft Auto 3 fanfic with Star Trek names. It is hilarious in a "you've got to be kidding me" sort of way: Moriarty caps Picard in the 'nads, Wesley bangs a girl in the Circle-K that he (or maybe it was Meow Solo) killed just moments before, Geordi (until he gets assimilated by the Borg) is Wes' homeboy.

I'm not sorry I bought and read WCTFM.

How do we not have 10,000 threads all discussing Wesley Crusher: Teenage Fuck Machine? Strange New Worlds is premiering in just a few days but this is all I want to talk about now.

EDIT: Going to the audiobook page, I discover that the author Kitty Glitter has also written Sherlock Holmes: A Case of Dicklessness, which has a plot summary as follows: "Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes's son track down Jack the Ripper with the help of the douchiest horse ever."

Correction: There are now two things that are all I want to talk about.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Since this is fanfic, I should not bother buying and reading it?

Fanfic should be free.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Tsk-tsk-tsk.

You should always rename the characters and concepts in your fanfic THEN publish it. Then you can publish your Reylo fanfic and get a huge fanbase (or Harry Potter or Twilight).

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Mind you, I remember the (short) controversy over whether we should review REDSHIRTS here.