The Kelvin's size is pretty consistant and clear - as detailed here. But, even so, they simply built them bigger in those days. End of subject. The last thing I want in a Kelvin novel is the kind of nonsense that "explained" why the NX-01 Enterprise looked more advanced than the TOS one, like we got in the post-Enterprise novels (which, incidently, was blatantly at odds with the slaughter in "In a Mirror, Darkly")
That was one of my biggest pet peeves with the post-ENT novels. There was absolutely no need for that, and like you said, it ignored how laughably primitive the NX-class ships proved to be against the USS Defiant in IaMD.
As far as I'm concerned, if a Gorn is a fearsome lizard monster and not a guy in a obvious rubber suit, the TOS Enterprise is an advanced futuristic starship!
"Rejected" is a harsh word. What we know is that two novel outlines were pitched, a Kelvin one and the one that became A Choice of Castrophes. A Choice of Castrophes was selected at the time to be developed into a novel, but that doesn't mean the Kelvin idea was thrown out for good. The facts are, Trek XI is a popular movie, and the Kelvin is featured in a pivotal scene in that movie. When you consider all the various obscure or minor characters or ships from Trek that have gotten novels (and some cases series) decades after they were introduced on screen, it makes it very clear that some day the Kelvin will get the same treatment. Did anoyone think in 1967 while watching Court Martial that Cogley would have a novel devoted to him? How many people thought in 1979 watching TMP that Admiral Nogura would become a prominent player in a novel series? How many thought in 1987 when they watched The Battle that there would be an entire series devoted to Picard's days on the Stargazer? Did anyone think in 1996 when Trials and Tribble-Ations aired that thoise two guys interviewing Sisko would get two novels devoted to them? Or what about in 1997 while watching Rapture that the guy Sisko tells to leave the station would become a key player in the novel series? Like I said above, it's "when will we get a Kelvin novel" not "will we ever get a Kelvin novel?"
Wrath of Khan is probably the most popular Trek movie. The Reliant was prominent in that movie. So why not have a book about the reliant with Captain Terrell and Checkov? I thought Equinox was one of the best VOY episodes. How about a book about the Equinox and Ransom? How did the Kelvin stand out any more than these other 2? Even though ST09 was a popular movie and that one act very powerful, are the fans of ST09 and the trek lit buying crowd in general going to be interested in this novel? I think us regular trek lit readers probably would but I don't believe so in the case of new readers or fans of ST09.
You know what...that would actually be kinda awesome. Given that we have seen some of Terrell's earlier career exploits as XO of the Sagittarius this could actually be an organic offshoot of Vanguard.
There has been a Terrell and Chekov comic, from IDW. http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Alien_Spotlight:_The_Gorn
I'm always up for new stories & new adventures, sounds like fun. I've been interrested in the Kelvin crew & what the prime universe mission would have been like.
I own it! I actually figured with Terrell's spotlight in the Vanguard novel some type of Captain's Table short story might be in order. But then, I'd really like to see more Movie-Era Classic Crew novels to begin with.
Actually, even adjusted for inflation, ST09 seems to be the most popular Star Trek movie, followed by TMP and then TVH. TWOK comes in 4th. (Domestically, at least. Box Office Mojo doesn't have inflation-adjusted international box office numbers for the Trek films, but even there, from what I can see, I'd guestimate that ST09 still comes in first.) Had TWOK been released in an era where it was more common to do novel spin-offs, I think we well might have. Well, the problem there is that you can really only tell one story about the U.S.S. Equinox, and "Equinox, Parts I & II" already told it. The charisma of Faran Tahir and Chris Helmsworth as actors, obviously, combined with the general sense of the Kelvin being a very "raw" ship, combined with the general lack of information on the 2161-2154 era. But mostly Tahir's and Helmsworth's charisma as actors. I dunno. Dulmer and Lucsly weren't exactly popular characters -- they had less screen time, total, than George Kirk Sr. and Captain Robau -- and yet apparently there was enough of a market for two novels featuring them. So it's not unprecedented for Trek Lit to support a market for a novel about original or mostly unestablished characters.
I'm not talking about box office sales as much as being in the public consciousness. If what made the Kelvin act amazing was the charisma of the actors then that doesn't help a potential book much. As you illustrated in the case of DTI, the principle factor in the success of any book is the ability of the writer. If VOY already told the one story of value about the Equinox, then ST09 already told the one story of value about the Kelvin.
No, you were talking popularity, not public consciousness. I'm at a loss as to how to measure recent film popularity except through box office sales. You're moving the goalposts now. First you wanted to know what factor made the Kelvin sequences stand out to audiences such as to generate a potential market in comparison to other supporting crews like the Reliant. Now you're judging whether or not the factor that created a potential market -- that is, that generated fan interest -- itself makes for a good book. It's a complete non sequitor, and you're unfairly changing the standards by which you're judging the issue. Of course the widely agreed-upon charisma of Tahir and Helmsworth helps the potential book much. If there are people who are already intrigued by those two characters, then there's pre-existing fan interest in a Kelvin novel featuring them. No one's saying that will guarantee that the book will be good. Obviously, a good author is essential to making the book good and maintaining (and/or growing) its popularity once it's released. But that doesn't mean that the actors' charisma cannot generate fan interest in such a hypothetical novel, and it does not mean that such pre-existing fan interest won't help the novel. Nonsense. The Equinox crew essentially only did two things while in the Delta Quadrant: Get their asses kicked a lot, and commit murder a lot while trying to speed back to the Alpha Quadrant. That episode made it pretty clear they didn't do much else. Meanwhile, it's pretty clear that the Kelvin was on the tail-end of a tour of duty the details of which are completely unestablished. Was she an explorer? A colony support ship? Klingon border patrol? A medical support ship? Who knows! It's wide-open territory.
Last time the subject of a novel set of the Kelvin came up, I suggested The Anthology of Cameo Federation Starships - a Myriad Universes style collection of stories set on various Starfleet ships like the Kelvin, Reliant, Bozeman (Diane Carey version), Saratoga (both STIV and DS9 versions), Excelsior (Captain Styles version?), April's Enterprise, Aventine etc. I believe a Kelvin novel could stand on it's own (with "Prequel to the hit movie" emblazoned across the cover), but I'd still get a kick out of seeing all the other ships and crews at work.
The Reliant itself might not have been featured much, but Captain Terrell is featured in the Vanguard series, and he also had a cameo in the Mere Anarchy series. There isn't really much more of a story to tell about the Equinox. They got their asses kicked for four years, began slaughtering aliens and used their corpses to fuel their warp drive, the aliens fought back, and we're right where the episode starts off. How many "new readers" does Trek Lit draw in these days? Given how continuity driven they're becoming, the primary focus seems to be on established readers. And I think anyone who keeps up with the machinations of the Typhon Pact or the affairs of the Mirror Universe would gladly pick up a Kelvin novel.