Has anyone read peter Davids star trek novels or comics?is he still a active writer?
Peter David
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Several, and most them are very good. I particularly liked his first run on the DC Comic Star Trek in the 1980s and his TNG novels Imzadi, Vendetta, and Q-Squarred. His original ST novel series New Frontier is also quite popular.
David is still active as a writer, and you can find out what he's currently up to at peterdavid.net.
"A Rock and a Hard Place", "Q-in-Law" and "Vendetta" are unforgettable. When he was told to drop Lieutenant M'Ress (TAS) from his movie-era comic stories, he used a version of her, as Cookie, in the non-Trek SF comic series, "Dreadstar" - with its two two issues being a Trek parody. Although I am not particularly into "Aquaman", his 1993–1994 mini-series for DC is also excellent.
In the "New Frontier" series, the novels "Captain's Table: Once Burned", "Stone and Anvil" and the WildStorm comic, "Double Time", are very strong.
In the "New Frontier" series, the novels "Captain's Table: Once Burned", "Stone and Anvil" and the WildStorm comic, "Double Time", are very strong.
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I've read all of his Star Trek novels, Q-in-Law; I, Q; Vendetta; Q-Squared; and Imzadi were early favourites of mine when I first started reading Star Trek and still some of my all time favourite novels. The New Frontier was a great series, a slightly different take on Star Trek books being written at the time. I liked how the series flowed from one book to another in the early part of the series. I also liked the fact the toys didn't have to be put back in the box by the end of each story.
Peter David’s The Captain’s Daughter is a good sequel to the Enterprise-B part of Star Trek Generations. He really developed the back story on Demora Sulu and Hikaru Sulu.
His TNG-Starfleet Academy books are also great, and introduce a number of characters from the New Frontier series. But his Line of Fire/Survival duology developed the Worf/K’Heyler back story as well.
But besides Trek, David has also written for the 90’s Marvel Prose line of novels. His What Savage Beast[/i, a Hulk novel, is considered one of the best books of the line, right up there with Diane
His TNG-Starfleet Academy books are also great, and introduce a number of characters from the New Frontier series. But his Line of Fire/Survival duology developed the Worf/K’Heyler back story as well.
But besides Trek, David has also written for the 90’s Marvel Prose line of novels. His What Savage Beast[/i, a Hulk novel, is considered one of the best books of the line, right up there with Diane
I thought his work early in the DC second run was strong. "The Trial of James T. Kirk" (#10-12) and "Once a Hero..." (#19) were really strong.
I would add "Strike Zone" to this list.
And as it happens, there is another thread, new this week, about how he managed to sneak, as it were, a "Pesach-egg" into Imzadi (in effect, Troi and Riker are attacked by a rogue seder plate). Remarkably, some people thought he was being anti-Semitic.
He doesn't seem to have written any Star Trek novels in quite a while. I think the last one was "Before Dishonor" in 2008.
However, the New Frontier ebook trilogy The Returned was published in 2015.
Every Star Trek book Peter David has written up to and including Stone and Anvil range from good to superb. Past that they're kinda variable.
A Rock And A Hard Place, Imzadi, Q-Squared, Once Burned, & Stone and Anvil in particular are some of the best Trek books ever written. Warning - the last two (Once Burned, Stone & Anvil) are part of the New Frontier series, and the whole series must be read in the proper published order to get the most out of them.
Feel free to stop after Stone and Anvil and pretend that's the last New Frontier book though
A Rock And A Hard Place, Imzadi, Q-Squared, Once Burned, & Stone and Anvil in particular are some of the best Trek books ever written. Warning - the last two (Once Burned, Stone & Anvil) are part of the New Frontier series, and the whole series must be read in the proper published order to get the most out of them.
Feel free to stop after Stone and Anvil and pretend that's the last New Frontier book though
I think most of the writing he's doing now is for Marvel Comics, his most recent stuff for them includes:
- Symbiote Spider-Man
- Incredible Hulk: Last Call
- Fantastic Four: Prodigal Son
- Absolute Carnage: Symbiote Spider-Man
- Symbiote Spider-Man:Alien Reality
- Marvel's Black Widow Prelude (MCU)
Yep! "Strike Zone" was very cool - and secretly continued a storyline from the first DC Comics run. Moron (aka Bernie) the dwarf albino Klingon from the comics became the TNG novel's Ambassador Kobry (taking his name from his guardians, Konom the Klingon turncoat and his wife, Nancy Bryce).
Apart from Wildstorm's "Double Time" comic one-shot, mentioned earlier, there was also a five-issue "New Frontier" comic book miniseries published by IDW Publishing (2008). Arex and M'Ress from TAS appeared, possibly confusing comic book readers who had not been following their time jump into the TNG-era in "Gateways: Cold Wars".
Yeah, this is the correct answer.
Do you mean Aquaman: Time and Tide? That wasn't bad (although the art wasn't great), but there are certainly other Aquaman runs I much prefer. That was actually followed by an ongoing Aquaman series not long after where Peter David wrote the first 46 issues. It's best remembered as the series where Aquaman grew long hair and a beard, lost his left hand, and had it replaced it with a harpoon (not a hook, as lots people incorrectly refer to it).
If you're looking for a good sampling of Peter David's Aquaman run, I'd recommend the recent reprints Aquaman by Peter David Book 1 and Book 2. Those reprint both the initial Time and Tide mini and the first 20 issues of the ongoing that followed. DC sadly stopped the reprint trades after Book 2, though, even though a Book 3 had been announced. For the last few years, they've often announced certain trades and then canceled them after the initial orders were not what they were expecting. Which is a shame, because it was a nice series of trades. Maybe they'll resume it someday.
(Please forgive the digression, but I know a LOT about this era of the character. A couple of years ago, I wrote a 14,100-word article about Aquaman in the Bronze Age for BACK ISSUE magazine, so I read every solo story featuring Aquaman between 1986 and 2001, as well as interviewing PAD and other creators about their runs on the character. You can preview my article through the link in the previous sentence & order a copy of the magazine if you'd like.)
I thought that run started out pretty well, but it swiftly got too humorous and whimsical for my tastes (PAD can go overboard on the humor A LOT, to the point where his jokes can undercut any tension in his stories. It's my biggest criticism of him as a writer). By the time that Kirk and his crew are being stalked by a bounty hunter who looked like John Cleese, I was pretty disengaged. And the interference from Richard Arnold leading to the stories actively being blanded down, along with supporting characters being redrawn and ultimately removed from the book, certainly didn't help, either.
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This is another personal favorite of PAD's Trek novels that I forgot to mention before. Thanks for the reminder. I was very impressed that PAD figured out a way to make Hikaru Sulu a responsible father while still working around all the adventures Sulu had in the movie era. And it was one of the few times that PAD kept one of his in-jokes relatively subtle:
While Sulu is on a call with Captain Morgan Bateson of the USS Bozeman, Bateson tells Sulu, "Go ahead, Commander. I'm listening," which was a catch phrase on Dr. Frasier Crane's radio show on the sitcom Frasier.
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He likes his in jokes. There was one in New Frontier when Picard is telling a young Calhoun about Starfleet Academy and he asks if he’s in charge of it and he says, “me in charge of a school of gifted youngsters? I don’t think so.” A reference to a certain other franchise he’s a part of.
There also a Red Dwarf reference that made me laugh.
There also a Red Dwarf reference that made me laugh.
Yeah, that's exactly the sort of in-joke I hate. It instantly takes me out of the story and feels like PAD is doing everything short of elbowing me in the ribs and saying, "Hey, do you get it? Do ya GET IT?? That's another part that Patrick Stewart played!! Pretty clever, huh?" Well, no, it's not.
I appreciated the Frasier in-joke in The Captain's Daughter because I didn't catch it until a reread years later. By PAD standards, that was extremely subtle. If he'd done something like giving Captain Bateson a brother named Niles and a father named Martin, I'd be rolling my eyes.
Breaking the reality of your story just for a gag is a really, REALLY bad idea, and David succumbs to that temptation way too much, IMO.
I never minded his more light-hearted take on Trek, it balances out a lot of folks who treat it far too seriously.
