Question about the modern YA paperback series featuring Young Kirk and Spock (and whomever else) during the events of Star Trek (2009)? Are they worth reading if they can be found in my local booksellers?
Young Adult Star Trek 2009 Spin-off Books
- Thread starter CaptainMatt
- Start date
I've only read the first one, "The Delta Anomaly". It's very much 21st century Earth with a space academy and aliens. The presence of violent (human) gangsters in San Fransisco is the most un-Trek issue I have with it. There are countless continuity issues vs. the movie and the greater Trek universe. But I enjoyed it. I thought the mystery of "The Doctor" was interesting. The characterizations were okay.
Just don't expect anything as deep as a proper Trek novel. It was a quick, light read.
Just don't expect anything as deep as a proper Trek novel. It was a quick, light read.
I wanted all three in hardcover, of course, but could only find #1 in paperback locally. Bought it, read it, enjoyed seeing Gaila again but, as an elementary school librarian who buys/stocks a lot of YA material, it really made me wonder about who was the intended audience. Gaila starts out the book over-intoxicated during a cadets' night out on the town and there's an assault... Is this really what "young adults" want to read? Or what I'd enjoy promoting them to read? It was trying way too hard to be more YA than the old Pocket/Wanderer/Minstrel YA ST novels of the 90s. It lacked... subtlety.
I then found #2 in hardcover online at Amazon, pre-ordered #3 in hardcover at the same time - and finally found and rebought #1 in that style, so I do have all three (completist that I am), but haven't felt a yearning need to put them on the top of my "to read" pile. Neither do I feel I could donate the spare PB copy to my school library. We have kids who tell me they saw/liked the movie, but "The Delta Anomaly" isn't something I want them taking home to read. I haven't found any copies of #2 or #3 locally - and fully expected to find a table of remaindered copies in a bargain bookshop one day.
A missed opportunity for Simon & Shuster, really. The YA market can be so hard to crack; it's tricky to write a book series with themes of high interest/low ability that will become a trendy/cool thing to be seen reading. We have kids who like to be seen borrowing "Star Wars" YA books, and would attempt to be seen reading "Twilight" books (if I stocked them, but they'd be way over their heads), but the SW YAs seem more on a par with the old Pocket/Wanderer/Minstrel YA ST novels of the 90s.
Out of curiosity - and I apologize for the off-topicness - which Star Wars YA titles? (The ones I'm most familiar with, the Young Jedi Knights series by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, I would have said were aimed a few years higher than the 90s Trek YA material.)
Well, we have a shelf full of them, most from Scholastic Book Fairs aimed at upper elementary school, and they seem to be about the same level as the old ST YA. Coincidentally, most of them are by authors whose surnames start with "W" (Watson, Weinberg, Wrede, Windham, Wheeler) so they all end up on the same shelf, confusing kids who expect they might all be filed under "S", rather than "W", and they'll move the Moesta books over to the "W" shelf.
^ I'd agree with Ian, Andrew. The Jedi Apprentice, Jedi Quest, &c. books seem aimed at the same age bracket as the old Starfleet Academy stuff.
Having not read any of those (yet? maybe?), that would explain my confusion.
If you're tolerant of such YA fiction's quirks of diction, Jude Watson's books are pretty good, especially the original Jedi Apprentice series. Of course, I'm an unrepentant Qui-Gon fan, and those books are pretty much the only place to get a Qui-Gon fix, so I kinda have to like them. Jedi Quest is good too, and (The) Last of the Jedi is decent, though it sags in them middle.
^Xanatos? They're crossing Star Wars over with Gargoyles?
I guess, LOL. He was Qui-Gon's apprentice before Obi-Wan. Wookiepeida.
As things currently stand, no.
As things currently stand, not even the authors have been told.
That Simon & Schuster paid out on all four contracts during a time of economical belt-tightening, I would think that someone will want to get those books out one day.
The authors have been told that there's no plans for a release at present.
They may want to, but they're at the licensor's whims here.
No, they haven't even been told that, if I remember correctly recent posts from three of 'em.
Always. No change there. But the Bad Robot custodianship of the Star Trek features may only be for three movies.
We've also seen ST novels get put on longterm hiatus before, and some of those did turn up eventually: "A Flag Full of Stars", "Probe", "Engines of Destiny", "Recovery", "Dyson Sphere", "The Left Hand of Destiny"...
Actually, "no plans for a release at present" is a reasonable approximation of what we have been told. At present, there are no extant plans for a release, as far as any of us know. If plans for a release ever are formulated, it'll be in the future, not the present. (Well, except in the sense that it will be the present by the time it happens, if it ever happens, but as far as we're concerned in the present, it's still the future, so... see... if it were to... I'll be quiet now.)
I wonder why they do that.
"Young adults, listen to me! Your future will be just like today!"
Where's the idea that everything gets better?
Hey, you're the one with the direct links to the DTI. Get onto it!
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