Defcon's TrekLit

New review

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:28:05 GMT

My review of Star Trek - Voyager : Unworthy by Kirsten Beyer is now up over at Unreality SF.

Interview with David Mack

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:59:49 GMT

My new interview with David Mack is now online over at unreality-sf.net.

The main focus is Star Trek Vanguard - there's discussion of the recently-released Precipice, and talk about the series' future - but the conversation also takes in the forthcoming Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game and Mirror Universe: The Sorrows of Empire.

David also talks about More Beautiful Than Death, his 2010 followup to this year's Star Trek movie...

"The Enterprise crew is ordered to escort Ambassador Sarek to a dilithium-rich planet called Akiron, which has sent out a planetary distress signal. When the Enterprise crew reaches Akiron, they find that the planet is under siege by dark-energy creatures that some of the planet’s more religious denizens believe are demons. In short order, one calamity after another puts our heroes in jeopardy. Sarek begins trying to pull diplomatic rank so he can pull the plug on the mission, and young Captain Kirk must fend off this unexpected challenge to his still-fragile command authority.

As Kirk sinks himself, his crew, and his ship deeper into danger with each passing minute, he finds his own beliefs in a rational universe challenged by a mystic who insists it’s no coincidence that has brought Kirk to Akiron but rather the alien equivalent of a Karmic debt. Meanwhile, one of Sarek’s young Vulcan aides has a sinister agenda - and its chief objective appears to be the cold-blooded murder of Spock."

Read the interview in full here.

Comic review

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:31:14 GMT

My not so favorable review of the Star Trek (2009) prequel comic Countdown is now up at Unreality SF.

Quote:

"There are tie-ins to movies that help to elevate your opinion of the movie, be it by giving you more background information or giving the movie’s protagonist or antagonist more depth. Sadly, that isn’t the case with Countdown..."

German Star Trek Covers

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:49:54 GMT

In the past the German translations normally have used the original versions of the Covers, but it seems CrossCult, the current publishers wants to change that at least for some novels.

After Death in Winter (Tod im Winter) which already was released with a new cover, now they have new covers of Q&A (Quintessenz), Before Dishonor (Heldentod) and Abyss (Der Abgrund) online on their startrekromane.de website. (I don't think any of them are really better than the original, and I really, really hope the Abyss one is just a mock-up or joke.)

ETA: Different Abyss cover:

Unreality update

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:10:12 GMT

Haven't posted much about my work for Unreality SF lately, so here's a little update.

One new interview is currently in the works, with another one already agreed on for late December/early January. I also have a tentative plan to have a new interview next year almost every month and maybe throw in an article or two if I come by an interesting topic..

It's kind of weird, had anybody told me only 1 1/2 years ago that I would have more than half a dozen Interviews conducted with authors (I don't really count the first too co-credited to me on my about page on Unreality because I only contributed a question or two to each of them) by the end of 2009 I would've showed them the way to the next asylum, and yet her I am planning on more than doubling that number over the course of the next year.

Since it was Thanksgiving a few days ago in the US, I guess now is an as good time as ever to thank the authors and non-authors who talked to me either for interviews or articles - you made all that really easy for me and I hope it was nearly as much fun for you as it was for me.

Last but not least I want to thank Dan for his editing, support and patience when I'm once again way behind on my reviews like at the moment. :)

New review

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:24:04 GMT

My review of Wolverine: Election Day by Peter David is now up at Unreality SF.

"The best you can say about a tie-in novel, in my opinion, is if you could still say it’s a good novel even if you strip it of anything that is unique to the property it ties in to - and that’s certainly true for Election Day. Okay, some scenes and sequences only work in a superhero world, but the core of the novel could have just as easily worked as an original political thriller..."

New Interview

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:26:31 GMT

An interview with James Swallow is now online over at Unreality SF.

And since James has so many projects being published in the next few months, I needed some help to cover them, so Steve Mollmann helped me with the interview this time.

In the interview we talk with James about Titan: Synthesis, The Slow Knife (his story in Seven Deadly Sins), his novelisation of Stargate: Universe - Air, Cyberman 2 and more.

You can read the interview here.

Titan: Over a Torrent Sea review

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:38:26 GMT

My review of Christopher L. Bennett's Titan novel Over a Torrent Sea is now online at Unreality SF.

"It's a step up from the previous Titan novel, but it’s not even near the quality of Christopher L. Bennett’s other Titan novel. There, he was able to combine a strong scientific background and interesting world-building with a compelling story; here, he has the interesting concept of an ocean world and a strong world-building, but isn’t able to wrap them into an engaging story..."

Read More...

New review

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:01:34 GMT

My review of the latest Deep Space Nine post-finale novel The Soul Key by Olivia Woods is now online at Unreality SF.

New review

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:12:27 GMT

My review of Dave Galanter's TOS novel Troublesome Minds is now online at Unreality SF.

New Review at Unreality SF

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:06:27 GMT

My review of Una McCormack's DS9 novel The Never-Ending Sacrifice is now up at Unreality SF.

There are also some other new reviews up for Doctor Who and Torchwood. To keep up with new additions to the site you can become a member of the Unreality SF - Facebook group.

New Review at Unreality SF

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:59:37 GMT

My review of William Leisner's TNG novel Losing the Peace is now online over at Unreality SF.

New Interview

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:38:18 GMT

My interview with Una McCormack is now online at Unreality SF.

In it we talk about her recent novel The Never-Ending Sacrifice, the Cardassians, her Doctor Who short story The Slave War and more.

"Irons in the Fire"

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:33:42 GMT

It's a while since I've done one of those so here's a list of what I've done since then:

Review: Star Trek Voyager - Full Circle by Kirsten Beyer

Review: Star Trek movie novelisation by Alan Dean Foster

Review: Supernatural - Witch's Canyon by Jeff Mariotte

Article: Trek XI - Did the books miss the bandwagon?

Review: Star Trek Vanguard - Open Secrets by Dayton Ward

"Irons in the Fire":

Unreality SF - Review of Star Trek: Mere Anarchy
Read & Rated

Unreality SF - Review of Star Trek TNG - Losing the Peace
Read & Rated

Unreality SF - Review of Star Trek DS9 - The Never-Ending Sacrifice
Read & Rated

Unreality SF - Interview
Send a final draft to Dan for editing yesterday afternoon

Open Secrets review

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:41:47 GMT

My review of the fourth Vanguard novel Open Secrets is now online at Unreality SF.

Unreality SF at Facebook

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:29:22 GMT

Unreality-SF.net now has its own group over at Facebook.

If you want to discuss the reviews, interviews and articles this is the place to go.

Check it out.

My nrwest article online at Unreality SF

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:23:38 GMT

Over at Unreality-SF.net, my newest article has been posted , discussing how the release of the 2009 Star Trek film was handled by the Trek books, with contributions from authors Keith R.A. DeCandido, Allyn Gibson, and Geoffrey Thorne, and blogger Steve Roby.

Between them, they talk about what they'd have done if they were editing the TrekLit line, the suggestion that the 2010 schedule is overcompensating for the lack of movie tie-ins, and whether ending the line of Prime Universe books would be a good (or likely) move.

“I find it difficult not to be baffled by Pocket's response to the film,” says Allyn. “I have seen more Star Trek merchandise in stores, ranging from board games and t-shirts to breakfast cereal and candy, than at any time in the past. Five years ago, if you wanted Star Trek merchandise, you had to go out and find it. This spring, I couldn't avoid Star Trek if I tried. Spock was on the front of cereal boxes. The comparative dearth of Star Trek product from Pocket Books was conspicuous by its absence. It was as if the company had decided that the film was simply business as usual and planned accordingly...”

Read it here.

New Review at Unreality SF

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:35:16 GMT

My review of Supernatural: Witch's Canyon by Jeff Mariotte is now up at Unreality SF:

"One of the bigger problems for me was that the novel is a bit too long for the story it tries to tell. It isn’t boring, but tends to drag a bit occasionally in my opinion. Some of the elements of the plot are really interesting, but in the end the formulaic storytelling tends to drown out those moments..."

German Star Trek line

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:58:34 GMT

Not sure if anyone reading this really cares about this, but I figured since the German Star Trek line is expanding to one book a month later this year I could post the tentative and provisional list of planned titles here:

Note: Especially those titles with unannounced release dates are far away from being 100% confirmed.

Star Trek - The Next Generation

September 2009: Tod im Winter * Michael Jan Friedman
November 2009: Widerstand * J.M. Dillard
January 2010: Q&A * Keith R.A. DeCandido
March 2010: tba * Peter David
May 2010: Mehr als die Summe * Christopher L. Bennett

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine

October 2009: Offenbarung I * S.D. Perry
December 2009: Offenbarung II * S.D. Perry
April 2010: Der Abgrund * David Weedle & Jeffrey Lang
tba: Dämonen der Luft und der Dunkelheit * Keith R.A. DeCandido
tba: Mission Gamma I - Zwielicht * David R. George III
tba: Mission Gamma II - Dieser graue Geist * Heather Jarman
tba: Mission Gamma III - Kathedrale * Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin
tba: Mission Gamma IV - Das kleinere Übel * Robert Simpson
tba: So der Sohn * S.D. Perry
tba: Einheit * S.D. Perry
tba: Die linke Hand des Schicksals I * J.G. Hertzler & Jeffrey Lang
tba: Die linke Hand des Schicksals II * J.G. Hertzler & Jeffrey Lang
tba: Die Welten von Star Trek - Deep Space Nine I * Una McCormack / Heather Jarman
tba: Die Welten von Star Trek - Deep Space Nine II * Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin / J. Noah Kym
tba: Die Welten von Star Trek - Deep Space Nine III * Keith R.A. DeCandido / David R. George III

Star Trek - Titan

August 2009: Schwert des Damokles * Geoffrey Thorne
September 2010: Über ein reißendes Meer * Christopher L. Bennett
tba: Synthese * James Swallow

Star Trek - Vanguard

February 2010: Am Abgrund * David Mack

Star Trek - various

June 2010: Destiny - Götter der Nacht * David Mack
July 2010: Destiny - Gewöhnliche Sterbliche * David Mack
August 2010: Destiny - Verlorene Seelen * David Mack
tba: Ein Einzelschicksal * Keith R.A. DeCandido

P.S.: You can figure out yourself which book is which. ;P

New review

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:00:58 GMT

My (not so glowing) review of the Star Trek movie novelization by Alan Dean Foster is now up at Unreality SF.

Quote:

"There are so many scenes in this novel which can only be swallowed if you can suspend your disbelief to a point where you would believe anything, and that is just lazy storytelling in my opinion. I guess that’s mostly the fault of the movie writers, but despite his experience it doesn’t feel like Alan Dean Foster was able to add anything to it that would make the story more credible..."

New Review

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:06:48 GMT

My review of Voyager: Full Circle by Kirsten Beyer is now up at Unreality SF.

"Irons in the Fire"

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:06:03 GMT

O.K., lets start with what I've done since the last IitF post:

Unreality SF - Review Of Star Trek: New Frontier - Treason

Unreality SF - Interview with William Leisner

Unreality SF - Interview with Dave Galanter

Unreality SF - Article about the SNW contest

"Irons in the Fire":

Unreality SF - Review of Star Trek: Voyager - Full Circle
Finished and send to Dan earlier this evening

Unreality SF - Review of Supernatural - Witch's Canyon
Finished and send to Dan earlier this evening

Unreality SF - Review of the Star Trek movie novelization
Read & Rated

Unreality SF - Review of Mere Anarchy
Read & Rated

Unreality SF - Article
Still in an early planning stage

Unreality SF - Two Interviews
Still in an early planning stage

My new article on Unreality SF: Strange New Worlds - A Look Back

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:42:07 GMT

Strange New Worlds: A Look Back

"'Star Trek stories by the fans, for the fans.' That was the motto of the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anthologies published by Pocket Books until 2007. Now, two years after the range’s demise, Unreality SF has gathered several people who were involved with SNW over the years - Allyn Gibson, William Leisner, Terri Osborne, Dean Wesley Smith, and Dayton Ward - to take a look back..."

"Treason" Review

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:45:12 GMT

My review of New Frontier: Treason by Peter David is now up over at Unreality-SF.net.

New Interview

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:14:44 GMT

My interview with Dave Galanter is now online over at Unreality-SF.net.