Stacer, recommend a book to me

[fuzzyoctopus]

Diane Duane wrote Star Trek novels?!

Oh goodness yes.  Some of the best Star Trek novels ever written.  Original Star Trek; I don't think she ever did TNG, which is fine, because the original series books are almost always better.  I own 4 or 5 of them, and have misplaced my two favorites, (of course) which I just realized last night, and panicked about.

You know, I seem to remember having this conversation with my husband about Peter David.  ("He wrote Star Trek novels???"  "He wrote comic books???")



And Fell, I picked up a copy of Melanie Rawn's "Dragon Prince" a few years ago, and all the characters annoyed me by being idiots, especially the lead male, who I recall as having the I.Q. of a prawn sandwich.

Edit:  Oh, I stand corrected- Duane did at least one TNG novel.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

Prawn not that smart, eh?

[EUOL]

Fuzzy--come raid my library.  I've got somewhere around a thousand books, after all.

Rawn, McCaffery, and Dragonsbane (Barbara Hambly) are all very nice.  I realize this thread was begun to intentionally ask Stacer and the other ladies for suggestions, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in, because I'm like that.  (So there.)

[fuzzyoctopus]

Ok, after input from this and another message board, I'm going to get these books.  Brenna if you could bring "Daughter of the Empire" to TLE on Tuesday, that'd be great.  Sequels to be determined by my enjoyment of each book, of course, and if I"m smart I'll write down all the call numbers and hit the library before class tomorrow.


Peter Dickinson - The Ropemaker  

Elizabeth Haydon - Rhapsody

Janny Wurts and Raymond E. Feist - Daughter of the Empire

Robin Hobb - Ship of Magic

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

wait, you read Spanish, right Fuzzy? El cuarto de atrás by Carmen Martin Gaite is very good, though more "fantastic" than fantasy. It's not otherworldly, just... weird.

[fuzzyoctopus]

I can read spanish passably well, yes.  This will probably wait until summer, however, because the translating from spanish in my head will cause more mental work than I'm able to give right now.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Hmm, I was worried because I already have 7 or 8 books checked out of the library, but I checked the website and it says I can check out 50 books at once.  (!?!)  Is this true, byu alumni.

[stacer]

Ohhhh yeah.... I was always pushing the limit, especially when I was in my children's lit classes (because of the picture books). Fun thing is, with the Boston public library system there's NO LIMIT. I've had upwards of 80 books checked out at once sometimes during the semester. Yikes. I think I still have about 25 or 30 here at home right now.

And sidenote for anyone interested: tomorrow is the deadline for my paper!!!! Which means I should be done with it, right? Riiight. But which also means that Tuesday I'm free, done or not. Back to a normal life.

[Fellfrosch]

In late 2000 I got a letter from the library stating that, as an Honor's student entering his final year, I would recieve expanded library privileges including a locker and a checkout limit of four or five months. Of course, I graduated college in three years instead of four, and had just defended my finished thesis the previous week, so it wasn't much help. Cool, though.

As a side note, I want to go on record as saying that "some of the best Star Trek novels ever written" is a very funny sentence.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Why is it funny?  You trying to insinuate that Star Trek novels are, by definition, bad?  

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

If I had said it, I would have meant not that they're by definition bad, but that everyone I've tried to read has been bad, and based both on that and on the "fan fiction" like nature of them, I expect them all to be so.

[fuzzyoctopus]

*shrug*  I don't blame anyone who's read them and honestly dislikes them.  I actually am a fan-fiction kind of person at heart.  I just like it to be plausable within the series and true to character, instead of "OMG, i 'm gonna rite a story about Snape and Harrypotter having Sex0rz! LoL he's so hawt."  Or, "wow I'm going to write a Sailor Moon/ Star Trek crossover!!!"

Being professionally published books, the Star Trek novels fall within that; and they're especially good for the Original series because the acting, writing, and special effects are all so much better than in the actual show.

[Fellfrosch]

I just have an inherent bias against fan fiction, bolstered by the fact that I, like SE, have never liked one that Iv'e read (though I've read very few). Which is not to say that, if offered money, I wouldn't prostitute myself by writing one.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

oh, hell yes. I've made no bones about how I'd be willing to whore myself out to write Star Wars/Trek/Buffy/ANYTHING if I were paid enough. I have a price for things like that. So long as it's not porn...

[EUOL]

There was a Wizards writer at LTUE.  Dan Willis.  Anyway, I tried to talk contracts with him, but he said that he was under a strict non-disclosure agreement.  He did mention that his earnings were substantially lower than what a regular novelist would get--but, Wizards justifies this by pointing out that most of their books stay in print far longer than standard fantasy novels, and therefore earn better royalties over-all for their authors.