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Recency bias is a factor here, because the book I'm about to name is the one I've read most recently -- but, in my defence, I was reading it because it was my favourite when I was young, and I was delighted to learn that it holds up: The Devil's Heart by Carmen Carter.
If you listened to the Antimatter Pod episode about formative tie-ins, you'll have already heard me rave about it, so please hold while I try to come up with something fresh to say...
*drinks coffee*
RIGHT! Okay, so I'm writing an essay/blog post (it has footnotes, but also gifs) about the gender gap in Trek tie-ins, and at one point I got torambling semi-coherently musing about the differences between tie-in fiction and fan fiction.
Have a sneak peek:
Fan fiction and tie-in fiction are not, to my mind, interchangeable -- setting aside issues of quality and editorial gatekeeping, I believe they serve similar and often overlapping, but ultimately different needs.
To me, the best tie-in fiction is basically plotty gen -- or, at least, has no more overt romance than the series it's based on, although that gives you a pretty flexible range depending on the series. And the character growth it has to be consistent with the series as well, and where the series is likely to go in the future (which is, I suspect, why the Discovery novels so far have all been prequels). But, at the same time, there has to be as much affection for and interest in the characters as you'd get from fan fiction, or else it's just ... flat.
Fic writing has a lot more freedom to get into the iddy stuff, to change everything, to ignore or alter details of canon that the author doesn't like, to focus entirely on one character (or one relationship) to the exclusion of all else. That's why it's so wonderful!
But sometimes, I want a straightforward adventure with a lot of plot, and fic can't always provide that. And it's what The Devil's Heart does so well. Carter's love for the characters (except Worf, she doesn't seem too fond of him) is evident, her crush on Patrick Stewart and Picard/Crusher shipping are both extremely obvious, but this is also a romp through the history of the alpha quadrant, with a sideline in fanwank (Iconians! The T'Kon Empire! Surak!) and some really strong, diverse original characters, a significant proportion of which are women.
(It's difficult to choose a favourite, but it's a toss-up between the moody Starfleet officer whose career has hit a dead end in the form of commanding a dodgy old starbase, or the Mysterious Bartender who becomes her best frenemy.)
My only complaint, reading it a few months ago, is that the Kindle edition is poorly formatted, and has a handful of errors which look like the product a scan-to-text that wasn't properly proofread. Maybe it's time to hit eBay and find a paperback copy...
( The remaining days. )
If you listened to the Antimatter Pod episode about formative tie-ins, you'll have already heard me rave about it, so please hold while I try to come up with something fresh to say...
*drinks coffee*
RIGHT! Okay, so I'm writing an essay/blog post (it has footnotes, but also gifs) about the gender gap in Trek tie-ins, and at one point I got to
Have a sneak peek:
Fan fiction and tie-in fiction are not, to my mind, interchangeable -- setting aside issues of quality and editorial gatekeeping, I believe they serve similar and often overlapping, but ultimately different needs.
To me, the best tie-in fiction is basically plotty gen -- or, at least, has no more overt romance than the series it's based on, although that gives you a pretty flexible range depending on the series. And the character growth it has to be consistent with the series as well, and where the series is likely to go in the future (which is, I suspect, why the Discovery novels so far have all been prequels). But, at the same time, there has to be as much affection for and interest in the characters as you'd get from fan fiction, or else it's just ... flat.
Fic writing has a lot more freedom to get into the iddy stuff, to change everything, to ignore or alter details of canon that the author doesn't like, to focus entirely on one character (or one relationship) to the exclusion of all else. That's why it's so wonderful!
But sometimes, I want a straightforward adventure with a lot of plot, and fic can't always provide that. And it's what The Devil's Heart does so well. Carter's love for the characters (except Worf, she doesn't seem too fond of him) is evident, her crush on Patrick Stewart and Picard/Crusher shipping are both extremely obvious, but this is also a romp through the history of the alpha quadrant, with a sideline in fanwank (Iconians! The T'Kon Empire! Surak!) and some really strong, diverse original characters, a significant proportion of which are women.
(It's difficult to choose a favourite, but it's a toss-up between the moody Starfleet officer whose career has hit a dead end in the form of commanding a dodgy old starbase, or the Mysterious Bartender who becomes her best frenemy.)
My only complaint, reading it a few months ago, is that the Kindle edition is poorly formatted, and has a handful of errors which look like the product a scan-to-text that wasn't properly proofread. Maybe it's time to hit eBay and find a paperback copy...
( The remaining days. )
