>> RANTS > FROM THE PEN OF THE MASTER GEEK

Just a Big ‘ol Trek Hypocrite

Your friendly neighbor Geek’s daily MAX ride to Gresham allows for a lot time do a whole lot of nothing. With Stern sounding more and more like an advertisement for Sirius and nothing but suck on the am dial, the 40 plus minute trip becomes a bit tedious. And so, like the galaxies smoothest captain, I turned death (or at least boredom) into a fighting chance to live and picked myself up a couple of books, more specifically, a couple of sci-fi books. Skipping the Literature isle of Barnes and Nobles (as sci-fi and its lesser brother fantasy will never count as "literature") I zeroed in on the Star Trek novels. I've been out of the Trek book loop for a good long while and when I stopped and thought about the reason why I realized that I was nothing but a big fat Star Trek hypocrite!

I was avoiding all the non-show books.

Regular readers will know that I have claimed, repeatedly, that the future of Star Trek resides in the expanded Star Trek universe. The fans and Paramount will have to move beyond Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway*, and the Quantum Leap** dude. Yet, there I was, standing and staring at the Star Trek books not really wanting to shell out the cash for any of the novels that didn't exist within the limited range of my fanboy mind.

Somewhere, Orson Scott Card is laughing his ass off...

Even after I made this stunning discovery and internally chastised myself, I still found myself looking behind some of the deeper stacked books hoping I could find one more book wedged within the limited period of the original series. Nothing. It was time that I made a decision: Suck it up, put my gold pressed latnum where my mouth was, or go back to reading about yet another rising of the Empire in a galaxy far, far away. Still, I couldn't find myself getting interested in the books that sat upon the shelves. Never mind the fact that no less then four friends have tried to repeatedly pimp the S.C.E. and IKS Gorkon books on me. I was still being that stubborn fan who wouldn't budge.

Well, no more.

I bit the bullet and started acting like the Trek fan I have always claimed to me. As such, I am now the proud owner of Star Trek: Articles of the Federation and Star Trek: Titan - Taking Wing. I made the mistake of starting Articles of the Federation first, not that I am not enjoying it, I am, but now I know that the book takes place after the events in Taking Wing I'm too far in to stop. Yes, I know there is a blurb at the beginning of the book. Who the crap reads those though? (Maybe they should make some pretty timeline things that Dark Horse puts before all their Star Wars graphic novels.)

There are some dang talented writers out there. Writers who grew up with Trek and are now putting their own stamp on their favorite galaxy. Writers who are creating a mythology all there own, a mythology that shows far more respect and forethought then anything those hacks Berman and Braga could ever dream of. I'm sorry I've been away so long. Well no more, I'm back. Gonna’ fill that shelf with thousands of pulpy yellow paper and dog-eared chapters.

Feels good to be home.

* Okay, I've never actually read a Voyager novel. Such a tool.

** Yes, I know his name is Archer...please, no hate mail!