Club Jade

Author Vonda McIntyre writes about her experience with Star Trek novels at Book View Cafe. It draws some interesting responses at Metafilter, including a lengthy one from John Scalzi.

McIntyre is not well-loved among Star Wars EU fans – her one book in this franchise, 1994′s The Crystal Star, is a regular on worst-of lists. (And let’s face it, we all overuse the Waru jokes.) But her post is certainly worth reading, and an interesting look at the early days of tie-in fiction.

A point that’s often made when arguing the merits of media tie-in novels is that they bring additional readers to the science fiction/fantasy genre. My own experience runs completely counter to this: Star Wars didn’t get me into SF/F; SF/F got me into Star Wars. Granted, I grew up in a family of readers, and Heir to the Empire was not the first genre novel I borrowed from my parent’s bookshelves before I was old enough to drive. So, I admit, I get a little miffed at the notion that reading these things makes us knuckle-draggers. (What’s wrong with an intelligent reader enjoying a little melodramatic space trash, huh? Wait, don’t answer that.) So, for the sake of science random internet polling: (more…)

I had no idea when SF Signal asked me to participate in their latest Mind Meld on tie-ins that they’d get so many actual writers who had written Star Wars (Sean Williams, William C. Dietz, Kevin J. Anderson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Walter Jon Williams.) Plus many other names familiar to genre readers and the blogosphere. And me. It’s a little unsettling. Really cool, but unsettling.