Licensed Fiction: S&D

Every time I wander into the SF/Horror/Fantasy section of a typical high street bookseller, I am always, perhaps naively, surprised by the sheer quantities of licensed fiction that is on offer from your typical Star Wars/Star Trek stuff right down to novelisations of the Eve universe.

Now when I was a kid I remember reading the novelisations of the Alien films by Alan Dean Foster and the odd Warhammer-related thing and enjoying them, but I doubt they would appeal to me much now. However, I am curious to know if there is any licensed fiction out there (and I mean the officially licensed stuff not fanfic or slashfic) that is actually good and would be of interest even to people who aren't small children/teenagers/hardcore nerds? Is there anything that transcends its source material? With all the reams of this stuff that is churned there must be some gems lurking in there - or is it all strictly for fanboys?

i remember walking into the supermarket when i was a kid and seeing this and thinking it was the coolest book cover i'd ever seen. but i didn't buy it...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kj2pfN2GjS4/Saf-TAFFMsI/AAAAAAAAGxU/SpzPf3XWb3I/s400/Splinter_of_the_Minds_Eye.jpg

i did buy the architectural plans for the U.S.S. Enterprise though. wish i still had them. they are probably worth money now. insanely elaborate.

sorry, i'm not answering your question at all.

I have a friend who swears by those Alan Dean Foster SW novels actually, but I don't quite trust him as he is definitely a hardcore nerd when it comes to this sort of thing. The cover is still awesome tho.

I did read and enjoy a 'Doctor Who' novel that had Graham Greene, Joseph Heller and Alan Turing as the narrators. Not sure I'd want to be seen reading it in public, though.

I read heaps of movie novelisations as a kid, though, before we had a VCR: I remember being both infuriated and puzzled when the book deviated from the happenings in the movie (did not understand at that point that the writers worked from a draft of the script, rather than sitting there transcribing the events on the screen).

Holy f***, JM, you are telling the truth. Paul Leonard, The Turing Test. I would not have believed it but there it is.

That's the one! I'm now tempted to reread it, to be honest.

Hi skot I own Splinter of the Mind's Eye/.

The ADF aliens novelizations are great in that they have scenes cut from the final movies

I think they were based on earlier version of the scripts. Some of the scenes in the books were restored in the director's cuts of the various films I think.

I used to be very obsessed with the Aliens films when I was a kid (actually I still am a little to be honest). I'd actually forgotten but I did read 3 or 4 of the spinoff novels many years ago and I have some of the issues of the Dark Horse comeics (which I think I mainly got for the awesome cover art). The novels are kind of weird because I think they were originally written before Alien 3 came out, so the two main characters are suspiciously identical to Newt and Hicks, except their names are Billy and Wilks or something like that. They aren't too bad: the first is about how Earth gets overrun by Aliens and then the rest are about the ongoing efforts to get rid of them. Ripley turns up in the third one I think. Plenty of material for any number of further film sequels if Hollywood is so inclined.

does anyone know how to get into this business? do editors write outlines and farm them out to writers? or do writers pitch ideas for star wars books to the del rey editors? or what?

I have never been a fan of Doctor Who, despite being from the UK and a SF nerd, but that Paul Leonard novel sounds really intriguing.

xpost

I'd be interested to know that. I always got the impression that you got offered this stuff once you'd got a couple of actual novels under your belt. Some licensed authors probably use pseudonyms. Other than that maybe if you established yourself as an amateur fanfic writer first?

licensed fiction that i will admit to loving as a kid/teenager:

--william r. forstchen's wing commander books

--this one battletech trilogy

--all the TSR stuff basically (dragonlance, forgotten realms, blah blah blah)

--this one star wars novel that had interlocking short stories for everyone in the cantina scene

i really liked the first aliens vs. predator novel too :/

did you read the bounty hunters one that was like that cantina one

I liked the first AVP novel as well. Would have made a much better film.

Peter David first began writing Star Trek novels at the request of Pocket Books editor Dave Stern, who was a fan of David's Star Trek comic book work. His Star Trek novels are among those for which he is best known, including Q-in-Law, I, Q, Vendetta, Q-Squared, and Imzadi, one of the best-selling Star Trek novels of all time. He created the ongoing novel series, Star Trek: New Frontier, a spin-off from Star Trek: The Next Generation, with John J. Ordover in 1997. He has also written five Babylon 5 novels, three of which were originals, and two of which were adaptations of the TV movies Thirdspace and In the Beginning.

His other novel adaptations include those of the movies The Return of Swamp Thing, The Rocketeer, Batman Forever, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, Hulk, The Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man. He also wrote an original Hulk novel, The Incredible Hulk: What Savage Beast, based on story ideas that he was not permitted to use in the comic book, and an adaptation of an unused Alien Nation television script, "Body and Soul".

Other published work

* Before David became a professional writer, he was a prolific author of fan fiction, including The TARDIS at Pooh Corner.

I liked the first AVP novel as well. Would have made a much better film.

the movie did take a lot of stuff from it though, like the chick being accepted by the predators

did you read the bounty hunters one that was like that cantina one

no was it awesome

Bloody hell, there are so many Battletech novels! 90 in 23 or so years. I didn't even realise it was that popular a franchise.

i know, right? the one i'm thinking of is the 'jade phoenix trilogy', it was all about soldiers bred through a eugenics program. there used to be a crazy wiki page recapping the entire plot in garbled detail but i can't find it anymore.

That Paul Leonard Doctor Who novel is really good.

There is a posse of people who do DW fiction whose work is consistently entertaining back through the mid-90s, including:

Lawrence Miles
Dave Stone
Jonathon Morris
Paul Leonard
Lance Parkin
Peter Anghelides

Then, there are the ones that I found hit-or-miss, but when they hit they were superlative:

Paul Cornell
Kate Orman
David McIntee

Search: Joe Haldeman's 2 Star Trek novels.

did you read the bounty hunters one that was like that cantina one

no was it awesome

― meat of beef (Jordan), Tuesday, March 24, 2009 11:57 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://www.adherents.com/lit/bk_StarWars_Bounty.html

I read heaps of movie novelisations as a kid, though, before we had a VCR: I remember being both infuriated and puzzled when the book deviated from the happenings in the movie (did not understand at that point that the writers worked from a draft of the script, rather than sitting there transcribing the events on the screen).

I did not know that Joe Haldeman had written any Star Trek novels. I might have to track those down.

Planet of Judgement (1977)
World Without End (1979)

The City On The Edge Of Forever Wars? Are there any talking Christmas ornaments mentioned?
(xpost)

oh man, i love that review page, max.

IG-88's story displays a wry, dark humor appropriate for a tale about a robot whose great desire is to destroy all "biologicals" in the galaxy, but until he can do so takes great pleasure in killing people individually. The story kept me interested and frequently surprised, although the ending was a bit predictable once the final leg of IG-88's plans were initiated. This is to be expected, because we've all seen the Star Wars trilogy, and this story was tied closely to it. In fact, the reader's understanding of the ending actually depends on them having seen "Return of the Jedi." This is an unusual choice for the author to make, but it works here. It's no more inappropriate than expecting a reader to have familiarity with a common Bible story or the assassination of John F. Kennedy in order to fully understand a story. Star Wars, after all, is one of the foundations of post-modern mythology and culture.

One of the most interesting and surprising aspects of Boba Fett's tale was how completely he is the hero, the good guy of his story, and how Han Solo is one of the "bad guys." Seeing things through his eyes, we realize Fett is not at all evil. In fact, he's an intensely principled character. He never violates his principles and beliefs for personal gain or selfish reasons. Not only does he completely eschew alcohol, drugs, etc., he is a gentleman as well. When working in Jabba's palace, the Hut delivers the captive Princess Leia Organa to Fett's bedroom as a gift. Fett can't send Leia back because to do so would insult Jabba and endanger both of them. But Fett assures Leia that she has nothing to fear from him. The conversation between them is a high point of the story. Not only does Fett give Leia the bed and sleep on the floor in his armor, he explains to the stunned (and relieved) princess that sex outside of marriage is immoral. As a bounty hunter Fett is not evil or a criminal. In capturing Han Solo, Fett explains to Leia, he is working for the duly appointed governmental authorities in order to maintain a civil society.

lol

Never understood the weird undying love Star Wars geeks have for Boba Fett. What is it based on? He was barely in the original films, except when he looks like a bit of plum flying into that pit creature in Return of the Jedi.

*a plum

he had a jet pack

i too read the alan dean foster aliens thingies. and read the instructions to a broken copy of the spectrum zx game a lot. still haven't seen aliens. i read at least one aliens vs predator book.

i played the nintendo mario choose yr own adventure books. these, looking back, were terrible: totally arbitrary.

have been meaning to read james blish's 'spock must die!' for a while. he wrote some great 50s SF: the cities in flight books, in which (duh) big american cities are flying around the universe under their own atmosphere, and the oddly affecting 'a case of conscience', a sort of b-movie morality play of a novel.

it does kind of sadden me that the last work he completed was adapting the original series of star trek into short story form, though.

i feel like there's some licensed thing which i'm actually really fond of that i've forgotten about.

i also have never read the late thomas m. disch's 'the prisoner' novels.

or jack kirby's 2001

you should see aliens!

Those Blish Star Trek stories were very good iirc.

I have a friend who obsessively reads, watches, and listens to apocryphal DW material, but he is an obsessive Dr Who fanboy. I have read some licensed DW stuff and found it... alright.

I think the appeal of this stuff must be for fanboys who just want more stories from the thing they are interested in. I have occasionally been drawn to some of the Star Wars stuff, but apart from a couple of comics issues I have, thank god, managed to resist temptation.

this is actually pretty good, if you ever see a copy at the thrift store:

http://www.gloubik.info/ironside/anglais/thompson.jpg

um, this:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n12/n60471.jpg

Is that by THE jim Thompson? Weird.

WAIT! I have actually read loads of licensed Dr Who novels, from back when no old Dr Who was available on VHS, so the only way to interact with old Dr Who was to read the novelisations. Some of them are pretty good (usually better than the TV programmes). I reckon some of them could be enjoyed by kiddie SF fans who were not that engaged with the programme.