Apparently, writer Peter David has passed away after a long battle with myriad health issues. https://aiptcomics.com/2025/05/25/peter-david-dead-at-68/ I meet him once, unexpectedly, at a con. Such a nice guy. And so prolific! His novel, Vendetta, was one of the first Trek books I ever read, and cemented a lifelong love of the Borg. Only 68. God damn.
Goddammit. My favorite Star Trek author. "Vendetta" is still one of my favorite books about the Borg, and how he tied them in with the Planet Killer from TOS. Just a great read. He was a hell of an author, a pretty damn cool guy, and he will be sorely missed.
This is also how I find out that Peter Morwood, Diane Duane's husband and a decent Trek novelist himself, passed on earlier this month.
One of the best Trek lit authors by far. He knew how to capture the feeling of the show, and how to do just the right amount of fanservice without pushing it too far.
One of the best when he was on. He's responsible for The Rift and the Excalibur series just as much as for Q-Squared and Vendetta. The Disinherited and Doomsday World are also good but those were collabs. Truly the Elton John of Star Trek lit. The good output is good enough and numerous enough to place him as one of the greats, but boy did he have his "Step Into Christmas" and overplayed "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"-level stuff.
Looks like he also wrote an entire ST series called New Frontier (20+ books). Anybody read any of those? Any good?
I did. I liked them a lot. They jump the shark a bit towards the end, but on general are pretty good.
I just remember him begging for $$$ and creepily sexualizing Star Trek characters. Bummer when anyone passes, though.
I read the first several. They were pretty good. Shelby is a major character, as is Robin Lefler. There's an attempt to tie together Christine Chapel, Number One, Lwaxana Troi, and the standard Starfleet computer voice that is either a fun in-joke for fans or an absurd stretch, depending on your level of tolerance for that sort of thing.
Nice way to crass up the memorial thread. As for sexualize Trek characters, do you mean acknowledging that characters like Troi and Riker actually fuck? Or just that sex in general actually exists in the future? Because no one sexualized Trek characters more than the orgy master himself Gene Roddenberry.
Hey, I call em as I see em. He was a disaster. I agree with you on Roddenberry, though. He was a complete a-hole to women, especially his wife.
Riker's bed-hopping made James Bond look like a high school wallflower. WTF version of TNG was TLS watching?
Did a little digging. Found nothing I didn't know before. Roddenberry was a horndog who'd fuck anything that moved. Considering how he looked, I'd say he must have had a hell of a lot of something else going on to get Majel Barrett AND Nichelle Nichols in bed with him. Didn't see anything that said he was an a-hole to his wife, unless you mean his first wife, whom he left for Barrett. Again, my response is From my perspective, David just kept the Roddenberry ethos about sexuality alive. And, not for nothing, I'm pretty sure he's the only Pocket Books author to have a species he created birthed into the franchise proper on screen (The Brikar).
So your response to Roddenberry cheating on his wife with Barrett and Nichols, as well as DC Fontana, is 'no big deal'? Okay...
there was a fanfic writer I followed for a while back in the early 00's who'd tried something like that, tying together other characters played by ST characters as well as if they'd already played multiples in universe and/or AU versions withthe eventual big bad being Ghiddorah. so DS9 would meet MASH by way of Odo/Mulcahey, but was also tied into Forever Knight by way of Ezri Dax.
OK fuck all the Hulk and New Frontier and getting TLS' panties in a twist over Dr. Selar being on heat due to Pon Farr, it seems we owe this man for something FAR greater:
