Random news

Kristine Smith, whose vanity press book DeForest Kelley: A Harvest of Memories: My Life and Times With a Remarkable Gentleman Actor was published back in 2001, has a new ebook out: Enduring Legacy of DeForest Kelley. 61 pages for US$4.95. The description from the publisher's site:

DeForest Kelley's former personal assistant Kristine M Smith has compiled the memories and reminiscences of fans and friends whose lives were blessed and changed forever by the career or kindness of the late actor who portrayed Dr. Leonard McCoy in the original Star Trek series. All who contributed to the tome have realized the immense impact that the iconic "Bones" has had on their lives and careers. Smith reveals that Kelley's enduring legacy includes fans who continue to boldly go where few have gone before, making a difference every step of the way."

Meanwhile, Anita Okrent has a book on invented languages that apparently includes some discussion of Klingon: In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language. Looks interesting, but it won't be added to the site, because it's not primarily about Star Trek.

John Erik Ege has found the latest way to risk a CBS smackdown: selling Star Trek fanfic on Amazon for the Kindle.

McFarland, publisher of a few nonfiction books on Star Trek, will be publishing David Greven's Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek: Allegories of Desire in the Television Series and Films in fall/winter 2009.

Publisher's description:

Studying the Star Trek myth from the original 1960s series to the 2009 franchise-reboot film, this book challenges frequent accusations that the Star Trek saga refuses to represent queer sexuality. Arguing that Star Trek speaks to queer audiences through subtle yet distinctive allegorical narratives, the analysis pays close attention to representations of gender, race, and sexuality to develop an understanding of the franchise’s queer sensibility. Topics include the 1960s original’s deconstruction of the male gaze and the traditional assumptions of male visual mastery; constructions of femininity in Star Trek: Voyager, particularly in the relationship between Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine; and the ways in which Star Trek: Enterprise’s adoption of neoconservative politics may have led to its commercial and aesthetic failure.

Greven has an article on Enterprise available here: The twilight of identity: Enterprise, neoconservatism, and the death of Star Trek. It's a good article, so I expect the book should be pretty good.

Out now (and on order from Amazon): Star Trek: A Post-Structural Critique of the Original Series by Michael Hemmingson, published by Wildside Press.

Well-known writer Michael Hemmingson offers a history and critique of the original Star Trek TV series, and the impact it has had on our culture, language, and science. Also included is the first coverage in book form of the 2009 Star Trek motion picture.

In Pocket news, one of next year's TBA novels is apparently Inception, a TOS novel by S.D. Perry. And the forthcoming Enterprise novel about the Romulan War has a subtitle now, Beneath the Raptor's Wing, which may suggest that there will be more than one Romulan War novel. I think one is plenty, but others are free to disagree.