The first IDFC book approaches!
That's right! A mere - checks dates - Jesus, a mere two and half years since the first phase of the blog reached its end, I've managed to cobble together the TOS essays into their own book. And you can have a copy of your very own! In exchange for! CASH!
This likely raises two questions. One: what possible value is there in an IDFC book which obeys the Temporal Prime Directive? Two: what could possibly possess people to pay for a book filled with essays already available for free?
The first question is the trickier one. Conceptually, I mean; the answer itself is simple. The problem is equally simple: IDFC is somewhere around a third of a million words in length at this point. There's no way I could release it all within a single book. I ain't Alan Moore; I ain't even a third of him. It was always going to be necessary to chop the blog up somehow to get it out in print (and I really wanted out in print). The only alternative to starting with Season One of TOS was to release books which considered four of five episodes of each show, and that's just not a satisfying proposition.
So yes, I'm releasing a book that runs completely contrary to the whole IDFuCking point of this website. I'll make it good with the next volume, which will both cover the Animated Series (including the six episodes I haven't written episodes for yet), and compare those episodes with what's in the first book. The IDFC approach will live again, at least for one more installment [1]. Whether it goes further than that? That'll depend on whether I make any money (or more realistically, recoup a decent amount of my initial spend) on those first two books.
As to the second question: fear not. Got money, get value. There's five entirely new essays in the book. I've written pieces on "The Cage" and The Motion Picture, and one on the first ever Trek tie-in book and comic series. I've also put together something on how Irvine Allen helped prepare the way for Star Trek, but not via Lost In Space. Finally, I've dipped into two generations of Crossman professional experience by penning a piece on how we can view the concept of "truth" within fiction from both a mathematical and a legal perspective.
And that's not all! I'm not asking for you to pay money for just five new essays out of thirty-five. I realise 600% extra free isn't actually that great a deal when you had access to the free stuff already. Every single one of the pieces in the book that are based on the blog has been rewritten. They're funnier! They're smarter! They're less filled with embarrassing errors! Plus, I'm still getting angrier and more leftwing with every passing year, and you better believe that trend has made its way into the book.
And did I mention it's gorgeous? Harry has absolutely nuked it on the cover front, and my typesetter Hye Mardikian has laid just as much waste to the internal design - check out this WIP image.
It's gorgeous, is what I'm saying. It's also, hopefully, smart and kind and fun to read, and thinks about what Trek can and should be in a way that I hope is useful.
It's also just £15 + postage. I'll probably put up another post when I'm fully up and running regarding shipping the book, but anyone who wants to order it before then can contact me through the blog, or email me at spacesquid314@gmail.com for just £12 + postage instead. We'll call them pre-orders, because I hear that's a thing.
Amaze your friends! Enrage your enemies (unless I'm your enemy)! Order your copy of Infinite Diversity, Finite Combinations 1.1 today! I'm expecting to be able to start shipping before the end of January.
(Meanwhile, I'll get started on Volume 1,2.)
[1] In print, I mean. Monthly posts on the first years of Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds commence on New Year's Day.
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