“Expanded Universes” appears to be the official term for professional fanfic: authorized books set in the reality of a franchise series. It is a low-rent field, condescended to for its lack of originality, as if that were something unique in a world where there is a whole genre (OK, a Sturgeonesque 90% thereof) in which jocks slog through a Land of Flies in pursuit of plot coupons. A new article notes that Star Trek has a particularly strong history in this field, one that I’m happy to be a part of.

I read my first Star Trek book back in the 80s, when I hadn’t seen the show and didn’t know all that much about it. Diane Duane’s The Wounded Sky struck me as excellent speculative fiction with a few somewhat familiar names in it. Years later (about 1996–2006) I copy-edited a dozen or so Trek novels for Pocket Books (along with nonfiction books about the franchise). They were enjoyable, much more so than Vince Flynn and other works set in the alternate universe where torture works, which I read because I was paid to.

I am glad that the series has continued to thrive without me.

Fanfic, including The Enchanted Duplicator

Thanx to maiac

ETA: And of course they got it Wrong. Further discussion at Making Light

The Mary Sue Test

Thanx to al_qhadhulu, commenting to nellorat