I’m guessing J.M. Dillard will be writing the novelization of Star Trek X. Doesn’t have to be, but I’d very much prefer it not be written by Diane “The Seven-Day Wonder” Carey. Leave her to the episode novelizations where readers don’t expect quality.
I wouldn’t mind, though, if someone other than Dillard wrote the next film novelization. I think her novelizations started off well, with her novelizations of V and VI really making the most of the material by fleshing out the background events. Especially on V where she portrayed the critical history of the Spock/Sybok relationship, something I wish other novelists had picked up on. (I’ve mentally edited Sybok’s presence into Vulcan’s Forge, so all is right with the world.)
Her NextGen film novelizations, though, have been by-the-numbers with little beyond what we saw on screen. Maybe that’s a virtue, maybe not. With her Classic Trek novelizations Dillard gave us insight into the characters and what they were doing in the periods before the film we didn’t get to see. In her NextGen novelizations there isn’t that kind of development. Instead, the story happens, and that’s all there is.
Perhaps I’m asking for too much. It’s just a novelization after all. You don’t expect art (or in Diane Carey’s case, time) from them.