Disclaimer: This is not a story or book idea. Now that that's settled, I was curious as to whether a TOS movie anthology collection was ever discussed or in the works. There are anthologies for the each of the TV series, but nothing that spans the time of the TOS films that I'm aware of.
At first I thought you were referring to the omnibus from 2004 called Duty, Honor, Redemption that reprinted the novelizations of Star Trek II, III & IV. However, there were 2 anthologies printed back in the 80's that spanned, at least, the first 4 movies. Both were by William Rotsler here (for the Star Trek II book) and here (for the Star Trek III book).
I remember seeing those before, but what I'm talking about is something similar to The Sky's the Limit, with a bunch of short stories about the crew detailing different parts of their lives.
I had no idea those even existed! Love the picture of the upside down Enterprise on the cover of the STII collection.
Keep in mind, though, that most of the short stories in these books were still set during TOS. There is a great Will Decker and Dr Chapel story, "Night Whispers" by Diane Duane, in the "Enterprise Logs" anthology, and the Spock story by AC Crispin, "Just Another Little Training Cruise", is also TOS movie-era. http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Enterprise_Logs
I don't know about the first one, but I recall most of the stories in the second one being set in the movie era, either pre-TWOK or shoehorned in between TWOK & TSFS.
According to Steve Roby's Complete Starfleet Library, the stories in the first book are all set between TMP and TWOK. He also mentions that the stories in the next book are set either before or after TWOK, and apparently some of the after TWOK stories don't even bother to reference The Search For Spock.
Okay, I'm remembering the first one then. A Saavik story, but most of the other stories were definitely pre-ST II. The UK edition had a different cover (the photo of the crew heading over to the ship on the shuttle) and the "II" of the title deliberately written in very tiny font. I guess it's worth mentioning Rotsler's "ST II Biographies" too. Not short stories, but plenty of references to the years between TOS and ST II.
And plenty of errors and bizarre creative choices, too. Like claiming that Pavel Andreievich Chekov's father was named Alexei instead of Andrei. And I think it implied that warp drive had only been invented during Scotty's lifetime. It's mainly noteworthy for proposing "Nyota" as Uhura's first name. (Rostler may have proposed it in some earlier context, but it was definitely his coinage, and as far as I know, this is the first professionally published book to suggest it.)
Yep. He even telephoned Nichelle Nichols to get her approval! Bill Rotsler was an old friend of Bjo Trimble and well known at those early conventions.
I've read the Decker story before but not the Spock. The only other example of a TOS-movie anthology that comes to mind is Mere Anarchy, which also includes the timeframe of the five-year mission for its first two stories. Christopher's The Darkness Drops Again spans more than a decade of the characters' lives as they journey back and forth to Mestiko. It's from one of the chapters of that story that the quote in my signature comes from. I've liked Paul Winfield since I saw him in Terminator and become an even bigger fan once I realized he was Captain Terrell, too. We didn't get to see much of the captain due to his death in TWOK, but I've always imagined him being similar in demeanor and style to Lieutenant Traxler-- a soft-spoken, gentle man who leads by example and puts the well-being of others before himself. I also believe he's one of Star Trek's most unsung heroes. The choice to sacrifice his life could not have been an easy one, but he did it to prevent himself from taking the life of another Starfleet officer.
Cool! I'm surprised the Reliant doesn't have at least one book about its adventures pre-Genesis survey mission. There were a number of former Enterprise crew (Chekov, Kyle, Nizhoni and Noel) aboard. It would have been cool to see the crew during better days. I remember seeing a graphic novel about them finding injured Gorn on a planet, but that's it.
It actually features him prior to his time on the Reliant. I just double checked and the ship he's on in Vanguard is one of the two ships featured in the Vanguard spin-off Seekers, which starts later this year. So he should play a prominent role in that.
There's a pretty extensive pre-TWOK Reliant flashback in The Lost Era: The Sundered, taking place a couple of years prior to the events of the second movie, from what I remember.
Because of Chekov? I've never read the book but have seen its cover and assume it must have something to do with him.