I'm interested in "The Lost Era" books after hearing about KRAD's "The Art of the Impossible". Are they all pretty good or are there ones to avoid? And the 4 character minimum search term restriction makes it almost impossible to find anything.
The Sundered, Serpents Among the Ruins and The Art of the Impossible are all excellent. Catalyst of Sorrows was OK and Deny Thy Father was disappointing. Well of Souls is the one that splits people. I had a Hell of a time getting through this one. It took me almost two months to get through, but when I was finally finished, I was glad that I made the effort. The two books that were not of the Lost Era series proper but have "A Tale of the Lost Era" on the cover, The Buried Age and Terok Nor: Day of the Vipers, are both very good as well.
The first three ones (The Sundered, Serpents among the Ruins, The Art of the Impossible) are among the best Trek-Books ever, 4 and 5 (Well of Souls, Deny thy Father) are at best medicore, book 6 (Catalyst of Sorrows) bored me to death, but thats a rather unique opinion, as far as I can tell, most people liked that one. Book 7, The Buried Age was released just last year and is also quite good, but not really up to the standard we're used to from Christopher L. Bennett. The new Terok Nor-Trilogy could be counted as a part of The Lost Era, but I haven't read any of them so far (Just bought the first one). And there's also another one announced (About Sisko and the Tzenkethi War) but we haven't heard anything about that in quite some while, no release date or author or anything.
^I have to agree about the first three, although I'd add The Buried Age and Night of the Vipers to that list as well. Those are the only I've read so far, but I do hope to try Catalyst of Sorrows eventually.
I thought Deny thy Father was pretty damn weak. I don't remember the details but I remember thinking at the time the way he wrapped up the end of the book meant to me that everything that happened before didn't really matter. The Sundered was ok, probably my least favorite M&M book. The first few chapters at the beginning was my favorite part of the book but once we got to Sulu and Co it sort of slid down a bit. The Art of the Impossible is my favorite KRAD book and probably my favorite book of this series. Well, I can never decide. Sometimes I think Serpents among the Ruins is. So if those 2 tie for first I say Catalyst of Sorrows and Well of Souls tie for second. Yeah, I like Well of Souls more than most folks. And I thought Catalyst of Sorrows was more popular than it is here so I guess I like that one more than most folks do too I guess.
The Sundered, Serpents Amongst the Ruins, The Art of the Impossible and The Buried Age are all outstanding books in their own fashion. Catalyst of Sorrows is also a good book, though it doesn't quite have the awesome-factor the first four do. Then there's a major drop to Deny Thy Father, which I found dull and disjointed. Finally, Well of Souls, which has its fans but I thought was so atrocious, with mired plotting and loathsome characters, that I stopped reading it halfway through, and it took me eight months to reach the point where I was willing to give it another try. Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
I'll echo the praise for The Sundered, Serpents Among The Ruins and The Art Of The Impossible. Those 3 are all stellar books, and I regularly re-read the last two (I'd re-read Sundered too if I could actually find the damn thing). Can't really remember anything good about the other three 'official' Lost Era books, which doesn't speak all that well of them, and I haven't gotten around to reading The Buried Age or the Terok Nor books yet so I can't offer my opinion on them.
Well of Souls was one of the books that polarized readers. I liked it. Actually, of the original six Lost Era novels, imho five of them ranged from pretty damn good to holy-crap-this-is-amazing. The one I found disappointing was Deny Thy Father; it felt like a book of two parts that didn't really mesh. Overall, though, "Lost Era" is a trademark of quality. You can tell the writers are having a great time and making the most of the opportunity to play outside the usual sandboxes.
I've just read Well of Souls, and while there were some passages where I was thinking "I'd give real money if these people would just shut up!", I really enjoyed it. I didn't particularly like the character of Rachel Garrett but I think I'm probably not meant to, but I would love to read more of her and her crew.
I agree. Of the seven novels, in my opinion three were very good (Serpents among the Ruins, Catalyst of Sorrows and The Art of the Impossible), three were good (The Sundered, Deny thy Father and The Buried Age) and only one was average (Well of Souls). So a pretty good overall performance for the series.
I would also consider The Captains Daughter by Peter David a Lost Era novel as Serpents Amongst The Ruins also by Peter David is a direct sequel of that novel.
^^Well, by that standard, Vulcan's Forge and Vulcan's Heart by Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz also fall into the Lost Era period, although they aren't officially under that heading. Also in that period are the short stories "Shakedown," "Iron and Sacrifice," "The Music Between the Notes," "Maturation," "Darkness," and a number of entries in No Limits and Strange New Worlds; the Captain Sulu audios; the Stargazer novels; and most of the TNG-era Starfleet Academy young-adult books.
I'll put a caveat on Serpent Among the Ruins: I liked all of its component pieces, but not the dénouement. Doesn't mean it's not good reading, but mind the aftertaste.
Also in the Generations-to-Farpoint era but not technically "Lost Era" books: The Captain's Daughter by Peter David (answering the question that popped into everyone's head when Generations came out: "Sulu has a grown daughter?!? Where's she been all this time?!?", and establishing some characters and situations revisited in Serpent Among the Ruins) The Buried Age (Picard's life between the Stargazer and the Enterprise) The currently-released Terok Nor trilogy
And the new Terok Nor books not only fit that era but have Lost Era stamped on the cover. Good stuff too. Liked the first one a lot. Only half way through the second but liking that as well.
All of which were mentioned earlier in the thread, which is why I didn't need to list them. And in fact The Buried Age and Terok Nor are officially Lost Era books. TBA is subtitled "A Tale of The Lost Era" and Terok Nor is subtitled "A Saga of The Lost Era."