Best Stargazer novels?

[WarsTrek1993]

So...I've just recently read the SGR novel "Three", which I only purchased being a fan of the Mirror Universe, and I found it to be dry and dull. Oblivion, on the other hand, seems much more promising and enjoyable. I've already read Christopher's epic The Buried Age.

So my question is, how are the rest of the series? (The Valiant, for instance).

[Steve Mollmann]

The Valiant is probably the best one.

I have fond memories of Enigma as well.

[Turtletrekker]

I'd say The Valiant and Reunion. For the most part, I am a fan of MJF, but the Stargazer series fell a little flat for me.

[Spike730]

They were an easy read, but none really stood out.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

I enjoyed the original Reunion which begat the Stargazer series, and the "pilot" book The Valiant, but I wasn't impressed with the first proper book in the series, Gauntlet and have yet to read further.

The technical stuff bothered me. i know it's irrelevent to many, but IMO if you're gonna write books set on a particular ship you should keep it true to what we know about that ship. It should make the most of a ship's unique features. The sets were cramped (or at least shot in a way to give that illusion) and there were only a few stations on the bridge - but I'm pretty sure that in the Stargazer books more bridge officers are present at posts than would fit.

Gauntlet describes the ship having one small shuttlebay when simply looking at it reveals an enourmous bay at the front which is a whopping five decks high, and several more around the saucer rim.
And an important plot point revolves around the navigational deflector - something the Constellation-class ships do not have.

[Spike730]

The Constellation-class has no obvious nav deflector.

The Constitution-class (original and refit) for example has 3 boxy components arranged around the sensor dish. You'll also find these 3 boxes on the Miranda-class. I'd like to think that back in the day the nav def and sensor dish were two separate components which got later fused into a single one.

[Christopher]

Of course any starship class has to have a navigational deflector in order to travel at high velocities, else it will be destroyed by space debris. But not every ship is shown with a deflector dish per se. (Which, frankly, I've always considered a mistake on the designers' part, but it's a reality we have to live with.)

[BillJ]

Christopher wrote:

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Of course any starship class has to have a navigational deflector in order to travel at high velocities, else it will be destroyed by space debris. But not every ship is shown with a deflector dish per se. (Which, frankly, I've always considered a mistake on the designers' part, but it's a reality we have to live with.)

Perhaps ships without a dish use their forward shield generators to do the job?

[Paris]

I stopped after "Three" as well. I just lost steam. I have them all..maybe i should try again

[BillJ]

Paris wrote:

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I stopped after "Three" as well. I just lost steam. I have them all..maybe i should try again

I never made it through the first book where they were hunting the White Wolf. It was just incredibly dull.

[zarkon]

Progenitor was the only one I really liked. They were written in a really ponderous, dry style, and Simenon's race in progenitor was the only thing I ever got into

[Paris]

BillJ wrote:

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I never made it through the first book where they were hunting the White Wolf. It was just incredibly dull.

I found it kind of dull as well, but powered through as i wanted to check out a few more books from the series before i gave up. My favorite was probably the un-numbered "pilot", The Valiant.

[tomswift2002]

I've only read "Reunion" and "The Buried Age", plus the Mirror Universe short, but I still find "Reunion" to have been the bst.