Do the TNG relaunch novels ever become good?

[Mjolnir2000]

Finding myself hungry for new Star Trek content, I decided it was time I revisit the novels, which I hadn't really paid any attention too since the late '90s. So I read Death in Winter, which was atrocious, and then went on to Resistance, which was every so slightly less atrocious, but still pretty bad.

Feeling a bit disheartened at this point, I decided to give Titan a try, and found the first two books to actually be pretty decent space opera, confirming that there are still good authors writing Star Trek these days.

But I wanted to go on more adventures with the Big E, so I figured I'd give the TNG books another try. Q & A actually had potential, but it was just way to short to live up to insanely ambitious goal it had set for itself, and now I'm a ways into Before Dishonor, and already I suspect this is going to be the worst science fiction novel I've picked up in the past decade or so.

So do they get better at some point, or should I just stick with Titan? And how much will my enjoyment of the more crossover-y books be affected if I don't have the full background on what Picard and the gang of been up to?

 

[DS9Continuing]

A lot of readers agree with you as regards the TNG novels, in almost exactly the same quantities. I myself only read the Titan books leading up to Destiny, and still understood the TNG portions of Destiny perfectly fine. (Although I don't know from personal experience, I understand that Greater Than the Sum is generally better regarded than Resistance or Before Dishonour.)

But I think it's just the post-Nemesis pre-Destiny ones that are rough and uneven. Post-Destiny, I think they settle down into more of a groove.

.

 

[Paper Moon]

Greater Than The Sum is the next TNG book and is pretty damn good. That's followed by the Destiny trilogy; lots of folks love it, I'm a little more lukewarm on it, but it's definitely well-done. That's followed by Losing The Peace, which was a change of pace, but which I really like.

Then things split up a bit, and there's lots of cross-pollination between TNG, DS9 and some other threads. But I'd say almost all of the TNG-ish books which follow Destiny are really quite good, especially compared to Death In Winter (which I've never read), Resistance (which I read once and only once, thank you very much) and Before Dishonor (which I actually rather enjoyed).

Yeah, there really were a bunch of duds in a row right there. But, yes, they do get better after that.

Also, you should give Articles of the Federation a try; Trek meets The West Wing. Partial sequel to Nemesis and nice companion story to the first Titan novel. Really great stuff. Also sets up some characters who play prominently in Destiny and later stories.

The Titan series is up and down. Book three is probably the best, in my opinion, so if you liked books one and two, which I personally thought weren't as good, then you should be in good shape. After that, it's a little more up and down, but generally up (with the definite exception of Seize The Fire, just don't read it, and the possible exception of Fallen Gods, which probably isn't worth reading either).

If you're jonesing for Trek novels, though, you can also try the A Time To... series, which take place in the year leading up to Nemesis. The last three, …Kill, …Heal and A Time For War, A Time For Peace, are all really great. The early books in the series are more of a mixed bag, apparently, but I've never read them, so I can't comment.

If you can find it used, Immortal Coil is a great one, which has been followed up on several times in the last year in some absolutely amazing stories.

A little off the beaten path is Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching The Clock; this could be described very loosely as a TNG novel, but it's a fantastic story that weaves together a huge number of things from across the Trekverse. Great novel.

EDIT: Also, it's not TNG relaunch at all, but if you're a TNG fan (especially a Picard fan), you have to read The Buried Age. It's fantastic.

 

[EnriqueH]

I have Resistance on my shelf, and haven't gotten around to it yet, but I'm surprised to hear that it's atrocious because it's written by JM Dillard, who wrote one of my all time favorite Trek novels, "The Lost Years". It's actually one of the very few books that I've read twice. Maybe she's not as effective with TNG characters?

 

[Thrawn]

Yeah - the TNG relaunch is a mess up until Destiny, which is amazing itself, and after that the TNG books are much stronger. Greater Than The Sum, the next TNG novel after Before Dishonor, gives a solid try at retconning and putting together the prior books into some kind of coherent narrative, and from that point on things are much more coherent and awesome.

 

[BuckBokai]

Get to the Destiny trilogy and you'll be extremely glad you did. From there the novels really do get quite good. There's a much more longitudinal narrative across the novels that multiple writers have a hand in and it works great. I'm not saying every novel from then on will be great, but the overall quality picks up big time and I at least felt that I was finally engrossed in new Star Trek stories again. Good luck!

 

[Enterprise1701]

You have to read Greater Than the Sum. I have never ran into anything outright bad with Christopher's novels.

 

[DimesDan]

You have to read Greater Than the Sum. I have never ran into anything outright bad with Christopher's novels.

To be honest, for me, Greater than the Sum is when Christopher's quality started to slip and I realised, he wasn't a very good writer.

 

[Defcon]

^ For me it is where is quality downright crashed. He has recovered to a degree since then, but never reached his early heights IMHO.

 

[DimesDan]

^ For me it is where is quality downright crashed. He has recovered to a degree since then, but never reached his early heights IMHO.

The only story I've enjoyed of his since Sum was released was the Voyager short story he did. All the others have just felt like ways to show how he likes to connect the dotes and tells us what happens, not actually showing.

I rather like the idea of the Time Squad books, but I think someone else should have done them as the execution was less to be desired, it also seemed like it the first one, he was trying to do fun and witty and that just failed and came across that he was trying far too hard.

His second Titan novel was totally forgettable and I can't remember anything about it as for the Birth of the Federation novels, I've only read the first one and that left me cold to the idea afterwards.

I personally have no idea how he keeps getting work when people like KRAD haven't in years. It would be interesting if he has anything on the editors to allow him to write these stories.

 

[Defcon]

While I agree that KRAD is a glaring omission on the current author roster, I see Christopher's value as a member as well, even though he hasn't produced anything of the quality of Ex Machina or Orion's Hounds in a long, long time and had some serious duds like Greater than the Sum and Over a Torrent Sea.

 

[Stevil2001]

I don't know that I ever read and particularly liked a TNG relaunch book. Q & A is probably the best one. All the others range from dreadful to competent but dull.

 

[Tarheel]

I too have finally delved into the post-Nemesis timeline after years of procrastination. Fortunately today we have many great resources for reviews, which has allowed me to be selective in my reading. I skipped Death In Winter and Resistance, partly because I never enjoyed those authors' prior works, but also based on reviews.

I've read the final three books in the A Time To... series, Taking Wing, Articles Of The Federation, and Q&A. I enjoyed them all and didn't feel like I missed anything in the other books. I'm working my way to Destiny, picking and choosing along the way.

The point is, there are some great books out there. Don't be discouraged by a few that don't quite hit your target.

 

[Paris]

In general i've enjoyed the TNG relaunch, but when i started reading it, Christopher's Greater Than the Sum had just came out. So i read it (and liked it), then Destiny, and then went back.

I agree that Resistance wasn't very good; Before Dishonour was pretty bad, and I didn't bother reading Death in Winter. I really liked Q&A, and thought it was the best of the pre-Destiny TNG books.

The post-Destiny book, Losing the Peace, was a favourite of mine...and the stuff that has come after it has been pretty great. Indistinguishable from Magic was excellent, and David Mack's Data trilogy was also quite good. Jeff Lang's follow up was really good too.

The Typhon Pact entries, Paths of Disharmony & Brinkmanship weren't too bad...but kind of forgettable. Una McCormack's Crimson Shadow was better than her TP: Brinkmanship, IMO.

 

[Thrawn]

While I agree that KRAD is a glaring omission on the current author roster, I see Christopher's value as a member as well, even though he hasn't produced anything of the quality of Ex Machina or Orion's Hounds in a long, long time and had some serious duds like Greater than the Sum and Over a Torrent Sea.

We're totally derailing this thread, but the second DTI book was goddamn awesome. Easily up there with Ex Machina or Orion's Hounds, for my money. I also liked Torrent Sea way more than you did, apparently.

I do agree that GTTS was kind of a dud, but that was a tough gig anyway. The purpose of his assignment was to take the mess of the TNG relaunch so far and tie up all the loose ends so that Destiny didn't come out of nowhere. That's hard to do smoothly, and he did it as well as anyone would've, I think.

 

[tomswift2002]

"Greater Than The Sum" I remember feeling that it was a quicksand pit: the series had been gaining momentum, and then GTTS seemed to cause the "wheels" to be come mired in quicksand. (It took me three tries to get through the book.)

Since "Destiny" I've found the main TNG series to have lost a lot of its momentum. "Losing The Peace" was horrible and forgettable, "Paths Of Disharmony" was probably the stand-out novel of the Typhon Pact series, "Indistinguishable From Magic" was a mess and read like two-novels jammed together into one, with a lot of connecting material missing. "The Struggle Within", while okay, didn't add anything to the overall story, "Cold Equations" was okay, while "The Crimson Shadow" was forgettable, and "Peaceable Kingdoms" was a nice wrap up to the Bashir-Andorian storyline. "The Light Fantastic" I just finished a few days ago, and again I felt like it was missing connecting details and, while the first four chapters went from point A to B to C to D alright, although after D it felt like it jumped to point Q without explaining how it got to point Q. I would say Avoid "Light Fantastic".

 

[Paper Moon]

While I agree that KRAD is a glaring omission on the current author roster, I see Christopher's value as a member as well, even though he hasn't produced anything of the quality of Ex Machina or Orion's Hounds in a long, long time and had some serious duds like Greater than the Sum and Over a Torrent Sea.

We're totally derailing this thread, but the second DTI book was goddamn awesome. Easily up there with Ex Machina or Orion's Hounds, for my money. I also liked Torrent Sea way more than you did, apparently.

I do agree that GTTS was kind of a dud, but that was a tough gig anyway. The purpose of his assignment was to take the mess of the TNG relaunch so far and tie up all the loose ends so that Destiny didn't come out of nowhere. That's hard to do smoothly, and he did it as well as anyone would've, I think.

This is so interesting to me. I think Greater Than The Sum is great, but I was underwhelmed by Over A Torrent Sea. And I thought the second DTI book was great, but not on the same level as the first (which would've been impossible to do anyway, so I don't hold Forgotten History to the same standard, really). I think Ex Machina is really great, but I also think his writing has improved a lot since then.

But we all seem to agree: Orion's Hounds is fantastic, and, given that it's next on OP's reading list, he should be excited.

Since "Destiny" I've found the main TNG series to have lost a lot of its momentum. "Losing The Peace" was horrible and forgettable, "Paths Of Disharmony" was probably the stand-out novel of the Typhon Pact series, "Indistinguishable From Magic" was a mess and read like two-novels jammed together into one, with a lot of connecting material missing. "The Struggle Within", while okay, didn't add anything to the overall story, "Cold Equations" was okay, while "The Crimson Shadow" was forgettable, and "Peaceable Kingdoms" was a nice wrap up to the Bashir-Andorian storyline. "The Light Fantastic" I just finished a few days ago, and again I felt like it was missing connecting details and, while the first four chapters went from point A to B to C to D alright, although after D it felt like it jumped to point Q without explaining how it got to point Q. I would say Avoid "Light Fantastic".

I could see where you were coming from (even if I personally strongly disagreed) right up until you described The Crimson Shadow as forgettable. I guess we have very different tastes, because I think that The Crimson Shadow is arguably the best Trek novel ever written.

Also, while I totally understand your criticism of The Light Fantastic's ending, it seems like an overreaction to suggest that one should avoid the entire novel because of it. Compared to the early TNG relaunch books (Death In Winter, Resistance and Before Dishonor for some folks), The Light Fantastic is, well, fantastic.

 

[BuckBokai]

I do want to say, in defense of Christopher, I think his Enterprise relaunch novels have been quite good. The show itself, I can't say I enjoyed much other than the 4th season and some sporadic episodes from other seasons. However, Christopher's novels have even gotten me to rewatch some episodes. In my opinion the most recent, Tower of Babel, was not as great as the first two but I enjoyed all three very much. I agree with others that KRAD is a writer I'd pretty much pay double for to read a new Trek novel from, but I do think Christopher can spin a great yarn.

To get back on point with the purpose of the thread, if I was going to recommend any relaunch novels from TNG (besides Destiny), I'd start with the Cold Equations trilogy from David Mack.

 

[Thrawn]

"Greater Than The Sum" I remember feeling that it was a quicksand pit: the series had been gaining momentum, and then GTTS seemed to cause the "wheels" to be come mired in quicksand. (It took me three tries to get through the book.)

Since "Destiny" I've found the main TNG series to have lost a lot of its momentum. "Losing The Peace" was horrible and forgettable, "Paths Of Disharmony" was probably the stand-out novel of the Typhon Pact series, "Indistinguishable From Magic" was a mess and read like two-novels jammed together into one, with a lot of connecting material missing. "The Struggle Within", while okay, didn't add anything to the overall story, "Cold Equations" was okay, while "The Crimson Shadow" was forgettable, and "Peaceable Kingdoms" was a nice wrap up to the Bashir-Andorian storyline. "The Light Fantastic" I just finished a few days ago, and again I felt like it was missing connecting details and, while the first four chapters went from point A to B to C to D alright, although after D it felt like it jumped to point Q without explaining how it got to point Q. I would say Avoid "Light Fantastic".

Man, my opinions are like exactly the opposite of yours, straight down the line. Peaceable Kingdoms and Paths of Disharmony are my least favorite post-Destiny TNG books, and I thought Losing the Peace and The Light Fantastic were phenomenal.

 

[Christopher]

I do want to say, in defense of Christopher, I think his Enterprise relaunch novels have been quite good. The show itself, I can't say I enjoyed much other than the 4th season and some sporadic episodes from other seasons. However, Christopher's novels have even gotten me to rewatch some episodes. In my opinion the most recent, Tower of Babel, was not as great as the first two but I enjoyed all three very much. I agree with others that KRAD is a writer I'd pretty much pay double for to read a new Trek novel from, but I do think Christopher can spin a great yarn.

I appreciate the praise, but I think you may be giving me credit for one more book than I've actually done. Tower of Babel is only the second Rise of the Federation novel; the third is right on the verge of being finished as of this writing and is due to go on sale next April.