Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts here!

[Quinton O'Connor]

I finished introducing a friend to ENT last night. As I figured, based on our similar tastes, she loved it almost as much as DS9, which quickly became an obsession of hers not long after I brought her into it. I am not much of a drinker but I always swore if I rewatched that finale ever again it would involve alcohol, so I'm here with a bit of a hangover to report that I just can't stop loving the 22nd century just yet. This time around I'm going all in. I'm going for the novelverse.

Given the relative size of the Enterprise relaunch thus far, I suppose I don't exactly need pointers on where to begin and so forth. Does anyone happen to have any thoughts or disclaimers or, hell, I don't know, generalized food for thought to offer before I get started, though? I'll hunt down the first book in the next week or so. I'm really looking forward to it.

 

[TheUsualSuspect]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

I've heard mixed things about the first few books - the ones by Mangels and Martin, and later Martin alone - which I have not read.

I've read Christopher Bennett's three Rise of the Federation novels and enjoyed them very much despite not having read the earlier books.

 

[ryan123450]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

The first few books I felt were a good start and very much continued the show in what I felt was the spirit of the final season. The Romulan War books were a bit less impressive, something which I interpret as due to the fact that they were originally conceived of as a trilogy and then compressed into two books. The Rise of the Federation novels are basically everything you'd want from a series of books called Rise of the Federation, and if you like Christopher L. Bennett, they are among his best works.

I don't know how much other TrekLit you've read, or if you'd want to go down this tangent, but the Destiny trilogy has an amazing Enterprise related side story which ties in with it's massive 24th century crossover story. Something to consider.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

Thanks for the tips, you two!

Definitely something to consider, there, re: Destiny, ryan. I haven't read much when it comes to the Lit-verse, I'm afraid. I kind of want to use ENT's relaunch as a starting point since it's so much less daunting. That said, I love your Lit-verse Reading Guide and I intend to use it to get to the real meat of it all, and fairly soon. (I've been saying that for like a year, but life's been quite busy of late! Not a bad reason to have to put things off, all things considered, but still!)

 

[Mage]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

I never read the first books by Mangels/Martin and later Martin alone, because most of their work I've found to be less then stellar, especially Martin's solo stuff, which is horrid.

Christopher's Rise Of The Federation novels, however, have been amazing.

 

[ryan123450]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

Thanks for the tips, you two!

Definitely something to consider, there, re: Destiny, ryan. I haven't read much when it comes to the Lit-verse, I'm afraid. I kind of want to use ENT's relaunch as a starting point since it's so much less daunting. That said, I love your Lit-verse Reading Guide and I intend to use it to get to the real meat of it all, and fairly soon. (I've been saying that for like a year, but life's been quite busy of late! Not a bad reason to have to put things off, all things considered, but still!)

Glad you like the site and that it's useful to you. Thanks!

 

[Reanok]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

I liked some of the Enterprise Novels martin and mangels wrot. I really like The Good that men do and some of the Romulan war books. I also like Christopher Bennett's novels. After the last Romulan war book out came it looked like for a while there wasn't going to be anymore Enterprise novels were going being published. I'm so glad that didn't happen. I've really enjoyed reading all of the Enterprise books.

 

[Klaus]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

I'm up to the 2nd Rise book as part of my grand relaunch sweep, and I like them a lot. It's a different dynamic than the other relaunches because while it is also carrying the characters forward, it has a target of getting to TOS which we know. While the "modern" relaunch is about new frontiers, this is about filling in how we got to where we are.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

Oh hey, several more folks tuned in to my thread! Much appreciated.

I'm going to go ahead and look through my local used bookstore to see if they happen to have any copies. I'm pretty fortunate in that they have a large Trek selection at all times. If I don't see any, I'll start ordering their eBook varieties.

 

[bfollowell]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

I've heard negative comments about a few of the novels, most especially the earlier pre-relaunch novels, and Kobayashi Maru. However, I've read everything up to the Romulan War series and have enjoyed them all. Some more than others, but I thought they were all decent. I beleive I tend to be a little more forgiving than some of the average readers though. I've really enjoyed all of the actual relaunch novels, even Kobayashi Maru. I decided to take a break and read some other things before moving on to the Romulan War and Rise of the Federation series.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

 

[Idran]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

I've heard negative comments about a few of the novels, most especially the earlier pre-relaunch novels, and Kobayashi Maru. However, I've read everything up to the Romulan War series and have enjoyed them all. Some more than others, but I thought they were all decent. I beleive I tend to be a little more forgiving than some of the average readers though. I've really enjoyed all of the actual relaunch novels, even Kobayashi Maru. I decided to take a break and read some other things before moving on to the Romulan War and Rise of the Federation series.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

This is pretty much how I feel too. I can't say that the RotF books aren't better, but there's still a lot to like from the earlier ENT Relaunch books too. (I've actually got a friend I just recently introduced to the ENT Relaunch, and she's found a lot of interesting parallels between the Federation war experience in "Beneath the Raptor's Wings" and the British war experience in WW2 that have really deepened my own enjoyment of that book.)

 

[LutherSloan]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

So far the best RotF book was the most recent one. The first two were alright, but I felt they were weaker than some of the early Relaunch/Romulan War book stuff. My main issue is that I really don't care about the Orions and they are about as threatening as TNG Season 1 Ferengi are.

 

[voyager1]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

The Enterprise books are what got me hooked on Trek Lit. I think the earlier works and Romulan War books are good and the Rise of the Federation books are even better. You can't go wrong IMHO!

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

I'm a scant 60 pages into "The Good That Men Do" and I'm quite enjoying it. I'm also glad that I'd just this past week finished introducing a friend to the show, as the novel picks up the pieces just days past "Terra Prime" and brings back Valdore from the Aenar trilogy as well. It's always nice to be fresh on all the little details going into something like this.

Delighted to see Shran as a perspective character. Equally delighted to follow T'Pol and Trip immediately after the tragic loss of Elizabeth. I'll continue while on the bus tomorrow. I'm a purposefully slow reader, so expect this to take a little bit.

 

[Reanok]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

The Good that men do is a really excellent book I really like the events that lead up to the Romulan war. Valdore has an interesting story arc in as does Trip in this book. I won't spoil it for you but it gets really interesting with the story with Shran and the Enterprise crew.

 

[BritishSeaPower]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

I really enjoyed The Good that Men Do, even if it's essentially a 400 page long retcon. ;-) I started Kobayashi Maru years ago but found it to be a bit of a non-starter. I have all the books, so I've debated going back and rereading TGTMD and then plowing through the rest now that I've basically caught up on the 24th Century books.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

I'm about 50% through the book now according to my Kindle (told you I'm slow!) and yeah, that's essentially what it is -- a 400-page retcon. Haha. I'm quite digging this version though, for sure. It helps that I've just finished an ENT rewatch. I can easily note all the little redo sections and smile as they register as such in my brain, if that makes sense. A lightbulb flicks on, and I go, "oh hey, this is a superior version of that story beat!" And so forth.

I think I'll recommend the novel to my friend afterward; I tend to rewatch shows by way of showing them to others, and I did so with ENT, and she really loved it until that finale.

 

[JD]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

I'm just greatful that they used the holodeck program thing in the ENT. finale. Otherwards we would have been stuck with everything exactly as it appeared onscreen during the Ent. portions of the finale.
TGTMD was great, sadly Kobayashi Maru did drop in quality some. I still enjoyed it, but it did have more issues than TGTMD.

 

[Willow]

Re: Starting the Enterprise relaunch soon. Maybe I'll post thoughts he

I enjoyed The Good that Men Do precisely because it IS kind of a retcon from the abysmal finale. I enjoyed Martin/Mangles together, and even Martin solo was fine. Bennett is my fave author so far. The only author that I really did NOT care for is Stern. I could BARELY get through the two parter Daedalus's Children

I can't Wait for Bennett's follow up to Uncertain Logic