Sorry I'm late in only just finding this, but wanted to say thanks to
@KRAD for sharing my article, and the rest of you discussing. Figured I'd also reply to some of your comments.
I might quibble and say that the Blish or Foster adaptations deserve to be on there
I did mention them in the articles intro, but essentially likened them to pre-home video releases of the episodes themselves, and didn't include them on the list itself as I wanted to focus on original fiction stories.
I can understand the impact Before Dishonor had with the death of Janeway, but shouldn't the Destiny trilogy be at the top?
As noted before, the list is chronological in terms of publication rather than having a particular book "at the top". I did consider adding it, but as
@Christopher also mentions, limiting it to 10 books(/duologies/miniseries) wasn't easy. As much as the events certainly have a big imapct narratively, (which I mentioned when discussing Before Dishonour) but felt that Janeway's death was bigger in terms of the lives (or not) of the original TV characters.
But it says The Romulan Way was the first book to continue a storyline from a previous book, and that's not true, since that would be The Fate of the Phoenix from Bantam. It was also preceded by Battlestations!, a direct sequel to Dreadnought! And both Demons and My Enemy, My Ally continued character threads from earlier books.
I started really getting into Trek lit thanks to the relaunch, and my knowledge of pre-90s novels isn't the best. I did try to do what research I could to fill in the blanks (mostly from Memory Beta, and Voyages of Imagination) but obviously didn't delve deep enough, and so will hold my hands up and admit, and apologise for, my error.
And Imzadi wasn't the first book to delve into characters' backstories; arguably that was Planet of Judgment, which told the story of McCoy's divorce for the first time. And Demons and Spock's World had both delved into Sarek and Amanda's backstory. The one thing that makes Imzadi distinct is that it came out while the series was still in production -- but that just meant it ended up being contradicted when "Second Chances" came along and presented the chronology of the Riker-Troi relationship in an incompatible way.
See above about the admission and apology. It may look professional, but What Culture is more just a blog that gets a wider readership, which I wrote for in my own time rather than being a fully paid up journalist. That said however, I did specifically mention it was written during the show's run, and that Roddenberry himself gave it his blessing, which I still believe goes someway to making up for this particular error and justifying its inclusion.
I guess The Eugenics Wars is there as the first novel based on reconciling Trek history with real history (although there haven't been that many others since -- basically just From History's Shadow).
Yep, although it isn't a feature which has been followed up alot, I still felt the connection between the two histories was something worth including. Looking back now however, I can also see some parallels between this and Watching the Clock, (and to a lesser extent The Never-Ending Sacrifice) in that different strands from so many different stories are woven together as a single narrative, so I guess it could be argued it was also a mile-stone in that regard?
AotF is there as the first true "standalone" novel and the start of the cycle of books about the Bacco administration (although I'd argue that The Best and the Brightest was an earlier standalone despite its TNG branding).
Yes, but also more than just the Bacco administration, I also wondered if later novels wouldn't have had such an emphasis on politics (including the Romulan division, Typhon Pact, Andorian seccesion, etc) without Articles leading the way? I also felt the fact it was written as just a "Star Trek" novel without any specific branding was important, but regardless of which I figured The Best and the Brightest was more along the episodic lines of Lower Decks rather than setting up further plot threads, like Bacco.
PS, If you wanted to go back and reread the article, the new link is
http://whatculture.com/tv/10-milestone-star-trek-novels although I can only apologise for WhatCulture's lack of upkeep on older articles....
