The first Trek novel I ever read, Ex Machina, by Christopher L. Bennett.
Which Trek Novel has stuck in your mind the most?
- Thread starter Kilana2
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So many have already mentioned the ones that stick with me the most (Vendetta, Federation, Q-Squared, Imzadi are a clear top four).
To dig into the more obscure books, from the numbered TNG novels #1 "Ghost Ship" and #17 "Boogeymen" really stick with me. These kinds of spooky menaces really transported me as a kid, they truly fired my imagination.
To dig into the more obscure books, from the numbered TNG novels #1 "Ghost Ship" and #17 "Boogeymen" really stick with me. These kinds of spooky menaces really transported me as a kid, they truly fired my imagination.
right now it's JJM's "The Enterprise War". I'm going right after work on Tuesday to my local Barnes and Noble and picking it up. No "If's", "ands" or "buts".
Q having Picard meet Winnie the Poo in Q-Squared. Or maybe it was Trelane who did that in that book.
Imzadi
Federation
Strangers From the Sky
I've read those several times each. One that I haven't seen mentioned here was the Shatnerverse book The Return. Thoroughly enjoyed that one.
One final comment, I loved all the books by LA Graf. I no longer remember who were the authors in that group (let's all get rich and famous?), but they worked well together. Death Count was one of the first Star Trek books I'd ever bought. I'd read several before then, but decided I wanted to start owning them instead of having to check them out of the middle school library.
Ah, memories.
Federation
Strangers From the Sky
I've read those several times each. One that I haven't seen mentioned here was the Shatnerverse book The Return. Thoroughly enjoyed that one.
One final comment, I loved all the books by LA Graf. I no longer remember who were the authors in that group (let's all get rich and famous?), but they worked well together. Death Count was one of the first Star Trek books I'd ever bought. I'd read several before then, but decided I wanted to start owning them instead of having to check them out of the middle school library.
Ah, memories.
Several are indelible:
"The Entropy Effect"
"Yesterday's Son"
"Uhura's Song"
"Strangers from the Sky"
"Final Frontier"
"Ex Machina"
"Captain's Table: Voyager: Fire Ship"
"Captain's Table: New Frontier: Once Burned"
"New Frontier: Stone and Anvil"
"Worlds of DS9: Andor: Paradigm"
"Typhon Pact: Paths of Disharmony".
"The Entropy Effect"
"Yesterday's Son"
"Uhura's Song"
"Strangers from the Sky"
"Final Frontier"
"Ex Machina"
"Captain's Table: Voyager: Fire Ship"
"Captain's Table: New Frontier: Once Burned"
"New Frontier: Stone and Anvil"
"Worlds of DS9: Andor: Paradigm"
"Typhon Pact: Paths of Disharmony".
DS9: Warpath by David Mack. Great scenes with Vaughn trying to rescue his daughter and Kira's hallucination/vision of the Ascendants.
Anything by Peter David. Especially Imzadi and Q-Squared. His stories read like movie novelizations to me. Very descriptive.
Also have fond memories of John Vornholt's Dominion War TNG novels, Destiny, and the Millennium trilogy. All felt very epic.
Also have fond memories of John Vornholt's Dominion War TNG novels, Destiny, and the Millennium trilogy. All felt very epic.
There's a scene in David R. George III et al.'s The 34th Rule that has stuck with me for twenty years. It's a brief passage, about a page, about two-thirds of the way through the book. The Defiant has beamed Quark and Rom aboard from the concentration camp on Bajor. IIRC, they didn't even know that Quark and Rom were there, and they certainly had no idea what the Bajorans were doing to the Ferengi. Sisko talks to Rom, and Sisko makes all sorts of assumptions. He sees the Ferengi in a certain way. And Rom, quivering, terrified, tortured Rom, tells Sisko the truth and breaks through Sisko's arroagance and preconceptions. Sisko had read the Ferengi all wrong for years, he realizes. And so, too, did I realize that I had taken the Ferengi all wrong.
Neil Gaiman wrote, in his introduction to The Swords of Lankhmar, that it's not always wise to revisit a book read long ago. And The 34th Rule was read long ago, on a Greyhound bus, somewhere on the I-95 corridor in the spring of '99. I remember the feelings I had, I remember the sense of Rom's despair, I remember my own moment of epiphany, I remember closing the book, a finger holding my place, as I stared out the window and thought as the highway rolled by. Good books, good scenes, can take you back to a time and place. I may have the scene all wrong in my head, but for me, the emotional meaning I took from the scene is what has stayed with me, which is why I'm hesitant to revisit it.
Neil Gaiman wrote, in his introduction to The Swords of Lankhmar, that it's not always wise to revisit a book read long ago. And The 34th Rule was read long ago, on a Greyhound bus, somewhere on the I-95 corridor in the spring of '99. I remember the feelings I had, I remember the sense of Rom's despair, I remember my own moment of epiphany, I remember closing the book, a finger holding my place, as I stared out the window and thought as the highway rolled by. Good books, good scenes, can take you back to a time and place. I may have the scene all wrong in my head, but for me, the emotional meaning I took from the scene is what has stayed with me, which is why I'm hesitant to revisit it.
In general, Once Burned is probably the story as a whole that stays with me the most, but there's one particular moment at the very end of the Destiny trilogy that's always rattling around in my head as a way that the science-fiction metaphor can cut through the fat and make an emotional truth bare. Tuvok and his wife are visiting the ruins of Deneva, with Tuvok wishing his son and daughter-in-law had escaped while they could've instead of staying to help others. T'Pel tells him that their son had dedicated himself to the service of others and if he said, it was because he thought it was the most logical thing he could do. It's Tuvok's last line that gets me; "I can see no logic in this. My son is dead."
I read a few Pocket novels in my prepubescent years. Most of them are forgotten but I remember one. "Here There Be Dragons". It's set in the medieval times. I think Data rambles on about Indiana Jones at one point. It's got to be one of the weaker ones but its the only one I remember reading all the way through.
Many of the books mentioned are books I might have mentioned, so instead I'll give a shout out to the novelizations of TWOK and TSFS for giving so much more life to the Regula One scientists as well as Saavik and even the crew of the merchantman that Valkris is aboard. I don't blame the films for not delving into the characters to this degree, but they definitely lose something by comparison with regards to characterization.
Even the TFF novelization elevates the source material, though in this case I think it may have made me watch a film I might have been happier not seeing.
Even the TFF novelization elevates the source material, though in this case I think it may have made me watch a film I might have been happier not seeing.
The Neverending Sacrifice and The Terok Nor novels are also among my favorites.
Also: learning more about Saavik in The Pandora Principle. I like the interactions between Spock and Saavik.
McCoy - Provenance of Shadows was also great: seeing McCoy stuck in the past, living a completely different life. Even if Amanda's fate was different than in Sarek.
Cast No Shadow with Valeris and guests like Vaughn was also great. Valeris' backstory was quite surprising....
Also: learning more about Saavik in The Pandora Principle. I like the interactions between Spock and Saavik.
McCoy - Provenance of Shadows was also great: seeing McCoy stuck in the past, living a completely different life. Even if Amanda's fate was different than in Sarek.
Cast No Shadow with Valeris and guests like Vaughn was also great. Valeris' backstory was quite surprising....
Yeah, both of those were great. The Terok Nor novels were great reads. I liked how the Cardassians came, initially the story was that they were there to 'help' the Bajorans, and then creating crises that only they could fix so they could take over.
It's was definitely in line with what we've seen from Cardassians. They don't just come in with guns blazing. They're much more sinister then that. And that the Bajorans weren't some backwards society that the Cardassians claims. They were actually pretty advanced, though maybe a bit naïve.
Here There Be Dragons by John Peel.
Imprisoned and enslaved in a 13th century fiefdom, Picard and the away team have to think and brawl their way out of shackles, and back to the Enterprise (while sticking to the Prime Directive). Meanwhile, the Enterprise is under siege by bombs derived of a technology more advanced than its own.
Every key member of the crew contributes brilliantly, at deadly peril. Barclay! saves the Enterprise's butt, and Crusher saves Barclay (Crusher gets a "I'm a doctor, not a..." line, callback to my favorite character from NCC-1701). Ro finds herself in the most trouble I've seen her face, and she outsmarts, outfoxes, and outfights each bad guy (and deserving crewmates), with characteristic snark. Even Troi finds her A game when it's needed most. Worf and Son fight with honor (and induce laughs).
Spoiler: Picard, dehydrated and sleep-deprived, tangles with a dragon. The dragon should've eaten him, really.
Man, if all Trek writing was this good.
Imprisoned and enslaved in a 13th century fiefdom, Picard and the away team have to think and brawl their way out of shackles, and back to the Enterprise (while sticking to the Prime Directive). Meanwhile, the Enterprise is under siege by bombs derived of a technology more advanced than its own.
Every key member of the crew contributes brilliantly, at deadly peril. Barclay! saves the Enterprise's butt, and Crusher saves Barclay (Crusher gets a "I'm a doctor, not a..." line, callback to my favorite character from NCC-1701). Ro finds herself in the most trouble I've seen her face, and she outsmarts, outfoxes, and outfights each bad guy (and deserving crewmates), with characteristic snark. Even Troi finds her A game when it's needed most. Worf and Son fight with honor (and induce laughs).
Spoiler: Picard, dehydrated and sleep-deprived, tangles with a dragon. The dragon should've eaten him, really.
Man, if all Trek writing was this good.
We had a bit of a backstory for Damar and other characters. I wish those novels were TV episodes.....
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