Best Trek books
- Thread starter Lapis Exilis
- Start date
I always mention this whenever a thread like this pops up. My ALL time favorite Star Trek book was "Chain of Attack" by Gene DeWeese. It usually takes me 2 to 3 weeks to read a book and I read this one over a weekend. I plug it whenever I get a chance.
I also really liked his "Engines of Destiny". It's a time travel story where Scotty decides to go back in time to rescue Kirk just before the Nexus takes him on the Enterprise-B. It's Scotty after TNG "Relics" but before "Generations" so he obviously doesn't know what Kirk's role will be on Veridian III. And that has a profound effect on the timeline and affects what occurs in the film "First Contact". DeWeese does a good job tying it all together and also how devastating changing the timeline could be. The old would you really try to prevent Kennedy's assassination or stop Hitler before he comes to power quandary.
The Destiny trilogy is always at the top of my list as well. I also really enjoyed the first two TNG: "Genesis Wave" books by John Vornholt. I always saw The Genesis Wave as a loose start to the TNG relaunches as well.
"To Reign In Hell" by Greg Cox is another excellent book. It follows his earlier "Eugenics Wars" novels which were also pretty good. But "To Reign In Hell" takes place between "Space Seed" and TWOK. That was another book that took me only about a week to read. Cox addresses many of the inconsistencies between the two, including some that I didn't even realize were inconsistencies at first. He also strengthens some of the story flaws of TWOK--like how the Reliant miscounted planets (it wasn't a perfect explanation but I give him kudos for at least making the attempt in a way that at least narratively makes sense). Cox even gives an explanation why his motley crew looks like, well Motley Crue. He also gives some motivation behind Khan's blind rage and vengeance as seen in TWOK. After reading "Rise and Fall" you can see his hatred for Kirk making more sense. And it didn't happen overnight--it happened over a period of years so that by the time of TWOK that's all Khan feels. Frankly it's a must read for any fan of TWOK--I found it increased my enjoyment of TWOK.
I agree about Vanguard--a great series--and I would add the "Seeker" novels to that list. They were a lot of fun to read as well. I liked the DS9 "Mission Gamma" books as well--esp. the first one in the series.
Christopher's DTI novels were good reads as well. He always has a good attention to detail and he ties some inconsistencies in some stories together nicely (and don't forget the e-book novellas for those as well--I believe there were 2 IIRC after the two full size novels). His "Ex Machina" novel was a good read also and it takes place soon after TMP.
The Discovery novel "Drastic Measures" was really good as well and is a prime-Lorca story. I continue to hope the prime-Lorca pops up on Discovery at some point. "The Enterprise War" was an excellent read as well. I'm really glad I read that before watching season 2. I feel like I have a bit of an advantage in reading that before watching season 2.
I also really liked his "Engines of Destiny". It's a time travel story where Scotty decides to go back in time to rescue Kirk just before the Nexus takes him on the Enterprise-B. It's Scotty after TNG "Relics" but before "Generations" so he obviously doesn't know what Kirk's role will be on Veridian III. And that has a profound effect on the timeline and affects what occurs in the film "First Contact". DeWeese does a good job tying it all together and also how devastating changing the timeline could be. The old would you really try to prevent Kennedy's assassination or stop Hitler before he comes to power quandary.
The Destiny trilogy is always at the top of my list as well. I also really enjoyed the first two TNG: "Genesis Wave" books by John Vornholt. I always saw The Genesis Wave as a loose start to the TNG relaunches as well.
"To Reign In Hell" by Greg Cox is another excellent book. It follows his earlier "Eugenics Wars" novels which were also pretty good. But "To Reign In Hell" takes place between "Space Seed" and TWOK. That was another book that took me only about a week to read. Cox addresses many of the inconsistencies between the two, including some that I didn't even realize were inconsistencies at first. He also strengthens some of the story flaws of TWOK--like how the Reliant miscounted planets (it wasn't a perfect explanation but I give him kudos for at least making the attempt in a way that at least narratively makes sense). Cox even gives an explanation why his motley crew looks like, well Motley Crue. He also gives some motivation behind Khan's blind rage and vengeance as seen in TWOK. After reading "Rise and Fall" you can see his hatred for Kirk making more sense. And it didn't happen overnight--it happened over a period of years so that by the time of TWOK that's all Khan feels. Frankly it's a must read for any fan of TWOK--I found it increased my enjoyment of TWOK.
I agree about Vanguard--a great series--and I would add the "Seeker" novels to that list. They were a lot of fun to read as well. I liked the DS9 "Mission Gamma" books as well--esp. the first one in the series.
Christopher's DTI novels were good reads as well. He always has a good attention to detail and he ties some inconsistencies in some stories together nicely (and don't forget the e-book novellas for those as well--I believe there were 2 IIRC after the two full size novels). His "Ex Machina" novel was a good read also and it takes place soon after TMP.
The Discovery novel "Drastic Measures" was really good as well and is a prime-Lorca story. I continue to hope the prime-Lorca pops up on Discovery at some point. "The Enterprise War" was an excellent read as well. I'm really glad I read that before watching season 2. I feel like I have a bit of an advantage in reading that before watching season 2.
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Thanks so much for the kind words! I really appreciate them.
Just to avoid confusion, though, the actual title of that book is TO REIGN IN HELL.
"The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh" was the subtitle of THE EUGENICS WARS books.
Oops. Got my Khan books mixed up. I edited my earlier post to fix my boo-boo.
I'd recommend all 3 to any fan of TWOK though. The earlier Eugenics Wars books were an excellent "What If?" type of story as well. I let a friend of mine who is a huge TWOK fan borrow them and he loved the 3 books as well.
You'll have to make sure to stick around until 2053 so you can write the story of how WWIII really happened and we just never knew it
. I mean, assuming, that Star Trek doesn't end up being prophetic and we really do have a WWIII. Let's just hope that doesn't happen. 
I haven't read them yet, but are all three books considered something of a trilogy? I thought I recall early promotion material qualifying them that way, but the impression I got later as the books were coming out is that the subtitles distinguish and separate the Eugenics Wars from Reigning in Hell.
I look forward to reading them, now that I'm in a groove of reading Star Trek more regularly.
Honestly, it's a judgment call. One can argue that it's basically a duology followed by a standalone sequel or that it's a trilogy of novels of Khan. I recall that at one point we flirted with titling the third book THE EUGENICS WARS, Volume Three, but we ended up giving it its own title instead.
In terms of chronology, the first two books take place before "Space Seed," detailing Khan's life on Earth in the 20th century, while the third book takes place between "Space Seed" and THE WRATH OF KHAN.
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Given the way Season 2 of Discovery ended, that is very, very unlikely.
I can't believe I forgot them, they go on my list. It and Vanguard are most consistently outstanding series in Trek Lit.
Hmm, it'll be interesting to see. I'm down to the last 4 episodes of the 2nd season now.
A shame if we don't get to see prime-Lorca though. I liked Jason Isaacs and I liked the character of Lorca (including the version in Drastic Measures). I kind of hoped, despite the Admiral saying he was probably dead, that prime-Lorca was maybe still out there and would be back at some point. The ending of "Drastic Measures" left open the possibility of a return someday.
It's funny because I read the book before seeing season 1. I remember when I finally got to watch season 1 I thought something seemed off about Lorca. I thought it was odd the novel for Drastic Measures seemed a bit off on Lorca's depiction from what I saw when I saw the series. I sort of thought maybe it was because the novel was a few years before the show and Lorca had changed. Little did I know at the time it was because it wasn't the same Lorca
I think Greg Cox hit it on the head. The Eugenics Wars books are a duology and should be read together and "To Reign In Hell" is more like a sequel.
I would say you can read "To Reign In Hell" without the other two books. It does reference the Eugenics Wars novels here and there, but as I recall it was pretty sporadic and done in such a way that you get the gist of what's going on even without having read them.
That being said I would still highly recommend the Eugenics Wars novels as well. I thought "To Reign In Hell" was the best of the 3 but all 3 were good reads. I loved how Greg tied the EW books to real world events...in a sort of how it could have happened way and fit with the canon that we know that the Eugenics Wars took place from 1992 to 1996.
I think I recall reading somewhere that Bob Orci had noted he had read "The Eugenics Wars" before writing STID. Now I'm not sure how much Greg's story inspired elements of STID. STID was pretty vague about the Eugenics Wars, probably for the obvious reason that they didn't actually occur yet they didn't want to override the previous stories about the Eugenics Wars taking place in the 1990s (plus it really wasn't necessary to go into it since the specifics of the Wars didn't play a role in the story of STID anyway)
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That was deliberate. I wanted TO REIGN IN HELL to be accessible to folks who hadn't read the EW books, so I kept any references to those books to a minimum. First and foremost, it was meant to be a sequel to "Space Seed" and a prequel to THE WRATH OF KHAN.
In a way, if you want a "complete" Khan life story from birth to death (at least in the prime timeline) you could first read the Eugenics Wars, then watch "Space Seed", then read "To Reign in Hell" then watch TWOK.
I guess you could mix in "Assignment: Earth" in there as well. Maybe as a prequel to the entire story. It was intended as a pilot for a new series anyway so why not
.Someday I'll have to give that a try. When I'm ready to do a re-read of the 3 books someday.
@Damian Thanks for extra perspective about the Eugenics series, much appreciated!
Now that is really interesting and something I have wondered about. On a lark I've sometimes asked, "Could I skip ahead to this one?". I think that's terrific that it accessible to readers who are interested in Khan's story, but mainly with what happened on the planet he was exiled to.
I think I will read them all in order, to get the full effect. But it's nice to know that To Reign in Hell is user friendly. Thanks for the behind the scenes perspective!
Now that is really interesting and something I have wondered about. On a lark I've sometimes asked, "Could I skip ahead to this one?". I think that's terrific that it accessible to readers who are interested in Khan's story, but mainly with what happened on the planet he was exiled to.
I think I will read them all in order, to get the full effect. But it's nice to know that To Reign in Hell is user friendly. Thanks for the behind the scenes perspective!
Given the love for the Khan books in this thread, I’ve splashed out and ordered them.
If you liked TWOK you won't be disappointed. "To Reign in Hell" was one of those books I couldn't put down. You sort of start to sympathize with Khan and his anger toward Kirk because Ceti Alpha V was truly Hell after the disaster. Khan's singular focus on vengeance didn't just happen overnight but was a slow burn over years.
And I really liked how Greg mixed in real world events into his Eugenics Wars books. A lot of the stuff cited in those books really happened, he just adds a new spin on who was pulling the strings. He even explains why Khan, even though he was a Sikh, ditched the traditional beard (I won't give it a way but given what we know of Khan it makes sense). And it includes a significant role for Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln (and to some extent carried on in the 20th to 21st century portions of Dayton Ward's later books "From History's Shadow" through "Hearts and Minds").
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Reading From History's Shadow, The Eugenic Wars, Elusive Salvation and The Rings of Time as well as watching the 20th and 21st century episodes in chronological order was one of my most satisfying Star Trek projects.
That sounds like a fun one, did you go by chronological order or story release order (and can you tell us the list that you used)?
I deliberately wrote my three books with an eye toward being consistent with what Greg established in the Eugenics Wars books and The Rings of Time (and, if you catch it, Greg's earlier book Assignment: Eternity). I even consulted him before writing From History's Shadow because I didn't want to step on anything new he might be planning. Though it's an admittedly lackluster episode, the whole Gary Seven/"Assignment: Earth" setup has always been one of my favorite Trek things.
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