The Best Star Trek Novels No One Mentions?

[Dayton3]

What do you see as the best ST novels that seem to never come up in discussions?

To me it is J.M. Dilliards "Bloodthirst" (original series) and the ST:TNG sequel to it (I don't remember the name off hand).

The last sentence of the ST:TNG book contains the most chilling and terrifying statement ever found in a Trek novel............

 

[Therin of Andor]

^A lot of people never realised that "TNG: Possession" was even a sequel (to "TOS: Demons")!

When I first visited this board it seemed like no one ever remembered "Uhura's Song", which I think is a triumphant novel.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Gulliver's Fugitives...


Bugger! I just mentioned it.

 

[Defcon]

When I first visited this board it seemed like noone ever remembered "Uhura's Song", which I think is a triumphant novel.

I don't know, I think it comes up fairly regulary in best novel threads, and rightly so.

Some good books that come up rather seldom are Ishmael, In the Name of Honor (both TOS) and Masks (TNG).

 

[Dayton3]

^A lot of people never realised that "Possession" was even a sequel!

When I first visited this board it seemed like noone ever remembered "Uhura's Song", which I think is a triumphant novel.

I was wrong. The title of the original series novel that introduced the sadistic mind parasites was "Demons".

The ST:TNG sequel was "Possession".

And I will never forget that last line from "Possession".

Never.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I don't know, I think it comes up fairly regulary in best novel threads, and rightly so.

It does now. As I said, "When I first visited this board..."

By the way, regarding Dillard's early TOS books. In the UK, Titan was reprinting some early Pocket stuff in more random order, interspersed with the new regular US novels in publication order, but renumbering everything, and they managed to release "Mindshadow", "Demons" and "Bloodthirst" out of order. Thus, one of Dillard's original continuing characters dies in the UK before being introduced!

Jean Lorrah's "TNG: Survivors" (which features a partial retelling of bits of "Skin of Evil", IIRC) doesn't seem to get mentioned all that often. Guest characters even carry over into the giant novel, "Metamorphosis"; they were lucky to survive as Richard Arnold was discouraging the practice at the time. (I think this one kept him too busy eradicating the Andorian, and trying to determine if it was too early for Data to experience being human!)

Also "The Covenant of the Crown" is a great early Pocket McCoy novel, often overlooked in BBS discussions.

"Web of the Romulans" is rarely mentioned, and I recall that this was the first novel to give almost equal time to the enemy race as to the Enterprise crew.

 

[Christopher]

The Covenant of the Crown is an old favorite of mine too. A terrific McCoy focus, as you say, but with plenty of dead-on Spock/McCoy banter too. My copy of it is the oldest Pocket Trek novel I still own aside from the TMP novelization, and it's pretty worn; I'll probably have to track down a replacement someday.

Any thread on overlooked books should include The Wounded Sky, Diane Duane's first Trek novel. Her Rihannsu books get all the attention, but this one is still my favorite book of hers, if not my favorite Trek novel ever. It also features the first appearances of many of Duane's familiar characters, including K't'lk/K's't'lk, Harb Tanzer, Lia Burke, and Athende the Sulamid (though not Mr. Naraht the Horta).

 

[JD]

Is The Wounded Sky the book that Where No One Has Gone Before was based on?
I haven't actually read the book, I just remember people mentioning that on here.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Is The Wounded Sky the book that Where No One Has Gone Before was based on?

Yep! See the pretty glass spider scientist become a bumpy-foreheaded man in pyjamas!

 

[Christopher]

It's the book it was very, very loosely based on. The script Duane and Michael Reaves wrote was much closer to the book than what finally ended up onscreen. Duane tells the story here: http://www.dianeduane.com/outofambi...next-generation-where-no-one-has-gone-before/

 

[Starbreaker]

I really like the TNG novel by Carmen Carter Devil's Heart.. I think that's the title. It was pretty creepy.

 

[Defcon]

It does now. As I said, "When I first visited this board..."

I think I'm visiting this board for more than 5 years now, and I can't remember a time when Uhura's Song didn't came up in best novel discussions.

Also "The Covenant of the Crown" is a great early Pocket McCoy novel, often overlooked in BBS discussions.

Agreed.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I think I'm visiting this board for more than 5 years now, and I can't remember a time when Uhura's Song didn't came up in best novel discussions.

The first time I mentioned the book here, people said, "Now there's a book people hardly seem to mention", and that led me to contact Janet Kagan by email and pitch some questions to her, and I relayed her answers here.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

The Covenant of the Crown"
Shadows on the Sun"

2 great McCoy novels.

 

[KRAD]

I've always maintained that Vonda McIntyre's novelization of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is one of the best Trek novels ever written, despite the movie it's based on being pretty nowhere.

The Pandora Principle by Carolyn Clowes doesn't get anywhere near the love it should. It's a pretty good book, all told, doing an excellent job of fleshing out Saavik's backstory.

I also have a soft spot for two early DS9 novels, Warchild by Esther Friesner (with the caveat that it doesn't really work with the later revelation that Bashir was genetically enhanced) and Devil in the Sky by Greg Cox & John Gregory Betancourt, which has the joy of baby Hortas eating Deep Space 9....

 

[Christopher]

I've always maintained that Vonda McIntyre's novelization of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is one of the best Trek novels ever written, despite the movie it's based on being pretty nowhere.

Well, heck, she doesn't even begin adapting the movie until maybe a quarter of the way into the book. It's the Star Trek Log Ten of movie novelizations.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm going to second the love for The Pandora Principle. Great Saavik development. An interesting Romulan plot. I've always felt like this book coulda/shoulda been the springboard for something, like a sequel. The Romulan Achernar was cool.

I've long had a fondness for Carmen Carter's The Devil's Heart. I wrote an essay about ten years back explaining how The Devil's Heart was the Star Trek version of the Holy Grail story.

Peter Morwood's Rules of Engagement is another book I've had real fondness for. It's the last hurrah of the John M. Ford Klingons.

 

[LightningStorm]

While I've seen this mentioned here before, I think Voyager: The Nanotech War by Steven Piziks is a GREAT novel that seems to get overlooked frequently.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

I've always maintained that Vonda McIntyre's novelization of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is one of the best Trek novels ever written, despite the movie it's based on being pretty nowhere.

I haven't read them in years, but McIntyre's movie adaptations were always among my favorites as a teenager.

 

[Sxottlan]

New Earth Book 3: Rough Trails by L.A. Graf.

Great epic book starring the TOS supporting characters.