Favorite Trek Book Covers of All Time – and Why!

I always thought James Avery would make a fantastic Klingon. When I wrote a TNG spec script, I think I wrote the main guest Klingon character with his voice in mind. (After all, he wasn't just Uncle Phil, he was Shredder.)

 

I used to think Ben Cross would make a great Romulan and foil for Picard in maybe a movie. Alas…

Also I’ve had this image of Ian McKellen as a Vulcan(oid) in my head since I read Michael Piller’s book about the INS that might have been. He too might have made a great Romulan.

 

These are interesting picks. I love the idea of books like Uhura’s Song and Doctor’s Orders focusing on TOS characters other than Kirk/Spock. Getting to see Joanna McCoy is also cool as you imagine that’s a huge part of McCoy’s life (if long-distance) we got so so little of. I feel like we’d have gotten more of her if he were in a later series.

I read Intellivore because it was a Duanne novel and I was coming off my Rihannsu period. Also I always remembered the cover — the glowing light on Data’s face. I remember it was more like a TOS novel than a TNG story-wise.

And I’m looking forward to reading Revenant (I’m still digesting its and Shadows Have Offended’s covers) as I’m excited about both it and Shadows…

 

and he actually played a Klingon in ENT! you're right!

this is one of those situations where the generic characters only did part of the job - the Devil's Heart historical Klingon looks good and i could see the guy on the opposite side being the treacherous comm clerk -- but the two regally-dressed characters above don't match any of the aliens mentioned (Romulans, Iconians, Andorians) so they are just decorative

 

I'd forgotten that. And according to his Memory Alpha page which I just checked to refresh my memory, he was one of the finalists for Worf!

 

iconic illustration of the most paper-thin of premises. Kirk gave McCoy the conn as a bit of a prank, but then when the captain disappears, Spock explains that Bones cannot relinquish the conn back to Spock without putting his (Bones's) career in grave jeopardy due to policy and protocol of how the order was given. fun enough as a premise to make one ignore the unlikeliness

 

At least he got to play Spock's father in a movie.

 

Which, if you think about it, means he's technically also played the Romulan Commander.

 

My first immediatete thought is Avatar, books 1 and 2. Such an amazing piece of art, and what a way to sell the series to new readers.

 

I can’t see this image, and I had a similar issue with one of @KRAD ’s above. Is anyone else having this issue?

 

I can't see those images either.

 

i think it might have something to do with the way the FANDOM website caches the static versions of Memory Alpha images. not sure if that's affecting the Memory Beta ones i'm posting too (FANDOM hosts both wikis but MBeta has a lower visit rate that might mean less database activity breaking the hotlinks)

 

Another one of those instant classics for me is Tales of the Dominion War. I love seeing those alien hands doing the Iwo Jima flag raise.

DSC: Wonderlands is just gorgeous.

I remember a poster here once saying that the cover of DS9: Saratoga reminded her of a Renaissance painting, and I agree. Sisko looks so interesting, too, and the Saratoga itself isn't one we often get to see and looks beautiful seemingly riding from the planet below.

DS9: Station Rage isn't a great cover, but that skeleton has stuck with me since I first saw it on the shelf. So cool.

DS9: Prisoners of Piece is a kids book and the cover isn't great, but it does what I wish tie-ins did more of and show us different parts of the station/ship than we're used to or different perspectives of them.

ENT had some cool overs early on. Shockwave, The Good That Men Do, and Last Full Measure instantly caught my attention.

Reference:
The Making of DS9 I think is just majestic.
Voyages of the Imagination mentioned above is beautiful.
A Very Klingon Khristmas is one of my favorite non-canon Trek images ever. Just so much fun this time of year.

 

Another Enterprise cover I like with the Andorian space ships is Live by the code and the Tos book Higher Frontier by Christopher L. Bennett and Agents of Influence by Dayton ward I like the Enterprise being surrounded by asteroids . I also like the cover art for the first Star Trek Invasion miniseries and the cover art for the Captain's table miniseries is one of my favorites too.

 

Thanks for the reminder, I've gone and fixed mine.

 

Part of my research on Memory Beta.

 

Many of Keith Birdsong's original paintings were made available at auction, and the auction catalog site included pristine high-resolution scans of them. There may be additional sources, but Heritage Auctions has some 238 listings for Keith Birdsong, and many, if not all, have high-res versions. You may have to sign up for an account with their site, but it's free (aside from the aggravation of having to unsubscribe from their advertising emails).

It's not a cover, but I'll call out this one, the clear inspiration for the Tom Paris collectable plate in LDS (and also reality, though I think it would've been funnier if they'd made the merch one in a photoreal style to match the real-life '90s plates).