Your LEAST favorite Star Trek Novel?

[Rush Limborg]

Okay, time for the OTHER side o' the aisle!

Is there a Star Trek novel that you absolutely HATE? I mean, HATE with a PASSION--so much that you just wanna raid the stores and BURN EVERY SINGLE DANG COPY YOU CAN FIND!!!


Okay, okay, so that was a little...extreme... but seriously--what is the ONE Trek novel, above all others, that you would like to forget the most?

And by all means say WHY.

As Kirk would say, "Don't mice words." Be as angry and flame-filled as you like.

Just make sure you direct it all at the book. Not the author--and not me.

(side note: Considering trends, I predict a lot of "Before Dishonor" hate....)

 

[Johnhead99]

VOY: The Escape #2.

Why? Because they kept referring to it as The Voyager instead of just Voyager. Irritated me the entire book.

 

[Osquevel]

The only novel I ever remember seriously disliking was Battle Lines by Dave Galanter and Greg Brodeur. I was really excited because the concept sounded really cool; but after getting a third of the way in, I remember getting very frustrated with poor characterization and horrible misspellings of characters' names. Some of my particular gripes that come to mind (and I unfortunately don't have the book to flip through at the moment) were B'Lana and "this one's a bigg'n, Captain" or words to that effect by Tom Paris... Perhaps I was overreacting to things and am willing to give it another shot if someone could tell me that there is redeeming merit in the book. Other stuff of Galanter and Broderu I've enjoyed, it just seemed they missed the mark on this one.

Other than that, I don't remember liking The Fian Summons a whole lot, though there were some interesting ideas there (the four-legged creatures) and some funny bits (the water-gun fight) but on the whole it never felt particularly strong.

 

[Corran Horn]

The Fearful Summons ranks down there on my list.

 

[Trent Roman]

While there are a number of pretty bad books--some which are just poorly written (Ship of the Line, Red Sector, Fire Ship), others that are just opaque (Warped, Laertian Gamble)--for me, no individual books measures up to the collective crappiness of the Voyager Relaunch. Bad plotting. Epidemic mischaracterizations on the regulars, terrible original characters. Irritating style. Glaring errors. Bizarre choices with regards to the source material and character changes left unexplained. No respect for the rules of the universe. By the time I finished Spirit Walk, the only good thing I had to say about these books is that I though the covers were pretty. Pity everything that followed was such utter dreck.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Therin of Andor]

While there are a number of pretty bad books--some which are just poorly written (Ship of the Line, Red Sector, Fire Ship)

Call me crazy then, because I loved "Red Sector" and "Fire Ship".

others that are just opaque (Warped, Laertian Gamble)

And yet, here we agree. They are my two least favourites. They were a trial to read. I also disliked "Into the Nebula" - ick! - "The Final Nexus", "Genesis Wave 3" and the first half of "Genesis Force".

 

[William Leisner]

At this very moment?

Losing the Peace.

Of course, it is subject to jump to the top of my favorites list as soon as my mood swings back the other way.

 

[Johnhead99]

While there are a number of pretty bad books--some which are just poorly written (Ship of the Line, Red Sector, Fire Ship), others that are just opaque (Warped, Laertian Gamble)--for me, no individual books measures up to the collective crappiness of the Voyager Relaunch. Bad plotting. Epidemic mischaracterizations on the regulars, terrible original characters. Irritating style. Glaring errors. Bizarre choices with regards to the source material and character changes left unexplained. No respect for the rules of the universe. By the time I finished Spirit Walk, the only good thing I had to say about these books is that I though the covers were pretty. Pity everything that followed was such utter dreck.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Oh Trent. You are so very close to being right; but, you miss the mark. Every book you mention is no good EXCEPT Homecoming and The Farther Shore. How I longed to read the story of how the crew adjusted and how Starfleet adjusted to their return. And, in my opinion, those two books were excellent.

Spirit Walk however wasn't any good. Do not fear though, Full Circle is going to be amazing.

 

[JD]

The only two Trek books I've never really just not liked are Before Dishonor, and the first A Time To... book.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

While there are a number of pretty bad books--some which are just poorly written (Ship of the Line, Red Sector, Fire Ship)

Call me crazy then, because I loved "Red Sector" and "Fire Ship".

I'm not going to call you crazy. I loved both of those books.

I hate, hate, HATE Captain's Table: The Mist. Nothing but pure obnoxiousness.

 

[Reanok]

Fire Ship and Red Sector. Windows to a lost world. Leiertian Gamble.Warped.

 

[ronny]

Ship of the Line by a mile.

- The whole thing is basically a sequel to 10 seconds of Bateson on screen and the author gets that wrong. In the book it's an all male crew and on film there's a female crew member. It's like she had a story to tell and damn the facts.
- Kirk is such a god like character that that it only takes a hologram of him to convince Picard maybe he's a good captain after all.

It's just a book where every time someone said something or did something I was telling myself I don't freaking believe it.

There's more TOS worship in a TNG world in Red Sector as well. Another book I can't stand.

I try to be civil when I don't like a book, give specific reasons and don't attack the author but I just can't help myself with these two books.

The Prometheus Design and Triangle are pretty bad as well.

 

[donners22]

I found Warped completely distateful and really hard to read. I have a massive collection of Trek books, but I actually threw that one away. When I got another copy in an eBay auction, I threw that away as well.

There were many aspects of the first two Mirror Universe anthologies that I really disliked, and likewise many parts of the A Time To series that have made reading it a real ordeal. They are not completely lacking in positives, but I really struggled through them. I'm not really a fan of many Trek books from recent times.

 

[JWolf]

While there are a number of pretty bad books--some which are just poorly written (Ship of the Line, Red Sector, Fire Ship)

Call me crazy then, because I loved "Red Sector" and "Fire Ship".

I really enjoyed both Red Sector and Fire Ship as well. I have not yet read Ship of the Line so I cannot comment on it.

What I am struggling with is Homecoming. It just doesn't have the proper feel to it. Also, it just doesn't seem like what would actually happen after Voyager gets home. I will finish it, but it's going to be a struggle.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I find it amazing that I can have such strong feelings about liking and disliking certain ST books, and other fans can totally agree with some of my choices and, in the same post, totally disagree with others.

If we ever needed proof that "the fanbase" was impossible to please all of the time, this would be it.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Of all the books I've owned the Spirit Walk duology is by far and away the worst. I mean, when that fucking jaguar appeared out of Wesley Crusher (or whatever the hell was going on) I'd given up.
-All the original characters were horrendous (even Kaz who was fine in H/TFS got degenerated into Problematic Trill By Numbers)
-the single interesting apsect of the story went basically nowhere (that's the messed-up changeling)
-Tuvok, Seven and the Doctor were shoveled in for no reason at all
-The Klingon thread was beyond terrible and shouldn't have been part of the book at all. I hope that gets moved out of the way pretty quickly (cos I'm giving Full Circle a real chance and all)
-Speaking of badly conceived threads, how about that Alphas vs Voyagers thing? I get it, it's an attempt to parallel the early premise of Voyager ie Maquis vs Voyagers. I can only hope that gets dropped even faster than the original conflict did.
-Libby Webber. Dear gods. So, so many things wrong with her it's not worth going into.
-That frelling counselor.
-Captain Chakotay and XO Tom Paris. I know Starfleet is short-staffed and everything but there is surely no way in hell Tom Paris is ready to be a first officer.

Other than all that it was okay I suppose.

 

[DarkHorizon]

I really disliked Engines of Destiny. So much so that it's the only Trek book I've ever gotten rid of...

 

[Turbo]

Ship of the Line by a mile.

- The whole thing is basically a sequel to 10 seconds of Bateson on screen and the author gets that wrong. In the book it's an all male crew and on film there's a female crew member. It's like she had a story to tell and damn the facts.
- Kirk is such a god like character that that it only takes a hologram of him to convince Picard maybe he's a good captain after all.

It's just a book where every time someone said something or did something I was telling myself I don't freaking believe it.

You pretty much summed up my feelings on it. It misses the mark on every single count, and is a thoroughly awful book. By far the worst of Diane Carey's novels.

My other candidate for 'worst ever' is the A Time to Be Born/A Time to Die duology. There were so many other ways to start the events leading to Nemesis. There were so many better ways to tell this story. But nothing in this book feels remotely like the Star Trek universe we've come to know. The characterizations and settings are all wrong, and the books themselves are quite boring. Fortunately, the series improved, but this was a simply dreadful start.

While I have issues with the Voyager and TNG relanuches, neither one approaches the sheer crappiness of either of these two stories.

 

[JAG]

Ditto again for Ship of the Line. It took forever to finish, because I really did not want to.

 

[Christopher]

Ship of the Line by a mile.

- The whole thing is basically a sequel to 10 seconds of Bateson on screen and the author gets that wrong. In the book it's an all male crew and on film there's a female crew member.

In fact, I'm pretty sure there were two women glimpsed on Bateson's bridge.