Your LEAST favorite Star Trek Novel?

[Christopher]

So you can attack Richard Arnold by name, but you can't mention the person who actually wrote the book, or even its title?

Arnold isn't a fellow author, so it doesn't raise the same issues of professional courtesy. And he's already so completely alienated from the Trek novelist community that it won't create any further alienation if a novelist criticizes him.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Arnold isn't a fellow author, so it doesn't raise the same issues of professional courtesy.

Precisely...

 

[Trent Roman]

Dang, the economic crisis must have reached Tatooine if even the Sarlacc is moonlighting for the Complaints Departments. I wonder if I should withdraw the credits I have in the First Bank of Mos Eisley?

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

I have plenty of options in Trek Lit when it comes to detestable and disposable, and they were all written by...



... authors.

And I'm not going to tell you what they are either.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

My least favorite Trek novels are Fate/Price of the Phoenix.

Those were so bad, I couldn't even finish them.

 

[PaulSimpson]

My least favorite Trek novels are Fate/Price of the Phoenix.

Those were so bad, I couldn't even finish them.

Did you start both - and did you start "Fate" hoping it would be better than "Price"?

 

[Lt_Wandrey]

Mine would be Voyager #2: The Escape. All the other Voyager books I read were good and I had a positive mind set going into this book and I felt so let down. I didn't even finish that book and it's a rarity for me not to finish a book.

 

[TGTheodore]

I really hated Moby Dick. It had absolutely nothing to do with St ... oh.

Never mind.

--Ted

 

[TerriO]

I could list mine, but for some bizarre reason I'm not in the mood for a fight today.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

*looks out the window*

Odd...I don't see Hell freezing over.

 

[JAG]

It's not but Satan is wearing a jacket.

 

[OmahaStar]

It's not but Satan is wearing a jacket.

I wondered why Daddy went back into the closet ... Not sure green is his color, though.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Mine would be Voyager #2: The Escape. All the other Voyager books I read were good and I had a positive mind set going into this book and I felt so let down. I didn't even finish that book and it's a rarity for me not to finish a book.

I actually did like that one. It had an interesting concept of time travel.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Did you start both - and did you start "Fate" hoping it would be better than "Price"?

"Fate" was one of my first ST novels! I was running around in the early months of 1980 and snapping up what backstock I could find, in my impatience re the delays that had beset "The Entropy Effect" (due to Bantam being allowed to complete their publishing sequence).

"Price" was very hard to find. I eventually found a Corgi (UK) edition, but I was too impatient and had already read "Fate". I only had the Blish adaptation of "The Enterprise Incident" - and Marshak's contributions to "Star Trek Lives!" - to bolster me. Fresh from doing a few literature studies at teachers college, I immediately recognized Marshak & Culbreath as lit wannabees. My impression, then, was that they'd obviously come from doing serious university courses in writing and had tossed everything into their novels. Symbolism, pathos, angst, duality...

Not surprising that Myrna Culbreath later gained notoriety for inventing a new system for teaching phonics to kids.

Of their four novels, the one I hated was "Triangle". It was extremely soap opera-ish, and my only memory is Kirk, Spock and the female guest lead, edging their way around a volcano ledge, professing their love for each other. I have no idea if that scene is really there, but that's my only impression.

I often tell people that my memory of "Fate of the Phoenix" is Black Omne racing down an endless corridor, with Jim Kirk under one arm and James the Romulan under the other, pursued by Spock and the Female Romulan Commander. (Probably yelling, "Come back with our Kirks, you dastardly villain!")

 

[Mooch]

The books that stick out in my mind are "Warped" (DS9) and "Ship of the Line" (TNG). Although there are others I'm sure that I didn't think too much of.

 

[DarKush]

Ship of the Line. I really thought this book was going to be awesome, with Bateson and Gul Madred's return, but it turned out being really blah.

Before Dishonor. This book was just wrong on so many levels, though it's one saving grace was it made it possible to get rid of most of the new TNG crew, except for Kadohata. I haven't read Gods of Night yet, so there's still hope.

Vengeance-It was okay, but nothing really special. I was disappointed after reading it. I thought I was going to get some great Klingon v. Klingon action.

Summon the Thunder-This one was just too long and dry. It had some interesting ideas in it though, but the delivery just didn't work for me. The first Vanguard book was much better.

Articles of the Federation (ducking to avoid widespread condemnation now)-I'm not too familiar with the West Wing, though I love reading about politics and the American presidency. Whoever would've thought that Federation presidential politics were going to be so boring. I loved KRAD's Art of the Impossible, which used a heavy dose of politics too, but the main characters were also more directly involved in the action. Bacco didn't make a major impression on me nor did her staff, and they were the heart and soul of this book.

Spectre-I was already starting to lose interest with Shatner's Avenger, but Spectre finally did it. Yes the books are supposed to be Kirk-centric, but something about this one-I can't remember now what it was-really felt obscene about it.

Imazdi II: Triange-A let down as a follow up to Imzadi, which is still my favorite Trek novel.

NF Restoration-This was the second in that Excalibur trilogy-I might have the title wrong-but it was the first NF book that I had to struggle to finish and NF wasn't the same after that for me. Before that trilogy I rushed through all of the NF books. After it, I can largely take them or leave them.

 

[captcalhoun]

Best Destiny, Final Frontier, Dreadnought, Battlestations!, Planet of Judgement

NF Restoration-This was the second in that Excalibur trilogy-I might have the title wrong-but it was the first NF book that I had to struggle to finish and NF wasn't the same after that for me. Before that trilogy I rushed through all of the NF books. After it, I can largely take them or leave them.

the second eXcalibur book was Renaissance

 

[MHJH]

For me, it's probably gotta be "Deny Thy Father". I love the Lost Era books as a whole, but that one didn't even get finished. Fifty pages in, I was bored to tears. By 150, I put it in the stack to go back to the library, unread, joining the very short list of Trek books I've started, but never finished.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I got about 10 pages into Well of Souls before I threw up a little in my mouth. Does it get any better? Is there anything like a plot?

 

[MHJH]

I got about 10 pages into Well of Souls before I threw up a little in my mouth. Does it get any better? Is there anything like a plot?

Honestly, not much. It's virtually all character, with the plot taking a definite second chair. I ended up quite liking the book as a whole, but it's kind of a slog for the first couple of hundred pages. It's got a bit of first-time author's syndrome about it, 250 pages of story in 500 pages of text, and an awful lot of information that doesn't really add anything to the whole. The whole thing is essentially a character study of Rachel Garrett and a couple of her crew, and if that's not your cup of tea, I'd say it might not be worth your time. Again, I dug it, but it's one of those books where, even if you like it, you completely understand why other people might not.