What are you least favorite Star Trek novels?

[mattburgess]

I love how peoples opinions on books are completely different. And thank God, right? You wouldn't want to please everyone all the time. I rather liked Engines of Destiny, and didn't think A Hard Rain was all that bad (though it certainly didn't stand out for me), whereas others really rather hated it. That's fine by me

I'm very surprised at the reaction to Over A Torrent Sea, which I thought was fab! And I'm surprised at how vehemently some people dislike New Frontier, which I was hooked on from the start. To each their own.

But there seems to be a lot of shared feelings over the post-nemesis, pre-destiny TNG books, particularly Before Dishonor, which I agree with whole-heartedly. Wonder what went wrong there?

What interests me most are the books that people have mentioned that I've been meaning to read for a long time, even looking forward to reading, such as Ship of the Line. I was always confused by the premise (instead of Picard, they give the captaincy to a guy who is decades out of date with the galaxy??? Whisky Tango Foxtrot?)
I've also been looking forward to reading the Millennium trilogy (what's all this about a fourth entry?), which has been (in a minor way) bashed.

Anyway, I'm still pleased at the response.

Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.

 

[Christopher]

I've also been looking forward to reading the Millennium trilogy (what's all this about a fourth entry?)

There's no fourth entry; I think Therin must've been thinking of something else, probably Mission: Gamma.

 

[mattburgess]

That would make more sense - it was a smaller addition to the series.

 

[LightningStorm]

Going back a bit but two books stick out for me,"The Peacekeepers"-an early TNG novel which was just death to read and an old TOS book "Windows on a lost world".Jeeezus!

Nice avatar.


..sorry I don't have anything else to add to this topic.

 

[LutherSloan]

I'm guessing people disliked Over a Torrent Sea and Sword of Damocles because both of them are more science-heavy than most ST books. A lot of theoretical (or not) scientific concepts factor in heavily in the narrative, which can be rough for people not familiar with these things.

Honestly I liked Over a Torrent Sea better than Sword of Damocles, as I felt the narrative was much easier to follow, as well as the science. SoD is probably my least-favorite Titan novel.
​

 

[Therin of Andor]

I also disliked The First Adventure by Vonda McIntyre. The story was silly, the writing awkward, and every character was depicted as an idiot, a jerk, or both. Not that I think of it, I dislike most books by Vonda. Entropy Effect is another offender.

"The First Adventure" was a huge disappointment to me, but mainly because DC Comics Annual #1 did a "first adventure" I enjoyed so much more. Actually, I rather like the audio version of E:TFA, which puts most of its focus on the first contact story, to its betterment, IIRC, because that plot seems far less compelling in print.

"The Entropy Effect" remains one of my favourite ST reading experiences! Maybe you just had to be there at the beginning, when it came out riding on a big fat controversy! And followed by her masterful novelizations of ST II and ST III!

There's no fourth entry; I think Therin must've been thinking of something else, probably Mission: Gamma.

Sorry, I have no memory of mentioning "Millennium" here, so yes I was referring to the brevity of M:G #4.

As for "Millennium", the middle volume was a bit of a struggle, but I really enjoyed the trilogy as a whole.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I also disliked The First Adventure by Vonda McIntyre. The story was silly, the writing awkward, and every character was depicted as an idiot, a jerk, or both. Not that I think of it, I dislike most books by Vonda. Entropy Effect is another offender.

"The First Adventure" was a huge disappointment to me, but mainly because DC Comics Annual #1 did a "first adventure" I enjoyed so much more. Actually, I rather like the audio version of E:TFA, which puts most of its focus on the first contact story, to its betterment, IIRC, because that plot seems far less compelling in print.

Yes, the first contact story was the best part of it. And I actually liked the aliens, even if their description was a bit silly (I always pictured them as sort of muppets in my head ). But the vaudeville people, Stephen the vulcan, the equiraptor, etc...

"The Entropy Effect" remains one of my favourite ST reading experiences! Maybe you just had to be there at the beginning, when it came out riding on a big fat controversy!

I cannot imagine why!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

"The First Adventure" was a huge disappointment to me, but mainly because DC Comics Annual #1 did a "first adventure" I enjoyed so much more. Actually, I rather like the audio version of E:TFA, which puts most of its focus on the first contact story, to its betterment, IIRC, because that plot seems far less compelling in print.

Enterprise: The First Adventure, like Taking Wing or the New Frontier "pilot" (books 1-4), has the typical "pilot" problem of spending a lot of time introducing characters. What makes it less than compelling in the case of E:TFA is that we are already somewhat familiar with the characters, or rather where the characters end up. The book expends pages on the typical pilot problems -- characters A and B have conflict, character C has a secret past -- that are meant to plant seeds for later stories. The last half of E:TFA is more interesting than the first half, by virtue of something happening in the second half. (Same with the other two books mentioned above, actually; dreadfully boring first halves, followed by slight but more interesting second halves.) E:TFA, I've always thought, screams out for a sequel, since there's still a few years between that and "Where No Man."

 

[DaveGalanter]

Troublesome Minds (I know most loved it, but I didn't get anything new out of it)

*ahem*


I have forgiven you.

 

[Csalem]

Red Sector is the worst book for me.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I'm guessing people disliked Over a Torrent Sea and Sword of Damocles because both of them are more science-heavy than most ST books. A lot of theoretical (or not) scientific concepts factor in heavily in the narrative, which can be rough for people not familiar with these things.​

It wasn't the science itself, where Torrent Sea is concerned, so much as that characterization was passed over or the characters that WERE dealt with felt rather unsympathetic. It's possible to write a science-heavy book without doing this, and it wasn't accomplished here.

Honestly I liked Over a Torrent Sea better than Sword of Damocles, as I felt the narrative was much easier to follow, as well as the science. SoD is probably my least-favorite Titan novel.

Agreed that the narrative in Torrent Sea was presented in a clearer fashion, even with the science going on...and while it may be the artsy, popular thing to do, SoD felt as fragmented as Memento and it did not make for an enjoyable experience. What saved SoD, though, from making this list was that unlike Torrent Sea, there WAS a character I could actually empathize with and whose story I wanted to see to the finish--and that was Zurin Dakal. With Torrent Sea, I could not find it in myself to care for any of the characters, even those I'd liked in other books: they were all written as utterly unsympathetic.

 

[LutherSloan]

Well, part of the problem with Titan is that there are so many unique character species that have been covered, and the cast is getting a bit too large. It makes it difficult to focus on only a couple of characters.

 

[Reanok]

I didn't care for Enterprise First adventure by Vonda McIntyre or Red sector either or Windows of a lost world. I like the ds9 Millenium trilogy.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Well, part of the problem with Titan is that there are so many unique character species that have been covered, and the cast is getting a bit too large. It makes it difficult to focus on only a couple of characters.

In Torrent, the number didn't bother me. It was just that Christopher singlehandedly managed to make me hate them all.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I didn't really care for TNG: Genesis Wave: Book 3 at all and actually gave that book away without finishing it.

I'm also not a fan of VOY: Full Circle, but it had more to do with all the stuff I was really interested in didn't come into play until near the end of the book (which was great).

ENT: The Good That Men Do did nothing for me. I just really thought it was a convoluted and far-fetched way of undoing something that many fans didn't like in "These Are The Voyages..." and the 25th-Century framing story left me cold...

 

[Reanok]

I read only 2 of the Genesis wave books I didn't finish the last one book 3 I gave them away.I didn't care for the storyline with the plant aliens needing the genesis wave to survive.

 

[seigezunt]

See, I liked Enterprise the First Adventure, without the circus people. If we could just surgically remove them.

When was the DC first adventure story? I'd like to check it out, and I have the CD-Rom of the comics. Which issue? If it's anything like the Early Adventures, I'd probably love it.

 

[Osiris Aten]

Being a fan of DS9 overall, but it had some of the worst TrekLit:
1. DS9: The Laertian Game
2. DS9: Rebels trilogy (in contrast, Terok Nor is great)
3. TOS: Captain's Peril (couldn't get past first 30 pages...)
4. TNG: Dyson Sphere

 

[Christopher]

When was the DC first adventure story? I'd like to check it out, and I have the CD-Rom of the comics. Which issue? If it's anything like the Early Adventures, I'd probably love it.

It was Annual #1 of DC's first TOS series:

http://homepage.mac.com/mmtz/stcomix/dc1tosann.html

 

[Mysterion]

Actually, I believe the full title of the TMP novelization is Star Trek: The Motion Picture: A Novel.

How many colons can you really put into a title before it needs a colonoscopy?