Best and worst Star Trek paperback novels
- Thread starter Miss Mess
- Start date
Speaking for myself: Not yet, but I will. I read TOS books as a kid and recently decided to collect and read/re-read them all. Including yours.
Well, I've read the Destiny trilogy, and Crucible:McCoy, but for the most part, I get lost in the newer books because I don't know enough about the middle shows (TNG, DS9 & VOY) to appreciate the characters. I loved Destiny, but I have to admit I skipped a lot of it because I didn't really care about the TNG parts of the stories.
I only saved a few of my original Trek novels, which I collected as soon as they came out, and I re-read them occasionally. I can't say they are the "best" novels, as that's very subjective, but they are my favorites: Entropy Effect; The Final Reflection; Dwellers in the Crucible; Ishmael; Strangers From The Sky. I also have one on my Kindle, which I bought by accident but turned out to really like. I forget the name but it's about the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, maybe Here Be Dragons or something like that? All unfamiliar characters to me but really good.
I only saved a few of my original Trek novels, which I collected as soon as they came out, and I re-read them occasionally. I can't say they are the "best" novels, as that's very subjective, but they are my favorites: Entropy Effect; The Final Reflection; Dwellers in the Crucible; Ishmael; Strangers From The Sky. I also have one on my Kindle, which I bought by accident but turned out to really like. I forget the name but it's about the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, maybe Here Be Dragons or something like that? All unfamiliar characters to me but really good.
Let's see ... that would be about 1990 give or take a year or two ... huummm .... no. That was about when I stopped buying them. I had more important things to spend my money on than the drek Pocket Books was churning out and calling Star Trek.
Mind you, there was the occasional gem to be found in the towering pile of dragon dung, but I found most of them to be not worth the paper they were printed on. Just a waste of good trees.
Of course as always YMMV.
Well, the books went through a dry phase around then, due to restrictions imposed by Richard Arnold, but there's been one heck of a renaissance in the past decade or so. Everything the books were forbidden to do then, they do in spades now -- continuing storylines, original characters and series, real character development and change, you name it. I would've felt very constrained as a writer under the regime that existed in the '90s, but since I began writing Trek fiction professionally in 2003, I've had extraordinary creative freedom and gotten to participate in a very diverse range of projects and series.
I've read Ex Machina and liked that. I just started picking up the Strange New Worlds anthologies and there's some great stuff in there, but the older I get the more I want to expand my horizons. In my youth (15-20 years ago), Star Trek or Star Wars books were all I would read, and I missed a lot of good stuff. I never read The Lord of the Rings until I was in my early 20's, and that was only because I happened to catch a reference to it on Friends. I despised the show, and immediately thought that if those whiny losers can read that book, then I can handle it. I did and I now have two copies (I actually keep one at work on my desk.)
I'll get around to more modern stuff. I want to do the Crucible trilogy, and I really want to read this big Borg showdown thing everyone's all agog over.
I'll get around to more modern stuff. I want to do the Crucible trilogy, and I really want to read this big Borg showdown thing everyone's all agog over.
IMZADI and IMZADI 2:Triad
If you want Next Generation DIRT about Riker and Troi and Worf, Riker and Troi... here ya go.... A powerful performance by Frakes who did the audio book. I thought it was well done to explain Riker's time on Betazed.
Also I found Q Squared was entertaining, as well as the novelization "All good things..." the last next gen trek Episode.
Oh yes the crossover with Next Gen Trek and XMEN, (Hard to believe but yes, they did it.)
As for original Trek, I recommend Black fire, Promethus Factor, and Crubical... And the Movie Books for Original cast. There is so much more the books tell that the movie left out, even with page cuts in script. Str 5: wasn't that bad if you read the book, they cut the hell out of the script.
Also the Eugenics war, (parts one-three) that talks about Khan Noonien Sing, and his rule on earth and his exile on the planet Ceti-Apha 5. A powerful and very in depth look at the all time Best villian of trek, Khan.
Nathaniel
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
I was really enjoying the continuing DS9 storyline up to Warpath. After that I just lost interest. A great build-up to a very unsatisfying conclusion, IMO. Here's hoping the DS9 re-re-launch works out better.
Vanguard is an amazing series. Great characters. Great action. I'd love to see it as a live action series, it's that good. (Of course, that will never happen).
Titan is a close second. Once it gets back to it's exploration storyline, I have high hopes for it. Unfortunately, Destiny derailed it for a while. While Destiny was a great big action movie, the crossover nature of it hurt Titan's run. Here's hoping it gets back to telling it's own stories.
TNG has been a bit of a mess for a while. It's taken a while to find it's way, post Nemesis. I'm currently reading Losing the Peace and have high hopes that the Enterprise will soon be back at the forefront of Trek.
I've heard that Voyager is off to a good start with it's relaunch but I'm Boregd out and have never been a fan of the characters. Going back t the Delta Quadrant and seeing what it's like, post Borg, doesn't hold any interest for me. That said,
many have said it's very well done.
Once we're past The Typhon Pact I'm homing that the crossovers are put on the back burner for a while. It's a big galaxy. How likely is it that these ships will keep meeting up? Let's get each series standing on it's own for a while. The current crop of writers are top notch. Let's see what they can do!
Best Trek novel of all time, for me it's The Final Reflection. Best of the recent crop, a tie between Orion's Hounds and Reap the Whirlwind. Big thumbs up to both!
Omega_Glory
Commodore
Not too much. Read most of the Shatner novels and a few other from TOS...Section 31:Cloak come to mind. I really prefer books with a bit more meat to them than a basic Trek storyline. Something along the lines of the 800 page Honor Harrington books or the Dune novels.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
To be honest, most of what I've read from the recent books was (and of course, this is opinion), average in quality at best. Nearly every Trek book I REALLY liked and remember is pre-Arnold.
There are a few exceptions (like Vanguard).
To give credit where it's due, the bulk of the material in the novelizations that wasn't in the films was created by the authors of the novelizations, rather than just copied from the script. A movie script isn't quite enough material to fill out a full-length novel, so novelizers often add new material to expand on the story, fill in substance, explain plot holes, and so on. Vonda McIntyre did a particularly noteworthy job of this in her TWOK and TSFS novelizations. Heck, her TSFS doesn't even begin adapting the movie until several chapters in. She fills in the whole gap between the two films first.
It's been doing that for two books now, Over a Torrent Sea (whence my current avatar) and Synthesis.
Typhon Pact isn't the "everybody meets up to deal with the same thing" kind of crossover. It's more in the vein of something like the Invasion! and Gateways crossovers of years past; each story is a separate tale, a different crew or team dealing with a different situation in a different place and time, but there's a common background or theme loosely connecting them.
I'm very flattered.
Ha ha, that is pretty crazy. I suppose he could wrap his little fringes around the trigger and fire it. If a Horta is actually in a bar associating with bipedal humanoids, then it would follow that he could perform some/most/all of the same motor skills as said bipedal humanoids.
Unspoken Truth was amazing! My favorite new Trek novel.
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
Titan seems to just get up to speed before the next event draws it back in. I much prefer that it be well out of the Federation, going Where No One Has Gone Before. Typhon Pact may not be a Let's Meet Up sort of cross over but still reduces the feeling that Titan is way out there on the frontier.
No, I think it just creates the feeling that the Typhon Pact (specifically the Gorn) is also way out there on the frontier.
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
You know the circumstances better than I do but it seems to me like Captain Cook running into the French in the south Pacific. I'd rather learn more about the races on the Titan and the planets they visit than tie into a story that's more Federation centered. There's other ships back in the home territory. Let them be the ones dealing with the Gorn.
Either way, I'm looking forward to the Typhon Pact. Hopefully, each series will find their voice once it's done.
I just remembered another one, Burning Dreams, about Captain Pike. I really liked that one, and it was somewhat more recent, right?
There's a lot of good ones listed in here (Crucible series, Enterprise, Final Frontier), but my top recommendation has to go to Greg Cox's "Eugenics Wars" series. Amazing storytelling to weave in real world events into the Trek universe, explain the Space Seed timeline, and give nods to many other episodes. The more you know about Trek, the more you will enjoy these books.
On the down side, there's not been many books that I've bought and thrown away, but the "Section 31" series would be the ones I would not recommend.
On the down side, there's not been many books that I've bought and thrown away, but the "Section 31" series would be the ones I would not recommend.
I read a lot of them in the late 80s, and none since. I also wrote one, but never tried to get it published.
For a while there, Vonda McIntyre's name was synonymous with Star Trek novels. And I remember they all had those marvelous covers by Boris Vallejo.
I remember this one dreadful Mary Sue book that got published. I don't remember the title or who wrote it. Anyone?
For a while there, Vonda McIntyre's name was synonymous with Star Trek novels. And I remember they all had those marvelous covers by Boris Vallejo.
I remember this one dreadful Mary Sue book that got published. I don't remember the title or who wrote it. Anyone?
Similar threads
- Locked
- Locked
