Your Suggestions Please?

[PianoWizzy]

[Hope I'm not bothering you regulars here!]

So I'm a brand new Trekker, and I'm very interested in reading some of the Star Trek novels.

I'm mostly into TOS, with no experience [yet] with the other Star Trek series', movies, or universes.

Which books would you suggest to me?



[And if there isn't one yet, could this topic be for book suggestions to those who might ask? Sorry, I'm so new here!]

 

[Thrawn]

There are a ton of great TOS novels; the Crucible trilogy (which I think is still in print) is a good go-to for that.

I personally, though, would recommend the series Star Trek: Vanguard. It's a novel-only series that runs at the same time as TOS, provides a different perspective on events, and is full of so much overwhelming kickass awesome it's difficult to explain. It's like if HBO reimagined TOS. It's phenomenal.

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Vanguard

The third novel went out of print because of a clerical error, unfortunately, but it's fairly easy to get used if you're willing to drop a couple more dollars, and it's absolutely worth it. The series is arguably the best thing running in TrekLit right now.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Prime Directive, The Lost Years, Dreadnought!, My Enemy My Ally, The Romulan Way, Spock's World, Crossroad, Ishmael, Final Frontier, Best Destiny, The Entropy Effect, The Final Reflection, Pawns and Symbols.

All are a quite old, stand-alone and can be picked up for pennies on Amazon and eBay.

 

[Almost Unique]

My TOS suggestions:
The Crucible Trilogy
Spock's World, Prime Directive, Federation, The Romulan Way, Yesterday's Son, Ex Machina are all titles that stick out in my mind.

As for non TOS, my first recommendation would be the Destiny trilogy.

If you like Deep Space Nine, start with Avatar (Parts 1 and 2) and go from there...

 

[BXsainttj]

My suggestions
the Vulcan's soul trilogy (slow going but very informative), Forged in Fire, Crucible Series, Vanguard Series, Troublesome Minds, Children of Kings (great Capt Pike story imo)
Post TOS suggestions
Q&A was a good little read. Nice to see Q again, Destiny series was good, Titan: Red King, Before Dishonor, Unworthy, Glass empires (alt uni Spock)

 

[Nick M]

I have to admit, I liked Burning Dreams, a novel about Capt. Pike by Margaret Wander Bonanno.

 

[JD]

My suggestions
the Vulcan's soul trilogy (slow going but very informative), Forged in Fire,

I think it's worth pointing out that while these books are mostly TOS they deal alot with concepts and characters from the later series.

 

[BillJ]

Troublesome Minds by Dave Gallanter is a good read.

 

[ryan123450]

My Brother's Keeper trilogy- Kirk and Gary Mitchell's early days
Constellations- short story anthology (Awesome!)
The Lost Years quadrilogy- between TOS and The Motion Picture
Burning Dreams- the ultimate Pike story

 

[JD]

I'll put in another vote for Troublesome Minds. It's actually the only straigh TOS First 5 Year Mission Era novel I've read, but it's really good. I've also read and enjoyed part of the Mere Anarchy miniseries, but only two of them take place during the series.

 

[PianoWizzy]

Wow! So many suggestions! Thanks guys, you're awesome. Now I'm just going to need the time to read some of these... I think I've got a list of which ones I want to start with... [particularly Spock's World and Troublesome Minds, thank you most everyone on this thread XD]

Thanks again!

OH, also, besides Glass Empires [thanks BXsainttj!], are there other books focused around the alternate universe [and I admit my deep admiration of Mirror!Spock here ] and, of course, Mirror!Spock?

 

[JD]

I'm assuming by alternate universe you mean the Mirror Universe. There's actually a whole series of Mirror Universe novels....but.... the majority of them are taken from the other series. Even the TOS based stories in the series use elements from the other series.

Oh, and if you're interested in learning more about any of these books, you should check out the non-canon Trek wiki, Memory Beta, which is IMO probably the best online resource for Trek Lit.

 

[ronny]

I'm assuming by alternate universe you mean the Mirror Universe. There's actually a whole series of Mirror Universe novels....but.... the majority of them are taken from the other series. Even the TOS based stories in the series use elements from the other series.

The TOS story in the Mirror Universe Omnibuses has been expanded and published as a stand alone novel. The Sorrows of Empire by David Mack concerns what happens with Spock in the Mirror Universe after Kirk and Co. return to the prime universe. Really good stuff.

Other TOS suggestions I give a big thumbs up to are the Vanguard and Crucible series. Provenance of Shadows, the McCoy book in the Crucible series, is one of my favorite ST books of all time.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'm assuming by alternate universe you mean the Mirror Universe. There's actually a whole series of Mirror Universe novels....but.... the majority of them are taken from the other series. Even the TOS based stories in the series use elements from the other series.

Oh, and if you're interested in learning more about any of these books, you should check out the non-canon Trek wiki, Memory Beta, which is IMO probably the best online resource for Trek Lit.

Just a warning about Memory Beta: Massive spoilers for everything. They're unavoidable.

 

[PianoWizzy]

You guys are awesome.

Okay, I admit, I'm posting again here because I have expanded my Trek obsession into TNG. Particularly Data. Are there books featuring Data? Or Picard, he's my second fave here, I'll be glad to read something about his past, maybe for the time between being Captain of the Stargazer and being Captain of the Enterprise. Or something.

 

[BillJ]

Particularly Data. Are there books featuring Data?

Immortal Coil by Jeffery Lang. Plus Data makes an appearance as Captain of the Enterprise-E in Star Trek: Countdown, the comic prequel to the 2009 movie.

 

[Greg Cox]

You guys are awesome.

Okay, I admit, I'm posting again here because I have expanded my Trek obsession into TNG. Particularly Data. Are there books featuring Data? Or Picard, he's my second fave here, I'll be glad to read something about his past, maybe for the time between being Captain of the Stargazer and being Captain of the Enterprise. Or something.

IMMORTAL COIL by Jeff Lang is all about Data.

 

[F. King Daniel]

You guys are awesome.

Okay, I admit, I'm posting again here because I have expanded my Trek obsession into TNG. Particularly Data. Are there books featuring Data? Or Picard, he's my second fave here, I'll be glad to read something about his past, maybe for the time between being Captain of the Stargazer and being Captain of the Enterprise. Or something.

Metamorphosis is a great book about Data ataining his dream of becoming human.

As for a younger Picard, there's a whole Stargazer book series, of which I've only read Valiant where he first takes command (and Reunion, the TNG book that first introduces the Stargazer crew, which comes before but is set much later, if you follow). It was enjoyable, but I've heard the rest in the Stargazer series are mediocre.

 

[Thrawn]

Or Picard, he's my second fave here, I'll be glad to read something about his past, maybe for the time between being Captain of the Stargazer and being Captain of the Enterprise. Or something.

There is, in fact, a book about exactly that. There's a thread on it right now, and it's one of my absolute favorite Trek novels.

The Buried Age, by Christopher L. Bennett.

It covers the whole period from Picard losing the Stargazer to taking command of the Ent-D, and it's brilliant.

 

[Count Zero]

It also features Data.