Novel suggestions for lit newbie

[Red]

Hi folks.

I'm a returning Trek fan with time on my hands and so I've started getting back into Trek again. I've never read any novels before and was wondering if anyone could suggest a few places to start. However, I've watched all TOS and TNG episodes, but only seen DS9 up to mid season 4 and VOY up to start season 3, so wouldn't want to read anything that would spoil my current trawling through DS9 and VOY DVDs.

Thanks for any help

 

[Thrawn]

Most of the really great stuff in TrekLit builds off of things from DS9 and Voyager. Usually, where I tell people to start is the Destiny trilogy, which is a crossover trilogy set about 4 years after Voyager ends, with TNG and DS9 and VOY and (in really nifty ways) ENT elements coming in to play, and it is JUST. AWESOME. But: it does rely on a couple of things that happen right at the end of both DS9 and Voyager as plot impetus...though those things are pretty well known, and you might know them already, even without watching. I'll be more specific if you like.

Safer territory: I can wholeheartedly recommend Vanguard. It's an original series set aboard a space station during TOS; it's sort of like TOS as reimagined by HBO. It's goddamn spectacular in every way, and it makes TOS so much better too. So you should definitely do that. First book is "Harbinger"; google "memory beta vanguard" and you'll find a site that'll give you the rest.

And then also Destiny, if you're up to speed on the broad strokes of the ends of DS9 and Voyager.

 

[ryan123450]

This will be a fun situation to recommend for. No one has ever asked this and been in your situation before. Let see...

Your going to have to wait for anything Lit-verse related since that all takes place post DS9 and VOY.

With TOS, I'd go for the Rihannsu series. Five books that build on the TOS depiction of the Romulans, with the Enterprise in the era after 'The Motion Picture.' Also Burning Dreams, THE Captain Pike book. Another good one is Ex Machina, anther post-TMP book. The Mere Anarchy series and the recent novel Unspoken Truth would be good as well.

TNG wise I'd read Imzadi and Immortal Coil.

Edit to add: I'd also recommend Vanguard. If you're looking for a short series that you will absolutely love, this is it.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I usually suggest New Frontier, but opinions about it are polarized. It's quite an oddball compared to other TrekLit, but I love it.

 

[Cicero]

For TOS, I'd recommend:

The Kobayashi Maru
Federation
The Rihannsu novels (if you read only one, read The Romulan Way)
Provenance of Shadows
Serpents Among the Ruins
The Children of Kings
Where Sea Meets Sky
and the Vanguard series

My favorite TNG novels are A Time To Kill and A Time To Heal, the last of four dilogies in the 9-book A Time To series, which is set just before Star Trek: Nemesis. The rest of the that series is uneven, but those two books can be read independently. I remember Q-in-Law and The Romulan Prize as being good, but I haven't read either in almost 20 years.

When you finish Deep Space Nine, the "Relaunch" novel series is very good, though the books after Unity (the cover of which is a spoiler) begin to vary in quality.

 

[Greg Cox]

Most of the really great stuff in TrekLit builds off of things from DS9 and Voyager. .

Not sure I can go along with that. While there has certainly been plenty of fine stuff written in Relaunch era, let's not forget that Treklit was around long before the most recent DS9 and Voyager stuff.

If the OP likes TOS and TNG, might I recommend The Final Reflection by John Ford or perhaps Imzadi by Peter David, just to name two of the more celebrated Trek novels of the past . . . .

 

[F. King Daniel]

Go on Amazon, eBay or similar and grab a load of preowned classics for virtually nothing more than the cost of shipping.

TOS
Prime Directive
Crossroad
The Lost Years
Spock's World
Chain of Attack
The Final Nexus (sequel to above)
My Enemy, My Ally
The Romulan Way (sequel to above)
The Ashes of Eden
Dreadnought!
The Pandora Principle
The Captain's Daughter
Collision Course

TNG
Survivors
Metamorphosis
The Devil's Heart
Q-Squared
Vendetta
The Captain's Honor
Reunion
Federation (actually this is TOS too)
The Return (Kirk's resurrected after Generations)

Some oddball novels that are fantastic, but have been contradicted by later TV/film Trek:
The Final Reflection (awesome look inside the 23rd century Klingon Empire)
Pawns and Symbols (another awesome look inside another version of the 23rd century Klingon Empire)
Final Frontier (a TOS prequel where Captain April and George Kirk launch the Enterprise. The Enterprise TV series screwed up many of the authors' re-TOS assumptions)
Dark Mirror (TNG Mirror universe!)

 

[Cicero]

The Return (Kirk's resurrected after Generations)
Dark Mirror (TNG Mirror universe!)

These were both excellent. I'm embarrassed to have forgotten them.

 

[zarkon]

TOS
Where Sea Meets Sky (Cap'n Pike book)
The Wounded Sky (preferably before spock's world)
Spock's World
The Final Reflection <-best trek book there is
Yesterday's Son
Time for Yesterday(read after the above)
Doctor's Orders
Sarek
Traitors Wind
My Brother's Keeper Trilogy
Errand of Vengeance Trilogy
Errand of Fury Trilogy (definitely Vengeance first)
First Frontier
Memory Prime

TNG
Q-Squared
Vendetta
Federation
Dark Mirror
Imzadi
Masks
q-in-law
blaze of glory
the romulan stratagem
A Rock and a Hard Place
The Last Stand
Possession
Intellivore
The Q Continuum trilogy

Most of the really great stuff in TrekLit builds off of things from DS9 and Voyager.

I believe the exact opposite.

 

[Thrawn]

I like big long stories where things change and events actually matter. I'm all about the continuity after the end of the series. If I want TV episodes, I'll go watch TV episodes; for novels, I want stories that feel like novels.

In taking chances and writing stories beyond the scope of the original source material, I think the overarching novel continuity has made Trek a much more diverse and fascinating place. It almost seems silly, after all that work, to go read books that just do what the TV show did.

But to each his own.

 

[ryan123450]

My feelings exactly Thrawn. I would never waste my time reading an old numbered novel. Not that many of them aren't very well written, but it's just not what I'm looking for.

 

[JD]

^I'm with you there my friend. But, I think there are still some older books that are good stories, even if they're not as impactful as the relaunch stories.

As for my recommendations, I'd check out Serpents Among the Ruins, which covers the events of the Tomed Icident which is referred to in a TNG episodes, and while it is based off of a line from DS9, I think you could probably understand and enjoy The Art of the Impossible too. Another one you might enjoy is The Buried Age, which focuses on Picard between his commands of the Stargazer and E-D. All three of these books are part of The Lost Era, a novel series which covers the events between the prologue of Generations and the beginning of TNG. I'd also like to put in another recommendation for Vanguard, which is made of pure awsomesauce.

 

[zarkon]

I like big long stories where things change and events actually matter. I'm all about the continuity after the end of the series. If I want TV episodes, I'll go watch TV episodes; for novels, I want stories that feel like novels.

In taking chances and writing stories beyond the scope of the original source material, I think the overarching novel continuity has made Trek a much more diverse and fascinating place. It almost seems silly, after all that work, to go read books that just do what the TV show did.

But to each his own.

I'm looking at it by sheer book quality. Post overarching haven't been as fun and new characters therein have generally not greatly interested me.

 

[bfollowell]

If the OP likes TOS and TNG, might I recommend The Final Reflection by John Ford or perhaps Imzadi by Peter David, just to name two of the more celebrated Trek novels of the past . . . .

And then there's that wonderful Eugenics Wars/Khan trilogy. Now who wrote those?

 

[Greg Cox]

If the OP likes TOS and TNG, might I recommend The Final Reflection by John Ford or perhaps Imzadi by Peter David, just to name two of the more celebrated Trek novels of the past . . . .

And then there's that wonderful Eugenics Wars/Khan trilogy. Now who wrote those?

Modesty forbids . . . .

(But thanks!)

My new novel, I have to say, is an old-fashioned, standalone TOS novel with no connection to any overarching plots whatsoever!

 

[Red]

Thanks to everyone who has responded, there's plenty of suggestions to start me off there! Should keep me out of trouble until I get to the end of DS9 and VOY box sets

Vanguard sounds great so I think I might check that out. I'll go and see what Amazon/eBay have on offer.

Thanks again

 

[MichaelS]

My new novel, I have to say, is an old-fashioned, standalone TOS novel with no connection to any overarching plots whatsoever!

Those are fun to write, aren't they?

 

[Greg Cox]

My new novel, I have to say, is an old-fashioned, standalone TOS novel with no connection to any overarching plots whatsoever!

Those are fun to write, aren't they?

I had a ball, that's for sure. In fact, I think I finally wrote the line I was born to write:

"Damnit, I'm a doctor, not an exorcist!"

 

[Thrawn]

^ That's awesome!

 

[Darth Duck]

Vanguard sounds great so I think I might check that out. I'll go and see what Amazon/eBay have on offer.

A very wise choice. Vanguard is the bee's knees.