Recommend a good standalone novel
- Thread starter Captaindemotion
- Start date
Indeed. I explained as best I could in the OP - I basically don't want to either have to go through tons of backstory to be able to follow the book or read a further dozen books to see how the story ends! Perhaps a better title would have been 'Recommend a Good Book to Ease myself back into Treklit' - but try fitting that into the thread heading!
I'm a sucker for MU stuff, so sounds good.
Read the latter, loved it, don't know why I haven't read the former.
I've heard good stuff about this trilogy all right, must give it a try.
Read and loved the former, must try the latter.
Thanks. I do remember being interested in this when I heard it being announced.
I read the TNG and DS9 Section 31 novels, I don't know why I didn't read the TOS one. I think it struck me as a bit of a retcon at the time. No-one in 24th Century Starfleet apart from Bashir had heard of the organisation, so I was sceptical as to how they could be fitted into a story featuring Kirk's crew and not leave any trace.
I think it was around the time of the release of the ATT... series that I started to lose interest in Trek novels, certainly in TNG novels. The length of that series just seemed like too big an investment of either time or money. I also remember at the time being annoyed that Pocket were doing a series of books pre-NEM, when I wanted to know about what happened that crew post-NEM.
Read it, loved it.
I did read and enjoy the first in the Titan series but to be honest, I'm not interested enough in Riker and Troi to really follow that series.
Actually, it's the exact opposite. Destiny is the cornerstone of the Trek lit continuity. Everything flows into and then out of it. It's an excellent story but it's in no way a standalone.
He probably is confusing it with the Crucible trilogy by David R. George III, which was specifically designed to only tie-in to canon .
^ Ah, that must be the one I'm thinking of then. Thanks for clearing that up folks!
Ideally they're all supposed to be that way. It's not like we're deliberately trying to confuse people or make the books inaccessible to new readers. The goal is for every book to tell a complete and comprehensible story within itself, with any necessary information from other books being explained within the text in the same way that brand-new backstory would be explained. The interconnectedness among the books is meant to be a bonus, something extra for readers who choose to follow the connections and read multiple books. It's more like the connections among, say, "The Emissary," "Reunion," "Redemption," and later Worf/Klingon episodes, or among DS9's "The Maquis," TNG's "Pre-Emptive Strike," and VGR's "Caretaker," than like the connections between, say, consecutive episodes of Lost or Heroes. Not fragments of a bigger story, but complete stories with an extra, optional level of interconnection.
Lots of things that happened in TOS didn't leave any subsequent trace. Kirk lost the love of his life in "City on the Edge," his brother and sister-in-law in "Operation: Annihilate," and his wife and unborn child in "The Paradise Syndrome," but none of those events were ever mentioned again (and somehow he was able to claim in TWOK that he'd "never faced death"!).
And DS9 did establish that Section 31 had been around since the dawn of Starfleet, something which Enterprise later verified by revealing that Malcolm Reed had once worked for them.
Well, Titan isn't just about them. It's an ensemble series, and those two aren't the most central characters in every single book.
^ Yeah, I remember that (re Titan). But with there being so much Treklit out there to catch up on, I'm going to have to be ruthless about where and what I catch up on, so I'll probably concentrate mainly on TOS/TNG/DS9.
For The Sorrows of Empire, all you need to know going into it is what was in "Mirror, Mirror."
Rise Like Lions does tie in to a lot of the other Mirror Universe stories, but it's primarily a sequel to Sorrows and to the DS9 MU stories. All you really need to know going into Rise Like Lions from the prior DS9 Relaunch novels dealing with the Mirror Universe is that the Mirror Kira is dead. Otherwise, I say to the bits that touch on prior MU stories: Just go with it, it's worth it.
All I'll say is that it works. It absolutely works.
Really? Then you've been gone for more than three years -- A Time to... was published in 2004, so you've been gone for 8 years now!
Well, the A Time to... series led directly into the post-NEM novels; they set up both Star Trek: Titan and the post-NEM TNG series. And there were a lot of unexplained changes between INS and NEM that ATT addressed.
As for the length -- like I said, I only ever read the last three books. The others just never interested me.
If you do come to a point where you're looking for a good old fashioned Star Trekian lone ship out there having a space exploration adventure story, I'd recommend this one.
I'm not much of an S.C.E. fan either, but Wildfire is one of the most genuinely moving, beautiful, amazing TrekLit books ever written. It's so much more than just some techy adventure story.
As others have said, Destiny is very connected to much of the rest of the TrekLit line -- and not in a Red Skies Crossover sort of way -- but, you shouldn't need to read anything else going into it. The character arcs and conflicts that drive the story are all explained in the trilogy itself, even though it is building on prior books.
^The Destiny Trilogy is a great place to start. It is the series that got me started in Trek lit and I have enjoyed reading ST books ever since. You will not be dissapointed.
Another vote for The Neverending Sacrifice. I'm a 30 year old, 1.92 meters tall, 93 kilo of a man, and I hugged this book after I finished it!!!
The Buried Age is a must read.
Cast No Shadow was a good read.
The first three books from The Lost Era series (The Sundered, Serpents Amongst The Ruins and Art Of The Impossible). The other three, not so good.
I really liked Q&A. But then again, just about anything by KRAD is good enough for me.
The Buried Age is a must read.
Cast No Shadow was a good read.
The first three books from The Lost Era series (The Sundered, Serpents Amongst The Ruins and Art Of The Impossible). The other three, not so good.
I really liked Q&A. But then again, just about anything by KRAD is good enough for me.
The Never-Ending Sacrifice, Orion's Hounds, Destiny, and The Sorrows of Empire (if you like the Mirror Universe) would be my picks. I think the others have summed up why pretty well, but honestly I think these 4 (or 6 if you want to count all three Destiny books as one) would give you a pretty good feel for what modern TrekLit is like. Oh, and if you are interested in Destiny you might want to get the omnibus edition that just came out last month.
I'd also throw in Vanguard, with the one warning that it is a longer limited series, with 7 novels, one 4 novella collection, one novella, and an MU short story. The MU story doesn't have anything to do with the Prime Universe story, but if you like the Prime characters you might want to check out their Mirror counterparts. It also ties into the events in the expanded novel version of The Sorrows of Empire.
I'd also throw in Vanguard, with the one warning that it is a longer limited series, with 7 novels, one 4 novella collection, one novella, and an MU short story. The MU story doesn't have anything to do with the Prime Universe story, but if you like the Prime characters you might want to check out their Mirror counterparts. It also ties into the events in the expanded novel version of The Sorrows of Empire.
You should also check out the "Eugenics War" books from the early 2000's.
Some others are:
"Masks" (TNG)
"Boogeyman" (TNG
"Q-In-Law" (TNG)
"Grounded" (TNG)
"Warchild" (DS9)
"Trial By Error" (DS9)
"Echoes" (Voyager)
"The Return" (TOS/TNG)
"Engines of Destiny" (TOS/TNG)
"Spectre"
"Dark Victory"
"Preserver" (TOS/TNG)
Some others are:
"Masks" (TNG)
"Boogeyman" (TNG
"Q-In-Law" (TNG)
"Grounded" (TNG)
"Warchild" (DS9)
"Trial By Error" (DS9)
"Echoes" (Voyager)
"The Return" (TOS/TNG)
"Engines of Destiny" (TOS/TNG)
"Spectre"
"Dark Victory"
"Preserver" (TOS/TNG)
The Destiny trilogy is a must. I remember reading the first one and being on pins and needles waiting for the second and third books to come out.
I'll second the mention of VOY #15 Echoes. As well I'd like to recommend VOY Section 31 - Shadow. You mentioned that you preferred DS9, TNG and TOS, but I'd say to give these VOY novels a try. I found them to be very enjoyable
I'll second the mention of VOY #15 Echoes. As well I'd like to recommend VOY Section 31 - Shadow. You mentioned that you preferred DS9, TNG and TOS, but I'd say to give these VOY novels a try. I found them to be very enjoyable
^I agree, plug away Greg
No, you're thinking of the "Crucible" trilogy by DRG3.
Feel free - faint heart never won flummoxed reader. Or something like that.
Similar threads
