Question for the board:

[PKS8304]

In your experience reading Trek lit have you ever hit a point where you put the book down and couldn't finish it because you just were not getting into it? If so which book and what was it you didn't like? I was having this discussion with some friends and I honestly couldn't think of one I stopped before the end. My one friend refuses to finish the Voyager Day of Honor book Fire Ship. I read it when I was on school and from what I could remember it dragged a little in the middle but paid out in the end.

 

[Mage]

I finish them all, but I struggled with Seize The Fire and Fallen Gods. There were a few more, but honoustly, can't even remember the title.

BTW, Fire Ship....isn't that the Captain's Table novel for Voyager, not Day Of Honour??

 

[Relayer1]

It's happened more than once to me - not often recently though (but The Folded World was a struggle, as were Zero Sum Game and Seize The Fire). I can normally force my way through them.


I'd say the Gemworld books and the Spiritwalk duology spring readily to mind. Gemworld took a couple of years and several attempts to finish.

 

[Christopher]

BTW, Fire Ship....isn't that the Captain's Table novel for Voyager, not Day Of Honour??

That's right. The Voyager DoH novels are Her Klingon Soul and the episode novelization.

 

[Defcon]

No, I'll finish every book I start no matter how bad it is, even if the only reason for that is to be able to bitch about it with a clear conscience (nobody can tell me it picks up later).

 

[DimesDan]

In your experience reading Trek lit have you ever hit a point where you put the book down and couldn't finish it because you just were not getting into it? If so which book and what was it you didn't like? I was having this discussion with some friends and I honestly couldn't think of one I stopped before the end. My one friend refuses to finish the Voyager Day of Honor book Fire Ship. I read it when I was on school and from what I could remember it dragged a little in the middle but paid out in the end.

Yes I have, several times, the ones I can clearly remember putting down and deciding not to pick up again are:

Dark Matters: Cloak and Dagger by Christie Golden.
Section 31: Rogue and Last Full Measure by Andy Mangels and Michael A Martin.
Typhon Pact: Seize the Fire by Michael A Martin.

Although I found most of their novels a slog with the exception of the The Lost Era: The Sundered and Mission Gamma: Cathedral, I never refused to read further and just put them down.

I've also found, and I've commented before, so I feel like I am needlessly repeating myself that Christopher's telling and showing with exceptionally heavy handed exposition style of writing can be a very hard read and I almost stopped reading both the second DTI novel and his Birth of the Federation novel because of this.

 

[ryan123450]

I too will slog through even the worst of books once I've started. I don't think I'd ever just give up.

 

[DimesDan]

I too will slog through even the worst of books once I've started. I don't think I'd ever just give up.

In my opinion, it's not a case of giving up, I'm pretty open minded about things, if I enjoy something, I continue to do that, if I don't enjoy it, I'll discontinue doing that as I just don't see the point of doing something I do not enjoy.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Enterprise: The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing. A third of the way into it I thought back to how little I'd enjoyed the preceeding books, that I wasn't enjoying this one, and I realized that my time would he better spent elsewhere.

Previously, I'd left The Lost Years: A Flag Full of Stars half-read for about six months. I re-read from the beginning and enjoyed it more on my second attempt.

 

[Relayer1]

I nearly quit on Vulcans Forge and each of the Vulcan's Soul trilogy too. Very hard going !

 

[jpv2000]

I too will slog through even the worst of books once I've started. I don't think I'd ever just give up.

Same with me. There have been many books I did not purchase to begin with because the teaser on back failed to impress me. But, I've always finished any book I purchased.

I also usually only read the series that I am really into so that helps.

 

[DonIago]

I'm blanking on the exact title...was it Titan:Sword of Damocles? This isn't intended as a comment on the quality of the story itself, but it was very different stylistically...or seemed so to me, in any case...from most Trek books I'm familiar with, and I found it a real struggle. I did finish it, but it was much more difficult than usual...

 

[DS9forever]

DS9's Laertian Gamble is pretty hard to get through - it's as if the DS9 characters were simply written into a different type of scifi novel completely. That said, I liked the Ferengi religious leader in the book, a "Charismatic Father of Profit and Loss".

 

[JD]

I just couldn't get into Seize the Fire when I tried to read it a few months back. I couldn't identify exactly what it was, but I just didn't care for Michael A. Martin's writtting style. It's kind of weird because I really like the books he wrote with Andy Mangels. Apparently what I liked about them must have come from Andy. Same goes for Before Dishonor, I've tried it twice and just couldn't get into it. This was a another one that surprised me, because I usually love Peter David stuff, but there was just something off with that one.

I have a huge list of books that I bought and haven't read, so if something doesn't hold my interest I'm pretty quick to move on to something else. I might give some of these another try once I get through more of my unread stuff.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

No matter how much of a struggle it is I always finish a Trek book. I bought it so I feel it's a waste of money to not finish it. I will rush though it and skip over stuff, sometimes just reading the dialog. The worst experience I had doing this was for Ship of the Line and Red Sector...the two Trek novels I loath the most. I've had more enjoyable tooth pullings.

 

[Sci]

I've gotten pretty good at figuring out what books will tend to interest me and what won't, based on the plot synopses. Usually books that can be categorized as "adventure-of-the-week" novels, which just follow the familiar paradigms of the TV shows, bore me and I reach that point where I can't finish them.

 

[CaptPapa]

It depends on the material for me, though if it's Star Trek I'll always finish it - back to this in a minute.
I've been known put non Star Trek books down, at whatever point in the story if they don't catch me, or turn me off. The most drastic example is Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. I read through how many ever hundreds of pages and got to within about 20 of the end when the storyline so turned me off I could not limp through the last bit.
But for Star Trek books, I've developed a so-far sure way to get through a book I don't care much for. On this subject I'm pretty suborn - I want to finish. First though, I only read TOS 'centric stories so I'm most of the way home because of that. The worst time I've had with one of these is the one I'm currently reading, Vanguard: Harbinger. The biggest problem for me is there's not enough TOS crew for my tastes, but that's not the book's fault. I'm indifferent to the writer's style overall, and this book contains two of the very worst lines in any book I remember; "An acrid, musky odor clung to him like a bad reputation". I thought that was pretty terrible - more at home in a cheap '40s detective story maybe - but not as bad as this stinker, "As soon as he left the compartment, he sniffed and groaned to realize that the cloying perfume of debauchery clung to his rumpled clothes like a chigger on a bare leg". Really !!!
Anyway, my fix; I'm finishing this book up only at work during my lunch break - I'm at work, how bad could a Star Trek book be in that setting. Otherwise, I'm reading other books in between. So far, I've read three other novels while I'm slogging through this one.

 

[Stoek]

I can think of two occasions. One was Devil's Heart. Now for all I know I was simply reacting to the author's use of Surak being very different from what Diane Duane had done in Spock's World. But I recall at the time feeling like it was just totally nonsensical.

And then there was Crucible: Spock, which I've discussed elsewhere as just being very hard for me for kind of personal reasons.

Closest to that was the Vulcan's Soul trilogy. I got through the first two books and then had a break of about six months because while the story was well written the whole saga of how The Romulans came to be was very dark and depressing.

 

[Rush Limborg]

I just couldn't get into Seize the Fire when I tried to read it a few months back. I couldn't identify exactly what it was, but I just didn't care for Michael A. Martin's writtting style. It's kind of weird because I really like the books he wrote with Andy Mangels. Apparently what I liked about them must have come from Andy.

Yeah. I remember I LOVE most of their stuff (though I'm not sure I'll ever fully forgive them for splitting up Bashir and Ezri). For example, I loved The Good That Men Do and Excelsior: Forged In Fire, but as William F. Buckley would say, "I had to flog myself in order to read" to the end of Kobayashi Maru. I started it kinda liking it, but...well, not really. And Andy's name is on that one!

 

[Nerys Myk]

The only one I've never finished is Warped.