So, from what people are saying...books one and six are good and the ones in the middle aren't. If I read the first one and then the last one, will I be hopelessly lost? I've already wasted time reading some novels that weren't up to snuff (like Catalyst of Sorrows IMO).
I'd recommend the L.A.Graf and Jerry Oltion entries, too. They may not mesh with the overall story particularly well: the L.A.Graf book steers clear of references to Carey material, while the Oltion book somewhat mischaracterizes the villain-protagonist Shucoricon because the author wasn't properly informed on Carey's designs on that character. But they are good independently dramatic stories that give different angles to the problematique of Belle Terre. And they are written in styles that
completely differ from Carey's, which I consider a major plus in an anthology-style effort.
L.A.Graf do their usual stuff where Chekov gets vindicated on his belief that the universe is out to get him, Sulu and Uhura share nice camaderie, and everybody else is basically on vacation. Oltion writes very good Scotty and McCoy, and introduces sympathetic new characters plus a hard-scifi concept.
Also, these two books between themselves already tell all the important bits of the OTHER two books which I definitely recommend skipping. Neither of the DW Smith efforts is dramatically particularly gripping, and I suspect the good character bits in the latter are thanks to cowriter Rusch. Both books do feature important bits of the story arch, but those are recapped in the L.A.Graf and Oltion efforts. And if one skips these books, one basically removes the element of repetition that otherwise plagues the series...
On the issue of (in)compatibility, New Earth apparently sits somewhere in the middle of the 2270s and steps on surprisingly few toes, despite covering at least a full year of the lives of our main heroes. The only thing that might noticeably conflict with this story arc would be Diane Duane's
Bloodwing Voyages saga, and one might argue that this saga is already set somewhat outside the rest of the novel continuity... Although one might also do the mental gymnastics required for making the two multi-book sagas by the two Dianes compatible.
IMHO, of course.
Timo Saloniemi
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