Best and Worst Trek novel you have read?

[Warp Coil]

Some of the Best:
TNG: Vendetta
TNG: Imzadi
TNG: Q-Squared
DS9: Fallen Heroes
DS9: Mission: Gamma - Twilight
DS9: Mission: Gamma - Cathedral
DS9: Warpath
VOY: Full Circle
TTN: Taking Wing
The Lost Era: Serpent Among the Ruins
The Lost Era: The Art of the Impossible
Destiny trilogy

Some of the Worst:
Most of the numbered TNG novels from the '90s
Most of the numbered DS9 novels from the '90s
VOY: Homecoming
TTN: Over a Torrent Sea
The Lost Era: Well of Souls
The Lost Era: Deny Thy Father

 

[shadowedgalaxy]

Is it just me, or were the numbered novels purposefully written to be "average"? Compared to giant novels and hardcovers, most are very poor and have out-of-character moments and bad storylines.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ That's probably a legacy of the Richard Arnold era. He seemed to derive a perverse joy from making the novels so ridiculously average. I don't think it's a coincidence that the novels started getting better after he got axed.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Best:
Maybe not the best Star Trek novel ever written, but it hold a special place in my heart - Spock's World by Diane Duane. The first four books of New Frontier by Peter David. I must confess that I'm not on par with current Trek Lit, so I'm sure I haven't read a lot of excellent books.

Worst: Pretty much everything by Diane Carey. Entrophy Effect and The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre.

 

[Christopher]

Is it just me, or were the numbered novels purposefully written to be "average"? Compared to giant novels and hardcovers, most are very poor and have out-of-character moments and bad storylines.

Of course not. Many of the most admired Trek novels of all time were numbered, because for quite some time, they essentially all were. The Final Reflection was #16. My Enemy, My Ally was #18. And so on.

But it kinda goes without saying that the bulk of installments in a given series will tend toward the average, since that's what "average" means. It sounds like you're talking about below-average books.

 

[JD]

Worst? The astounding crapitude that is the Voyager Relaunch. While there are probably worst books from a technical perspective (Dyson Sphere, Warped, the Rebels trilogy, etc.), those books are essentially disposable; they have no impact once you've tossed them aside. The VOY-R, however, was an unrivaled opportunity that was spectacularly blown, the potential utterly wasted, and these sad excuses for plots and characters rystalized as part of the books' continuity. It's the worst not just for what it was (which was pretty bad in the first place), but for what it failed to be.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Does that include the re-relaunch, or is that just the Christie Golden ones? Because I thought the Kirsten Beyer books were friggin' awesome.

 

[Thrawn]

Trent, if I recall correctly, was so upset from the death of Janeway in Before Dishonor and the "disaster chic" and/or "wallowing in impotence" of Destiny that he stopped reading any novels taking place after that, and never tried Full Circle.

(Quotes not intended to be sarcastic, just indicate that I emphatically do not share those views. Trent is of course entitled to whatever opinion he wishes.)

 

[DaveGalanter]

Actually Troublesome Mind was was the second worst Star Trek the Next Generation meets the X-men was the worst!

WHEW!

 

[Trent Roman]

Does that include the re-relaunch, or is that just the Christie Golden ones? Because I thought the Kirsten Beyer books were friggin' awesome.

Trent, if I recall correctly, was so upset from the death of Janeway in Before Dishonor and the "disaster chic" and/or "wallowing in impotence" of Destiny that he stopped reading any novels taking place after that, and never tried Full Circle.

That's correct; not having really engaged with the 're-relaunch,' it didn't occur to me to specify that I was talking about the Golden books. (Although I wouldn't say 'upset,' more like 'repelled'; also, "genocide-chic" is the term I used.) I've not read Full Circle and thus can't speak to its quality (I did read a sample chapter or something that was rather trite, I thought, but that's hardly indicative of a 500-odd pages work).

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[ICW]

The Golden novels are quite bad. Full Circle, in my opinion, really repairs a lot of the damge. Unworthy is decent, however.

 

[JD]

Does that include the re-relaunch, or is that just the Christie Golden ones? Because I thought the Kirsten Beyer books were friggin' awesome.

Trent, if I recall correctly, was so upset from the death of Janeway in Before Dishonor and the "disaster chic" and/or "wallowing in impotence" of Destiny that he stopped reading any novels taking place after that, and never tried Full Circle.

That's correct; not having really engaged with the 're-relaunch,' it didn't occur to me to specify that I was talking about the Golden books. (Although I wouldn't say 'upset,' more like 'repelled'; also, "genocide-chic" is the term I used.) I've not read Full Circle and thus can't speak to its quality (I did read a sample chapter or something that was rather trite, I thought, but that's hardly indicative of a 500-odd pages work).

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Now have you actually read any of the post Destiny books or are you just getting this whole genocide-chic thing from the end of Destiny? I know we got into this before, but hearing you say that just drives me crazy because I could not possibly disagree more.

 

[ProtoAvatar]

That's correct; not having really engaged with the 're-relaunch,' it didn't occur to me to specify that I was talking about the Golden books. (Although I wouldn't say 'upset,' more like 'repelled'; also, "genocide-chic" is the term I used.) I've not read Full Circle and thus can't speak to its quality (I did read a sample chapter or something that was rather trite, I thought, but that's hardly indicative of a 500-odd pages work).

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Now have you actually read any of the post Destiny books or are you just getting this whole genocide-chic thing from the end of Destiny? I know we got into this before, but hearing you say that just drives me crazy because I could not possibly disagree more.

The destruction from 'Destiny' most definitely qualifies as 'genocide-chic' and a large part of the subsequent books dealt with the resulting misery for the survivors.
You may like this tone or not - it doesn't change the facts.

 

[JD]

It might take place after a disaster, but it is no where near as doom-and-gloom as that term makes it sound. The only one that really might fall into that category is Losing the Peace, but even that one still manages to stay very positive. As the other books, the Titan books, and Unworthy don't even take place in the Federation, and A Singular Destiny is focused more on the political aspects of the new status quo.

 

[Trent Roman]

Now have you actually read any of the post Destiny books or are you just getting this whole genocide-chic thing from the end of Destiny? I know we got into this before, but hearing you say that just drives me crazy because I could not possibly disagree more.

I'm not derailing another thread by getting into this debate again. If you want to consider the massacre of countless billions uplifting, that's your deal. I've got plenty of other things to read before I would opt for books I'm already disincentivized towards.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[shadowedgalaxy]

Spoiler: losing the peace

RISA IS GONE

 

[JD]

Now have you actually read any of the post Destiny books or are you just getting this whole genocide-chic thing from the end of Destiny? I know we got into this before, but hearing you say that just drives me crazy because I could not possibly disagree more.

I'm not derailing another thread by getting into this debate again. If you want to consider the massacre of countless billions uplifting, that's your deal. I've got plenty of other things to read before I would opt for books I'm already disincentivized towards.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Not a problem, let's just agree to disagree.

 

[Arpy]

I hate threads like this that have titles without reasons for them. So you liked this and not that. Okay, big whup.

Maybe I'm being a Grinch but I find a good reason for liking a bad book a lot more interesting than a stale list of titles. Give me something to consider or relate to.

 

[Christopher]

If you want to consider the massacre of countless billions uplifting, that's your deal.

Come on, obviously nobody's positing anything so ludicrous. The question is, what happens after the tragedy? Life goes on. Civilization rebuilds. That's where the hope lies.

Heck, that's what Star Trek is about on one level. Roddenberry always posited that Earth would have to go through devastation -- the Eugenics Wars, WWIII, the "Post-Atomic Horror," the nuclear war of Genesis II/Planet Earth -- before it could rebuild a better world. But that doesn't make ST a show about devastation. It makes it a show about hope, the hope that no matter how bad a disaster is, it's possible to move on, to rebuild, to make things better.

Between Over a Torrent Sea and the in-progress DTI: Watching the Clock, I've now written (or partially written) two books taking place within a year after Destiny, and I don't even know what "genocide chic" means. I haven't written about genocide. I've written about life going on, about people pursuing the same constructive, hopeful goals that Star Trek characters have always pursued.

Keep in mind that World War Two had the highest death toll of any conflict in human history, including one of the largest actual genocides of all time; and yet the decade that followed that war was a time of great prosperity and growth for many of the nations affected by the war. The aftermath of a horrible tragedy doesn't have to be unrelenting darkness forevermore. People can react to such a devastating loss by striving to overcome it, by uniting to build a better world than they had before. History proves it can happen.

 

[William Leisner]

Spoiler: losing the peace

RISA IS GONE

Actually, that's a spoiler about Destiny: Lost Souls.

 

[kkozoriz1]

If you want to consider the massacre of countless billions uplifting, that's your deal.

Come on, obviously nobody's positing anything so ludicrous. The question is, what happens after the tragedy? Life goes on. Civilization rebuilds. That's where the hope lies.

Heck, that's what Star Trek is about on one level. Roddenberry always posited that Earth would have to go through devastation -- the Eugenics Wars, WWIII, the "Post-Atomic Horror," the nuclear war of Genesis II/Planet Earth -- before it could rebuild a better world. But that doesn't make ST a show about devastation. It makes it a show about hope, the hope that no matter how bad a disaster is, it's possible to move on, to rebuild, to make things better.

Between Over a Torrent Sea and the in-progress DTI: Watching the Clock, I've now written (or partially written) two books taking place within a year after Destiny, and I don't even know what "genocide chic" means. I haven't written about genocide. I've written about life going on, about people pursuing the same constructive, hopeful goals that Star Trek characters have always pursued.

Keep in mind that World War Two had the highest death toll of any conflict in human history, including one of the largest actual genocides of all time; and yet the decade that followed that war was a time of great prosperity and growth for many of the nations affected by the war. The aftermath of a horrible tragedy doesn't have to be unrelenting darkness forevermore. People can react to such a devastating loss by striving to overcome it, by uniting to build a better world than they had before. History proves it can happen.

I had a problem with the death toll as well. Simply dragging someone down so they can reach back up isn't hopeful to me. It's like a jailer saying "You'll feel much better when teh beating stop." It may be true but I'd hardly call it hopeful.

People are not very hopeful today. Maybe we should have another war so we have somethign better to look forward to? Can't we find hope in people string to overcome adversity without slaughtering billions? What was the death toll in TWOK, TSFS & TVH? Were they hopeful, uplifting films? Did they have drama? Why is it necessary to make many planets go *BOOM* to show how nasty the villians can be?

After reading Destiny and seeing ST-XI, having a planet blown up and the population killed has lost it's *Oomph*. The past couple of years in Trerk have been quite the kill-fest. Quite frankly, I'm tired of it. I don't have to be beaten down into the mud in order to reach for the stars.