Best and Worst Trek novel you have read?

[Arpy]

I'm not a Martin and Mangels fan so I couldn't get into the first two books of the Titan series, but the third one Orion's Hounds is great and definitely deals with new life/civilizations, and you don't need to know anything about the series to get into it. And if you like the book, there are three(?) others after it in the series. Orion's Hounds deals with space-born lifeforms "cosmozoans", Over a Torrent Sea about the ecosystem of a totally water-covered planet, and Synthesis about artificial intelligence.

I read only Hounds, but its exploration of space-born life felt like a natural extension of the universe presented in the series - Michelangelo's line about the statue always having been there under the marble and his job only to chisel out the extra bits.

 

[kkozoriz1]

I've enjoyed all the Titan books thus far. The first two I wasn't as happy with for the simple reason that it was tied to the Romulans and a sequel to a previous novel. Unless they were going to be left in the LMC (or was it the SMC?) then I'd have preferred that they jump straight into Orion's Hounds. That being said, Titan has been one of my top two series since it started.

 

[Dayton Ward]

^ The first two Titan books were a follow-up to Star Trek: Nemesis, at the end of which Riker states that the ship's first mission is returning to Romulan space to deal with that whole mess. So, that was deemed the place to "start" the new series.

 

[kkozoriz1]

Oh, I fully understand Dayton. I just wish it could have been more of "How's things going? OK, bye" rather than two books.

 

[Thrawn]

I agree. One book was fine, but the second was really not good at all. Orion's Hounds should've been second.

 

[ProwlAlpha]

I really liked Losing the Peace for all the Minnesota references which were turned into alien names.

I didn't enjoy Inception too much because I felt it should have been a short story. Yet, the all time worst Trek book was Shadowlord. That book took the let's world build to a whole new level. I know worldbulding is a necessary evil, but the early Trek books in TOS and TNG the worldbuilding almost seemed to slow the story to a crawl. This one the story is a sudden halt.

 

[Jack Bauer]

I'm really loved Federation.


Red Sector by Diane Carey. I absolutely loathed that book. It was so awful I've repressed the details. I just hated the main character Stiles. I just wanted to punch the guy's face in. Very irritating guy.

 

[JWolf]

One of the worst Star Trek books ever was not yet mentioned....

Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre

That was just not good. It was one of those books that just make you go "Why was it ever allowed to be published?"

The storyline was silly and the characterizations were sometimes quite wrong. Plus, it didn't have the right feel to it to be the first mission with Kirk as captain.

 

[Cicero]

One of the worst Star Trek books ever was not yet mentioned....

Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre

That was just not good. It was one of those books that just make you go "Why was it ever allowed to be published?"

The storyline was silly and the characterizations were sometimes quite wrong. Plus, it didn't have the right feel to it to be the first mission with Kirk as captain.

That's been my impression of everything I've read of McIntyre's, including her Star Wars novel, The Crystal Star, which really puzzled me when I was younger.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

One of the worst Star Trek books ever was not yet mentioned....

Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre

Wasn't that the one with the poodles?

 

[UncleRogi]

I know I'm breaking protocol, I had to fight through Gone with the Wind

Preservers comes to mind as eloquently bad---Just wrong

Wrong

 

[Therin of Andor]

That's been my impression of everything I've read of McIntyre's

Have you never read her ST II and ST III novelizations, or her original SF story, "Dreamsnake"?

 

[Christopher]

^Not to mention her dozens of other works of original SF:

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Vonda_N._McIntyre

 

[clever_username]

best: destiny books 1 & 2 (haven't read the third), and the return

worst: imzadi II

 

[Xenu Cruise]

It is hard to recall all that I've read because it has been a few years but when I was younger I recall reading 400 pages of Q-Squared in one day, which was a lot for me as a kid. I'm not sure how it would hold up now. Recently, I really dug David Mack's Destiny trilogy.

Worst in recent memory was "Over a Torrent Sea". It was like torture just to get through it.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the dreaded Devil World on their "worst" list. It seems like for the last few Bantam ST novels, every other one was a third-rate variation on the "Enterprise encounters a primitive culture being run by a superbeing" chestnut, and Devil World was probably the worst of the bunch.

As to my favorites, I think I'd have to say almost anything by Diane Duane, Greg Cox, or John Ford would be on it, along with a lot of Diane Carey (all right, her "Piper" novels were unrepentant "Mary-Sues," but they were good Mary-Sues) and Jean Lorrah.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the dreaded Devil World on their "worst" list.

It came out in the USA a few weeks before ST:TMP premiered so, for me Down Under, it was the first "new arrival" on the regular bookshop shelves after I had read the TMP novelization and saw the movie. So, as bad as "Devil World" might be, it is remembered fondly by me as my first original, first-edition ST novel bought in mint condition.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I remember Death's Angel and completely missing the fact that the whole novel was one big Mary Sue joke.

 

[Mr.Borg]

Best:New Frontier Series: Book 1-4 (Captain Calhoun)Voyager: Full Circle, UnworthyWorst:Some kirk stuff i forgot the name

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Not quite sure Death's Angel is precisely a Mary-Sue. Nor as blatantly Mary-Sue as Ms. Sky's earlier effort. I kind of get the impression that every single guest character that Ms. Sky created was a caricature of one of her associates. Karhu was, of course, her husband, were-koala Stephen Goldin.