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Best Numbered TNG universe novels to read

G

GaryH

Commander
Red Shirt
Hi,

the joy that is the new Picard season has me on a TNG buzz. I noticed a thread about old TOS novels, so I thought one for TNG/DS9/Voyager might be fun.

What do people recommend?

Peter David’s novels are obviously a highlight, but I found my old copy of Jean Lorrah’s Survivors in my parents attic and enjoyed it last week. Some of the writing style is dated but the Tasha and Data scenes were lovely.

I have bought The Romulan Stratagem (for Sela and Ro) and Double Helix Vectors (for Pulaski) on eBay to read on a beach holiday next week. I always liked it when the novels dig deep into characters that didn’t get enough love on screen.

What old novels do people remember fondly?
 
From TNG:
  • #3. The Children of Hamlin: a long time since I read this, but I remember an interesting alien society and good characterization.
  • #4. Survivors: one of my favorite Star Trek books, really good look at Yar.
  • #8. The Captains' Honor: probably not very good in many objective senses, but a very fun concept: Picard vs. Romans.
  • #18. Q-in-Law: Lwaxana vs. Q; everyone will tell you it is fun, and they are right.
  • #45. Intellivore: even minor Diane Duane is superior to most other authors' best days; very creepy in a good way.
  • #61. Diplomatic Implausibility: well-done story about Worf's first adventure as an ambassador; arguably the beginning of the "novelverse."
From DS9:
  • #5. Fallen Heroes: not a perfect book but ab Hugh goes big and has a good command over (some of) the character voices.
  • #7. Warchild: one of my favorite numbered novels; Friesner gets the character of Bashir better than the show writers did at this point, in my opinion.
  • #23. The 34th Rule: one of the first "post-hoc" novels, set several years before it was written, and thus able to do good stuff with the characters.
  • #27. A Stitch in Time: well, duh.
From VGR:
  • #16: Seven of Nine: good character-focused tale.
 
TNG: The Q Continuum trilogy #47-#49 , Diplomatic Implausibility #61
DS9: The 34th Rule #23, A Stitch in Time #27

My first Trek book I owned was TNG's The Romulan Prize #26. I think it is fantastic, but I can hardly be objective about it. Still, if you like judo, mysterious environments, and arrogant Romulans, then it's worth looking at.
 
Q-In-Law is an all time classic for a reason.

i forgot about that Seven of Nine novel. Must look it up…
 
Wasn't Greg Cox's Q Continuum trilogy originally released as part of the "numbered" TNG series in in the late 90s? Then they did an omnibus version collecting the three books a couple years later. It was a terrific adventure story starring Picard and Q as I recall, highly recommended.
 
TNG #30: Debtor's Planet by W.R. Thompson is one of my personal all-time favorite Star Trek books.
 
Rogue Saucer is one of my favorites, ditto for Children of Hamlin and Fallen Heroes. One not mentioned that I’d give a shout-out to is TNG’s Here There Be Dragons, by John Peel which is a fun romp and he has a good handle on the characters. I always found the TNG novels to be on pretty solid ground once the series itself stabilized.

I’d rank the Voyager numbered novels next (although they seemed to have a long inventory of novels written before the series debuted), and I really liked The Murdered Sun and Death of a Neutron Star.

Poor DS9, I think by the time the characters were fully formed on screen, the show became so serialized it was tough for authors to keep up. I do recall enjoying Station Rage and Saratoga (yes - I know).
 
Some of my favourite numbered TNG novels:

#16 Contamination (John Vornholt) - murder mystery pairing up Worf and Troi (long before the show did)

#23 - War Drums (John Vornholt again) - remember really enjoying this one. One of those "colony has a secret"-type stories with some Klingons thrown in for good measure.

#7 Masks (I must be a John Vornholt fan) - really interesting culture established, and the plot itself is good

#9 A Call to Darkness (Michael Jan Friedman) - I find Friedman's contributions to Trek are generally undervalued - this is a good novel though. A few members of an away team lose their memories while on a mission.

Having reread some Peter David stuff recently...yeesh. I'm afraid most of his humour I found poor/unfunny and really distracts from the plot itself. For me, they haven't aged that well.
 
#25 “Grounded” is a good book about the Enterprise getting infected and needing to be destroyed.

#17 Boogeyman is a good romp.

#7 Masks is a better Season 2 novel than some of the actual episodes.

#8 “The Captain’s Honor” is a sequel to the TOS episode “Bread and Circuses”.

#4 Survivors—-even though Tasha Yar did not get her stand-alone episode is Season 1, she managed to get the first character-focused book in the line.
 
"Strike Zone" and "A Rock and a Hard Place" by Peter David are both very entertaining reads.

Also, another vote for "Rogue Saucer"!
 
BillJ said:
"Strike Zone" and "A Rock and a Hard Place" by Peter David are both very entertaining reads.

Also, another vote for "Rogue Saucer"!
Click to expand...

A Rock and a Hard Place aka "Prototyping New Frontier's Mackenzie Calhoun."

Another vote for Q-Space, Q-Zone, and Q-Strike (books #47, 48 and 49). There's several neat concepts/plot points in it, such as the involvement of Q's family and the origins of some classic TOS energy-beings-of-the-week.
 
Zapp Brannigan said:
Another vote for Q-Space, Q-Zone, and Q-Strike (books #47, 48 and 49). There's several neat concepts/plot points in it, such as the involvement of Q's family and the origins of some classic TOS energy-beings-of-the-week.
Click to expand...

As much as I generally love @Greg Cox work, I have had trouble getting into these particular novels. Not sure why.
 
BillJ said:
As much as I generally love @Greg Cox work, I have had trouble getting into these particular novels. Not sure why.
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, that was my very first stab at writing a trilogy and I remember struggling a bit with figuring out how to pace a story over three volumes.

Still my bestselling Trek books, however, when it comes to royalties.
 
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