Best of the best recommendations?

[Overgeeked]

I haven't read much Trek in a while and I'm hoping for a bit of help finding some Trek novels to read. Like everyone here I've read some real stinkers before and I'm hoping for recommendations for something like the "best of the best" from each major series of books. I'm only looking for standalone books as I'm not interested in reading a few iffy to decent books to get caught up on the story before getting to the really good one.

So, if you'd be so kind, which standalone books from the series below are the best of the best in your mind, and a quick sentence or two on why would be very helpful and appreciated. If you can't pick just one, how about keep it to no more than five?

TOS. Lost Era. TNG. DS9. VOY. ENT. Titan.

I'm not listing the other series as they're either too short, too new, I'm not interested, or I've already read them all.

Please and thank you.

 

[indianatrekker26]

I haven't read much Trek in a while and I'm hoping for a bit of help finding some Trek novels to read. Like everyone here I've read some real stinkers before and I'm hoping for recommendations for something like the "best of the best" from each major series of books. I'm only looking for standalone books as I'm not interested in reading a few iffy to decent books to get caught up on the story before getting to the really good one.

So, if you'd be so kind, which standalone books from the series below are the best of the best in your mind, and a quick sentence or two on why would be very helpful and appreciated. If you can't pick just one, how about keep it to no more than five?

TOS. Lost Era. TNG. DS9. VOY. ENT. Titan.

I'm not listing the other series as they're either too short, too new, I'm not interested, or I've already read them all.

Please and thank you.

This has been a very popular thread to start lately. I could have sworn there was on here just a few months back.
TOS: Foul Deeds will Rise - great "who dunit" story by Greg Cox, featuring the TOS crew between Trek V - VI.
Lost Era: The Buried Age, outstanding novel by Christopher Bennett focusing on Picard.
TNG: Q-Squared great story with Q and Trelane by Peter David.
DS9: Avatar Duology - the start of the DS9-R. Just great stuff.
VOY: Full Circle, first of the Beyer books, it will suck you in. I was never a huge VOY fan, but i loved this book.
ENT: sorry havent read any.
TITAN: i'd start with Taking Wing. Introduces you to the characters. Really good book.

 

[EnriqueH]

Let me preface my answer by saying that: I have not read the more recent books as I'm trying to watch all the TV shows first because I would assume the more recent books contain spoilers.

Anyway, I have read mostly TOS and a few TNG books.

My favorite is: The Lost Years.

 

[BillJ]

Gulliver's Fugitives (TNG) by Keith Sharee
Strike Zone (TNG) by Peter David

 

[Thrawn]

The Destiny Trilogy, by David Mack. This picks up on a few threads from other books, but is also - quite successfully - designed to draw in new readers. It follows four different starship crews, and two of them are completely new in Destiny, and another is about a third new. So you'll be meeting most of those characters along with the regular readers for the first time anyway. Also: it's totally fucking great. Nothing iffy about it. Great Trek morality play, deep science fiction tale, asskicking action novel, and varied assortment of fabulous character work. I know it's a standalone trilogy and not a standalone novel, but seriously, this should absolutely be the top of your list.

After that, read Full Circle by Kirsten Beyer. If it doesn't make you want to read the rest of the Voyager novels, I'll be surprised. They're all by Beyer and she's stunningly good; there's no mediocre in this either. That said, if you just want to read Full Circle and stop, it's still a completely satisfying set of character arcs.

Very little in TrekLit is both fairly standalone and up to the quality of either of those entries, in my opinion.

 

[David Mack]

If you take Thrawn's recommendation regarding the Star Trek Destiny trilogy, please follow the linked title to make sure you get the re-edited omnibus edition. Not only do I think it's a better reading experience for the extra level of tweaking it had, it will also cost less than buying all three original volumes separately.

 

[ryan123450]

TOS- Burning Dreams. A really great 'biography' of Chris Pike. Maybe the best TOS book I've ever read.

TLE- The Buried Age. Think you know Picard? Well you're missing an important chapter in his life.

TNG- I'm going to go out on a limb on this one and say Q&A. I really enjoyed this one and thought it was fun, and the ultimate Q story.

DS9- Standalone? That makes this tough. The 34th Rule? I haven't read it but I want to.

VOY- Mosaic. The must read life story of Janeway.

ENT- Impossible to do stand alone and good. The Good That Men Do is probably the closest answer.

Titan- Though it's book 3 of the series, I'll say Orion's Hounds. Probably my favorite of the series.

 

[tomswift2002]

TOS - I'm going to split this up in TOS Pike and TOS Kirk since one deals with the Enterprise during Christopher Pike's command of the Enterprise, while the other is set after.

TOS Pike: Where Sea Meets Sky
TOS Kirk: Spectre

TLE: Capture The Flag (technically a TNG Starfleet Academy story, but it still occurs in The Lost Era range of years from 2293 to 2364)

TNG: Vendetta/Survivors (too close to call, since both were done really well, especially Survivors which tells us of Tasha Yar's back story).

DS9: the Long Night

VOY: The Escape
ENT: By The Book
Titan: Synthesis (but before you read this story, just pop in the DVD/Blu Ray with the Binars episode from Season 1 of TNG just re familiarize yourself.

 

[Reanok]

TOS Spock's World by Diane Duane From History's Shadow By Dayton Ward. Foul Deeds will Rise by Greg Cox .Time's Past also By Greg Cox Ent The Good That Men Do Andy Mangels7 Micheal A.Martin TNG Imzadi By Peter David Ds9 The never ending Sacrifice by Una McCormack and The Avatar Books and Unity. A Stitch in Time by Andrew Robinson.

 

[Spike730]

TOS - Uhura's Song
Lost Era - Serpents Amont the Ruins, The Art of the Impossible

 

[voyager1]

TNG: Dark Mirror. It isn't inline with the mirror universe that was done on DS9 though.

 

[Kilana2]

Definitely TLE: The Terok Nor Saga: Day of the Vipers, Night of the Wolves and Dawn of the Eagles.