Best Trek books

[Damian]

It's interesting to read what people think are some of the best Star Trek books. There is a great variance.

I will say it's been years since I've read a bad Star Trek book (well in publishing time---I've been reading some Bantam books recently that aren't so hot but they were obviously published back in the 70s).

Most of the books over the last 10 years I would rate at least above average. Some of the angst you see about the upcoming Picard show and it's affect on the relaunches has a lot to do with the quality of the stories as well. I know for me I have mixed feelings. I'm looking forward to the new show yet I'll admit I'm saddened that it will probably spell the end of the relaunch stories.

 

[Jinn]

That sounds like a fun one, did you go by chronological order or story release order (and can you tell us the list that you used)?

I went chapter-by-chapter to get the complete chronological experience! I pretty muched used the handy date references in the novels themselves to make said order. If you speak German, my list is on the German Memory Beta, but I'll retype the relevant parts here for convenience's sake:

• Elusive Salvation: Chapters 1, 3, 5
  
• DS9: "Little Green Men"
• From History's Shadow: Chapters 3-4
• Elusive Salvation: Chapters 8-9
• From History's Shadow: Chapters 17-18, 20-21, 23-24, 26, 28-29
• TOS: "Assignment: Earth"
• From History's Shadow: Chapters 30-32
• TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday"
• From History's Shadow: Chapters 34-36
• [The Aliens are Coming! but it's basically reworked into some chapters from From History's Shadow, so it's a technically skipable, if still interesting mostly because it's one of Dayton Ward's very early Trek stories]
• Assignment: Eternity
• Elusive Salvation: Chapter 11-14
• The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Sing I: Chapters 1-23, 26-27, 29-30
• Elusive Salvation: Chapter 16-21, 23, 25-30, 32
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Sing I: Chapters 31-34
• The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Sing II: Chapters 1-6, 8-28
• From History's Shadow: Chapter 38
• Elusive Salvation: Chapter 33
• VOY: "Future's End"
• [ENT: Carpenter Street goes here, but isn't really connected to anything else here, if memory serves]
• The Rings of Time
• DS9: "Past Tense"
• [VOY: "One Small Step" has like the first two minutes here]

You can also throw in the TNG episode where they find the cryo-frozen 20th century humans, as a sort of epilogue.

 

[Desert Kris]

I went chapter-by-chapter to get the complete chronological experience! I pretty muched used the handy date references in the novels themselves to make said order. If you speak German, my list is on the German Memory Beta, but I'll retype the relevant parts here for convenience's sake:

Thank you for sharing that, @Jinn, it's very generous of you to have typed that out. That's quite a deep dive, and it's interesting to see an overview of where the stories overlap with one another.

I like the Gary Seven backdoor pilot, and it's nice to see that there's plenty of follow up for people who like the characters and situations set up in Assignment: Earth. And it's great to hear that continuity was taken into account to give some consistency between books.

 

[WebLurker]

In terms of authors, I've found that Diane Duane, Christopher L. Bennett, Greg Cox, Peter David, John Jackson Miller, and Dayton Ward are very reliable authors. Can't say I've liked everything they done (I've read stuff they wrote that I didn't care for), but they've come up with some really good stuff and even the things I didn't like were well-written for what they were. So anything with their name on it is a good bet to check out at least once.

For specific books:

- The Final Frontier (TOS)
- Strangers From the Sky (TOS)
- Doctor's Orders (TOS)
- Kobayshi Maru (TOS)
- The Final Reflection (TOS)
- First Frontier (TOS)

- Dark Mirror (TNG)
- Q-Squared (TNG)
- Q-in Law (TNG)

- Drastic Measures (DSC)
- The Enterprise War (DSC)

-Strange New Worlds anthologies (all)

Though it's an admittedly lackluster episode, the whole Gary Seven/"Assignment: Earth" setup has always been one of my favorite Trek things.

Aw man, I liked that one.

 

[Dayton Ward]

I like it, too, but I acknowledge it's a subpar episode. To be fair, it's a common problem with "backdoor pilots" that sideline a show's main characters in favor of the characters producers hope to spin out to a new series.

 

[WebLurker]

I like it, too, but I acknowledge it's a subpar episode. To be fair, it's a common problem with "backdoor pilots" that sideline a show's main characters in favor of the characters producers hope to spin out to a new series.

Can see that, although I did find them interesting enough to be okay with it.

 

[Dayton Ward]

Sure. I did too, as evidenced by...well...you know.

 

[Damian]

Can see that, although I did find them interesting enough to be okay with it.

Sure. I did too, as evidenced by...well...you know.

In a way that's another reason I enjoyed The Eugenics Wars, Assignment: Eternity (I had forgotten about that one, though I read it a while back) and From History's Shadow et al. novels. It sort of gave us the TV show that could have been and never was.

 

[Brian1]

I haven't read them yet, but are all three books considered something of a trilogy? I thought I recall early promotion material qualifying them that way, but the impression I got later as the books were coming out is that the subtitles distinguish and separate the Eugenics Wars from Reigning in Hell.

I look forward to reading them, now that I'm in a groove of reading Star Trek more regularly.

I have read the Khan trilogy. If only I had some way to convince movie makers to do a good production of the story, I would!

 

[tomswift2002]

I have read the Khan trilogy. If only I had some way to convince movie makers to do a good production of the story, I would!

One book I think would’ve been awesome to see as a movie or two-part movie is Shatner’s “The Return”!

 

[dstyer]

My favorite Trek book is "Trial by Error" by Mark Garland for one particular reason. The woman who would become my wife was reading this book when I first met her. I took a chance and asked her how she liked the book. That conversation started a relationship that's been going on now for almost 25 years!

 

[Therin of Andor]

The Galactic Whirlpool
The Motion Picture novelization
The Entropy Effect
Yesterday's Son
Star Trek II & III novelizations
Uhura's Song
Strangers from the Sky
Dreadnought!
The Next Generation: Metamorphosis
The Next Generation: Vendetta
A Stitch in Time
Worlds of Deep Space Nine: Andor: Paradigm
Crucible: Provenance of Shadows
Destiny trilogy
New Frontier: Stone and Anvil
Ex Machina
Department of Temporal Investigations: Forgotten History

 

[Reanok]

Star Trek Terok Nor miniseries1 Day of the Vipers by James Swallow, book 2 Night of the Wolves by S.D.Perry &Britta Dennison Teron Nor book 3 Dawn of Eagles by S.D.Perry&Britta Dennison

 

[Starbreaker]

No matter how many Trek books I read, my favorites continue to be the ones I read when I was a teenager and obsessed with Star Trek. I'm not sure how they would hold up today, but:

Q-Squared by Peter David
Imzadi by Peter David
The Devil's Heart by Carmen Carter
Metamorphosis by Jean Lorrah
Fire Ship by Diane Carey
My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane
The Millennium Trilogy by the Reeves-Stevens

and the more recent Destiny Trilogy, especially Book Two by David Mack. I think it's the finest Star Trek ever written.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

It says something (I'm not entirely sure what) that Whirlpool was the only Bantam novel to make Therin's list.

I'm surprised, though, that nobody has mentioned Spock's World by title. And I have a soft spot for The Vulcan Academy Murders. And both of Ford's books.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Fire Ship by Diane Carey

Drat! How did I miss adding that "Voyager" title from "The Captain's Table" series.

In the same series, "New Frontier: Once Burned" was also very good.

It says something (I'm not entirely sure what) that Whirlpool was the only Bantam novel to make Therin's list.

I thoroughly enjoyed that book. And the cameo by Arex & M'Ress was fun. As a newbie fan due to TMP, I spent several months/years tracking down all the Bantams, mostly second hand. It was nice to buy the last few, fresh from the "New Releases" shelves!

My first original Trek novel was "The Fate of the Phoenix". It was all uphill from there.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

"the Nanotech War" was my favorite

 

[EARTHER]

Any books that emphasize Shatner and the original crew, especially Captain’s Glory, Avenger and the other book in that series. Any book about Vulcan in the TOS era. Then all the Diane Duane Romulan novels. Yeah!

 

[F. King Daniel]

I don't tend to do "best" lists since my opinions change with my socks, but here are some I loved very much:

Prime Directive
Final Frontier
Crossroad
Q Squared
The Eternal Tide
Destiny trilogy
Millenium trilogy
The Lost Years
Dreadnought!
Survivors and Metamorphosis
DTI: Watching the Clock
Captain's Honor
My Enemy, My Ally and The Romulan Way

 

[RonG]

TOS

• Rihannsu series
• Assignment Eternity, Eugenics Wars duology, To Reign in Hell, The Rings of Time
• Errand of Vengeance and Errand of Fury trilogies
• Ex Machina
• Strangers form the Sky
• Shadows on the Sun
• The Joy Machine
• Crucible Trilogy
• Child of Two Worlds
• The Latter Fire
• The Case of the Colonist's Corpse
• Burning Dreams
• The Final Reflection
• Prime Directive
• Spock's World
• Federation
• The Entropy Effect
• The Galactic Whirlpool
• The Wounded Sky
• Final Frontier, Best Destiny
• In the Name of Honor
• Sarek
• Vulcan's Heart

TNG

• The Devil's Heart
• Dark Mirror
• Do Comets Dream
• Imzadi
• Vendetta
• The Buried Age
• Q-Squared
• Immortal Coil, Cold Equations Trilogy, The Light Fantastic
• Takedown

DS9

• Fallen Heroes
• The 34th Rule
• Millennium trilogy
• A Stitch in Time
• DS9 Relaunch "season 8" from Avatar to Unity
• The Left Hand of Destiny duology (yeah, I know it's a part of the DS9-R..)
• Hollow Men

VOY

• The Nanotech War
• Full Circle, Unworthy
• Echoes
• Mosaic
• Seven of Nine

ENT

• Daedalus, Daedalus's Children

Other

• A Time to Kill/Heal; A time for War, A time for Peace
• Articles of the Federation
• Destiny trilogy
• Vanguard series (all)
• Section 31 - Disavowed / Control;
• Section 31 - Cloak, Rogue, Shadow, Abyss (part of DS9R)
• New Frontier up to and incl. Stone and Anvil
• Diplomatic Implausibility, IKS Gorkon (Klingon Empire) books
• Lost Era: Serpents among the Ruins, The Art of the Impossible
• SCE - most stories - certainly up to and incl. Wildfire
• The Sorrows of Empire
• Starfleet Year One
• Titan: Orion's Hounds, Fortune of War
• Picard: The Last Best Hope
• DTI: Watching the Clock, Forgotten History
• Excelsior: Forged in Fire
• STO: The Needs of the Many