Why not start at the beginning (at least of his TOS novels, and of his ST novels without a co-author), with Assignment: Eternity? He handles Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln extremely well. Not to mention Isis the Cat.
Can I describe what appeals to me about Star Trek, and you tell me which books I should read first?
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Aside from the Eugenics Wars and Q-Continuum series, which don't necessarily sound like what you're looking for, his most popular may be No Time Like the Past, which features Voyager character Seven of Nine, and Assignment: Eternity. Highest-rated on goodreads are A Contest of Principles and The Rings of Time, the latter of which was also nominated for a Scribe Award, as was Foul Deeds Will Rise. So those might be some starting points.
I'll recommend my all time favorite Star Trek novel (which I do whenever I get the chance) which is Chain of Attack by the late Gene DeWeese. It's a bit of an oldie, from 1987 IIRC. But it's one of those novels I remember as if I read it yesterday. And it's mostly a ship based story. It's a bit of a dark horse...I don't see too many other people talking about it so maybe my opinion of it is unique (though as I always say, I am a bit of an oddball Trekkie, The Motion Picture is my favorite Star Trek film....for real....and I liked Nemesis 
).
The basic idea is the Enterprise is hurled to another galaxy where they find planet after planet that's been devastated by a horrific interstellar war, in many cases centuries before. When they eventually encounter the warring civilizations Captain Kirk has to rely on some of his diplomatic skills to get them to even talk. All the while the Enterprise has to avoid being destroyed and at the same time try to find a way back home.
I loved it because it took place far from the Federation, so there was no back-up coming and they couldn't even call for back-up. I also like the sense of foreboding as the novel starts and they discover all the destroyed planets. Then later Kirk has to use diplomacy to open a dialogue.
I love the Destiny trilogy as well but that's likely outside your parameters as it's primarily a 24th century story. On another thread someone was posting about the Furies crossover event, I liked the first book in that series (it was called Invasion) which was an original series book.
Of course others have mentioned Greg Cox's novels. He does a really good job capturing the spirit of the original series. I really loved his 3rd Khan book, another personal favorite (To Reign in Hell)---he's probably actually sick of me complementing that book I do it so much, but it connects the events of "Space Seed" and TWOK. That may be outside what you're looking for, though you noted you liked "Space Seed" so maybe not. It is the 3rd book of his Khan series (the first two are The Eugenics Wars) --which were great reads as well, but you could read the 3rd book without the first two if you wanted. It was one of those novels I couldn't put down, honestly.
I loved Ex Machina by Christopher Bennett. It's a post-TMP novel but it's a follow up to "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" and he too does a good job capturing the crew of the Enterprise in the appropriate period. It felt like a post-TMP, pre-TWOK story if that makes sense.
But Chain of Attack is my #1 recommendation. It's mostly a ship based story, focused a lot on the Enterprise characters, and it includes some of what the original series wanted to be about, exploration, co-existence, finding peace.
). The basic idea is the Enterprise is hurled to another galaxy where they find planet after planet that's been devastated by a horrific interstellar war, in many cases centuries before. When they eventually encounter the warring civilizations Captain Kirk has to rely on some of his diplomatic skills to get them to even talk. All the while the Enterprise has to avoid being destroyed and at the same time try to find a way back home.
I loved it because it took place far from the Federation, so there was no back-up coming and they couldn't even call for back-up. I also like the sense of foreboding as the novel starts and they discover all the destroyed planets. Then later Kirk has to use diplomacy to open a dialogue.
I love the Destiny trilogy as well but that's likely outside your parameters as it's primarily a 24th century story. On another thread someone was posting about the Furies crossover event, I liked the first book in that series (it was called Invasion) which was an original series book.
Of course others have mentioned Greg Cox's novels. He does a really good job capturing the spirit of the original series. I really loved his 3rd Khan book, another personal favorite (To Reign in Hell)---he's probably actually sick of me complementing that book I do it so much, but it connects the events of "Space Seed" and TWOK. That may be outside what you're looking for, though you noted you liked "Space Seed" so maybe not. It is the 3rd book of his Khan series (the first two are The Eugenics Wars) --which were great reads as well, but you could read the 3rd book without the first two if you wanted. It was one of those novels I couldn't put down, honestly.
I loved Ex Machina by Christopher Bennett. It's a post-TMP novel but it's a follow up to "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" and he too does a good job capturing the crew of the Enterprise in the appropriate period. It felt like a post-TMP, pre-TWOK story if that makes sense.
But Chain of Attack is my #1 recommendation. It's mostly a ship based story, focused a lot on the Enterprise characters, and it includes some of what the original series wanted to be about, exploration, co-existence, finding peace.
If you liked that you may want to check out the other Reeves-Stevens books. They wrote Prime Directive, Memory Prime and Collision Course. They also did the return of Captain Kirk novels (though they do have him in the 24th century with characters from those spin-offs you don't like), and three DS9 novels (and a Dax short story) with no TOS content at all that I can remember.
Some other really good Star books I think you might like are The Covenant of the Crown& Deep Domain And the Better Man By Howard Weinstein. Web of the Romulans by M.S.Murdock. A Gary Seven novel Twilight's End by Jerry Oltin . And a Mirror Universe novel Double Double by Micheal Jan Friedman and Face of Fire. Rules of Engagement by Peter Morwood. Vulcan's Glory by D.C.Fontana .The Pandora Principle by Carolyn Clowes is a novel about Saavik that's really good.Books by L.A.Graff Traitor winds ,Ice trap, Death count Fire storm. The Great Starship race by Diane Carey. Probe by Magaret Wander Bonnano.The story is a sequel to Star Trek 4 and has the Romulans in it. Uhura's Song by Janet Kagan Is one of my favorite Star Trek books.
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Thanks for all the endorsements, everyone. For what it's worth, NO TIME LIKE THE PAST is currently an ebook special, on sale for only 99 cents at present.
Uhura's Song may be my all-time favorite, at least as far as standalone stories go. Interesting thing about Probe is that it was largely rewritten by Gene DeWeese (whose Chain of Attack was so heartily endorsed above). Bonnano's original version can be found online if interested under the title Music of the Spheres.
I read Troublesome Minds by Dave Galanter back when it came out and I really enjoyed it. I haven't read it since it first came out, but I think most of it took place on the ship.
Fascinating. I never knew. And having read Ms. Bonanno's essay on the subject, I very definitely know who "Vampire Lady" and "Trelane" are (as, I'm sure do most of us, especially in the case of "Trelane"). But not "Rockstar." (And those who do, please honor Ms. Bonanno's wishes in the matter, and don't share it. Not even privately.)
Yeah, and from what I understand DeWeese wasn't really aware of what he was being pulled into on that.
But I remember reading somewhere that she didn't hold it against him, and in fact considered him a friend IIRC. She was critical of how it was handled, though I recall she didn't rip the final Probe story itself--she just noted it was not her story for the most part (I think maybe 15 or 20% of her original story made it in the final product).
So she handled it in a classy matter I think (more than I probably would have). I think she probably would have preferred if her name wasn't on it for obvious reasons, but she doesn't go out and tell people not to read it or that it's a sucky book or anything.
Quite.
Yeah, I think most people understand that this is the kind of thing that may happen with work-for-hire. The product may be changed, may not be published, etc., and the artist is usually gracious and professional about it. Though there are some interesting exceptions out there.
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