Do the TNG relaunch novels ever become good?

[MvComedy]

Just my general opinions of the TNG books I've read so far:

Death in Winter: seems there is a lot of dislike toward this novel. I enjoyed it overall, though not having read any of Friedman's Stargazer novels I didn't have much interest in the characters that cross over from that series.

Resistance: my least favorite TNG relaunch novel.

Q&A: a fun read, Q seems like he would be hard to write and KRAD does a great job.

Before Dishonor: on the fantastical side to be sure and requires some stretching of the imagination, but there are some enjoyable parts. It felt like watching Trek characters in an Andromeda plot, if that makes any sense.

Greater Than The Sum: so-so among the relaunch books, IMO. This novel had to do a lot, setting up a new status quo for TNG after what was introduced in the first round of novels didn't really work out while at the same time setting the stage for Destiny.

Destiny (series): some high points and low points for me. Having never read any of the Titan novels I wasn't really interested in that crew's drama, so perhaps that's what dragged it down for me.

Losing the Peace: enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. No maguffins or plot device driving the story, just people dealing with the aftermath of Destiny. Rather like the TNG episode "Home".

Paths of Disharmony: I was disappointed by this novel. I feel the DS9-oriented Typhon Pact entries and Brinkmanship are all much stronger than this one.

Indistinguishable From Magic: another book with a rather fantastical plot but I liked the way McIntee handled both the established characters and his new introductions.

The Struggle Within: just too short, I wish this could have either been a full novel or focused solely on the Kinshaya. The interaction between Choudhury and Chen stands out in my memory, though.

Brinkmanship: great read. Una McCormick is excellent at writing original characters, they really drove the story for me, though Beverly has some high points too.

I'm now about two thirds of the way through the first Cold Equations novel now after a long break, and I love it so far.

 

[Mjolnir2000]

Thanks one and all for the pointers. Some varied opinions, as expected, but I'm glad to hear that the pre-Destiny stuff seems to be generally acknowledged as sub-par. Can't wait to check out Orion's Hounds, and then I think I'll try Articles of the Federation before diving back into TNG.

 

[Mjolnir2000]

I have Resistance on my shelf, and haven't gotten around to it yet, but I'm surprised to hear that it's atrocious because it's written by JM Dillard, who wrote one of my all time favorite Trek novels, "The Lost Years". It's actually one of the very few books that I've read twice. Maybe she's not as effective with TNG characters?

The characters aren't stellar, but it's more the plotting and the treatment of the Borg that turned me off. I don't want to give anything away though - maybe we just have different taste in authors.

 

[Sci]

"Losing The Peace" was horrible and forgettable,

?!?!?!

"Cold Equations" was okay,

"Okay?"

"The Crimson Shadow" was forgettable,

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!

I'm sorry, but The Crimson Shadow was one of the smartest, best-written ST novels ever. It is a work of high literary quality, and to call it "forgettable" I find absolutely flabbergasting.

I do not understand your idea of what constitutes a good novel at all, if you didn't like The Crimson Shadow.

 

[Defcon]

I guess it can't hurt to post short opinions on all the TNG branded novels since the start of the Relaunch (Note: Some of the linked reviews contain spoilers):

Death in Winter: Disappointing.

Resistance: Improvement for the TNG Relaunch after "Death in Winter", but nothing that blows you away

Q&A: Among the strongest of the TNG post finale novels

Before Dishonor: I know I'm in the minority here, but this is my favourite of the TNG novels leading into Destiny.

Greater than the Sum: As Discussed: Horrible. (Full review)

Losing the Peace: Overall, a strong novel and a good comeback for TNG-branded novels after the decidedly sub-par Greater than the Sum (Full review)

Indistinguishable from Magic: Good novel, should have been a duology.

Cold Equations trilogy: Good trilogy, with a really strong start and slightly weaker parts two and three (reviews: Part I, Part II, Part III)

The Light Fantastic: Average novel. (Review)

 

[Thrawn]

"The Crimson Shadow" was forgettable,

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!

I'm sorry, but The Crimson Shadow was one of the smartest, best-written ST novels ever. It is a work of high literary quality, and to call it "forgettable" I find absolutely flabbergasting.

I do not understand your idea of what constitutes a good novel at all, if you didn't like The Crimson Shadow.

Right?! It was like I was suddenly in bizarro world, reading that post.

 

[EnriqueH]

"The Crimson Shadow" was forgettable,

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!

I'm sorry, but The Crimson Shadow was one of the smartest, best-written ST novels ever. It is a work of high literary quality, and to call it "forgettable" I find absolutely flabbergasting.

I do not understand your idea of what constitutes a good novel at all, if you didn't like The Crimson Shadow.

Right?! It was like I was suddenly in bizarro world, reading that post.

Yeah, but Tom also says he likes Superman IV more than Superman II.

(Sorry, Tom.)

And hey, lest we forget...IDIC.

 

[tomswift2002]

Also, while I totally understand your criticism of The Light Fantastic's ending, it seems like an overreaction to suggest that one should avoid the entire novel because of it. Compared to the early TNG relaunch books (Death In Winter, Resistance and Before Dishonor for some folks), The Light Fantastic is, well, fantastic.

"The Crimson Shadow" I found didn't hold my attention all that well and was rather boring, and even now, less than a year after the book came out, I barely remember what occurred in the book. Out of the 5 books in the "Fall" series, I found the first two books didn't have a lot of momentum and I was close to giving up on the series, but then the last 3 just kicked into high gear and the story really took off.

I think the pre-Destiny TNG relaunch novels had a lot more consistency to them, and really were a strong foundation for the TNG relaunch (aside from "Greater Than The Sum"). Unfortunately the post-Destiny TNG books, I find are a lot of filler, and have not been keeping my attention as well as the pre-Destiny books were.

 

[Sci]

"The Crimson Shadow" I found didn't hold my attention all that well and was rather boring,

If you think that the struggle to prevent a new democracy from reverting back into fascism is boring? I would suggest that perhaps you should stick to the literary equivalent of Michael Bay movies.

 

[Tirius]

Lots of heated debating in this thread, bit suprised by that honestly... Anyway, here's my very abbreviated list (as always, just my personal opinion):

Death in Winter: Decent if somewhat forgettable. I expected more from the climax of the building Picard/Crusher romance.

Resistance: Poor. The plot had merit, but failed on the execution.

Q&A: My favorite of the pre-Destiny works, another fine example of how well KRAD gets his characters. A light-hearted romp but a great deal of fun.

Before Dishonor: Out-of-character depiction of virtually all the main cast and way too over the top as far as the plot went. My previous description: "I'll charitably call this a disaster". Easily the worst Trek novel out of the 100+ I've read.

Greater than the Sum: A very decent story, probably the one with the most depth out of the pre-Destiny works. As stated in my review earlier, the family theme failed to strike a chord with me, but that is no fault of the story's.

Losing the Peace: Probably my favorite among the post-Destiny, pre-Typhon Pact works. Good character work and a well-executed, very "Trek" feeling story.

Indistinguishable from Magic: Became the first ever Trek novel I failed to finish. Too much small-universe (even for me) and I felt the short chapters kept throwing me out of the story.

Of the Typhon Pact novels with a TNG element, Brinkmanship is the only one I voted "Outstanding" for. The Crimson Shadow was a close second.

Cold Equations started strong, but I felt it slipped a bit towards the end. Still a good read. The Light Fantastic was a much lighter story with a very different feel to it, enjoyable but not among my favorites.

 

[Enterpriserules]

Personally, Q&A and Greater than the Sum were the best pre-Destiny with the books after Destiny all being great, except for the terrible Indistinguishable from Magic.

 

[indianatrekker26]

Also, while I totally understand your criticism of The Light Fantastic's ending, it seems like an overreaction to suggest that one should avoid the entire novel because of it. Compared to the early TNG relaunch books (Death In Winter, Resistance and Before Dishonor for some folks), The Light Fantastic is, well, fantastic.

"The Crimson Shadow" I found didn't hold my attention all that well and was rather boring, and even now, less than a year after the book came out, I barely remember what occurred in the book. Out of the 5 books in the "Fall" series, I found the first two books didn't have a lot of momentum and I was close to giving up on the series, but then the last 3 just kicked into high gear and the story really took off.

I think the pre-Destiny TNG relaunch novels had a lot more consistency to them, and really were a strong foundation for the TNG relaunch (aside from "Greater Than The Sum"). Unfortunately the post-Destiny TNG books, I find are a lot of filler, and have not been keeping my attention as well as the pre-Destiny books were.

This is also how ive felt about the books of late, in a nutshell. Its all the politics that has pretty much killed my interest in the 24th century stuff. Its not what I read trek for. If I want that, i'll get a Tom Clancy novel. I love star trek for the space, exploring etc. Different strokes for different folks.
But I do want to give it a second chance, and start over fresh. I was going to start with Titan: Taking Wing. But then I start thinking, well what about the DS9 and VOY stuff before that? So I might start at DS9 Avatar and go forward from there.

 

[Paper Moon]

Also, while I totally understand your criticism of The Light Fantastic's ending, it seems like an overreaction to suggest that one should avoid the entire novel because of it. Compared to the early TNG relaunch books (Death In Winter, Resistance and Before Dishonor for some folks), The Light Fantastic is, well, fantastic.

"The Crimson Shadow" I found didn't hold my attention all that well and was rather boring, and even now, less than a year after the book came out, I barely remember what occurred in the book. Out of the 5 books in the "Fall" series, I found the first two books didn't have a lot of momentum and I was close to giving up on the series, but then the last 3 just kicked into high gear and the story really took off.

I think the pre-Destiny TNG relaunch novels had a lot more consistency to them, and really were a strong foundation for the TNG relaunch (aside from "Greater Than The Sum"). Unfortunately the post-Destiny TNG books, I find are a lot of filler, and have not been keeping my attention as well as the pre-Destiny books were.

This is also how ive felt about the books of late, in a nutshell. Its all the politics that has pretty much killed my interest in the 24th century stuff. Its not what I read trek for. If I want that, i'll get a Tom Clancy novel. I love star trek for the space, exploring etc. Different strokes for different folks.
But I do want to give it a second chance, and start over fresh. I was going to start with Titan: Taking Wing. But then I start thinking, well what about the DS9 and VOY stuff before that? So I might start at DS9 Avatar and go forward from there.

You definitely don't need to read anything before Taking Wing. That said, the DS9 relaunch from Avatar on is some of the best TrekLit we've ever gotten, so you should definitely consider it!

The Voyager novels that weren't written by Kirsten Beyer are very forgettable, and I don't recommend them. (ie. Homecoming, Spirit Walk, String Theory, Distant Shores)

One caveat about Taking Wing, though: it's very much a direct sequel to Nemesis and therefore has a lot of Romulan politics stuff. That may or may not be your cup of tea. On the other hand, we do get a lot of character introductions, so it could be worth it just for that.

The second Titan book, The Red King, is a sequel both to Taking Wing and to the Lost Era book, The Sundered. I don't think it works as well if you haven't read The Sundered, but that's just me.

It sounds to me like you would enjoy the third Titan book, Orion's Hounds, which has a lot of exploration.

The third Cold Equations book is definitely exploration-oriented; the story is a bit like what I think Arthur C. Clarke would've done if he'd ever written Trek. On the other hand, you sorta need to have read the first two books in the trilogy; the first is a bit of a caper, the second is a political thriller. I'm not sure.

If you're looking for serious exploration stuff, the recent Voyager novels have been pretty good on that front. But you really should read Full Circle before diving into those. But they're all great.

 

[JD]

I've enjoyed most of the TNG stuff leading up to Destiny, and after it. I jumped right to Q&A after reading about the events of the other two on Memory Beta, and I loved it. I do agree with some people that it was a little short, but that wasn't enough to ruin it for me.
I also loved Greater Than the Sum.
Destiny was absolutely amazing.
Losing the Peace was a nice followup to Destiny.
I enjoyed Paths of Disharmony, but it wasn't quite up to the quality of the books before it.
Both The Struggle Within and Indistinguishable from Magic were good but not great.
I loved Brinkmanship, it was great.
I've only read the first Cold Equations so far, but I loved every page of it.

 

[Destructor]

I found everything a struggle up until Destiny, which I enjoyed quite a bit.

I have read A Singular Destiny and Losing the Peace but I don't recall either of them, which is usually a sign that they weren't very good.

I generally have enjoyed the Titan series, except for the Sword of Damocles, which again I don't really recall.

I've read the first two books of the Typhon Pact but not beyond.

 

[Enterpriserules]

Personally, after Destiny, I have really enjoyed most of the TNG books.

 

[Paris]

...I have read A Singular Destiny and Losing the Peace but I don't recall either of them, which is usually a sign that they weren't very good..

You really should try them again. Both of those books were excellent. Treklit could really use more books from both authors

 

[Destructor]

No way man! Onward and upward!

 

[voyager1]

Geese after reading this thread, makes me glad I started with the DS9r and the Enterprise post finale novels.

 

[Destructor]

DS9 relaunch was great, which is why I moved on to the TNGR novels but I have to admit the experience hasn't been as great.