Favorite Stand Alone?

[KRAD]

Really? If you don't mind my asking, what did you like about it? I bought the reissued version of it two years ago and was appalled. I thought it was the strangest, least Star Trek-like Star Trek story I'd ever read, including a good deal of fan fiction and the bizarre Spock romance story (which treated the Andorians as a hostile people) in The New Voyages.

I thought the writing was magnificent (as it is for all of Vonda's books), I thought the characterization was spot-on, and I thought that the plot worked very nicely, in particular in the visceral nature of Kirk's death.

A lot of the books in the early 1980s took the approach of doing TOS with a TMP budget, as it were. The Motion Picture (and, to a lesser extent, the later movies) showed us a much less human-centric Trek universe than the series gave us, which was as much due to budget as anything. The Enterprise we saw in Vonda's novels (and Diane Duane's novels, and Ann Crispin's novels, and so on) was one that was different from what we saw on-screen in part because they took their cues from TMP's interpretation.

Anyhow, I love the book, and even if it isn't a literal interpretation of Star Trek, it was a perfectly legitimate one when the Star Trek universe consisted solely of three seasons of live-action TV, two seasons of animated TV, and one movie.

Still gotta go with Art of the Impossible. I know it was a "Lost Era" book, but it still stands alone. Great story.

Thanks! And all the Lost Era stories stand alone. That was the purpose. The only common thread was that they had to take place in a particular 70-year period.

 

[Stevil2001]

The Wounded Sky, Crossroad, or Serpents Among the Ruins, if we count The Lost Era.

 

[Saratoga NX-3842]

^^I don't understand the logic behind excluding Peter David. Sure, I can understand excluding New Frontier specifically because of its serial nature, but it doesn't follow that his abundant non-NF work should be excluded. He wrote plenty of standalone novels that are fair game.

Besides, it was just a suggestion. If you want to name a PAD novel, go right ahead.

I've read them all and am trying to find a new book to read

 

[MHJH]

Strangers from the Sky, without a doubt. Every word in that book is as close to perfect as novels can get. The juggling of the two timelines in the book, married with the false document passages produces a wonderful effect that grabs you and doesn't let go. I've found that lately, as I re-read some of TrekLit's older stuff, a lot of it just doesn't hold up anymore. The old numbered novels generally can't hold a candle to what messrs. DeCandido, Mack, and George are putting out, but SFTS still works, even if it doesn't fit in with the current canon.

 

[Christopher]

It seemed unlike Star Trek to me not because it conflicted with what came after, but because it was such a tremendous departure from what had been seen before. The world presented in The Entropy Effect was shockingly unlike that seen in TOS.

Well, yes, that's exactly what I mean. Back then there was no obsession with slavish adherence to "canon." It was a show with only 79 episodes that gave a very vague and often self-contradictory depiction of the world it occupied. And the climate in tie-in literature in that era was more accepting of authors bringing their individual style and approach, reinterpreting the details of what they were adapting. (For instance, Isaac Asimov heavily rewrote Fantastic Voyage to make his novelization more scientifically credible, even making a major change in the ending.) I'm not saying The Entropy Effect didn't reinterpret the Trek universe in an idiosyncratic way; I'm saying it's far from the only novel that did. James Blish and Alan Dean Foster brought their own interpretations of the universe to their adaptations, and novelists like Joe Haldeman, David Gerrold, McIntyre, Diane Duane, Greg Bear, and others did so as well. The show itself was treated more as a launching point for individual creativity, not so much as a rigid canon that had to be slavishly adhered to.

And I'm saying it's not a bad thing that it did. Back in the day, I was glad that there were so many different ways of perceiving the Trek universe. It was interesting to explore those variations on the theme, to have the basic premise filtered through so many different voices and to be exposed to a wider range of ideas than we would've gotten otherwise. These days, with so many series to build on, it's easier to have that kind of diversity of style and approach while staying consistent with canon. But back then, with only three seasons and a movie or two to draw on, it would've been a lot duller if everyone had been forced into the same mold.

 

[Therin of Andor]

It's the same as my answer to favorite novel: The Entropy Effect by Vonda N. McIntyre.

Same here. I'll never forget the experience of reading it that first time, after having loved the TMP novelization and esp. the "ST Logs" (TAS), and then dutifully working through most of the Bantam originals, which were feeding my ST appetite, but not adequately.

Another excellent standalone:

"Uhura's Song".

Someone listed "Ex Machina". I'm not sure novels like "Ex Machina" or "TNG: Immortal Coil" count as standalones for a thread such as this. While favourites of mine, and not part of any book story arc, they are sequels to various episodes and movies, and knowledge of those stories would greatly enhance enjoyment of the novels. Yes, they work as standalones, but how much more fun when you already know the backstories. Similarly. "Strangers from the Sky" works even better if you know "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

 

[Therin of Andor]

the bizarre Spock romance story (which treated the Andorians as a hostile people) in The New Voyages.

Umm, this Andorian is confused?

I remember "Ni-Var" well, which actually featured an Andorian female, her hybrid son and his "twin", but that wasn't a Spock romance. Surely the Andorians you mention weren't more than a passing reference in some other story?

In any case, with only "Journey to Babel", "Gamesters of Triskelion" and "Whom Gods Destroy" to go on, hostile Andorians weren't necessarily a canon crime in the 70s.

So, you mean "The Enchanted Pool" by Marcia Ericson? VoI says, "Spock meets the love of his life, but all is not as it seems."

Off to skim.

 

[Stevil2001]

^ The story mentions "Andorian terrorists", as I recall. There the ones trying to get their hands on the Excalibur weapon.

 

[Christopher]

the bizarre Spock romance story (which treated the Andorians as a hostile people) in The New Voyages.

...

So, you mean "The Enchanted Pool" by Marcia Ericson? VoI says, "Spock meets the love of his life, but all is not as it seems."

That is the story in question. However, the antagonists were actually described as "renegade Andorians," so the story wasn't ascribing hostile status to the Andorian people as a whole. Maybe they were separatists, or just pirates or criminals who happened to be Andorian.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

"Uhura's Song".

Ack! I have no idea how I forgot that one! GREAT book!

 

[Therin of Andor]

That is the story in question. However, the antagonists were actually described as "renegade Andorians," so the story wasn't ascribing hostile status to the Andorian people as a whole. Maybe they were separatists, or just pirates or criminals who happened to be Andorian.

Ah, okay!

Gosh, maybe they're the same renegade Andorians who are at large in the Alpha Quandrant in the 24th century. (TNG episode, "The Survivors".) They were still active after Captain Montgomery Scott's arrival on the Enterprise-D. ("Engines of Destiny" by Gene DeWeese.)

Almost every Andorian not in Starfleet is a renegade, or so it seems. And then there's Mr Cray of "Once Burned", who fits both categories.

 

[BillJ]

Gulliver's Fugitives

 

[William Leisner]

Gosh, maybe they're the same renegade Andorians who are at large in the Alpha Quandrant in the 24th century. (TNG episode, "The Survivors".) They were still active after Captain Montgomery Scott's arrival on the Enterprise-D. ("Engines of Destiny" by Gene DeWeese.)

Not to mention the domestic terrorists who bombed some park in Andor's capital in CoE: Remembrance of Things Past.

 

[Christopher]

And there's a separatist group on Andor in IDW's Alien Spotlight: Andorians issue. Perhaps the same group as those bombers?

 

[KRAD]

And there's a separatist group on Andor in IDW's Alien Spotlight: Andorians issue. Perhaps the same group as those bombers?

Actually, those separatists from the comic were specifically stated as being the same bunch of renegades that Picard mentioned in "The Survivors."

 

[Christopher]

^^Ahh, okay. The incident in the Triangulum system was referenced in both. I had to review both the episode script and the comic to find the connection.

But couldn't they be responsible for the bombings too? Or at least have palled around with the terrorists?

 

[KRAD]

Sure, maybe. I personally assumed the terrorists that set off the bomb prior to Remembrance grew out of the mishegoss in Paradigm, but it could be these guys, too.

 

[KRAD]

Post deleted, as I put it in the wrong topic.

 

[Reanok]

Dreams of The Raven I always liked the fact McCoy was the one who helped solve the mystery of the alien attacks in that book. A nice look at the friendship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy.In the name of honor.Mud in your eye It was fun to see a novel with Harry Mudd a fun book.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Not to mention the domestic terrorists who bombed some park in Andor's capital in CoE: Remembrance of Things Past.

Not having got that far with eBooks, I still continue in my naive disbelief. (I was only joking last time about Terri's choice of Ground Zero.)

I think I'm going off to sit in a park somewhere...

(Mmmm, that little sad face's antennae even got blown off.)