Favorite Stand Alone?

[Christopher]

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.

Ah, yes, I remember the Ravens. Sylar writ large.

Except that, unlike Sylar, they actually did eat brains.

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.

Cicero:

Sorry you feel that way. Yes, there were several aspects of the book that were unlike TOS, but I felt McIntyre simply built on the TOS world. Introducing the border patrol characters, the massive space colony Aleph Prime, Spock's old crazy mentor, Georges Mordreaux -- I got quite a kick out of them.

Indeed. Back then, what TOS had established about the universe it occupied was rather limited; it made a point of never showing us what Earth society was like, for instance. So there was plenty of room for novelists to elaborate on the universe however they wished.

And I miss what Christopher is talking about, how individual authors were allowed to embellish and add their own contributions to the ST world. Too bad it's not like that anymore.

It still is, to some extent. There's still room to incorporate our own original ideas and creative voices, so long as we keep consistent with canon. The opportunities for that are narrower, since we can't imagine our own versions of Earth history or Klingon culture or the like anymore, but there are still gaps where original creations can be worked in, such as the various alien civilizations I've created or developed in my books. The Vanguard and Lost Era authors have a lot of freedom to develop their own ideas, and Peter David does pretty much whatever the hell he feels like in New Frontier.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Another vote for Diane Duane's The Wounded Sky.

I agree with Nerys Dukat that this book would've gotten an award if it had been a non-ST book.

TWS is a story that is fun, interesting, imaginative, and exciting. Duane captures perfectly the "voices" of the TOS characters.

Agreed. Love The Wounded Sky, esp. the spider-woman engineer whose name escapes me, the one who helped create the inversion drive. I like how Kirk is so impressed with her, he thinks it would be fun to be a glass spider, and tells her so. Even Scotty is impressed with her engineering knowledge. I love the part where Enterprise is outside the Milky Way galaxy and they can see it in its total form from the observation deck. And Duane has a plethora of strange ETs in the book, in addition to the spider-woman engineer. -- RR

That was one of the things I REALLY loved about her version of Starfleet and the Federation in general--one got the idea that it was a vibrant, sometimes raucous place, but in the end came together wonderfully as family. The diversity that was so shocking in the Titan series was a matter of course in her version. In a lot of ways, it was like the best of Star Wars design meets Star Trek.

The other thing I thought was quite notable about the way she designed her version of the Trek universe...very much unlike what Roddenberry originally envisioned, there was also a sense that at least some of the characters--including the human ones--had full spiritual lives as well. I never saw this as overbearing, the way she portrayed it, but it was very clearly there. For this reason, I would LOVE to see her take on Deep Space Nine...especially something in the Prophets/Ascendants/Oralians arc. I have a feeling she would do wonderfully with that.

The only time I have ever felt her work didn't quite measure up to her usual standards was Intellivore, but I get the feeling it was rushed and also that she perhaps didn't care for the TNG characters or their world quite as much (a little too sanitized, perhaps...which may explain why Dark Mirror worked so well: the chance to play the TNG characters off of nastier versions of themselves). Given that on DS9 we've got much more fleshed-out characters, and the worlds and plot-arcs aren't all so neat and tidy, I have this feeling that the general scenario would be more conducive to her tastes and perhaps result in writing up to the quality of her TOS work.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

TNG: Reunion by MJF. First Trek book I ever read. Tried to do a book report on it and was rejected, when the teacher cleary said 'any book you wanted,' but then she generally disliked science-fiction anyway.

ncc71877

With me, my teacher through his considerable flab against my choice of Killing Time as the subject of a book review. I submitted it anyway, told him to take it or leave it, got an F.

It was an educational experience. Teachers aren't as smart as they think they are, and a reviewer is only half a reviewer if he doesn't review the bad with the good.

 

[Therin of Andor]

And I miss what Christopher is talking about, how individual authors were allowed to embellish and add their own contributions to the ST world. Too bad it's not like that anymore.

There have been plenty of recent ST novels that have added unique slants and embellishments to the ST world.

 

[jgdst]

Hmm, I'm going to say DS9 - The Siege. I was only about 14 when I read it, and I remember it having a decent amount of action and pace, plus a bit of the mystery of Odo revealed (it was only a couple of episodes into DS9 ), as well as being the book that made me a fan of PAD. I think I'm going to re-read it and see if it holds up to the memories

Also add another vote for A Stitch In Time! (If we could count The Left Hand Of Destiny as being pretty standalone and as a single story, just spread over two books, I'd definitely put that in there too... Any chance I can slip that one into the running? )

 

[JAG]

I would say Uhura's Song. I just devoured that book, when I first read it.

 

[Annorax]

TOS: Prime Directive (would've made a great movie) (honorable mention: Killing Time)
TNG: Imzadi (ditto)
DS9: Millennium (also my favorite book to date)
VOY: ugh, never read many of them
ENT: were there any non-relaunch Ent books?

 

[Turbo]

ENT: were there any non-relaunch Ent books?

Novels set during the series:
By the Book by Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch
What Price Honor by Dave Stern
Surak's Soul by J.M. Dillard
Daedalus by Dave Stern
Daedalus's Children by Dave Stern
Rosetta by Dave Stern
Last Full Measure by Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin (The framing story is set several decades after the rest of the novel.)

Novels set after the series:
Kobayashi Maru by Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin
The Romulan War by Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin

There were also three novelizations:
Broken Bow by Diane Carey
Shockwave by Paul Ruditis
The Expanse by J.M. Dillard (This was a novelization of both "The Expanse" and "The Xindi".)

And while not technically an Enterprise novel, one of the storylines in David Mack's Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night features Columbia and her crew.

 

[Christopher]

There's also an ENT segment in The Brave and the Bold Book 1 and an ENT-era chapter or two in A Time to Sow.

 

[TheAlmanac]

...and, of course, various ENT stories in the Strange New Worlds anthologies, beginning in 2002.

 

[MMCL]

I have really enjoyed the following (most of which could be considered stand-alone stories):

From MYRIAD UNIVERSES - ECHOES AND REFRACTIONS
A Gutted World - Keith R.A. DeCandido
Kira escapes a war-torn Bajor to bring a message of 'changelings' to the Federation. So close to the Trek reality we know, yet so different in infinite ways. Excellent pace and entirely believable. I've read it three times now.

CHALLENGER - Chainmail (Gateways #2) - Diane Carey
A captain and situation I had never seen/read before. Usually I would steer clear of this but the civilisation described were simply fascinating and excellently written.

DS9: Fallen Heroes - Dafydd ab Hugh
I remember loving this and it was probably the first trek novel I read.


I can't remember which books, but the Tezwa bits from the A Time to were ace and very well written. Oh, and I would add Articles Of The Federation to the list but I have only just finished it and need a re-read. It is a great book - I especially loved the ICL sections.

 

[KRAD]

From MYRIAD UNIVERSES - ECHOES AND REFRACTIONS
A Gutted World - Keith R.A. DeCandido
Kira escapes a war-torn Bajor to bring a message of 'changelings' to the Federation. So close to the Trek reality we know, yet so different in infinite ways. Excellent pace and entirely believable. I've read it three times now.

Wow. Thanks so very much!

I can't remember which books, but the Tezwa bits from the A Time to were ace and very well written.

That would be A Time to Kill and A Time to Heal by David Mack.

Oh, and I would add Articles Of The Federation to the list but I have only just finished it and need a re-read. It is a great book - I especially loved the ICL sections.

Again, thanks so much!

 

[MMCL]

I just realised with that post that I should become president of the KRAD appreciation society.

KRAD, will we see ICL again?

 

[KRAD]

KRAD, will we see ICL again?

There's an ICL bit in A Singular Destiny, actually.

 

[DorkBoy [TM]]

Going back to the original post, the poster is a DS9 / TNG fan who has read all of Peter David's work and wants standalone recommendations.

Most of the recommendations have been GREAT but TOS. Not surprising - in the early 80s there were a tremendous number of great standalones, before any of the other serieses existed.

Anyhow, my top recommendation for you is Fallen Heroes. (I see someone else just beat me to it.) The writing style is very similar to Peter David's. I thought Daffyd Ab-Hugh might actually be a pseudonym for Peter David when I read it. Ab-Hugh's next book, in the foreward, actually said he got a ton of fan mail for Fallen Heroes asking him that very question, if he was Peter David.

Most of the other early DS9 was very forgettable. I remember liking Bloodletter at the time, but it is such an early book there's no telling how accurate the characterization turned out.

Some other good DS9 ones, some of which are echoes of previous recommendations, others not:

• The 34th Rule

• A Stitch in Time (can't repeat this recommendation enough) - Autobiography of Garak. Andrew Robinson made up a back story for Garak to inform his performance during the series, and this book is the result.

• Left Hand of Destiny - a duology, but its a standalone story just broken up into 2 books. Think "Legend of King Arthur" where Chancellor Martok (post-TV-series) is King Arthur.

All of these above have the distinction of being written by DS9 actors about their characters. A Stitch in Time is particularly impressive because, not only is it the best of the 3, but Andy Robinson wrote it himself, without a "professional writer" co-author.

• Hollow Men - people either love or hate this one. I fall into the "love" category. It's a sequel to the excellent DS9 episode "In the Pale Moonlight."

Some TNG recommendations:

• Diplomatic Implausibility - This one is billed as TNG but it's sort of TNG / DS9. A story of Ambassador Worf, post-DS9.

• Metamorphosis - A story about Data becoming human. Great read.

Most of the other standalone TNG I would ordinarily recommend are all of the Peter David books, which apparently you've already read.

Unfortunately, many of the TNG books were very forgettable. The recent ones have been better, but they've also been very serialized.

Anyhow, happy reading!

 

[JD]

While DI is a really good stand alone story, it is also the jumping off point for the IKS Gorkon (now Klingon Empire) series.