Good stand-alone novel suggestions

[bfollowell]

I finally read through all of the relaunch novels and have been caught up with current novels for a couple of years now. Now that I've caught up, I'm looking to go back and read some of the stand-alone novels from the past ten or twelve years. Basically anything from the post-numbered novels timeframe. I'm thinking along the lines of Ex Machina, Burning Dreams, Hollow Men, etc. I'm interested in pretty much any good read from any series. I'm thinking mostly stand-alone novels that don't rely too heavily on back story from another novel. Do any of you have any suggestions for me?

Thanks.

- Byron

 

[Wadjda]

Christopher L Bennet: The Buried Age

 

[chris_masters5]

I really liked some of the lost era novels - if you've not read any check out The Sundered, Cast No Shadow, Serpents Among The Ruins, The Art of The Impossible, and The Buried Age. Each is completely standalone. Also I'm not that up to date with TOS, but the last couple that I read were pretty good - Section 31: Cloak, and That Which Divides.

 

[ryan123450]

Burning Dreams, Immortal Coil, and Forged in Fire seem like good suggestions to me.

 

[Stevil2001]

I really liked The Children of Kings, an atmospheric Pike-era novel.

 

[BuckBokai]

They've both been mentioned, but I think you cant go wrong with The Buried Age or Immortal Coil, both are great reads

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Troublesome Minds by Dave Galanter

 

[Leto_II]

Allegiance in Exile, by David R. George III

Engines of Destiny, by Gene DeWeese

Federation, by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Prime Directive, by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Spock's World, by Diane Duane

Ex Machina, by Christopher Bennett

The Crucible trilogy by David George stands entirely on its own, and doesn't depend upon any other novels.

Also, ryan123450's three suggestions (Burning Dreams, Immortal Coil, and Excelsior: Forged in Fire) are all excellent, as well.

 

[tomswift2002]

"Q-In-Law" and "Flashback".

 

[Defcon]

The Never-Ending Sacrifice by Una McCormack. Terrific coming-of-age story featuring Rugal from the second season DS9 episode Cardassians.

 

[CaptPapa]

Spock's World . . . definitely!

ME

 

[voyager1]

Dark Mirror. It is probably 20 years old. I read it as a teenager. It came out right before DS9 did Crossover so the book does not line up with the MU now. However I think DS9 or TNG would have been better going in the direction of this book versus some of the silliness that went on on later seasons.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It's not standalone in the strictest technical sense, but my favorite Trek novel of all time is Vulcan's Heart. You can't go wrong with something like that.

 

[Leto_II]

Yup, Vulcan's Heart is only loosely a "sequel" in the strictest sense to Vulcan's Forge, and one needn't have read Forge at all in order to enjoy the second book (for example, Captain Rabin only makes a cameo appearance early on in the story).

The novel mostly deals with the Romulan politics surrounding the Narendra III incident, as well as a chunk of the book showing things from the Enterprise-C's point-of-view during the events preceding "Yesterday's Enterprise," and can be picked up completely independently of its predecessor.

 

[JD]

I really liked some of the lost era novels - if you've not read any check out The Sundered, Cast No Shadow, Serpents Among The Ruins, The Art of The Impossible, and The Buried Age. Each is completely standalone. Also I'm not that up to date with TOS, but the last couple that I read were pretty good - Section 31: Cloak, and That Which Divides.

Just an FYI, Cast No Shadow is published as a TOS novel, not The Lost Era.
As for recommendations, I'd have to put in another vote for the TLE books listed above, Immortal Coil and The Never-Ending Sacrifice. All of those are awesome books.

 

[Wally]

These are excellent suggestions. I don't have anything new to add, but just another vote for some excellent stories:

The Sundered, Serpents Among the Ruins, The Art of the Impossible -the first 3 Lost Era books were amazing. IMHO the line began to falter after that. With the exception of The Buried Age which came out years later and I think was excellent.

Federation- It's what got me into Trek lit in the first place. It is excellent. Granted much of the pre-federation historical parts are now contradicted by new canon, it still is an excellent story and well done.

Dark Mirror- A guilty pleasure. Good TNG vs. Eviiiil TNG. It's a Mirror Universe story from before DS9 hashed out how the mirror universe operated in the 24th century.

A Stitch in Time- not sure if you counted this as part of your re-launch reading, but if you missed it. Read it. Really with it, the Terok Nor Lost Era novels and The Never Ending Sacrifice you can really have an entire Cardassian side series play out.

 

[JD]

Terok Nor: Day of the Vipers is one of my favorite books. It's technically the first book in the DS9 prequel trilogy, but it's seperate enough from the other two that it works really well as a standalone story. I think of it almost as more of a prequel to the second two, than part of one three book arc.

 

[Sci]

The Sorrows of Empire by David Mack, featuring the rise of Emperor Spock in the Mirror Universe.

 

[Enterpriserules]

Shadows on the Sun, by Michael Jan Friedman

Mosaic, by Jeri Taylor

Federation, by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Prime Directive, by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Ex Machina, by Christopher Bennett One of my all time favorites!

The Crucible trilogy by David George III