A la Captain Kirk with the tribbles...
I have generated a giant pile of unread Star Trek novels. It literally would reach from my floor to the ceiling more than once (Not hyperbole; I layed them out with a tape measure!). This is a good thing! An awesome thing! However, I recently had an unpleasant reckoning where I realized the demands of my job make me lucky if I can read, say, two a month for the forseeable future and it will probably go down from there. So I have to prioritize.
So I'm hoping you can help me figure out which books are worth giving a shot since I need to choose very carefully. Here's my problem. There are a million places to get book reviews- lots of websites, Amazon, top ten lists here, etc. However, I have found that most reviews have the following issues: they’re usually some variant of “this book is pretty solid, you should read it” (and they are, that’s my whole problem!); they’re usually limited to books that have come out in the last few years; and each person’s tastes are a little different so they can be kind of hit or miss.
I’ve read most of the “heavy hitters” – Typhon Pact, Destiny, The Fall, the DS9 relaunch, Spock’s World, Vendetta, The Final Reflection, TNG relaunch, those sorts of books. Have also read most of the books that have come out in the last five-ish years. I’m really aiming to delve more deeply into the numbered novels and the older, less recent stuff (e.g. books like Enterprise Logs, Dominion War series, Captain’s Table, Invasion are all in my gigantic pile). What I’m looking for is something more like “based on the fact that I liked, e.g. The Final Reflection, will I like Dwellers in the Crucible or Faces of Fire more?” “Is To Storm Heaven or Survivors a better TNG novel?” One of the problems with Amazon type places is that in general if you review a book like TNG #15 you really really like Star Trek and are probably going to give it a decent review, which is fine- I do too!- but it makes it really hard to discriminate.
So what I’m asking is, is there some sort of either a) big crowdsourced repository of Trek book reviews a la imdb or tv.com where at least there’s a large number of reviews that can average out people’s individual tastes and give some idea of what’s more objectively good or bad, or b) a place where I can put in the individual books I liked and get related recommendations? I’ve tried b) on goodreads and Amazon but it usually just refers me to things like Destiny which I’ve already read- they’re good, but I’m really looking to delve more into the stuff I haven’t read (things like some of the less well known numbered novels), and do it in a way that isn’t just looking at people’s top ten lists. And a) doesn’t work so well on Amazon because the algorithm combines recency of publication and number of reviews with actual rating so I again just get a bunch of recommendations like Destiny which I’ve already read.
Does that make sense? Anyone have any ideas?
I have generated a giant pile of unread Star Trek novels. It literally would reach from my floor to the ceiling more than once (Not hyperbole; I layed them out with a tape measure!). This is a good thing! An awesome thing! However, I recently had an unpleasant reckoning where I realized the demands of my job make me lucky if I can read, say, two a month for the forseeable future and it will probably go down from there. So I have to prioritize.
So I'm hoping you can help me figure out which books are worth giving a shot since I need to choose very carefully. Here's my problem. There are a million places to get book reviews- lots of websites, Amazon, top ten lists here, etc. However, I have found that most reviews have the following issues: they’re usually some variant of “this book is pretty solid, you should read it” (and they are, that’s my whole problem!); they’re usually limited to books that have come out in the last few years; and each person’s tastes are a little different so they can be kind of hit or miss.
I’ve read most of the “heavy hitters” – Typhon Pact, Destiny, The Fall, the DS9 relaunch, Spock’s World, Vendetta, The Final Reflection, TNG relaunch, those sorts of books. Have also read most of the books that have come out in the last five-ish years. I’m really aiming to delve more deeply into the numbered novels and the older, less recent stuff (e.g. books like Enterprise Logs, Dominion War series, Captain’s Table, Invasion are all in my gigantic pile). What I’m looking for is something more like “based on the fact that I liked, e.g. The Final Reflection, will I like Dwellers in the Crucible or Faces of Fire more?” “Is To Storm Heaven or Survivors a better TNG novel?” One of the problems with Amazon type places is that in general if you review a book like TNG #15 you really really like Star Trek and are probably going to give it a decent review, which is fine- I do too!- but it makes it really hard to discriminate.
So what I’m asking is, is there some sort of either a) big crowdsourced repository of Trek book reviews a la imdb or tv.com where at least there’s a large number of reviews that can average out people’s individual tastes and give some idea of what’s more objectively good or bad, or b) a place where I can put in the individual books I liked and get related recommendations? I’ve tried b) on goodreads and Amazon but it usually just refers me to things like Destiny which I’ve already read- they’re good, but I’m really looking to delve more into the stuff I haven’t read (things like some of the less well known numbered novels), and do it in a way that isn’t just looking at people’s top ten lists. And a) doesn’t work so well on Amazon because the algorithm combines recency of publication and number of reviews with actual rating so I again just get a bunch of recommendations like Destiny which I’ve already read.
Does that make sense? Anyone have any ideas?
Last edited:
