I am looking for an OLD ST (TOS) novel that I read decades ago

[Don Drutherford]

Hi, Hopefully someone here can help me.. I cannot recall the name ( I thought that it might of been "Spock Must Die", but it wasn't. I bought it sometime back in the 1970s (mid? late?), and I stupidly loaned it to someone, and never got it back. All I can remember about the story is that Kirk and Spock were both being tested by some alien(s?), and Spock had to let himself lose so that Kirk would survive.
Is there a list of titles of ST novels from that era that is posted here ..or somewhere else that I can check? Even limited to a decade, there must be hundreds or thousands (ten of thousands?) published novels (I'd get started soon, otherwise, i might not get the chance to read it).

P.S. i just completed reading "Spock must Die". Would anyone care to discuss it?

 

[Extrocomp]

Wikipedia's list of Star Trek novels is a good way to see the titles of every 70s novel.

 

[Christopher]

All I can remember about the story is that Kirk and Spock were both being tested by some alien(s?), and Spock had to let himself lose so that Kirk would survive.

Sounds like Planet of Judgment by Joe Haldeman.

 

[mastadge]

Sounds like Planet of Judgment by Joe Haldeman.

This.

 

[Don Drutherford]

Thanks! I'll see if that is the one.

 

[Don Drutherford]

Wikipedia's list of Star Trek novels is a good way to see the the titles of every 70s novel.

I did not know that such a list existed on Wikipedia. Thank you for the information.

 

[JD]

The best places to look for information on Trek books are the two major Trek Wikis, Memory Alpha, which focuses on the canon content, but still includes basic info on pretty much everything with the Trek name on it, and Memory Beta, which focuses on non-canon content, and goes into a lot more detail on that stuff than Memory Alpha.
Myself and a handful of other people have also been trying to build another Wiki, Memory Omega, which focuses on just the books and comics. There's only two or three people who regularly contribute there. I used to contribute to some stuff on there, but I've gotten busy and haven't added anything in a while.

 

[Greg Cox]

Wikipedia's list of Star Trek novels is a good way to see the titles of every 70s novel.

Just glanced at that and couldn't help noticing one error: THE FOLDED WORLD is listed as a collaboration between Jeff Mariotte and myself. Nope. That was just Jeff. I had nothing to do with that book.

Just in case any Wiki-savvy individual feels like fixing it.

 

[Extrocomp]

Fixed.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Planet of Judgment, as I recall, had one major characteristic in its favor: it wasn't The Price of the Phoenix.

There wasn't much good ST literature during the early Bantam era. Planet of Judgment was very good as a science fiction novel, but not all that good as a Star Trek novel. And while things improved later in the Bantam era, it was like literally every other novel published was some variation on "Kirk & company start futzing with things they don't understand, and run afoul of a superbeing," each one more hackneyed then the previous.

We've never had it nearly so good as we have it today, in the post-Richard-Arnold Pocket Books era. Even with the pre-Picard Novelverse apparently coming to a close (at least in terms of anything that would contradict PIC or DSCs3).

 

[Christopher]

There wasn't much good ST literature during the early Bantam era. Planet of Judgment was very good as a science fiction novel, but not all that good as a Star Trek novel.

I don't agree. It's my second-favorite Bantam Trek, surpassed only by The Galactic Whirlpool. Sure, its storytelling style and details were atypical for Star Trek, but in many ways it was a classic Trek-style story. You had your godlike telepathic aliens testing Kirk and Spock, you had your illusory mental landscapes recapitulating Earth history, you had Kirk and Spock being ready to sacrifice for each other and saving the day through their bond, you had Scotty up on the ship (part of the time) trying to rescue the landing party, you had your prominent guest stars along for the ride as well as a couple of expendable redshirts -- the whole formula was very classic, even if the execution was distinctive.

Plus it was the one Bantam novel that really delved deep into character exploration for the core cast, rather than just putting them through an adventure. The flashbacks to the characters' pasts were intriguing and unique among the Bantam novels. Okay, the Spock parts relied too much on re-novelizing "Amok Time," but it was cool to get the first depiction of McCoy's divorce backstory and his decision to enlist in Starfleet.

And I actually quite liked Haldeman's embellishments, like the body armor and the details of landing-party procedure. They may not have felt very authentic to the show, but they were the way the show should have handled landing parties, with better, more sensible survival practices.

 

[JWolf]

I was taking a look at the cover for Planet of Judgment and I noticed that Kirk looks more like Joey from Friends.