Just curious what was your first Trek novel to read?

[samalex]

Hi all. I'm just curious, what was the first Trek novel you read? The first one I remember reading was Masks by John Vornholt which was the 7th TNG book released in 1991. I was a HUGE TNG fan from Farpoint, but it was a year or two before I realized they were releasing novels from the show. Plus I was only like 12 or 13 so I didn't have a good way to go buy the books.

I'm not sure why Masks sticks out as my first book, but eventually I was buying the novels from our local Walden Books as soon as they came out, I knew the manager and he'd hold them for me. After I got into high school then college I kind of slacked off with reading the novels, then when the other many series came out I fell WAY behind. I still have boxes of Trek novels in my office, most of which I've not read or not finished, so some day.

Masks wasn't my favorite novel though, The Ann Crispin book The Eyes of the Beholders turned me on to her writings, and I've since read all of her Trek books, which I highly suggest her 'Yesterday' series based in TOS.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Spock Must Die, by James Blish.

 

[Greg Cox]

Hard to remember after all this time. Probably one of the James Blish collections, which I checked out from the library.

 

[TheUsualSuspect]

Either Planet of Judgment by Joe Haldeman or The Price of the Phoenix by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, both of which I read just after becoming a fan of the show in the late '70s. I liked both of them at the time, and would still recommend Haldeman's book for anyone interested in an early take on Star Trek by a major science fiction writer.

 

[Christopher]

My first Trek novel -- indeed, the first adult-level novel I ever read in my life, when I was seven or so -- was Star Trek Log Three by Alan Dean Foster. The first original one may have been The Starless World by Gordon Eklund.

 

[Steve Roby]

Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds. Probably Christmas 1971. I was more excited about the Hawaii Five-O and Rat Patrol books at the time, but I came around within a couple of years.

 

[JoeP]

DS9: Bloodletter.

 

[20fridge]

The first one I remember reading is TNG: Intellivore.

 

[ryan123450]

Mosaic. It was 'canon' and in the 90s I had it in my little head that non-canon material was worthless since it didn't count. Besides that and Pathways my first book was A Stitch in Time when the DS9 relaunch had got underway.

 

[Ovation]

One of the Blish compilations would be my guess (I would have been around 9 or 10) as my first Trek book but The Entropy Effect is the first Trek novel (not adapting TOS or TAS or TMP) I recall reading. I pretty much read everything that came out in the 80s (until a few years ago, when I gave most of them away, I had about the first 70 or so books by Pocket, and some other, pre-Pocket books from the 70s). I stopped buying around 1990 (funds became tight for a bit) and when things improved, there had been an explosion of books and I could not catch up. My reading became considerably more sporadic and now is very occasional (for Trek--at the moment, I'm reading a monograph a day or so for my comps, so it's not like I stopped reading altogether).

From the 80s, I'd say my favourite was The Final Reflection. Most of the others I only remember dimly.

 

[stardream]

Strangers From the Sky

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Q-In-Law by Peter David

 

[Bibliomike]

Like Greg, my first Trek book was one of the Blish books. The New Voyages was also quite early in my Trek reading - it may have been the first one I owned for myself. I wish I could remember my first Trek novel, though. I am 98% certain it was Yesterday's Son by A.C. Crispin.

 

[Jinn]

Avatar Book One by S.D. Perry

 

[Therin of Andor]

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" novelization, in December 1979... until I realized, in about 1981, that I'd read my brother's copy of "Mission to Horatius" (and my own matching Whitman's tie-in novel for "I Spy") when I was sick in bed with the flu during 1970. I saw it in a second hand store - for an outrageous price - and remembered it was at home in an old toybox!

 

[James Swallow]

Vonda McIntryre's The Entropy Effect.

 

[Amaris]

James Blish's "Star Trek" volume 1. I read it while I was in elementary school, and I wanted to find the others so bad. I eventually did, as my teacher owned them, and she let me read each one in class, as long as my work was done. Believe me, it was always done.

The first Star Trek novel I actually owned was Pocketbooks #63 "Shell Game" by Melissa Crandall. I still have it, all dog-eared and worn out. It is easily one of my favorites.

 

[Kilana2]

Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home by Vonda N. McIntyre

 

[Csalem]

All Good Things novelization. Some time later I read Encounter at Farpoint so I knew how the story ended before how it started.

 

[Paris]

TNG: The Captain's Honor by David & Daniel Dvorkin. I was in 7th grade and our school library had it. I had just really got into TNG and my teacher let me use this for a book report. I remember liking it more then than I did upon a re-read years later..