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Looking for more TOS book recs

ClayinCA said:
MarianLH said:
I'd list that as one to avoid, myself. I found the writing so awful I couldn't get past page 6.
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Really?!?
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Really. Between the "three weeks to retirement" death and a villain so overcooked Peter Lorre would be rolling his eyes, the book overloaded my trite cliche buffer by page 6. A good plot and characters can almost rescue a book from crappy writing--that, in fact, would sum up my opinion on the Errand Of Vengeance trilogy--but in direct contrast to those books, In the Name of Honor offered no reason to keep suffering.

Given Ward's involvement in the second Vanguard book, he's apparently gotten better. I have yet to read the new one though.


Marian
 
If you'd kept on reading, you might have found a book with a lot more thoughtfulness and depth than you think it had. At the very least, you'd have a more informed opinion.

I remember being very impressed by In the Name of Honor. I certainly liked it better than a lot of the TOS books published in the year or so before and after it (the repetitive and wrongheaded New Earth miniseries, the TOS Gateways novel written by someone who was evidently much more familiar with TNG tech and terminology, the mildly disappointing Janus Gate and more disappointing Errand of Vengeance trilogies).

Dayton would probably prefer that people not disparage other writers' works to praise his, so bear in mind that I'm strictly offering my own personal opinion and putting that opinion into context. I don't love all Trek novels unconditionally and I'm capable of being critical of them. But I genuinely liked In the Name of Honor and thought it did some interesting things with the Klingons and with James T. Kirk and did them well.
 
Steve Roby said:
I don't love all Trek novels unconditionally and I'm capable of being critical of them. But I genuinely liked In the Name of Honor and thought it did some interesting things with the Klingons and with James T. Kirk and did them well.
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I'm with you.

Some novels open with a battle scene, and I don't usually like battle scenes, but I endure them to get to the character stuff. If "In the Name of Honor" started off that way, I guess I just glazed over until I got to more interesting stuff. And this novel brought back a post-ST V Garrovick (who'd once been killed off, off-page, in the opening scenes of "Home is the Hunter", a novel I'd quite enjoyed except that the author had killed off a favourite guest character of mine to start off her novel), and a really interesting new Efrosian character (Dayton was the first to use that term in a novel!), plus another take on Klingon foreheads, and all of this was really cool!

I can't imagine giving up on a ST novel at page 6. Some I wish I had, of course ("Into the Nebula", "Warped" and "The Laertian Gamble" come to mind), but there's usually lots of interesting stuff further in.
 
upon your recs, I'm reading Entropy Effect, and quite enjoying it. Funny, I'd recalled reading and not enjoying the first six books or so. So much that I can't remember which ones I'd read.
 
Dayton Ward said:
ClayinCA said:
Some of the book has since been contradicted by other Klingon-related books, I think--for example, Kirk would almost certainly recognize the "bumpy-headed" Klingons as being Klingons if the book were written now--but it made the book no less enjoyable for me, and it remains one of my favourite later-era TOS books.
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Nitpickery ahead:

It wasn't that Kirk didn't recognize Koloth as a Klingon; it was that he was caught off guard by Koloth's "appearance change."

Otherwise....glad you liked the book :)
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Oh, okay. It's been about a year since the last time I read the book, and I'd forgotten that (fairly crucial) distinction.

And yes, I loved the book (as I said, it's one of my two or three late-TOS-era favourites), but I liked Open Secrets even more. (I may never forgive you for that cliffhanger ending, though...)
 
I would add to my list of recommended reads the new novel from Dave Galanter, "Troublesome Minds". Classic TOS if there ever was one.

Rob+
 
Thanks to this thread and a couple of older ones (and having TOS interest revived by the new movie) I had to go to my mom's and dig out all my Star Trek books. They are mostly the numbered ones up through around #60 and some sporadic numbered ones. I also have the hardcovers from Spock's World through Sarek. Plus the James Blish and Alan Dean Foster and most of the Bantam and quite a few Best of Trek. I haven't read any of them for probably 8+ years.

I am so looking forward to reading all my favorites- plus it is fun to see which ones were my favorites- "Yep that one is worn beyond belief and held together with tape." I'm curious to see if they hold up as well as I remember. I'm also looking forward to reading my not-so favorites to see if they are as bad as I remember. :)

Favorites I'll be starting with- Uhura's Song, Dreams of the Raven, Ishmael (and I want to see HCTB on Netflix), My Enemy, My Ally, The Wounded Sky, Black Fire and How Much for Just the Planet.
 
Ok, I may have missed these on various lists, but I didn't see: "Final Reflection" (John Ford), "Crisis on Centaurus" or "Entropy Effect" (Diane Duane), so I'll throw those into the hat.

Oh, and "How Much for Just the Planet" if you're in the mood for "silly Trek".
 
darkwing_duck1 said:
Ok, I may have missed these on various lists, but I didn't see: "Final Reflection" (John Ford), "Crisis on Centaurus" or "Entropy Effect" (Diane Duane), so I'll throw those into the hat.
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The Entropy Effect was Vonda N. McIntyre. Did you mean The Wounded Sky?
 
"The Blood-Dimmed Tide" by Howie Weinstein in Mere Anarchy also fits into this timeframe, and is a cracking good read to boot.
 
Thanks guys, I haven't read The Rift in nearly 20 years, but I have it in a box somewhere. I'm trying to finally complete my TOS novels collection so I'll keep an eye out for the others in my second hand bookshop hunts.

Really interested in any movie era TOS stuff, and hoping one day we'll get a series that fills in the TMP-TWOK and TVH-TUC years.
 
I'll second Mere Anarchy :techman:. It's not only a great read that spans the entire time Kirk & Co. are on the Enterprise, but it has some stories that fit in the gaps of the timeline where we don't know what happened. Shadows of The Indignant by Dave Galanter happens in the "Lost Years" era between the original 5YM and TMP; The Darkness Drops Again by Christopher L. Bennett happens between TMP and TWOK, and the afore mentioned The Blood-Dimmed Tide by Howard Weinstein, fits in between TFF and TUC. It was an all around great series. Hopefully more ebook series like this get printed in the future :)
 
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