New comer looking for ideas for ST books to read

[OmahaStar]

azzurri08 said:
You guys sure no how to treat a newbie well.

Yeah, it's kind of like this ... You start off on a positive note, so you'll probably enjoy posting here. By posting here, you'll find out about more great books. Then you'll buy those books. Then you'll come here and post about those books. And eventually, someone else will be a newbie asking about books and you'll answer their questions.

It's a viscous cycle.

 

[David Mack]

^
"The circle is complete. Once I was but the learner, now I am the master."

"Only a master of TrekLit, Darth."

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Merry Stitchmas said:

azzurri08 said:
You guys sure no how to treat a newbie well.

Yeah, it's kind of like this ... You start off on a positive note, so you'll probably enjoy posting here. By posting here, you'll find out about more great books. Then you'll buy those books. Then you'll come here and post about those books. And eventually, someone else will be a newbie asking about books and you'll answer their questions.

It's a viscous cycle.

And sometimes The Purple One puts you in charge of the forum.

 

[Ethros]

Merry said:
Any of the Lost Era books is worth a read if you are interested in that character, society, or time period. In particular, Serpents Among the Ruins, The Art of the Impossible, and The Buried Age are fantastic books.

Another vote for The Art of the Impossible, easily the most enjoyable read of any Trek book I've read.
Also good if you like your continuity porn

 

[Smiley]

Ethros said:

Merry said:
Any of the Lost Era books is worth a read if you are interested in that character, society, or time period. In particular, Serpents Among the Ruins, The Art of the Impossible, and The Buried Age are fantastic books.

Another vote for The Art of the Impossible, easily the most enjoyable read of any Trek book I've read.
Also good if you like your continuity porn

Klingons and Cardassians in hot continuity-filled action!

(cue bow chicka bow wow music)

 

[Therin of Andor]

azzurri08 said:
You guys sure no how to treat a newbie well.

You made it easy by telling us your favourite aspects of aired ST, but I see everyone's beaten me to the usual recommendations. You have no idea how many people just say, "Recommend something..." but give no indication of their personal preferences.

As you can imagination, some of the ST novelists also delve into humour, tech, politics, war, characterization, alien world-building, nostalgia (ie. reunions, sequels to aired episodes, return of alien races, etc), and this makes blanket recommendations rather tricky.

Some personal TOS faves that would be worth picking up if you see them on your buying sprees: Pocket's first original novel, "The Entropy Effect" by Vonda McIntyre; the first three movie novelizations (TMP by Gene Roddenberry and ST II & ST III by McIntyre"), which all greatly expand the stories of these movies; "Yesterday's Son" and "Time for Yesterday" by AC Crispin; and the quirky/meaty "Uhura's Song" by Janet Kagan.

Re TNG, I love "Immortal Coil" by Jeffrey Lang, a wonderful Data novel and a great "whodunnit" set in the TNG universe - but it works even better if you've seen all of TOS.

And a plug for "New Frontier", "Vanguard" and "Titan": amazing original-to-the-novels series to get totally absorbed in, peppered with several canonical guest ST characters as regulars.

 

[ClayinCA]

Nice to see some love for Uhura's Song, one of my top five favorite Original Series books. A joy to read, with some wonderful characterization from both the Enterprise crew and the original characters. Is it still in print?

 

[Therin of Andor]

ClayinCA said:
Is it still in print?

Doubtful. But it is way overdue for a re-presentation!

 

[Rosalind]

^ but you can always get it as an ebook.

 

[trampledamage]

Can you? Wow, I hadn't realised they'd re-released the old novels in e-book format.

I'm a bit behind in my e-book investigations, but I sense a purchase or two coming up now!

 

[azzurri08]

how do e-books work? where do you get them?

 

[OmahaStar]

Snow Is Falling said:
Can you? Wow, I hadn't realised they'd re-released the old novels in e-book format.

I'm a bit behind in my e-book investigations, but I sense a purchase or two coming up now!

I didn't check every single title, but when I started getting into the ebooks recently, I checked some of the earliest Pocket titles, and they were all available, and pretty darned cheap too. More recent titles are more expensive, but still cheaper than the cost of the paperback/hardcover format.

And my gosh, there's a lot of titles available!

 

[D Man]

Therin of Andor said:

ClayinCA said:
Is it still in print?

Doubtful. But it is way overdue for a re-presentation!

I picked up a re-issued copy of Uhura's Song about a year or so ago, with a big "Classic book at a classic price!" blurb on the cover.

 

[trampledamage]

Merry Stitchmas said:

I didn't check every single title, but when I started getting into the ebooks recently, I checked some of the earliest Pocket titles, and they were all available, and pretty darned cheap too. More recent titles are more expensive, but still cheaper than the cost of the paperback/hardcover format.

And my gosh, there's a lot of titles available!

Fantastic! Now, do I spend my Christmas money on new books or old ones? Decisions! Decisions! :thumbsup:

 

[LightningStorm]

azzurri08 said:
how do e-books work? where do you get them?

No so simply put:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book

Simply put:
You download a e-book reader from a company that makes them (Microsoft, Adobe, or others). Then you buy an e-book from almost any online book retailer (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or from the publisher, in this case Simon and Schuster) in the format of the reader you downloaded. Once you've downloaded it you have purchased a license to own the file and if for some reason you lose or delete the file you can download it again for free from the same place you purchased it.

 

[Rosalind]

and most places let you download free sample copies of books, so you can compare the various different formats and choose the one you like.

 

[JD]

ClayinCA said:
Nice to see some love for Uhura's Song, one of my top five favorite Original Series books. A joy to read, with some wonderful characterization from both the Enterprise crew and the original characters. Is it still in print?

You should also check out any used books stores in your area because you can get books like these really cheap then, sometimes even less than $1.

 

[PsychoPere]

Therin of Andor said:
Some personal TOS faves that would be worth picking up if you see them on your buying sprees: Pocket's first original novel, "The Entropy Effect" by Vonda McIntyre; the first three movie novelizations (TMP by Gene Roddenberry and ST II & ST III by McIntyre"), which all greatly expand the stories of these movies; "Yesterday's Son" and "Time for Yesterday" by AC Crispin; and the quirky/meaty "Uhura's Song" by Janet Kagan.

Would anyone happen to have any additional TOS-era (pre-TOS and TOS movie era, even) suggestions?

I've read Probe (and the Music of the Spheres manuscript); Shadows on the Sun; Best Destiny; Federation; the first two The Eugenics Wars novels; Section 31: Rogue; A Flag Full of Stars; Starfleet: Year One; and the first two Shatnerverse trilogies (guilty pleasures). There may be others I've read, but a glance through the list on Memory Beta of TOS novels isn't ringing any bells. I do have the first Vanguard book, to be read after I finish the first Titan entry.

 

[Smiley]

^Burning Dreams is a terrific Pike story. Also, the first two Rihannsu stories, My Enemy, My Ally and The Romulan Way are among the best Trek books have to offer.

 

[KRAD]

Recent TOS books I'd recommend without hesitation include To Reign in Hell by Greg Cox, The Empty Chair by Diane Duane (as well as the books collected in the trade paperback Bloodwing Voyages), the Constellations anthology, David R. George III's Crucible trilogy (the opening volume, McCoy: Provenance of Shadows, is especially magnificent), and the six-part eBook miniseries Mere Anarchy. The latter has six stories from throughout all the eras of TOS (pre-TOS, five-year mission, between the 5YM and TMP, between TMP and TWOK, between TFF and TUC, and post-Generations), all linked by a particular planet.