Non-star Trek books for Star Trek fans

[Allyn Gibson]

I recommended Iain M. Banks' Culture series, beginning with Consider Phlebas, recently to a friend. The Culture is the post-scarcity Federation on steroids.

First off I’d like to throw out the Hornblower and Aubrey/Maturin series. These are both series of naval adventures during the Napoleonic wars. They match Star Trek’s themes of duty and adventure. I believe Roddenberry may have listed Hornblower as an inspiration and I once read an interview with Nicholas Meyer where he said he didn’t really get Star Trek until he thought of it as Hornblower in space.

You may want to look at Diane Carey's War of 1812 novel, Banners. It has some Hornblower-esque elements -- one of the plot threads follows a Navy ship -- and the ending, in Baltimore's Fells Point district, felt like Carey writing a Deep Space Nine Promenade scene.

Rather, he pitched several story outlines that were all rejected. Outlines aren't episodes any more than a cake recipe is cake.

That was my beef with the way DC marketed Batman '66: The Lost Episode, which featured a Two-Face story pitched by Harlan Ellison. It was just a pitch and an outline, Ellison didn't get a script commission, so it wasn't really a "lost episode."

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

- so he essentially turned this one unsold pitch into three different novels, or six if you count the expanded Yesterday's Children aka Starhunt and the Star Wolf sequels.

That's a lot of mileage.

 

[Christopher]

I recommended Iain M. Banks' Culture series, beginning with Consider Phlebas, recently to a friend. The Culture is the post-scarcity Federation on steroids.

Although the books focus heavily on its equivalent of Section 31, which I'm less happy about.

That was my beef with the way DC marketed Batman '66: The Lost Episode, which featured a Two-Face story pitched by Harlan Ellison. It was just a pitch and an outline, Ellison didn't get a script commission, so it wasn't really a "lost episode."

I can see the marketing logic of that, however much it chafes against my need for accuracy. I can't think of another way to concisely convey that it's adapted from material created for the show.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

The episode that might have been.

 

[Christopher]

The episode that might have been.

A bit unwieldy for part of the actual title, as opposed to the descriptive blurb.

 

[Zarm]

That was my beef with the way DC marketed Batman '66: The Lost Episode, which featured a Two-Face story pitched by Harlan Ellison. It was just a pitch and an outline, Ellison didn't get a script commission, so it wasn't really a "lost episode."

Look, it's Harlan Ellison. If he had an idea, and wrote that idea down in any form, it is a lost masterpiece over which all should weep, like the loss of the Library of Alexandria itself. It was the best episode of that series, regardless of how far it came across, whether it was made, whether it would even be possible to make... ;-)

 

[Greg Cox]

I read about 80% then I gave up. I was really enjoying it but I couldn’t take the age gap situation. Are the rest of the series a bit less problematic?

Honestly, I can't remember. I wrote that cover copy close to forty years ago. Don't remember the age-gap thing, just that the books were set in a Trek-like future.

(Got paid $90 a book, as I recall.)

 

[T'Ressa Dax]

If you prefer the alien world-building and first contact aspects, Lisanne Norman's Sholan Alliance novels are among my favorites.
But I'm also getting into the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. I don't usually like this level of military SF, but I'm really enjoying Honor. It's not constant battles, which is good. Weber can really get into the politics of his various interestellar organizations though, which can be a bit much at times so I skip over those parts. The world-building is great though
If you hated the Dominion War arc, skip. Otherwise, give it a try.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

If you hated the Dominion War arc, skip.

Sounds like you've given me something to avoid at all cost.

 

[Dr Bonezee]

I thoroughly enjoyed Kitty Cat Kill Sat by Argus!

 

[E-DUB]

Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer is pretty much a straight-up tribute. But most of Sawyer's work would appeal to fans, even if only tangentially.

 

[Greg Cox]

Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer is pretty much a straight-up tribute. But most of Sawyer's work would appeal to fans, even if only tangentially.

Sawyer is a huge Trek fan.

 

[E-DUB]

Sawyer is a huge Trek fan.

Oh, I'm aware. Pretty much every book I've read by him contains an ST reference or two.

 

[AntonyF]

First off I’d like to throw out the Hornblower and Aubrey/Maturin series.

Funny you should say that as just recently I started watching the TV adaptation and I was thinking how basically it's Star Trek on the water.

I know that's kind of obvious given Starfleet follows the naval theme, but it's nice to actually see it. And I like it.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

As I recall, from reading TMOST, "Hornblower in Space" was one of Roddenberry's format pitches, when he was trying to get a network to commission a pilot. Along with "Wagon Train to the Stars."

 

[Miami Vice Admiral]

The Three Musketeers/D’artagnan romances series would appeal to Trek fans who enjoy the camaraderie between officers and the classic duty vs friendship storylines. I will disclaim that D’artagnan and the Three Musketeers are way less heroic and noble than Star Trek characters. In fact, in the first book they do some really bad things. If you can get past that though it’s great. I think “Twenty Years After” would be the most appealing to Trek fans because its plot has the biggest duty vs friendship element.

Gordon R Dickson’s Mission to Universe is about a crew that steals the first FTL ship to explore and they have some Star Trek esque adventures. It’s certainly more depressive than Star Trek though.

Additionally, Poul Anderson’s Trader to the Stars features a Harry Mud type character solving what are essentially xenobiology mysteries

 

[Greg Cox]

The Sector General novels by James White? Basically Star Trek: Hospital Station, in a way.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer is pretty much a straight-up tribute. But most of Sawyer's work would appeal to fans, even if only tangentially.

For anyone interested, the first four chapters and the outline of his proposed Star Trek novel, Armada (which obviously never came to pass), are available on his website.

 

[The Wormhole]

Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer is pretty much a straight-up tribute. But most of Sawyer's work would appeal to fans, even if only tangentially.

Sawyer described the novel in its introduction (or at least, the introduction in the 2010 reprint) as what he feels would be "Star Trek done right" (that's basically the actual phrase he uses).

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

"Star Trek done right" (that's basically the actual phrase he uses).

I hope it doesn't sound quite so arrogant in context as it does out-of-context!

I have exactly one Hornblower book, Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies, and I can see the parallels.

How about Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad? It's kind of a steampunk alternate history novel based on a conceit of the Underground Railroad being a literal railroad that literally ran underground. It appeals to my ST-influenced sense of anti-racist decency.

And how about almost any history book about our first baby-steps into space? How about astronaut (and ground crew) biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs?