Novel suggestions for TNG, DS9, and VOY

[DigificWriter]

Hi, all. I'm getting back into Star Trek lit rather heavily right now, and plan on doing some shopping at a local used book store near me within the next week to pick up some new novels to read. Therefore, I was wondering if people could provide me with suggestions as to good novels from TNG, DS9, and VOY. The only caveat I have is that I would like the books to be set during each respective series and be as consistent as possible with all three series' on-screen canon and post-series 'novelverse continuities'.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Kertrats47]

If you find Una McCormack's DS9 novel Hollow Men, I can highly recommend it! It follows on from the events of "In the Pale Moonlight" and is probably my favorite "during series" novel.

 

[WarsTrek1993]

Hi, all. I'm getting back into Star Trek lit rather heavily right now, and plan on doing some shopping at a local used book store near me within the next week to pick up some new novels to read. Therefore, I was wondering if people could provide me with suggestions as to good novels from TNG, DS9, and VOY. The only caveat I have is that I would like the books to be set during each respective series and be as consistent as possible with all three series' on-screen canon and post-series 'novelverse continuities'.

Thanks in advance.

Here's some I'd like to extend a hand to, that I hope you'll enjoy.

TNG:

Dark Mirror by Diane Duane.
Crossover by Michael Jan Friedman.
Vendetta by Peter David.

DS9 is blank, as I haven't read any DS9 novels beyond the Typhon Pact entries. Sorry.

VOY:

The entire relaunch trilogy.
(I know you said set only in the series, but those are the only VOY books I've read, aside from the novelization of Flashback.)

means they're really good.

 

[DigificWriter]

I'll definitely give Hollow Men a read if I can find it, Kertrats47.

WarsTrek1993, Dark Mirror is incompatible with the 24th Century Mirror Universe novelverse continuity, which disqualifies it, but I'll have to look up both Crossover and Vendetta.

Please keep offering suggestions.

 

[Relayer1]

Just as an aside, although there are some very good novels set during the shows, I've found the post finale stuff way more rewarding - don't dismiss them just on principle !

 

[Mage]

And another thing....

Most novels from TNG, DS9 and VOY released in the last few years were set after the shows. Novels set during the shows are usually the older ones, and might be difficult to find in stores. I've heard from people here on the forum that most bookstores in the US tend to carry the newer Trek novels. Not sure how true that is ofcourse, but you might have to order online at sites that still carry supplies of the older novels.

 

[chris_masters5]

I'd recommend the DS9 trilogy "Millennium" - initially set in the 6th season - but due to timetravel, the story spins off into the past and also an alternate future. This story got me into reading Star Trek novels when it first came out just over 10 years ago. Can't recommend it enough.

 

[DigificWriter]

I'd recommend the DS9 trilogy "Millennium" - initially set in the 6th season - but due to timetravel, the story spins off into the past and also an alternate future. This story got me into reading Star Trek novels when it first came out just over 10 years ago. Can't recommend it enough.

I believe the Epilogue of the third book, Inferno, is incompatible with the post-finale DS9 novelverse continuity, which disqualifies the entire trilogy.

Just as an aside, although there are some very good novels set during the shows, I've found the post finale stuff way more rewarding - don't dismiss them just on principle !

I've actually read many of the post-finale novels for all three of my target series, which is why I'm looking for stuff set during each series.

And another thing....

Most novels from TNG, DS9 and VOY released in the last few years were set after the shows. Novels set during the shows are usually the older ones, and might be difficult to find in stores. I've heard from people here on the forum that most bookstores in the US tend to carry the newer Trek novels. Not sure how true that is ofcourse, but you might have to order online at sites that still carry supplies of the older novels.

As I mentioned in my original post, I'm planning on shopping at a used bookstore, which means that older books won't be difficult to find.

Can anybody recommend some good selections from the TNG, DS9, and BOY numbered novel lines that fit my criteria of being set during the three series and being consistent with the novelverse continuities of each series (particularly TNG and VOY)?

 

[Jarvisimo]

I don't think Inferno's epilogue does contravene the DS9R, and I seem to remember that some texts of the relaunch make reference to the red orbs and the Millenium experience. I may be wrong

 

[zarkon]

Millennium gets a reference in Watching the Clock from memory. It's a really great series, and is the grandest series I've seen in treklit.

As for my recommendations:

TNG

#5 Strike Zone
- very light most of the time, but hilarious with it. Wesley is used well(much better then the tv writers normally managed).
#7 Masks
-Away mission on a human colony which eschewed modern technology and cut itself off from earth and ended up going back to a sort of feudal system - but with an interesting twist guided by some of the original colonists. The thing I like most about this book is how well the world and its people is put together. Characterisation(mostly Picard) can possibly feel a bit off since this was a very early novel, but as someone reminded me, they actually started pulling him in that direction a lot later on, so maybe it's a bit prescient...
#10 A Rock and a Hard Place
- Delves a bit into Riker's past as he goes on leave to help a friend. The other half of the story is his replacement, who is the star of this story. Don't want to go into him as that's the best part of the book.
#18 Q-in-law
-Q, Lwaxana Troi, peter david. probably enough said.
#28 Here there be dragons
-fun story about feudal humans transplanted to a planet with giant dinosaurs.
#37 The Last Stand
- interesting story about a really long held grudge.
#45 Intellivore
- feels like a mystery where the crew are slowly trying to find a creeping horror. the tension in this book amps up very well through to the conclusion. A really good trek book that I feel sometimes gets a bit overlooked.
#47-49 Q Continuum trilogy
- fun trilogy with a lot of good q/picard interaction, plus a great explanation for a long standing trek mystery
#61 Diplomatic Implausibility
- Worf tries out his diplomatic muscles for the first time.
Q-Squared
- An incredibly intelligently written book that weaves together alternate dimensions into a very interesting story.
Imzadi
- Tells how Troi & Riker met. Don't really want to say much else other then that it's really, really good.

DS9

#23 The 34th Rule
-Brilliant book focusing on quark and how Ferengi tick.
Millennium Trilogy
-as I said at the top.

TNG misses Dark Mirror, The Return & Federation through incompatibility. DS9 loses A Stitch in Time through not being set during ds9. Apart from The Return, these are some of the absolute best Trek books going (The Return is very fun but not to the standard of the others).

 

[Christopher]

WarsTrek1993, Dark Mirror is incompatible with the 24th Century Mirror Universe novelverse continuity, which disqualifies it...

You'd be missing out on a great novel if you didn't read it just because it didn't fit with the continuity. Can't you just enjoy it as a "What If" kind of story? I mean, it's all equally made up anyway. And it can be fun to explore how authors in earlier years interpreted ST in different ways than what ultimately ended up onscreen.

I believe the Epilogue of the third book, Inferno, is incompatible with the post-finale DS9 novelverse continuity, which disqualifies the entire trilogy.

Hardly. There are a few paragraphs that imply a certain situation that's different from what the post-finale novels later established, but it's subtle and easily fudged away. It's a much smaller inconsistency than the ones that exist between different books in the "novelverse" (like Boreth being uninhabited in The Left Hand of Destiny and a lush jungle world in The Farther Shore, or the O'Briens in Unity having a certain conversation for the first time even though they'd already had it in Aftermath), or between different episodes and films in the canon (like DS9 contradicting virtually everything "The Host" established about the Trill, or the past events in "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night" taking place aboard Terok Nor many years before Terok Nor was built according to "Babel"). If those inconsistencies can be overlooked, then so can the ones in Millennium.

 

[DigificWriter]

WarsTrek1993, Dark Mirror is incompatible with the 24th Century Mirror Universe novelverse continuity, which disqualifies it...

You'd be missing out on a great novel if you didn't read it just because it didn't fit with the continuity. Can't you just enjoy it as a "What If" kind of story? I mean, it's all equally made up anyway. And it can be fun to explore how authors in earlier years interpreted ST in different ways than what ultimately ended up onscreen.

I've got no problems with AU scenarios, but since I plan on dedicating a large chunk of my reading to the 'Continuity of Days Gone By' - which more than qualifies as an AU/'what if' scenario - I thought I'd balance things out by trying to go after some stuff from the 24th Century that was set during and consistent with the canon and the current novelverse.

I believe the Epilogue of the third book, Inferno, is incompatible with the post-finale DS9 novelverse continuity, which disqualifies the entire trilogy.

Hardly. There are a few paragraphs that imply a certain situation that's different from what the post-finale novels later established, but it's subtle and easily fudged away. It's a much smaller inconsistency than the ones that exist between different books in the "novelverse" (like Boreth being uninhabited in The Left Hand of Destiny and a lush jungle world in The Farther Shore, or the O'Briens in Unity having a certain conversation for the first time even though they'd already had it in Aftermath), or between different episodes and films in the canon (like DS9 contradicting virtually everything "The Host" established about the Trill, or the past events in "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night" taking place aboard Terok Nor many years before Terok Nor was built according to "Babel"). If those inconsistencies can be overlooked, then so can the ones in Millennium.

I'll take your word for it and add the Millenium trilogy to my list of DS9-centric stuff, then.

Thanks for all of the suggestions thus far, BTW; keep them coming.

 

[Christopher]

^Okay, then. You might want to read Reunion by Michael Jan Friedman, the novel that introduced Picard's old Stargazer crew, though it has a couple of inconsistencies that need to be glossed over (Jack Crusher dying on a repair job outside the ship rather than an "away mission" as later established, and visiting Starfleet personnel reacting to a holodeck like they've never seen one before). Other TNG novels I'm fond of and count as consistent (or at least did the last time I read them) include:

Gulliver's Fugitives by Keith Sharee
Exiles by Howard Weinstein
Maybe also Power Hungry by Weinstein, though it contradicts "Sub Rosa" on the feasibility of planetary weather control
Imbalance by V. E. Mitchell
Dragon's Honor by Kij Johnson and Greg Cox

DS9:
Invasion: Time's Enemy and Day of Honor: Armageddon Sky by L. A. Graf are both good (and I included a character from Time's Enemy in my DTI novels).

The 34th Rule by Armin Shimerman & David R. George III is a bit tough to reconcile with continuity just because of how long it takes, but it's been referenced in the post-finale novels.

VGR:
I'd recommend the Flashback novelization by Diane Carey if you haven't read it. It improves substantially upon the episode and adds two wholly original subplots to flesh it out to novel length.

Christie Golden's first two novels, The Murdered Sun and Marooned, are quite good. Golden's gotten a bad reputation in some circles due to her post-finale work, but people forget that she was the most admired author of VGR novels published during the series, which was what got her the post-finale gig. Her first two books are probably her strongest, and as a Kes fan I particularly enjoy Marooned. I don't actually count The Murdered Sun in my personal continuity because of a physics problem (it assumes that removing matter from a star would hasten its death, but the exact opposite is actually the case), but it's still an enjoyable book and doesn't have any problems with Trek continuity per se as far as I can recall.

There's also the String Theory trilogy, which is set between season 4 & 5 and was written after the series, so it fits into continuity.

Of course, there are also the anniversary anthologies: The Sky's the Limit for TNG, Prophecy and Change for DS9, and Distant Shores for VGR.

 

[Plaristes]

Is The Devil's Heart consistent with the later canon and novelverse? I remember reading it about 15 years ago and enjoying it, but I don't recall enough of the details to know if it's consistent with later stuff.

 

[Christopher]

I don't quite remember, but I think The Devil's Heart and the Gateways series handled the Iconians in incompatible ways.

 

[NAHTMMM]

I have no idea about canon details, but here are some good (or just fun) reads:

TNG:
The Devil's Heart (if I were to pick between this and the Gateways series, I'd take this as canon)
Q-Squared
(I see you've disqualified Dark Mirror)
Infiltrator
Vendetta


DS9:
Warchild
The Long Night
Objective: Bajor
The Big Game


VOY:
The Murdered Sun
Incident At Arbuk

 

[Travis Chesser]

Considering I didn't start reading Trek books until "Relaunch" (Or prelaunch in the sense of A Time To...) I need to go back and read some of the older books and stuff and written during the series. From what I can tell, there were some great ones apparently. I started VGR books with Golden's post-series books, DS9 with the relaunch, and TNG with A Time To.... and have read everything of all since then, including universe wide ones like Articles. But maybe some summer, I need to do some serious digging around and spend some time with the "classics".

 

[F. King Daniel]

WarsTrek1993, Dark Mirror is incompatible with the 24th Century Mirror Universe novelverse continuity, which disqualifies it

Not necessarily. It's possible both the mirror universe as depicted in Dark Mirror and the one in the much later DS9-inspired MU stories are divergent timelines sharing the common past of the "Mirror, Mirror" episode. Q&A gave us a brief look at a 24th century Terran Empire not unlike Duane's version.

 

[Christopher]

^Except there's another continuity issue in Dark Mirror -- its assumption that if a significant amount of matter from one alternate timeline stays permanently in another, it would cause a catastrophic imbalance that would destroy much of the galaxy. This is contradicted by "In a Mirror, Darkly," where the Defiant from the Prime timeline stays permanently in the Mirror Universe.

Also, Dark Mirror treats the events of "Mirror, Mirror" as a classified incident that the Enterprise crew needs special clearance to find out about, while in DS9: "Crossover," Bashir says he "read about it at the Academy" (and he graduated only a year after Dark Mirror occurred, so it's unlikely there could've been a radical policy change in the interim).

 

[Guest12]

For VOY, I'd recommend the String Theory trilogy. I think the first book is just okay, but important to set up the later two. The later two (and particularly) the last are excellent stories, IMO. And set between seasons four and five.