Recommend Good Series/Ones to Avoid

[WarsTrek1993]

I would advise you stay away from ENT: Last Full Measure. That book was a letdown in my opinion.

Now if you want a GOOD ENT novel, The Good That Men Do is the way to go.

 

[cdgodin]

Oh, I don't remember if anyone mentioned that there is a MU Vanguard short story in the 3rd volume of the Mirror Universe series, Shards and Shadows. It doesn't play a role in the prime universe story, but it's still worth checking out if you're curious to see the MU versions of the Vanguard characters. Just to warn you some of the other stories are followups to stories from the previous collection, so they could be kinda hard to follow.

Also, the MU novel "The Sorrows of Empire" heavily features Vanguard characters and such.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I would advise you stay away from ENT: Last Full Measure. That book was a letdown in my opinion.

Not understanding the negative reaction here.

 

[WarsTrek1993]

If you liked it, that's fine.
I just didn't enjoy it as much as The Good That Men Do.
(Note: I don't hate it simply because of the author dedication, that's just silly).

EDIT: Another reccomindation, Dark Mirror by Diane Duane.

 

[Skywalker]

I'm halfway through Harbinger, the first Vanguard novel, and like everyone else here, I highly recommend it!

 

[Ian Keldon]

Gonna toss in my recommendation for the Rihannsu books by Diane Duane. No list of great Trek novels is complete without them.

You probably will want to read her other two books from the "old days", Spock's World and The Wounded Sky as well, as they have elements and characters that tie into the Rihannsu storyline.

 

[Ian Keldon]

Vanguard of course also turns up in the remastered version of the original series - look at the station the Enterprise approaches at the start of The Ultimate Computer!

Technically that's not Vanguard itself...it's a starbase of similar design.

 

[Christopher]

Gonna toss in my recommendation for the Rihannsu books by Diane Duane. No list of great Trek novels is complete without them.

You probably will want to read her other two books from the "old days", Spock's World and The Wounded Sky as well, as they have elements and characters that tie into the Rihannsu storyline.

Specifically, The Wounded Sky introduces Duane's particular version of the Enterprise and its crew and takes place about a month before My Enemy, My Ally, while Spock's World falls between The Romulan Way and Swordhunt. They tend to be overlooked because they're not specifically Rihannsu-related, but that's a mistake, because they're both integral to the overall Duane continuity and IMHO are better than any of the Rihannsu books.

There's also Doctor's Orders, which only peripherally connects to the other Duane books, because it was written during the Richard Arnold era when continuity and recurring original ideas in the books were suppressed; but it does feature two of the human characters from Duane's other books, Lia Burke and Janice Kerasus, even if her alien Enterprise-crew characters are missing.

Vanguard of course also turns up in the remastered version of the original series - look at the station the Enterprise approaches at the start of The Ultimate Computer!

Technically that's not Vanguard itself...it's a starbase of similar design.

And only half the linear size (they shrank it so it wouldn't overshadow the starships).

 

[Ian Keldon]

Gonna toss in my recommendation for the Rihannsu books by Diane Duane. No list of great Trek novels is complete without them.

You probably will want to read her other two books from the "old days", Spock's World and The Wounded Sky as well, as they have elements and characters that tie into the Rihannsu storyline.

Specifically, The Wounded Sky introduces Duane's particular version of the Enterprise and its crew and takes place about a month before My Enemy, My Ally, while Spock's World falls between The Romulan Way and Swordhunt. They tend to be overlooked because they're not specifically Rihannsu-related, but that's a mistake, because they're both integral to the overall Duane continuity and IMHO are better than any of the Rihannsu books.

I wouldn't call them better...particularly when considering My Enemy, My Ally.

There's also Doctor's Orders, which only peripherally connects to the other Duane books, because it was written during the Richard Arnold era when continuity and recurring original ideas in the books were suppressed; but it does feature two of the human characters from Duane's other books, Lia Burke and Janice Kerasus, even if her alien Enterprise-crew characters are missing.

Which is why I didn't really mention it. It really adds nothing to the Rihannsu narrative.

Vanguard of course also turns up in the remastered version of the original series - look at the station the Enterprise approaches at the start of The Ultimate Computer!

Technically that's not Vanguard itself...it's a starbase of similar design.

And only half the linear size (they shrank it so it wouldn't overshadow the starships).

I wasn't sure if they did or not. Based on the covers of the books it was hard to tell.

 

[JD]

Gonna toss in my recommendation for the Rihannsu books by Diane Duane. No list of great Trek novels is complete without them.

You probably will want to read her other two books from the "old days", Spock's World and The Wounded Sky as well, as they have elements and characters that tie into the Rihannsu storyline.

Specifically, The Wounded Sky introduces Duane's particular version of the Enterprise and its crew and takes place about a month before My Enemy, My Ally, while Spock's World falls between The Romulan Way and Swordhunt. They tend to be overlooked because they're not specifically Rihannsu-related, but that's a mistake, because they're both integral to the overall Duane continuity and IMHO are better than any of the Rihannsu books.

There's also Doctor's Orders, which only peripherally connects to the other Duane books, because it was written during the Richard Arnold era when continuity and recurring original ideas in the books were suppressed; but it does feature two of the human characters from Duane's other books, Lia Burke and Janice Kerasus, even if her alien Enterprise-crew characters are missing.

She also wrote a (couple?) TOS comics that featured appearances from Naraht, and some of her human characters who's names I can't remember at the moment.

 

[Christopher]

^Same characters I mentioned -- Burke and Kerasus.

I wouldn't call them better...particularly when considering My Enemy, My Ally.

Well, I did say IMHO. The Rihannsu books are my least favorite of Duane's books because they focus more on war and politics than the rest, and that's not as interesting to me. Although ME,MA and The Romulan Way have less combat and more worldbuilding than the later ones, so I like them best of the Rihannsu installments.

 

[Therin of Andor]

She also wrote a (couple?) TOS comics that featured appearances from Naraht, and some of her human characters who's names I can't remember at the moment.

Duane Trek by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
Above: Naraht the horta; Harb Tanzer, Chief of Recreation; Nurse Lia Burke; linguist Janíce Kerasus; and Doctor Tom Krejci (DC Comics TOS Series I: the "Double Blind" two-parter, #24-25, and "The Last Word", #28).

Harb's hair is miscoloured; it's supposed to be silver/white, IIRC. All of these characters have appeared in Diane Duane "Star Trek" novels, and most also in the old, text-based, computer game, "The Kobayashi Alternative".

Other Duane novel/game characters who get mentioned by name in "The Last Word" comic include Athende (the tentacled Sulamid), and Avoca.

In the omnibus of her first four "Rihannsu" novels, The Bloodwing Voyages, Diane Duane revealed that the transporter technician, Theresa Renner, is named for her former housemate.

 

[Christopher]

Oh, I forgot Tanzer had made a comics appearance as well. (Was he in Doctor's Orders too? I forget.)

I don't remember a Tom Krejci at all. What novel(s) was he in?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Oh, I forgot Tanzer had made a comics appearance as well. (Was he in Doctor's Orders too? I forget.)

No, but Peter Morwood used him in Rules of Engagement.

I don't remember a Tom Krejci at all. What novel(s) was he in?

"When the Enterprise staged a raid against a Romulan space station in orbit of Levaeri V, Krejci was one of the hundred-odd crewpeople chosen to participate. (TOS novel: My Enemy, My Ally)" (Memory Beta)

 

[Ian Keldon]

I wouldn't call them better...particularly when considering My Enemy, My Ally.

Well, I did say IMHO.

True. I'm simply (respectfully) disagreeing.

The Rihannsu books are my least favorite of Duane's books because they focus more on war and politics than the rest, and that's not as interesting to me.

Do you hold the politic-ing against Spock's World? (asking out of curiosity)

Although ME,MA and The Romulan Way have less combat and more worldbuilding than the later ones, so I like them best of the Rihannsu installments.

I like the world building, but also the showing of how Romulan society is changing between the Mark Lenard/Joanne Linville Romulan Commander types of TOS and the Tomalak/Sela types we'd get in TNG times.

I also very much appreciate how they keep the Romulans as a power than can be an adversary, but also very sympathetic and multi-faceted.

 

[Christopher]

Do you hold the politic-ing against Spock's World? (asking out of curiosity)

I don't see that the same way. Not all politics is equal; sometimes it's about meaningful and thought-provoking issues, and sometimes it's just about infighting and jockeying for power. The referendum in Spock's World was a catalyst for examining what the Federation means and what it stands for, as well as examining just what IDIC means in practice. That was interesting, and it made for a lot of really nicely written speeches and monologues.

And certainly there was plenty of interesting stuff in ME,MA and TRW as well; it's mainly just the concluding Rihannsu books that didn't satisfy me as much, partly because they were war stories, and maybe partly because a lot of time passed between them and the feel of the later books just wasn't the same.

 

[Ian Keldon]

^Fair points.

I think part of the problem with the last 3 books was knowing that in the end Ael and her faction had to fail, since the Empire was taken over by the Tomalak/Sela types.

 

[tomswift2002]

You should really check out all three Shatner trilogies (Odyssey, Mirror Universe &Totality) and Collision Course, which was suppose to be Part 1 of a multi-part story set during Kirk/Spock's Academy days in the Roddenberry universe.

Also check out the Dadelus/Dadelus' Children by Dave Stern in the Enterprise line. Those books were sooooo much better than any of the Enterprise episodes. (Infact, aside from "Last Full Measure" I would recommend you read all the Enterprise books from "By The Book" to "Brave The Storm".

 

[Therin of Andor]

aside from "Last Full Measure"

Again with the drive-by negativity for "Last Full Measure"?

What was supposedly so substandard about this title? I read it when it came out and it seemed of similar quality to the enjoyable ENT novels on either side of it. A good run in the series which started off rather weakly. (I read "By the Book" and loved it, but the next few - "What Price Honor?" and "Surak's Soul" - were seemingly so poorly received by others that they, and the "Daedelus" duology, are still on my To Read pile.)

Is "Last Full Measure" deserving of dismissive scorn and I'm just missing something here? (I recall more the controversy Michael Martin's dedication page caused; which also leaves me bewildered that people could get so antsy about it.) The book did as it promised, didn't it?: provide a focus on the ship's MACOs in a way the series wasn't able to dedicate pages of script to do.

 

[tomswift2002]

With "Last Full Measure" I started to read it when it first came out, but I only got about half-way through the story because there was no point to it, and it wasn't helping me to understand the love/hate relationship that some of the MACO's had for the Starfleet crew on The show.

Plus with Season 3 having the overall Xindi arc, and the book relying quite heavily on that, it just seemed to be a story that wasn't needed, wasn't well thought out in terms of how it could contribute to the overall arc; it just seemed to have been written in order to try to generate sales for the series. I remember "Rosetta" came out about a month or two before and that was a great story that covered the time in the Prime Universe where "In A Mirror Darkly" had occurred in the Mirror Universe.

But with "Last Full Measure", when you compare it to DS9 and TNG novels that took place during the Dominion War arc (such as "Battle of Betazed" nd John Vornholt's two books), those stories integrated into he arc so much better than LFM was able to integrate into the Xindi arc. that took