Shatnerverse Question

[sgsmitty]

Ok, Up to this point I have never read or in any way consumed a Shatnerverse novel.
However, I am ready to take the plunge. I now have a commute for work and I have learned that Audiobooks keep me sane. Up to this point it has be standard sci-fi or other fiction. As a side note, I tried a star trek book once (Imzadi) but I found that Frakes' reading made it hard to follow.
In looking at the audiobooks catalog there are many Shatnerverse novels and many other standard star trek novels. Unfortunately they are all abridged.
But back to my question, having never read/listened to one which Shatnerverse novel would you all recommend?

Thanks

PS - since I touched upon audiobooks, are there any other star trek audiobooks that would be good?

 

[Starseeker]

The Shatnerverse books have an order to them. Check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatnerverse#The_.22Shatnerverse.22

 

[RookieBatman]

I've only listened to a few Star Trek audiobooks, notably "Final Frontier" and "The Ashes of Eden," the first Shatnerverse book. I listened to both of them some time after I had read the book, but while I still had a pretty good memory of what happened. With Final Frontier, the missing pieces were gapingly noticeable; they stripped the story to its barest essentially elements and removed a lot of the heart. With The Ashes of Eden, I tried to recall, but couldn't think of any specific scenes that had been removed. So, if you're worried about abridgement, I think they did a good job with that one, at least. And plus, those are the only Trek books that you get to hear Shatner read (as far as I know). As long as you're not thrown by hearing him imitate the other cast members. It doesn't sound like them, but not any less so than when anyone else reads it (I was particularly amused by Takei's caricature of Kirk in Enterprise: the First Adventure).

 

[Thomas Riker]

I would recommend these, I bought them when I was flying to mexico (10 hour flight for me) and I found them to be very entertaining, so much so that I didn't bother watching the in-flight entertainment.
I bought Audio Books for Captain's Glory and Preserver, and I personally thought them to be good quality, Shatner's voice is good to listen to, however I found the sound effects used throughout to be non-star-trekky if that makes sense and sort of detracts somewhat. The audiobooks themselves stick closely to the stories (as you'd expect as he is simply reading them) I guess what I mean is that nothing is cut out as far as I can tell.

Again as the last two posts mentioned there is a set order to these books, and I have yet to find releases for the whole shatnerverse (for example you can get Captain's Glory but not Captain's Blood). Then again I was buying from Itunes.

Reading the books was much more enjoyable, but like I say the audio books are good also, worth checking out.

 

[Captain_Koloth]

My favorite Shatnerverse book is The Return, by a good margin. Avenger and Preserver are great. But overall they all maintain (IMO) a pretty high quality standard; the only one I really didn't like was The Ashes of Eden, actually (and most people do like that one a lot).

 

[EmperorKalan]

The Shatnerverse books have an order to them. Check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatnerverse#The_.22Shatnerverse.22

Except for the latest one, "Collision Course", set during Kirk's entry into Starfleet Academy. That's obviously out of sequence from the previous three trilogies.

 

[Thomas Riker]

^
Good Point

 

[RoJoHen]

How was that last trilogy? I read the first two trilogies, but then I stopped buying Star Trek books (wanted to expand my reading list).

 

[Leandar]

I'd recommend all of them, except for the last one which was the Starfleet Academy story and the reason I don't recommend it is I haven't read it yet so I don't know if it's recommendable or not.

Personally I've thoroughly enjoyed all the Shatnerverse books although "Captain's Peril" wasn't the best entry but it was still ok. I think you'd enjoy them.

 

[Broccoli]

How was that last trilogy? I read the first two trilogies, but then I stopped buying Star Trek books (wanted to expand my reading list).

I thought it was the weakest of the three...it gets off to a slow start in "Captain's Peril", but it ramps it up in "Blood" and "Glory".

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I dunno, I always liked "Captain's Peril" much more than "Blood". "Blood" seemed to overdo it at times.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Except for the latest one, "Collision Course", set during Kirk's entry into Starfleet Academy. That's obviously out of sequence from the previous three trilogies.

"Academy: Collision Course" also has no audio version, much to Shatner's frustration.

Re a Shatnerverse audio, I really enjoyed "The Ashes of Eden". There's also a DC Comics' graphic novel adaptation of the book, too.

My other favourite ST audios from Simon & Schuster Audioworks include: "Strangers From the Sky" (an amazing feat: a "giant" novel compressed into 90 mins), skilfully narrated by George Takei, doing so many voices - and Leonard Nimoy as "the voice of Spock"!; "Sarek" with Mark Lenard, "TNG: Q-in-Law" with Majel Barrett and John de Lancie; the suspenseful "DS9: Fallen Heroes" with Rene Auberjonois; "Gateways: What Lay Beyond" with David Kaye; and "New Frontier: Stone and Anvil", read by Joe Morton (although I don't like his unique Calhoun delivery).

A company called Recorded Books has started doing a few unabridged ST novels. So far only the "Vulcan's Soul" trilogy, each read by Richard Poe.

More details here:
http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2007/05/i-hear-star-trek-something-ive-often.html

 

[ClayinCA]

A company called Recorded Books has started doing a few unabridged ST novels. So far only the "Vulcan's Soul" trilogy, each read by Richard Poe.

More details here:
http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2007/05/i-hear-star-trek-something-ive-often.html

Didn't know about these! How are they?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Didn't know about these! How are they?

Too expensive to tempt me yet.
Changed URL: http://therinofandor.blogspot.com.au/2007/05/i-hear-star-trek.html

I'm happy for the audios to be abridged; the appeal of the earliest ones was to hear the voices of regular ST actors, esp. when they sought out people like Bibi Besch ("Faces of Fire"), Kevin Conway ("Kahless") and Majel Barrett ("Q-in-Law") to do novels focused on their guest characters. When S&SA started using narrators from their regular non ST stable (Boyd Gaines, David Kaye, Joe Morton, etc), who had no connection to aired ST, I started losing interest.

Mind you, Richard Poe has a strong ST connection, so he's a good choice on Recorded Books' part.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Except for the latest one, "Collision Course", set during Kirk's entry into Starfleet Academy. That's obviously out of sequence from the previous three trilogies.

"Academy: Collision Course" also has no audio version, much to Shatner's frustration.

Re a Shatnerverse audio, I really enjoyed "The Ashes of Eden". There's also a DC Comics' graphic novel adaptation of the book, too.

My other favourite ST audios from Simon & Schuster Audioworks include: "Strangers From the Sky" (an amazing feat: a "giant" novel compressed into 90 mins), skilfully narrated by George Takei, doing so many voices - and Leonard Nimoy as "the voice of Spock"!; "Sarek" with Mark Lenard, "TNG: Q-in-Law" with Majel Barrett and John de Lancie; the suspenseful "DS9: Fallen Heroes" with Rene Auberjonois; "Gateways: What Lay Beyond" with David Kaye; and "New Frontier: Stone and Anvil", read by Joe Morton (although I don't like his unique Calhoun delivery).

A company called Recorded Books has started doing a few unabridged ST novels. So far only the "Vulcan's Soul" trilogy, each read by Richard Poe.

More details here:
http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2007/05/i-hear-star-trek-something-ive-often.html

I loved the audio book when they used to use Trek regulars to read them--Takei, Doohan, Nimoy, Frakes, Burton, Auberjonous, DeLancie, Barrett, ect. I just don't have the same enthusiasm for books read by Joe Morton or Richard Poe or David Kaye.

Whatever happened to the good old days...?

 

[Therin of Andor]

I just don't have the same enthusiasm for books read by Joe Morton or Richard Poe or David Kaye.

Richard Poe was Gul Evek in TNG, DS9 and VOY. It's just that his ST character had nothing to do with the "Vulcan's Soul" trilogy.

 

[KRAD]

I just don't have the same enthusiasm for books read by Joe Morton or Richard Poe or David Kaye.

Morton I'll give you, but Poe was a Trek guest star on all three 24th-century shows, and David Kaye was specifically hired because he did the voice of Professor X on the X-Men cartoon, and did so by doing a letter-perfect Patrick Stewart impersonation.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I just don't have the same enthusiasm for books read by Joe Morton or Richard Poe or David Kaye.

Morton I'll give you, but Poe was a Trek guest star on all three 24th-century shows, and David Kaye was specifically hired because he did the voice of Professor X on the X-Men cartoon, and did so by doing a letter-perfect Patrick Stewart impersonation.

True about Poe, but as Therin pointed out, the books he reads have nothing to do with Gul Evek.

I didn't know that about David Kaye, but I'd still rather hear a Trek regular read the books.