Thoughts on "Out-of-the-Norm" Trek Novels

[Therin of Andor]

They already know the title of the book by the cover and they already know the author by the cover.

Don''t judge a book by its cover.

Might as well skip to the story.

May as well not read introductions, historian's notes, prefaces, blurbs, afterwords and glossaries either. If people skip stuff, they stay ignorant.

 

[BaloksPuppet]

I don't think anyone mentioned Dwellers in the Crucible. It has been, what, 20 years or so since I read it so maybe I'm misremembering it a little, but it's just barely a Star Trek novel since members of the main cast pretty just make background appearances. I think it would definitely qualify as "out of the norm".

 

[Star Treks]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I'm sure I will tackle some of them. Right now I'm in the middle of the "A Time To..." series (yeah, I know, I'm a little behind the times), but after I finish that, and tackle a Philip K. Dick book or two, and perhaps "Wuthering Heights" which I didn't really commit myself to in high school, I'll get right on some of your suggestions.

 

[KRAD]

I know I had a crazy rant a few days ago, but you're jumping on me here.

My apologies, I didn't mean to jump, but Shatner doesn't work with ghost writers, because his collaborators are credited right there on the books. The fact that their credits are smaller and less obvious is for marketing reasons, and plenty of people like your father miss the Reeves-Stevens's contribution, but that doesn't make them ghost writers.

 

[KRAD]

And BTW, thanks to everyone who listed Articles (and to Emperor Kalan for throwing The Art of the Impossible in there).

 

[LightningStorm]

Good ones I consider "out of the norm"

Articles of the Federation (as you mentioned)
The Vanguard books - Definitely not your typical trek stories.
At least 4 of the 6 Mirror Universe Novels in the Mirror Universe books, specifically the ENT, TOS, VOY, and NF ones.

And from the sound of things the upcoming Myriad Universe stories should all fit this atypical description and will hopefully fall into the "good" category too.

 

[JD]

My favorite non-standard Trek stories would have to be
Articles of the Federation (again)
The Art of the Impossible (again)
Serpents Among the Ruins
All three Vanguard
Terok Nor: Day of the Vipers, Night of the Wolves, Dawn of the Eagles. (I haven't actually finished Vipers yet, but I have enough confidence in the people involved in the books to put the other two in here early)

 

[8of5]

Articles of the Federation and Burning Dreams are two of my favourites.

A novel I was slightly dreading, and was very pleasantly surprised by, was Rising Son. I wasn’t convinced I would really engage in a story mostly about Jake, but it was really enjoyable.

 

[Captain_Koloth]

The Final Reflection is easily one of the best Trek novels, and even best science-ficition novels, I've ever read. It focuses on TOS Klingons 40 years before TOS. It is well outside the range of most any Trek novels and is one of the very best ever written, I think.

 

[Harvey]

A Stitch in Time, I felt, was a very atypical Star Trek novel. Very personal, and very recommended. If only "The Dream Box" would ever be released in order to make "The Calling" a coherent story.

 

[Therin of Andor]

A Stitch in Time, I felt, was a very atypical Star Trek novel. Very personal, and very recommended. If only "The Dream Box" would ever be released in order to make "The Calling" a coherent story.

We've never heard from audiences who've seen the play as to whether it greatly enhances one's reading of "The Calling" or not. The short story supposedly tells us everything we need to know. I got the impression that "The Calling" is meant to be a bit mysterious no matter what.

 

[Dayton Ward]

:: original post deleted ::


Grrrr. Wrong thread.

 

[trampledamage]

^

Wrong thread?

 

[David Mack]

^

Wrong thread?

It's like "wrong hole," but less embarrassing.

 

[Therin of Andor]

It's like "wrong hole," but less embarrassing.

Especially that he was right behind me.

 

[ClayinCA]

My own favorite "out-of-the-norm" Trek books are:

Articles of the Federation (one of my favorite Trek books of the last five years)
Federation (probably my single favorite Trek book)
Burning Dreams
Strangers from the Sky
Final Frontier (the Diane Carey one)
The Final Reflection
How Much for Just the Planet?
Ishmael
the Crucible trilogy (along with Articles, the best Trek in recent memory)
The Eugenics Wars books
Vulcan's Glory
The Captain's Daughter
Imzadi
The Best and the Brightest
Millennium
Forged in Fire

I suspect that I would include The Case of the Colonist's Corpse and A Burning House, but sadly, I haven't actually read those yet.