TNG book recommendations?

[Greg Cox]

Note that Explorer didn't just publish TNG stories, but explored most flavors of Trek: TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOYAGER, etc. Even a couple of DISCO stories near the end. And this is reflected in the three hardcover collections Titan published, each of which features stories from all across the franchise -- including a fair amount of TNG tales.

Full disclosure: I wrote multiple stories for the magazine, including at least two TNG stories: a Dixon Hill holodeck mystery and a solo adventure for Doctor Pulaski.

I miss writing for and reading that magazine.

Meanwhile, I just remembered The Sky's the Limit, an exclusively TNG anthology, published on the occasion of the show's 20th anniversary. Edited by Marco Palmieri.

 

[JD]

Good Reads ratings aren't that great. I finished up The Book of Lost Hours for book club today, and it was rated 4.09. I'd give the book 2/5.

If I read a short story by a Trek author and enjoy it, I'm more likely to read their novels. I'd suggest this to the original poster. A lot produced short stories for a Star Trek magazine. It's a good way to find authors to read.

And reading anthologies in general is how I'm discovering authors to read too.

Thanks for the tip. It what way have they changed? What background would I need to know going into them?

Probably the biggest change was brought about by the big crossover trilogy Destiny. If you plan on reading Destiny, which is absolutely fantastic, I would avoid this spoiler
A few years after Nemesis, the Borg launched a massive invasion of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, that left entire planets wiped out, and I think possibly billions dead. They were eventually defeated with the help of the race they originally split off from, and in the process the entire Collective was transformed and disappeared.

I assume Riker and Troi are gone (on the Titan) and Data is still dead?

Yes and Yes.

Has B4 become a staple character?

No, he is pretty much written off right after Nemesis.

Has Worf come back, or is he still off on DS9?

Worf was already back before Nemesis. The events that brought him back to the Enterprise were covered in the A Time To.. series, which fill is set between Insurrection and Nemesis and explores some of the new developments in Nemesis, like Worf being back and Troi and Riker's marriage.

Come to think of it, besides Picard, La Forge and Crusher, who's left on the Enterprise?

And Worf, the books fill out the rest of the cast with new characters and also brought back a few other characters from the TV series.

That is a great suggestion. I do the same with non-Trek fiction to find authors I like, so it make sense to apply that strategy here as well. Are there any TNG anthologies you can recommend? Or can you point me to where I can find reprints of stories from the magazine?

The Sky's the Limit is a TNG only anthology that was released to celebrate the show's either 20th or 25, I can't remember which, anniversary.

The Amazing Stories is an anthology of TNG and Voyager short stories that were originally released in The Amazing Stories magazine.

There are also several themed anthologies that include TNG stories
Enterprise Logs features stories of every ship named Enterprise from old sailing ships through to the Enterprise-D. NOTE: This was written in 2000 so it doesn't include the NX-01 or any of the other Enterprises introduced since then.
Tales of the Dominion War features stories about what the non-DS9 characters were doing during the Dominion War and includes several stories including TNG characters.
Seven Deadly Sins has 7 novellas focused on the biblical Seven Deadly Sins, and the Gluttony/Borg story stars a character introduced in a TNG episode, and the Sloth/Pakled story is a full on TNG story with the whole cast.
If you're interested in alternate universes there's The Myiriad Universes series which features several

As I was reading through older threads in this forum I saw a post that said Peter David's dialogue sounds like it's out of a comic book. I realize that's just one person's opinion, but it scared me a bit. Now that the idea has been planted in my head, I'm afraid I'll be predisposed to be judgemental of David's dialogue.

Peter David was also a comic book writer, so he did tend to bring that kind of style to his Star Trek novels at times.

 

[Greg Cox]

Seven Deadly Sins has 7 novellas focused on the biblical Seven Deadly Sins, and the Gluttony/Borg story stars a character introduced in a TNG episode, and the Sloth/Pakled story is a full on TNG story with the whole cast.
If you're interested in alternate universes there's The Myiriad Universes series which features several

I wrote that Sloth story about the Pakleds. I always joke that the other writers got assigned the "fun" sins like Lust and Wrath and such, and somehow I ended up with Sloth.

"Hey, who should we get to write the Sloth story?"
"Maybe Greg? He'd be perfect for it!"

 

[bdub76]

I wrote that Sloth story about the Pakleds. I always joke that the other writers got assigned the "fun" sins like Lust and Wrath and such, and somehow I ended up with Sloth.

"Hey, who should we get to write the Sloth story?"
"Maybe Greg? He'd be perfect for it!"

You could have always turned in a story about alien:

 

[Therin of Andor]

There was a magazine called Star Trek Explorer that recently stopped. They put out a bunch of anthologies.

Star Trek short story collections by Ian McLean, on Flickr

Star Trek Explorer Presents... "The Short Story Collection", "'Q and False' and Other Stories", "'The Mission' and Other Stories", and "'A Year to the Day That I Saw Myself Die' and Other Stories".

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'm afraid I'll be predisposed to be judgemental of David's dialogue.

Well, I love Peter David's writing style. It is humour with a delightful twist.

 

[Cicero]

I was a bit surprised to see All Good Things... rated so well. Do you think that's just spill over from fans loving the televised episode, or does the novelization stand on its own as decent literature?

Reviews make it sound like that's the case, but I only read Unification, Relics, and Descent.

While I'm new TNG fandom, I've been a lifelong hardcore Doctor Who fan. For the most part, Doctor Who's novelisations (not a typo -- "s" because it's British) are viewed fondly for nostalgia and simple fun, but not considered to be on the same level the original fiction. There are exceptions of course (towards the end of the novelisation range they made a concerted effort to improve their quality), but overall they're considered inferior. That may have biased me into assuming the same is true for Star Trek novelizations.

It largely is, but some novelizations make their episodes better—Relics, Emissary, and The Way of the Warrior, aside from the lack of the latter's root beer scene. One was also an expansion by the writer of the teleplay (Jeri Taylor's Unification).

 

[Atomic_Monkey]

Reviews make it sound like that's the case, but I only read Unification, Relics, and Descent.

What did you think of those three? Have you read any of the movie novelizations?

It largely is, but some novelizations make their episodes better—Relics, Emissary, and The Way of the Warrior, aside from the lack of the latter's root beer scene. One was also an expansion by the writer of the teleplay (Jeri Taylor's Unification).

It's the same with Doctor Who novelisations. For a lot of them, it was as if the author was simply watching the the televised episode and describing what they saw on screen in very matter of fact terms. Nothing new was added, and the prose was uninspired. But there were exceptions where the author added depth the characters or plot, and/or they upped their prose. And that was more likely to happen when the writer of the teleplay wrote the book. Also, the earlier novelisations were aimed towards children because they believed that was their target audience, but once it became apparently teens and adults were major consumers the writing became more sophisticated.