What are you least favorite Star Trek novels?

[Deranged Nasat]

Of all the Trek books I've read, which is the vast majority of them published since 2000, with a few from before that , the only ones I would describe as "bad" are "Before Dishonor" and the "Rebels" trilogy.

"Before Dishonor" was a misfire to me; it completely undercut the Borg-are-scary-again idea by turning the race in question into a joke (and indeed turning almost every event in the book into a joke), it reduced every character to a caricature without taking into account any of their development across other books or even the later seasons of their TV shows, and T'Lana went from having "remarkable respect for other cultures" in "Resistance" to flat-out "Vulcans are superior to everyone else because our culture promotes emotional suppression" here. The whole thing felt shallow and gimmicky, which was particularly unacceptable given the highly significant event at the end, which required much dignity. Having read quite a few other Peter David books- "Imzadi", "The Captain's Daughter", most of "New Frontier", I know he can do a lot better, so I can't simply say "I don't like the author". I have enjoyed this author elsewhere, even if he's not among my favourites, so this has to be considered a misfire.

"Rebels" was the worst, though. It didn't even feel like Star Trek. The Cardassians and Bajorans were unrecognisable.

There have of course been disappointing or unremarkable books, but I almost always find something to like, so these are the only ones that have left me unsatisfied.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The worst I can think of right now are…

Assignment: Eternity
Sorry, Greg – I read about how proud you are of this in Voyages of Imagination, and I’m sure it has many fans. But I hated it.

The Great Starship Race
I love Diane Carey’s books. Dreadnought! is an all-time favourite. Then this came along and bored me to death.


Many others people have mentioned I’ve enjoyed –especially Before Dishonor. It had that Shatnerverse glorious madness and the Stargate sense of humour. I don’t like that Janeway became JaneQuay at the end. If you’re gonna kill her, have the balls to do it properly!

I liked Ship of the Line too, despite Picard’s tedious “watching Balance of Terror in the holodeck” followed by “WWKD?” stuff.

I also enjoyed the nutty new take on Kirk and Spock’s origins that was Collision Course (that said I can’t see those two becoming the TOS Kirk and Spock).

 

[LutherSloan]

I've said it before, but the main problem with Before Dishonor is that it's Peter David in the regular Trek universe. It's fine with me when he stays in his little pocket of the universe with NF, but clearly he can't do TNG without turning it into NF.

 

[KetracelWhite]

Peter David started out writing regular Trek books, then moved on to New Frontier. I enjoyed the first few New Frontier novels, but by the last 3 or 4, I'd already tired of the characters. I liked "Before Dishonor" even though I understand the criticisms about his not treating the subject material with much respect. Still, it's the best Trek book I've read in years....which only shows how much they've deteriorated. They seem to be on an upswing though.

My least favorite books are the ones written by Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels. Those books are way too politically correct for me, clearly have been written with an "agenda" in mind, and on top of it all and extremely poorly written.

 

[Christopher]

Here we go again... the old "gay agenda" nonsense.

Of course Star Trek has a pro-gay agenda. It also has a pro-black, pro-Asian, pro-Native American, pro-Caucasian, pro-bald, pro-disabled, pro-female, pro-male, pro-hermaphrodite, pro-alien, pro-android, pro-hologram agenda. It's about inclusion. So how could you possibly be surprised that it includes gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered beings as well?

As for the inclusion of gay characters, yes, they're present in the books of Mangels & Martin. But they're also present in books by myself, David Mack, Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore, Susan Wright, Keith R.A. DeCandido, David R. George III, and many others. Yet it's always the books Andy Mangels participates in writing (along with a heterosexual collaborator, by the way) that get singled out as having an "agenda." And that exposes the ugly lie: that these complainers' problem is not ultimately about the books, it's about the author. They don't attack the hetero authors who include gay characters, just the one gay man who happens to do so, even though other Trek authors have collectively written far more words about GLBT characters and relationships than Andy has.

 

[TenLubak]

Least favorite ever....well Deep Space Nine #14 The Long Night...all I remember is this one being long. Deep Space Nine #12 Laterian Gamble, everything weird, everyone is out of character, everything is screwed up. Nothing makes sense. TOS Triangle is bad. Voyager Echos is pretty much a cop out ending like a Hard Rain was. Never could get thru Warped either.

 

[Paris]

I really didn't like Genesis Wave 3, Genesis Force (both were uneeded IMO), the shatner-verse books (only read #2-9) for the Mary-Sue, and I really didn't like Ship of The Line either.

Unlike some of the people here it seems, I really liked Over a Torrent Sea. The squales were a really cool new life form and Christopher did a fantastic job of giving the treklit-verse some actual "hard sci-fi". Titan is supposed to be the series that is actually about what Kirk and Picard were supposed to be doing the whole time; discovering strange new worlds and civilizations and going where no one has gone before. The book deals a little bit with the aftermath of Destiny, but since Titan was going back into the wilderness of space anyways, I thought it was appropriate that Christopher didn't dwell on the Alpha quadrant stories for too long. And lets not forget the character/relationship building that went on.

Spoiler: Spoilers for OaTS

Riker and Troi's baby was born and their marriage was really on the rocks; Tuvok has to deal with the loss of Janeway; Aili Lavena deals with her past; Riker and Lavena deal with their shared history; Pazlar and Ra'Havreii (sp) make it official; the crew deals with the loss of Jaza

...and i'm probably forgetting a shitload of stuff.

 

[Christopher]

And lets not forget the character/relationship building that went on.

Spoiler: Spoilers for OaTS

Riker and Troi's baby was born; Tuvok has to deal with the loss of Janeway; Aili Lavena deals with her past; Riker and Lavena deal with their shared history; Pazlar and Ra'Havreii (sp) make it official; the crew deals with the loss of Jaza

Well, not exactly.

Spoiler: OaTS

Tuvok is dealing with the loss of his son, not of Janeway. Pazlar and Ra'Havreii basically decide not to make it official, that they're officially fine with their relationship the way it is and don't need to give into any expectations about escalating it or formalizing it in order to be happy. As for the loss of Jaza, that happened roughly a year before the main body of the novel, so it's not really a current issue.

Still, glad you liked it.

 

[Paris]

^Doesn't Tuvok hear about Janeway's death in this OaTS? Am I remembering this wrong? And as for Pazlar and Ra'Havreii; didn't they say that they loved each other? If they don't want to label their relationship, that's fine, but I could have sworn that they said it to each other, and that they planned on being together in some form? I may be remembering it wrong... Haven't read it since it came out...

 

[tenmei]

Just casting an eye over the bookshelf in the room I'm in.

I've got the New Frontier series which, by and large, I've enjoyed pretty much every book in the series.

Star Trek Titan (Sword of Damocles was the weakest, both of Martins and Mangels' novels were the best, which puts Christopher's two somewhere in the middle), the TNG Relaunch (Resistance was horrible, Q&A was boring and Greater than the Sum [whilst a good book] suffered from the cock-ups of the first two books - Losing the Peace suffered from having to deal with the fallout from Destiny and, I'm already on record for thinking Before Dishonor was the best TNGR novel) and the Deep Space Nine Relaunch (Fearful Symmetry didn't sit quite right with me because of the split book nature - and my favourite was Unity because of the way it brough everything in the first 'season' together).

Vanguard has, honestly, been excellent overall and the two Enterprise Relaunch novels have been tough reading. I would say the only novel that I've not been able to make my way through and found incredibly boring was The Buried Age.

 

[Christopher]

^Doesn't Tuvok hear about Janeway's death in this OaTS?

You're thinking of Full Circle. There's a scene in Chapter 19 where Tuvok learns of Janeway's death. That's in August 2380 (for some reason; Janeway's death was in June). OaTS begins in February 2381, just after Destiny, and mostly takes place in July-August '81, more than a year after Janeway's death.

And as for Pazlar and Ra'Havreii; didn't they say that they loved each other? If they don't want to label their relationship, that's fine, but I could have sworn that they said it to each other, and that they planned on being together in some form?

They said they love each other, but I think "making it official" is the wrong term for how they decided to deal with it. And their only plan is not to have a plan, just to enjoy what they have and not get mired in expectations or commitments.

 

[Reanok]

Before Dishonor I really don't like this book very much when it comes to Captain Janeway's fate in this book.I don't like T'Lana and her causing other crewmembers to Mutiny against Picard.

 

[Paris]

Thanks Christopher. I read Over a Torrent Sea and Full Circle pretty close to one another so mix ups are bound to happen I guess .

 

[JD]

Olympus Descending

Also, I have already made my views known on the Min Zife assassination plot. Tacky, tasteless, and another reason I ended up turning away from Treklit for a long time (though "Olympus Descending" was the last straw).

My Bottom 5 would have to be

DS9: Worlds of DS9: Trill: Unjoined
DS9: Mission Gamma: Twilight
TTN: Over a Torrent Sea (in the interest of full disclosure I haven't finished this one)

with dishonorable mention to:

The rest of the DS9: Mission Gamma books

Oh, Torrent Sea--totally forgot that one. But yes, it totally deserves "least favorite" mention. At least Sword of Damocles had the wonderful Zurin Dakal side-plot to save it!

Also, add anything NF.

-The SCE series

-Fearful Symmetry

Destiny Book III

What was brilliant for two and two-thirds books just totally lost me at the end. Completely turned me off to The Next Generation re-launch.

All-Time:

In this Decade:

Kobayashi Maru by Mangels & Martin
Greater than the Sum by Christopher L. Bennett
Sword of Damocles by Geoffrey Thorne

Just casting an eye over the bookshelf in the room I'm in.

(Sword of Damocles , Resistance was horrible, Q&A was boring and Fearful Symmetry didn't sit quite right with me because of the split book nature - a

Vanguard has, honestly, been excellent overall and the two Enterprise Relaunch novels have been tough reading. I would say the only novel that I've not been able to make my way through and found incredibly boring was The Buried Age.

Wow, I can't believe how many books on this list I've actually really liked. Although I will admit that Kobayashi Maru was not one of the highlights of my Trek Lit reading.

 

[Aubergine]

"Before Dishonor" was a misfire to me; it completely undercut the Borg-are-scary-again idea by turning the race in question into a joke (and indeed turning almost every event in the book into a joke), it reduced every character to a caricature without taking into account any of their development across other books or even the later seasons of their TV shows, and T'Lana went from having "remarkable respect for other cultures" in "Resistance" to flat-out "Vulcans are superior to everyone else because our culture promotes emotional suppression" here. The whole thing felt shallow and gimmicky, which was particularly unacceptable given the highly significant event at the end, which required much dignity.

I agree with these points. Actually, I just finished re-reading Before Dishonor, and have now moved on to a re-read Greater Than the Sum, and it almost seemed as though the author of Greater Than the Sum (who shall remain nameless even though he's posted in this thread and I'm not trying to say this is what he was thinking, this was just how it occurred to me at the time of my reread!) points this out. T'Lana says to Picard (paraphrased) "Um, I think I may actually be a huge narcissist, going to work on that, 'kay thanks." And Worf says to Kadohata, "Yeah, I kind of forgot all of my diplomatic training and experience and basically reverted to the guy who points his phaser at the baddie in the viewscreen."

Before Dishonor was definitely not a highlight of the lead-up to Destiny for me. And I say that as a person who has no personal investment in [The Big Event That Happened In The Book].

That said, to me, Before Dishonor doesn't fall in the category of nigh unreadable books, of which I've come across a few.

 

[Thrawn]

In this decade:

The Left Hand Of Destiny (especially book 2)
The Red King
String Theory 3: Evolution (I liked the other two)
Mission: Gamma: Lesser Evil
Troublesome Minds (I know most loved it, but I didn't get anything new out of it)

 

[RonG]

for me, sadly, there's quite a few :

- TNG Relaunch pre-Destiny (even KRAD and CLB couldn't salvage that mess..thank goodness for Destiny, though)

- VOY Relaunch pre-Full Circle - just sad, really...

- Genesis Wave series (the first one was readable..)

- Ship of The Line

- The Last Round-up (I can't seem to get into Golden's novles..)

- Probe (who thought it better to publish this instead of Music of the Spheres??)

- Engines of Destiny

- A Hard Rain

- Shatner's Totality trilogy (.. and this from a major Reeves-Stevens fan!)


Luckily, there's a whole lot more that I like and love!

 

[21Spike65]

^Doesn't Tuvok hear about Janeway's death in this OaTS?

You're thinking of Full Circle. There's a scene in Chapter 19 where Tuvok learns of Janeway's death. That's in August 2380 (for some reason; Janeway's death was in June). OaTS begins in February 2381, just after Destiny, and mostly takes place in July-August '81, more than a year after Janeway's death.

I assumed the reason for the delay in Tuvok finding out was due to 1) Titan's far enough out that news from home does take longer than normal (albeit that alone doesn't account for two months), and 2) Sword of Damocles takes place in this general range as well, and I believe that book established that Titan had been on a communications blackout for the past month due to the sensitive nature of the space they were scanning. I figured by the time they got everything sorted out after SoD and got the full story from home, it could have slipped into August.

As for my own least favorite Trek books:

-My Enemy, My Ally: To me, the characterizations of the original cast just felt off somehow to me, and I didn't find the Bloodwing crew interesting enough to offset this. It was kind of disappointing because I had enjoyed The Romulan Way too (which I read first). But I persevered through the Rihannsu series and...

-Swordhunt/Honor Blade: Nothing happened in this one book turned two books. I felt like the whole thing was a build-up for The Empty Chair, leaving the books themselves with no substance to make you actually want to make it to The Empty Chair.

-Dwellers in the Crucible: This book took a long time for me to push through, which is unusual for a Trek book. I think my main problem with it (besides a few quibbles with the story--somehow 'Warrantors of the Peace' just don't seem much like a Federation ideal) was that I had no interest in the characters that it spends a large portion of the book focusing on (al-Faisal and her Vulcan friend). It was the first thing I had read by MWB, so I figured I'd try again with Burning Dreams and loved that book, so I guess this book just didn't work for me.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

-Dwellers in the Crucible: This book took a long time for me to push through, which is unusual for a Trek book. I think my main problem with it (besides a few quibbles with the story--somehow 'Warrantors of the Peace' just don't seem much like a Federation ideal) was that I had no interest in the characters that it spends a large portion of the book focusing on (al-Faisal and her Vulcan friend). It was the first thing I had read by MWB, so I figured I'd try again with Burning Dreams and loved that book, so I guess this book just didn't work for me.

It was much the same with me when I read it as well, and that soured me on rereading it my last time through. I'm thinking that I'll give it another go, though. But I definitely agree that the Warrantors of Peace aspect doesn't seem like a Federation ideal.

As for my least favorite... I'd probably go with Shadow Lord. My biggest complaint is that it doesn't really feel like a Star Trek novel - the Enterprise only appears in the first and last chapter, so it's basically Spock and Sulu, and quite frankly, those two feel like they're just there to let the book be labeled Star Trek. It's not about the crew members of the Enterprise, which happened occasionally in that publishing time, but the alien species is one made up by the author, so there's not much connection through that. It and the Marshak and Culbreath novels are the only Star Trek novels that I've repeatedly started and then set down in the middle of them, moving on to the next book.

 

[KetracelWhite]

Here we go again... the old "gay agenda" nonsense.

Of course Star Trek has a pro-gay agenda. It also has a pro-black, pro-Asian, pro-Native American, pro-Caucasian, pro-bald, pro-disabled, pro-female, pro-male, pro-hermaphrodite, pro-alien, pro-android, pro-hologram agenda. It's about inclusion. So how could you possibly be surprised that it includes gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered beings as well?

As for the inclusion of gay characters, yes, they're present in the books of Mangels & Martin. But they're also present in books by myself, David Mack, Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore, Susan Wright, Keith R.A. DeCandido, David R. George III, and many others. Yet it's always the books Andy Mangels participates in writing (along with a heterosexual collaborator, by the way) that get singled out as having an "agenda." And that exposes the ugly lie: that these complainers' problem is not ultimately about the books, it's about the author. They don't attack the hetero authors who include gay characters, just the one gay man who happens to do so, even though other Trek authors have collectively written far more words about GLBT characters and relationships than Andy has.

I don't know the author personally at all. I know nothing about him so I'd never judge him. It's just a personal preference. I don't like Star Trek stories that put forward a heavy-handed political statement of any kind.

For instance, the episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" made an interesting political statement (about racism) but it was done very obviously, and came across as preachy.

If it's done subtly, it's OK. Mostly, though, I just didn't think "The Sundered", for example, was well written. I tried to stick with it but couldn't. It had nothing at all to do with the gay character(s). I just didn't care for the story. Honestly, that's it.