What are you least favorite Star Trek novels?

[stonester1]

Totally agree, and they also have that feeling of transcendance.

Funny you should mention them, as the second and third are in my reading stack for my upcoming convalescent leave.

 

[wizkid]

Several Titan books have really been a let down. I had to grind to get through a few.

 

[DevilEyes]

I never expected to see A Stitch in Time pop up in this thread.

Neither did I.

Originally posted by Here's Jonny!:
Haven't read many Trek books so my choices are very limited:

- Genesis Wave
- The Portos story from "Captain's Table"
- A Stitch in Time
- Destiny series
- The Battle of Betazed

I also wasn't that impressed with Destiny. All the scenes involving The Columbia, it's captain, or the Caelier (sp?) were just not that interesting for me. I kept slogging through those bits, waiting for the next Titan chapter (which I love).
So I was tempted to be worried about not enjoying A Stitch In Time, just as you didn't enjoy it, because I've finally picked up a copy of it, and I'm looking forward to reading it...
But then I saw that you put Battle for Betazed on your list, and I actually quite liked that book, so I'm not so worried anymore

A Stitch in Time is not just a great Trek book, it is a great book on its own, and it would be one even if you didn't know a thing about DS9 and Trek in general.

My favorite quote (not spoilery - just Garak's general thoughts about post-Dominion Cardassia:

Spoiler: A Stitch in Time - chapter 17

Fear and isolation, Doctor. You can't have one without the other. Fear isolates and isolation is fear's natural home. Just as my orchids need carefully prepared soil to protect them against disease and pests, fear needs the isolated circumstances to deepen and grow without connective or relational interference. When fear is allowed to flourish in its dark and lonely medium, then any evil that can be conceived by the fearful imagination will emerge.

The death toll rises every day. We are now over the one billion mark. This is a numbing, dry statistic. I'm certain that when you read this, Doctor, you will have a disturbed reaction. Others will rationalize that the figure is commensurate with Cardassian complicity. And a third group will simply shrug: it's not their problem. My reaction would probably have been a combination of the latter two. Like most people, I want to get on with the business of my life and what's done is done and doesn't warrant any further loss of sleep or appetite.

Our med unit has been converted into a burial unit. It's a logical progression; the survivors have all been accounted for and only the dead remain unclaimed. More immediate, of course, is the potential for decaying corpses to spread disease. So every day now I am engaged in the hardest work of my life; I find that nothing has prepared me for this. My feelings are spent, my moral rationalizations are empty, and I can't say it's not my problem when I'm pulling and lifting and throwing bodies of people who once only wanted to go about the business of their lives.

A Federation official suggested that we simply vaporize all corpses. Underneath the suggestion was the judgment that our burial customs are archaic and morbid. At first I became angry and wanted to berate him for his lack of sensitivity as well as for his own culture's morbidity in representing death as sanitary and disassociated from life. But I realized that we were no better. We created technologies that dispensed death efficiently and from a distance; we never took responsibility for our personal actions because we were in the service of a greater good--the Cardassian state. Colonel Kira once told me how many Bajorans died during the Cardassian Occupation, and my mind rejected the figure like a piece of garbage. We'd been in the service of the state, I had told myself, and the state had determined what was necessary. But now I understand why she hated me. More important, I now understand that constant burning, almost insane look in her eyes.

Most of us who are left, Doctor, are insane. We have to be in order to survive and emerge from our isolation. It's the only way we can live with the pain of what we did. Or didn't. Each of us accepts the amount of responsibility we are capable of bearing. Some accept nothing, and these people are quickly swallowed by their isolation, their insanity transformed into a rationalized evil. A smaller group accepts total responsibility, and their insanity is an unbearable burden that cripples and eventually grinds them down. The rest of us carry what we can and leave the rest. For myself, Doctor, when a corpse is too heavy to bury I try to remember to ask someone to help me.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Several Titan books have really been a let down. I had to grind to get through a few.

I thought they were all brilliant, though some not quite as good as others, but none which deserve a place in this thread.

IDIC.

 

[Paris]

^That passage was great. I haven't been able to find a reasonably priced copy yet, so I've not read it. That piece has inspired me to redouble my efforts. Thanks for the post, DevilEyes .

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

^That passage was great. I haven't been able to find a reasonably priced copy yet, so I've not read it. That piece has inspired me to redouble my efforts. Thanks for the post, DevilEyes .

Have you tried a brick-and-mortar used book store? Or are you just searching on the Internet?

Even then it may be difficult given the fact that people probably just aren't trading it in once they get their hands on a copy, but that's one way to avoid the bidding wars you see on the Internet.

 

[Paris]

^None of the Brick and Mortar's in Ottawa have a copy. I've looked on and off in the last few months. I've mostly been looking online for it.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The Wounded Sky. Worst ending ever. Insulting. Amazing such a great novel died like that. Apologies to those I recommended the book to in the past...

Huh? That sounds like you once enjoyed it, or never finished it the first time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and wasn't expecting one of the guest characters to have the story arc she did.

What annoyed you? The tech resolution or the character resolution? Both?

With a title of "The Wounded Sky", surely you expected them to be able to "heal" it at the end?

It was the characters. The whole "and then they were seen for their true inner selves" thing. McCoy glowing and Kirk weating a suit of armour were cheesy enough, but everyone getting overly emotional and realizing how much deep down they love each other? (before you all freak, i'm talking plutonic love, here) It was too much - I really couldn't buy it. It read to me like Diane Duane screming at the top of her lungs "I love these people! They are perfect, utterly flawless humans! Look how they realize how great the all are! Look how they create an enitre universe and teach a god how to live! They deserve unconditional worship!!"

I'm happy you all got good things from it.

It totally ruined it for me.

 

[Christopher]

^If you're talking "plutonic" love, that would be freaky, because that means "hellish," as in Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld. I think you're actually talking platonic love, as in the philosopher Plato and his spiritual ideals.

And yes, The Wounded Sky did rather idealize the characters, but that's true of the whole book, not just the ending. I see it as a work that interprets Star Trek as epic myth, that's more about the characters as archetypes than as ordinary people. I can see how that could be perceived as undue hero worship, but as a literary form, an experiment in modern mythology, it's a fascinating exercise.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^If you're talking "plutonic" love, that would be freaky, because that means "hellish," as in Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld. I think you're actually talking platonic love, as in the philosopher Plato and his spiritual ideals.

Blame Microsoft Word's spellchecker.

And me, I guess.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

The Wounded Sky. Worst ending ever. Insulting. Amazing such a great novel died like that. Apologies to those I recommended the book to in the past...

Huh? That sounds like you once enjoyed it, or never finished it the first time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and wasn't expecting one of the guest characters to have the story arc she did.

What annoyed you? The tech resolution or the character resolution? Both?

With a title of "The Wounded Sky", surely you expected them to be able to "heal" it at the end?

It was the characters. The whole "and then they were seen for their true inner selves" thing. McCoy glowing and Kirk weating a suit of armour were cheesy enough, but everyone getting overly emotional and realizing how much deep down they love each other? (before you all freak, i'm talking plutonic love, here) It was too much - I really couldn't buy it. It read to me like Diane Duane screming at the top of her lungs "I love these people! They are perfect, utterly flawless humans! Look how they realize how great the all are! Look how they create an enitre universe and teach a god how to live! They deserve unconditional worship!!"

I'm happy you all got good things from it.

It totally ruined it for me.

I think Duane was trying to suggest they were in a realm like Heaven--which would play by its own rules. But then some people seem to think spirituality and speculative fiction can't mix...a sentiment with which I strongly disagree.

 

[Mysterion]

The Wounded Sky. Worst ending ever. Insulting. Amazing such a great novel died like that. Apologies to those I recommended the book to in the past...

That's twice you've said that and I still don't understand why you think that. It's not an opinion I've ever heard before. I think its ending was breathtaking.

Completely agree. The novel had that "transcendant" feel, which some of my favorite Trek stories manage to get to.

I agree with Christopher and Stonester1 that there ain't a damned thing wrong with the ending of that book. The Wounded Sky is one of the best (if not THE best of the ST novels written. IMO. YMMV.

 

[William Leisner]

^If you're talking "plutonic" love, that would be freaky, because that means "hellish," as in Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld.

Even more freaky if he was talking about love for Mickey Mouse's dog...

 

[Myasishchev]

^If you're talking "plutonic" love, that would be freaky, because that means "hellish," as in Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld.

Even more freaky if he was talking about love for Mickey Mouse's dog...

I would figure it would mean wealthy or metal-rich. That is to say, love you have to pay for. That, or a coppery love, I guess.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

hmm.. Imzadi was the most horrible thing I ever read. I forced myself to read the whole thing because at the time it was pretty revered as a great Trek novel by fans I knew.

"Nude therapy", threw the book across the room at that point.

 

[Myasishchev]

I've never read Imzadi. What's so bad about nude therapy? Sounds pretty sweet to me.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I think Imzadi is great if you are a teenage shipper. That's the target audience IMHO.

 

[Villager]

It's hard to come up with an all-time worst. But my least favorite author was Diane Carey. It wasn't her politics so much -- I was a Heinlein fan -- but the way she twisted the English language. Peter David, I'm afraid, wasn't much better in that respect.

 

[JD]

hmm.. Imzadi was the most horrible thing I ever read. I forced myself to read the whole thing because at the time it was pretty revered as a great Trek novel by fans I knew.

"Nude therapy", threw the book across the room at that point.

Wow, I'm surprised. The book makes pretty regular appearances on alot of people's best of Trek Lit lists, even mine.

 

[mattburgess]

Big fan of Imzadi - both of them. Maybe this is because I was in my teens when I read them, and I have continued to have a soft spot for them.
Personally, I always felt that Imzadi was one of (if not the) best love story novel in Star Trek, and it still managed to be Star Trek throughout. Not a lot of authors can manage that: forays into particular genres often feel like they're not Star Trek at all.
I also felt that it was a solid story, well told, and a really good, simple time travel story.
Definitely in my top five.