What's a good TNG Relaunch continuity stand alone novel?
- Thread starter Freman
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There are plenty of quite-standalone choices. Many of the recent TNG books have ongoing plot threads, but still tell a complete story.
The first "A Time..." book is probably a poor choice. The first duology was not a well-received tale, as per many readers - and "A Time to Be Born" is definitely only half of a story.
I'd save up and go for the last three "A Time... books", or if you truly must buy one only, the final one!
Or "Q & A".
Or "Death in Winter" (but again, that one wasn't as popular.)
Good and TNG Re-launch should never be used together in a sentence.
EDIT: Not meaning to sound mean-spirited, I was actually quite disappointed considering the authors involved. Can't even remember the name of Christopher Bennett's book, which was the last TNG re-launch I read (not counting the 'Destiny' trilogy).
EDIT: Not meaning to sound mean-spirited, I was actually quite disappointed considering the authors involved. Can't even remember the name of Christopher Bennett's book, which was the last TNG re-launch I read (not counting the 'Destiny' trilogy).
If you haven't read them all, how do you know if they are good or not?
The only one I haven't read is Losing the Peace, just plan on steering clear of the TNG re-launch from now on.
Q&A is your book. Not only does it work as a standalone AND is a fun book, but it's a Q book!
Yeah, this is the only real stand-alone book, except maybe 'Death in Winter'. But 'Q&A' is clearly set up as a stand-alone.
'Resistance' is the first part of a story arc, 'Before Dishonor' is the second part of that arc, and then 'Greater Than The Sum' is the 3rd and final part of the arc. So I would stay away from those unless you have the time to go through them all.
I think it's overstating it to call it a story arc. They're three separate, very different stories that grow loosely out of each other. Each one tells a complete story that can be read as a standalone, with different character arcs and even different characters, and there are intervals of two to three months between the respective novels. Each one resolves its particular story, but in each case there is one leftover element that eventually triggers the events of a later book.
I think Q&A has been the best TNGR book yet (with Losing The Peace not far behind). It brilliantly "sums up" (for lack of a better term) all the episodes of Q, and is a good read on its own. It has little to nothing to do with the other books, and would be a good read even without a good knowledge of all the Q episodes (although it's better with that knowledge )
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Agreed. Mainly about the 'fun' comment - the rest of the TNG books are affected by either the Borg or the post-Destiny events. Not that they are bad books (except Before Dishonor), but its difficult to be fun when dealing the subject matter that the later books have to cover. Q&A on the other is a fun science fiction romp which ties well with the better episodes of the TNG TV series itself and has little effect on anyother books later in the series. Loved it!
Resistance, Before Dishonor, and Destiny all felt like they were trying to re-tell the same basic story in a way more epic than the last. Of the lot of them, only Destiny really did it well. The first two just feel a bit.....pointless. That's what happens when you do too many Borg stories too close together. You only remember the best one and the others fade into the background as "more of the same, except not as good."
Huh? Not a universal pattern. I didn't think any of those books were telling the "same" story. Developing the evolution of the Borg, yes. And each book is memorable in its own way.
Let me put it this way: Destiny would not have been a significantly different story if those first two hadn't happened. That, to me, says "irrelevant". Especially in the context of a supposed story arc.
They weren't three parts of a unified Borg story. They were three separate Borg stories which just happened to occur back-to-back. There's a word for that: saturation.
Granted, there's a single cube linking Resistance and Before Dishonor, but there's no hint of its BD capabilities in R, and the BD story could have been told just as well starting fresh as continuing from R. So I count them as "essentially" distinct.
I'm leaving Greater Than The Sum out because that actually had some story to tell independent of the Borg. The first two....not really.
Add to the picture the general lameness of R and BD.....and the way GttS did its best to retcon some of the character assasination of BD.....and it's just a really disappointing situation. The whole thing should have been reshuffled on the drawing board to make a tighter story. One element in particular of BD could have fit nicely into the Destiny trilogy.....
They weren't three parts of a unified Borg story. They were three separate Borg stories which just happened to occur back-to-back. There's a word for that: saturation.
Granted, there's a single cube linking Resistance and Before Dishonor, but there's no hint of its BD capabilities in R, and the BD story could have been told just as well starting fresh as continuing from R. So I count them as "essentially" distinct.
I'm leaving Greater Than The Sum out because that actually had some story to tell independent of the Borg. The first two....not really.
Add to the picture the general lameness of R and BD.....and the way GttS did its best to retcon some of the character assasination of BD.....and it's just a really disappointing situation. The whole thing should have been reshuffled on the drawing board to make a tighter story. One element in particular of BD could have fit nicely into the Destiny trilogy.....
Janeway vs Hernandez mind battle?
If you haven't read them all, how do you know if they are good or not?
The only one I haven't read is Losing the Peace, just plan on steering clear of the TNG re-launch from now on.
Oh you really need to rethink this. I didn't like any of them before LtP (except of course Destiny), but LtP is outstanding.
To answer the original poster's question:
Q&A, if you really want just a standalone.
Greater Than The Sum, if you're looking to read the Destiny trilogy soon and you want to prepare for it. Which is what I'd recommend. Because the Destiny trilogy will rock your socks off. Like, all the way off. And across the room.
If you haven't read them all, how do you know if they are good or not?
The only one I haven't read is Losing the Peace, just plan on steering clear of the TNG re-launch from now on.
Oh you really need to rethink this. I didn't like any of them before LtP (except of course Destiny), but LtP is outstanding.
To answer the original poster's question:
Q&A, if you really want just a standalone.
Greater Than The Sum, if you're looking to read the Destiny trilogy soon and you want to prepare for it. Which is what I'd recommend. Because the Destiny trilogy will rock your socks off. Like, all the way off. And across the room.
I guess I'll order Q&A then. Seems to be the general consensus as the best choice. I plan on getting them all eventually, but I just came off the Terok Nor trilogy, and wanted a quick break from DS9 before I dive into the main DS9 Relaunch stuff.
And I've already read the Destiny trilogy. It was FANATSTIC!!
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