Worst Trek book?
- Thread starter Xploda
- Start date
It's dated, unavoidably, but dreck? I don't think so.
My worst Trek books? How do I mention them without pissing the respective writers to those books...
1) Death in Winter
2) Time To Harvest/Sow
3) The New Frontier Series
4) Tooth and Claw
5) What Price Honor?
6) Vengence
7) Serpents Among The Ruins
Captain's Peril
9) Olympus Descending
10) The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh.
1) Death in Winter
2) Time To Harvest/Sow
3) The New Frontier Series
4) Tooth and Claw
5) What Price Honor?
6) Vengence
7) Serpents Among The Ruins
Captain's Peril9) Olympus Descending
10) The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh.
Apparently, you don't even try.
"Ships of the Line" by Diane Carey. I generally try to avoid Carey's novels because of her in your face pro-sailing agenda. I mean you can barely get through a single chapter without explicit descriptions of seamen and coxswains. And when that captain expressed an interest in docking with another ship? Disgusting. We get it Diane, you like boats. Whatever you do in the privacy of your own yacht club is your business, but let's not go flaunting it around all over the place as if it's not a controversial subject, okay? 
But really, that is my least favorite Trek book. Mainly because it had the potential for greatness with the launch of the Enterprise-E and the return of Morgan Bateson and his crew, both subjects I was interested in reading about, and it basically just fell flat. There were too many attempt at bringing in characters from disparate eras (apart from Bateson and crew) and way too much reliance on obscure sailing references usually quoted by the Bozeman crew as if they were all intimately familiar with the lore of sailing.
But really, that is my least favorite Trek book. Mainly because it had the potential for greatness with the launch of the Enterprise-E and the return of Morgan Bateson and his crew, both subjects I was interested in reading about, and it basically just fell flat. There were too many attempt at bringing in characters from disparate eras (apart from Bateson and crew) and way too much reliance on obscure sailing references usually quoted by the Bozeman crew as if they were all intimately familiar with the lore of sailing.
It's not a bad, bad book I just don't like David George's writing style. It felt boring and flat in some places and only got intresting towards the end. But remember, to each his own.
Granted. Here goes:
1) Death in Winter: Not really much of a plot. All it did, in my opinion, was fuse Stargazer with TNG on a mission to rescue Crusher and it took half the book just to set that up.
2) Time to Sow/Harvest: On another board, months earlier, I posted a review about it and I felt there was way to many details that recapped the 1st two books.
3) New Frontier: I tried to like this series and I really, really wanted to. For some reason, I couldn't get into it. (I still have respect for Mr. David though)
4) Captain's Peril: The only Shatner book I kept falling asleep to. I felt like it was a buddy comedy. It was like he was sharing his wife's death with us through the book.
5) Kahn: Way to long and way to slow.
Not going to list them all but you get the gist.
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1) Death in Winter: Not really much of a plot. All it did, in my opinion, was fuse Stargazer with TNG on a mission to rescue Crusher and it took half the book just to set that up.
2) Time to Sow/Harvest: On another board, months earlier, I posted a review about it and I felt there was way to many details that recapped the 1st two books.
3) New Frontier: I tried to like this series and I really, really wanted to. For some reason, I couldn't get into it. (I still have respect for Mr. David though)
4) Captain's Peril: The only Shatner book I kept falling asleep to. I felt like it was a buddy comedy. It was like he was sharing his wife's death with us through the book.
5) Kahn: Way to long and way to slow.
Not going to list them all but you get the gist.
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It's fascinating to see just how differently people's tastes can be, that's one of my favorite books.
But I'd have to say that currently Deny They Father is the one I'd say is pretty bad. It's the first Trek book in many years that I've not been able to finish. I'd also throw Ishmael and Killing Time in that list.
I haven't read that many bad ones, mostly cuz I can usually read the synopsis of the book and easily tell before-hand whether or not I'll like it. So I've probably avoided most of these "bad" ones.
However I messed up once and read Deny Thy Father. So add another vote on that one.
However I messed up once and read Deny Thy Father. So add another vote on that one.
I really, really hated the novel "Rosetta Stone" by Dave Stern, simply because it failed to attract my attention or interest.
Side Note: Someone earlier said that they hated "A Fury Scorned". I actually LOVED that book. Deanna was finally more than simply "I sense (fill in the blank), Captain". Probably why I also like "The Battle of Betazed"
Side Note: Someone earlier said that they hated "A Fury Scorned". I actually LOVED that book. Deanna was finally more than simply "I sense (fill in the blank), Captain". Probably why I also like "The Battle of Betazed"
Ooops...thank you.
That was me, and I didn't like it because (no offense to anyone involved) the writing was absolutely terrible. I kept getting distracted by awkward phrasings, false-sounding bits of dialogue...basically, I wanted to rewrite the entire thing, except that at its core, it's not a very interesting story. It COULD have been, but it isn't - kind of like another Zebrowski book, Dyson Sphere. Ideas are all well and good, but if you can't use them properly in your writing, they're useless.
Unimaginative writing is bad, but unimaginative writing that squanders great ideas (Hey! The Federation can make wormholes at will! Why isn't anyone more excited about this?) is worse. That's why I think A Fury Scorned is one of the worst.
Also, Death After Life, Peter David's follow-up to his Gateways novel, Cold Wars, angered me royally. Shelby's never been that selfish before, which made her insistence seem out of character, and her reasoning for rejecting Kez'hara was flawed. The whole thing (which was simultaneously too short and much too padded) felt like a bad capper on a good story (I liked Cold Wars).
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