James Blish's novelization of TOS. It still holds up well. The first non canon novel read was "Vulcan!" It was interesting in that they had a politically incorrect but brilliant scientist
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Your first Trek novel?
- Thread starter Garth Rockett
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^^"Politically incorrect" is one hell of a euphemism for "violently, pathologically bigoted." Which is what that character was toward Vulcans, although it turned out to be the result of some psychosexual hangup or other. Politics had nothing to do with it.
Issue #2 has been out a few weeks now.
James, et al.,
"The Entropy Effect" was my third ST original novel. All these years later, it's my favorite! I loved all the varied supporting characters, the fleshing out of Sulu's character, the fiery security chief, Mandala Flynn, even Kirk's old flame, Captain Hunter, all exciting characters.
To answer the question, my first original novel that I read was "Spock Must Die," by James Blish. It was an original story dealing with the Organians, a Klingon-Federation war, and an experiment which creates two Spocks, one of them evil.
My second was "Spock, Messiah!" by Theodore Cogswell and Charles A. Spano, Jr. The Enteprise is surveying a primitive planet using telepathic implants, but the one Spock has malfunctions, and he takes on the persona of a mad messiah who launches a holy war on the planet in question.
Never read the novelizations of the eps -- thought it was a waste of time.
Red Ranger
I was given a box of books as a kid and in this box was the James Blish adoptions of TOS and Spock Must Die. I read the novelizations in order and then read Spock Must Die. Back then, I thought Spock Must Die was pretty good. Having not too too long ago reread it, I thought it was not all that wonderful. But then, as I reread, I know I'll pick them apart more then I did the first time around.
I'm pretty sure mine was Trek to Madworld though it could have been the novelization of TMP. I know I read all the ones from Pocketbooks as they came out and I had to wait for most of the Bantam ones to get reprinted in the mid-80s before I was able to read those.
Star Trek Reader 1, which was a bunch of the Blish episode novelizations. I'd have been ten.
The first novel was Vonda McIntyre's Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. I actually came to the prose fiction later than the non-fiction; I had most of the Best of Trek volumes by the time I bought my first novel.
First non-novelization was Strangers From the Sky in 1987.
And I was picking up the DC Comics regularly from 1984 onwards. I think of the "movie era" as my era of Trek, due entirely to the comics.
The first novel was Vonda McIntyre's Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. I actually came to the prose fiction later than the non-fiction; I had most of the Best of Trek volumes by the time I bought my first novel.
First non-novelization was Strangers From the Sky in 1987.
And I was picking up the DC Comics regularly from 1984 onwards. I think of the "movie era" as my era of Trek, due entirely to the comics.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention those. I must've read the Star Trek Reader volumes a dozen times. There were two of them, and they were the only Star Trek books my library had.
I can't remember if I read them before or after the others I mentioned earlier in this thread - probably after. But still, early childhood.
I can't remember if I read them before or after the others I mentioned earlier in this thread - probably after. But still, early childhood.
Some of those old titles bring back fond memories. My first novel was either Spock Must Die! or Spock Messiah. I had (and still have!) all those old Blish adaptations too, and remember thinking that some of the stories and even some of the titles ("The Unreal McCoy" comes to mind) differed from the aired episodes. I remember my sister would buy one or two of those Blish books for me every payday, so every two weeks was like Christmas for me. I owned the Foster adaptations too, and that led me to read Splinter of the Mind's Eye, the first original Star Wars novel. It turns out that Foster worked on those old Star Trek Power Books book and record sets too, of which I had several.
For Christmas, 1987, my sister bought me my first Star Trek book: Encounter at Farpoint. I had watched the episode when it was first on TV. Then, in December, when they were replaying it as two episodes, I got to watch the first half twice (7:00 and 11:00, same day (Saturday)); but, alas, never got to watch the second half--campus was closed next week, and we didn't get TNG at home. 
While reading the first half of the book, I recognized it as that episode, and could picture many of the scenes in the episode. The second half, however, was almost totally foreign to me--I couldn't remember the scenes from when it first came on, nor had I been able to rewatch it recently.
I read a few more ST novels for a little while after that; however, I couldn't recognize any of the "episodes". It wasn't until much later that I realized that the book Encounter at Farpoint was more of the exception than the rule.
In recent times, when I came back to ST (last fall to be precise), my first re-introductory ST novel was Spock's World.
While reading the first half of the book, I recognized it as that episode, and could picture many of the scenes in the episode. The second half, however, was almost totally foreign to me--I couldn't remember the scenes from when it first came on, nor had I been able to rewatch it recently.
I read a few more ST novels for a little while after that; however, I couldn't recognize any of the "episodes". It wasn't until much later that I realized that the book Encounter at Farpoint was more of the exception than the rule.
In recent times, when I came back to ST (last fall to be precise), my first re-introductory ST novel was Spock's World.
I sort have two. My first Trek book wasn't a read, but was an audio book from Audible.com. Fallen Heroes. My first actual read was Call to Arms The Dominion Wars: DS9 Book 2. Been hooked ever since.
Whichever the DS9 novel was when the Cardassians were trying to build a station on the other side of the wormhole. I remember thinking it was a cool idea and bought it on the spot. Can't remember if it was any good though, but it at least kept me interested in Trek books...
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