Best Destiny, Final Frontier, Dreadnought, Battlestations!, Planet of Judgement
the second eXcalibur book was Renaissance
Thanks. I did barely finish that one, but couldn't get through the third, which was Restoration right?
Your LEAST favorite Star Trek Novel?
- Thread starter Rush Limborg
- Start date
Thanks. I did barely finish that one, but couldn't get through the third, which was Restoration right?
While it's probably fair to say WoS is more about character than plot, it is absolutely excellent character work. Despite the fact that these are mostly original characters. And despite the fact that the characters are not especially likeable. I've always suspected that if Ilsa had written WoS as an original SF novel with the serial numbers filed off, it would have gotten a far better reception.
yup.
Anyone who does condemn you will have to answer to me. If the characters didn't do anything for you, then you weren't going to enjoy the book. It was a very unusual Trek novel, and unusual novels aren't going to appeal to everyone, and I have no problem with you listing the book in this topic.
I will say only this: The nature of national politics on the level being dealt with in Articles is such that the "action" consists entirely of people sitting in rooms talking to each other. That's what it's all about.
But, as I said, that's not going to interest everyone. It's why there are a lot more TV shows about cops and lawyers and doctors than there are about politicians.
Completely agreed. It's a Star Trek novel that doesn't read like a Star Trek novel at all. It might not make a lot of top ten lists around here, but it's unlike any other ST novel I've ever read, and that alone makes it worthwhile in my book.
It is probably not my least favourite novel but I can say that I didn`t like it much. It is well written but I don`t like her style.
It reminded me of her NF story in "No Limits". It seems that woman likes it to dig up dirt and find faults with people, making faults already established earlier much worse and finding new ones. She succeeded to get me to dislike Morgan Lefler intensely and I lost a LOT of respect for Captain Garrett, someone I actually liked before from what little was known. Now when I see her name on a book or story, I wonder who is the next person that will get this treatment?
I certainly hope she won`t touch NF again should there ever be another "No Limits".
Yes, thank you for repeating this once again. No passing reference to Ilsa Bick would be complete without being remind how much you hated her NF story...But Rachel Garrett was basically a cipher before Well of Souls. There wasn't much to like or dislike about her at all. She had a bit of screen time in Yesterday's Enterprise and (I think) the second Vulcan's Noun book, but she was basically a standard guest star captain, with near-zero character development. It'd be kind of hard to form an opinion on her based on what we'd seen. And, with no disrespect to Mr. Leisner, I don't think I'd describe the WoS characters as unlikeable. They were people caught in untenable situations, who eventually do their best to find their way out of them. Nobody's perfect, and in Wos those imperfections catch up with them. Garrett's marriage fell apart, and her kid kind of got caught in the middle. She's a workaholic who sometimes loses track of the importance of family. She has a hard time adjusting to her new first officer because she was really attached to her last XO, and sometimes takes it out on him. None of these things, to me, make her a bad guy. Just human.
Sour much? Don't come into a thread titled "LEAST favourite Star Trek" if you're going to get bitter when people identify the works they haven't enjoyed.
While on the subject of Pavlovian responses to Isla Bick, as one of the people who didn't care for Well of Souls--who, in fact, had to take an eight-month break in the middle of it because I was so disgusted with these scummy people--I would be inclined to agree that it would have succeeded better as an original novel. While a cast of characters who ranged from the irritating to the outright contemptuous is always a challenge to overcome in terms of reader sympathy, the stark contrast between the setting and the characters worked to undermine the story. I have read and enjoyed, say, crime dramas or dystopian tales that were largely populated by anti-heroes. But Star Trek is not a dystopian future; it is supposed to be bright and optimistic, full of confidence about humanity's ability to better itself. While we no longer cleave to the Roddenberryian ideal that better = perfect and without conflict, Bick's writing takes it way to the opposite extreme. To refer again to the NF story, and its murderers and druggies--these people would be contemptible bottom-feeders by contemporary standards, let alone a more enlightened future.
Creditorly yours, the Rent Woman
which was Ilsa's NF story? Alice, on the Edge of Night?
didn't care for it, but i disliked the Burgy story Through the Looking Glass more.
didn't care for it, but i disliked the Burgy story Through the Looking Glass more.
Well, pardon me for daring to repeat my hatred of "Warped", "Into the Nebula" and "The Laertian Gamble", which I do in most "least favourite novel" threads. Even though I know someone will pop in and say they really aren't too bad at all.
Is that not allowed?
It is my opinion and why shouldn`t I mention my dislikes in a thread like this one? If you disagree, that is fine. If you don`t like my opinion and how I voice it, you can ignore me. But remarks like this one are neither helpful nor necessary. Better would be telling us why you think otherwise instead of getting personal.
I will certainly not stop posting what I think and I can live with it that some people might just roll their eyes because by now it is well known what my likes and dislikes are.
Isn't one of the founding tennets of American Society that anyone can say what ever they want about anything they like so Baerbel is completely with in her rights to comment on something she dislikes.
Also, this thread is called Your LEAST favorite Star Trek Novel? so such comments will come up from time to time!
Just thought I'd through my two pence in on the matter, as for my least favorite Trek Novels, they would be the ones I never finished as I didn't like them all to much: Last Full Measure; Crucible Kirk: The Star to every wandering; Andor: Worlds of DS9; the first Dark Matter book (Which has put me off Ms Goldens work) and even though I finished them A Time to Sow/Harvest.
The Devil's Heart by Carmen Carter.
I thought all the character's acted nothing like they do/did on screen. It was definately a book I finished because I didn't want to be a quitter.
I also disliked some of Before Dishonor. There were many a times I was simply shaking my head and forcing myself to turn the page.
On the contrary I'll read anything by DeCandido or Bennett. Those stories couldn't be any more on point as to the character's actions. (IMO).
I thought all the character's acted nothing like they do/did on screen. It was definately a book I finished because I didn't want to be a quitter.
I also disliked some of Before Dishonor. There were many a times I was simply shaking my head and forcing myself to turn the page.
On the contrary I'll read anything by DeCandido or Bennett. Those stories couldn't be any more on point as to the character's actions. (IMO).
Well, I'm biased, of course, but I raced through this - twice! - and then went back to try to chug through "Cardassia: The Lotus Flower". That was the one that just left me cold, but I was hanging off every word of "Andor: Paradigm", and actually sobbing by the time the novel built towards the ceremonial funeral. (It's very rare that a book moves me to tears - in a good way - I can think of the end of the final battle in "The Hobbit"; "The Man Who Folded Himself"; and "Paradigm".)
As a longtime Andorian fan (and web host of Leslie Fish's Andorian fanfic material from the 70s), there was every chance Heather Jarman would make many different choices as to Andorian terrain and society, but I was happy with all of them. In fact several of her segments matched my own fanfic ideas.
Along came ENT and "The Aenar", and the need to rejig a few things in my head, but the flash flooding in "Paradigm" even fits with likely thaws of the icy canonical Andor we saw in "The Aenar".
I'm not much of a fan of the Andor or Trill stories in WoDS9. To be honest, I'd geniunely forgotten they even existed.
Wow...that's kinda difficult for me to imagine--but then again, I'm a great Cardassian fan the way you are of the Andorians. (Enough so that I thought Zurin Dakal was the only and I mean the ONLY saving grace of Sword of Damocles--even Jaza, who I ordinarily loved, only came across in a way I could connect with when seen through Dakal's eyes.) I suppose we come at these stories pre-disposed to like the ones that focus on the worlds we like.
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