"You're least favorite Trek book" No, I'm not. Grammar aside, there's enough negativity around here right now, don't you think?
Triangle & The Prometheus Design by Marshak & Culbreath Warped by K.W. Jeter Cardassian Imps by Mel Gilden (YA) How much for just the Planet? by John M. Ford The Star Ghost by Brad Strickland (YA) The Joy Machine by James Gunn and Theodore Sturgeon Ghost Ship by Diane Carey Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds Foreign Foes by Dave Galanter and Greg Brodeur Tooth and Claw by Doranna Durgin
Maybe we could balance it out with a "Your favorite Trek book" thread? My Trek reading has been done primarily in two batches, one in the early 90s that covered around 60 books, and the second circa 2002-present covering close to 30. The ones I remember liking the least from "Batch 1" were The Prometheus Design and Gilliver's Fugitives, while my least favorite to date from "Batch 2" is without a doubt (and likely no mystery) Before Dishonor, which is sad considering that some of Peter David's earlier works were among my favorites from "Batch 1". I think as I've matured in age I've outgrown his writing style. To keep from sending the threat down too negative a path, though, I'd interject that the number of novels I've disliked is very low, and that the vast majority of my experience has been very positive. I guess that makes sense, seeing how I still read them on a regular basis
One can never grumble too much about apostrophe abuse. Warped and the first two MU anthologies, by the way...
I wish I could say "Who cares if I made a stupid mistake with my grammer?" When in truth, I'm very embarrassed by it. I'm not sure if I can edit to fix it, but I'd rather let it stand as a self imposed punishment. I guess I have no business criticizing ANYBODY'S writing, when mine is so bad. BTW...I'M not necessarily asking for "bad" books, just "you're" least favorite. Like, myself, I didn't hate Rogue...it simply was not as good as most others I've read IMHO.
Plus these lists are always interesting, because I've really liked a lot of the books listed so far! My least favourite is Kobayashi Maru by Julie Ecklar - although I think I am going to have to re-read it, because I can't actually remember what I don't like about it any more
A Time for War, a Time for Peace. What a fucking useless anticlimax to an otherwise-great miniseries, with DeCandido indulging his Klingon fetish and his Aaron Sorkin fetish, all in one book. Plus there's, y'know, no plot, aside from Lwaxana Troi interfering with the wedding plans -- an annoying mother-in-law plot that was hoary in 1950s sitcoms. Yeesh.
^ I hear if you post excerpts, folks will volunteer to rewrite them for free. Maybe you can use some of them in a reprinted edition.
So far it's The Entropy Effect. I have tried to read that book twice so far and I just can't get into it.
My least favorite books would be ones that didn't tell the story I was hoping for, given the proported subject of the book. Garth of Izar - I really wanted a story of Garth in his heyday, not an 'is he cured or isn't he' story. Saratoga - somebody give me some Lt Sisko or Lt Cmdr Sisko backstory. Ship of the Line - ugh. The Fearful Summons, and The Captain's Daughter - hard to sell a Captain Sulu TV series when the books aren't very good. The New Earth series went in a direction I didn't care for, as did the Gateways series. The Genesis Wave really was washed up after book Two.
I never get tired of telling people how much I hate Deny Thy Father or the third String Theory book. Most of the Trek books that I don't like stem from being large disappointments instead of being flat out bad or incompetent. But if anything, that makes them worse. Fixed.
I loved it! And I'm surprised to see a few votes for "The Entropy Effect". My three least favourites: "Warped", "The Laertian Gamble" and "Into the Nexus". A big letdown was "The Klingon Gambit", and I wasn't too impressed by "The Return", "Preserver", "The Rebels" trilogy, "Dujonian's Hoard", "Genesis Wave 3" and "Genesis Force".
There are three that are coming rigth to my mind: The Laertian Gamble Most likely the upmost ridiculous plot I've ever seen, combined with a more than poor writing style, a complete catastrophy. Windows on a lost World Chekov, the cannibalistic giant-crab, does I need to say any more? Chainmail The most of the Gateways-series was not really entertaining, but this one was a pain to read. Boring characters, a plot close to nonexistence and overall large amounts of boredom.
I thought this was rather cool! Very different! The first 80 or so pages were very tedious, but that was intentional, setting a very alien, mysterious mood. Once there, I was fascinated.
What Ian said. The opening chapters of Chainmail are a chore. I'd have said it's around page 75 that things start to make sense, and the plot ramps up. From there to the end, Chainmail is solid, and at the end of the day I'd peg it as the second-best Gateways book. Start around page 75, and you'll roll with it.