Star Trek Novels

[paulg1974]

In the spirit of my current trawl through The Next Generation I also got a hankering for reading old Star Trek novels, so I dug out my box from the loft and leapt in.

Currently re-reading the Greg Cox-penned Gary Seven / Khan books... Nice little quartet of tales starting with Assignment Eternity, then the two-book Eugenics Wars and finally, to Reign in Hell. Cox comes across as very much a Trek-equivalent to Gary Russell or Craig Hinton in that he likes his fanw*nk, but it's brilliantly written and lovely fanw*nk. :)

Half the fun of The Eugenics Wars is working out where we've seen some of the small role characters before in Star Trek.

[clever lupton]

avoid anything by these two partnership jokers:

Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath

[Al Hine]

I found a 1973 copy of Star Trek 9, by James Blish at a car boot sale yesterday.

[SID RAT]

The only books I have ever re read from Star Trek are the Blish books, (I managed to get a complete run in the last covers for a £1 at a car boot to complement the five or six dog eared sets I had) The Motion Picture novel and the Next Gen Borg story that was a "giant" novel.

[Ash Stewart]

Was the "Giant" one you refer to "Vendetta", by Peter David? That was a wonderful book, and the better than any post-BOBW on screen Borg stories.

[Tomalak]

The only ones I really remember are "Q-Squared", which was a fantastic Peter David timey-wimey, fanwank masterpiece involving Q, Trelane, and about six different iterations of the TNG crew, and a whodunnit with Picard's former crewmembers from the Stargazer. That might have been Peter David too, come to think of it.

[Fake Shemp]

The Peter David novels were the only ones I really enjoyed. I enjoy his sense of humour and love the in-jokes.

[paulg1974]

and a whodunnit with Picard's former crewmembers from the Stargazer. That might have been Peter David too, come to think of it.

Thats Michael Jan Friedman's Reunion, which lead to him penning another half dozen or so Stargazer novels based on that crew. It's on my "To Get" list...

[paulg1974]

The Peter David novels were the only ones I really enjoyed. I enjoy his sense of humour and love the in-jokes.

I heartily recommened New Frontier in that case. A Star Trek crew that PD could do anything he bloody well liked with and worry too much about the larger continuity issues with films and TV shows.

[SID RAT]

Was the "Giant" one you refer to "Vendetta", by Peter David? That was a wonderful book, and the better than any post-BOBW on screen Borg stories.

Yes, thank you Ash. I recall travelling to work on the bus many moons ago and missing my stop as I was so engrossed in the storyline.

Also didnt this one have a proto 7 of 9 type character whom Geordie befriended?

Must get these again - I had a leaky roof in the garage just after Christmas and lost hundreds of books.

[SID RAT]

The Peter David novels were the only ones I really enjoyed. I enjoy his sense of humour and love the in-jokes.

Yes he was good wasn't he? Q Squared salvaged a rainy day on holiday in Morocco in 1991.

[Ash Stewart]

Was the "Giant" one you refer to "Vendetta", by Peter David? That was a wonderful book, and the better than any post-BOBW on screen Borg stories.

Yes, thank you Ash. I recall travelling to work on the bus many moons ago and missing my stop as I was so engrossed in the storyline.

Also didnt this one have a proto 7 of 9 type character whom Geordie befriended?

Must get these again - I had a leaky roof in the garage just after Christmas and lost hundreds of books.

Yes - there was a character that was a little reminiscent of 7, or possibly more like Hugh as I recall. I seem to remember it was published around the same time I, Borg was first screened (so would have been written earlier, O would have thought).

I also have a memory there was a Locutus type spokesperson; but Ferengi, IIRC. The name "Vastator" (sp?) springs to mind... maybe I should have a quick check of Memory Alpha...

[Ash Stewart]

Q in Law was another good Peter David book; Q and Troi's Mum in the same story... marvellous! :) Wouldn't you just have loved to see that on screen? It's a shame he never got to write for the TV show. He'd have been great.

He did an episode of Babylon 5; the one with Londo's 3 wives, and that just shone with wit.

[SID RAT]

oh yes it was Q in Law I took on holiday - they end up on the hull of the D as I recall. It was very "in character"

The other giant novel all about Data becoming Human (Metamorphosis??) was pants as i recall

[Poultro]

Still got all the James Blish #1 - #12 books (inherited from my older brother) and a couple of Alan Dean Foster's Log books.
Read a few of the novels but soon got rid of them. The only book i kept was 'Sanctuary' by John Vornholt....Good read, that one! ;)

[Philip Ayres]

The two that stand out for me, year later, are Spock's World and The Pandora Principle.

[paulg1974]

The hardcover novels (from the days when the hardcovers were a big deal) like Prime Directive and Best Destiny are great (All hail the Reeves-Stevens who finally got to write for telly on Enterprise and made the Shatnerverse books very, ver readable) and Enterprise: The First Adventure is also worth reading for another take on that period of Trek history.

[nebiroth]

I've got about a hundred of these - the individual novelas from the days when there were only a few around, including the infamous Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath efforts (the weirdest of which are likely the Price/Fate of the Phoenix duo where they really go to town. Just not in a good way) plus the numbered sequences of TOS and TNG novels.

Vendetta is a great novel and makes a very credible way of tying a number of storylines together from the original series and TNG. Plus, what's not to like about something bigger and badder than the Borg?

[clever lupton]

I've got about a hundred of these - the individual novelas from the days when there were only a few around, including the infamous Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath efforts (the weirdest of which are likely the Price/Fate of the Phoenix duo where they really go to town. Just not in a good way) plus the numbered sequences of TOS and TNG novels.


I think Sondra and the Myrka also wrote another doozey called 'Triangle' which makes Kirk and Spock speak like characters out of a Shakespeare novelisation.

[David Brunt]

Verily, that is illogical.

[nebiroth]

They also wrote The Prometheus Design, and that is (if you can credit it) even more bizarre.

One outstanding feature of their stuff is that they invariably turn "Vulcanoids" (ie, Vulcans and Romulans) into Superman. Yes, we know that Vulcans are physically superior in that due to the higher homeworld gravity they're faster and stronger, and have better hearing due to the thin atmosphere but these authors take it to ludicrous extremes.

In the Phoenix novels, a surgically disguised copy of Kirk gets made a cortesan companion to a female Romulan commander (this alone gives you insight as to the author's, err, thinking) and it's full of passages about how he's too weak to be able to turn doorknobs and the like.

[MisterG]

I really enjoyed the first few DS9 relaunch books but I lost interest a little. I read the Enterprise books set after the series finale and again they were pretty good.

But as for TNG and VOY books, the plots I've read about online make them seem bogged down in endless continuity. Same with the large number of spin offs that are around. I was given the first Titan novel as a present a couple of years back and I tried to read it but I just couldn't get into it. I looked earlier at the newly released titles and there are so many inter-linked books which are sequels or follow ups to other books, I wouldn't know even where to begin!

Has anyone stuck with the Trek books and are they worth sticking with?

[David Griffiths]

My local bookshops got a few of the current 'Typhon Pact' books on the shelves at the moment & reading the blurb it really does feel like you have to have read previous books. A pity - back in the day I used to pick up the odd 'stand alone' one, but i'm not interested in getting into an ongoing series.

[paulg1974]

I acually quite like the ongoing storyline, but I'm so far behind at the moment that its silly. I'll pick them up if I ever see them cheap, but at the moment it's back to the re-read pile with Vonda McIntyre's Enterprise. I'd forgotten how much humour was in this one.

[Dom]

I remember the first Trek book I picked up was Battlestations! by Diane Carey when I was about 11. Superb when I was that age. I subsequently read Final Frontier which was thoroughly enjoyable and intriguing, given the events of the new film. Loved Vonda McIntyre's movie novelisations and Enterprise. I found STIII, the film, a huge letdown after reading the book first when it came out!

Sadly, I've long since moved away from Trek books on account of the endless series of books and too much TV show and book spinoff continuity. Looking at books from before the creation of TNG, the Star Trek universe seemed so much more expansive, with Galaxy-class starships in the Andromeda Galaxy, Alpha Centuri being turned not a black hole and Spock's son from another era having to save the Guardian of Forever.

[MLP*]

ST : TNG Indistinguishable From Magic by David A McIntee.
Slightly distracting that Gene Hunt from Life On Mars and Alan Carter from Space : 1999 seem to have wandered into the book.
Also he borrows some characters already being used in the Titan and Voyager novels.

The first half of the book is OK but I found the continuity references to umpteen different episodes and TV bit part characters really irritating. The low point comes when Scotty feels the need to explain why he thought Kirk was still alive in "Relics".
The other thing that's annoying is Geordi still mooning over Leah Brahms 20 years later.
Just how much of an emotional cripple would he have to be ?

The problem is that the plot runs out around page 300. It feels like it was originally a two book series squished into one volume so the last 200 pages seem like a linked but separate story.

There's a good story in there (well two good stories TBH) but I found the fanwank a bit overwhelming.
When Geordi kept mooning about the loss of his mother's ship was anyone in any doubt that it was going to become a major plot point later on ?

Sela is one of the guest characters like Leah Brahms who seems to turn up a lot in Trek Lit.
I can see why as she was rather underused on TV.

As for Scotty's apparent "death" at the end. Well I don't think the author could have left it any more "open" if he'd tried. So I don't think anyone should be put off reading it for that reason.

[Martin Ball]

Ahhh, Vendetta. Must dig that one out as I can recall really liking that one, or then again.... £3.99 on Kindle....

I do have quite a few of the early numbered TNG novels bonxed up somewhere but haven't read them for what..... 20 years? Might look through Amazon and pick a few up for Kindle. Any other recommendations of which ones are worth getting?

[TurnTable]

I got 18 Star Trek novels in a charity shop yesterday. All numbered Classic Series ones, mostly quite early ones. Any of them you guys could recommend? I may go back and get more from the big box they had of them.

[Pat Sharp's Mullet]

I loved Black Fire - think that was an early one. Don't read it if you're at all hung up on continuity, though. :)

[Mr Wilson]

The Entropy Effect and Bloodthirst are both worth reading.

[Fizzbin2003]

Look for ones written by D.C. Fontana or David Gerrold

[TurnTable]

Thanks, I think I have the ones you mentioned. I have a DC Fontana one for sure. I'm at work at the moment and can't see the ones I have. Double Double looks good as does Three Minute Uinverse. I got that one because of the aliens who are so horrible to look at make people vomit. Sounds crazy.

[nebiroth]

Ah yes...the Sackers :)
Whose attributes include being hot enough to inflict severe burns if touched, the appearance of transparent, multicoloured sacks of flesh with maggots moving around in them, emanating a smell that causes nausea and vomitting, and whose spoken language is both loud enough and of a high enough frequency to rupture your eardrums!


I'd recommend the following novels (original series based)

Chain of Attack
The Vulcan Academy Murders
Demons (there's a TNG sequel to this one)
Yesterdays Son and it's sequel, Time for Yesterday
Ishmael
The Wounded Sky
The IDIC Epidemic
Timetrap
The Final Nexus
My Enemy, My Ally

and avoiding anything by Myshak and Culbreath - espescially Triangle and The Prometheus Design! The Phoenix books are equally awful and take bizarre liberties with the characters but at least Omne is vaguely interesting...

[MLP*]

Star Trek Typhon Pact Plagues Of Night by David R George III.

For the most part it's Star Trek : The Soap Opera. Page after page of hand wringing and angst. Sisko worries about his relationship with Kassidy Yates. Ro worries that she's let Picard down. Some character you've never heard of worries about her dad who is on a life support machine. Dull as ditchwater.

The plot finally gets going around page 300, so I'd advise starting there if you're going to attempt it.

It is also, largely, a Deep Space Nine novel. Maybe DS9 novels don't sell very well, so they have to sneak them out in disguise ?

[nebiroth]

I think it's been mentioned - but anyway, I'll further recommend Diane Carey's Final Frontier - the story of the Enterprise's very first voyage ...under Captain April (as folks probably know, this was one of the original proposals for the name of the Captain).

It's a very good story - and it has Romulans in it. Thankfuly not the ridiculous Myrshak/Culbreath ones! Vivid and realistic space combat scenes - again, harking back to the original concepts, this Enterprise is armed with lasers.

[Dom]

I think it's been mentioned - but anyway, I'll further recommend Diane Carey's Final Frontier - the story of the Enterprise's very first voyage ...under Captain April (as folks probably know, this was one of the original proposals for the name of the Captain).

It's a very good story - and it has Romulans in it. Thankfuly not the ridiculous Myrshak/Culbreath ones! Vivid and realistic space combat scenes - again, harking back to the original concepts, this Enterprise is armed with lasers.

Yeah, loved this book. Still got a copy of it. Also loved Strangers From the Sky and Enterprise: The First Adventure. Diane Carey's other books, Dreadnought! and Battlestations! are worth checking out too!

[nebiroth]

On further reflection, I'd also commend the hardbacks Q Squared and Probe - the former featuring Trelane and Q (building on the suggestions in fandom at least that Trelane and his parents are either Q's, or related or equivalent - the Q Trilogy of books also suggests that the Organians have reached the levels of the Q, but only "recently" and in a different way, in that they are more benign and not afflicted with the petty emotions). Probe is a sequel to Star Trek IV and goes a great way to explain the originals of the alien Probe as seen in that.

[MLP*]

Star Trek Typhon Pact : Raise The Dawn by David R George

As with the preceding volume, this is essentially a Deep Space Nine continuation novel. Picard gets a small supporting role, presumably so they can stick his name on the back cover and hopefully sell more copies !

The book ends up as a kind of reboot of the DS9 continuation series.
Characters like Nog, O'Brien and Odo return. The station is destroyed and a new station is built in its place.

The throwbacks to Far Beyond The Stars seem a bit extraneous.

Really only worth a read if you are a fan of the DS9 characters and in particular their interpersonal relationships !

[Count Orlok]

Probe is a sequel to Star Trek IV and goes a great way to explain the originals of the alien Probe as seen in that.

And one totally disowned by the author as about 90% of it was rewritten without her knowledge. Her original manuscript is available and is far, far superior to what was published.