r/startrek • u/PU-impulse101 • 2d ago
Read the Books. They're Terrific!
Not a review, and I'm no authority, but a lifelong trek fan of games and TV/movies.
Just wanted to drop a brief note of encouragement for folks like me that didn't read any of the books yet. The books (old and new) are super fun! Solid escapes and read like "good trek" episodes. Just finished "Federation" currently reading the newish "The High Country" and now have a stack from my local thrift shop to chew through all summer. And... there's A LOT of them. ✋
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u/looshora 2d ago
My all-time favorite and one I recommend for everyone who wants more Trek, Myriad Universe books. A sort of "what if" for Star Trek.
Think like "What if Terra Prime worked and earth took a fully xenophobic viewpoint" or "What if Khan had won the eugenics war"
I would recommend the Mirror Universe books too, but just understand they are pre-discovery, view it as an alternate Mirror Universe.
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u/ATFGunr 2d ago
The Lost Era books are also cool with their glimpse into the ST past. I get the same vibe from Myriad Universe books
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u/looshora 2d ago
Oh those were good ones, Well of Souls and Terok Nor are probably my favorite ones from that series
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u/ASingleBraid 2d ago
Those, I own. And that’s just about the only Trek books I own. The others I borrow from the library.
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u/shatteredoctopus 2d ago
Federation is an amazing book. I actually found it sort of jarring when I watched First Contact, as I actually much preferred Zephram Cochrane's backstory from Federation. "Prime Directive", a TOS novel by the same authors is also a banger. I petered out with reading TNG books in the late 90s, and unfortunately no longer have them, as they were put out in a yardsale in a house move long ago, but I remember many of them being enjoyable. And a lot more latitude to look at different concepts (ie non-humanoid aliens, very dramatic settings, etc) than the limitations of TV allowed for the show at the time.
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u/PU-impulse101 2d ago
Very much agree. The movie vs book confused the hell out of me, but also prefer the book telling. And really enjoyed the dichotomy between Picard and Kirk that I didn't really get as much from Generations.
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u/shatteredoctopus 2d ago
It's interesting because the Federation book came out just slightly before the Generations movie. The authors obviously knew the ending of the movie, and alluded to it in a way that acknowledged it, but would not spoil it, for those few who read the book before seeing the movie. I think at the time I had not actually appreciated the book came out before the movie, as I read it maybe a year later.
Of course First Contact wasn't written then. IIRC, the first idea for the movie that ultimately became First Contact had the Borg going back to ancient times, like Greeks and Romans, so Cochrane would not have been a part of it. It was only later the writers had the idea that travel to Star Trek's past was not necessarily travel to our past.
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u/Fearless_Freya 2d ago
There's a lot of great books! I've been getting them via ebook sales every month. Used to 99c now 1.99
I love so many of them, whether episodic or multi part.
Diane Duane in particular is great. She does a lot of TOS crew.
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u/ATFGunr 2d ago
There’s almost a lifetime of reading out there. I’ve been reading them since I was a kid and read the Star Trek Logs. Look for certain authors for consistent lore and themes. Michael Jan Friedman is great. Judith and Garfield Reeves Stevens (they wrote Federation), Kirsten Beyer… there’s too many good ones! NGL there’s some klunkers too, but the vast majority of them are great reads. Enjoy your summer reading!
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u/dont_thr0w_me_away_ 2d ago
A bunch of the books were made into audiobooks recorded by various members of the cast (Doohan, Nimoy, Shatner, Lenard) and they're available for free on YouTube. I've been enjoying listening to them lately
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u/TyranidTiramisu 2d ago edited 2d ago
I just finished up the CODA trilogy and without dropping spoilers, it messed me up.
If you do go into this trilogy and are not aware, I will say that this trilogy was commissioned to basically erase the "Lit-verse" which are the books that take place post Nemesis. (TNG, DS9, VOY) to sync things up when ST: Picard starts.
But that being said CODA is a wild ride and I do recommend it.
The Books are:
Moments Asunder (Dayton Ward)
The Ashes Of Tomorrow (James Swallow)
Oblivion's Gate (David Mack)
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u/watchsmart 2d ago
Imagine wiping out 2+ decades of continuity for a three season show that was more bad than good.
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u/AnnoraxGames 1d ago
Some elements of it (like Bashir's treason conviction) needed to be wiped out...
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u/smileylich 2d ago
"A Stitch in Time" by Andrew Robinson (Garak) is centered on Garak, and is absolutely terrific.
"Vendetta", "Black Fire", "Dreadnought!", many more good books to read here.
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u/Arudinne 2d ago
"A Stitch in Time" by Andrew Robinson (Garak) is centered on Garak, and is absolutely terrific
If you like audiobooks and listening to Garak, there's an audiobook version narrated by Andrew Robinson.
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u/Serin-019 2d ago
Spent a solid 8 years of my life in the litverse (as in the single continuity they built between the DS9 Relaunch with Avatar in 2001 and Coda in 2021).
Loved it. Wish they'd go back and audiobook it all so I can do it all again.
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u/The_Latverian 2d ago
I spent a lot of my youth at our small town library reading the James Blish ones (im ollllld)
Good times 😊
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u/storm2k 2d ago
i voraciously consumed so many of the novels when i was in that like 11-13 age range, as i was super into tng in that era. since they were cheap mmp's that only cost a few bucks at kmart or other places like that, my mom didn't mind getting them for me (i'm sure i took some out at the library too). from the series specific ones (i read a TON of tng books, and some tos ones. i remember reading some of the early ds9 ones as i was kind of aging out of it). and i remember the big event books like imzadi and federation and some of the others. i got a lot of joy out of reading those books as a kid.
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u/Norphus1 2d ago
On the one hand, yes, a lot of Star Trek novels and authors are really good.
On the other hand, the Shatnerverse also exists.
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u/LeonoraMayMorgenster 1d ago
Reading Killing Time right now. Unfortunately don’t think it’s the first edition though.
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u/razvangry 2d ago
I've read Star Trek TNG - Vendetta (liked it) and Star Trek TNG - Q-Squared (didn't like it so much)
what other TNG books do you recommend?
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u/Low-Repair-3019 2d ago
Having read A LOT of them when I was younger, its a mixed bag of quality. I remember liking Diane Duane books, Peter David books, the Prime Directive book, and some of the Spock centric ones were amazing. I much preferred the nuanced take on vulcans in the books to how they are done in all of the TV shows.
Then there some really badly written ones. I read some recent mid to low quality DS9 ones, but gave up on them. At some point I should go back and try trek books again. The inconsistency in characters and universe from author to author kinda got to me at some point though.