Star Trek Novels

[Slimybug]

I've always found it interesting, being a Trek and Wars fan, that while there was always a devout fan base for the Star Wars EU, and even debate about whether it fit into continuity (it's called "Legends" now. Ask me if I care), no one ever seemed to give a crap about Star Trek novels. Possibly because there was already so much to devour with Star Trek (took me 10 years to watch it all, pre-Discovery), and the shows and movies already covered such a wide berth of the characters' lives, whereas with Star Wars there was just 6 films, and the books fulfilled the wish to know what happened for the rest of the characters' lives. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations.

Also, I counted the number of Star Wars novels before Force Awakens and the Disney reboot (ask me if I care about anything after that), and it was over 100, short of 200. I don't know if anyone's ever tried to read all the Star Trek novels or had an accurate list of how many there are.

Let's start here!
[Will be editing to include suggestions from subsequent posts]

The Eugenics Wars by Greg Cox
Final Frontier by Diane Carey
To Reign in Hell by Greg Cox
Spock's World by Diane Duane
The Wounded Sky by Diane Duane
The Entropy Effect by Vonda N. McIntyre
How Much for Just the Planet by John Ford
Ishmael by Barbra Hambly
The Lost Years by D.J. Manly
Q-Squared by Peter David
Federation by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Twist of Fate collection
Voyager: Homecoming
Enterprise by Vonda N. McIntyre
Vendetta
Lost Era novels
The Enterprise War by John Jackson Miller
The Immortal Coil
Planet X
New Frontiers series
Titan series

[David Walton]

THE WOUNDED SKY by Diane Duane is a personal favorite of mine.

I read quite a few of the TREK novels in the early 80s. It was a fun time, a sort of "Wild West" era where the characters didn't have extensive histories and there was a lot of room for writers to play with.

[babyblob]

One of my favorites that I read when I was younger, my middle school library had it. Was called the Romulan Prize. it was about a Romulan Warbird that was twice the size of a normal Warbird and the crew takes over the Enterprise. Of course our heroes get the ship back. it was a fun read.

[Slimybug]

I remember some young readers books about the different TNG characters separate adventures while at Starfleet Academy. Couldn't tell you the name of the series, though.

[David Walton]

I read so many it's hard to recall much about them now.

I remember loving FINAL FRONTIER by Diane Carey, which was about Captain Kirk's father.

Also, SPOCK'S WORLD by Diane Duane, which I think involved Vulcan considering a withdrawal from the Federation.

HOW MUCH FOR JUST THE PLANET by John Ford was funny, if memory serves.

ISHMAEL by Barbara Hambly . The Klingons travel back in time to kill the ancestor of the man who would found the Federation--and Spock gets taken along for the ride. I did not realize at the time that it is an unofficial 'crossover' with a tv show I've never seen, "Here Come the Brides."

[AnakinFlair]

I used to read Trek books all of the time. I especially loved the big crossover events, when they weaved all four of the shows (TOS, TNG, DS9, and Voyager) into one long story that spanned multiple books.

Two of my favorites, though, managed to tie TOS and TNG closer together. Q-Squared by Peter David, which made Trelane officially a Q, and was a 434 page book I enjoyed so much that I read it in a day. And Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, which featured the first meeting between Kirk and Picard. EDIT: Well, not first meeting. But the two Enterprises work together at the end of the book.

[Zero Hunter]

I liked the ones that followed up right where the series left off like the Twist of Fate collection that had the first few post DS9 books in it and the Homecoming book that picked up right where Voyager ended.

[thwhtGuardian]

For my money the Trek novels were never as well written as the Star Wars novels.

[David Walton]

For my money the Trek novels were never as well written as the Star Wars novels.

The 80s ST novels varied wildly in terms of quality, but the best of them are as good as the best SW novels IMO.

[CaptCleghorn]

Enterprise by Vonda N. McIntyre has one of the best closing lines I have ever seen in ANY novel, sci-fi or otherwise.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I’ve read several ST novels, but one I remember is “Vendetta”, a Next Generation book by Peter David which puts Picard and the Enterprise inbetween the Borg and a Planet Killer from the Original Series.

[ChrisIII]

I would suggest the Lost Era novels, they deal with the huge chunk of time between the TOS movies and TNG, including the early careers of some of the TNG crew (or their parents), What exactly happened that made the Romulans vanish again, the uneasy developing peace between the Klingons and the Federation, adventures of the Enterprise B and the Excelsior etc.

[babyblob]

I have to read through a lot of the DS9 and Voyager books I have, my friend gave me 40 DS( books that take place after the show and 12 Voyager books after the show. Not sure how he got them but ill take them.

[ChrisIII]

Right now I'm reading The Enterprise War. It's a DISCOVERY novel about what Pike, Spock, Una etc were up to during Discovery season one when they were asked not to get involved in the Klingon war.

It's by John Jackson Miller, who did a ton of Knights of the Old Republic related Star Wars comics, but also a few novels as well (Including Kenobi and one of the earliest "new" Disney canon novels, A New Dawn) as well as Mass Effect and Iron Man comics (I think Stark: Disassembled in particular).


BTW the novels based on the original movies are worth quite a look too. They were really given a lot of creative freedom to expand upon the story, like the old DC comics-and not just deleted scenes. Star Trek II has a lot of insight into the Regula I scientists for example; Star Trek III most memorably has Saavik and David in a romance; it also features survivors from the freighter the Klingons destroy in their own subplot, and how Uhura gets to Vulcan etc.

Star Trek V details the "pain" for example, and Sybok's backstory. Even Scotty gets one. Star Trek VI has Kirk visit Carol, who is injured in a Klingon attack; explaining some of his reluctance at the beginning of the movie.

[From The Shadows]

I could never find Q-Squared. I really don't have any recommendations but I loved The Immortal Coil but that was Data centered. And there is Planet X a crossover between TNG and ANAD X-Men. For those that also like X-men. It was a lot better than others give it credit for. I read it cover to cover rather quickly. I think people were too concentrated on the comic crossover. Which was good fun but a disappointment too many.