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starladyAs I sit here, I currently own only seven Star Trek novels (though I'm sure after this I'll go down to the garage and pull a few out of my "to sell" bin for old times' sake), but there was a time in my life when I not only devoted all of my allowance to buying, but also all of my spare time to reading, these books. I would estimate that even now I've probably read about half of all those that have ever been published--for at least one summer in middle school, I would get someone to drive me to the library, take every Star Trek paperback they had off the racks, and two weeks later bring the entire shopping bag of books back and repeat the process.
Movies I Acknowledge & Love
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Pretty much the best Trek movie ever, I think.
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. McCoy gets his metaphysical come-uppance for every "are you out of your Vulcan mind!?" comment he ever made or thought about making, Kirk's relationship with his son is explored, the former crew of the Enterprise break every rule and then a few that don't exist in their quest to help their lost friend, because they are awesome.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. My personal favorite movie. Yes, I know, but I was seven, and really liked whales. If I had a hundred yen for every time I thought about how much the experiences of the Enterprise crew in 1980s San Francisco were just like mine living as an expat in Japan, I'd have enough money to attend the IUC next year, and that's no joke.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Kirk's history with the Klingons comes full circle, Spock is awesome, Michael Dorn has his first Klingon role, Sulu gets his own captain's chair, much Shakespeare is quoted by all: what's not to love?
Star Trek: First Contact is the best of the TNG movies, in my opinion: Picard lays his Borg demons to rest, Zefram Cochrane and Lily are awesome, and the Federation is saved before it was even born, with a little help from Riker and Geordi, of all people. Plus it has Worf, and the Defiant even makes a cameo. Also, the Enterprise-E is an incredible ship.
Run Screaming
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Terrifically bad, but it does have a few good lines, particularly "Please, Captain. Not in front of the Klingons." ("I've always known...I'll die alone." ... "I thought I was going to die." "Impossible, sir. You were never alone.") and the immortal "What does God want with a starship?", which is a great question to keep handy in philosophical theology classes and other places in which theist debate takes place.
Star Trek: Insurrection. So bad I forgot to mention it in the first version of this post. That said, it's pretty LOLtastic.
Star Trek: Nemesis. I have this DVR'd for future merciless mocking. The MST3K script practically writes itself.
Sometimes Okay
Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Embarrassing to admit how many times I watched this movie as a kid. Hey, I liked the Voyager program a lot, okay!?
Star Trek: Generations. This movie has Guinan, and Picard learns to play fast and loose with the rules courtesy of Kirk. Notable for the only appearance on film of the Enterprise-B, and the destruction of the Enterprise-D.
Star Trek: 2009. Yeah. There are some things I loved, and other parts that just need to be shunned.
For me, Star Trek books begin with Diane Carey--she wrote four of the seven books I still own, and I think she, of all the Trek books I've ever read, absolutely nails the spirit of Star Trek at its best.
Dreadnought! and Battlestations! are the first two Trek books Carey wrote, and interestingly enough they both look at the original cast through they eyes of Lieutenant Piper, a newcomer to the Enterprise who effectively becomes Kirk's mentee. I absolutely love Piper (Mary Sue or no), and her adjustment to how Kirk & Spock run things is believable, as well as a great plot device; her relationship with her Vulcan friend/not-friend Sarda is also an interesting mirror of K&S themselves.
First Frontier is a big, honking Star Trek novel that not only features the Guardian of Forever but also dinosaurs. Not only sentient alien dinosaurs--no, Kirk, Spock and crew actually go back in time to the end of Earth's Jurassic period in an attempt to put the universe to rights. It's a long book, co-written with a paleontologist, and one of the things Carey does brilliantly is spend the proper amount of time dwelling at length on the ethical poverty and ideological terror of a galaxy in which the United Federation of Planets never existed. Kirk also spends the second half of the book with a broken leg, which is a nice corrective to his, um, hard-charging aspects. If I had to pick one Trek book out of all Trek books, this would be it.
First Strike is the first in the four-book Invasion! crossover, the first crossover the Star Trek books ever did and still the best, to my mind. Kirk and crew confront a reconaissance team from an alien species, the Furies, who have a millennia-old history of terror within the Alpha Quadrant, but there's a good deal of ambiguity as to the motives of the returnees, who themselves wrestle with the legacy of a similarly ancient war. Carey excels at depicting alien characters, as well as letting cast members besides Kirk and Spock shine, and this book is particularly effective at that.
The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah takes place mostly on Vulcan, and involves Kirk & Spock investigating a series of deadly accidents at a hospital on said planet after they accompany a wounded crewman there for an experimental treatment. I really like this book for its focus on another Vulcan-human relationship besides that of Sarek and Amanda (who both get a good deal of screen time, and Spock's relationship with both of them is developed well).
Spock's World by Diane Duane, in a similar vein, juxtaposes historical interludes from Vulcan's past with a trial on Vulcan involving (who else?) Kirk and Spock. Honestly I remember the interludes with Surak much better than anything else, but her book nicely illustrates what Sarek tells Spock in Star Trek (2009): that emotions run deep in Vulcans, deeper even than in humans.
Probe by Margaret Warner Bonnano is one of my favorites, partly because it is a direct sequel to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, in which the Enterprise and her crew, along with a Romulan pianist, her twin brother, and a Romulan diplomatic (maybe) mission must chase after, and then get caught up in, the further voyages of the probe that nearly devastated Earth in the movie.
Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre is just an excellent book, and honestly what I was hoping for from the new movie. Unlike J.J. Abrams, McIntyre actually has an interest in group dynamics and realistic emotion. Also, there's an interstellar circus, lots of screen time for even minor characters like Janice Rand, and general awesomeness. McIntyre's other books, I've heard, are pretty good too (though her Star Wars effort was atrocious).
Diane Duane, I'd say, is the other grand dame (if such a phrase can be used) of Star Trek novels. She's written many, many novels, almost all of them worth reading, some of them just excellent.
The William Shatner books, co-written with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, are pretty good, if not terribly deep: no one, obviously, knows Kirk better than Shatner, and Kirk's astounding afterlife post-Generations crosses over with a lot of my favorite characters, including Picard, Spock, McCoy and (yay!) Bashir.
John Vornholt is one of the few writers who can make me enjoy The Next Generation. Others include Michael Jan Friedman and Peter David. David's Q-in-Law might just be the best TNG book ever written (Lwaxana Troi decides to get hitched to Q. no, seriously). The Friedman/David/Robert Greenberger books are also great.
I never found an author who could really make me love Voyager, though I think Christie Golden is the best writer of the series by a long shot. On the other hand, L.A. Graf are my favorite Deep Space Nine author, and their book Time's Enemy is the best Deep Space Nine book ever written (and third of the four started by First Strike). Their entry in the Day of Honor crossover (which also includes a great book by Diane Carey), Armageddon Sky, is also great. Aside from their pitch-perfect characterizations, they can sell twenty-fourth century science and make it sound plausible. They also wrote some classic Trek books that I never read, which I shall have to rectify.
Peter David really took over the Star Trek book universe after a while, and I'd say his New Frontier series is eminently worth reading, particularly the first eight books (ten, if you count the Calhoun entries in the Captains' Table and Double Helix crossovers, which I do--the Double Helix book, Double or Nothing, is pretty great. The Calhoun-Picard interaction is priceless). Briefly, it follows former guerilla war hero turned Starfleet captain turned agent of Admiral what's-her-face, the scary one, turned captain again Mackenzie Calhoun and his crew of eccentrics, misfits and tagalongs (including Commander Elizabeth Shelby, Mac's old flame) as they begin a mission of peacekeeping and exploration in a crumbling interstellar empire on their awesomely-named vessel, the Excalibur. The Great Bird of the Galaxy even makes an appearance later in the series. David really is pretty awesome as a Trek writer, and Calhoun & company really manage to capture the virtues of classic and newer Trek combined.
I'm aware that (inspired, no doubt, by the Star Wars books' monumentally awful crossover book bonanza) the Star Trek universe is now attempting to tell a single coherent post-Deep Space Nine, post-Voyager story incorporating New Frontier and the remnants of our heroes from Next Generation. I followed the post-DS9 books closely for a while, and sadly found most of them to be pretty bad--most newer Trek authors signpost things to a fare-thee-well, and tell you characters' emotions rather than show them. That said, there are some gems in there (most of them by Peter David, I suspect), and I find the idea of the Titan books (Riker finally lets himself take a captain's chair, and marry Troi) interesting. If and when we ever see visual Trek move beyond Voyager, as I hope it does, it would be cool if it incorporated the new interwoven books as canon.
For more classic Trek books, there's an excellent, short guide here.
Movies I Acknowledge & Love
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Pretty much the best Trek movie ever, I think.
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. McCoy gets his metaphysical come-uppance for every "are you out of your Vulcan mind!?" comment he ever made or thought about making, Kirk's relationship with his son is explored, the former crew of the Enterprise break every rule and then a few that don't exist in their quest to help their lost friend, because they are awesome.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. My personal favorite movie. Yes, I know, but I was seven, and really liked whales. If I had a hundred yen for every time I thought about how much the experiences of the Enterprise crew in 1980s San Francisco were just like mine living as an expat in Japan, I'd have enough money to attend the IUC next year, and that's no joke.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Kirk's history with the Klingons comes full circle, Spock is awesome, Michael Dorn has his first Klingon role, Sulu gets his own captain's chair, much Shakespeare is quoted by all: what's not to love?
Star Trek: First Contact is the best of the TNG movies, in my opinion: Picard lays his Borg demons to rest, Zefram Cochrane and Lily are awesome, and the Federation is saved before it was even born, with a little help from Riker and Geordi, of all people. Plus it has Worf, and the Defiant even makes a cameo. Also, the Enterprise-E is an incredible ship.
Run Screaming
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Terrifically bad, but it does have a few good lines, particularly "Please, Captain. Not in front of the Klingons." ("I've always known...I'll die alone." ... "I thought I was going to die." "Impossible, sir. You were never alone.") and the immortal "What does God want with a starship?", which is a great question to keep handy in philosophical theology classes and other places in which theist debate takes place.
Star Trek: Insurrection. So bad I forgot to mention it in the first version of this post. That said, it's pretty LOLtastic.
Star Trek: Nemesis. I have this DVR'd for future merciless mocking. The MST3K script practically writes itself.
Sometimes Okay
Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Embarrassing to admit how many times I watched this movie as a kid. Hey, I liked the Voyager program a lot, okay!?
Star Trek: Generations. This movie has Guinan, and Picard learns to play fast and loose with the rules courtesy of Kirk. Notable for the only appearance on film of the Enterprise-B, and the destruction of the Enterprise-D.
Star Trek: 2009. Yeah. There are some things I loved, and other parts that just need to be shunned.
For me, Star Trek books begin with Diane Carey--she wrote four of the seven books I still own, and I think she, of all the Trek books I've ever read, absolutely nails the spirit of Star Trek at its best.
Dreadnought! and Battlestations! are the first two Trek books Carey wrote, and interestingly enough they both look at the original cast through they eyes of Lieutenant Piper, a newcomer to the Enterprise who effectively becomes Kirk's mentee. I absolutely love Piper (Mary Sue or no), and her adjustment to how Kirk & Spock run things is believable, as well as a great plot device; her relationship with her Vulcan friend/not-friend Sarda is also an interesting mirror of K&S themselves.
First Frontier is a big, honking Star Trek novel that not only features the Guardian of Forever but also dinosaurs. Not only sentient alien dinosaurs--no, Kirk, Spock and crew actually go back in time to the end of Earth's Jurassic period in an attempt to put the universe to rights. It's a long book, co-written with a paleontologist, and one of the things Carey does brilliantly is spend the proper amount of time dwelling at length on the ethical poverty and ideological terror of a galaxy in which the United Federation of Planets never existed. Kirk also spends the second half of the book with a broken leg, which is a nice corrective to his, um, hard-charging aspects. If I had to pick one Trek book out of all Trek books, this would be it.
First Strike is the first in the four-book Invasion! crossover, the first crossover the Star Trek books ever did and still the best, to my mind. Kirk and crew confront a reconaissance team from an alien species, the Furies, who have a millennia-old history of terror within the Alpha Quadrant, but there's a good deal of ambiguity as to the motives of the returnees, who themselves wrestle with the legacy of a similarly ancient war. Carey excels at depicting alien characters, as well as letting cast members besides Kirk and Spock shine, and this book is particularly effective at that.
The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah takes place mostly on Vulcan, and involves Kirk & Spock investigating a series of deadly accidents at a hospital on said planet after they accompany a wounded crewman there for an experimental treatment. I really like this book for its focus on another Vulcan-human relationship besides that of Sarek and Amanda (who both get a good deal of screen time, and Spock's relationship with both of them is developed well).
Spock's World by Diane Duane, in a similar vein, juxtaposes historical interludes from Vulcan's past with a trial on Vulcan involving (who else?) Kirk and Spock. Honestly I remember the interludes with Surak much better than anything else, but her book nicely illustrates what Sarek tells Spock in Star Trek (2009): that emotions run deep in Vulcans, deeper even than in humans.
Probe by Margaret Warner Bonnano is one of my favorites, partly because it is a direct sequel to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, in which the Enterprise and her crew, along with a Romulan pianist, her twin brother, and a Romulan diplomatic (maybe) mission must chase after, and then get caught up in, the further voyages of the probe that nearly devastated Earth in the movie.
Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre is just an excellent book, and honestly what I was hoping for from the new movie. Unlike J.J. Abrams, McIntyre actually has an interest in group dynamics and realistic emotion. Also, there's an interstellar circus, lots of screen time for even minor characters like Janice Rand, and general awesomeness. McIntyre's other books, I've heard, are pretty good too (though her Star Wars effort was atrocious).
Diane Duane, I'd say, is the other grand dame (if such a phrase can be used) of Star Trek novels. She's written many, many novels, almost all of them worth reading, some of them just excellent.
The William Shatner books, co-written with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, are pretty good, if not terribly deep: no one, obviously, knows Kirk better than Shatner, and Kirk's astounding afterlife post-Generations crosses over with a lot of my favorite characters, including Picard, Spock, McCoy and (yay!) Bashir.
John Vornholt is one of the few writers who can make me enjoy The Next Generation. Others include Michael Jan Friedman and Peter David. David's Q-in-Law might just be the best TNG book ever written (Lwaxana Troi decides to get hitched to Q. no, seriously). The Friedman/David/Robert Greenberger books are also great.
I never found an author who could really make me love Voyager, though I think Christie Golden is the best writer of the series by a long shot. On the other hand, L.A. Graf are my favorite Deep Space Nine author, and their book Time's Enemy is the best Deep Space Nine book ever written (and third of the four started by First Strike). Their entry in the Day of Honor crossover (which also includes a great book by Diane Carey), Armageddon Sky, is also great. Aside from their pitch-perfect characterizations, they can sell twenty-fourth century science and make it sound plausible. They also wrote some classic Trek books that I never read, which I shall have to rectify.
Peter David really took over the Star Trek book universe after a while, and I'd say his New Frontier series is eminently worth reading, particularly the first eight books (ten, if you count the Calhoun entries in the Captains' Table and Double Helix crossovers, which I do--the Double Helix book, Double or Nothing, is pretty great. The Calhoun-Picard interaction is priceless). Briefly, it follows former guerilla war hero turned Starfleet captain turned agent of Admiral what's-her-face, the scary one, turned captain again Mackenzie Calhoun and his crew of eccentrics, misfits and tagalongs (including Commander Elizabeth Shelby, Mac's old flame) as they begin a mission of peacekeeping and exploration in a crumbling interstellar empire on their awesomely-named vessel, the Excalibur. The Great Bird of the Galaxy even makes an appearance later in the series. David really is pretty awesome as a Trek writer, and Calhoun & company really manage to capture the virtues of classic and newer Trek combined.
I'm aware that (inspired, no doubt, by the Star Wars books' monumentally awful crossover book bonanza) the Star Trek universe is now attempting to tell a single coherent post-Deep Space Nine, post-Voyager story incorporating New Frontier and the remnants of our heroes from Next Generation. I followed the post-DS9 books closely for a while, and sadly found most of them to be pretty bad--most newer Trek authors signpost things to a fare-thee-well, and tell you characters' emotions rather than show them. That said, there are some gems in there (most of them by Peter David, I suspect), and I find the idea of the Titan books (Riker finally lets himself take a captain's chair, and marry Troi) interesting. If and when we ever see visual Trek move beyond Voyager, as I hope it does, it would be cool if it incorporated the new interwoven books as canon.
For more classic Trek books, there's an excellent, short guide here.