I know everyone is on a must read Star wars expanded universe phase, but I really want to get into the expanded universe of Star Trek.
I want to read up on the DS9 novels first, but I know there are good ones and bad ones out there.
Can someone recommend a must read list for DS9 novels?
i found this site that reviewed many DS9 novels.
http://www.geocities.com/cow_manx/novds9.html
it gives the following novels pretty good reviews. Book tile, plus his reviews:
Fallen Heroes: Greatest novel ever
Time’s Enemy: The last of the truly great DS9 novels, this will keep you up nights and not be soon forgotten.
Abyss :Easily the best DS9 novel since Time’s Enemy and easily the best of the relaunch.
but the page doesn’t review the newer relaunch books such as Twist of Faith.
We have quite a few of the ST:TNG-era novels here. Imzadi was one that my husband always liked. It’s more the love story of Riker/Troi. I’ll take a look at what we have and make some suggestions, if you like.
wow! thanks Keara ^^~
ANY Star Trek novel authored by either Peter David or Diane Duane are outstanding.
I read a lot of Star Trek novels until say, the late 90s when I stopped catching up with them.
Most of them I remember as rather mediocre, some were good Star Trek stories, but not outstanding as novels as such.
There is one huge pearl among them, however:
Uhura’s Song by Janet Kagan. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful this book is.
the memory beta article read like a cat woman lesbian love story…
I bet that is what you expected from me?
Seriously, I’m quite the picky reader - look at some of the reviews on Amazon
If you’re looking for a different type of Star Trek tale than Uhura’s Song,
take a good look at FALLEN HEROES - the best Star Trek action story I ever encountered and sort of an Elseworlds story for Star Trek. It’s absolutely gripping. Plus, it contains one of the best depictions of Odo and Quark.
i actually just bought the book! i read so many great reviews on Fallen Heroes! Can’t wait till the book gets here.
Uhura’s Song was a lovely book, as I recall (it’s been 20+ years since I read it). I don’t know that there are any “must read” original series books, though. I did enjoy the TNG novel where Diane Duane crafted a mirror universe version (long before DS9 revisited the mirror universe). And as a teenage fan I enjoyed Diane Carey’s Dreadnought, even though it is Mary Sue fanfic of the most obvious kind. But her later Trek novel, Final Frontier, is quite a good one. I have a signed paperback. 
Actually, I did think of one “must read” TOS novel: Yesterday’s Son by A.C. Crispin. Her first professional sale, and it’s still a good read. It’s a sequel to “All Our Yesterdays,” so between that and the novel’s title, you can probably figure out the basic plot, but it is a really good book. She nails the characters’ voices and motives.
Shameless plug alert: I have a story in the second Strange New Worlds anthology, published way back in 1999 – it’s out of print now (alas!) but you can maybe pick it up at your local used bookstore or through Abebooks or Amazon Marketplace. There’s also a lot of other great stories in all the SNW volumes – the tenth and final one was published last year.
Yes! Uhura’s Song: that is an great one. It was so very long ago that I read it that I just remember it being wonderful, but not a thing more about it.
If you don’t mind stretching your Trek wings a bit, I highly recommend the Star Trek: New Frontier series—there’s at least 10 books in it. And the U.S.S. Excalibur has lots of characters that are crossedover from ST:TNG like Robin Lefler, Dr. Selar, Commander Shelby etc. etc.
Oh my god, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t disagree more. I still basically everything that Carey did with ST. To Star Trek, I should say.
Dreadnought was dreadful, I’d say, and there was another novel of hers where the Enterprise-D meets a 20th century aircraft carrier in space, that was just awful, Picard was shouting on the bridge all the time, that just wasn’t Picard. Everybody else wasn’t really in character as well.
Yeah, I read Dreadnaught—and I found it a pretty fun read–but not “real” star trek when you get down to it.
Becareful not to mix up your Diane’s, because the other Trek Diane: Diane Duane-- is a wonderful author—everything she wrote is gold. She makes Kirk a tad more “adult” and fleshes out a lot of background characters–some that she created. And who can not love a Horta Ensign?
This is why I qualified my statement with, “When I was a teen…” <g>
Yes! She was the one who wrote The Lost Years, among others, right?
I can see that
Ummm…I don’t know. I didn’t read the Lost Years. She did the Rhainnsu (Romulan) series—and she did Doctor’s Orders, and she did the one where the TNG crew goes into the Mirror universe.
She also wrote ‘Spock’s World’ which was when I realized that all Star Trek novels were not pulp.
Ah. I read Doctor’s Orders and one of the Rihannsu novels.
Most of them are not pulp. At least it used to be like that, don’t know about now, now that even Shatner “writes” Star Trek novels. Anyone tried the Academy/Cadet novels? The looked like pulp to me.
In Doctor’s Orders the part about McCoy taking command was just the side plot (in my opinon), the real heart of the book and cool thing about it was the Enterprise dealing with a real contact situation with really different forms of life, and steping you through the serious steps and science that an exploration crew would do to study them.
For some reason I’ve stayed clear of the Shatner novels—I love the Shat, but the idea of the Shat ego spilling into a Kirk Trek novel series–well, I felt that resistance was not futiile on my part. Never read the Cadet series.
I had forgotten about Spock’s World. I can remember being scandalized that the new “Star Trek” novel would be hardcover and would cost $15, or whatever it was. I had to ask for it for a Christmas present!
J.M. Dillard, I think, wrote the first “Lost Years” novel. It was only all right, in my book. It was the first in a trilogy, and I only read the first two novels – I’m not sure the third one ever showed up, come to think of it.