Arik

The Serpent Among the Ruins--It's an Enterprise-B book featuring John Harriman as the Captain of the -B, and apparently the Tomed incident.

Anybody here read it? I thought it looked interesting in the bookstore when I was there, so I picked it up, but I'm having a bitch of a time getting into it.

At the expense of sounding like Klingonharder, if anyone's read it, is it any good, or should I just return it?

And, another question. Can anyone reccomend any good recent Star Trek books?

__________________
The writers of this post apologize for you being too stupid to understand it.

The Lensman

I've always found Trek books to be horrid. The only one that I've read all the way through, was "Federation". It actually captured the feel of classic Trek, which was a monumental surprise. After that, I had no desire to read any Trek book again.

The Trek comics have also sucked. IMO, a Trek comic could be REALLY successful using 3d models, as one of my pet peeves when it comes to Trek books is the inability of just about everyone to be able to draw the Enterprise right. I'm talking original Trek, but TNG fits too.

Plus, an arc based story might work better than the "alien of the week", etc, because too many concepts get rehashed, as in the novels. In essence, it would take some vision and some risk to make the books readable for me. With Trek in decline, now is the best time to start shaking things up and taking chances. Do something along the lines of New Frontier, introduce a new crew that can marry, move on or die. Some say, Majel Roddenberry comes to mind, that Trek "doesn't do epics", which pisses me off. Trek could benefit from an epic story.

It's got such a rich backstory and tapestry that it's a shame NOT to see someone do something on a bigger scale. Really, I get tired of the whole "it's about modern day issues in alien clothes". Fuck that. Been there done that. Hows about telling a great sci-fi adventure epic?

Thoughts?

__________________


Everyone Booze Up And Riot!!!
Milk and Cheese

Stag

Arik, that book was average, not great.

The Left Hand of Destiny series is great, and to a lesser extent, but still good is the IKS Gorkon series.

If you want any of the Lost Era books, I'll send them to you, don't spend the cash.

__________________
"I want to do a motorboat on Shatner's manboobs" - Sam Cogley

Arik

So have I, which is really why I haven't read any lately. Even Shatner's (albeit exciting) books, I find a little too self-congradulatory to be able to stomach. Most authors seem to fumble in the dark trying to re-create the characters, which I find to be a travesty. Then the stories go into odd places--odd in Star Trek standards.

But I picked up two books the other day, This one and the Enterprise-C book Well of Souls mostly because I figured that these books can't be worse than what's on TV. And I need a good 'airport paperback', because of the fact that most of the stuff I've been reading has been increadibly serious.

That said, I haven't heard a single bad thing about Andrew Robinson's A Stitch in Time, so that may be a good book to pick up, if even just for the fact that it's a Garek book.

Majel is an idiot. After Earth: Final Conflict's second season, she busted into the writers' office demanding to know what that was. "We don't need a fucking arc!" she told the writers, many of whom quit or were fired after that. I roll my eyes every time somebody says that a Roddenberry needs to take Trek over (if Junior were to take it over, how much creative control do you think mom would have over it).

And the grand feel is something I like about Star Trek 6, when the Enterprise is caught up in the turmoil of the time. I strongly feel that the next tv show/movie/whatever should take place just after 6, with the tenuous peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, where two long-time rivals are having a hard time being allies, and the entire quadrant is on the brink of war (we never really found out how long the peace treaty was in effect...).

__________________
The writers of this post apologize for you being too stupid to understand it.

Arik

My problem with those books is that I don't know how much I'd enjoy a Klingon book.

I'll tell you, I was a little scared by the description on the back of the book cover, with John Harriman facing 'his oldest enemy'. The only enemy we know Harriman had was his ability to make command decisions.

Bah! Maybe I just won't try to read another Star Trek book for a while again.

__________________
The writers of this post apologize for you being too stupid to understand it.

Brikar

Just about anything by Peter David or the Reeves-Stevenses will be worth reading. David's "New Frontier" series is pretty cool. His original "Imzadi" is an excellent look at the original romance between Riker and Troi before they were on the Enterprise.

The Reeves-Stevens epic three-part DS9 novel "Millenium" is, in my opinion, amazing. I've read the entire trilogy three or four times. The DS9 crew gets transported 25 years into the future, where the Federation is about to collapse from extended conflict with the Dominion, and Weyoun is about to discover a second wormhole that, if opened, could cause the destruction of the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. Awesome.

Also, going on the whole time-travel/alternate timeline trend, "First Frontier" by Diane Duane has always been one of my favorites. The Enterprise, while testing a new kind of shield, finds that the Federation has disappeared, and the quadrant is embroiled in a war between the Klingon and Romulan empires, and Earth is still inhabited by dinosaurs. Excellent stuff, really. One of my favorite books.

Other than that, Trek books really aren't that great. I liked Shatner's books, especially "Ashes of Eden" and "The Return," but after that they just got pretty boring. And "Preserver" was trash.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com