# Favorite Star Trek Books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798 "2010-11-07T15:46:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/21 "2010-11-08T18:39:32Z")
> [@Dr.Rieux](#): > > I have a particular fondness for \*Ishmael \*by Barbara Hambly and \*Spock’s World \*by Diane Duane. I’ve recently been enjoying Barbara Hambly’s mystery novels, and I’ve been meaning to look for copies of her Star Trek books. I read them a long time ago, but don’t remember much about them. It’s been too long since I read any for me to make recommendations, but I’ve been glancing over the list of TOS novels on Goodreads. What a trip down memory lane, just to see all those paperback covers! I read dozens of these books when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/22 "2010-11-08T18:41:58Z")
_Doctor’s Orders_ was a fun read. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/23 "2010-11-08T19:29:33Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > _Doctor’s Orders_ was a fun read. Yes! I should’ve mentioned that. As good as anything we ever saw on the big or little screen as to Spock’s and McCoy’s friendship. Also by Diane Duane, who wrote the excellent _Dark Mirror_. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/24 "2010-11-08T20:14:48Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Yes! I should’ve mentioned that. As good as anything we ever saw on the big or little screen as to Spock’s and McCoy’s friendship. Also by Diane Duane, who wrote the excellent _Dark Mirror_. I liked the bit in _Doctor’s Orders_ when Spock explains why McCoy cannot relinquish command to him. Never once did he mentioned the various stupid/crazy commodores they had met who had relieved Spock of command, but you just knew that Starfleet had changed regs with just those guys in mind. I also like Duane because she was unique among Trek writers (at least when I was reading Trek novels, which I haven’t in a decade) in not treating the universal translator as magic, but showing Uhura and her staff having to actively work to get it work when exposed to a new culture. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/25 "2010-11-08T20:24:10Z")
Anything by Diane Duane. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/26 "2010-11-08T20:29:08Z")
I’m looking at a list of Star Trek novels, and a few I’d forgotten about came up: _Vulcan!_ by Kathleen Sky _Death’s Angel_ by Kathleen Sky _The Wounded Sky_ by Diane Duane _The Vulcan Academy Murders_ by Jean Lorrah _Uhura’s Song_ by Janet Kagan \*The IDIC Epidemic \*by Jean Lorrah Maybe not the best of the Star Trek bunch, but ones I remember enjoying. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/27 "2010-11-08T20:40:14Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I liked the bit in _Doctor’s Orders_ when Spock explains why McCoy cannot relinquish command to him. Never once did he mentioned the various stupid/crazy commodores they had met who had relieved Spock of command, but you just knew that Starfleet had changed regs with just those guys in mind… That’s as good a fanwank as I’ve ever heard. I also remember Spock quoting Kirk as saying (in another context) that he could not relieve McCoy of command, once Kirk left the conn to him, “even if I had your permission and a letter from God.” ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/28 "2010-11-08T20:48:50Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > _Star Trek: The New Voyages_, a collection of fan-written stories from before ST:TMP came out, is uneven but has some standouts. “The Enchanted Pool” by Marcia Ericson is a charming little romance, “The Face on the Barroom Floor” by Eleanor Arnason and Ruth Berman is about a humorously disastrous shore leave for Kirk, and “Mind-Sifter” by Shirley S. Maiewski is a chilling time-travel story with a hard-won but well-deserved happy ending. I remember that one, especially “Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited”, where the actors Shatner, Kelley and Nimoy wind up beamed about the actual Enterprise, taking the places of Kirk, McCoy and Spock. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/29 "2010-11-08T20:51:45Z")
[The Making of Star Trek by Stephen A. Whitfield](http://www.amazon.com/Making-Star-Trek-Stephen-Whitfield/dp/0345340191). And, of course, [The World of Star Trek by David Gerrold](http://www.amazon.com/World-Star-Trek-David-Gerrold/dp/0312944632). He, author of “The Trouble With Tribbles” amongst other classics on and off of Trek. Both incredibly educational. They made me fall in love with the process long before someone handed me a 16mm Arriflex and hooked me completely. Get 'em ! Read 'em ! ( yes, I know this is more about Star Trek fiction but these two books are seminal. ) Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/30 "2010-11-08T21:03:40Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > I remember that one, especially “Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited”, where the actors Shatner, Kelley and Nimoy wind up beamed about the actual Enterprise, taking the places of Kirk, McCoy and Spock. Ah !! Sorry did not see this on Preview. I had that book, and ( as a behind the scenes geek) was TOTALLY into that last title listed. I have a vague memory that someone else wrote a parallel story where Kirk, Spock and McCoy land on the sound stage set of the Transporter Room. I do not believe hilarity ensued. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/31 "2010-11-08T22:20:26Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Ah !! Sorry did not see this on Preview. I had that book, and ( as a behind the scenes geek) was TOTALLY into that last title listed. I have a vague memory that someone else wrote a parallel story where Kirk, Spock and McCoy land on the sound stage set of the Transporter Room. > > I do not believe hilarity ensued. 😃 Actually, that was the original. It was called “Visit to a Weird Planet” and it was written by M. L. “Steve” Barnes. It appeared in a very old Star Trek fanzine (I don’t have it and have never read the story, but I remember reading about it in one of the books about Star Trek. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/32 "2010-11-08T22:31:18Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > My all-time favorite ST novel is Diane Duane’s _Dark Mirror_, which has it all: the Mirror Universe (well, one of them, at least), intrigue, Klingon opera, a dolphin navigator and Shakespeare. Really a great book - very readable. This - a real standout among a series of novels that were frequently (and justifiably) viewed as bottom-tier pulp. Largely because of the _little_ things that Diane Duane threw in that made both the _Enterprises-D_ seem like real, working ships with real , such as Geordi’s rueful admission that working in the warp nacelles isn’t exactly safe, and he probably shouldn’t spend as much time there as he does, or Mirror-Beverly’s sort-of-abused-wife relationship to Mirror-Picard. BTW - for some reason, I could have sworn that “Diane Duane” was a pseudonym for a husband-wife team, but wikipedia doesn’t bear me out. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/33 "2010-11-08T22:37:06Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > I’m looking at a list of Star Trek novels, and a few I’d forgotten about came up: > > _Vulcan!_ by Kathleen Sky > _Death’s Angel_ by Kathleen Sky > _The Wounded Sky_ by Diane Duane > _The Vulcan Academy Murders_ by Jean Lorrah > _Uhura’s Song_ by Janet Kagan > \*The IDIC Epidemic \*by Jean Lorrah > > Maybe not the best of the Star Trek bunch, but ones I remember enjoying. I absolutely love _Wounded Sky_. It’s a good read even though the special guest star character seemed Mary-Sueish. And _Wounded Sky_ was absolutely wonderful, though I feel a little .. I dunno, cheated … that Duane blinked at the last second and brought K’t’lk back to life. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/34 "2010-11-08T22:53:25Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > Actually, that was the original. It was called “Visit to a Weird Planet” and it was written by M. L. “Steve” Barnes. It appeared in a very old Star Trek fanzine (I don’t have it and have never read the story, but I remember reading about it in one of the books about Star Trek. Oh! I should check my sources before I hit “submit.” The original story was actually written by Jean Lorrah and Willard F. Hunt, not Steve Barnes. Ruth Berman wrote the sequel. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/35 "2010-11-08T23:22:16Z")
Like mentioned before, I also liked _How Much For Just the Planet?_ The author did a great job of escalating the wackiness until the denouement. Additionally, I also like _Kobayashi Maru_. I don’t remember any of the other ST books that I have read. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/36 "2010-11-09T17:16:01Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > _Doctor’s Orders_ was a fun read. That reminds me, the Doctor McCoy Crucible book by David R. George III is great. It is standalone and a wonderful read. The Kirk and Spock ones are good too but the Doctor McCoy one is amazing. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/37 "2010-11-09T17:49:03Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > I remember that one, especially “Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited”, where the actors Shatner, Kelley and Nimoy wind up beamed about the actual Enterprise, taking the places of Kirk, McCoy and Spock. I loved that story, but I think you’re slightly mis-remembering. Since the original episode had Kirk, McCoy, Uhura, and Scotty beaming to the Mirror Universe, (remember, the mirror Spock had a goatee), it would have been Shatner, Kelley, Nichols, and Doohan who beamed aboard the Enterprise. I remember that it was the actual Spock, and not Nimoy, who was on the Enterprise, and he became acting captain because it was Shatner, and not Kirk, who was aboard the ship. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/38 "2010-11-09T17:56:43Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I loved that story, but I think you’re slightly mis-remembering. Since the original episode had Kirk, McCoy, Uhura, and Scotty beaming to the Mirror Universe, (remember, the mirror Spock had a goatee), it would have been Shatner, Kelley, Nichols, and Doohan who beamed aboard the Enterprise. I remember that it was the actual Spock, and not Nimoy, who was on the Enterprise, and he became acting captain because it was Shatner, and not Kirk, who was aboard the ship. This is correct. Also, another vote for Barbara Hambly’s _Ishmael_-very funny crossover story that manages to stay within canon. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/39 "2010-11-09T18:04:16Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I loved that story, but I think you’re slightly mis-remembering. Since the original episode had Kirk, McCoy, Uhura, and Scotty beaming to the Mirror Universe, (remember, the mirror Spock had a goatee), it would have been Shatner, Kelley, Nichols, and Doohan who beamed aboard the Enterprise. I remember that it was the actual Spock, and not Nimoy, who was on the Enterprise, and he became acting captain because it was Shatner, and not Kirk, who was aboard the ship. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > This is correct. I also remember that Spock had to allow Shatner to appear to really be in charge of the ship so as not to compromise ship’s morale and that Shatner, who had an insight into Kirk’s character from having portrayed him (What would Jim Kirk do?), was able to salvage the Halkan mission in the real Kirk’s absence. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798/40 "2010-11-09T18:52:44Z")
_The Galactic Whirlpool_ by David Gerrold is based on one of the story ideas he pitched to Gene Coon along with the one that became “The Trouble with Tribbles.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-star-trek-books/559798.md?page=3)