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.
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.
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.
Anything by Diane Duane.
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.
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.”
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.
The Making of Star Trek by Stephen A. Whitfield.
And, of course, The World of Star Trek by David Gerrold. 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”