In February 1970, Bantam Books published the first originalStar Treknovel. James Blish’sSpock Must Die!received mixed reviews from critics, but it laid the foundation formany hundreds of further novels. Perhaps the golden era ofStar Trekprose was under Pocket Books, who produced an ambitious continuation ofTNGandDS9long beforeStar Trek: Picard.
Some of the tie-in novels are good, some are bad, and some are just plain strange. From vanity projects to starship-sized plot holes,Star Trek’sauthors went where no one had gone before (and sometimes where they shouldn’t have gone). Though they may be on the stranger side, here are a few books that fans of the franchise will doubtless enjoy.
8The Enterprise War - John Jackson Miller
John Jackson Miller’s 2019 novel answers a pertinent question: where was theEnterpriseduringStar Trek: Discovery’s Federation–Klingon War? Miller shows Pike’sEnterprisecaught in a different war between the Boundless and the Rengru, aliens who hope to use the starship to tip the scales in their favor.
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The Enterprise Warhas an exciting plot, but stumbles slightly when it comes to reconciling the Pike era with the rest of contemporaryTrek.Spock’sreferences to Michael Burnhamseem out of place alongside obscure characters fromStar Trek’s failed pilot, while theEnterprise’s saucer separation recallsTNGrather thanTOSorDiscovery. Miller’s novel walks a fine line between anachronisms and tropes. The result is a weird blend of eras, but one that readers are sure to enjoy.
7The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin
Few fans were impressed whenStar Trek: Enterpriseended by killing off one of its crew. In terms of both scriptwriting and direction, the noble sacrifice of engineer Trip Tucker is an anticlimax. This shortcoming inspired authors Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin to consider an alternative: what if Tucker’s death was a hoax?
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The Good That Men Do(2007) claims that Tucker never died; instead, he left theEnterprisetowork for Section 31. This coverup allowed him to investigate a new threat posed by the Romulans. The book holds a strange place inStar Trekcanon: it is as much an apology as it is a novel, although the Romulans' machinations make for an entertaining read.
6Disavowed - David Mack
While theStar TrekRelaunch series provided fans with some franchise highpoints, it had started to stumble by the time of David Mack’sDisavowed(2014). Six years earlier, Mack had torn up the status quo with hisDestinytrilogy, focusing ona massive Borg invasion. The trilogy is excellent—but its fallout left subsequent novels unsure of where to take the series.
Mack’s story, centered on Julian Bashir, reinvents theStar Treknovel as a tense espionage thriller as the Starfleet doctor and Section 31 operative travels to the Mirror Universe to halt a scheme by the evil Breen. Mack’s prose is propulsive, butDisavowedrepresents theStar Trekworld at a crossroads. The book’s weirdness lays not in its writing, but in its attempt to reinvigorate the series with a focus on espionage rather than exploration.
5Broken Bow - Diane Carey
Star Trek’s writing has been the subject of parodies aplenty, fromshows likeThe Orvilleto movies likeGalaxy Quest. In 2020, the franchise itself got in on the fun, with cartoon seriesLower Decksspoofing onStar Trek’s tropes. YetLower Deckswas not the first time thatStar Trek’s own writers took a swipe at the franchise. The 2001 novelization of “Broken Bow” derided theStar Trek: Enterpriseepisode it was meant to retell.
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Author Diane Carey wrote extensively forStar Trek’s novels (the hero of her 2000 novelChallengerwas written to resembleEnterprise’s Scott Bakula, though the book predated his casting). Yet when it came to novelizing Bakula’s first real adventure, Carey was so unimpressed with the script that she used the characters' internal monologues to criticize the story’s plot. The author was allegedly blacklisted for her mischief, but she turned an otherwise by-the-numbers novelization into a sneaky practical joke.
4A Singular Destiny - Keith R.A. DeCandido
Readers might expect a sequel toTNGandDS9to feature a hero like Captain Picard, or a fan favorite like Kira Nerys. Yet although Keith R.A. DeCandido’s 2009 novel does featureDS9’s Ezri Dax, its star is diplomat Sonek Pran, a wholly original character. This stylistic deviation allowsA Singular Destinyto interrogatethe state of the Relaunch universe. The Borg may be gone, but a new threat is rising in the form of the Typhon Pact, an alliance of several hostile states including the Breen and the Gorn.
Despite the scope of its universe,Star Trekcan become bogged down by revisiting the same characters and tropes. DeCandido’s novel bucks this trend, making this immersive political thriller an essential chapter in the Relaunch saga.
3Fearful Symmetry - Olivia Woods
Viewers ofDS9may recall the episode “Second Skin,” in which Bajoran Kira Nerys was disguised as a Cardassian.Fearful Symmetryclaims that the woman that Kira impersonated, Iliana Ghemor, was also altered to look like Kira, but fell intothe clutches of Gul Dukat, who imprisoned and abused her. Driven mad, the impostor plots her revenge in Olivia Woods' 2008 novel.
While it’s odd that Dukat never mentioned his prisoner, the novel’s true weirdness is its two-in-one physical format.Fearful Symmetryis made up of two narratives: the front cover depicts Kira, while the rear is an alternate cover showing Ghemor. Starting the book in one direction shows Kira’s investigation into her duplicate, while starting in the opposite direction provides the troubled life of Ghemor. This parallel structuring allows the novel’s form to mirror its content, a clever gimmick.
2Killing Time - Della Van Hise
The possibility of a deeper, potentially romantic bond between Kirk and Spock has intrigued fans for decades (the term “slash fiction” is attributed to stories about the pair), butStar Trek’s writers were unwilling to offer any confirmation.Father of the franchise Gene Roddenberrywas particularly opposed to the idea. He was displeased, to say the least, when author Della Van Hise snuck suggestive material into her 1985 novel.
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First editions ofKilling Time(which involves the Romulans altering history to try and defeat the Federation) were recalled and destroyed, although some were purchased by fans. A revised edition removed the offending content. Rumors circulated that an even more explicit version existed, although Van Hise denied these claims. If nothing else,Killing Timedemonstrates the importance of checking a book before it’s sent to the printers.
1The Return - Garfield Reeves-Steven & William Shatner
Actor Leonard Nimoy was so impressed byStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in which his character died, that he asked for Spockto return from the dead. William Shatner, on the other hand, was so unimpressed by Kirk’s death inStar Trek: Generationsthat he decided to take matters into his own hands, co-writing a series of novels in which a resurrected Kirk continues the fight against evil.
The resulting Shatnerverse (comprising ten novels by Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Steven) is generally considered non-canon even by novel fans, with some regarding it as an ego trip for Shatner. Kirk’s transition into a quasi-Messianic figure certainly has all the hallmarks of a vanity project, as does his role in the total defeat of the Borg in 1996’sThe Return. The Shatnerverse novels may not fit into any version of canon aside from their own, but they represent an interesting diversion for those who like their books heavy on fan-service and light on common sense.
