80s Novels

[Falconer]

I’ve been wanting to get into Star Trek novels, but there are so many of them that it took me a while to figure out a plan of attack. After an embarrassing amount of research, I settled on the 80s (Pocket) TOS canon. It looks like they hit a sweet spot between standalone adventures and building a bit of a canon. It became apparent that Diane Duane was the single most popular author, basically functioning as the Tim Zahn of this period, hence this canon is sometimes called the Rihannsu-verse in her honor. So, other than a few outliers, my list spans from her first book, #13 (December 1983), to #50 (June 1990), which was the last of her classic TOS books. I started with a Rihannsu-verse list from the internet, dropped a few poorly-reviewed books and added a few highly-reviewed books. I’m pretty happy with the result!

Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology	Stan and Fred Goldstein	Dec 79
The Entropy Effect	Vonda N. McIntyre	Jun 81 (#2)
Yesterday’s Son	A.C. Crispin	Aug 83 (#11)
The Wounded Sky	Diane Duane	Dec 83 (#13)
The Final Reflection	John M. Ford	May 84 (#16)
My Enemy, My Ally	Diane Duane	Jul 84 (#18)
The Vulcan Academy Murders	Jean Lorrah	Nov 84 (#20)
Uhura’s Song	Janet Kagan	Jan 85 (#21)
Ishmael	Barbara Hambly	May 85 (#23)
Dwellers in the Crucible	Margaret Wander Bonanno	Sep 85 (#25)
Crisis on Centaurus	Brad Ferguson	Mar 86 (#28)
Dreadnought!	Diane Carey	May 86 (#29)
Enterprise: The First Adventure	Vonda N. McIntyre	Sep 86
Battlestations!	Diane Carey	Nov 86 (#31)
Dreams of the Raven	Carmen Carter	Jun 87 (#34)
Strangers from the Sky	Margaret Wander Bonanno	Jul 87
The Romulan Way	Diane Duane and Peter Morwood	Aug 87 (#35)
How Much for Just the Planet?	John M. Ford	Oct 87 (#36)
Final Frontier	Diane Carey	Jan 88
The IDIC Epidemic	Jean Lorrah	Feb 88 (#38)
Time for Yesterday	A.C. Crispin	Apr 88 (#39)
Spock’s World	Diane Duane	Sep 88
Vulcan’s Glory	D.C. Fontana	Feb 89 (#44)
The Lost Years	J.M. Dillard	Oct 89
The Kobayashi Maru	Julia Ecklar	Dec 89 (#47)
The Pandora Principle	Carolyn Clowes	Apr 90 (#49)
Doctor’s Orders	Diane Duane	Jun 90 (#50)
Prime Directive	Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens	Sep 90

I can always read other books later (or at any point), but, at least now I have a plan of attack!

[finarvyn]

I think I have most of those in a box somewhere. It's been years since I dusted any of those off. My eventual plan is to re-read the Blish adaptations and the Foster "log" books of the animated series. I used to love all of the Trek varieties, but now I seem to focus almost exclusively on the TOS stuff.

[blackbat242]

The Final Reflection is, in my mind, perhaps the best TOS Klingon writing there is*.
Yes, most of it is actually slightly pre-Pike - McCoy in diapers! - but it explains so much about the TOS Klingons and why they were different in the movies and later series.

John Ford's Klingons are the pattern for those in my Star Trek universe.




* As you can see from my sig.

[Falconer]

Here are the novels I have read so far (some on the list, some not):

1980
The Galactic Whirlpool

1981
The Entropy Effect

1983
Yesterday’s Son
The Wounded Sky

1984
The Final Reflection
My Enemy, My Ally
The Tears of the Singers
The Vulcan Academy Murders



They’re a mixed bag, to be sure, but mostly likeable. Lately I’ve been wondering within myself how well my “headcanon” tolerates them. And I would say, surprisingly well. One thing that helps is sketching a provisional timeline. (Errand of Mercy = 2261.)

2230
The Final Reflection: Part Three

2248
The Cage

2259
Where No Man Has Gone Before

2260
Five-year Mission begins in September with The Corbomite Maneuver
…

2262
…
Journey to Babel
The Vulcan Academy Murders
A Private Little War
…

2264
…
Year Five begins in September with TAS
…

2265
…
The Galactic Whirlpool
The Entropy Effect
Yesterday’s Son
The Tears of the Singers

2271
The Final Reflection: Prologue
The Wounded Sky
My Enemy, My Ally

[Stan]

I like the chronology! I'll save this off since reading these books is on my bucket list.

[aramis]

Personally, my tastes prefer John M Ford over Diane Duane. I've read most of these and none of them were bad.
Note that MacIntyre was a serious SFB player - rated ace level, tho I don't know if she actually got the ace rating - and an SFB playtester. She's got Black-shirt Marines and Red shirt security, plus 1 and 3 engine ships.
IMO, MacIntyre's best is Dreadnought - very early 90s based upon where I was living.

[putraack]

I collected at least 50 of these back in the 80s, read them all once and a few of them multiple times. My 2022 New Year's reading resolution was to go through them all once more. I'm only just past half-done, since I have been breaking them up among other books.

So far, I can say there's a lot of drek in there, and some real gems. I remember the gems pretty well, and had forgotten the drek. Reading them within weeks of each other, I can see repeat elements in the awful ones.

The Duane and Ford books were among my favorites back then, and now. I had fond memories of Diane Carey's pair featuring Cmdr. Piper, but I'm less impressed with them now.

Nov 7, 2023 3:27:17 GMT -5 aramis said:

Personally, my tastes prefer John M Ford over Diane Duane. I've read most of these and none of them were bad.
Note that MacIntyre was a serious SFB player - rated ace level, tho I don't know if she actually got the ace rating - and an SFB playtester. She's got Black-shirt Marines and Red shirt security, plus 1 and 3 engine ships.
IMO, MacIntyre's best is Dreadnought - very early 90s based upon where I was living.

Dreadnought! is one of the two Carey books I mention above. I had no idea McIntyre played SFB, that's really cool. I rather liked Enterprise: the first adventure.