The Shatnerverse

[mark726]

I have most of the Shatnerverse myself, and I very much enjoy it, personally. It makes a good transition, and there are a number of very interesting theories in it that almost hold true to the Canon.

I also loved the Millenium series. I wasn't even that much into DS9 when I read them (I mostly grabbed whatever Star Trek book I could find), but I loved it.

And Infinite, I have Federation. I loved it if only because it makes a great explanation of the Federation insignia, lol.

[Nate the Great]

Yeah, I'm glad that SOMEONE tried to explain what the Starfleet delta means. Remember when every ship had their own insignia and it wasn't until 2270 that all of Starfleet started using the delta? In Mister Scott's Guide to the Enterprise he even mentions that the big E is the only one of the initial twelve Constitution-class ships to come back to spacedock under it's own power after a full five-year mission.

Anyone have any theories why the colors for Science and Security/Command swapped? We still use redshirt, mainly because "yellowshirt" is a mouthful and not as much fun to say.

[Zeke]

I've recommended Millennium on this site before, and I dig the Shatnerverse too (although I seriously, seriously doubt Shatner's high profile on these books reflects his contribution level). But for my money, the best Trek novel of all is The Devil's Heart by Carmen Carter. Be sure to pick that one up if you get the chance.

[Nate the Great]

Yeah, the Reeve-Stevensons put out some good work, but I'm not touching the level of Shatner's contribution.

I own Devil's Heart, and it's okay, but I'm afraid that it falls under the category of "old-fashioned Trek." Before NextGen season five, DS9, the Renaissance of Trek, etc. the canon was very different. Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise was fully supported, no one had a reason not to use the characters from the animated series in novels, Federation was fully supported, and so on. What with forteen seasons of DS9 and Voyager and four movies, the status quo of the pre-Cardassian episodes of NextGen and their supporting books have fallen into the pseudo-canon wasteland. Devil's Heart, along with another book I enjoyed at the time, Dark Mirror, has fallen by the wayside as totally incompatible. I liked Devil's Heart, but now when I read stuff like that, the nitpicking side of me has to jump in and say "that's inaccurate now! And that! So's that! Oh, and he'd never say that now! etc." Sad, really.