Takedown was actually the first star trek book I ever bought and read. I Still have my signed copy from John Jackson Miller. It was so good. Although I had no idea it was connected to a larger expanse of novels.
I recently got into Star Trek novels and have binge watched your videos the last few days. You do a good job of getting me hyped for all the books I am about to consume! Just wanted to let you know. Cheers!
A Stitch In Time is my all time favourite Trek book, I got it the day it came out and I read it again straight after finishing it which is the only time I've ever done that with any book! I still haven't read Takedown or Harm's way but agree with the rest of this list. Also a big West Wing fan and I love Articles of the Federation
I love Takedown. I thought it was an excellent novel. Last Best Hope I liked it ok but like you I think it was a missed opportunity not including the Spock element and the novel felt like it was missing that big thread and instead gave a fairly uninteresting Romulan perspective that just didn’t work for me. As far as my list these are in no particular order: The Dark Veil-James Swallow Full Circle-Kirsten Beyer Children of the Storm-“” Orions Hounds-Christopher L Bennett The Romulan Prize-Simon Hawke Rogue Saucer-John Vornholt Immortal Coil-Jeffrey Lang Fallen Heroes-Dafydd ab Hugh Station Rage-Diane Carey Takedown-John Jackson Miller I think these are all sort of their own books not really part of a series other than generic books in the initial respective series
Fun fact if you are a fan of Star Trek 6. One of the weaker aspects of the movie is we have a traitor aboard the Enterprise and there is this brand new character introduced out of the blue working alongside the crew. So, you kind of know that the traitor is probably Valeris. This character was originally conceived to be Saavik. However, Gene Roddenberry nixed the idea arguing that Saavik would not betray Spock. Also, Kirstie Alley could not come back, and apparently they didn't want Robin Curtis back. Kim Cattral didn't want to be the 3rd actress to play the character (even though she originally auditioned for the Saavik role in Wrath of Khan). The Director, Nicolas Meyer was infuriated, but got overruled by the powers that be and Valeris was created. I have always thought the betrayal would have been so much more effective, and a real gut punch, if Saavik would have been the villain.
Have you read The Aliens Are Coming! (e-book) by Dayton Ward? It's like the prequel to From Histoty's Shadow (it was actually written before the latter, so calling it a prequel is a bit of a retcon on my part).
Check out some of the classic Pocket books titles from 1982 to 2002, they have some really great stories. Yesterday's Son, How Much for Just the Planet, Imzadi, The Q Continuum, The Vulcan Academy Murders, Dreadnought, First Frontier, Sarek, The Last Roundup, Federation, Prime Directive, and many more.
PAD and KRAD, (Peter David and Keith R. A. DeCandido) are my number one and number two favorite authors, Una is also on my top 10 and Greg Cox is fine, John Jackson Miller's Takedown contains so many errors, check memory beta (and alpha). I recently bought the Prey trilogy but haven't read it yet.
I would say “Before Dishonor” is fairly actiony, and Picard is in the book but isn’t the focus. The Prey Trilogy and Takedown are quite actiony, and the Destiny trilogy is an ensemble trilogy that features Picard, Ezri Dax, and Riker and is very actiony.
I find that even if I don’t care to watch the series, the books still work for me. That’s how it is with me and Deep Space Nine books and the Prodigy books. Sometimes they can be hit or miss, but the two by John Jackson Miller books were excellent. Since I like the other novel writers like David Mack, Dayton Ward, Una McCormack and James Swallow, I’m hoping to give their Discovery novels a try as well.
