Best Stargazer novels?

[WarsTrek1993]

So...I've just recently read the SGR novel "Three", which I only purchased being a fan of the Mirror Universe, and I found it to be dry and dull. Oblivion, on the other hand, seems much more promising and enjoyable. I've already read Christopher's epic The Buried Age.

So my question is, how are the rest of the series? (The Valiant, for instance).

 

[Stevil2001]

The Valiant is probably the best one.

I have fond memories of Enigma as well.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I'd say The Valiant and Reunion. For the most part, I am a fan of MJF, but the Stargazer series fell a little flat for me.

 

[Spike730]

They were an easy read, but none really stood out.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I enjoyed the original Reunion which begat the Stargazer series, and the "pilot" book The Valiant, but I wasn't impressed with the first proper book in the series, Gauntlet and have yet to read further.

The technical stuff bothered me. i know it's irrelevent to many, but IMO if you're gonna write books set on a particular ship you should keep it true to what we know about that ship. It should make the most of a ship's unique features. The sets were cramped (or at least shot in a way to give that illusion) and there were only a few stations on the bridge - but I'm pretty sure that in the Stargazer books more bridge officers are present at posts than would fit.

Gauntlet describes the ship having one small shuttlebay when simply looking at it reveals an enourmous bay at the front which is a whopping five decks high, and several more around the saucer rim.
And an important plot point revolves around the navigational deflector - something the Constellation-class ships do not have.

 

[Spike730]

The Constellation-class has no obvious nav deflector.

The Constitution-class (original and refit) for example has 3 boxy components arranged around the sensor dish. You'll also find these 3 boxes on the Miranda-class. I'd like to think that back in the day the nav def and sensor dish were two separate components which got later fused into a single one.

 

[Christopher]

Of course any starship class has to have a navigational deflector in order to travel at high velocities, else it will be destroyed by space debris. But not every ship is shown with a deflector dish per se. (Which, frankly, I've always considered a mistake on the designers' part, but it's a reality we have to live with.)

 

[BillJ]

Of course any starship class has to have a navigational deflector in order to travel at high velocities, else it will be destroyed by space debris. But not every ship is shown with a deflector dish per se. (Which, frankly, I've always considered a mistake on the designers' part, but it's a reality we have to live with.)

Perhaps ships without a dish use their forward shield generators to do the job?

 

[Paris]

I stopped after "Three" as well. I just lost steam. I have them all..maybe i should try again

 

[BillJ]

I stopped after "Three" as well. I just lost steam. I have them all..maybe i should try again

I never made it through the first book where they were hunting the White Wolf. It was just incredibly dull.

 

[zarkon]

Progenitor was the only one I really liked. They were written in a really ponderous, dry style, and Simenon's race in progenitor was the only thing I ever got into

 

[Paris]

I stopped after "Three" as well. I just lost steam. I have them all..maybe i should try again

I never made it through the first book where they were hunting the White Wolf. It was just incredibly dull.

I found it kind of dull as well, but powered through as i wanted to check out a few more books from the series before i gave up. My favorite was probably the un-numbered "pilot", The Valiant.

 

[tomswift2002]

I've only read "Reunion" and "The Buried Age", plus the Mirror Universe short, but I still find "Reunion" to have been the bst.

 

[shady12]

I thought I'd give this series a try. Should Reunion be read before the others? I saw in the image below that it is listed first. It's last chronologically though right? Maybe it doesn't matter if it's read first (or at all)?

 

[The Wormhole]

I thought I'd give this series a try. Should Reunion be read before the others? I saw in the image below that it is listed first. It's last chronologically though right? Maybe it doesn't matter if it's read first (or at all)?

It really doesn't matter when you read Reunion. It was published first, but then I didn't get around to reading it until after I'd started reading the Stargazer series and it had no impact either way.

 

[JWolf]

I thought I'd give this series a try. Should Reunion be read before the others? I saw in the image below that it is listed first. It's last chronologically though right? Maybe it doesn't matter if it's read first (or at all)?

Please remove the chart as it gets updated and what you've posted will soon be obsolete. Post a link in place of the chart.

 

[trampledamage]

Please remove the chart as it gets updated and what you've posted will soon be obsolete. Post a link in place of the chart.

The chart is relevant to what shady12 is talking about right now so having it as a picture makes sense.

Also, please stop giving orders to people, it's not your place to tell anyone to remove anything.

Mod Note for everyone: While suggestions to help are always welcome, orders are not.

 

[shady12]

I got several of these books cheap at a used book store. I read The Valiant and thought it was pretty good. Was my second attempt at reading a Star Trek novel. I read the first New Frontier book a few years ago (I think it was a few small books put together, think I may have only read the first part) and didn't like it and am finally giving the Litverse another chance. Was probably dumb to start off with one that wasn't based on any TV/movie characters. I then read the first Double Helix book and thought it was pretty good. Felt like watching a TNG episode. Then I tried Strike Zone. I couldn't make more than about 70 pages..wow, not good. Partly because of one plot line, another because his characterizations were terrible and his "humor" was cringe-worthy. Interesting that both of the books I didn't like were written by Peter David and I've heard he's considered one of the best. I think now I'll go back to the rest of the Stargazer novels.

 

[Idran]

Honestly, part of the reason you've heard that about Peter David is because he's very polarizing. The people that like him tend to really like him, and the people that don't like him tend to really not like him; there's not many people that are just "eh" on him. So there's more people that consider him one of the best than there might be for an author that isn't so polarizing.