Spock based novels

[Gate11au]

Ok i know this is a hard question But i am trying to get the Spock back and thro stories as he is one of my favourite characters in TOS.
I started thinking of this after reading Miasma By Greg Cox and reading the Saavik and Spock Interaction in this novela and started thing about her and spock history so i have started looking for book that a are Spock based and by default Saavik i would imagine that would help me to find what i was looking for how ever i have no a long list and no idea where to start and not sure any of the novels have what i am looking for or even if there is a back story to Saavik and Spock beyond the 2nd and 3rd movies.
The other thing is what order do i read them in chronologically so they make cents do they have an order?
and have i good all of them or just some should i just start at the first star trek TOS Novels and just spend a long time reading all of them. LOL
i am still reading the relaunched novels too so...

any way this is my list of book

The Pandora Principle
Spock’s world
star trek Legacy
Vulcan’s Glory
Star trek Cruible: spock: The fire and the rose (do i need to read the whole Crucible series???)
Yesterday series
Sarek
spock must die
Spock Messiah
Ishmael
Black Fire
Vulcan Academy Murderers.
Vulcan's Forge
Vulcan's Heart
Vulcan's Soul trilogy
Troublsome minds

Thank you all for any help you can give.
Gate11au

 

[Bibliomike]

And don't forget all the Spock-centric short fiction, such as [SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!] "The First Law of Metaphysics" in Strange New Worlds II -- still available as an ebook; makes a great gift! Especially if you are a Saavikophile.

More seriously and less self-servingly, don't forget Greg Cox's Child of Two Worlds from last fall. Great book and lots of good stuff on Spock. The prologue is worth the quatloos for admission alone.

 

[Jim Gamma]

Try Memory Beta's Saavik page and scroll down to Appearances. Any Saavik book is likely to be a Spock book, as well.

 

[Greg Cox]

And don't forget all the Spock-centric short fiction, such as [SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!] "The First Law of Metaphysics" in Strange New Worlds II -- still available as an ebook; makes a great gift! Especially if you are a Saavikophile.

More seriously and less self-servingly, don't forget Greg Cox's Child of Two Worlds from last fall. Great book and lots of good stuff on Spock. The prologue is worth the quatloos for admission alone.

Thanks for the kind words--and for saving me from having to suggest my own book. But, yes, CHILD is probably my most Spock-centric book to date. (That's the cover there in my profile pic.) And in terms of chronology, it takes place during Spock's years on Pike's Enterprise, probably some time after VULCAN'S GLORY.

 

[TheUsualSuspect]

Well, you've got quite a list with many good books on it. Some of them I haven't read, but here's my comments, for whatever they're worth:

The Pandora Principle, AFAIK, is the book that gives the most backstory as far as Spock and Saavik are concerned, telling how they met and Spock came to be her mentor. Unspoken Truths by Margaret Wander Bonano is a Saavik-centered novel set during and just after "The Voyage Home" and is mostly in continuity with Pandora Principle. If you like that one, Saavik also has a small role in Bonano's earlier novel Dwellers in the Crucible, published in the mid-80s and now a little out of continuity with later canon, but still an interesting take on Vulcan-Human relations.

Spock's World and Vulcan's Glory are great choices for Spock's backstory and information about Vulcan society.

I really enjoyed Crucible: Spock, although it doesn't seem to be everyone's favorite, and the Crucible trilogy is in a separate continuity all its own. If you read it and enjoy it, be sure to read Crucible: McCoy, which is generally regarded as the best of the three. The same author, David R. George III, has also written Rough Beasts of Empire, part of the 24th century relaunches, which features Spock as one of the main characters. Spock also figures in at least one of the two followups to that book -- Plagues of Night and Raise the Dawn. Those two are mostly focused on DS9 and TNG characters, though.

The two Yesterday books and Sarek are also great choices. I wouldn't waste my time with either Spock, Messiah! or Black Fire.

Vulcan's Heart, which I have not read, covers Spock and Saavik's relationship after the TOS movies and before the TNG era. It seems to have a mixed reputation on this board.

I haven't read Troublesome Minds, but I know it is highly regarded here. You might also be interested in Cast No Shadow by James Swallow. It doesn't feature Saavik, but follows up (and gives some backstory) on another of Spock's proteges - Valeris from "The Undiscovered Country." Spock also has a role in the book, which is set at the turn of the 23rd/24th centuries.

Hope you enjoy the litverse take(s) on Spock and Saavik!

 

[Bibliomike]

Try Memory Beta's Saavik page and scroll down to Appearances. Any Savik book is likely to be a Spock book, as well.

Unspoken Truth by Margaret Wander Bonanno is not so much, as I remember, but it's been a while since I read it. I do remember being impressed that Saavik was pretty much the star of the show.

 

[Greg Cox]

I haven't read Troublesome Minds, but I know it is highly regarded here. You might also be interested in Cast No Shadow by James Swallow. It doesn't feature Saavik, but follows up (and gives some backstory) on another of Spock's proteges - Valeris from "The Undiscovered Country." Spock also has a role in the book, which is set at the turn of the 23rd/24th centuries.!

I really enjoyed Cast No Shadow.

 

[Leto_II]

The Pandora Principle, AFAIK, is the book that gives the most backstory as far as Spock and Saavik are concerned, telling how they met and Spock came to be her mentor. Unspoken Truths by Margaret Wander Bonano is a Saavik-centered novel set during and just after "The Voyage Home" and is mostly in continuity with Pandora Principle. If you like that one, Saavik also has a small role in Bonano's earlier novel Dwellers in the Crucible, published in the mid-80s and now a little out of continuity with later canon, but still an interesting take on Vulcan-Human relations.

Greg, you mentioned awhile back that you were considering doing a Saavik-centric story (following the release of Miasma) -- is there any more information you can give us on the status of that one? (Thanks! )

I haven't read Troublesome Minds, but I know it is highly regarded here.

Very, very much so -- fantastic book. Without going into too many spoilers, Spock faces a major hard choice or two during the events of the story.

You might also be interested in Cast No Shadow by James Swallow. It doesn't feature Saavik, but follows up (and gives some backstory) on another of Spock's proteges - Valeris from "The Undiscovered Country." Spock also has a role in the book, which is set at the turn of the 23rd/24th centuries.

Absolutely check this one out, too -- while Spock role might be smaller, his presence still looms large over the entire book, plus, of course, Valeris. James Swallow's recent TOS novel The Latter Fire from a couple months ago also gives us some nice Spock action.

 

[Greg Cox]

Greg, you mentioned awhile back that you were considering doing a Saavik-centric story (following the release of Miasma) -- is there any more information you can give us on the status of that one? (Thanks! ).

Nothing definite to report at this point. An outline exists, but at the moment I'm hard at work on a second LIBRARIANS novel and that's occupying most of my attention. I definitely want to do more with Saavik down the road, though.

 

[Leto_II]

^ Very cool -- well, just keep us informed if anything changes, OK? Already looking forward to reading it.

 

[JD]

Nothing definite to report at this point. An outline exists, but at the moment I'm hard at work on a second LIBRARIANS novel and that's occupying most of my attention. I definitely want to do more with Saavik down the road, though.

Are your The Librarians books going to be back to back, or will there be books from other authors between them?

 

[borgboy]

I enjoyed Dwellers in the Crucible a lot - I read it last year. It's focus is on two original characters, a human woman and a Vulcan woman who form a close friendship while they're held captive. Saavik only has a cameo appearance though.

 

[Greg Cox]

Are your The Librarians books going to be back to back, or will there be books from other authors between them?

At the moment, I'm signed up to write the first three. After that, who knows?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Vulcan's Heart - my favorite Trek novel of all time - is, IMHO, an excellent Spock-centric work. (Well, not totally Spock-centric, but most of the action leads back to him in some form.)

 

[Bibliomike]

Spock Messiah! is already on the list, but don't forget the equally - um - interesting Bantam entry by Kathleen Sky, Vulcan!

I wrote a retro-review of both titles for Trek.fm a few years back. They're "fascinating" reads, this far into the franchise's history.

 

[Desert Kris]

The Entropy Effect is very Spock focused.

 

[Timewalker]

Nobody has mentioned Burning Dreams, by Margaret Wander Bonano. It's a novel about Christopher Pike, but there are some parts where the novel explores his interactions with Spock, both before and after the Talos IV incident.

 

[Gate11au]

More seriously and less self-servingly, don't forget Greg Cox's Child of Two Worlds from last fall. Great book and lots of good stuff on Spock. The prologue is worth the quatloos for admission alone.

I have just finished the " vulcan academy murders" started it yesterday and finish at abut 3am i all so noticed i had left "Child two world" I love Greg's work i got it as soon as it came out just, only just got time to read a lot, it on my book shelf just haven't read it yet as been reading the 24 relaunch stuff a lot lately but decided to go back to TOS. (my first love)

Spock's World and Vulcan's Glory are great choices for Spock's backstory and information about Vulcan society.

I really enjoyed Crucible: Spock, although it doesn't seem to be everyone's favorite, and the Crucible trilogy is in a separate continuity all its own. If you read it and enjoy it, be sure to read Crucible: McCoy, which is generally regarded as the best of the three.
The same author, David R. George III, has also written Rough Beasts of Empire, part of the 24th century relaunches, which features Spock as one of the main characters. Spock also figures in at least one of the two followups to that book -- Plagues of Night and Raise the Dawn. Those two are mostly focused on DS9 and TNG characters, though.

The two Yesterday books and Sarek are also great choices. I wouldn't waste my time with either Spock, Messiah! or Black Fire.

I have read all but the Crucible books and am looking at getting i think the only way is to get them as ebooks tho. I love the yesterday series of books really well done and spock world was fab to.

Spock Messiah! is already on the list, but don't forget the equally - um - interesting Bantam entry by Kathleen Sky, Vulcan!

I have that too and love it but as it was in the batman uni i have left it of the list as i am looking in to backstory and current uni stuff I know that its all considered non canon but star trek books are the best way to keep up with spock and kirk and mccoy lol

 

[tomswift2002]

Another trilogy of books that you might want to check out are the Starfleet Academy books from the mid-90's. "Crisis On Vulcan", "Aftershock" and "Cadet Kirk". "Crisis On Vulcan"'s timeline doesn't match with "Vulcan's Glory", as both books have Spock meeting Christopher Pike at different times (in Crisis Spock is a teenager who is accompanying his father on a diplomatic mission where he meets Commander Pike who is First Officer under Captain Robert April, while Glory has Spock as a Lieutenant, transferring over to be Pike's Second Officer, having only heard of Pike as being a Captain in the fleet and occasionally seeing news stories or read reports that Starfleet Command had ordered him to read, while the only thing Pike knows about Spock is what he's read in his service papers).

But the trilogy also shows us how the Spock-McCoy-Kirk triangle came to be, and Spock features heavily on all three books, with "Aftershock" dealing with Spock and McCoy while "Cadet Kirk" has all three the Academy).

 

[Bibliomike]

I have that too and love it but as it was in the batman uni i have left it of the list as i am looking in to backstory and current uni stuff I know that its all considered non canon but star trek books are the best way to keep up with spock and kirk and mccoy lol

Understood. Just thinking, the more Spock, the better!