Star Trek: The Next Generation: Vendetta (it gives a good look at a post-Wolf 359, pre-Hugh Borg fight and a subplot seems eerily close to that of Seven of Nine)
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Imazadi (time travel with a future reminiscent of the "All Good Things..." future, a shapeshifter and seeing how Riker and Troi originally paired off.)
Star Trek: Generations (though it's a novelization, it really gives you a good look at an "unedited" version of the film, not to mention TOS era reactions to Kirk's "death" and what Kirk did in the Nexus for 78 years.)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #5: Fallen Heroes (most of the crew... heck, most of the people on the station... are slaughtered in a massacre.)
Star Trek: The Next Generation #26: The Romulan Prize (the Enterprise-D crew gets taken by a Trojan Horse and the Romulan commander is cunning. Not to mention EVA scenes.)
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Reunion (the Stargazer crew gets together, a Best of Both Worlds mention, and the Enterprise gets caught on the wrong side of the Neutral Zone.)
As a shameless plug, Star Trek: Adventures in Time and Space. It gives short segments of many of the best Star Trek Pocket Books novels from the first 20 years. And it has a timeline in which I helped to compile. If you want the second edition of the timeline, it is being released this summer/fall in the hardcover novel Star Trek: Gateways: What Lay Beyond.
Q-Squared (TNG) by Peter David was a fun read. Tied quite a bit of Trek history together in an interesting way. Also an interesting look at alternate version of the Enterprise crew.
The Captain's Daughter (TOS), also by Peter David, does an excellent job of fleshing out the history of Captain Sulu and his daughter. It also redeems the apparently-ineffectual Captain Harriman of the Enterprise-B by explaining the reasons behind his hesitant command and showing us how he overcomes them in the book.
Prime Directive (TOS) by Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens, who also wrote Federation, is probably my favorite TOS book. Like Federation, they gave ALL of the characters interesting and important things to do, instead of focusing on the Big Three.
The William Shatner books also have the Reeves-Stevens as co-authors, and their touch definitely shows. You can get the first three books in a convenient trade paperback labelled Odyssey. All of the books make good use of all of the characters and tie a lot of Trek historical events together in creative ways (but explain enough that you're not lost if you don't have an encyclopedic memory of the Trek Universe).
Another plus in my book (excuse the pun) is that they avoid the worst excesses of treknobabble. The characters do make very inventive use of the technology they have, but there's not the Deus Ex Machina invention of new equipment on the fly (which always works perfectly) that has robbed many a Trek episode of its drama (IMO). Also, unlike many authors that incorporate those kinds of technical details, they still depict the characters' emotions realistically (something a lot of techno-thriller writers have a problem with).
As far as William Shatner's role in the book, his Captain Kirk is a focus, but not exclusively, and the flawed, questioning older Kirk is a logical outgrowth of the earlier Kirk of the tv series and movies. Some of his antics in "The Return" might seem a little over the top, but were reasonable given the benefits of his "rejuvenation" (I don't want to say any more and ruin the plot).
Fallen Heroes (DS9) is another favorite, featuring a very unusual new species and shows just how much the crew is willing to sacrifice to protect the Federation.
D'Oh! Somehow, I forgot to mention the books I've just finished reading.
A Stitch in Time (DS9) by Andrew Robinson (the actor who played Garak on DS9) was a great book, if you're interested in Garak or Cardassians in general. The book moves between Garak's past and his present (rebuilding the ruins of Cardassia after the end of DS9). The formatting is supposed to help you distinguish the two eras (the present being in italics), but the publisher got the formatting confused at several points. Fortunately, the writing is good enough that you'll be able to tell what era each section is taking place in.
The New Frontier books by Peter David are entertaining for the character interaction, though the series suffers a bit (IMO) from a superhero syndrome where virtually all of the newly-created characters have extremely unusual origins which, taken as a whole, stretch credulity a little. YMMV
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Another couple books I would recommend are "Dwellers in the Crucible" by Margaret Wander Bonanno and "Vulcan's Glory" by D.C. Fontana.
Dwellers is far, far from my vision of the Klingons but is an interesting if heavy handed story of Human-Vulcan friendship.
Glory was just a good read. I think I bought it mainly for the author.
I should also add that the book "Death's Angel" by Kathleen Sky was interesting as well. It introduces the Special Security Division. I used this idea in my campaign and generated an overlay which is posted on the LUGtrek Yahoo group.
I forgot to mention Star Trek: Enterprise Logs. It contains a story of redemption for Harriman. Trust me, there is a twist you won't see coming by a long shot.
Also Star Trek #79: Invasion! First Strike: Book One of Four. Pure Kirk, and it ties in with one of the episodes.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #2: The Siege. True, it was seemingly majorly contradicted by the time of "The Search, Part II" but it is still an interesting look at Odo's loyalties to shapeshifters. Not to mention a reason why the Borg don't appear on the show and one of Odo's many early shapeshifts.
Star Trek: The Lives of Dax. 358-odd years of Star Trek history. T'Pau, Chris Pike, transporter invention, a mysterious woman, Jadzia's sister and childhood, the return of Verdan, Leonard McCoy's "hands of a surgeon" and Vic Fontaine, among others. An absolute must have.
I quite enjoyed John de Lancies 'Q', although it was trek in name only, being far more closely tied to Fantasy and even Homers Oddessy...
I also enjoyed the 34th Rule and a Stitch in Time...
Something about those actors managing to capture their characters in literary form.
I would like to second 'The Lives of Dax' and Enterprise logs...
One source of neatly tied plot ideas came from the yearly 'To Boldly Go', which is a compilation of Fan Fiction, all of which is entered into a competition. And the cream is published. Volumes 1-3 are out there with number 4 due soon.
Dont get me wrong theres still some right dross in them, as you would expect from fan fic, but no slash fiction or mary sues, and every now and again a gem of a Story (Such as a Data story comprising of exactly 1.3 seconds of his life...) and even some genius ideas that can lend themselves to roleplaying games VERY well, all this in a package that alot of people avoid due to its Fan Fic nature...
I must second Roy here. I wanted to say a word about the book but he beat me to it.
"A Stitch in Time"(DS9) by Andrew Robinson. I must say that I quite disagree with the way the rebuild of Cardassia is handled (GMing a campaign which focuses on the topic, I've had to think a lot about it). Cardassia is a huge empire, and even if it is in rubbles it should not be treated as the rebuild of a single city. However, I just loved the way Cardassians are portrayed there. The author truly managed to keep that ... alien feeling, while enabling the reader to ... somehow empathize with the Cardassians. The Cardassian equivalent of the academy is a pure delight and the Cardassian martial art a real hit ( ). Rate: 9/10 for the "past" part of the storry, and 5/10 for the "present" one (I think the "present" part is quite shorter).
I just hope the peoples trapped in the Cardassian SB room read it and used a lot of it. (hint, hint )
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If you want the second edition of the timeline, it is being released this summer/fall in the hardcover novel Star Trek: Gateways: What Lay Beyond.
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). Rate: 9/10 for the "past" part of the storry, and 5/10 for the "present" one (I think the "present" part is quite shorter).
