Looking for Star Trek fiction

March 1, 2011 10:37 AM

Looking for Star Trek fiction, pro or fan, including either of two things.

1. Starfleet Academy life not involving the TV characters. Preferably about the "academy" part (i.e. course work, Kobayashi Maru, etc.) rather than cadet coupling.

2. A The Last Ringbearer-style perspective in which the United Federation of Planets are the bad guys. To be clear: the Mirror Universe is not what I have in mind. It would be the standard universe - but one in which someone or other does not see Starfleet's mission in the same positive light that the UFP does.

posted by Joe Beese to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Regarding 2, have you read John M. Ford's The Final Reflection? It's told entirely from a Klingon point of view, and even though a lot of the material in the book was later contradicted by TNG, it does give a good look at the Federation from the outside. Ford also wrote How Much for Just the Planet? a comic farce which shows what happens when the Federation and the Klingons encounter a civilization with a strong streak of independence and a deep sense of humor.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:44 AM on March 1, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm thinking most of the fanfiction for #2 will be Maquis, Dominion, or Klingon-themed. I assume you've already exhausted the stuff at TrekiVerse?
posted by SMPA at 10:49 AM on March 1, 2011

Response by poster: I assume you've already exhausted the stuff at TrekiVerse?

No, I've only just cast a quick glimpse over some of the larger fanfic sites and retreated in confusion. I'll look into all these suggestions.
posted by Joe Beese at 11:01 AM on March 1, 2011

TrekiVerse stuff is older USENET postings from alt.startrek.creative. It is, alas, relationship/pairing oriented, but voluminous. I can come up with better stuff in a couple of hours; posting URLs from memory is unwise.
posted by SMPA at 11:30 AM on March 1, 2011

For (1), even though it does involve the TV characters, you might actually enjoy the profic The Kobayashi Maru by Julia Ecklar. Kirk, Sulu, Chekov and Scotty are trapped in a damaged shuttlecraft and decide to pass the time talking about their Academy days. So it's basically four short stories in a framing plot. Events mentioned are the Kobayashi Maru, Academy wargames, and a kind of Model UN game (Model UFP, I suppose). I would say that it's the kind of book where, if you really liked reading about the Battle Room in Ender's Game, you'll probably like it.

Everything else in profic I know about the Academy is all about the TV characters, too (there were/are several YA novels for various series), sorry.
posted by sineala at 3:09 PM on March 1, 2011