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amado1I'm just going to focus on official Star Trek novels I read in the past year that involved Will Riker as a main character, and how I appreciated (or disliked) each one specifically as a Riker fan.
A Time to Love by Robert Greenberger
The draw:
This book and its companion, A Time to Hate, tell the story of how Riker and Troi got engaged, and how Riker's father Kyle died. That right there was a huge draw to me; it brought me to these books like a magnet. The basic plot: Riker's father is somehow involved with an epidemic of violent murders on a peaceful planet, and it's up to Riker to track him down.
A Time to Love has some fun moments. Riker spends a lot of time with an alien guide named Seer; they have great platonic chemistry, and there's a surprisingly moving scene where Riker has dinner with Seer's family and thinks about how foreign this is to him -- a happy, whole family having dinner together, without any tension at all. In another cute scene, Riker can't stop thinking about Troi, and even scouts for engagement rings while investigating his dad.
The drawbacks:
Riker doesn't catch up with his dad until the last 20 pages or so, and there's no big confrontation. All of that is saved for the next book in the series. This would be annoying even if the book was well-written, but it's not. AT ALL. Good God, this book is a headache. The plot is paper-thin. To reach his word count, Greenberger fills the pages with short scenes where Picard drinks tea and recaps what we know so far; then it cuts to Troi drinking mocha and she recaps what she knows so far; Geez, you think, isn't anybody going to do something to advance the plot? But the next scene is Crusher drinking coffee and recapping what she knows so far, then Geordi drinking water and musing about possible ways he COULD move the plot forward, but then he doesn't, and then we cut to Data drinking motor oil and counting sheep.
If you're a casual Picard/Crusher shipper, like me, then the Crusher/Original Character side-romance adds insult to injury.
The Verdict: Because so many important things happen in this duology, you might be tempted to read this one anyway. Don't. Skip to "A Time to Hate". It's not much better, but at least plot happens.
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A Time to Hate by Robert Greenberger
The draw:
There's a lot more juicy Riker stuff to be found in this novel, although I gave it a worse rating than "A Time to Love" on Goodreads. Riker spends the entirety of this book stuck in a small aircraft with his father, and occasionally landing to break up violent mobs or rescue small children from fires. The father-son angst is often satisfying, especially when Riker's competence starts to show, and his dad's negative viewpoint of him is forced to change.
And we get plenty of hurt!Riker here, too. His father is often the culprit (at one point, he jabs his hand against Will's throat and then smashes his head against the dashboard over and over again, until Will passes out) but mostly it's exhaustion, sleeplessness, lack of food, stress.
The drawbacks:
Almost too many to count! Again, the plot is terrible, so weak it looks like rice porridge without the rice. The Kyle-Will interactions are more often infuriating than satisfying. Much of the book seems devoted to convincing readers Kyle is competent and should be respected, and this is achieved largely by making Will look dumb. The author tries to excuse this by claiming, over and over again, that being around his dad makes Will revert to a childish state.
Okay, cool, if that's how you want to explain it. It's even more infuriating now! Will is shown bumbling around after his father, asking stupid questions that often don't even work as exposition, feeling embarrassed that his dad is so much more competent than him, and struggling to catch up with basic logic. The novel wobbles between "Kyle is a bad dad" and "Will is a bad son" without attempting any kind of nuance (not that I necessarily wanted nuance with these two, but Deny Thy Father did it splendidly). The ending scene, where Kyle sacrifices himself for Will, is hasty, poorly written in a technical sense, and unconvincing. The engagement between Riker and Troi is cute but feels strange and out of place immediately after Will's father died.
The Verdict: .....Is it weird to say I enjoyed it, though? I mean, purely as fic fodder. Nothing gets your inspiration going like watching someone else totally botch a plot you'd love to write.
Foreign Foes by Dave Galanter
The draw:
When a mission goes wrong, Riker and Troi are stranded on a mysterious alien ship (or what they assume is a ship). Riker is injured, and he and Troi are plunged right into peril as alien robots attack, also for mysterious reasons. The dialogue, especially the banter, is light, fun, and actually kind of sparkles. Picard and Worf get a decent share of the spotlight, with significant cameos from Geordi and Data iirc, so in many ways this book feels like a typical episode of TNG, but not a particularly memorable one.
The drawbacks:
The plot is solid but not as compelling as it could be. The prose is inoffensive, but highly skippable. I read this book back in October and I have trouble recalling any details! I know Worf was accused of murder; that should be a bit more memorable, no? 😆 And I remember in fair detail how Riker and Troi become stranded, the robots that attack them, the plot twist that they're not really in an alien ship at all ... but my memory stops there.
The Verdict: If you're making a comprehensive list of Riker books to read, this one is pretty low-priority. Nothing of particular interest happens; the hurt/comfort scenes are not particularly hurt/comforty, nothing memorably romantic occurs between Riker and Troi; and the overall plot is not very compelling. But hot damn is it better than A Time to Love!
Imzadi by Peter David
The draw:
This is kind of known as "THE" Riker/Troi book. I mean, look at the title. It shows us how young Riker and Troi met, the initial tension between them, the gradual thawing until they fell in love, and the inevitable break-up ... and at the same time we meet 73-year-old Admiral William Riker, who in another timestream is mourning for a version of Troi who died very young. This version of Riker goes through the Guardian of Forever in a desperate attempt to prevent Troi's death from happening.
On top of all these plot elements, the book is competently written with a tight structure and a compelling plot. Whether David brought us to Lieutenant Riker or Admiral Riker, I was still interested. In a purely technical sense, this book is better-written than Imzadi II, which focuses on the Worf/Troi/Riker love triangle. But...
The drawbacks:
The romance and characterization of Riker and Troi gave me a headache, moreso in the Lieutenant Riker flashbacks. I'll just repeat what I said on Goodreads: It comes across as very juvenile Battle of the Sexes. Riker, with his Starfleet values, is MALE: strong, virile, hates art, not in touch with his emotions, not interested in love, just sex. Troi, and all of Betazed, is FEMALE: willowy, frigid, weak, playing hard to get, and convinced that every problem can be solved with a sympathetic ear.
Also, this book was shot in the foot by publishers. Unable to move the Riker/Troi romance forward at all, but still required to write a Riker/Troi romance novel, David develops their relationship to the point where present-day Riker and Troi MUST get together. They simply have to. The reader can't fathom them NOT getting together. But since David wasn't allowed to write that, he ends the book on a hasty, goofy, laugh-track style scene where Riker comically refuses to commit.
The Verdict: It's a well-written book and certainly earned its reputation. I will almost certainly reread specific scenes again soon, even if I have quibbles with most of them. The wedding scene, where Riker meets Troi for the first time, and the river bank scene, where they spoon naked and adamantly do not have sex ... it's hard to rate, because the Battle of the Sexes put me off so badly, but I'd still whole-heartedly recommend it to any Riker/Troi fan.
Triangle: Imzadi II by Peter David
The draw:
As a Riker/Troi fan there are tons of moments I loved here. While Troi and Worf visit their parents to break the engagement news, Troi calls Riker by holo every night for an hour-long chat about her day. The casual, easy friendship with them stands out in stark contrast to Troi's often-tense and confused relationship with Worf, whose Klingon values clash with Troi's Betazoid philosophy. Throughout the book, Troi tries desperately to make her fling with Worf work, and she constantly comes up against reminders of how easy and natural things were with Will ... but Will isn't interested, right? He's made it abundantly clear that he just wants to be friends.
Lwaxana gets her fair share of screentime here and uses it to poke at Troi's choices in a delicious moment for Imzadi shippers. Like this:
Worf chooses the Starfleet way; he chooses to let Troi and Alexander be killed. Riker chooses the opposite, and he's lucky that together, the five of them (including Thomas Riker) can find a way to reverse the damage he does. Of course, to Alexander and Troi, Riker isn't exactly the villain here, and it sets off new complexities in Worf's relationship with his son.
The drawbacks:
I mean, it's a Worf-Riker-Troi triangle. God.
More seriously, I felt a huge disservice was done to Worf here. I don't see him and Riker as antagonist; I prefer to read their relationship as close friendship and mutual respect. In this book, Worf is at times extremely bitter and jealous and it pulled me out of the story every time. I think it's fair to say that if you're a Worf fan first and foremost, this is 100% not the book for you. If you're an Imzadi fan, it's definitely worth it. The most annoying part is that David didn't have to make Worf look back in order to justify Troi's choice to be with Riker. I think for much of the book he did a good job of showing the incompatibility between Worf and Troi, and that was enough.
The Verdict: So long as Worf isn't your fave, I definitely recommend it. He's pretty high up on my list (I'd say it's Riker first, then Troi, then Worf for me, in a ranking of all TNG characters) but I still enjoyed this book immensely.
Tooth and Claw by Doranna Durgin
The draw:
Competence porn! Riker is stranded in a dangerous jungle with a condescending alien prince. With no tech and malfunctioning weapons, Riker must accompany the prince on a maybe-deadly hunting trip, where it seems that the prince's entire mission has been sabotaged by someone in the palace. This book is stuffed full with physical hurt/comfort for Riker and oodles of competence kink, as he slowly but brutally forces the prince to recognize that Riker is the one who really knows what he's doing here.
And again, the Worf/Riker fan in me was pleased by Worf coming to Riker's rescue and tending his wounds!
The drawbacks:
Not many, really! The B-plot could have been more compelling, but it was serviceable enough, and I didn't skip much. Geordi has a LOT of screen time here, which made the B-plot more fun. There's little to know Riker/Troi, FYI, and the alien prince is an annoying teenager, but I found him perfectly bearable. He served the purpose (spoiled prince archetype) without actually annoying ME, as a reader -- just annoying Riker, as a character.
The Verdict: Definitely recommend. My only caveat would be that I enjoy survival fiction more than most, so I might be biased here. If you hated books like Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain in school, this probably isn't for you.
Power Hungry by Howard Weinstein
The draws:
...Did I read this? Goodreads says I read this. I think in this one, Riker gets beaten up a lot, taken captive, knocked out at least three times, and spends most of the book separated from his crew and stranded in the desert with a bunch of angry aliens. That sounds like a lot of details to remember, but I really couldn't tell you more than that!
The drawbacks:
Troi is featured prominently on the cover, but not in the novel itself. This isn't a very memorable book.
The Verdict: Hell, there's tons of hurt!Riker in this one, but just be aware that it's not really the juicy hurt/comfort or whump variety. It's just your typical "Action Hero gets pummeled but doggedly goes on" stuff.
Ghost Ship by Diane Carey
The draw:
A fun spooky plot with lots of strong Star Trek-style ethical debates, and lots of cute moments between Season 1 Troi and Riker as they tentatively rekindle a clearly sparkling friendship. Data and Geordi are the real draw here, though. Their friendship/romance just leaps off the page, and Data gets the spotlight for SURE with plenty of emotional hurt/comfort and delicious drama.
The drawbacks:
The characters are at their most unlikable here. Riker is prejudiced against androids and repeatedly says and does hurtful things to Data, eventually leading to a suicidal risk on Data's part. Geordi is way more prickly and churlish here than he ever is in the show. Picard's arrogance and anger are dialed up to 1000. Wesley's inexperience and naivety is emphasized in a harsh and unfair way.
The Verdict:
I'd still recommend it! God, I mean, the sci-fi was solid, the premise was haunting, it had that classic Trek feel to it! The character work is extremely shaky, but when it's right, it's fantastic. Even when it's wrong, the author gives us some rewarding scenes. When Riker goes too far with the anti-android bigotry, we actually get a remarkable solo scene that shows him realizing what he's done, and the full weight of shame and regret fall down on him in a way you typically only see in (and I mean this as a compliment) stuffy literary novels about tortured English professors.
No really, I mean that as a compliment, it was a good scene 😆
A Time to Heal by David Mack
The draw:
Whump, whump, whump! Riker is captured by aliens and held in captivity for over a month. His cell is a tiny hole in the floor, with a grate over the top and a drain for human waste. He's bound hand and foot the entire time, with icy water occasionally poured into the hole to wash his uneaten food and raw sewage down the drain. The whump is brutal! It reminded me fully of the balls-to-the-wall whump fics you sometimes see, where no punches are pulled.
The drawbacks:
Well, all things told, there's only about four Riker scenes, and they're irritatingly short. You have to wade through a LOT of supporting characters to get to the good stuff ... and I couldn't tell you anything, really, about what those supporting characters were up to. Plus, when Riker finally does escape, there's no big reunion with Troi or aftercare for the reader, so to speak. We don't get so much as a paragraph about his wounds being healed, the emotional toll of the trauma, etc.
The Verdict: Maybe you can just find the Riker scenes online and read those 😆
Riker: The Enemy of My Enemy by Dan Abnett
The draw:
A quick and easy to read comic book with nice artwork and a strong focus on Riker, who tries to infiltrate a Maquis terrorist cell. This is more competence porn, and I appreciated it greatly.
The drawbacks:
...but despite the competence porn, there's really not much I can report about this one. I have a hard time remembering the details.
Star Trek TNG: Forgiveness by David Brin
The draw:
Another comic book, with art that's really beautiful for the guys (including my boy Riker) and really baffling for the girls (wtf did they do to Crusher??). It's a gem, though. Plenty of cute Riker/Troi interactions, but the main draw is the excellent plot.
The drawbacks:
The ending is admittedly weak, and like I said, the art is strangely alien for the women of the series.
The Verdict: Definitely recommend!
Deny Thy Father by Jeffrey J. Mariotte
The draws:
Practically everything! My goodness. Kyle and Will never cross paths in this book, but both are main characters, and to my surprise, I actually enjoyed Kyle's solo scenes just as much as Will's (at first). Both of them are given compelling plots. Will is a cadet at the Academy, struggling to stay on top of schoolwork and navigate tense relationships with other cadets (I know that sounds lame, but my god, I was into it. He and four other cadets are dropped into different places in San Fran, as part of a school assignment, where they have to first find each other and then work together to solve clues and make it back to school in a 5-day time limit. It's a section filled with tension, social politics, riddles and puzzles, budding friendships, and a special brand of competence, where Will is so young and reserved that he doesn't leap forward to take charge, but gradually shows his hand when circumstance demands it).
Kyle's scenes sound more compelling in summary, and are legitimately pretty good. A young Starfleet officer tries to kill Kyle in his own apartment. Kyle escapes unscathed, but an investigation begins shortly later, trying to pin the destruction of Station 311 on him. Kyle actually ends up leaving Earth for years, in hiding. But Kyle's scenes are so compelling because they explore his trauma and institute a believable timeline for why Kyle abandoned his son and why he hasn't contacted him since. The author gives us believable, sympathetic reasons for all this ... while still tossing in several asshole moments to show that Will's not being unreasonable with his anger, either.
Riker is young in this book, and his personality is somewhat different, by design. He's reserved, career-oriented, a bit stiff and shy. He initially struggles with the Academy workload, but gets progressively better at it each year, until finally he ends up 8th in his class. His studiousness and focus on his career lead to the ruination of several relationships, but it's nuanced and complicated, with his friends doing things wrong too. Very refreshing to see this in a Star Trek novel, of all things! It's something best-selling authors struggle with; too often the conflicts are broken down into Bad Guy vs. Good Guy, and even when the author pays lip-service to "Bad Guy has a point", their narration makes it clear they don't believe it, and you shouldn't, either.
Well, we just don't see that here. The characters are young, flawed. Sometimes they're in the wrong and sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're in the right about one thing, but handling it the wrong way, and they can easily dismiss the criticism because it's coming from people who are outright wrong. The writing here was just very competent and fun to read. Will's fellow cadets are intriguing and likable. There's a queer romance between two of them, including Will's love interest, which was very sweet and nuanced as well.
But now for the drawbacks! It's a doozy, guys.
Drawback:
WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THE CIVIL WAR STORY???
Halfway through the book, Will gets a history-based assignment: study the life of one individual soldier, not a general, nobody special. Will chooses his ancestor Thaddius, who fought in the American Civil War. This chapter starts out ... okay. There's a diary entry from Thaddius, with period-typical spelling inconsistencies, a bit too flowery to be convincing, but okay. Then, in a baffling turn of events, the author decides to take us into a narrative retelling of the day Thaddius Riker freed the enslaved people at a Southern plantation.
......
And that would be bad enough if it were well-written. It's such a strange thing to plop in the center of your novel. But it's NOT well-written. Good God, is it not. The dialogue is cheesy, stereotypical, just utterly cringe-worthy, oh my god. The depiction of enslaved people is so bad it's reminiscent of a minstrel show. I don't have my copy but I'll try to recreate the full effect here.
Thaddius lowered his rifle. On the steps of the plantation was the loveliest woman he ever did see, with honey blonde hair spilling over her ivory shoulders. She had a gun pointed right at Thaddius' face.
"Y'all Union boys better git now," she said. "I won't have you ransacking my husband's farm!"
"Ma'am, it's about time you learned that people aren't property," Thaddius declared.
"I'd rather die!"
Behind the woman, a man in patched trousers appeared, wringing his hands.
"Are you a slave, sir?" Thaddius called. The slave ducked his head.
"I heard there was white devils in the Union Army," said the slave. "But y'all don' look like no devils to me, suh. Is you angels or devils, suh?"
.........
I'll stop there, ugh. It was so insanely bad. The rest of the book was so good, too. This random, unnecessary Civil War scene was a total slap in the face. Offensive, stereotypical, just baffling. Why is it in here? Who let this happen?? God.
For the sake of consistency I'll cover some other flaws. In the second half of the book, Kyle's story takes a sharp nosedive and becomes so incredibly boring. He gets involved with alien revolutionaries. The nuance goes out the window. He falls in love with a mysterious woman who of course tragically dies right in front of him.
The Verdict: This book is unrated on Goodreads, because I think the non-Civil War parts are some of the best Trek writing I've read outside of Diane Duane. But that Civil War part is just... goddamn. If you're deeply interested in the Kyle-Will relationship, and you can stomach a single chapter of the stuff I've written above, then I recommend it. It doesn't get worse than my example; it does get better. Mariotte's version of the scene has a bit more padding which makes the ridiculous dialogue and racism ... a little...microscopic bit less noticeable. But if you can't stomach it, then fuck, I don't blame you!
Okay, that's a wrap! I'd say I started and didn't finish 7-8 other Riker books in the past four months. The fact that I didn't finish them is no indicator of quality; actually, all of them seemed pretty damn good. I just got into queer books instead for a while. Later I might edit this with a follow-up for those books, or make a separate post, but for now, that's all!
A Time to Love by Robert Greenberger
The draw:
This book and its companion, A Time to Hate, tell the story of how Riker and Troi got engaged, and how Riker's father Kyle died. That right there was a huge draw to me; it brought me to these books like a magnet. The basic plot: Riker's father is somehow involved with an epidemic of violent murders on a peaceful planet, and it's up to Riker to track him down.
A Time to Love has some fun moments. Riker spends a lot of time with an alien guide named Seer; they have great platonic chemistry, and there's a surprisingly moving scene where Riker has dinner with Seer's family and thinks about how foreign this is to him -- a happy, whole family having dinner together, without any tension at all. In another cute scene, Riker can't stop thinking about Troi, and even scouts for engagement rings while investigating his dad.
The drawbacks:
Riker doesn't catch up with his dad until the last 20 pages or so, and there's no big confrontation. All of that is saved for the next book in the series. This would be annoying even if the book was well-written, but it's not. AT ALL. Good God, this book is a headache. The plot is paper-thin. To reach his word count, Greenberger fills the pages with short scenes where Picard drinks tea and recaps what we know so far; then it cuts to Troi drinking mocha and she recaps what she knows so far; Geez, you think, isn't anybody going to do something to advance the plot? But the next scene is Crusher drinking coffee and recapping what she knows so far, then Geordi drinking water and musing about possible ways he COULD move the plot forward, but then he doesn't, and then we cut to Data drinking motor oil and counting sheep.
If you're a casual Picard/Crusher shipper, like me, then the Crusher/Original Character side-romance adds insult to injury.
The Verdict: Because so many important things happen in this duology, you might be tempted to read this one anyway. Don't. Skip to "A Time to Hate". It's not much better, but at least plot happens.
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A Time to Hate by Robert Greenberger
The draw:
There's a lot more juicy Riker stuff to be found in this novel, although I gave it a worse rating than "A Time to Love" on Goodreads. Riker spends the entirety of this book stuck in a small aircraft with his father, and occasionally landing to break up violent mobs or rescue small children from fires. The father-son angst is often satisfying, especially when Riker's competence starts to show, and his dad's negative viewpoint of him is forced to change.
And we get plenty of hurt!Riker here, too. His father is often the culprit (at one point, he jabs his hand against Will's throat and then smashes his head against the dashboard over and over again, until Will passes out) but mostly it's exhaustion, sleeplessness, lack of food, stress.
The drawbacks:
Almost too many to count! Again, the plot is terrible, so weak it looks like rice porridge without the rice. The Kyle-Will interactions are more often infuriating than satisfying. Much of the book seems devoted to convincing readers Kyle is competent and should be respected, and this is achieved largely by making Will look dumb. The author tries to excuse this by claiming, over and over again, that being around his dad makes Will revert to a childish state.
Okay, cool, if that's how you want to explain it. It's even more infuriating now! Will is shown bumbling around after his father, asking stupid questions that often don't even work as exposition, feeling embarrassed that his dad is so much more competent than him, and struggling to catch up with basic logic. The novel wobbles between "Kyle is a bad dad" and "Will is a bad son" without attempting any kind of nuance (not that I necessarily wanted nuance with these two, but Deny Thy Father did it splendidly). The ending scene, where Kyle sacrifices himself for Will, is hasty, poorly written in a technical sense, and unconvincing. The engagement between Riker and Troi is cute but feels strange and out of place immediately after Will's father died.
The Verdict: .....Is it weird to say I enjoyed it, though? I mean, purely as fic fodder. Nothing gets your inspiration going like watching someone else totally botch a plot you'd love to write.
Foreign Foes by Dave Galanter
The draw:
When a mission goes wrong, Riker and Troi are stranded on a mysterious alien ship (or what they assume is a ship). Riker is injured, and he and Troi are plunged right into peril as alien robots attack, also for mysterious reasons. The dialogue, especially the banter, is light, fun, and actually kind of sparkles. Picard and Worf get a decent share of the spotlight, with significant cameos from Geordi and Data iirc, so in many ways this book feels like a typical episode of TNG, but not a particularly memorable one.
The drawbacks:
The plot is solid but not as compelling as it could be. The prose is inoffensive, but highly skippable. I read this book back in October and I have trouble recalling any details! I know Worf was accused of murder; that should be a bit more memorable, no? 😆 And I remember in fair detail how Riker and Troi become stranded, the robots that attack them, the plot twist that they're not really in an alien ship at all ... but my memory stops there.
The Verdict: If you're making a comprehensive list of Riker books to read, this one is pretty low-priority. Nothing of particular interest happens; the hurt/comfort scenes are not particularly hurt/comforty, nothing memorably romantic occurs between Riker and Troi; and the overall plot is not very compelling. But hot damn is it better than A Time to Love!
Imzadi by Peter David
The draw:
This is kind of known as "THE" Riker/Troi book. I mean, look at the title. It shows us how young Riker and Troi met, the initial tension between them, the gradual thawing until they fell in love, and the inevitable break-up ... and at the same time we meet 73-year-old Admiral William Riker, who in another timestream is mourning for a version of Troi who died very young. This version of Riker goes through the Guardian of Forever in a desperate attempt to prevent Troi's death from happening.
On top of all these plot elements, the book is competently written with a tight structure and a compelling plot. Whether David brought us to Lieutenant Riker or Admiral Riker, I was still interested. In a purely technical sense, this book is better-written than Imzadi II, which focuses on the Worf/Troi/Riker love triangle. But...
The drawbacks:
The romance and characterization of Riker and Troi gave me a headache, moreso in the Lieutenant Riker flashbacks. I'll just repeat what I said on Goodreads: It comes across as very juvenile Battle of the Sexes. Riker, with his Starfleet values, is MALE: strong, virile, hates art, not in touch with his emotions, not interested in love, just sex. Troi, and all of Betazed, is FEMALE: willowy, frigid, weak, playing hard to get, and convinced that every problem can be solved with a sympathetic ear.
Also, this book was shot in the foot by publishers. Unable to move the Riker/Troi romance forward at all, but still required to write a Riker/Troi romance novel, David develops their relationship to the point where present-day Riker and Troi MUST get together. They simply have to. The reader can't fathom them NOT getting together. But since David wasn't allowed to write that, he ends the book on a hasty, goofy, laugh-track style scene where Riker comically refuses to commit.
The Verdict: It's a well-written book and certainly earned its reputation. I will almost certainly reread specific scenes again soon, even if I have quibbles with most of them. The wedding scene, where Riker meets Troi for the first time, and the river bank scene, where they spoon naked and adamantly do not have sex ... it's hard to rate, because the Battle of the Sexes put me off so badly, but I'd still whole-heartedly recommend it to any Riker/Troi fan.
Triangle: Imzadi II by Peter David
The draw:
As a Riker/Troi fan there are tons of moments I loved here. While Troi and Worf visit their parents to break the engagement news, Troi calls Riker by holo every night for an hour-long chat about her day. The casual, easy friendship with them stands out in stark contrast to Troi's often-tense and confused relationship with Worf, whose Klingon values clash with Troi's Betazoid philosophy. Throughout the book, Troi tries desperately to make her fling with Worf work, and she constantly comes up against reminders of how easy and natural things were with Will ... but Will isn't interested, right? He's made it abundantly clear that he just wants to be friends.
Lwaxana gets her fair share of screentime here and uses it to poke at Troi's choices in a delicious moment for Imzadi shippers. Like this:
Deanna: "Mother, I came to tell you I got engaged! I'm getting married!"
Lwaxana: "Oh, darling, congratulations!" (looks right past Worf) "And where is Mr. Riker? He didn't send you to make the announcement alone?!"
Worf chooses the Starfleet way; he chooses to let Troi and Alexander be killed. Riker chooses the opposite, and he's lucky that together, the five of them (including Thomas Riker) can find a way to reverse the damage he does. Of course, to Alexander and Troi, Riker isn't exactly the villain here, and it sets off new complexities in Worf's relationship with his son.
The drawbacks:
I mean, it's a Worf-Riker-Troi triangle. God.
More seriously, I felt a huge disservice was done to Worf here. I don't see him and Riker as antagonist; I prefer to read their relationship as close friendship and mutual respect. In this book, Worf is at times extremely bitter and jealous and it pulled me out of the story every time. I think it's fair to say that if you're a Worf fan first and foremost, this is 100% not the book for you. If you're an Imzadi fan, it's definitely worth it. The most annoying part is that David didn't have to make Worf look back in order to justify Troi's choice to be with Riker. I think for much of the book he did a good job of showing the incompatibility between Worf and Troi, and that was enough.
The Verdict: So long as Worf isn't your fave, I definitely recommend it. He's pretty high up on my list (I'd say it's Riker first, then Troi, then Worf for me, in a ranking of all TNG characters) but I still enjoyed this book immensely.
Tooth and Claw by Doranna Durgin
The draw:
Competence porn! Riker is stranded in a dangerous jungle with a condescending alien prince. With no tech and malfunctioning weapons, Riker must accompany the prince on a maybe-deadly hunting trip, where it seems that the prince's entire mission has been sabotaged by someone in the palace. This book is stuffed full with physical hurt/comfort for Riker and oodles of competence kink, as he slowly but brutally forces the prince to recognize that Riker is the one who really knows what he's doing here.
And again, the Worf/Riker fan in me was pleased by Worf coming to Riker's rescue and tending his wounds!
The drawbacks:
Not many, really! The B-plot could have been more compelling, but it was serviceable enough, and I didn't skip much. Geordi has a LOT of screen time here, which made the B-plot more fun. There's little to know Riker/Troi, FYI, and the alien prince is an annoying teenager, but I found him perfectly bearable. He served the purpose (spoiled prince archetype) without actually annoying ME, as a reader -- just annoying Riker, as a character.
The Verdict: Definitely recommend. My only caveat would be that I enjoy survival fiction more than most, so I might be biased here. If you hated books like Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain in school, this probably isn't for you.
Power Hungry by Howard Weinstein
The draws:
...Did I read this? Goodreads says I read this. I think in this one, Riker gets beaten up a lot, taken captive, knocked out at least three times, and spends most of the book separated from his crew and stranded in the desert with a bunch of angry aliens. That sounds like a lot of details to remember, but I really couldn't tell you more than that!
The drawbacks:
Troi is featured prominently on the cover, but not in the novel itself. This isn't a very memorable book.
The Verdict: Hell, there's tons of hurt!Riker in this one, but just be aware that it's not really the juicy hurt/comfort or whump variety. It's just your typical "Action Hero gets pummeled but doggedly goes on" stuff.
Ghost Ship by Diane Carey
The draw:
A fun spooky plot with lots of strong Star Trek-style ethical debates, and lots of cute moments between Season 1 Troi and Riker as they tentatively rekindle a clearly sparkling friendship. Data and Geordi are the real draw here, though. Their friendship/romance just leaps off the page, and Data gets the spotlight for SURE with plenty of emotional hurt/comfort and delicious drama.
The drawbacks:
The characters are at their most unlikable here. Riker is prejudiced against androids and repeatedly says and does hurtful things to Data, eventually leading to a suicidal risk on Data's part. Geordi is way more prickly and churlish here than he ever is in the show. Picard's arrogance and anger are dialed up to 1000. Wesley's inexperience and naivety is emphasized in a harsh and unfair way.
The Verdict:
I'd still recommend it! God, I mean, the sci-fi was solid, the premise was haunting, it had that classic Trek feel to it! The character work is extremely shaky, but when it's right, it's fantastic. Even when it's wrong, the author gives us some rewarding scenes. When Riker goes too far with the anti-android bigotry, we actually get a remarkable solo scene that shows him realizing what he's done, and the full weight of shame and regret fall down on him in a way you typically only see in (and I mean this as a compliment) stuffy literary novels about tortured English professors.
No really, I mean that as a compliment, it was a good scene 😆
A Time to Heal by David Mack
The draw:
Whump, whump, whump! Riker is captured by aliens and held in captivity for over a month. His cell is a tiny hole in the floor, with a grate over the top and a drain for human waste. He's bound hand and foot the entire time, with icy water occasionally poured into the hole to wash his uneaten food and raw sewage down the drain. The whump is brutal! It reminded me fully of the balls-to-the-wall whump fics you sometimes see, where no punches are pulled.
The drawbacks:
Well, all things told, there's only about four Riker scenes, and they're irritatingly short. You have to wade through a LOT of supporting characters to get to the good stuff ... and I couldn't tell you anything, really, about what those supporting characters were up to. Plus, when Riker finally does escape, there's no big reunion with Troi or aftercare for the reader, so to speak. We don't get so much as a paragraph about his wounds being healed, the emotional toll of the trauma, etc.
The Verdict: Maybe you can just find the Riker scenes online and read those 😆
Riker: The Enemy of My Enemy by Dan Abnett
The draw:
A quick and easy to read comic book with nice artwork and a strong focus on Riker, who tries to infiltrate a Maquis terrorist cell. This is more competence porn, and I appreciated it greatly.
The drawbacks:
...but despite the competence porn, there's really not much I can report about this one. I have a hard time remembering the details.
Star Trek TNG: Forgiveness by David Brin
The draw:
Another comic book, with art that's really beautiful for the guys (including my boy Riker) and really baffling for the girls (wtf did they do to Crusher??). It's a gem, though. Plenty of cute Riker/Troi interactions, but the main draw is the excellent plot.
The drawbacks:
The ending is admittedly weak, and like I said, the art is strangely alien for the women of the series.
The Verdict: Definitely recommend!
Deny Thy Father by Jeffrey J. Mariotte
The draws:
Practically everything! My goodness. Kyle and Will never cross paths in this book, but both are main characters, and to my surprise, I actually enjoyed Kyle's solo scenes just as much as Will's (at first). Both of them are given compelling plots. Will is a cadet at the Academy, struggling to stay on top of schoolwork and navigate tense relationships with other cadets (I know that sounds lame, but my god, I was into it. He and four other cadets are dropped into different places in San Fran, as part of a school assignment, where they have to first find each other and then work together to solve clues and make it back to school in a 5-day time limit. It's a section filled with tension, social politics, riddles and puzzles, budding friendships, and a special brand of competence, where Will is so young and reserved that he doesn't leap forward to take charge, but gradually shows his hand when circumstance demands it).
Kyle's scenes sound more compelling in summary, and are legitimately pretty good. A young Starfleet officer tries to kill Kyle in his own apartment. Kyle escapes unscathed, but an investigation begins shortly later, trying to pin the destruction of Station 311 on him. Kyle actually ends up leaving Earth for years, in hiding. But Kyle's scenes are so compelling because they explore his trauma and institute a believable timeline for why Kyle abandoned his son and why he hasn't contacted him since. The author gives us believable, sympathetic reasons for all this ... while still tossing in several asshole moments to show that Will's not being unreasonable with his anger, either.
Riker is young in this book, and his personality is somewhat different, by design. He's reserved, career-oriented, a bit stiff and shy. He initially struggles with the Academy workload, but gets progressively better at it each year, until finally he ends up 8th in his class. His studiousness and focus on his career lead to the ruination of several relationships, but it's nuanced and complicated, with his friends doing things wrong too. Very refreshing to see this in a Star Trek novel, of all things! It's something best-selling authors struggle with; too often the conflicts are broken down into Bad Guy vs. Good Guy, and even when the author pays lip-service to "Bad Guy has a point", their narration makes it clear they don't believe it, and you shouldn't, either.
Well, we just don't see that here. The characters are young, flawed. Sometimes they're in the wrong and sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're in the right about one thing, but handling it the wrong way, and they can easily dismiss the criticism because it's coming from people who are outright wrong. The writing here was just very competent and fun to read. Will's fellow cadets are intriguing and likable. There's a queer romance between two of them, including Will's love interest, which was very sweet and nuanced as well.
But now for the drawbacks! It's a doozy, guys.
Drawback:
WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THE CIVIL WAR STORY???
Halfway through the book, Will gets a history-based assignment: study the life of one individual soldier, not a general, nobody special. Will chooses his ancestor Thaddius, who fought in the American Civil War. This chapter starts out ... okay. There's a diary entry from Thaddius, with period-typical spelling inconsistencies, a bit too flowery to be convincing, but okay. Then, in a baffling turn of events, the author decides to take us into a narrative retelling of the day Thaddius Riker freed the enslaved people at a Southern plantation.
......
And that would be bad enough if it were well-written. It's such a strange thing to plop in the center of your novel. But it's NOT well-written. Good God, is it not. The dialogue is cheesy, stereotypical, just utterly cringe-worthy, oh my god. The depiction of enslaved people is so bad it's reminiscent of a minstrel show. I don't have my copy but I'll try to recreate the full effect here.
Thaddius lowered his rifle. On the steps of the plantation was the loveliest woman he ever did see, with honey blonde hair spilling over her ivory shoulders. She had a gun pointed right at Thaddius' face.
"Y'all Union boys better git now," she said. "I won't have you ransacking my husband's farm!"
"Ma'am, it's about time you learned that people aren't property," Thaddius declared.
"I'd rather die!"
Behind the woman, a man in patched trousers appeared, wringing his hands.
"Are you a slave, sir?" Thaddius called. The slave ducked his head.
"I heard there was white devils in the Union Army," said the slave. "But y'all don' look like no devils to me, suh. Is you angels or devils, suh?"
.........
I'll stop there, ugh. It was so insanely bad. The rest of the book was so good, too. This random, unnecessary Civil War scene was a total slap in the face. Offensive, stereotypical, just baffling. Why is it in here? Who let this happen?? God.
For the sake of consistency I'll cover some other flaws. In the second half of the book, Kyle's story takes a sharp nosedive and becomes so incredibly boring. He gets involved with alien revolutionaries. The nuance goes out the window. He falls in love with a mysterious woman who of course tragically dies right in front of him.
The Verdict: This book is unrated on Goodreads, because I think the non-Civil War parts are some of the best Trek writing I've read outside of Diane Duane. But that Civil War part is just... goddamn. If you're deeply interested in the Kyle-Will relationship, and you can stomach a single chapter of the stuff I've written above, then I recommend it. It doesn't get worse than my example; it does get better. Mariotte's version of the scene has a bit more padding which makes the ridiculous dialogue and racism ... a little...microscopic bit less noticeable. But if you can't stomach it, then fuck, I don't blame you!
Okay, that's a wrap! I'd say I started and didn't finish 7-8 other Riker books in the past four months. The fact that I didn't finish them is no indicator of quality; actually, all of them seemed pretty damn good. I just got into queer books instead for a while. Later I might edit this with a follow-up for those books, or make a separate post, but for now, that's all!
