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Picking a top, single novel is difficult for me. However, in no particular order, my top five are:

The Romulan Way, by Diane Duane. As in-depth worldbuilding as you can get while writing a novel. It appealed to my inner (well, not-so-inner) geek.

Federation, by Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens. I thought it a much better story than First Contact's version of the first warp flight and its consequences (mostly because it had more room to do it in). It was also a very good allegory of the dual nature of Trek and Trek fans in general.

The Kobayashi Maru, by Julia Ecklar. Intensely funny and sad at the same time. If for no other reason, go out and read it for Scotty destroying 17 klingon cruisers through the application of SCIENCE!tm.

Memory Alpha, by Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens. A classic murder-mystery with a very classic Trekkish twist to it.

Doctor's Orders, by Diane Duane. While it takes the "Space is an Ocean" metaphor perhaps a little bit too far, seeing Bones's classic sarcasm inflicted on some aggressive klingons is just too funny to pass up.

As you can probably see, I tend to like particular authors' styles. It may be a failing, but...

On second thought, I'd like to add Balance of Power by Dafydd Ab Hugh
It basically makes fun of the technobabble concept through the entire book, and Wesley is the cabin boy for a Ferengi.

The Kobayashi Maru, by Julia Ecklar. Intensely funny and sad at the same time. If for no other reason, go out and read it for Scotty destroying 17 klingon cruisers through the application of SCIENCE!tm.

I'd forgotten that one

Scotty uses a highly theoretical paper (His own) to slag the Klingons

Sulu follows the regs and leaves them to their fate, concluding it is a Klingon trap

Chekov, very Russian, self-destructs the ship

To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh, it follows Khan from his exile on Ceti Alpha V to when Reliant finds the survivors. It paints a great picture of a man slowly going mad as his followers are slowly killed off by the Ceti Eel's, a civil war and his wifes death. It sets up a great relationship between Khan and Joachim, who he basically adopts as his own son, and even has a neat explanation for why he wears a single glove.

Cpl Kendall wrote:To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh, it follows Khan from his exile on Ceti Alpha V to when Reliant finds the survivors. It paints a great picture of a man slowly going mad as his followers are slowly killed off by the Ceti Eel's, a civil war and his wifes death. It sets up a great relationship between Khan and Joachim, who he basically adopts as his own son, and even has a neat explanation for why he wears a single glove.

Yeah, Greg Cox's Khan trilogy is a great read. I loved how he managed to tie the Eugenics Wars into seemingly unrelated events/disasters of the late 20th Century.

Burak Gazan wrote:

I'd forgotten that one

Scotty uses a highly theoretical paper (His own) to slag the Klingons

Sulu follows the regs and leaves them to their fate, concluding it is a Klingon trap

Chekov, very Russian, self-destructs the ship

My favorite is still Sulu's paper crane: "I am a primitive thermonuclear device..."

JudgeKing wrote:

JME2 wrote:So JudgeKing, is Beneath the Raptor's Wing worth picking up? One of my greatest regrets over ENT was that I thought we would eventually see the conflict in later seasons and that by the time they planting seeds, it was too late.

Yes, it is indeed worth picking up. It covers the first year of the war.

I would second the recommendation with the proviso that you should read the ENT novels The Good that Men Do and Kobayashi Maru first. They form a duology that sets up the events leading to the Romulan War, including a rewriting of the final episode. Long story short, the holodeck history we see in the final episode of ENT is discarded as a deliberate deception to cover various classified events, with the ENT books from "The Good..." forward revealing the real history. As a result, you might find yourself a little lost if you jump straight from the Enterprise series to Raptor's Wing.

JME2 wrote:

aieeegrunt wrote:There was a book from very early on that gave the Klingons the same treatment that the Romulan Way did for the Romulans, but I cannot remember the title. I remember the Klingons being treated in a more sophisticated pre-TNG way. The book is set prior to TOS; there is a brief cameo of a very young Spock.

I believe you're taking about The Final Reflection.

A very belated thank you, that was it.

aieeegrunt wrote:

JME2 wrote:

aieeegrunt wrote:There was a book from very early on that gave the Klingons the same treatment that the Romulan Way did for the Romulans, but I cannot remember the title. I remember the Klingons being treated in a more sophisticated pre-TNG way. The book is set prior to TOS; there is a brief cameo of a very young Spock.

I believe you're taking about The Final Reflection.

A very belated thank you, that was it.

No problem.

I want to throw another Q novel onto the list: Keith R.A. deCandidio's TNG realunch novel Q&A.

Now, I hate the TNG novel relaunch with a passion (or at least everything up to the Destiny trilogy; the geo-political fallout and the coming Typhon Pact mini-series has potential. The Titan series is still good too.), but KRAD's novel thankfully moves away from that and, as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of TNG, focuses on TNG's first omnipotent antagonist. While it does continue TNG relaunch storylines, KRAD follows up on threads Christopher Bennett planted at the end of the TNG novel The Lost Era: The Buried Age. In doing so, he reveals Q's true motivation behind the Trial of Hummanity and his interest in Picard, tying together almost all of Q's appearances throughout the TNG era (though the explanation for the events of "Q-Pid" is hysterical).

JME2 wrote:

Gandalf wrote:My favourite was probably the adaptation of the six episode Dominion War arc by Diane Carey. It gave the episodes a nice amount of depth that made it more interesting.

Yeah, I always liked the books' take on Dukat during that time frame, that he knew damm well the Dominion was going to screw over Cardassia and was deliberately stalling on taking the minefield down so as to give the Cardassian military time to recover.

I liked the scenes involving Admiral Ross. He was proud to be "flying a desk". When discussing the loss of the Seventh Fleet, he also talks about the loss of personnel as opposed to ships. He discusses the loss of X captains, y commanders, etcetera.

I rarely enjoy combat scenes in books. I don't know why.

My favorite series is probably the Stargazer series. It's a rather enjoyable read. However, I have read quite a few of the Lost Era books as well.