Captain Ezri Dax of the USS Aventine in the Relaunch novels, particularly the Destiny trilogy.

I haven't gotten to those particular books yet, but Ezri seems so much more developed in the books I have read that she nearly seems like a different character than the one I saw on screen.

The key point to me is that Ezri, not having been prepared for symbiosis has a very different journey than did Jadzia. More, Ezri was already vulnerable due to an unhealthy family of origin, with her choice of Starfleet being to some degree an escape. Ezri can’t survive symbiosis as the same person she was going in. We saw in DS9, how Ezri was at risk of being overwhelmed by the agenda of the symbiont and the memories of past hosts. The end result was likely to be more Dax than Ezri. Even Jadzia was shown having to work through issues with as a host of a symbiont with many past lives, most of which ended with unfulfilled ambitions and unresolved baggage. Jadzia’s pursuit of a relationship with Worf was significantly influenced by Dax, and especially Curzon’s desire to explore, experience and understand Klingon culture. Given Ezri was effectively an involuntary host, accepting out of duty rather than a lifelong ambition, her initial indecision and inconsistency was to be expected. She was however trained as a counsellor. I like the way that the books worked through the implications having Ezri wrangle and tame the demands of the past host by utilizing her counsellor skills. I also agree with the books that her insights as a counsellor would lead her to be able to understand that Dax had an unfulfilled ambition to rise up through Starfleet. Ezri would likely appreciate that her tenure as host would be Dax’s last opportunity to experience the full Starfleet senior officer career that was cut short when Jadzia was killed. In the end, to me it makes sense that having wrangled all the strength of past lives and the Dax host, Ezra’s own self would come out stronger and ready for captaincy.

I like Christine Vale, Riker's XO from the Titan books. And of course, Captain Mackenzie Calhoun from New Frontier. Oh and Leslie Parrish from the Errand of Vengeance/Fury trilogies.

I'm reading through the Titan series now, currently on Fallen Gods, book 7, I think. Vale always seems like such a hot head (Riker too sometimes). Any time a new alien shows up she's like "WTF are you doing here? GTF off our ship." Haha.

Valdyr and Peter Kirk from AC's "Sarek". I thought they were cooler breaks from their typical Klingon/Starfleet archetypes John Harriman from "Captain's Daughter" and "Serpents Among the Ruins". I know he's not a novel character but I thought he was really well fleshed out in them Most of the cats from "Uhura's Song" was great. It would nice to see them incorporated into the franchise Afsarah Eden from the Voyager novels. I wasn't a fan of her ending but I thought she was pretty cool Data Soong, "The Light Fantastic". I like how his father set him in a really unusual dynamic and got to be a father to Lal

Yes, I really liked some of the feline characters in ***Uhura's Song***. Especially Brightspot, Jinx and Rushlight.

Zefram Cochrane as portrayed in *Federation*. Not that I have any issues with the onscreen version, but I knew this version first, and I like him. Also the weird as hell space Nazi antagonist of the same book, Adrik Thorsen—what a terrible but fascinating guy. (Yes, I know, not exactly a Nazi, but shitty authoritarianism all looks the same after awhile.)

L.J. Aka'ar, the grown-up baby from TOS episode "Friday's Child." The peace his birth was supposed to bring didn't happen, and he ended up growing up in exile in the Federation and joining Starfleet, appearing in a bunch of relaunch novels (the ones I read were early DS9 relaunch stuff). The "L.J." stands for "Leonard James," of course.

He was the >!admiral in charge of Starfleet in those novels, wasn't he?!<

Definitely that rank, not sure about the rest, at least as far as the in-story time of the books I read.

Answer to your question: >!He does not start out as such but does become such as the litverse progresses. !<

Thanks for sharing, I didn't realize they wrote about him. I'm a sucker for almost anything related Bones. I also like these kinds of connected characters who are "strangers I'm a strange land"

I've only read DS9 books so far, so I don't have a large pool to draw on at this point... Anyway, mine are Pharh and Taran'atar. They both give such interesting insights into their respective races.

It i hard to say. I have read so many ST books, and there are so many characters. I would have to say Naraht from My Enemy, My Ally stands out as one of my favorites. The idea of a young, idealistic Horta is fascinating.

Oh yes, I forgot about him. He was also mentioned in the ones I mentioned, ***Spock's World*** for example also written by Diane Duane like your example. So maybe that's one of her original characters.

I’m very very late to this, but I just wanted to say that I love K’tl’k so much too! I can’t remember which book it was in (either in one by A C Crispin or Diane Duane) but there was an alien who could tell what was wrong with a computer program by eating it! I thought that was pretty neat

I think that might have been the young Horta that joined Starfleet, I believe his name was Naraht or something like that.

I like Sekaya and Dr. Kaz from the Voyager relaunch

Ael t'Rllaillieu and Arrhae from the Rihannsu books. Also Diego Reyes, Tim Pennington and T'Prynn from Vanguard

Off the top of my head: * Nick Keller (*Challenger* by Diane Carey) * Shucorion (*Challenger*) * Roberta Luke (*Shadow* by Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch) * Tork (*Objective: Bajor* by John Peel)

Not *technically* a novel character, but one of my favorite books is Cast No Shadow, and it's an awesome **Valeris** redemption story. They go into the forceful mind-meld Spock did on her, background on how Adm. Cartwright brought her into the conspiracy we see in ST:VI, and her eventual redemption. Quality read!

Thirishar ch'Thane and Sam Bowers from the DS9 relaunch

Nanietta Bacco. Mackenzie Calhoun. Christine Vale.

Oh, I've read some books that take place after Bacco's assassination. Does she die in a book, or is her death just a prelude to others stories?

Nannette Bacco first appears in the last book of the A Time To... series. She is a recurring character in the Litverse till the event you mention which does happen in one of the Litverse books.

Zar (*Yesterday’s Son/Time for Yesterday*) Evan Wilson/Tail-Kinker (*Uhura’s Song*) Brightspot (*Uhura’s Song*) Jinx (*Uhura’s Song*) Rushlight (*Uhura’s Song*) Ensign Naraht (Diane Duane novels) Quintin Stone (*A Rock and a Hard Place*) Snnanagfashtalli (*The Entropy Effect*) Jenniver Aristeides (*The Entropy Effect*) Security Officer Neon (*The Entropy Effect*) Christine Vale (multiple TNG/Titan books) Alexandra Tremontaine (*Crucible: The Fire and the Rose*) \*Tonia Barrows (*Crucible: Provenance of Shadows*) \*Saavik (*The Pandora Principle*) Jeremy Grayson (*Strangers from the Sky*) Stargazer crew (*Reunion*/Stargazer novels) Nanietta Bacco (*Articles of the Federation*) (\*Of course, these are cheating as they’re originally onscreen characters, but these books develop the characters so much more that I include them here.)

Oh I liked Jeremy Grayson as well.