Linking to Steve Donoghue once again:

Book Trek 2021 Plans! #BookTrek21!

What caught my ear on this video in particular was the mention of Diane Carey.  Watch the video from 5:36, when Steve is talking about his favorite Star Trek writers: 

of course Diane Carrey who I consider to be the best Star Trek writer, a writer who never phones it in and who never insults the the intelligence of her readers and who also understands nautical matters which almost no other Star Trek writers do, has spent time on the open ocean

Diane Carey was my favorite Star Trek writer when I was in 5th grade.  I read Battlestations! and absolutely loved it.  Then I read Dreadnought! next.  (Dreadnought! was actually the first book in the series and Battlestations! the sequel, but I read Battlestations! first because I didn't know any better initially, and then circled back to read Dreadnought! once I realized Battlestations! was a sequel.)

I actually did my 5th grade oral book report on Dreadnought!  I had to make a poster and talk about the plot of the book.  I must have done a good job of selling it, because afterwards several of my classmates were looking for the book in our school library, and I had to explain that our school library didn't actually have it, and I had gotten the book from a bookstore.  "What, did you just choose a book outside of the library just to frustrate us, so nobody could find it?" one of the girls said to me (only half-jokingly).

My memories is that I liked Diane Carey for her plots, and not for her prose.  I found her prose hard going back in 5th grade, but I loved the way the action of the book kept steadily escalating and escalating and the screws kept getting tighter and tighter on the main characters.

I want to say I've read one or two other Diane Carey books back in my adolescence, but I can't remember which ones they were.  Looking at her Wikipedia Bio, I don't recognize anything else.  Possibly I read Ghost Ship, although I don't have any clear memories of it.

Update:

Steve Donoghue was kind enough to respond on Twitter:

These two are very, very enjoyable - if you can overlook the 800-pound Mary Sue in the room!

— steve donoghue (@stdonoghue) July 31, 2021

I was just looking this up on Wikipedia, and apparently even the cover art is based on Diane Carrey and her husband. But I am 100% willing to forgive it all. https://t.co/hpOwxHg3pj

— Joel Swagman (@JoelswagmanJoel) July 31, 2021

I had no idea that these books were known as Mary Sue back in 5th grade, but that does seem to be the predominate term associated with them on the Internet now.  See this Tor.com review: Mary Sue Fights Fascism: Diane Carey’s Dreadnought! and Battlestations!