ED novels worth a read?

[Kayvan]

I just learned that there are novels set in the ED universe. Are they any good? Which ones do you particularly recommend?

Also, how closely do the novels stick to the game mechanics/"physics", i.e. does it also take the protagonists just 5 minutes to get from Mars High to Lave Station?

 

[Zieman]

I think they're all worth a read. They do come in some variety of styles regarding how "serious" they are, but I found them all more or less entertaining.
I'd recommend at least Drew Wagar's Elite: Reclamation and Elite: Premonition.
Michael Brookes' Elite: Legacy too along with Lave Revolution (Allen Stroud), And Here the Wheel (John Harper) plus Out of the Darkness (T. James) are quite nice in deepening the setting of the game.
Others were more or less light-hearted scifi-romps in/around loosely E: D universe.

Some of the concepts & techs in these books are outdated / changed in the current game, cannot be helped as various writers had different backgrounds and expectations of what is to come, and FDEV hasn't stayed completely true to the writers' design document the authors had as their quideline back then.

 

[Slowfiddler]

Drew Wagar's Oolite novels are excellent. I highly recommend them.
Status Quo, Mutabilis, Incursio and Finis. I haven't read Altera yet though.

ed. Probably not strictly ED lore/canon but they have a very interesting take on Thargoids.

 

[Bottom Hat]

I like the ones that @drew wrote - they fitted nicely. Having said that I haven't read any of the others since I was under ten yo!

 

[Vingtetun]

Yes.
Start with Mickael Brookes one.