Book reading timeline

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by mindx2, Jul 14, 2011.

  1. Thrawn

    Thrawn Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    Sure; with all the lists here I figured it was covered, but I'll put mine up tomorrow.

    I'm glad you're still interested :)
     
  2. mindx2

    mindx2 Commander Red Shirt

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    Any chance you still might post that list....? :biggrin:
     
  3. Thrawn

    Thrawn Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    ^ Sorry, I've been totally lame about that. Life, she is unpredictable, eh? :)

    Either way, this is going to be a bit of an anti-climax, because Nasat pretty much nailed it. I haven't read most of what's in the Charting the Novel-Verse thread that Nasat didn't include. I do have a few additions, but they're pretty simple.

    - Read the Invasion miniseries. Just by itself. Don't worry about chronology. It stands alone and it's super fun.

    - Read "Last Full Measure" before "The Good That Men Do".

    - If you like Pike, read "Burning Dreams" and "Vulcan's Glory" before Vanguard.

    - DEFINITELY read "The Pandora Principle" before "Unspoken Truth".

    - The early PAD books are pretty outstanding. Read these all before "The 34th Rule": TNG Strike Zone, A Rock & A Hard Place, Vendetta, Q In Law, Imzadi, Q Squared, Imzadi II, I,Q, and DS9 The Siege.

    - Nasat missed some Mirror Universe stuff, I think. But the MU ties into itself a lot, and doesn't really have much to do with anything else until DS9: Warpath. So, what I would do is ignore all the MU stuff on Nasat's list, and then just read the whole thing right before you read DS9: Warpath. Replace the short novel version of The Sorrows Of Empire with the full-length reprint, and read the short stories from Shards & Shadows in chronological order with the novels & short novels from the other stuff. (This is easier to do when you have the books in front of you than it would be for me to list.) The MU stuff comes up in DS9: Warpath > Soul Key, and then in the NF comic Turnabout, which you should read after Missing In Action. The forthcoming "Rise Like Lions" can go anywhere after that, I bet.

    That's pretty much it. If you want a more complete version than that, you'll have to get someone else to do it; I haven't read anything else that I think belongs.


    EDIT: Oh wait sorry. Read TNG: Reunion, and then The Valiant, and then the six Stargazer books. Reunion takes place during TNG, but it actually introduces all of the characters in the first place (it was published first) and should be read that way. Read these before The Buried Age, even though Reunion takes place much later.
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2011
  4. mindx2

    mindx2 Commander Red Shirt

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    Thanks Thrawn. I appreciate your help. However, I'm not really looking for a reading order but an "in-continuity" chronological order. One that is not broken up into different series but one large chronology by book and related comic titles.

    Several of the lists here certainly help but does anyone have a comprehensive chronological list based mainly on the Charting the Novel-verse thread. I'm not really interested in material that doesn't relate somehow to the current continuity or directly contradicts it. I love how the Trek authors are integrating past characters and situations (such as Vendetta, Gemworld, etc.) into the current timeline. It enlarges this universe and makes it seem... well... "fuller", if you get my meaning.
    It's one reason I'm less interested in the TOS stuff as the Abrams-verse and the old dictated reset button makes it less cohesive, or so it feels to me.

    Again, any help is greatly appreciated and thank to all those that have responded.
     
  5. Thrawn

    Thrawn Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    ^ Fair enough, but why? Chronological order doesn't really make any sense for a lot of these books. If you're not going to read them in chronological order, why make the list?

    And if that's all you want, it's already been made; the book Voyages of the Imagination has a timeline of everything that was published up until about 2005, and the books after that are pretty easy to slot in on your own.
     
  6. mindx2

    mindx2 Commander Red Shirt

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    I have a reading list and have read most things up through Unworthy, except for the Titan books (hard to get into) or the Typhon Pact books (just finished Unworthy). I collect the books as well and am lining these books up chronologically on my bookshelves. Why? I don't know but as collector it's fun. The chronological thing is just me and my own little quirk :crazy:.

    I'll have to find a copy of the Voyages of Imagination book but a lot has been published since 2005 and I'd like to try and see which ones relate to each other, as the Charting the Novel-verse does so well. I'd also like to try and place any relevant comics within the chronology as there seems to be quite a few references contained within them.
     
  7. Thrawn

    Thrawn Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    ^ A lot of the stuff published since 05 has been part of the various post-Nemesis series, where chronological order has already been established in this thread; Vanguard, where chronological order is easy; or TOS standalones, where chronological order doesn't especially matter. I don't think it'll be as difficult as you suspect. Pretty much everything you need is in the Charting the Novel-Verse thread and Memory Beta.

    Plus there might be an updated version of that timeline somewhere after 05 floating around somewhere; I don't think it stayed completely up to date, but there might be a little more.

    Comics will be harder, it's true, but I haven't read any of the comics except the two NF ones, so I can't be much help there :)

    Good luck.
     
  8. ryan123450

    ryan123450 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Making progress on my site, but still a long way to go. It will be exactly what the OP is wanting, comics and all. Keep this in mind mindx2, by far the series with the most references linking to the modern continuity is TOS. So don't dismiss that series too quickly.
     
  9. kc5hwb

    kc5hwb Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Thanks to everyone for all the wondering information and timelines. Like the OP I am also very anal about reading these books in order and having them in order on my shelf.:bolian:

    I am actually doing the same thing on my site, and I would like to collaborate with you, if you are willing. Are you ready yet to share your URL? If you posted it in here, I missed it.

    I haven't uploaded my Star Trek Books list yet, but I do have a very large Word Doc, which includes absolutely everything in the ST Universe up until about 2 years ago. My work-in-progress it to go through it and weed out ONLY the novels (no comics, games, graphic novels, etc...)

    My site it posted in my sig.
     
  10. ryan123450

    ryan123450 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Cool blog kc5hwb. You and I have extremely simliar reading tastes. Four and a half years ago I too started out on a project I knew would take many years, reading the entire Star Wars EU in chronological order. I'd never read any of it. I decided though, to read the comics as well, which pretty much doubles the length of the reading list. I've currently made it to the middle of the Clone Wars.

    Funny thing about that is, as I approached the Clone Wars era I realized the timeline was in such flux currently that there was no definative chronological order to go by, so I had to make up a reading list order for myself. Not as much of a problem for you, only reading the books, but when you toss the comics in there it's quite a mess, incorporating the new stuff with the old. Like you, I'm also kind of a slow reader, and the fact that more and more Clone Wars era stuff keeps coming out has left me bogged down in that era for almost 2 years now.

    For a time I also contemplated reading Marvel and DC stuff, maybe even just the novels. So there's another similarity we have. I ended up not doing it though cuz my 'to-read' pile is so large already.

    As far as my site goes, I'm not yet ready to unveil it. I want it to be completed and impressive when I put it online. It's already got a sister-site which is a work in progess about how to watch LOST in chronological order. Coincidentally, I was also planning on a chronological Star Wars site as my next project in several months (though I'm debating the need for it since there are already so many amazing Star Wars timeline sites).

    Since our precise projects differ (you only including novels, me including comics, short stories, everything) and since we've both already got seperate sites (yours farther along than mine), I'm not sure what kind of collaboration can go on. I definitly want to check out what you put up when you're ready though, and I hope you'll give my site a look when it's online.
     
  11. kc5hwb

    kc5hwb Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Hi ryan123450, thanks for the comments.Basically I just want to build a good timeline list and post it to my blog, but I don't want to rip-off anyone else's work.Yes I would very much like to see your site when it is done.Keep in touch on my blog and I will be waiting to see your site when it is complete.
     
  12. ryan123450

    ryan123450 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well about 75% of the info I've got to build my lists is 'ripped-off' from the Charting the Novel-verse thread (with turtletrekker's blessing). So don't worry about it. The other 25% of the info is stuff I've mined from sources across the web that are out there for anyone else to find as well so I wouldn't consider it ripping off if you repurpose some of my list for your own work.

    Can't wait to share it all with everyone.
     
  13. Idran

    Idran Commodore Commodore

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    Silly question, but I'm a little curious about what you guys in the middle of a chronological reading project do as new books come out. Especially ones set before whatever point you're at. Do you hold off on them until you finish the books that existed when you started, or do you stick them next in your reading queue? Or would you even go so far as to stop your current book and get to that one, since it fits in before your current book?
     
  14. kc5hwb

    kc5hwb Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    My plan is basically to read each series in order, at least with the Star Wars books that I am now tearing through. For the Star Trek Books, which there are MANY more of, I just want to go in a basic order so that it follows a timeline. I've read some of the post-TNG books, most of the Titan books, and the first of the Vanguard books. And I plan to continue each of those, but I want to read each series in order. I don't necessarily care if I read Vanguard before TNG, before Titan, etc..

    That is just my plan, though...
     
  15. ryan123450

    ryan123450 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    With SW, I go back and read new stuff as it's published, but it usually takes me several months. I'd certainly never stop in the middle of another book to squeeze it in really fast.
     
  16. mindx2

    mindx2 Commander Red Shirt

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    I have another question:

    Where would you put each of the Captain's Table, Badlands (starting with the 1st story in the 1st book then the 3rd story in the 2nd book), Cast No Shadow and Day of Honor books in the novel chronology?

    Thank you as always!
     
  17. ryan123450

    ryan123450 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Ok, lets see...

    The Captain's Table-
    • Book 1- Framing story after TUC and The Last Roundup
    • Book 2- Framing story before Invasion!- The Soldiers of Fear and Generations
    • Book 3- Framing story between "Honor Among Theives" and "Change of Heart"
    • Book 4- Framing story between "Scientific Method" and "Year of Hell"
    • Book 5- Framing story between Fire on High and Double Time
    • Book 6- Framing story between "The Naked Time" and "Charlie-X"
    The Badlands-
    • Book 1- After "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" and before Seven Deadly Sins- The Unhappy Ones and "Day of the Dove"
    • Book 2- Between "Ensign Ro" and "Silicon Avatar"
    • Book 3- Between Double Helix- Quarantine and "Caretaker"
    • Book 4- Between "For the Uniform" and "By Inferno's Light"
    Day of Honor-
    • Book 1- Between Intellivore and Double Helix- Quarantine
    • Book 2- Between "Crossfire" and "Return to Grace"
    • Book 3- Between "Threshold" and "Meld"
    • Book 4- Between "Obsession" and "The Immunity Syndrome"
    Cast No Shadow-
    • Between The Sundered and Serpents Among the Ruins
    Most of this info is from MemoryBeta. Keep in mind that I see no evidence that The Badlands or Day of Honor have any connections to the Lit-verse.

    A question that occured to me about Cast No Shadows- will it be branded "A tale of the Lost Era"?
     
  18. mindx2

    mindx2 Commander Red Shirt

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    Any chance you could tell me where these go according to the novels and not the tv shows? :confused:
     
  19. Thrawn

    Thrawn Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    ^ Buy "Voyages of the Imagination". It will so easily answer all of this.

    And playing around on Memory Beta is also pretty easy.
     
  20. mindx2

    mindx2 Commander Red Shirt

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    I have it ordered but it won't be in for a while.