TOS movie era Novels?

[GalaxyClass1701]

I've read Ex Machina but are there any other you guys recommend?

[Christopher]

I've revisited the post-TMP/Ex Machina timeframe in Mere Anarchy: The Darkness Drops Again and next month's DTI: Forgotten History.

Surprisingly few authors have revisited the post-TMP era, but those who have tend to do so consistently. Most of Howard Weinstein's and L. A. Graf's novels are in that period: for the former, The Covenant of the Crown (a classic), The Better Man, and Deep Domain; for the latter, Ice Trap, Death Count, and Firestorm, plus the two solo novels by members of the "L. A. Graf" team, Julia Ecklar's The Kobayashi Maru and Melissa Crandall's Shell Game. (Crandall was only a member of "Graf" on Ice Trap; most "Graf" novels are by Ecklar and Karen Rose Cercone.)

There are also the two Pocket novels by Sondra Marshak & Myrna Culbreath, The Prometheus Design and Triangle, but those are kind of a read-at-your-own-risk proposition.

Diane Duane's early Rihannsu novels have been retconned in their Bloodwing Voyages versions to take place post-TMP, though they and The Wounded Sky were initially meant to take place in a hypothetical second 5-year mission between TOS and TMP (an idea which no longer fits modern chronological assumptions). Spock's World and the concluding Rihannsu novel The Empty Chair are also post-TMP, as is Rules of Engagement by Peter Morwood (Duane's husband and co-author on The Romulan Way).

Other post-TMP novels include:

Home is the Hunter by Dana Kramer-Rolls
Enemy Unseen by V. E. Mitchell
The Pandora Principle by Carolyn Clowes
Dwellers in the Crucible by Margaret Wander Bonanno

The 6-volume New Earth series allegedly takes place shortly after TMP, but it makes more sense if it takes place several years later, closer to TWOK, since Spock is a captain and Chekov leaves for the Reliant during the series.

The frame story of Strangers from the Sky by Bonanno takes place during Kirk's second Admiralty career prior to TWOK, as does Time for Yesterday by A. C. Crispin (the sequel to her TOS-era Yesterday's Son).

The frame story of To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox takes place between The Voyage Home and The Final Frontier. Books set after TFF include Probe (credited to Bonanno but actually heavily rewritten by other authors), In the Name of Honor by Dayton Ward, and most of The Rift by Peter David.

Books set between The Undiscovered Country and the Generations prologue are surprisingly numerous:

Aboard the Enterprise:
Best Destiny by Diane Carey
Sarek by Crispin
Shadows on the Sun by Michael Jan Friedman
The Last Roundup by Christie Golden
The Ashes of Eden by William Shatner with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Post-Enterprise:
The Fearful Summons by Denny Martin Flinn
The Captain's Table: War Dragons by Graf

Also, most of DC's TOS comics were set during the movie era.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

I'm currently reading "Return to Yesterday", set a few months prior to Wrath of Khan. It's fantastic so far. But, it's a sequel to the TOS 5YM era "Yesterday's Son" (well worth a read, irrespecive of the era it's set)

[Christopher]

^Err, you mean Time for Yesterday, right?

TfY is pretty much the linchpin of the loose inter-novel continuity of the '80s. Before then, several novels had made references to elements from certain earlier novels, mainly John M. Ford's Klingons and Duane's Rihannsu, but TfY brings in elements from multiple different novelists' works which had previously been unconnected.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

Christopher wrote:

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^Err, you mean Time for Yesterday, right?

Eep. Yes.

TfY is pretty much the linchpin of the loose inter-novel continuity of the '80s. Before then, several novels had made references to elements from certain earlier novels, mainly John M. Ford's Klingons and Duane's Rihannsu, but TfY brings in elements from multiple different novelists' works which had previously been unconnected.

That's something I've been really enjoying about the book. Lt. Naraht on the bridge, McCoy wanting to borrow Kirk's cabin in Garrovick Valley on Centaurus...

[Therin of Andor]

KingDaniel wrote:

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That's something I've been really enjoying about the book. Lt. Naraht on the bridge, McCoy wanting to borrow Kirk's cabin in Garrovick Valley on Centaurus...

And a cameo reference to a (temporarily promoted) Arex.

[WarsTrek1993]

"Excelsior: Forged In Fire" by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels takes place between TFF and TUC.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

Also set between STV and VI is Diane Carey's "Starfleet Academy", based (very) loosely on the PC/SNES game.

[ATimson]

KingDaniel wrote:

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Also set between STV and VI is Diane Carey's "Starfleet Academy", based (very) loosely on the PC/SNES game.

I don't know about the SNES game, but I thought it was a fairly faithful adaptation of the PC version...

[Jsplinis]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering which of the novels in the TVM/TWOK gap were explicitly written to be such?

I know Christopher L Bennet's were. As we're the New Earth and Rihansu updated versions. Deep Domain was the final mission of the 2nd 5ym. And I remember Kobayashi Maru, Time For Yesterday, Pandora Principle, Dwellers in the Crucible, and Strangers in the Sky take place then.

But what about...

1. Prometheus Design
2. Triangle
3. Home is the Hunter
4. Enemy Unseen
5. Time trap
6. Pawns and Symbols
7. Covenant of the Crown
8. Better Man
9. Ice Trap
10. Death Count
11. Firestorm
12. She'll Game

Are all of these definitely placed in the TVM/ TWOK gap?
We're any of them written with ambiguous placement? Were any of the early ones written as pre-TMP 2nd 5ym stories? Are any reassigned to this gap to make a bigger timeline to work?

Also can all of these stories be combined to form a unified continuity for the 2nd 5ym/ preTWOK period, or are there significant contradictions among them. I recall reading the New Earth is at conflict with Deep Domain in particular.

Thanks a lot and have fun,
Jsplinis

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

The Prometheus Design and Triangle were definitely written to be set shortly after TMP, but they were written before Wrath of Khan came along so there's no forshadowing of or continuity with it (although nothing that contradicts anything from it either, AFAIK)

Also be warned of some not-so-subtle K/S affection in those two.

The others, I'm afraid I don't recall. Although I'm pretty sure they don't make any kind of unified chronology.

[Christopher]

Jsplinis wrote:

---

But what about...

1. Prometheus Design
2. Triangle
3. Home is the Hunter
4. Enemy Unseen
5. Time trap
6. Pawns and Symbols
7. Covenant of the Crown
8. Better Man
9. Ice Trap
10. Death Count
11. Firestorm
12. She'll Game

Are all of these definitely placed in the TVM/ TWOK gap? We're any of them written with ambiguous placement? Were any of the early ones written as pre-TMP 2nd 5ym stories? Are any reassigned to this gap to make a bigger timeline to work?

Pawns and Symbols is apparently a "second 5-year mission" story; it's several years after "Day of the Dove," but the characters still have their TOS ranks and uniforms.

I'm uncertain about Timetrap; it's been ages since I read it. I checked the excerpts from it that are available on Google Books, and they do have elements that imply a movie-era setting: Kirk is musing about getting older, and it's been several years since "The Tholian Web." But otherwise it seems to be pretty ambiguous about its setting.

Also can all of these stories be combined to form a unified continuity for the 2nd 5ym/ preTWOK period, or are there significant contradictions among them. I recall reading the New Earth is at conflict with Deep Domain in particular.

The Prometheus Design and Triangle are off in their own little bizarre reality along with Marshak & Culbreath's Phoenix novels from Bantam.

Home is the Hunter conflicts with In the Name of Honor in that it kills off Mr. Garrovick, but I don't think it conflicts with any of the other books on your list.

Pawns and Symbols is in a reality by itself, offering a view of Klingons that doesn't mesh with other portrayals.

I'd say the last half of your list fits together, more or less; Covenant introduces a security ensign, Michael Howard, who also appears in one or two of the L. A. Graf books. But Ice Trap contradicts "The Ambergris Element" and Deep Domain in that it gives McCoy a phobia about drowning.

[Reanok]

Firestom By L.a Graff also takes place in the Tos movie era. Also some of the stories in Mere Anarchy take place after Startrek 6.

[JD]

Jsplinis wrote:

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Hi everyone,

I was wondering which of the novels in the TVM/TWOK gap were explicitly written to be such?

TVM?

[Christopher]

^The V'Ger Movie?