i need to know if this is the correct reading order for the new reluanch of kirk's era books. 1) the janus gate trilogy 2) errand of vengence trilogy 3) gemini 4) garth of izar 5) the case ofthe colonist corpse 6) engines of destiny 7) errand of fury trilogy 8) burning dreams 9) constellations anthologies 10) crucible trilogy 11) excelsior : forged in fire 12) troublesome minds 13) inception 14) unspoken truth 15) the children of kings 16) a choice of catastrophes forthcoming** 17) castno shadow forthcoming** is this the correct reading order or am i missing something.
If I remember correctly, The Janus Gate trilogy was suppose to be a 'relaunch' of sorts for The Original Series literature... but it seemed to fizzle out pretty quick.
IIRC It was supposed to show the TOS era from the perspective of lower deck personell, and thus was called some kind of reboot by ORdover IIRC, but I don't think it was ever planned to be an ongoing narrative. @timothy: There are timelines who list the books chronologically (and I'm sure someone will be along to post a link to one eventually), but as I said the books are not connected, so in the end it doesn't really matter if you read them in order.
The modern TOS novels are all stand alones. In the 80's, TOS novels by Diane Duane, J.M. Dillard and one or two others had a loose continuity and recurring characters, although there were no big story arcs like nowadays.
As stated, most of those are completely independent of one another. The only ones that are directly connected to one another are the two Errand of... trilogies. There's no necessary reading order, since they're separate standalones, but to give a rough idea of when they each take place, in very rough chronological order where applicable: The Children of Kings: Takes place sometime during Pike's command, evidently before "The Cage." However, it's not exactly in the standard Trek timeline. Inception: Takes place in 2261, when Spock first meets Leila Kalomi and Kirk is involved with Carol Marcus. Constellations: Various stories taking place throughout the 5-year mission. The Janus Gate: takes place in the early first season, immediately after "The Naked Time." Errand of Vengeance/Fury: takes place interspersed with much of the first season, serving as prequels to "Errand of Mercy," as the titles suggest. Gemini: evidently second season, since it refers to "Amok Time" as somewhat recent. The Case of the Colonist's Corpse: Second season, concurrent with "The Trouble with Tribbles." This is basically a Perry Mason mystery starring Samuel T. Cogley in Mason's role. A Choice of Catastrophes: Reportedly in the second season, shortly after "Return to Tomorrow." Garth of Izar: toward the end of the 5-year mission, allegedly 2 years after "Whom Gods Destroy." Troublesome Minds: takes place late in the 5-year mission. Unspoken Truth: spans years of Saavik's life, but the main storyline covers about a year following The Voyage Home. Excelsior: Forged in Fire: Captain Sulu's first mission, starting in late 2289, three years before The Undiscovered Country. Cast No Shadow: I don't know why this is listed as a TOS novel, since it's mainly a story about Valeris and novel character Elias Vaughn. It's set in 2300. Engines of Destiny: Not a TOS-era novel at all, since it deals with Scotty in the 24th century going back in time to prevent Kirk's "death" aboard the Enterprise-B and thus changing history, and working with Guinan to fix the timeline. It basically goes in 2369, soon after TNG: "Relics." These are harder to place in a timeline: Burning Dreams: Essentially a biography of Christopher Pike, spanning his lifetime and having frame sequences both shortly after "The Menagerie" and decades later in 2320. Crucible trilogy: Each book spans decades, covering events throughout the lives of McCoy, Spock, and Kirk, though they all pretty much use "City on the Edge of Forever" as their launching point. It wasn't meant to be a "reboot" in the sense of replacing regular TOS novels, but it was meant to be ongoing, running parallel with the regular books. And it was the exact opposite of the post-series novels that are popularly called "relaunches," because it took place during TOS whereas the majority of TOS novels take place afterward. The idea was to bring a modern serial sensibility to TOS, to take the one-shot guest stars and casualties from TOS episodes and develop them as ongoing characters so that their onscreen appearances/demises would have more meaning. But it didn't work out as planned. IIRC, the actual books ended up not being distinct enough from regular TOS books, the "lower decks" continuity element not as prominent as it was supposed to be, so the idea of continuing it as a distinct subset of TOS fiction was dropped.
wow cool thanks for the info. so where does the vanguard series fit in and should i get into these new books. cause I read up to the empty chair and took a break and then I had a robery from a room mate while I was on vaction so I am rebuilding everything ground up.
Dang, sorry about the robbery. As for Vanguard, it's a series that runs concurrently with TOS but focuses on a different cast, although a lot of the stuff that happens in Vanguard foreshadows or elaborates on events in TOS. The first book guest-stars the Enterprise crew as they're returning from the edge of the galaxy following the second pilot. The second and third books are set between the second pilot and the first season, the fourth book spans most of the first season, and the fifth book spans about a year after that, covering parts of the first and second seasons.
Vanguard is some of the best TOS era I've read. You just have to like the fact it's a completely original crew. Also, events in Vanguard are mentioned in the current TNG books (as past events) so it's connected canonically.
thanks , I am slowly rebuilding my library. so far i started with enterprise relaunch and was wondering were to go from there vanguard seems fun so should I mess with these new books or go onto the next generation time line?
Up to you really, Vanguard of course takes place about 118 years before the current TNG storyline's. I've recently just got back into reading Star Trek after stopping in the mid '90s. I started with the five Vanguard books ('cause the covers looked so damn cool,) then, after coming in here and poking around and asking the same questions you are...read the TNG Destiny Trilogy then TNG Losing the Peace and A Singular Destiny which has pretty much got me up to speed on what's going on. From there you can go with the Typhon Pact books, the Titan Series, Voyager...etc, etc. For myself am going back and going to start reading KRAD's Klingon Empire books as well as stuff like Articles of the Federation, Greater Than The Sum, and so on then come back to Voyager and The Typhon Pact.
do i jump into the destiny or back track on ds9 , tng , voy s.c.e , new frontier and what about the titan series?
I had similar questions about the 24th century novels a month or so ago. You really need to read through the Charting the Novel-verse thread. Between some very helpful suggestions and reading through this thread, I was able to come up with my own reading order that very closely, if not exactly matches what the going consensus agrees is the best order in which to read these books. I'd taken a ten to twelve year break from TrekLit and wanted to catch up properly. I'm working on it on my new Kindle 3 as we speak (post?) Personally, I feel you should start with the DS9 relaunch but many don't feel it's as important and start with the Voyager relaunch. I'll attach my reading order below and you can use it as you wish. If you don’t want to read through the DS9 relaunch, they’d be pretty easy to drop off since I’m fairly certain every single one of them fits falls before the Voyager relaunch. I hope it's helpful and saves you and anyone else reading this thread the time it took me to put it all together, though it was a lot of fun doing the research and putting the list together. - Byron http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=122092 The proper 24th Century reading order, as per Byron Followell, opinions may vary: DS9: A Stitch In Time DS9: Avatar, Book One DS9: Avatar, Book Two DS9: Section 31: Abyss DS9: Gateways, Book Four: Demons of Air and Darkness DS9: Gateways, Book Seven: What Lay Beyond: Horn and Ivory DS9: Mission Gamma, Book One: Twilight DS9: Mission Gamma, Book Two: This Gray Spirit DS9: Mission Gamma, Book Three: Cathedral DS9: Mission Gamma, Book Four: Lesser Evil DS9: Rising Son DS9: Unity DS9: Worlds of Deep Space Nine, Volume One: Cardassia & Andor DS9: Worlds of Deep Space Nine, Volume Two: Trill & Bajor DS9: Worlds of Deep Space Nine, Volume Three: Ferenginar & The Dominion DS9: Warpath DS9: Fearful Symmetry DS9: The Soul Key DS9: The Never Ending Sacrifice VOY: Homecoming VOY: The Farther shore VOY: Old Wounds VOY: Enemy of My Enemy TNG: A Time to Be Born TNG: A Time to Die TNG: A Time to Sow TNG: A Time to Harvest TNG: A Time to Love TNG: A Time to Hate TNG: A Time to Kill TNG: A Time to Heal TNG: A Time for War, a Time for Peace TNG: Death in Winter TTN: Taking Wing TTN: The Red King TNG: Articles of the Federation TTN: Orion's Hounds TNG: Resistance TNG: Q & A TNG: Before Dishonor TTN: The Sword of Damocles TNG: Greater Than The Sum Destiny: Gods of Night Destiny: Mere Mortals Destiny: Lost Souls TNG: Losing The Peace Destiny: A Singular Destiny VOY: Full Circle VOY: Unworthy TTN: Over a Torrent Sea TTN: Synthesis Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game Typhon Pact: Seize the Fire Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire Typhon Pact: Paths of Disharmony
It wasn't prominent in the Janus Gate novels (though as is typical for L.A. Graf novels, they focused on Sulu/Chekov/Uhura/Scotty instead of Kirk/Spock/McCoy), but I thought that the Errand of Vengeance trilogy did a pretty good job of maintaining a "lower decks" feel. Even though it was a lower deck Klingon.
True, but I think it was that lack of unity between the two trilogies that kept them from feeling like a continuing series worthy of its own separate subtitle. Well, to quote myself from the original review thread: