The first four Typhon Pact novels plus my novella The Struggle Within aren't really a single unified story, but a loose crossover in the vein of the earlier Invasion! or Section 31 books, or the TNG & DS9 Maquis episodes that set up Voyager -- a group of standalone tales whose common thread is that they all involve different groups dealing separately with the same entity. The idea was to do something in the vein of Worlds of Deep Space Nine, a vehicle to delve more deeply into various alien cultures that were still mysterious, like the Breen, Tzenkethi, Gorn, and Tholians -- with the more familiar Romulans included because they weren't featured in WoDS9, I guess, or maybe just as an anchor for the more obscure ones. They all advance different threads of the post-NEM continuity, some more than others, but they tell independent stories set at different times, and weren't even released in chronological order. However, the next couple of books under the TP branding, Plagues of Night and Raise the Dawn, were more of a unified story arc continuing on the previous volumes and leading into The Fall. But Brinksmanship, the other book under the TP label, was another fairly standalone tale.
Thanks for the response! I started reading Avatar recently and my current reading plan was to read basically the first wave of DS9 novels (up to the soul key), then The Articles Of Federation, then Destiny, then A Singular Destiny, then Typhon Pact, then the Fall, and then the rest of the DS9 novels. Nice to know that nothing else is needed to understand the big crossover series. Any recommended reading from TNG, Titan and otherwise that would help would be nice though, not that what I have on my plate isn’t a lot already!
jcyberinc, you would probably appreciate the flowchart at The Trek Collective that shows which books lead into and out of crossover events. The Star Trek authors will do their best to ensure that you can enjoy their book without any prior reading. I am rereading the second book in the Eugenics Wars duology by Greg Cox, and he drops enough information at the beginning that you could jump right in and know the basics of what happened in the first book without actually reading it. My advice to any newer Star Trek reader is to read what is most exciting to you first, and you can catch up on the previous adventures. Order (chronological or publication) is something I would consider if interest levels are about equal between two books.
For Titan, I think Orion's Hounds does a great job of fulfilling Titan's premise of multi-species ship exploring the unknown. It's the third novel in the series though. TBH, I'm not a big fan of the post-Nemesis TNG novels, but I did enjoy Q&A as a more light-hearted entry, that's not all that important to the overall story. I can also recommend TNG: Losing the Peace. It's a very interesting novel set during the aftermath of Destiny.
If you're going to read Articles of the Federation, then reading the first Titan novel, Taking Wing, might be a good idea. They are both part of a story arc that dealt with the aftermath of Nemesis, along with the TNG novel Death in Winter. Most of the reactions I saw to Death in Winter weren't that great, so I skipped that one, and was fine with just Taking Wing and Articles of The Federation.
Thanks for the heads up! I plan on reading it all eventually, but Titan is definitely up there with what interests me. Honestly everything does, but the Voyager ones right now and I'm sure that will change after my next rewatch of Voyager.
Curious about something... has there been any plan to follow up on what DRG3 said about the Tholians and Mantilles in Allegiance in Exile? Or was that mainly just a colorful aside? I was going through some of my notes from the books I read last year and that stood out to me. "Mantilles is vital to Federation security," Wesley says. Is there something going on there, or is it a Vanguard reference that slipped by me? I haven't quite finished Vanguard, but I don't recall anything about Mantilles so far (only got 1.5 books left), but it's been a while. The timing doesn't quite seem to pan out for that, as far as I can tell, but I may be wrong.
I don't think it's come up in any of the TNG, Titan, or Voyager books. I'm up to date of TNG/Titan, and only have 2 books left in VGR and Mantilles doesn't sound familiar.
I was just going through Voyages of the Imagination and noticed something... why did the Timeliners place Generations place so early in the year, between "Meridian" and "Defiant"? Dialogue in "Defiant" seems to indicate, to me, at least, that it takes place before the Enterprise-D was lost, and the stardates (not a reliable indicator, I know) would definitely indicate that as well. I always had Generations pegged around August, but VOI would place it more towards May-June, it seems... Has its placement been adjusted since VOI, or do the Timeliners still have it there?
Going by real-time release dates would put Generations between "Meridian" and "Defiant." The Star Trek Reading Order has it just a little later, showing up just after "Fascination."
Is that the only reason? Release/broadcast dates can be as unreliable as stardates at times. Especially when comparing films to TV. and especially for the 1994-95 season (2371) when DS9 and Voyager had such staggered releases. First Contact and Insurrection also don't match up well with "broadcast order" dating.
It is curious since Kira says "Commander Will Riker from the Enterprise". Not impossible that they'd identify him that way after it was destroyed, and that would provide Riker with a good opportunity to go hang out, but it's curious that it didn't come up, especially since it would've helped Tom's story. Though, out of universe, it's also possible it was intended to happen in release date order and they were avoiding spoilers for a movie that had barely come out when it aired.
Thanks! Good to know I haven't been off base. Is "Caretaker" now placed March-ish? I just noticed that VOI has it around June, and that doesn't make sense to me either, especially with the "10 months later" reference in "The 37s". Pretty much my thought. Will being on leave after the Enterprise's destruction would've been good cover for Tom's infiltration, but it doesn't come up. No one even expresses sympathy or concern that the Enterprise was gone -- which I have to assume would hit a chord with the DS9 crew having witnessed the Odyssey's destruction not too long before. Take all that and the stardates, and I can't fathom placing Generations before "Defiant."
We have it in late April according to its’ stardate. Though the 10 months later thing in The 37s is a datapoint we’ve not discussed, and really should look into. We’ve went back and forth on the first three TNG movies quite a bit. There’s things to be said for alternate placements for each of them. I really wish we’d somehow get a chance to get the project published again. I’d love to be able to show off all the incredible improvements we’ve made since it was last published. And actually having a deadline would give us motivation to finish the final touches on it that we’ve needed to get focused on for quite some time.
It's a shame they aren't including it in one or all three of the Coda books, it would have been the perfect place for it.
Any updates to the previous chart? I've been making my way chronologically through the LitVerse since 2015. I've skipped over some of the older novels, but i'm currently on a Double Helix / New Frontier crossover. Any new links, charts or lists to check out? I've been MIA for almost a year and am finally catching up.
If you mean the big flowchart, the only thing really "missing" at this point is the upcoming Coda trilogy, which would naturally come after everything else.