Yeah. You really lose nothing, big-picture-wise, if you skip the Challenger portions for now. In fact, there's an argument for skipping the Challenger portions entirely - after Gateways, she never wrote any more, and there are a ton of threads left hanging. You might be happier skipping New Earth and Challenger completely - why get invested in a story that doesn't continue?
Thanks guys, that clears up a lot. I didn't want to believe I was becoming imaginatively retarded, but was almost there. This is the first pre-Destiny cross-over series I've started, so that explains my confusion. I was like, 'WTF is Challenger? Oh well, I'll try it." Also, it is great to discuss what I'm reading with authors that I read. It's been a while, Chris, but I will probably make it back around to your newer novels sometime this summer. Thrawn - Ugh, I hate unresolved storylines as much as the next person, but I will probably give it a shot anyway. Thank you for putting that aspect of TrekLit into a nutshell for me, it probably would have taken me another week to figure it all out.
Just to warn you the DS9 and New Frontier entries also tie pretty heavily into their series arcs. I'm pretty sure you could probably read each of them on there own OK, but it's still a good idea to go into those aware that they are parts of onging arcs.
Right on. I should be OK with the DS9 Gateways book, I've read many of the relaunch novels and watched seasons 1-7 in order probably a dozen times in the last 10 years. New Frontiers may be a challenge without foreknowledge of the setting. I'm moving on to the TNG novel "Doors Into Chaos" (Book 3) which I assume I will relate more positively to and actually have a clue about what's going on. TNG is easy.
I'm still trying to get through book one of the Janus Gate - I'm almost to the point where I stopped when the book came out . . . about 12 years ago. I guess I forgot, or hoped I was wrong originally, that it was so boring. I'm still short of page 200, but have read Without Remorse and Vulcan's Heart in between trying to finish it. Maybe I'm too stubborn and should just let it go, but I'm bound and determined to get through it this time. My next diversion is The Wench Is Dead by Colin Dexter, and I'm really looking forward to that. ME
For similar reasons to Challenger, I'd really recommend skipping the New Frontier entry if you haven't read that series. That novel is really pointless if you haven't read NF up until then.
I think it's great that I picked a group of books out of nowhere...well, not nowhere, out of Amazon suggestions...that I can only read half of because I've only read a little over a hundred of the books in the overall series. No sarcasm intended at all, I'm glad there is this much entertainment at my fingertips. Trek puts "Wheel of Time" to shame.
Compared to A People's History of the Civil War, Zinn's US history is all sunshine and roses and soft fuzzy kittens. The only reason the Civil War history is not the most depressing book I've ever read is because I've also read Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges, which will probably be the last Hedges I read. Talk about a dark night of the soul, it's harrowing. May I recommend No Logo? It's informative and infuriating without being depressing, which is the great risk of reading social criticism. I hope to read Klein's Disaster Capitalism at some point. My leisure read at the moment is The Smoke at Dawn, which so far consists of the Confederate generals bickering and Grant being a badass. Nonfiction wise, I'm starting The Vikings by Robert Ferguson.
Today I finished Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. I'm now reading Star Trek: Serpents in the Garden by Jeff Mariotte.
I am reading and enjoying Robot Uprisings. It is a sci-fi anthology put together by Daniel Wilson and John Joseph Adams. Some great short stories are included by many of todays best sci-fi authors.
I'm planning on putting the post-nemesis stuff on hold. I'm trying to burn through the first 4 Voyager post-endgame books. Then I plan to take the voyager Full circle and onwards books with me on vacation. I haven't read any of those yet. I'm hoping its good reading to take on vacation. I was going to take Destiny with me, since I had read it before, and I wanted to take something I know i'll enjoy.
You are in for a treat! The first four Voyager post-series books are OK, but Full Circle and on is fantastic! Perfect vacation reading. You'll be totally caught up on Voyager, especially since you read Destiny, and it had the only other Voyager appearance in the post-Nemesis landscape. Enjoy
I just reread this recently, I thought it was really good both times. I plan on reading the rest of the series at some point soon. I guess no one else could have a better perspective on Martok, and that first book put a lot more depth into Martok, a character that I feel is already one of the better-developed characters in the Trek universe.
I took the plunge and borrowed Enterprise by Vonda McIntyre from an online library, as well as Octavia Butler's Bloodchild and Other Stories. I plan on reading them both over the course of the week.
I have just started DS9:Twist of Faith. After reading just the Enterprise novels (which I liked) for the last two years, it is good to be back in the DS9 timeframe/realm. I have enjoyed what little I have read. The author so far has had a good grasp of the characters and I enjoyed the introduction. edit: I have read a couple of a Voyager novels. The 2 part Homecoming set, Mosaic (?) and the Anthology. They were good or okay.
Voyager1, have you read Pathways by Jeri Taylor? It's really good. I consider it and Mosaic the two best Voyager books.
I'm reading Brave New World. I'm liking it alot better than 1984, and it's portrayal of the future is much closer to the real world than 1984's turned out to be.