How have the newer novels affected the reading order?

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by bfollowell, Dec 14, 2011.

  1. bfollowell

    bfollowell Captain Captain

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    I knew the reading order leading up to Destiny and immediately following it until some of the last few novels came out. Here's the last of the reading order that I had. I'm not sure if the newer novels fit right onto the end of this list in publication order or not. I seems like someone said the newest Voyager book falls back in before a couple of the later Titan novels. Where does the Typhon Pact, Watching the Clock, Indistinguishable From Magic & The Struggle Within fall into place?

    It's been a busy year since I started the DS9 relaunch and I'm quicjly approaching Destiny and would like to have a good idea how things fall after it.

    Thanks for any help anyone may be ablew to provide.

    Sincerely,
    - Byron Followell



    Resistance
    Q & A
    Before Dishonor
    The Sword of Damocles
    Greater Than The Sum
    Gods of Night
    Mere Mortals
    Lost Souls
    Losing The Peace
    A Singular Destiny
    Full Circle
    Unworthy
    Over a Torrent Sea
    Synthesis
     
  2. Thrawn

    Thrawn Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    I think I'd read them in this order, which is mostly chronological:

    Resistance
    Q&A
    Before Dishonor
    Sword of Damocles
    Greater than the Sum
    (Destiny)
    Losing The Peace
    A Singular Destiny
    Full Circle, Unworthy, Children of the Storm
    Over A Torrent Sea, Synthesis
    Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts, Zero Sum Game, Seize the Fire, Paths of Disharmony, The Struggle Within
    DTI: Watching The Clock
    Indistinguishable From Magic

    I bet you'll get different opinions though. And actually, come to think of it, I don't quite remember where DTI falls. The events involving Titan and Enterprise crew - where on the chronology does that all fit?
     
  3. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    Buy them all, shelve them in publication order, and read them that way.

    Some of the "Typhon Pact" novels overlap, contain some foreshadowing of related events, and are not necessarily chronological, but you can just read them in the order they were released.
     
  4. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    You don't have to read the books in separate series in strict chronological order, since they're usually pretty independent of each other. As long as you read the installments of each distinct series in the order they were published, you're probably fine.

    For what it's worth, though:

    Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire begins just after Destiny and spans the next year, February 2381-Feb. '82. DTI: Watching the Clock covers roughly the same span of time (though it begins in March), not counting its flashbacks. The majority of WTC and the second half of RBoE pretty much fall after Synthesis. Then comes the rest of the Typhon Pact series: Zero Sum Game (Apr-Aug '82), Seize the Fire (Aug '82), Paths of Disharmony (roughly Sep-Oct '82), and The Struggle Within (Nov-Dec '82), then Indistinguishable from Magic (Jan-Apr '83).
     
  5. Thrawn

    Thrawn Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    Despite the publishing order, I think it makes sense to read Rough Beasts of Empire immediately before Zero Sum Game where it falls chronologically, so maybe move DTI to between Synthesis and Typhon Pact.

    But it doesn't really matter.
     
  6. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^Yeah, no reason why they have to be read in chronological order. DTI:WTC has only peripheral mentions of the Typhon Pact.
     
  7. bfollowell

    bfollowell Captain Captain

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    Thanks guys. This was just what I was looking for. I really appreciate it. I can't believe I read through as much TrekLit as I have over the past year. I didn't figure I'd be anywhere near Destiny in only a year. I need to go back and compile a list so I'll be ready for the inevitable "what did you read last year" thread.

    Thanks again.

    - Byron
     
  8. bfollowell

    bfollowell Captain Captain

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    OK, unless someone sees something that they feel is blatantly wrong or out-of-synch, here's what I'm considering the proper novel reading order starting with the DS9 relaunch:

    A Stitch In Time
    Avatar, Book One
    Avatar, Book Two
    Section 31: Abyss
    Gateways, Book Four: Demons of Air and Darkness
    Gateways, Book Seven: What Lay Beyond: Horn and Ivory
    Mission Gamma, Book One: Twilight
    Mission Gamma, Book Two: This Gray Spirit
    Mission Gamma, Book Three: Cathedral
    Mission Gamma, Book Four: Lesser Evil
    Rising Son
    Unity
    Worlds of Deep Space Nine, Volume One: Cardassia & Andor
    Worlds of Deep Space Nine, Volume Two: Trill & Bajor
    Worlds of Deep Space Nine, Volume Three: Ferenginar & The Dominion
    Glass Empires
    Obsidian Alliances
    Shards and Shadows
    Warpath
    Fearful Symmetry
    The Soul Key
    The Never Ending Sacrifice
    Homecoming
    The Farther shore
    Old Wounds
    Enemy of My Enemy
    A Time to Be Born
    A Time to Die
    A Time to Sow
    A Time to Harvest
    A Time to Love
    A Time to Hate
    A Time to Kill
    A Time to Heal
    A Time for War, A Time for Peace
    Death in Winter
    Taking Wing
    The Red King
    Articles of the Federation
    Orion's Hounds
    Resistance
    Q & A
    Before Dishonor
    Sword of Damocles
    Greater Than The Sum
    Gods of Night
    Mere Mortals
    Lost Souls
    Losing The Peace
    A Singular Destiny
    Full Circle
    Unworthy
    Children of the Storm
    Over a Torrent Sea
    Synthesis
    Watching the Clock
    Rough Beasts of Empire
    Zero Sum Game
    Seize the Fire
    Paths of Disharmony
    The Struggle Within
    Indistinguishable From Magic


    I started with A Stitch in Time after Christmas last year and am about to wrap up Resistance. It's been an awesome TrekLit year but it's starting to wind down.
     
  9. Thrawn

    Thrawn Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    ^ Does that mean you're planning on stopping, or just that the year is coming to an end? Because you are SO CLOSE to Destiny that if you stop now I will find a way to punch you through the internet.
     
  10. bfollowell

    bfollowell Captain Captain

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    Oh no, not on your life. That's all I've heard since I started reading TrekLit again last year. Destiny this and Destiny that. I'm so close now I can almost taste it.

    I'm not stopping until I'm caught up with the current novels. After that I'll probably take a Trek break for a few months and read some other books I've picked up before I come back and look into S.C.E., Enterprise, New Frontier, TOS, etc.

    Looking at what I still have ahead of me and comparing it to what I've read, I figure I still have several months left before I'm caught up, maybe even mid-2012.

    I'll make it soon though. I'm hoping to get a lot of reading in over the Christmas break and be ready to start Destiny by the end of January or so.

    - Byron
     
  11. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    If you wanted you could also throw the SCE series in their at about the same time as Avatar. I don't know exactly how they line up, but the 6th novella, Cold Fusion, leads directly into the beginning of Abyss. It's a full on crossover between the two series, and it leads up to Empok Nor's arrival in the Bajor system.
    There are several other tie-ins between it and the other series, including apperances by the Enterprise-E crew in the first story, and just Geordi in the next two. Then we have Cold Fusion as #6, the Gateways epilouge Here There Be Monsters as #10, we then jump back in time and are introduced to a 23rd Century SCE crew in Foundations ( #17-#19). Picard and Vale from TNG (there might be more, but they're the only two TNG characters who are in the character list on Memory Beta) pop up in The Art of the Deal (#45) and then in Malefictorum (#50) we have appearances by at least Kira, Ro, and Treir, Lost Time (#51) continues the DS9 crossover with appearances by Kira, Nog, and Vaughn. The next crossover is Security (#54) which delves into Enterprise-E Security Cheif and future Titan XO Christine Vale's past. The next story, a two-parter entitle Wounds (#55 and #36) features Bashir and the SCE team's medical officer, Elizabeth Lense (who was a classmates of Bashir's and appeared in the DS9 episode Explorers) on a mission that goes wrong. The series then closes out with a 6-part miniseries, What's Past, most of which feature appearances by characters from other series. The first novella, Progress (#61), isn't really a crossover, but it does feature Pulaski, and Sarjeka (who goes on the be a main character in the relaunched Corps of Engineers series). The next novella, The Future Begins (#62), focuses on Scotty's (a supporting character in the series who appears numerous times throughout it's entire run) time in the 24th century and features appearances by Nechayev, Ross, Geordi, and Robin Lefler and her mother. The 3rd What's Past novella, Distant Early Warning (#64) is a 23rd-Century SCE/Vanguard crossover, with appearances by Cooper, Farber, Fisher, Ganz, Greenfield, Zett, Reyes, and T'Prynn. The USS Lovell, the ship from this story and the other 4 23rd century SCE tales, is the same ship that made several appearances in the Vanguard series. The last What's Past novella, Many Splendors (#66) follows Sonya Gomez (from TNG episodes Q-Who and The Samaritan Snare, and one of the series lead characters) and Kieran Duffy (from the TNG episode Hollow Pursuits, and one of the other major characters in the series) time on the Enterprise-D, so it features pretty much the entire TNG cast and ties into numerous episodes. The last two novllas in the relaunched Corps of Engineers series, Remembrance of Things Past part 1 and 2, was a TNG crossover and features Data, Picard and Vale. I haven't read anything past SCE #16 so most of that was based of off the characters lists and descriptions on Memory Beta, and there might be others I don't know about.
     
  12. Thrawn

    Thrawn Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    Good.

    Just checking.
     
  13. DetroitLibertyP

    DetroitLibertyP Cadet Newbie

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    I just started reading "Mission Gamma Book one" after reading:
    The LIves of Dax
    A Stitch in Time
    Avatar book one and two
    Section 31 Abyss

    I have no idea who the Jarta are and I'm starting to wonder if I did need to read the "Gateways" books in the relaunch series. I didn't because I didn't want to find myself reading the other books in the Gateways series too, and then end up being roped into a bunch of different story lines.

    What do you think? Can I continue where I am (and the Jarta thing will work itself out) or do I need to go back to Gateways?
     
  14. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Are you referring to the Jarada? They're the insectoid race whose scan caused the holodeck malfunction in TNG: "The Big Goodbye," and they played a minor role in Gateways: Demons of Air and Darkness.

    But you don't need to read the rest of Gateways to understand the DS9 installments. It and other similar novel crossovers were specifically designed so that reading the whole thing was optional. Such crossovers are more like loose unifying themes for a series of separate adventures, so that if you read just one installment you get a complete story, but if you read them all you see how that story fits into a larger context. Demons and "Horn and Ivory" are far more closely connected to the ongoing DS9 narrative than they are to the other Gateways books.
     
  15. Slyvon

    Slyvon Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Your reading order looks great bfollowell! Its very close to mine,as I started reading books from this universe earlier in the year. After cherry picking books for a few months I went back and made an effort to read novels "in order" starting with DS9. Our lists look very similar! Except I think I'll take a nostalgic trip back with the Terok Nor trilogy while I'm reading DS9 stuff.

    Happy Reading!
     
  16. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    You can always have a quick peek at Memory Beta, the wiki for characters, places and events featured in the licensed tie-ins. It'll usually tell you what canonical events your descriptor was involved in and then, depending on how efficient/completist the fan contributors have been, all other appearances, eg:
    http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Jarada

    Beware of spoilers, but if you're looking for shortcut backstory so you can keep reading a particular series, you are possibly not too concerned about that.
     
  17. dansigal

    dansigal Captain Captain

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    I always reference back to the Relaunch Novels Timeline entry on Memory Beta, I think it's pretty close to what you have. It goes through the Fall.

    http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Relaunch_novels_timeline

    I'm pretty close to where you are. Just finished Resistance. I'm going back to read Tales of the Dominion War before heading on to Q&A. I started in November 2011, so almost two years to get through starting at DS9 relaunch to where I am now. I'd been a great ride so far, and I'm really looking forward to Destiny, plus working in Vanguard and Enterprise relaunch somewhere along the way.
     
  18. Paul Weaver

    Paul Weaver Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    I tried Avatar back in about 2002 but didn't really get into it, and hadn't really read any books apart from Harry Potter since then. Earlier this year I read the "A time to..." series, which took a long time, getting second hand books from amazon. The main reason was I wanted to know how Wesley had come back in Nemesis (and according to a deleted scene become an engineer)


    After the disappointment of May 9th (ironic as it was our wedding anniversary), I realised the only way to get my trek fix would be to read the books.

    So I moved onto Death in Winter, then Taking Wing, based on a few posts in this forum

    Then Articles of the Federation, after a few chapters it mentioned something about the cliffhanger at the end of Taking wing.

    I'd already bought Resistance, but it was at home, and I was 10,000 miles away stuck in Austrailia with a weekend and an ipad on my hands. I bought Tales of the Dominion war on the kindle app, then Red King, then decided to go back to the start, and then thanks to this forum, discovered

    http://www.thetrekcollective.com/p/trek-lit-reading-order.html

    Battle of Betazed, A stitch in time, left hand of destiny, Avatar followed. I was keen to jump to Unity, but reading the timeline at the front I decided to back track to Mission Gamma #1, then realised I should read, cold fusion (the SCE e-book), gateways #4 and abyss, now 57% through on mission gamma #1.

    So that's about a dozen books in the last 3 months. Being trapped alone in foreign countries a lot does have it's benefits.
     
  19. dansigal

    dansigal Captain Captain

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    ^ Love this story. We all come to it in our own unique way. The books have been just a ton of fun for me.
     
  20. Slyvon

    Slyvon Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Agreed! Those clever writers/editors have created a pretty cohesive universe. Seems like a lot of us start somewhere in the middle but references and new characters quickly create a list of books to go seek out and read.