Does anyone here care about Trek non-fiction?

[Christopher]

I first saw The Making of Star Trek in a grocery store bookshelf as a kid, and ran to convince my mom to get it for me.

I got my first copy at a book sale at my school at the end of first grade. It took me another year or two before I got around to reading the whole thing, since it was a bit rich for even a precocious reader like I was at that age. I believe I got one other Trek book at that same sale -- I thought it was the Star Trek Action Toy Book, but that didn't come out until over a year later. Maybe it was the first Blish book instead.

 

[EnriqueH]

My first Star Trek book was the fotonovel of "A Taste of Armageddon", which was actually my dad's, but he gave it to me for my growing library (which at the time consisted of the Return of the Jedi, Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones storybooks as well as Cam Jansen and other kids books).

When I saw the episode, I accurately imagined the intonations of the dialogue, but others were a bit different!

Timewalker, you got a deal!

 

[F. King Daniel]

I've been thinking of building my Trek fanzine and Starlog collection, but I find it kinda pricey.

There is a massive archive of free PDF fanzine downloads from ScoTpress HERE. There are a couple of issues of Contact online HERE.

 

[Trek Survivor]

I am a massive fan of non-fiction Trek books (and other similar 'behind the scenes' type stuff for other franchises). I prefer them to the fiction these days.

 

[SPCTRE]

The TNG Technical Manual is one of my favorite Trek-related books.

 

[Enterpriserules]

I really like it personally. The DS9 companion is amazing! Also like Star Trek Memories and Movie Memories.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I think we need to differentiate here between conventional narrative fiction (novels, short stories, and the occasional dramatic or poetic work), non-narrative fiction (Schnaubelt's works, the Medical Reference, the various TNG-era in-universe technical manuals, the Haynes manuals, &c.), narrative non-fiction (Chekov's Enterprise, The Trouble with Tribbles, The Making of Star Trek, &c.), and non-narrative nonfiction (Concordance, Compendium, Encyclopedia, the MA and MB web sites, and various other reference works that are either from an out-of-universe perspective, or simply reference existing fictional material without expanding up on it).

Then, of course, you have a few works that fit none of those categories, like The Star Trek Cooking Manual.

 

[Paris]

Non-fiction Trek is what really propelled my love of all things Trek. I got a copy of the Star Trek Encyclopedia in 5th or 6th grade, and just devoured it. It only had info upto the sixth season of TNG and the first season of DS9, but it was amazing! I picked up the chronology after that (and then both of their next editions) as well as the series companions for TNG, DS9, and VOY, and then a few others like Voyages of the Umagination. The DS9 companion is my favorite non-fiction Trek book, with VotI coming in at number 2. I wish they'd do another encyclopedia, as i'd pick it up for sure...even with resources like Memory Alpha and Memory Beta out there..

 

[EnriqueH]

I am a massive fan of non-fiction Trek books (and other similar 'behind the scenes' type stuff for other franchises). I prefer them to the fiction these days.

Me too.

I read an oldie Trek novel about a month ago: Howard Weinstein's "Covenant of the Crown", which really nails the Spock-McCoy dynamic IMO. And I'm currently reading "Spock Must Die!" by James Blish, which has some interesting things going for it, but not as good as I thought it was going to be.

Other than those two, I've been purely reading non-fiction Trek books.

I just started James Doohan's autobiography.

 

[dstyer]

I have loved the various non-fiction books over the decades. At first, I got into the "Trek" books (various non-licensed items) as that was about all I could find in the early 80's. With the new 80's and 90's series I've collected all the companion/compendium books and the various iterations of the "In-Universe" reference manuals.
The prize of my collection is the autographed TOS biographies! I attended the 35th anniversary convention in Vegas in 2001 and was fortunate to have them signed by all the attendees.

 

[Greg Cox]

I really enjoyed the 365 books as well.

 

[bbailey861]

The prize of my collection is the autographed TOS biographies! I attended the 35th anniversary convention in Vegas in 2001 and was fortunate to have them signed by all the attendees.

Well done, you!!!

 

[JD]

The only non-fiction Trek books I've read are Where No Man Has Gone Before, A History in Picures, the TNG Companion, and Voyages of Imagination. I'm pretty much 100% digital these days, so I don't know I'll be reading any more of the official stuff.

 

[JoeP]

Just thought I'd point out that Amazon.ca has the recent Stellar Cartography set from Larry Nemecek for an insane $4.19. Also, up until a few days ago they also had Federation: The First 150 Years for $11.38.

 

[Relayer1]

I'm not hugely interested in the non-fiction side. I've picked a few up when I've found them cheap, but I've not read most of them.

It's the continuing story that interests me. Which gives me an idea - would anyone like to see a book about the relaunch continuity, editors and authors, process, planning, , commissions, collaboration and publishing ? I'd buy that !

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'd love some kind of novelverse in-universe reference book, with diagrams of the key ships, bios of the characters, races and important places with art, and an A-Z. Kind of like DC's Who's Who in Star Trek specials.

 

[js]

*raises hand for love for the non-fic*

There were a handful of books that I read at a young age that inspired what I wanted to do myself:

The Twilight Zone Companion
The Making of Star Trek
The World of Star Trek

(seriously, my copies of those books are so worn out from re-reading that the pages started falling out years ago!)

So it was an honor for me to be able to contribute a few non-fic efforts of my own to the Trek universe.

 

[Reanok]

I have the Star trek 365 books and the trivia book game. I have the Art of Star trek and the Star Trek Action book about filming Ds9 and Voyager tv episodes. Also have the Tos and Tng& theDeep space nine concordances and the making of Tos Star Trek One of them the is about making Trouble with Tribbles books. The history of the federation book has some great art in it.

 

[toughlittleship]

*raises hand for love for the non-fic*

There were a handful of books that I read at a young age that inspired what I wanted to do myself:

The Twilight Zone Companion
The Making of Star Trek
The World of Star Trek

(seriously, my copies of those books are so worn out from re-reading that the pages started falling out years ago!)

So it was an honor for me to be able to contribute a few non-fic efforts of my own to the Trek universe.

I love the Twilight Zone Companion! I was delighted to find out that its author (Marc Scott Zicree) wrote the story for "Far Beyond the Stars".

 

[Greg Cox]

*raises hand for love for the non-fic*

There were a handful of books that I read at a young age that inspired what I wanted to do myself:

The Twilight Zone Companion
The Making of Star Trek
The World of Star Trek

(seriously, my copies of those books are so worn out from re-reading that the pages started falling out years ago!)

So it was an honor for me to be able to contribute a few non-fic efforts of my own to the Trek universe.

I love the Twilight Zone Companion! I was delighted to find out that its author (Marc Scott Zicree) wrote the story for "Far Beyond the Stars".

Ditto. I keep my copy of the TZ Companion close at hand. (I can see it on my bookshelf from where I'm sitting now.)