An unexpected encounter

[Baakan]

Hi all,

A day in the week, I walked in the street, going to work, earlier in the morning. It was the recycling day, and I know that sometime, we can find some treasures.
So, near an appartement, along the street, I saw a pile of books scattered on the floor. I like to read some books, time to time, so I just throw an eye to them. Fortunately, most of them were SF, and I fond of that kind of books. I found a lot of Star Trek stuff, some old magazines, books, and even a VHS.
I don't know what is the story to justify why I found them in the street, but I never read Star Trek, so I thought that was a good way to start

I don't even know what are all theses books, I saw titles with "Next generation", or "Voyager", I don't know to what it referred for now ! I will take some time to improve my knowledge about this new universe to me

However, I got some questions :

• Do I have to read all of them in the same order ? Because the collection is not complete...
• Where can I find the price of some items ? I don't think I will use the VHS for example, or script books, that kind of stuff Just interested about it.

Thanks for your help, and sorry for my english. I hope I posted this to the right place (I hesitated with that forum : https://www.trekbbs.com/forums/trek-literature.43/).

Bye.

 

[The Wormhole]

Yeah, Trek Lit is probably better for finding out info on Trek novels. In regards to reading them in order, depends on when they were published. Anything published prior to 2000, no, it doesn't matter what order you read them in. With very few exceptions, there wasn't much continuity among the novels, and indeed they often contradicted each other. After 2000 steps were gradually taken towards developing a sense of continuity among the novels and making them into a shared universe, which IMO, holds together better than a lot of shared universes do. Better even than the majority of on-screen Star Trek does.

 

[Greg Cox]

And, even today, it depends a bit on which flavor of Trek you're talking about. The 24th century stuff (TNG, DS9, VOY) tend to be more interconnected than the novels based on the Original Series, which are set in 23rd century. Those are more likely to be standalone adventures that can be read in any order, unless they're are clearly marked a part of as trilogy of something. "STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES: LEGACIES, Book One of Three," that kind of thing.

Hope that helps!

 

[UnknownSample]

Yeah, Trek Lit is probably better for finding out info on Trek novels. In regards to reading them in order, depends on when they were published. Anything published prior to 2000, no, it doesn't matter what order you read them in. With very few exceptions, there wasn't much continuity among the novels, and indeed they often contradicted each other. After 2000 steps were gradually taken towards developing a since of continuity among the novels and making them into a shared universe, which IMO, holds together better than a lot of shared universes do. Better even than the majority of on-screen Star Trek does.

That's great. I didn't know any such steps had been taken, and actually, I didn't think much of anyone cared about continuity in the books. For me, that's what makes it worth putting in the time, the building up of that universe. I don't want to get invested in new characters and events etc that go out the window the second the book ends. I knew there were limited run book series, but is it now that all book series are in a fairly consistent Trek universe too? Like, the things that happened on DS9 in "season 8" have still happened, even in a Next Gen book?

 

[The Wormhole]

That's great. I didn't know any such steps had been taken, and actually, I didn't think much of anyone cared about continuity in the books. For me, that's what makes it worth putting in the time, the building up of that universe. I don't want to get invested in new characters and events etc that go out the window the second the book ends. I knew there were limited run book series, but is it now that all book series are in a fairly consistent Trek universe too? Like, the things that happened on DS9 in "season 8" have still happened, even in a Next Gen book?

Yes, it's all one continuity now. The only standalone novels still being published are the TOS ones, but even they are incorporating things established in the novels for the other shows, like Andorian culture and naming practices, not to mention making references to things from the Vanguard and Seekers novels (two novel exclusive series set in the 23rd century).

 

[UnknownSample]

Great! Thanks. I tend to prefer older writing to newer, though, so I wonder if the quality drops after 2000, undermining all that nice continuity I want to take advantage of... I'm hoping for audio too. Maybe Talking Books has Trek now... maybe Dr Who too.

 

[F. King Daniel]

That's great. I didn't know any such steps had been taken, and actually, I didn't think much of anyone cared about continuity in the books. For me, that's what makes it worth putting in the time, the building up of that universe. I don't want to get invested in new characters and events etc that go out the window the second the book ends. I knew there were limited run book series, but is it now that all book series are in a fairly consistent Trek universe too? Like, the things that happened on DS9 in "season 8" have still happened, even in a Next Gen book?

For a completely insane look at how all the novels interconnect, check out this thread.

 

[Baakan]

Thanks all for your answers !

I take a look to this website http://startreklist.blogspot.ca/, It's insane the number of existing books ! I did'nt expect that much

All the books I have have been written before 2000, so as you said I shouldn't be too much desoriented reading them in any order.

@The Wormhole, thanks for the Trek Lit. All of the links redirect to Amazon. It's help, but there are so much versions, I don't know where to find. I mean a same book can go to 1$ or 100$^^ I will try to find some Star Trek fans friends ahah

 

[UnknownSample]

For a completely insane look at how all the novels interconnect, check out this thread.

Thanks KDB. I'm very glad this resource exists... I also hope to keep this all so simple for myself that seeing a "2" at the start of a publication year will tell me all I need to know about its continuity...