Found it (this should keep you in the proper order):
From @ryan123450 --he's the one you want to thank for the link
From @ryan123450 --he's the one you want to thank for the link
A good starting place for Trek literature?
- Thread starter kat0203
- Start date
I'm going to disagree. If you leave out A Time to series, you spoil Collateral Damage big time. This is why it's best to pick a place and read in release order. It's been decided to start with the First SCE book and read forward from there.
Please don't do this. We aren't in a meeting where we've had a vote. Yes, you and other people agreed on that point earlier in the thread but that's not the end of everything. The discussion can continue.
I probably should have reviewed Ryan's list in more detail. They do give you a good timeline of post-Nemesis novels, but they really don't give you a 'starting point' to go with, as it were.
I do think his list is, in general, in production release order from that point on. And when it comes to the relaunches reading them in the order they were released is probably a good rule of thumb. I read them as they came out and that did seem to work.
What ryan's list does for you at least for the post-Nemesis novels is save you the trouble of looking for when the book was released yourself, which can be an immense help. I'm pretty obsessive about organizing my books. But even in that case it'd still be easier to have a list to work off of. I have my DS9 and TNG books on different shelves so it's nice to know whether the next book I should read is a DS9 or a TNG book (or a Titan book for that matter, which have their own place on my shelves). Then of course there are the Typhon Pact novels and The Fall (which I have with my TNG books) and then the Section 31 novels (which I put with my DS9 books since they seem to deal more with DS9 characters).
So, you can see, it can get complicated. One day, when I decide to revisit those novels, the list from ryan's website will be a big help for me in keeping the order of novels straight.
But others may have their books arranged in simple production release order, which I guess would make it easier for those folks since they just go to the next book in most cases.
As for pre-Nemesis novels that are part of the same continuity, those are a little easier. Pick a place to start and just take the next novel in that series, whether it be TNG or DS9. I think the first real crossover story was probably Destiny, which is a post-Nemesis trilogy already.
I think when I decided to revisit those I might actually start with Vendetta. I haven't read that in years and recall it was a really good novel, and it does play a role in at least 2 relaunch novels that I can recall. I might skip Gemworld then and move on to The Genesis Wave (though maybe not, we'll see). I have to download the SCE ebooks sometime. I prefer physical books and I sometimes forget about the e-book only entries (and that reminds me I have to do the Slings and Arrows series--those are separate but something I just remembered).
Once I catch up on my last few novels left on my bookshelf from the 1990s that I haven't read yet I might go back to the relaunches. It has been 20+ years for some of those and after Coda concludes it might be a good time to start over. Since we don't seem to get a book/month anymore, it might help fill in the gaps in time when I'm waiting for the next novel to come out.
I do think his list is, in general, in production release order from that point on. And when it comes to the relaunches reading them in the order they were released is probably a good rule of thumb. I read them as they came out and that did seem to work.
What ryan's list does for you at least for the post-Nemesis novels is save you the trouble of looking for when the book was released yourself, which can be an immense help. I'm pretty obsessive about organizing my books. But even in that case it'd still be easier to have a list to work off of. I have my DS9 and TNG books on different shelves so it's nice to know whether the next book I should read is a DS9 or a TNG book (or a Titan book for that matter, which have their own place on my shelves). Then of course there are the Typhon Pact novels and The Fall (which I have with my TNG books) and then the Section 31 novels (which I put with my DS9 books since they seem to deal more with DS9 characters).
So, you can see, it can get complicated. One day, when I decide to revisit those novels, the list from ryan's website will be a big help for me in keeping the order of novels straight.
But others may have their books arranged in simple production release order, which I guess would make it easier for those folks since they just go to the next book in most cases.
As for pre-Nemesis novels that are part of the same continuity, those are a little easier. Pick a place to start and just take the next novel in that series, whether it be TNG or DS9. I think the first real crossover story was probably Destiny, which is a post-Nemesis trilogy already.
I think when I decided to revisit those I might actually start with Vendetta. I haven't read that in years and recall it was a really good novel, and it does play a role in at least 2 relaunch novels that I can recall. I might skip Gemworld then and move on to The Genesis Wave (though maybe not, we'll see). I have to download the SCE ebooks sometime. I prefer physical books and I sometimes forget about the e-book only entries (and that reminds me I have to do the Slings and Arrows series--those are separate but something I just remembered).
Once I catch up on my last few novels left on my bookshelf from the 1990s that I haven't read yet I might go back to the relaunches. It has been 20+ years for some of those and after Coda concludes it might be a good time to start over. Since we don't seem to get a book/month anymore, it might help fill in the gaps in time when I'm waiting for the next novel to come out.
Of course, I'm not sure any of this is what kat, the original poster, is looking for 
I think we may have scared her off. It appears she has not been back since her original post. Oops
If you're still out there kat, Chain of Attack by Gene DeWeese--that's my recommendation. Great original series book. Want to get your feet wet, that's a good place to start
I think we may have scared her off. It appears she has not been back since her original post. Oops
If you're still out there kat, Chain of Attack by Gene DeWeese--that's my recommendation. Great original series book. Want to get your feet wet, that's a good place to start
Of course, I'm not sure any of this is what kat, the original poster, is looking for
I think we may have scared her off. It appears she has not been back since her original post. Oops
Well, she knows we're enthusiastic and willing to answer questions
Well, she knows we're enthusiastic and willing to answer questions
Ha-ha. True. And if she's a fellow Trekkie, well, we can be a bit detailed and we get lost in tangents (wait, what was this thread about again--one minute we might be talking about Trelane and 3 pages in we're talking about Schinzon
).And, well, we rarely agree on anything.
Start with Death in Winter...no start with The Genesis Wave....no you should start with the SCE stories, how bout Vendetta.
Oh, hell, just start with Spock Must Die (well, maybe not that one
).
Well, if you're going back to the very beginning, then start with Mission to Horatius (which did get a full facsimile reprint from Pocket, illustrations, cover art, and all, not all that many years ago).Oh, hell, just start with Spock Must Die (well, maybe not that one
Ha-ha, true. I picked up a 1st printing copy at an old antique store. It was only a few dollars and since it was the 1st printing of the 1st Star Trek novel I figured I should get it.
I did a review of it here when I read it, I think about 2 years ago now. It was an okay book, written more for the young adult audience. It was interesting to read as it was the only original Star Trek novel written during the TV series run.
Not sure I'd recommend someone start with that book
---probably more for the completest like myself.I believe there are only a handful of novels I have to get yet. I have all the Bantam novels, the Ballantine logs, and almost all the Pocketbook releases now (just novels though, I haven't really collected too many reference books, though I have a couple--Allan Asherman's Compendium came in handy about a year or so ago in fact when I wanted to watch my original series Blu Rays--I prefer to watch them in production order and while it's fine that they were in the set in airing order, it would have been nice if the discs had the production number somewhere on them
--so I had to use my Compendium to watch them in the order I wanted to--I mean come on, CBS should know some fans like airing order, some production order when it comes to the original series, the least they could have done was put the production number next to the name on the disc, ugh).
I don't really see where starting with the SCE books is necessary. It's a good series, but other than a couple crossovers, it's really not that big a part of the overall relaunch story, and could easily be skipped or set aside. Just to be clear this is not meant to be a comment on it's quality, just it's significance to the overall relaunch story. I've been working my way through the series and really enjoying it, but if you're looking to streamline your reading down to just the essentials, SCE is one of the series that would be easily skipped with very little impact on things.
If you don't want to go the e-book route for SCE/Starfleet Corps of Engineers, the first 66 novellas were rereleased in 13 paperback collections.
That's just the SCE novellas, after #66: Many Splendors, they relaunched the series with the new title, Starfleet Corp of Engineers, and no numbers, and released 8 more that have never been collected in a paperback.
Oh, and just as an FYI, even though the novellas still had the SCE title, the paperbacks switched over to the Starfleet Corps of Engineers title starting with the 8th one, Aftermath.
Oh, and just as an FYI, even though the novellas still had the SCE title, the paperbacks switched over to the Starfleet Corps of Engineers title starting with the 8th one, Aftermath.
If you're going to "pick a place and start", I recommend starting strong with, say, Destiny or with the DS9 relaunch, depending on your tastes (or even Voyager's Homecoming). If you're really into it you can go back and fill in with A Time to. . . and the early TNG relaunch or get more tales of the era with SCE. But as I've mentioned earlier, the first couple TNG relaunch/10th year novels were a slog for me; SCE got off to a rough start in #1; and A Time to. . . has pretty significant peaks and valleys. If you're really into approaching this, my recommendation is to start off strong with a showcase of the continuity's quality that can help you maintain interest when you get to some of the early entries and stretches that maybe aren't as compelling.
How are you going to fill in the gap left by not reading the A Time to books?
I'm not sure what gap you're talking about. Are there any post-Nemesis stories that you'll feel lost in if you haven't read them? They might enrich one's understanding of later books but I don't think they're necessary to them. And again, certainly no reason one couldn't read Destiny and then go back and fill in the gaps.
Yes, Collateral Damage and Available Light are two that you will be better off having read the A Time to series first.
One should definitely read a somewhat mediocre nine book series because 75 books later there's a payoff for it.
There's a fair amount of information from the A Time to... books on Memory Alpha, when I read the series I used the pages for the TNG characters and the Enterprise to fill in the gaps. Since I read the books someone has also added decent summaries of the books on their pages too.
And the books themselves are usually pretty good at recapping any important information you need.
Even people who find the first six A Time to... books mediocre generally rave about the last three. And the last three are the only ones that are really important to later continuity.
I actually like 4, 5, and 9 a lot. But my broader point is that it seems like a pretty weird hill to die on.
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