...have read another novel to follow it. Wish i'd read the "Historian's Note" on Enterprise : Kobayashi Maru before I bought it....apparently it's set after the events of another book which I haven't read That's what put me off the books way back
You're misunderstanding the Historian's Notes. Just saying "This book follows the events of Book X" doesn't mean "You can't possibly understand this book unless you read Book X first!!!" It's just a bit of clarification for the benefit of those readers who want to keep track of the overall chronology. Everything you need to know to understand the book itself is included in the book itself. The Historian's Note is just a bit of bonus information. Nobody's writing Trek novels that "require" you to read prior books first. That would be self-defeating, because it would drive people away just the way you describe. The books are designed to be accessible, to include all the information any reader needs to follow the stories within them. But for those readers who are interested in taking it further, in connecting the individual novels into a larger whole, there's extra information provided to show them how they can do that.
The only recent Trek novels that require you to read another one before it are the books from the Destiny trilogy, IIRC.
Really? To what other book are you refering to? (Might as well find out what I was missing, having jumped right into the action of Destiny myself... *g*)
I'm referring to Part 2 and Part 3 of said Destiny trilogy. Reading the earlier parts, namely part 1, is kind of required if you want to get the full story.
*g* Yes, because it didn't even occur to me that you refered to the books *within* the Destiny-trilogy. I thought you refered to the fact that one needed to read another book prior to Destiny #1. I thought it funny to have misinterpreted your initial comment like that.
Even in the DS9 Relaunch, the books themselves give you enough information to enjoy and understand the story on some level. The experience is enhanced by reading it in order, but that is definitely not required.
^ especially since I've only read 'Unity', 'Warpath' and 'Fearful Symmetry' after Avatar and i got what was going on.
Some of the 'Mission Gamma' books were close to stand-alone, since the Defiant is traveling through the Gamma Quadrant for many light years between each book...
But wasn't the stuff back on the station pretty much an ongoing arc? I've learnd as a general rule, whenever you have a specifically marked miniseries like them (and Destiny) it's usually best to just read all of them, even if you don't read the whole series they're part of.
As far as post-Nemesis TNG and Titan books are concerned, they are mostly stand-alone. Sure, there's lots of inter-book continuity, but there are always recaps of pertinent information. Heck, even in the Destiny trilogy they recapped what came before several times in both books 2 and 3. There's no reason for a person not to be able jump in wherever they want and go from there.