So, I finally caved and bought a Star Trek book, and the one I chose out of all of them at the Barnes & Noble was Star Trek: Voyager - Unworthy, mostly because I read the first couple of pages and it featured B'elanna, who is my favorite character. Anyway. I've been reading it, and with the amount of back story it has in the first chapter it seems like there must be a book that came before Unworthy. Did I unwittingly pick a book halfway through a series or something? The only reason I ask is because, besides all the back story, I do remember seeing a synopsis for a different book that has the some of the same things (like the Doctor and Seven being received badly when coming to earth, and the threat of Borg). so, my question is if Unworthy is part of a series, and if there is a book that comes before this one that I should read. I must know quickly, because I'm totally on the second chapter and I'll end up finishing it. Not the most beautiful novel I've ever read, but it's still interesting.
There is a book that precedes Unworthy: Full Circle, also by Kirsten Beyer. (Read as: What Csalem said )
The book in question in Full Circle, also by Kirsten Beyer, which tied up the loose ends from Christie Golden's VOY books, and brings the story up to date with the Star Trek: Destiny series. If you can't lay your hands on it right away, you could probably get along reading Unworthy now, and going back to read Full Circle as a "prequel" . Which two other fast-typing bastards already told you.
Well, if you think it'll be helpful, knock yourself out. I'm thinkin' there are better references running around here.
I'm sure in years to come when I'm applying to universities to lecture in early-20th Century British history it will be the thing that pushes me over the finishing line
Wait... so the VOY books, Full Circle & Unworthy and the Destiny series are all books that tie together in some way?? *brain aneurysm* I had thought most star trek books were separate entities that all conflicted because they're not related. I guess authors glean stuff from each other, then? bah. I'm a bit OCD about experiencing stories in order, so I'll go ahead and read Full Circle first. thanks! edit: nevermind. I don't feel like spending another $8 today. I have ten other books to also read at some point in my life, so I'll just enjoy what I got. thanks anyway!
It used to be that the books were required to be standalone, with as few connections as possible, but that ended as a matter of official policy in the early 1990s, when Gene Roddenberry died and his assistant Richard Arnold lost his job and his influence over the book line. The extent to which the books connect and interrelate has grown gradually over the years, and it's a matter of editorial preference. The editors of a line of tie-in books shape the line in a lot of ways, and one of the ways they've done that is by tying the books closer together. For example, when DS9 went off the air, editor Marco Palmieri decided to carry on where the show left off, working with various authors to introduce a number of new characters and new storylines. That worked pretty well, so many of the books have taken on a bit more of a serial storytelling approach, much as Trek itself sometimes did on TV, as with DS9, Enterprise's Xindi arc, and so on. Generally, the editors and writers work together to prevent conflicts and contradictions, but they also work to make each book as accessible as possible to new readers. So you don't have to read every book to understand what's going on, but if you do read every book, you'll get a bit more out of it. It's not like watching Law & Order, where you can miss three-quarters of the episodes in a given season and not feel like you've missed anything important, but it's not like Lost, either, where you need to catch every episode if you want to have any idea of what's going on.
Cool! Thanks Steve, I was totally confused :-P I guess once I'm finished with this one, then, I'll go back and read the others. I love that the authors collaborate, that's pretty awesome.