I was thinking about starting to read the relaunch books set in the 24th century (so, not TOS or Enterprise)...but I don't know where to start. Can anyone give me a reading order? Just to clarify, I'm talking about the TNG, Titan, DS9, Voyager novels (or any others that also connect).
Thanks! Does it have a reading order for how I should read Avatar in relation to Full Circle and Death in Winter?
No I want to add that and plenty of other stuff, but real life keeps getting in the way. But in general you can go threw the DS9 Reading List up threw The Never Ending Sacrifice, then the "pre-Full Circle-post-Voy" books, whatever pre-Death in Winter TNG books you want, and then start on the Post Nemesis Reading List. Alternatively you should also look at Thrawn's Flowchart, which I have a link to in my Trek Lit Links page. It should be really helpful to you as well.
Try this as well http://killie-booktalk.blogspot.com/p/star-trek-reading-challenge.html This has EVERY book written and it is in Chronological order. Of course, you'll want to jump ahead to the 24th century, but this has helped me a bit along with both Ryan's and Thrawn's websites.
Thanks for the help! Another question...for someone who is not a big reader (time issues), are these books enjoyable? Any that are just duds and hard to get through? Again, talking about the relaunch books.
Ryan's and Thrawn's lists have been huge for me and I also have used the chronological list challenge to keep some things in order. Granted I have focused more on newer ENT and TOS LitVerse novels, but I have yet to read one I didn't enjoy. Only one out of about 30 started out a bit weird, but it caught it's footing halfway through. There are no real duds in the newer literature, just different styles by the authors.
Really what you have to remember is that the relaunch books for DS9, Voyager and TNG are in two groups: the pre-Destiny books and the post-Destiny. With the pre-Destiny books you have the series taking place at different times. DS9 takes place right after "What You Leave Behind" in 2378 (and chronologically the first story is "Left Hand Of Destiny" and the opening and closing stories of "The Lives Of Dax", before "Avatar"). Watch out for "Rising Son", as it teals its own story that takes place at the same time as a number of other DS9 stories starting with Mission Gamma. Voyager starts in 2379 just as the crew returns home in "Homecoming. Just watch out with Voyager as after the Spirit Walk duology its story jumps to TNG and there are a few early TNG relaunch titles that feature Seven and Janeway before resuming its own series after Destiny. TNG relaunch basically starts with the Gateways book, before jumping to the "A Time To..." series that sets up Nemesis and the post film events in 2381, and launches the Titan series. So TNG splits into TNG, which follows Picard and the Enterprise, and Titan that follows Riker, Troi and Tuvok on the Titan. Then after Destiny all the series are brought up to 2381 and continue on from there, to where we are in 2386. But I would recommend skipping "Indistinguishable From Magic" and "The Missing".
But they're still not strictly in sync. The Voyager novels are still in 2382, and DTI is only up to 2385.
I'd say Michael A. Martin's Romulan War books, as well as his last 2 Titan books, were not received very well around these parts. This community at large would probably classify them as 'duds' . YMMV
I agree the Romulan War books were a little tough to get through. I haven't read any Titan yet. My biggest mis-adventure so far was The Folded World. The first half felt like it was all over the place but it ended somewhat decent. I guess I'm still coming down from my Vanguard high where the storytelling felt so solid.
I think pretty much all of the books have had at least a few fans, so I think this really comes down to taste. The DS9 Relaunch starts in 2376 not 2378. I'd go with Gemworld here myself, most of the book from that point on have some kind tie to the the relaunch books, either through a character appearance, or a reference to the events in a later book.Looking through the list of Memory Beta, the only ones I know that haven't been referenced are Tooth and Claw, A Hard Rain, and Do Comets Dream? But I would recommend skipping "Indistinguishable From Magic" and "The Missing".[/QUOTE] I haven't read The Missing, but I have to disagree pretty strongly about Idistinguishable from Magic, I loved it, and we have started getting more references to it in the recent books
^Count me as another fan of both Indistinguishable From Magic and The Missing! I wouldn't skip either one
And if you need the link to my flowchart, it's in my signature. The guy who's hosting it hasn't been heard from in a while, so it's starting to get a bit out of date, but up until last year it should be what you need.
I've had Gemworld on my shelf for about 15 years now and still haven't gotten around to reading anymore than the back cover. But Gateway's, especially with the holocommunications scene that is in every novel for TNG, DS9 and New Frontier seems like the first scene where all the books were showing how grand a scale the relaunch was going to be. "The Missing" was nothing more than a collection of B- & C-stories. And "Indistinguashable From Magic" feels like two books crammed into one with stories that are barely related. Not to mention that the book reads more like an outline than an actual fleshed out manuscript (just like the second Romulan War book).
That's your opinion. A lot of people disagree; in the review thread, 2/3 of those polled rated it Above Average or Outstanding. I seem to remember liking it just fine myself. Not every book has to be a chapter in a sprawling saga; there's still value in a self-contained story that's simply well-written and interesting in and of itself. That's because it was originally planned to be two books.
That was a cool little scene, but we'd already seen the books starting to become more interconnected before that, so I don't really think that would qualify it as a place to start. Haven't read The Missing so I can't comment on it. I don't think I would disagree, but I don't see it as a bad thing. Plenty of novels are made up of smaller, more episodic adventures. Now this part I am going to have to completely disagree with, I don't remember having any problems with the way it was written. It had plenty of dialogue, and in depth descriptions of actions and the characters thoughts and things like that.
The 'Gateways' series came out in 2001, so I'm not to sure what interconnectivoty you are referring to, aside from possible 'Invasion' in 96. The Section 31 mini-series from 2001 was thematically linked, with the only book that had impact on any others being the DS9 entry, as it was released as #3 in the relaunch, but the TOS, TNG & Voyager entries were seperate; TNG's entry took place shortly before Star Trek First Contact and did introduce Ranul Keru. "Double Helix" was also thematically linked, as books 1-5 took place between 2364 and 2375, while book 6 was in the 2330's to 2350's timeframe. Again "Day Of Honor" was thematically linked with Worf appearing in 3 of the books.[/quote] The book has two very different stories in it. The first has to do with Rassmudseñ and his gang of thieves, which clearly finishes half way through. And then the last half of the book is all about Scotty and the Challenger finding Geordi's mother and the rest of the Hera crew on that weird planet. But the way the book was written, I found it was like someone had invited me over for a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, but when I got to the meal, all there was was the turkey's skeleton with just a few scraps of meat hanging on, and portions of the vegetables being like 1 bean, 1 piece of carrot, 1/32 of a teaspoon of dressing. The book reminded me of the old "Where's the beef?" ad campaign.
As compared with her older titles and also with her most recent release Enigma Tales, The Missing by Una McCormack, was well below average from what has become the norm from her novels. If you're strictly by the books want a solid chronological order of 24th century novels, I wouldn't skip it. Otherwise, if you're a bit more flexible, IMHO, you ain't missing much, pardon the pun lol!
A few others that are skippable are "Force And Motion" and the Ebooks "Lust Latinum's Lost" and "Rules Of Accusation". The ebooks are side-Adventures that don't effect the overall main story or if something important does happen it is retold in one of the main stories. Of course "Force And Motion" was another B-story book that Zhou don't need to read to go onto "The Long Mirage".