A Star Trek books break?

[wahwahkits]

This may seem like a funny question, but have any of you ever taken a break from reading Trek books? And why?
For the first 8 months of last year I read nothing but Star Trek books and then I got into a huge arguement on this site about the TNG-R novels. (I stuck up for them and I still think they're great, especially BD.)
I'm not sure why but the whole arguement thing pissed me off so much I haven't touched a Star Trek book since...
YESTERDAY! I was in my local Borders and I just happened to walk down the aisle where the Trek books were...
45 minutes later i'm at home having just bought Forged In Fire, The Terek Nor trilogy, Greater Than The Sum and Kobayashi Maru and the fourth Titan novel. (I hope that my wife doesn't see the Visa bill)
So going back to my original question has anyone ever taken a break from Trek novels? And what made you get back into them?

 

[JAG]

Nope, no break for me, not an extended one at least. I buy whatever has come out that month for my reading enjoyment. Do I buy everything? No, but I do buy almost everything.

 

[TriOpticon]

I have taken a break as I try to alternate between genres or settings. I tend to read sci-fi, fantasy and superhero novels. However, I have begun realizing I love Star Trek and superheroes the most so I tend to buy and read more of those novels. So, I'll read Star Trek then read Spider-Man then, maybe, read a fantasy novel. I am burned out on fantasy, though.

However, I recently purchased most of the ST relaunch novels as noted in another thread here and have begun reading those so I may be reading ST novels for sometime now.

Another thing that makes me take a break is just being too busy to read for awhile. Kids, family, work, etc.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Nope, no break for me, not an extended one at least.

In the early days of Pocket ST, it was often an eight-month wait between new novels, so I hunted up things like "Ringworld" and "Ringworld Engineers" by Larry Niven (and pretended they were kzinti stories set in the ST universe), "Dreamsnake and Other Stories" by Vonda N McIntyre, and "The Man Who Folded Himself" by David Gerrold.

 

[captcalhoun]

i read (nearly) nothing but my SW tie-ins from TPM to "The Unifying Force" in a mass read from May 2006 to January 2007.

that was around 50 books. i did read 2 other novels, a short Tenth Doctor novel and a short OF sci-fi book which was a bit crap.

 

[wahwahkits]

During my 'break' I read a lot of Stephen King including the infamous Dark Tower books. Also read a lot of David Gemmell. Excellent stuff.

 

[gottacook]

My Star Trek books break began after I finished the last of the James Blish adaptations - some 33 years ago. (Although in the early 1990s I did hear a novel on tape concerning Q and Lwaxana, titled Q in Law I think, read of course by John de Lancie and Majel Barrett. Not bad.) I think my problem with the novels I've glanced at over the years is the introduction of new characters created on the spot, as it were. Can anyone suggest any novels that incorporate only characters introduced on TV or in the movies, a la Blish's 1970 Spock Must Die?

Current reading: the non-Known Space stories of Larry Niven through the late 1970s. I especially dig the novellas, such as "Flash Crowd," "Rammer," and "The Fourth Profession."

 

[JAG]

Nope, no break for me, not an extended one at least.

In the early days of Pocket ST, it was often an eight-month wait between new novels, so I hunted up things like "Ringworld" and "Ringworld Engineers" by Larry Niven (and pretended they were kzinti stories set in the ST universe), "Dreamsnake and Other Stories" by Vonda N McIntyre, and "The Man Who Folded Himself" by David Gerrold.

I meant that I did not stop buying the books, if they came out, I got them. I honestly don't remember them being that long between books though.

 

[Brian]

I don't read every Star Trek book, just the ones that pique my interest for one reason or another. And beyond that, I just read what I feel like reading. Maybe every second or third book is a Star Trek book.

 

[OmahaStar]

Yep, a few times. One was for several years, and it was Krad who convinced me to try them again. I've talked about that on here before. I've taken other brief breaks since then, up to a few months at a time, while I try to get caught up on other books. In those cases, it's not based on the lack of quality, but lack of time. It seems we're stuck with just 24 hours in one day. Blast it.

 

[Brian]

That's why I don't read them all, just the ones that catch my eye. Life is so busy, the only chance I have to read anymore is at lunch. So I always go to lunch by myself and get in an hour of reading per day. It sometimes takes me weeks to get through a book, but hey, it's better than nothing.

 

[Steve Roby]

This may seem like a funny question, but have any of you ever taken a break from reading Trek books?

Star Trek is just one of a lot of things I like to read, and sometimes a few months may go by when I don't read any Star Trek books. I was on a Trek binge not too long ago, finally catching up with KRAD's really entertaining IKS Gorkon/Klingon Empire novels and Destiny and a couple of other things, and then, let's see, I read a Denise Mina mystery novel, Robert E. Howard's Kull, Michael Moorcock's To Rescue Tanelorn, some Bernice Summerfield Doctor Who spinoff novels, a steampunk anthology, Jeff VanderMeer's Shriek: An Afterword, possibly a few other things I'm forgetting, and now I'm reading Samuel Delany's SF novel Triton.

I have a lot of unread books, and don't always know what I want to read next. It's rarely a matter of consciously deciding to take a break from one thing or another.

 

[Dayton Ward]

I typically don't read other Trek fiction while I'm in the midst of writing my own. Because of that, I often fall behind when it comes to whatever's "hot" at any given moment. I catch up in between Trek writing projects. While I'm writing Trek, my leisure reading...if I get to do any...runs the gamut. I read mysteries/thrillers, nonfiction such as military history or perhaps true crime, stuff like that.

 

[BaloksPuppet]

I took a 10 year break with the exception of TOS books. Even there, I started reading them in spurts, so I would probably spend two or three years without reading any TOS books and then catch up with them over a couple of weeks. Since Christmas of last year, I've been catching up with all of the ones I skipped from the other series. I expect to be fully caught up by the end of the year, but it has been a huge undertaking.

I think the main reason I took my break in the first place was that in the late 90s the sheer volume of Trek books being released was so great that I had to choose between just reading them or being able to read a lot of other things, too. I opted for the latter. (There were other reasons, but that was the main one.) This year, Trek has been pretty much the only fiction I've read, and I've read something Trek-related (at least a chapter from a book or a short story from one of the trades) every single day since I started. Like I said, I will probably be caught up by the end of the year, but it just goes to show what an enormous body of work has been released over that time.

By the way, I never stopped buying them. I guess I always suspected I'd try to catch up someday. I have mostly enjoyed this year's reading... but I wouldn't want to do this again. Though I must admit, I think I'm going to spend a fair amount of time next year re-reading some of the older TOS books that I haven't read since the 80s.

 

[RobertScorpio]

That's why I don't read them all, just the ones that catch my eye. Life is so busy, the only chance I have to read anymore is at lunch. So I always go to lunch by myself and get in an hour of reading per day. It sometimes takes me weeks to get through a book, but hey, it's better than nothing.

Same here...I don't have time to read them all anymore, only ones that catch my eyes. Greg Cox's Khan series caught my eye a few years back, and they were good reads. The last TREK book I read was Kirk's Crucible book. Other than that, I just don't have the time. I would 'listen' more if they put out more audio books. I drive a lot. I love listening to books on tape/cd. But the TREK titles are not that much anymore. Shatner's TREK books, and a few others, and thats it.

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Brian]

As such, I tend to wait for omnibus editions. I recently read the mirror universe trilogy (Glass Empires) and the Exodus/Exiles/Epiphany trilogy (I forget the overarching name at the moment) that way. And I'm a sucker for an anthology, probably because the shorter stories complement my hour per day reading style.

I tend to stay away from Klingon-heavy stories (the TV series burned me out on them). Also New Frontier and the like, being full of characters I don't "know". The relaunches haven't really caught my eye, either. Which is completely off topic, so I'll stop there.

 

[RobertScorpio]

As such, I tend to wait for omnibus editions. I recently read the mirror universe trilogy (Glass Empires) and the Exodus/Exiles/Epiphany trilogy (I forget the overarching name at the moment) that way. And I'm a sucker for an anthology, probably because the shorter stories complement my hour per day reading style.

I tend to stay away from Klingon-heavy stories (the TV series burned me out on them). Also New Frontier and the like, being full of characters I don't "know". The relaunches haven't really caught my eye, either. Which is completely off topic, so I'll stop there.

Again I agree. Nothing against the NEW FRONTIER books, or the relaunches, but I can't get into them because of all the new characters.

My favorite books to read are TOS era. When I read a book I actually try to read them as episodes, so I visualize what I am reading. And since I have been watching TOS for, literally, several decades now, the images of Kirk and Spock and the others are so 'carved' into my memory, I can see them in these books better.

I'm not sure what series it was, Vanguard I think? I got the first book but so much of it wasn't about Kirk and company at all so I just zoned out...

My favorite non TOS era books are some of the DS9 books I read when it first came on the air. The one where the Horta comes to DS9 stands out for some reason...

And I did like Vendetta and a few other TNG books. But TOS still is number one for reading, especially when the writer nails the dialog.

Rob
Scorpio

 

[JD]

I've been reading Trek since about '03, I think, and I haven't really taken a break. For a while I was trying to get caught up on all of the current series, and during that time I read pretty much nothing but Trek. But over the past year or so I've decided to expand my horizons, so now I usually read 2 books at once, and I try to make sure one of those is something non-Trek. Right now I'm reading Kobayashi Maru, and the Forgotten Realms book Legend of Drizzt: The Legacy.

 

[RandyS]

I'm in the middle of a break right now. Not because I dislike the current novels or have gotten bored with Trek, but simply because I have other reading interests besides Trek, and am right now pursuing one of those.

 

[DimesDan]

I've been reading Star Trek Novels on and off since I picked up Vendetta way back when. (I can't exactly remember when it was but it was after Jurassic Park and I read that after it was in the cinema) and unlike other members on here, I don't really read masses of Trek Novels one after another. What I tend to do is alternate between Star Trek, Star Wars (when it comes to reading that's my comfort zone) and non Sci Fi like Christopher Broykemyres work (which is scottish crime/thriller) which I'm doing at the moment until Mere Mortals is released and shows up!

Also, I don't buy everybook from every series (my budget can't really stretch that far) but the books I've bought and read this year are:

Excelcior: Forged in Fire
Titan: Sword of Damocles
Star Trek Terok Nor: Day of the Vipers, Night of the Wolves and Dawn of the Eagles
Star Trek The Next Generation: Greater than the Sum
Star Trek Destiny: Gods of Night
Star Trek Myriad Universes: Infinity's Prisim and Echoes and Refractions

Not many I admit compared to others and I did almost pick up the first Corp of Engineers compulation in Forbidden Planet last week when in London, but passed.