Am I Being Stupid?

[Killie]

Hey guys, found this forum mainly when I was looking up some information on some of the new Trek books.

Anyway, over the years I have only read the odd Trek novel, the one I really remember was Final Frontier. Mainly because Trek and Dinosaurs was just amazing to me as a young teen!

Recently, however I started my own blog on book review and found out about the blogging communities ideas of "challenges". Anyway, to cut a long story short I decided I would set my own self challenge on my blog to read every Star Trek novel in some sort of chronological order.

The question I want to ask you all is this, I am being stupid and mad in trying to do this? Should I just skip the idea and read what is determined as the "good" books?

Also, is there any easier way of working out when books are set beyond Wikipedia and Star Trek Memory Alpha/Bravo? The current order I have utilised is viewable here: http://killie-booktalk.blogspot.com/p/star-trek-reading-challenge.html but I think I may be wrong on some of the order and think I have already missed reading some books that would have been set before the Enterprise novels.

Also, would you advise I read the majority of crossover collections, anthologies or alternate realities books in any order I want? At the moment I have just put them in their own section and was going to read them when I "felt" like it.

Finally, does any one have a recommendations on where I would place books that have a framing period in one period but are detailing a past period? I think I have currently got them mixed up at the moment with some being set around the framing period and some being set around the main storyline period.

Any thoughts and opinions would be greatly appreciated as I am beginning to think I may have bitten off more than I can handle!!

 

[Christopher]

Anyway, over the years I have only read the odd Trek novel, the one I really remember was Final Frontier. Mainly because Trek and Dinosaurs was just amazing to me as a young teen!

Hi. That book's actually called First Frontier, by Diane Carey and paleontologist Dr. James I. Kirkland. There is a novel called Final Frontier, also by Carey, but it's an adventure featuring Jim Kirk's father George, Captain Robert April, and the maiden voyage of the Enterprise.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I decided I would set my own self challenge on my blog to read every Star Trek novel in some sort of chronological order.

The question I want to ask you all is this, I am being stupid and mad in trying to do this? Should I just skip the idea and read what is determined as the "good" books?

Also, is there any easier way of working out when books are set beyond Wikipedia and Star Trek Memory Alpha/Bravo? The current order I have utilised is viewable here: http://killie-booktalk.blogspot.com/p/star-trek-reading-challenge.html but I think I may be wrong on some of the order and think I have already missed reading some books that would have been set before the Enterprise novels.

Since quite a few of the Trek novels aren't in the same continuity with each other, there isn't any solid chronological order. However, you'd do well to track down the book Voyages of the Imagination, a companion guide to the novels, which includes a best-guess chronology at the end (not putting all the books in a single continuity, but just saying when they're all intended or most likely to take place). It's a few years out of date, so Memory Alpha and Beta would be good supplements.

Also, would you advise I read the majority of crossover collections, anthologies or alternate realities books in any order I want? At the moment I have just put them in their own section and was going to read them when I "felt" like it.

Probably for the best, although the installments of crossover miniseries are usually best read as part of their individual series. For instance, the DS9 novel in the Gateways crossover is more tightly linked to the ongoing DS9 storyline than to the events of Gateways.

Also, some of the later DS9 novels tie into the continuity of the Mirror Universe trade paperbacks/novels.

 

[Relayer1]

Well, it's your time and your dollar, but although I am really enjoying the current 'relaunch' continuity (apart from the dire Christie Golden Voyagers) and am going back and reading selected old novels, I think a lot of the older books (imho) are pretty poor and I wouldn't touch them. I'd include a lot of the crossovers such as Invasion in that category too.

However, it's all subjective - there's certainly posters here that prefer the old novels and don't like the relaunch books. It's your call...

 

[Killie]

Hi. That book's actually called First Frontier, by Diane Carey and paleontologist Dr. James I. Kirkland. There is a novel called Final Frontier, also by Carey, but it's an adventure featuring Jim Kirk's father George, Captain Robert April, and the maiden voyage of the Enterprise.

Gah! I always keep doing that and calling it Final Frontier. I even did it to a friend who ended up picking it up instead of First Frontier.

Since quite a few of the Trek novels aren't in the same continuity with each other, there isn't any solid chronological order. However, you'd do well to track down the book Voyages of the Imagination, a companion guide to the novels, which includes a best-guess chronology at the end (not putting all the books in a single continuity, but just saying when they're all intended or most likely to take place). It's a few years out of date, so Memory Alpha and Beta would be good supplements.

Yeah, I suspected there would be quite a few books that didn't really fit in the same continuity. For example, from what I have read about some of the "Rihannsu" books, they seem to treat Romulans slightly different than from what I have seen in other elements of the Trek Universe. I will probably look up a copy of Voyages of the Imagination then to at least try and get them in some sort of order so thanks for letting me know about that.

Probably for the best, although the installments of crossover miniseries are usually best read as part of their individual series. For instance, the DS9 novel in the Gateways crossover is more tightly linked to the ongoing DS9 storyline than to the events of Gateways.

Also, some of the later DS9 novels tie into the continuity of the Mirror Universe trade paperbacks/novels.

In the end I suppose I will just have to accept that some of the books I read won't fit in as well as I want.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I vaguely recall someone else hoping to read through every single Trek novel in chronological order, and blogging reviews. I think they got as far as Pike's era before going quiet.

I've been reading Trek novels for at least 15 years, and there's no way I'm ever gonna manage to read them all. I'm not sure anyone can say they've read every Star Trek novel out there. There's something like 500 of them, with new ones coming out every single month. It would be much quicker to watch every episode and movie back to back!

 

[Killie]

I vaguely recall someone else hoping to read through every single Trek novel in chronological order, and blogging reviews. I think they got as far as Pike's era before going quiet.

I've been reading Trek novels for at least 15 years, and there's no way I'm ever gonna manage to read them all. I'm not sure anyone can say they've read every Star Trek novel out there. There's something like 500 of them, with new ones coming out every single month. It would be much quicker to watch every episode and movie back to back!

I have to admit that this is more the issue with me doing this, I am not sure if I will ever really manage to complete it. If I avoided reading all other books then I probably could do it but I think I would hit Star Trek overload if I did that.

 

[captcalhoun]

I read every Star Wars novel I owned back to back from May 2006 to February 2007 and believe me, that was bad enough at only 40-odd novels. trying to do 500+ Trek novels is a sure way to drive yourself mad, especially as more are going to come out as you're reading and quite probably fit in areas where you've passed by.

that was a big problem the poster King Daniel mentioned had when they were plotting their reading list.

a more manageable challenge might be to read everything from A Time To onwards that's part of the current inter-connected Trek Lit continuity in the 24th century.

 

[JD]

Yeah, honestly I'd say stick to stuff that's come out after the Novelverse got going in 2001. I've been reading Trek books pretty much since then and there are still a few I haven't read yet.

 

[ryan123450]

When I began reading TrekLit, I wanted to go chronological too, but I decided to do it by series. I decided which TNG novels, I wanted to read (mostly the Lit-verse stuff and the older stuff that it referenced) and read them all in chronologicall order. DS9, VOY, etc likewise. Here I am about 7 years later and between reading the new stuff as it comes out, I've still only made it about half way through the TOS list I had compiled and halfway through NF. Every other series I am current on.

If you are going to do Trek chronologically, I would definitely advise picking and choosing either series-wise or book by book interest-wise. I could easily toss out about half the TOS books available because I was totally uninterested in reading dozens of stand alone 5 year mission stories.

It is very interesting to read through everything in chronologicall order though. Gives each series a bigger epic sweep.

 

[OverlordSpock]

I'm not sure anyone can say they've read every Star Trek novel out there. There's something like 500 of them, with new ones coming out every single month. It would be much quicker to watch every episode and movie back to back!

I've probably not read every Star Trek novel ever written, but I think I've come pretty close . I'm fairly sure I own and have read every Pocket Books Star Trek novel, with two exceptions: There are two compilations that I know of that I have not read (The Amazing Stories and Lives of Dax). I've read most of the Bantam run, but have never read Trek to Madworld.

So, no, I haven't read them all, but I've read a good chunk of them. Of course, I've been reading TrekLit since 1984.

And, no, I'm not trying to brag. I'm sure I'm not the only one with a similar story.

To the original poster: I would certainly find it overwhelming to start at the beginning and plow through it all. Even with a plan and even with a good rate of reading, you're looking at a multi-year (-years?) undertaking. I think you'd eventually run into Trek burnout. I love TrekLit and I definitely read more TrekLit than I do anything else in a year, but I still mix it up with other non-TrekLit reading as well.

I think you would do well to pick some highlights from the early novels (there are numerous threads on this forum detailing people's opinions about what the highlights are) and then read the "Relaunch" series (pretty much most of everything from DS9: Avatar on) to the present. That's still a good chunk of reading, but I think you'd have a much smaller chance of burning yourself out.

 

[tafkats]

Hi. That book's actually called First Frontier, by Diane Carey and paleontologist Dr. James I. Kirkland. There is a novel called Final Frontier, also by Carey, but it's an adventure featuring Jim Kirk's father George, Captain Robert April, and the maiden voyage of the Enterprise.

Gah! I always keep doing that and calling it Final Frontier. I even did it to a friend who ended up picking it up instead of First Frontier.

Final Frontier is one of my favorite Trek novels. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

Though if you read the whole bunch in chronological order, I guess you'll get there soon enough anyway.

 

[Kertrats47]

My aim with my blog is to read all of Pocket Books' Star Trek novels. I don't have any particular order, however. I read the new ones as they come out, and others according to my whims. For the most part, I'm reading TOS novels for the "in-between" periods. Here's a link to my blog. I don't know that I'll ever read every novel, but I'm trying!

 

[Killie]

Thanks everyone for your comments, I probably need to think about this more and decide if I want to really do it or not.

I think when I started putting this together I didn't fully realise how many books there really were and that they were still coming out a decent rate. The big issue I think will be trying to work through many of the standalone ToS and TNG novels out there.

I suppose what I may do is see how I get on over 2012 and if it seems far too much then I may change my stance and use some of the suggestions here. Either way though, this is a "challenge" so it should probably be challenging, I just am not sure I want to keep doing it for the next decade or more....

Oh and Kertrats47, I will give your blog a look over.

 

[Valin]

Final Frontier is one of my favorite Trek novels. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

I second that motion! I reread it every few years.

 

[seigezunt]

Final Frontier is one of my favorite Trek novels. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

I second that motion! I reread it every few years.

Same here. Great book.

 

[Killie]

Either way it seems I need to make sure I read Final Frontier :-)

 

[Steve Roby]

Couldn't stand Final Frontier myself, but you won't know whether it's your cup of tea until you try it.

Taking on all the Treklit out there is a daunting task. I read my first Star Trek book back around 1971, though I've fallen a bit behind. I've been reading a lot of Doctor Who books over the last decade, though, and the most important lesson from that experience was that you have to mix things up. Toss in random standalone books from different Trek series occasionally. Go a month or three reading something entirely different. That way it stays fun rather than seeming like a struggle to get through a chore you arbitrarily gave yourself.

 

[RoJoHen]

Either way it seems I need to make sure I read Final Frontier :-)

I'd say there are some "must read" Trek books that you should try and read first. If you try and read all the Trek books, you might get burnt out before you even get to the really good ones!