Another "What should I read first?" post

[Sci]

The only way any Star Trek novel can possibly be enjoyed is to read everything that came before, starting with the Bantam series from the 70s and then reading all the Pocket novels in publication order, except for Triangle, which should be read every 3 months just to savor it. Also, if you lose track of what happened back in #57, for example, I suggest you read it twice. Otherwise Destiny or Q&A just don't make sense, dammit!!!1!

I used to think this kind of post was an exagerration, but after trying to read Destiny 1 before Greater Than the Sum, I'm not so sure.

I remember an entire chapter focusing on some character that (I guess) was introduced in GTtS. The author gives absolutely no indication of who this character is or why he's in the scene. After that, he just vanishes from the rest of the book leaving the reader thinking "WTF mate?". I wonder how many more such moments there would have been if I hadn't followed Titan and the DS9 relaunch. I know without the DS9 relaunch, "Captain Ezri Dax" would be a big WTF moment.

I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. I just skimmed through the first five chapters and prologue, and almost every single POV character reappears later throughout the book (and has their backgrounds explained in the text): Ezri Dax, Sam Bowers, the Unknown Alien Entity Aboard Columbia, Erika Hernandez, Christine Vale, Xin Ra-Havreii, Deanna Troi, Will Riker, Jean-Luc Picard, Worf, and Lonnoc Kedair.

The exceptions are Jadzia Dax (who of course died during DS9 after the prologue was set), and Celia Komer and Yott, whose disappearance from the rest of the novel is explained by virtue of their being killed.

 

[Therin of Andor]

OK, quick show of "hands" here folks. How many people, hand on heart, have read every Star Trek novel - starting from Mission to Horatius right the way through to Destiny III?

I was almost up-to-date until "Mission: Gamma", then I lost my daily three-hour commute.

 

[Lindley]

OK, quick show of "hands" here folks. How many people, hand on heart, have read every Star Trek novel - starting from Mission to Horatius right the way through to Destiny III? Doesn't matter if you've not read them in order...

Paul

Pretty damned close, mostly in middle school (mid 90s). I'm a couple months behind the latest stuff, and there are probably a couple of the really early ones I haven't read (I think Spock Must Die! is one), and I've forgotten the plotlines to many.

I also usually skipped things like Enterprise Logs, so anything anthology-ish from the early days is probably 50/50.

But I've read the vast majority.....

I tend to get fairly obsessive when something *really* catches my interest, and as my first really-paying-attention exposure to Trek was through the books (during a break waiting for the next Star Wars novel), that's what I latched on to. Coupled with a used book store in my home town with a large Trek selection (which I bought out as fast as I could afford to), my fate was sealed.....

Probably a good thing I never took to model-building or posters or the like.

 

[Steve Roby]

OK, quick show of "hands" here folks. How many people, hand on heart, have read every Star Trek novel - starting from Mission to Horatius right the way through to Destiny III? Doesn't matter if you've not read them in order...

Not as close as I should be. I've got probably a couple dozen books of Trek fiction I haven't read yet. Not the last couple dozen, but some here and there that I just haven't managed to get around to for one reason or another (in some cases, waiting for a series or trilogy to wrap up and then forgetting to get around to them when they have; in others, wanting to watch a TV relevant TV episode first and never remembering to).

But at least I have them all. When I'm ready to read them, I won't have to scour eBay or Amazon resellers looking for books that have gone out of print.