DS9 and the Trek Lit Flow Chart

[Bryan Levy]

I’m trying to get it all done by the time Coda comes out. When it comes to DS9, there’s like this gap between Section 31: Abyss and the rest where Gateways and a comic mini series falls in where I’m just like “Do I gotta?” And I’ll buy a comic and read Gateways and stuff, but do I gotta, or can I just move to Mission Gamma?

 

[mastadge]

Doesn't Gateways take place immediately before Mission Gamma? Like MG starts literally starts with them wrapping up the evacuation story from the Gateways novel? And the comic is the Divided We Fall TNG miniseries, right? So wouldn't that go before the Gateways stuff sometime? I don't think there's a huge gap in the timeline there.

 

[Bryan Levy]

Doesn't Gateways take place immediately before Mission Gamma? Like MG starts literally starts with them wrapping up the evacuation story from the Gateways novel? And the comic is the Divided We Fall TNG miniseries, right? So wouldn't that go before the Gateways stuff sometime? I don't think there's a huge gap in the timeline there.

I’m just trying to regulate my purchases. If I read Avatar and Abyss, do I have to read Gateways?

 

[Christopher]

I’m just trying to regulate my purchases. If I read Avatar and Abyss, do I have to read Gateways?

Gateways: Demons of Air and Darkness and Horn and Ivory are integral parts of the DS9 post-finale story arc, if that's what you mean. The thing about Gateways is that the individual installments are more strongly connected to their own series than to each other; the unifying element is not a single story so much as a galaxywide situation that affects each cast separately at the same time. In theory, you can just read one series's portion of Gateways as part of that series and don't need to read the other parts of Gateways. That's complicated by the fact that the conclusions of all the Gateways stories were collected in a single volume, but in the case of DS9, both Gateways installments were reprinted in the Twist of Faith omnibus, so that's not a problem anymore.

Twist of Faith contains Avatar, Abyss, and both DS9 parts of Gateways, so you can just read Twist of Faith and go directly to Mission: Gamma from there.

 

[KRAD]

It's always fun to go online and see people asking if they can avoid reading one's work. Sigh.

As @Christopher said, you don't have to read all of Gateways if you want to follow the DS9 storyline, just read Demons of Air and Darkness and "Horn and Ivory." Several supporting characters are introduced or reintroduced in Demons... (Vretha zh'Thane, Treir, Macet), and "H&I" is a major turning point for Kira.

 

[JWolf]

Personally, I'd read all the Gateways books. I liked them when I read them. I'm not a fan of skipping books in a series.

If I was that far behind, I would pick a place to start and read in published order from there until I got caught up. As for the comics, I don't read them and I don't feel I've missed anything.

 

[Bryan Levy]

It's always fun to go online and see people asking if they can avoid reading one's work. Sigh.

As @Christopher said, you don't have to read all of Gateways if you want to follow the DS9 storyline, just read Demons of Air and Darkness and "Horn and Ivory." Several supporting characters are introduced or reintroduced in Demons... (Vretha zh'Thane, Treir, Macet), and "H&I" is a major turning point for Kira.

This is why you should never drink and post. I’m on a real completist jag, so I’m definitely going to read Gateways. Especially if you’re involved, @KRAD. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed your A Time To... book. It really saved the series, for me, and I’m looking forward to Articles of the Federation. @Christopher was on the money with his answer. I’m looking for the straightest line, I guess, and I don’t want to miss anything. “Is Gateways part of the Relaunch, tight continuity era” would have been a better way to phrase the question. I definitely don’t want to seem disrespectful to people whose work I’ve been enjoying so much.

 

[JWolf]

What is the first Trek book to take place after the TNG TV series?

 

[Jinn]

What is the first Trek book to take place after the TNG TV series?

My best guess would be Intellivore with a stardate that sets it only 13 days after "All Good Things...". Not sure if that's intentional.

Also, there's an Alien Spotlight comic, Andorian, with a stardate that sets it only three days later.

 

[Christopher]

What is the first Trek book to take place after the TNG TV series?

By publication date, that was apparently Crossover. Among the numbered paperbacks, it was either Rogue Saucer or Invasion: The Soldiers of Fear (as Possession is apparently set during season 7). Rogue Saucer takes place shortly after "Preemptive Strike," but not immediately after; it's got to be at least a few weeks, given Ro's changed circumstances. So it depends on how much time you think could have passed between "Preemptive" and AGT.

 

[KRAD]

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed your A Time To... book. It really saved the series, for me, and I’m looking forward to Articles of the Federation.

Thank you very kindly.

 

[Desert Kris]

This is a surprisingly timely topic, for where I'm at in Star Trek viewing, and future reading plans! I just finished watching DS9 today (re-watch of Seasons 1 through 3, first time viewing of Season 4 to the end). As I watched through it, an episode a day, I read along with Keith R.A. DeCandido's Tor re-watch posts. The trivia was interesting to follow, and I ended up getting Twist of Faith, These Haunted Seas, Tales of the Dominion War, Prophecy and Change, Worlds of DS9, and The Battle of Betazed. I already had a copy of The Lives of Dax. The Tor re-watch raised some interesting questions about unresolved issued by the end of the show, such as Bajor having not joined the Federation, and when Sisko returns from the Celestial Temple. Of all things, I actually wondered about if there were any consequences for Bashir (and Miles?) from Section 31, for Sloane's fate during that silly scheme to, uh, ENTER SLOANE'S BRAIN! In a sense, the DS9 finale was sort of satisfying; on the other hand, it's reassuring that there's well-regarded novels and stories that explore beyond DS9's television endpoint.

 

[ryan123450]

To @Bryan Levy and @Desert Kris if my website can be of any help...

www.startreklitverse.com

 

[Thrawn]

I’m trying to get it all done by the time Coda comes out. When it comes to DS9, there’s like this gap between Section 31: Abyss and the rest where Gateways and a comic mini series falls in where I’m just like “Do I gotta?” And I’ll buy a comic and read Gateways and stuff, but do I gotta, or can I just move to Mission Gamma?

I think other people have covered this, but fwiw as the co-author of said flow chart, I think the DS9 Gateways entries (the novel & the DS9 part of What Lay Beyond) are a must, but the other Gateways entries and the comic mini-series are entirely optional. (I didn't even know the comics existed the first couple times I read the DS9 relaunch and was none the wiser while reading the books.)

 

[JD]

The trivia was interesting to follow, and I ended up getting Twist of Faith, These Haunted Seas, Tales of the Dominion War, Prophecy and Change, Worlds of DS9, and The Battle of Betazed. I already had a copy of The Lives of Dax. The Tor re-watch raised some interesting questions about unresolved issued by the end of the show, such as Bajor having not joined the Federation, and when Sisko returns from the Celestial Temple. Of all things, I actually wondered about if there were any consequences for Bashir (and Miles?) from Section 31, for Sloane's fate during that silly scheme to, uh, ENTER SLOANE'S BRAIN! In a sense, the DS9 finale was sort of satisfying; on the other hand, it's reassuring that there's well-regarded novels and stories that explore beyond DS9's television endpoint.

Were you going for the whole Phase 1 of the Relaunch or just certain books? If you were going for all of Phase 1, you're missing Mission Gamma Book 3: Cathedral, Book 4: Lesser Evil, Rising Son, and Unity, which all go between These Haunted Seas and Worlds of DS9. If you jump right from THS to WoDS9, you'll miss some huge story developments.

 

[Desert Kris]

To @Bryan Levy and @Desert Kris if my website can be of any help...

www.startreklitverse.com

Oh, yes; it's an excellent site! I visit it often, sometimes for research to help decide on getting a book or not, and sometimes just for the fun of browsing through. Thanks for providing the link, for easy access!

Were you going for the whole Phase 1 of the Relaunch or just certain books? If you were going for all of Phase 1, you're missing Mission Gamma Book 3: Cathedral, Book 4: Lesser Evil, Rising Son, and Unity, which all go between These Haunted Seas and Worlds of DS9. If you jump right from THS to WoDS9, you'll miss some huge story developments.

I had a half-baked idea of dabbling into it a little bit, based on where the series leaves some characters and situations. I felt really bad about Cardassia's suffering, and thought that The Never Ending Sacrifice (which I forgot to include in my above tally) and the WoDS9 Cardassia story would give a look in on how Cardassia fares after the war. I've heard people say The Never Ending Sacrifice is pretty user friendly, and shows the Dominion War from the perspective of the Cardassian youth who gets shipped back to Cardassia in the episode "Cardassians". I can't remember if I heard that The Never Ending Sacrifice goes beyond the war into the reconstruction. I was also left feeling curious about how Rom does as Grand Negus (I ended up liking Rom so much, seeing how his life changed throughout the show), and wondered if the WoDS9: Ferenginar story would show how Rom adjusts to that role.

Those are my immediate interests in the aftermath of the DS9 finale, but if the answers to those situations are scattered throughout the DS9 relaunch novels from the beginning, than I'm game to start there. Otherwise, I figured I would dabble with some of the WoDS9 that sound interesting, The Never Ending Sacrifice, and then go back to the start of the DS9 relaunch novels. And revisit the WoDS9 collection in order, the second time around.

Thank you for the feedback about the novels that fill the gap, the remaining Mission: Gamma novels, ect. Only four novels in that gap sounds very manageable!

 

[KRAD]

I was also left feeling curious about how Rom does as Grand Negus (I ended up liking Rom so much, seeing how his life changed throughout the show), and wondered if the WoDS9: Ferenginar story would show how Rom adjusts to that role.

Speaking as the author of the WoDS9 Ferenginar story, yes, that's exactly what that novel is about.

 

[Damian]

I'll add my two sense about the comics. I'm not a comic book reader, just not my thing.

I didn't find I missed anything by not reading the comics related to the DS9 relaunch. One thing you could do, and I did do, was read the summary in Memory Beta. Sort of a cliff notes summary, but it was enough in my case. But honestly I probably didn't even need to do that. The novel writers provided any needed background to get you up to speed. It was one of the few cases I think where there was some coordination between novels and comic books (usually they seem to do their own things).

A number of people have noted it's important to read the Gateways stories from DS9. Also be sure to read the Section 31 novel around that period. Like the Gateway novels, there were a number of Section 31 novels for each series about that time. Like Gateways, the stories weren't really related to each other to a great extent other than Section 31 being involved, but the DS9 Section 31 novel was definitely part of the DS9 relaunch (and of course the Section 31 novels written years later by David Mack are part of the same relaunch).

Then there are some crossover series down the line like Destiny, the Typhon Pact novels and The Fall that cover events in both the DS9 and TNG, then some more DS9 specific novels. The timeline linked above is a good flowchart to follow to keep you on the right track though.

I pretty much read them all as they were released. The only disadvantage I found with that is sometimes there were months between some of the novels, sometimes more than a year in some cases, and I found I sometimes forgot things that had happened in the previous novels. But then the authors usually did a good job of catching every one up to speed so I guess it wasn't such a big deal. But in a way you're fortunate to just read them one after another so everything is fresh in your mind.

Someday I plan on revisiting the relaunches and it'll be interesting to start from the beginning again.

 

[JD]

Oh, yes; it's an excellent site! I visit it often, sometimes for research to help decide on getting a book or not, and sometimes just for the fun of browsing through. Thanks for providing the link, for easy access!



I had a half-baked idea of dabbling into it a little bit, based on where the series leaves some characters and situations. I felt really bad about Cardassia's suffering, and thought that The Never Ending Sacrifice (which I forgot to include in my above tally) and the WoDS9 Cardassia story would give a look in on how Cardassia fares after the war. I've heard people say The Never Ending Sacrifice is pretty user friendly, and shows the Dominion War from the perspective of the Cardassian youth who gets shipped back to Cardassia in the episode "Cardassians". I can't remember if I heard that The Never Ending Sacrifice goes beyond the war into the reconstruction. I was also left feeling curious about how Rom does as Grand Negus (I ended up liking Rom so much, seeing how his life changed throughout the show), and wondered if the WoDS9: Ferenginar story would show how Rom adjusts to that role.

Those are my immediate interests in the aftermath of the DS9 finale, but if the answers to those situations are scattered throughout the DS9 relaunch novels from the beginning, than I'm game to start there. Otherwise, I figured I would dabble with some of the WoDS9 that sound interesting, The Never Ending Sacrifice, and then go back to the start of the DS9 relaunch novels. And revisit the WoDS9 collection in order, the second time around.

Thank you for the feedback about the novels that fill the gap, the remaining Mission: Gamma novels, ect. Only four novels in that gap sounds very manageable!

If you want to read just those novels to see the stuff you're interested in, you could probably do that, but you should just be aware that stuff that happens in the books you're skipping do have an effect on the ones you're reading. Most of the books are usually pretty good about recapping the important stuff from the other books, but I still find it works better to actually read all the books to get the full context.