DS9 question:

[PKS8304]

I was looking on the FAQ's page at the reading order for the DS9 re launch. It has:

Terok Nor Trilogy (technically part of The Lost Era)

Is this included because it came out during the relaunch releases or does the story have some sort of impact on the current series...example: do events and characters introduced in its past setting proceed to show up in the relaunch books that come after it?

OR can I skip this trilogy and than go back to it later as to not be distracted from the relaunch?

 

[Christopher]

I was looking on the FAQ's page at the reading order for the DS9 re launch. It has:

Terok Nor Trilogy (technically part of The Lost Era)

Is this included because it came out during the relaunch releases or does the story have some sort of impact on the current series...example: do events and characters introduced in its past setting proceed to show up in the relaunch books that come after it?

OR can I skip this trilogy and than go back to it later as to not be distracted from the relaunch?

There are no direct links. At most there are one or two subtle cross-references here and there.

As a general rule, remember, the novelists are not actually trying to confuse you. Each and every book (or duology or trilogy) is designed to be comprehensible on its own. Even if there are links to earlier works, the references are explained in the text for the benefit of new readers. We know that a lot of the people who read a given book will not have read the earlier works it refers to, so we consciously take that into account and try to make sure each story can be understood on its own. The links between different works are just a bonus if you choose to read multiple ones -- not a maze you're being forced to negotiate. We're not trying to exclude anyone or make our work inaccessible -- just the opposite. So the answer to "Do I need to read X to understand Y?" is virtually always going to be "No, absolutely not."

 

[PKS8304]

Very cool, one of my character flaws is that I seem to be a completist so seeing that trilogy included on the relaunch list I had to know if "I really needed that" lol.

 

[Christopher]

Well, Terok Nor is definitely worth reading. But you don't have to read it before any of the other DS9 novels in order to follow them.

 

[JD]

I was looking on the FAQ's page at the reading order for the DS9 re launch. It has:

Terok Nor Trilogy (technically part of The Lost Era)

Is this included because it came out during the relaunch releases or does the story have some sort of impact on the current series...example: do events and characters introduced in its past setting proceed to show up in the relaunch books that come after it?

OR can I skip this trilogy and than go back to it later as to not be distracted from the relaunch?

The stories and characters are completely seperate, but it does use elements that were introduced in the relaunch. The big one that I can think of is the Oralian Way. They're introduced and play a fairly major role in the DS9R, and then the Terok Nor trilogy features an earlier version of that group.

 

[DigificWriter]

To the OP: If you want to have a more complete picture of the DS9 Relaunch, I'd suggest using the 'Charting the Novel-verse' thread that is stickied at the top of this forum. It provides a complete listing of all of the novels that are considered to be part of the official DS9-R continuity/storyline, as well as novels that are connected - even tangentally - to it.

That thread also does the same for the rest of the Pocket Book novel lines, both current and discontinued.