Good lord Trek lit is confusing.
- Thread starter Infern0
- Start date
Start with what series you like.
I stopped reading Trek novels several years ago for this exact reason. There are just too many to keep track of, especially now that there is this whole post-NEM/VOY/DS9 continuity stuff going on.
My first Trek book was Shatner's "The Return," which is a really fun book that takes place directly after "Generations."
Some of my other favorites are:
Federation
Sarek (this one actually made me cry)
Imzadi
Vendetta
The only Trek Lit I follow now is the "New Frontier" series by Peter David. It's about an original crew (with a couple random characters from various episodes of TNG), and I think it's a lot of fun.
My first Trek book was Shatner's "The Return," which is a really fun book that takes place directly after "Generations."
Some of my other favorites are:
Federation
Sarek (this one actually made me cry)
Imzadi
Vendetta
The only Trek Lit I follow now is the "New Frontier" series by Peter David. It's about an original crew (with a couple random characters from various episodes of TNG), and I think it's a lot of fun.
A safe bet might be to start with the numbered novels. They are (for the most part) set in the same tineline as the TV show on which they are based and are stand-alone, so you really don't need any additional knowledge to jump in. From there, find the authors and stories that appeal to you, and follow them.
Another option might be to grab an anthology like Tales from the Dominion War, which again is generally using familiar characters and settings. From there you can find a number of authors who still write regularly today, and track down their work.
I don't really follow any of the relaunches either, though I occasionally grab one from the library.
New Frontier is indeed excellent, but it's hard to track down the whole series unless you're lucky enough to get the hardcover with the bonus CD which had the previous books.
Another option might be to grab an anthology like Tales from the Dominion War, which again is generally using familiar characters and settings. From there you can find a number of authors who still write regularly today, and track down their work.
I don't really follow any of the relaunches either, though I occasionally grab one from the library.
New Frontier is indeed excellent, but it's hard to track down the whole series unless you're lucky enough to get the hardcover with the bonus CD which had the previous books.
I'm currently working through the DS9 relaunch,hampered by the fact that some of the novels are hard to get.I'm reading the omnibus edition of the first two Gamma Quadrant novels,but the third and fourth novels are out of print and expensive on ebay/Amazon,but I have tracked down a copy of Unity.The books that follow that are easier to get,at the moment anyway!
Totally agree - makes the most sense. I didn't even know there were Star Trek books until I found Greg Cox's Q-Continuum trilogy on the bookstore shelves, and picked it up and loved it, and became a trek lit fan immediately.
I was going to say that you should try to find a book set in your favorite series that focuses on themes or characters you love (Q, Borg, etc), but instead, I'll suggest that you either just pick up any book in your nearest bookstore and try it out (don't be scared by "continuation") or look at one of trekbbs's threads that focus on our favorite trek novels and pick one of those. (and possibly ignore the majority of books in our "least favorite trek books" thread - but everybody's tastes are different)
Used book stores, amazon marketplace, etc
I know what you mean, but keep trying! I'm also currently reading the These Haunted Seas omnibus (it's a slog, but I'm nearly finished!!). I was amazingly lucky about a month ago and picked up mission gamma 3 & 4 on ebay for just £1.99 together!! I finally completed my post-wylb ds9 collection the other day; you just gotta be persistent, and know what your spending limit is. It's an expensive collection (for about only 20 books) but I generally spent under five quid (or less) per book, except for the very rare exceptions that cost me £10 (Unity, Left Hand #1).
Why now? What's sparked this sudden interest for you? (Not that I can fault it
)Tell us what you like about Star Trek, your favorite series, and what you want out of the books, and we'll suggest some good ones to you
All you really need to do is pick up a book that catches your attention and start reading, you may not understand all the references to what may have happened in previous books. Start a bit earlier in the line of books, if you pick up one of the new ones it is most likely going to make no sense what so ever.
I started out with reading the "A Time To.." series and then just kept on reading. When new books were not really coming out that fast or when I was waiting on a new installment I would go back and read some of the older books. Most everything post-(insert tv show name here) really needs to be read in order so that you can appreciate what is going on in that story arc.
If you want to read a good story line that doesn't have to much to it yet I would suggest reading the Vanguard series. It is only five books long (the sixth is coming later this year) and it is really a great read. Very similar to how New Frontier got it start, with the appearance of characters we know to get things started.
Just enjoy what you are reading and you should have a blast with whatever you end up with.
I started out with reading the "A Time To.." series and then just kept on reading. When new books were not really coming out that fast or when I was waiting on a new installment I would go back and read some of the older books. Most everything post-(insert tv show name here) really needs to be read in order so that you can appreciate what is going on in that story arc.
If you want to read a good story line that doesn't have to much to it yet I would suggest reading the Vanguard series. It is only five books long (the sixth is coming later this year) and it is really a great read. Very similar to how New Frontier got it start, with the appearance of characters we know to get things started.
Just enjoy what you are reading and you should have a blast with whatever you end up with.
For the most part, the continuity among series doesn't mean you're required to read them all. Each series is designed to stand on its own, and the continuity references are just a bonus for those who do follow multiple series and can see how they all fit together (or sometimes don't).
As some of the other people here have said, for the most part, you can pick up a Trek novel and start reading. If it's part of an ongoing series, it'll give you some background info so you're not lost, but most of the Trek books published over the years are meant to be read on their own.
There are also a lot of good online resources. This forum is one of them. Lots of helpful people here, including some of the novelists. Then there are websites like Memory Beta and my own Complete Starfleet Library.
Yep. It's getting just a little out of date now, but it has a heck of a lot of information on hundreds of Star Trek novels. It could really help you figure out what you want to investigate. Another book that might be helpful is Adventures in Time and Space by Mary Taylor, but that's much more out of date (published about ten years ago). To make up for that, though, it has excerpts from a lot of books, so you can get more of a sense of certain writers' styles.
I agree this is a good place to start. It sets the table for a lot of what's coming out now and in the coming year. It includes characters from all of the various crews. And it's a good tale.
For my part, I had been heavily into the DS9 relaunch when it started, but I had lost track of trek lit entirely when the DS9-R books petered out for a while. Destiny got me back into it, so I can at least testify that it is an effective re-introduction. And it should be relatively easy to find, I would think.
And had the foresight to keep a previous release of Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer, which is capable of opening the files without losing bits.
If you'd never seen ST on TV or DVD, you'd have the same question about episodes!
Tell us what you like about ST and we can help you make a more informed decision. Do you like ST episodes or movies with: character interplay, heavy tech, first contact with alien races, comedy, science fiction concepts, favourite guest stars, a focus on a regular character, robots/androids, time travel, alternate universes, parallel universes, sequels, prequels, trilogies, a particular antagonistic alien race, big explosions????
Agree. If Infern0 likes DS9 and wants "what happened next", this is his ideal starting point!
Here's a response I wrote to a similar question about a year ago (with some updates and tweaks)...
TNG
Filling in some backstory:
Vendetta (Borg vs. Planet Killers)
A Time to Be Born
A Time to Die
A Time to Sow
A Time to Harvest
A Time to Love
A Time to Hate
A Time to Kill
A Time to Heal
A Time for War, A Time for Peace (A nine book series following the Enterprise-E in the year before Nemesis explaining all the changes that took place)
Articles of the Federation (A political sequel of sorts to ATFW, ATFP, and prequel to Destiny and A Singular Destiny)
Taking the Enterprise-E crew beyond Star Trek: Nemesis:
Death in Winter (A Picard adventure)
Resistance (The Borg return)
Q&A (The ultimate Q novel)
Before Dishonor (Continuing from Resistance)
Greater Than the Sum (Continuing from Before Dishonor)
The adventures of Riker and Troi on the USS Titan:
Titan: Taking Wing
Titan: The Red King
Titan: Orion’s Hounds
Titan: Sword of Damocles
DS9
Some works of note:
Terok Nor: Day of the Vipers
Terok Nor: Night of the Wolves
Terok Nor: Dawn of the Eagles (A trilogy spanning the entire history of the Ocupation)
The Lives of Dax (An anthology about each host)
A Stitch in Time (The ultimate Garak novel)
The Relaunch (set after the series finale)
The Left Hand of Destiny 1
The Left Hand of Destiny 2 (Ambassador Worf's first adventure)
Twist of Faith (Omnibus edition of the first five Relaunch entries)
These Haunted Seas (The next two books)
Mission- Gamma 3: Cathedral
Mission- Gamma 4: Lesser Evil
Rising Son
Unity (The culmination of the first part of the relaunch)
Worlds of Deep Space Nine 1: Cardassia and Andor
Worlds of Deep Space Nine 2: Trill and Bajor
Worlds of Deep Space Nine 3: The Dominion and Ferenginar
Warpath
Fearful Symmetry
The Soul Key (The culmination of the second part of the relaunch)
The Never-Ending Sacrifice
VOY
Of note:
Mosaic (Showrunner Jeri Taylor's Janeway biography)
Pathways (Showrunner Jeri Taylor's biography of everyone else)
String Theory: Cohesion
String Theory: Fusion
String Theory: Evolution (Trilogy explaining the many little unanswered questions and continuity flubbs threwout the series in an epic way)
The Relaunch (set after the series finale)
Homecoming
The Farther Shore
Spirit Walk 1: Old Wounds
Spirit Walk 2: Enemy of My Enemy
Destiny
An era spanning crossover trilogy that will completely change the future of TNG, Titan, DS9, and Voyager:
Destiny 1: Gods of Night
Destiny 2: Mere Mortals
Destiny 3: Lost Souls
And the aftermath:
A Singular Destiny (The political fall-out)
Losing the Peace (Post-Destiny TNG)
Over a Torrent Sea (Post-Destiny Titan)
Full Circle (Pre- and post-Destiny Voyager)
Unworthy (Post Full Circle Voyager)
Synthesis (Post OaTS Titan)
The Typhon Pact (Next years' 4 book TNG, DS9, Titan crossover event)
All that should keep you busy for years.
TNG
Filling in some backstory:
Vendetta (Borg vs. Planet Killers)
A Time to Be Born
A Time to Die
A Time to Sow
A Time to Harvest
A Time to Love
A Time to Hate
A Time to Kill
A Time to Heal
A Time for War, A Time for Peace (A nine book series following the Enterprise-E in the year before Nemesis explaining all the changes that took place)
Articles of the Federation (A political sequel of sorts to ATFW, ATFP, and prequel to Destiny and A Singular Destiny)
Taking the Enterprise-E crew beyond Star Trek: Nemesis:
Death in Winter (A Picard adventure)
Resistance (The Borg return)
Q&A (The ultimate Q novel)
Before Dishonor (Continuing from Resistance)
Greater Than the Sum (Continuing from Before Dishonor)
The adventures of Riker and Troi on the USS Titan:
Titan: Taking Wing
Titan: The Red King
Titan: Orion’s Hounds
Titan: Sword of Damocles
DS9
Some works of note:
Terok Nor: Day of the Vipers
Terok Nor: Night of the Wolves
Terok Nor: Dawn of the Eagles (A trilogy spanning the entire history of the Ocupation)
The Lives of Dax (An anthology about each host)
A Stitch in Time (The ultimate Garak novel)
The Relaunch (set after the series finale)
The Left Hand of Destiny 1
The Left Hand of Destiny 2 (Ambassador Worf's first adventure)
Twist of Faith (Omnibus edition of the first five Relaunch entries)
These Haunted Seas (The next two books)
Mission- Gamma 3: Cathedral
Mission- Gamma 4: Lesser Evil
Rising Son
Unity (The culmination of the first part of the relaunch)
Worlds of Deep Space Nine 1: Cardassia and Andor
Worlds of Deep Space Nine 2: Trill and Bajor
Worlds of Deep Space Nine 3: The Dominion and Ferenginar
Warpath
Fearful Symmetry
The Soul Key (The culmination of the second part of the relaunch)
The Never-Ending Sacrifice
VOY
Of note:
Mosaic (Showrunner Jeri Taylor's Janeway biography)
Pathways (Showrunner Jeri Taylor's biography of everyone else)
String Theory: Cohesion
String Theory: Fusion
String Theory: Evolution (Trilogy explaining the many little unanswered questions and continuity flubbs threwout the series in an epic way)
The Relaunch (set after the series finale)
Homecoming
The Farther Shore
Spirit Walk 1: Old Wounds
Spirit Walk 2: Enemy of My Enemy
Destiny
An era spanning crossover trilogy that will completely change the future of TNG, Titan, DS9, and Voyager:
Destiny 1: Gods of Night
Destiny 2: Mere Mortals
Destiny 3: Lost Souls
And the aftermath:
A Singular Destiny (The political fall-out)
Losing the Peace (Post-Destiny TNG)
Over a Torrent Sea (Post-Destiny Titan)
Full Circle (Pre- and post-Destiny Voyager)
Unworthy (Post Full Circle Voyager)
Synthesis (Post OaTS Titan)
The Typhon Pact (Next years' 4 book TNG, DS9, Titan crossover event)
All that should keep you busy for years.
Ok, so I am going to start reading Star Trek Novels (which i have never done) and guess what, there are 50 million of them!
I don't even know where to start, I really dont, im so confused.
I think im going crazy!
3 options:
Read the stand-alone books that don't seem like they're part of a series. They may have references to earlier events, but the references are only in passing, and wont impact the main story;
OR
Seek out the older books from the 90s. Those are separate stories, not interconnected;
OR
Don't start reading Trek! (Not a good option, but it would solve your problem
)
I think when I'm done with the TOS books I want to read, I will start with the Destiny books, and then maybe start the post relaunch books. I just don't have the interest in the spin-off series yet to care about the older novels. TOS is different for me, because there wasn't that much of it onscreen, and I remember the days when treklit was all we had.
Similar threads
