Help me get a handle on the new books?

[Smellincoffee]

I haven't read any Star Trek lit in a while: I read the DS9 relaunch, a couple of Voyager "homecoming" novels, and A Time to be Born, but beyond that...nothing. I've been tenative about jumping back in because everything is serialized now, building on previous books, and I don't know where to begin. I'm most interested in the timeline that sees Janeway killed, although I dislike the idea. Does this series have a name (like the DS9 Relaunch), and is there a list of books somewhere that the series contains?

 

[ICW]

Well, personally, I would begin with the Star Trek: Next Generation relaunch novels that include:

Death in Winter
Resistance
Q & A
Before Dishonor
Greater than the Sum
Losing the Peace

Resistance, Before Dishonor, and Greater than the Sum deal with the intense Borg threat against the United Federation of Planets and the entire Alpha Quadrant. Losing the Peace takes place after the events in Destiny

After Greater than the Sum begins the Destiny triology, which includes:

Gods of Night
Mere Mortals
Lost Souls

The Destiny series is a cross over series between the crews of the Enterprise, the Titan, and the Aventine, which is captined by Ezri Dax. The series also features several 'guest' apperances from numerous Star Trek novels from both the series and previous novels.

It's not necessary to read all of the Titan novels to read Destiny, however, you might find yourself unfamilar with the crew. However, if you are interested in the Titan novels, the list includes:

Taking Wing
The Red King
Orion's Hounds
[/I]Sword of Damocles[/I]
Over a Torrent Sea
Synthesis

After the Destiny triology is a novel titled A Singular Destiny that introduces us to life after the results of Destiny and also introduces us to a new storyline that will be addressed more fully in the new year.

There's also the Voyager relaunch novel Full Circle that covers everything from after the last Voyager relaunch novel Enemy of my enemy up until after the events of Destiny

 

[ICW]

Well, personally, I would begin with the Star Trek: Next Generation relaunch novels that include:

Death in Winter
Resistance
Q & A
Before Dishonor
Greater than the Sum

Resistance, Before Dishonor, and Greater than the Sum deal with the intense Borg threat against the United Federation of Planets and the entire Alpha Quadrant

After Greater than the Sum begins the Destiny triology, which includes:

Gods of Night
Mere Mortals
Lost Souls

The Destiny series is a cross over series between the crews of the Enterprise, the Titan, and the Aventine, which is captined by Ezri Dax. The series also features several 'guest' apperances from numerous Star Trek novels from both the series and previous novels.

It's not necessary to read all of the Titan novels to read Destiny, however, you might find yourself unfamilar with the crew.

After the Destiny triology is a novel titled A Singular Destiny that introduces us to life after the results of Destiny and also introduces us to a new storyline that will be addressed more fully in the new year.

There's also the Voyager relaunch novel Full Circle that covers everything from after the last Voyager relaunch novel Enemy of my enemy up until after the events of Destiny

There's also a TNG relaunch novel titled Losing the Peace that takes place after the events of Destiny, as well as the Titan novels Over the Torrent Sea and Synthesis

 

[Thrawn]

That's a very good post, but I think leaves a few things unclear. The Big Deal in Treklit recently was the Destiny trilogy he mentioned; it's a huge, awesome crossover that connects all of the series except DS9 and TOS together, and changes the Trek landscape forever. So, I'll separate my list into before Destiny and after Destiny.

Before Destiny:

The last 3 A Time To... books (A Time To Kill, A Time To Heal, and A Time For War, A Time For Peace) establish a few events that are then picked up on afterwards. I would consider them optional reading, but if you're a total completist, that's where to start. Either way, ignore the first 6 books in that series.

After that, chronologically, Nemesis happens, after which the TNG books continue without Riker, Data, and Troi; Riker's ship the Titan gets its own series; and there's a book called Articles Of The Federation that covers Federation-wide politics. They kind of overlap, though, so this is how I would read them:

(A Time To Kill)
(A Time To Heal)
(A Time For War, A Time For Peace)
TNG - Death In Winter
Titan - Taking Wing
Titan - The Red King
Articles of the Federation
Titan - Orion's Hounds
Titan - Sword Of Damocles
TNG - Resistance
TNG - Q & A
TNG - Before Dishonor
TNG - Greater Than The Sum
Destiny (Gods of Night, Mere Mortals, Lost Souls)

Now, a lot of people didn't like those TNG books very much, and I don't blame them. Destiny is the big deal, and if that long list looks intimidating, a lot of that is optional too. Really, you could just start with Destiny and it would be fine. If you want some background, read Greater Than The Sum and then Destiny. If you want more, add the Titan books and Articles to the list. The other TNG books are the least important entries in that list.

Before Dishonor is actually the book where Janeway dies, though, so you might want to read that too. But if you're just going for the good stuff, I'd still recommend just going for Destiny, or GTTS then Destiny.

After Destiny:

This is where things get fun. After Destiny, the Trek universe goes through all kinds of changes, and Voyager gets sort of re-relaunched, becoming a really incredible series.

Here's my recommended reading order for the post-Destiny books, and trust me when I say you want to read all of these babies, because they're all outstanding:

TNG - Losing The Peace
A Singular Destiny
VOY - Full Circle
VOY - Unworthy
Titan - Over A Torrent Sea
Titan - Synthesis

After that, TrekLit is doing some TOS and Abramsverse books, and the next installments in the ongoing serialized 24th century continuity arrive starting in October '10. There will be another miniseries that adds DS9 to the ongoing continuity as well. So you have until then to catch up! (For the record, all the books I've mentioned above happen well in the future of the entire DS9 relaunch. In case you're curious. So, the DS9 narrative will be jumping 5 years further into the future to join the ongoing narratives. You won't have to be totally caught up on the relaunch to pick up that book, I'm sure, since the time jump will mean a lot has changed.)

Hope this helps.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Thanks to both of you!

Looks like I have a lot of reading to look forward to. Hopefully my student expenses will allow me to make a little headway this year. I'm especially interested in the Voyager relaunch, although...a little pensive. It's hard to imagine the ship without its old crew. Janeway is one of my favorite characters.

If it isn't spoiling anything, does Sisko ever enter the picture again? It's been years since I read the whole of the relaunch, but I remember him coming back from the wormhole and settling down with Kasidy and...Rebecca, I think the baby's name was.

 

[David R. George III]

^ Sisko...Sisko....

Yeah, the name does seem to ring a bell....

 

[Christopher]

I've been tenative about jumping back in because everything is serialized now, building on previous books, and I don't know where to begin.

It's an overstatement that everything is serialized. Rather, there's fairly strong continuity within each individual series, there's consistency and occasional cross-referencing between the various series, and there are crossovers from time to time, but for the most part, each series is independent of the others and each book is written so that you can pick it up and follow the story even if you didn't read the prior volumes. Anything you need to know is explained.

Yes, each book builds on the overall history, but even a brand-new story builds on a past that took place before the story. Consider "The Cage." It's the very first Trek story ever told, there's nothing before it in real life, but nonetheless it's a story defined heavily by what took place before it in-universe. The crew are recovering from a harrowing mission that caused numerous injuries and a few fatalities. The captain is disheartened and tired of having to deal with his responsibilities, and has a talk with his old friend the doctor. The plot depends on what happened before the story, but even though we didn't see any of that stuff, we're still able to follow the story perfectly because it tells us what we need to know about what came before.

So if that can work in a story that didn't have any other tales preceding it, it should work just as well in a story that did, as long as the writer keeps in mind that any book could be someone's first. The key is to treat the backstory from earlier books, episodes, etc. the same way you treat the backstory you make up out of whole cloth for the work itself -- as something that the readers might be unaware of and need to have filled in for them, hopefully in a smooth, engaging, and non-awkward way.

 

[David Brennon]

^That is a VERY good way of explaining it!

 

[Paris]

Damn you DRG3 . This wait is killing me . Quotes like these make it worse.

^ Sisko...Sisko....

Yeah, the name does seem to ring a bell....

...can't wait

 

[snakespeare]

I was in this same boat a while back, so I went for the DS9 relaunch books. They were OK, but not what I was seeking, so I started TITAN.

I am really glad I did!

Titan is a ship that has a lot of original Trek concepts behind it, only this time it seeks to find a common bond between some very different species. No doubt you saw the wedding in Nemesis. Well, they mention Titan in passing. It's Will and Deanna's ship. I don't want to spoil it, but trust that the editors made sure that these were not the only two recognizable people.

Recently I postponed the Titan series in order to read Destiny, as it comes between the 4th and 5th volume. Then I realized there were predecessors to Destiny, as Thrawn pointed out. Well, on closer examination, I found that the TNG novels building up to it might possibly be a good preface, but one of them was by Peter David. I'm sure he's got millions of fans, so he doesn't really need me. So I only plan, for now, to read the one just before the Destiny trilogy, Greater Than The Sum. It comes with a recap (thanks, CLB), so I feel I didn't really need to see what happened to Admiral Janeway. Plus, I get impatient on any slippery slope. I have gone back this far ... and no further!

You might want to check out the FAQ, too, at the top of the Trek Lit section. Also, Memory Beta has a lot of information but is RIFE WITH SPOILERS. BEWARE.

If you want to do as I did (am doing), it goes like this (italics = finished, bold = current, regular = to be read):

TITAN:
Taking Wing
Red King
Orion's Hounds (awesome!)
Sword of Damocles
(paused)
TNG
Greater Than The Sum
DESTINY
Gods of Night
Mere Mortals
Lost Souls
TITAN
Over A Torrent Sea
Synthesis

This will be enough to feed my brain while riding the bus through January, and by then I will no doubt want to follow up with the other novels that follow Destiny.

AVENTINE
A Singular Destiny
TNG
Losing The Peace
VOY
Full Circle
Unworthy

In short, there are two new ships. Titan, commanded by Will Riker, and Aventine, commanded by Dax. The Enterprise has some new, but plenty of older crew members. I haven't read any of the Voyager books, but like you I have heard that they messed with the Janeway.

Personally, I would prefer to enjoy one ship full of eccentrics at a time, but they all have their chocolates in each others' peanut butter anymore, so we must make do.

Add to that the real world fact that the editors behind all those crossovers and inter-related storylines, were layed off this year (2009), and we are left with a lot of rumors about the future of Trek Lit. So really, what you and I are reading through right now is the conception of people who are no longer with the company.

There's a new editor, and the new movie has created another series. But it has always been a sales driven thing, so, any guess about the future of the Titan, or of the Aventine, is probably secret. And I don't think even the new editor knows what the next movies will contain. I think they will be in reactive mode about any new books based on new movies. As far as I'm concerned, there's enough Trek to keep me busy, and I don't need to go into the Abrams universe for quite a long time.

 

[AdmiralSteven]

That's a very good post, but I think leaves a few things unclear. The Big Deal in Treklit recently was the Destiny trilogy he mentioned; it's a huge, awesome crossover that connects all of the series except DS9 and TOS together, and changes the Trek landscape forever. So, I'll separate my list into before Destiny and after Destiny.

When I first started reading Trek lit I almost bought the Destiny books, but didn't...and now reading this thread I wish I had. I just got a bunch of Klingon books for Christmas, so I have reading material for a while, however, I can start looking for these books and have them in my to-be-read pile. I didn't start the thread, but thanks for the recommendation.