I read my first Trek books - Avatar 1 & 2

[whitefinger]

Hi everyone - new member, first post!

I am a lifelong Star Trek fan, having grown up with TOS and TNG, and I am thoroughly enjoying this new Trek renaissance we are finding ourselves in. Despite my love of this franchise, I had somehow never read a single Star Trek book. Feeling the itch to do so, I looked at my options and knew I wanted to jump in somewhere following a series. Feeling nostalgic for DS9, the DS9 relaunch seemed like a good place to start.

I really enjoyed my time with these two books, and it was so nice to revisit these characters. While DS9 ended on such a definitive note, this seemed like a natural progression of what everyone would be doing now. S. D. Perry did an excellent job finding the right voice for everyone, that it really felt like a natural extension of the show. I really liked all the new characters too, and look forward to seeing them develop. I'm disappointed Perry isn't still writing Star Trek books, but I'm sure I'll find other authors I enjoy too.

I don't have many criticisms for these books. The addition of the TNG characters was largely superfluous, but there was no harm in it. There is a lot of build up around the avatar and the prophecy that end up being largely anticlimactic, but I sort of see these books as a means to establish a new status-quo, and to that end they are very successful.

I'm eager to read Abyss next. Following that I would like to read Demons of Air and Darkness, but I understand that is part of the Gateway series. Will I be lost without reading the other Gateway books first?

 

[David cgc]

I'm eager to read Abyss next. Following that I would like to read Demons of Air and Darkness, but I understand that is part of the Gateway series. Will I be lost without reading the other Gateway books first?

Not first, no, but Gateways had a controversial gimmick where each novel was ended in a short story in a separate book, so you'll need to read "Horn and Ivory" and "The Other Side" in the book that collected those short stories, What Lay Beyond next, after Demons.

 

[ryan123450]

@whitefinger I hope my website will be of use to you…

www.startreklitverse.com

 

[whitefinger]

@whitefinger I hope my website will be of use to you…

www.startreklitverse.com

Yes, it already has been! I built myself a reading list using the ones you have provided, making a few alterations here and there based on what I think I'll want to read, but I'm prepared to pivot based on how I'm feeling when I get there. After I get through the various DS9 relaunch books I want to read some post-Nemesis books, including Titan. Here's my list for that, which I built using your site:

TNG: Death in Winter (2380)
Titan: Taking Wing (2379-2380)
Titan: The Red King (2380)
Articles of the Federation (2380)
Titan: Orion’s Hounds (2380)
TNG: Resistance (2380)
TNG: Q & A (2380)
TNG: Before Dishonor (2380)
Titan: Sword of Damocles (2381)
TNG: Greater Than the Sum (2380)

 

[whitefinger]

Not first, no, but Gateways had a controversial gimmick where each novel was ended in a short story in a separate book, so you'll need to read "Horn and Ivory" and "The Other Side" in the book that collected those short stories, What Lay Beyond next, after Demons.

I read the Avatar books as part of the 'Twist of Faith' omnibus, which includes Horn and Ivory, but I don't think it has The Other Side. I'll make sure I read that too.

 

[Reanok]

I really liked the ds9 Avatar books and re-read them again a few years ago and enjoyed how the books continued the characters after the ds9 tv finale.S.D Perry still writes fantasy and science fiction novels.

 

[Smiley]

I'm glad that you are enjoying the DS9 post-series books so far. "The Other Side" wraps up the Gateways story, but it is not essential to understanding the DS9 narrative. It tells how Picard resolves things, and it reminds me a lot of the ending of the episode "Contagion."

If you like DS9 stories, I highly recommend A Stitch in Time and The Lives of Dax, both of which take place roughly in the same period as the Avatar stories (obviously, the stories about previous Dax hosts take place in earlier periods).

 

[USS Firefly]

I can recommend the Mission Gamma books and Unity. They are great, especially if you are a DS9 fan. I am a little bit jealous, you still have the WHOLE litverse in front of you.

 

[ryan123450]

Yes, it already has been! I built myself a reading list using the ones you have provided, making a few alterations here and there based on what I think I'll want to read, but I'm prepared to pivot based on how I'm feeling when I get there. After I get through the various DS9 relaunch books I want to read some post-Nemesis books, including Titan. Here's my list for that, which I built using your site:

TNG: Death in Winter (2380)
Titan: Taking Wing (2379-2380)
Titan: The Red King (2380)
Articles of the Federation (2380)
Titan: Orion’s Hounds (2380)
TNG: Resistance (2380)
TNG: Q & A (2380)
TNG: Before Dishonor (2380)
Titan: Sword of Damocles (2381)
TNG: Greater Than the Sum (2380)

Glad it’s been helpful! I guarantee when you finish Greater Than the Sum you’ll want to continue to Destiny. And Destiny was arguably the high point of Treklit.

 

[whitefinger]

I can recommend the Mission Gamma books and Unity. They are great, especially if you are a DS9 fan. I am a little bit jealous, you still have the WHOLE litverse in front of you.

Yeah, I'm pretty excited too! It's a little sad knowing that it all ends in Coda, but it's going to take me a long time to get there.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Welcome to the board, @whitefinger ! I hope you enjoy it here in our little corner of the internet!

And welcome also to the wide world of TrekLit! To paraphrase a famous quote, your adventure is just beginning. Enjoy the ride!

 

[Starbreaker]

Not first, no, but Gateways had a controversial gimmick where each novel was ended in a short story in a separate book, so you'll need to read "Horn and Ivory" and "The Other Side" in the book that collected those short stories, What Lay Beyond next, after Demons.

I know this is an argument for another thread, but I remember some authors defending this very fervently at the time. I hope everybody can admit it's a gimmick now.

That being said, I think the Gateways novel is still worth reading. I kind of fell off the DS9 relaunch after Mission Gamma, but that series is really good too.

 

[mastadge]

For what it's worth, I think Demons of Air and Darkness stands alone just fine (+ "Horn and Ivory"). It reads as a complete, standalone story even if you haven't read the other Gateways books (which I hadn't, the first time I read it) -- perfectly reasonable just to approach it as part of the DS9 relaunch without the baggage of a bunch of other books in a crossover event (and honestly it's one of the best if not the best Gateways book). I would just read what's in Twist of Faith and call it good -- no need to read "The Other Side".

 

[KRAD]

I can't speak for any of the other contributors to Gateways, but what I tried to do with Demons... was make sure it worked on its own, as well as being part of both the Gateways crossover and as part of the post-finale DS9 series. It was a challenging balancing act, but I think I pulled it off.

At least I hope I did.....

"Horn and Ivory" is another thing. The six of us took three different approaches to our stories in What Lay Beyond. Peter David and I both did completely separate stories focusing on the leads -- Calhoun and Shelby for him, Kira for me. Susan Wright and Diane Carey did less aggressively separate stories that served as codas to their novels, which focused on, respectively, Kirk and Keller. And Robert Greenberger and Christie Golden just lopped off the last few chapters of their novels and stuck them into What Lay Beyond.

 

[Elias Vaughn]

I don't think I've read a single entry in the Gateway series (could never find them), but I also never felt lost when it's referenced in later books. If you can find it you should read it but the authors did a good job of not making it necessary to understand the narrative.

I may have a soft spot for the DS9 relaunch.

 

[Christopher]

I don't think I've read a single entry in the Gateway series (could never find them), but I also never felt lost when it's referenced in later books. If you can find it you should read it but the authors did a good job of not making it necessary to understand the narrative.

I saw Gateways rather differently. I found it interesting how each part was driven mainly by what was going on in its own series, with the links between them being of minor importance. It wasn't really a series, it was a set of independent stories about multiple casts dealing with aspects of the same problem. Sort of like the various Maquis episodes that TNG and DS9 did in the season preceding Voyager's premiere.

So, for instance, Demons of Air and Darkness is definitely integral to the ongoing DS9 narrative, and Cold Wars is integral to the ongoing New Frontier narrative, but you don't need to read the DS9 book to understand what's going on in NF, or vice-versa.

That was really the approach to all the crossovers back then -- Invasion!, Day of Honor, The Captain's Table, Double Helix, Section 31, Gateways. They were all designed so that you could read the books either individually or as a set, with the linking material being a common theme or problem that different crews were independently dealing with at different places and times, rather than a single storyline that you had to read every book to follow. Except in the other cases, each book was standalone relative to its own series, because none of the series really had an ongoing continuity at that point. Gateways came along in the era of ongoing book continuity, so its parts were integral to the serial arcs in their respective series, while being only loosely connected to each other.

 

[Destructor]

I've fallen off the TrekLit bandwagon somewhat, but this thread is flashing me back to how exciting it was when the DS9 relaunch dropped- it really kicked off an era of great reading, long-term consequences, experiments that authors weren't really allowed to try when each novel had to be standalone and not effect anything. I loved Avatar, Mission Gamma, Unity... really great stuff.