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If Paramount's new publishing division were to reissue old Trek novels, what books would you want to see?

A

ace2k

Lieutenant
Red Shirt
Paramount announced earlier this month that they would be starting a new publishing company. I assume this could affect how Trek novels are published, of course, and it got me thinking.

Now, I doubt they'll do this as I'm sure there's so much going on behind the scenes with this sort of thing, plus the fact that all of these are available as ebooks (as far as I know) and the assumption that new novels will still probably come out at the same rate as they do under Simon & Schuster/Galaxy Books, but what if Paramount were to republish some older adventures in the way Disney does with the Star Wars titles from the Expanded Universe? What books would you like to see?

Here are some I would pick:
  1. The Captain's Daughter (TOS #76) - this remains my favorite Peter David novel, and gives us some great context to Kirk's comment in Generations about how Sulu could find the time to raise Demora.
  2. The Kobayashi Maru (TOS #47) - a great anthology-style book showing how the TOS crew handled the test that remains a decently known part of the whole Trek mythos. Maybe I'm just a sucker for Sulu stories.
  3. A Stitch in Time (DS9 #27) - I haven't read this one, but a reissue would certainly shoot the scalpers selling it for hundreds of dollars on ebay in the foot, and that is plenty enough reason for me.
  4. Spock Must Die! - just because it's the first Trek book for an adult audience. Historical significance.
  5. The Return - at least one Shatnerverse novel would get in, right? Right?
 
I think it's jumping the gun to assume anything at this point. I suspect there are a lot of good reasons why Paramount might find it simpler and more practical to keep the license with Simon & Schuster, which has decades of institutional experience with the line and already has its novels still in print, rather than trying to start over from scratch. Of course, there's no guarantee they'd see it that way, but at this point I think it could go either way.

Also, apparently Bantam's license let them retain reprint rights to their Trek novels even after they lost the license, which is why Pocket/Gallery has never reprinted them. So presumably Paramount's new imprint couldn't either, unless they made a separate deal with Bantam or bought it up too.
 
TOS
Vulcan’s Glory
The New Voyages (if the Bantam rights are included)
The New Voyages II
The Kobayashi Maru
The Wounded Sky
My Enemy, My Ally
Doctor’s Orders
The Romulan Way
Spock’s World
Swordhunt
The Empty Chair
Ishmael*
How Much for Just the Planet?*
Yesterday’s Son*
The Final Reflection
Time For Yesterday*
The Wrath of Khan
The Search for Spock*
The Voyage Home
The Undiscovered Country*
Best Destiny
Sarek*

TNG
Dark Mirror
Intellivore*
The Romulan Prize
Federation
Relics
The Return

DS9
Emissary
The Way of the Warrior
Far Beyond the Stars*
A Stitch in Time

*Haven't read yet, but want to.

I didn't realize how many of my favorites are by authors known for their non-Star Trek work (Diane Duane, A. C. Crispin, John M. Ford) or cast and crew (D. C. Fontana, William Shatner, Andrew J. Robinson).

Edited to add Far Beyond the Stars.
 
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Pardon me, but reprinting old novels seems like a waste of material. Who’d buy that when classics like that are on eBay, in libraries or available as ebook?
 
Markonian said:
Pardon me, but reprinting old novels seems like a waste of material. Who’d buy that when classics like that are on eBay, in libraries or available as ebook?
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If the hypothetical of the license moving to a new publisher came to pass, it follows that S&S would probably have to stop publishing their Trek titles (because the contract that let Bantam keep the publishing rights to theirs was the exception to the rule). So those books would fall out of print unless the new publisher re-released them. They wouldn't be available as e-books either, presumably.

Although that's one reason I think Paramount might find it simpler to let S&S keep the license and keep the existing books in print.
 
Markonian said:
Pardon me, but reprinting old novels seems like a waste of material. Who’d buy that when classics like that are on eBay, in libraries or available as ebook?
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Anyone who saw them in a new bookstore, first and foremost, but reprints would also be newer copies (books degrade over time), and would presumably be trade paperbacks or hardcovers, which are new formats for most older books.

For me, the new printing aspect is the most appealing. I was born after some of the books on my list came out, and have read most of them in copies that were fifteen to thirty years old.
 
Unlikely to happen obviously, but a "greatest hits" of Trek novels (how about a nice connecting spine picture like the Graphic Novel Collection) series would be interesting.
 
All of them. Remember those old magazine and 2x episode DVD combos from 20 years ago? Imagine the same concept but with a reprinted Trek novel! The magazine would cover stuff from the book, how it's connected to the wider Trek universe and perhaps interview the author or reprint a legacy interview if the author refuses or is no longer with us.

Absolute pipe dream, but it'd be heaven.
 
The Wormhole said:
Star Wars continues to reprint old Legends novels to great financial success.
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Fair, but Star Wars is also Disney-operated (who know their merch) and one of the biggest franchises over all. Whereas Star Trek is just one of the more popular syfy franchises.
 
Markonian said:
Fair, but Star Wars is also Disney-operated (who know their merch) and one of the biggest franchises over all. Whereas Star Trek is just one of the more popular syfy franchises.
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It saddens me that people today see things that way. Star Wars was a latecomer to the tie-in novel market, releasing only seven original novels between 1978 & 1983, and then nothing until the launch of the EU novel line in 1991 -- and that only happened because Lucas saw how successful Star Trek novels had been over the preceding decade and wanted to get in on that action. After that, it took a few years for SW novels to catch up to the output of ST novels, and I'd say they were about equally prominent on bookstore shelves in the '90s and '00s.

For that matter, Star Wars would never have existed if Star Trek hadn't proven there was a mainstream audience for space opera. The whole reason Lucas named it that was to remind people of ST.
 
I think that Star Trek novels have become too "inside baseball." It's hard to think of the last novel that I could recommend to a casual fan with an elevator pitch (that isn't about death and destruction).

Goodreads review counts seem to bear out that something isn't right in Star Trek publishing (the numbers are from some point last year):

Books-Data.png

TOS is yellow, TNG blue, DS9 purple, VOY green, ENT gray, DIS pink, PIC aqua, and SNW orange. The white line is when Goodreads was established.

The novels with at least a 3.90 rating that had the highest review counts are:

TOS
The Wrath of Khan
Yesterday’s Son
The Final Reflection
The Search for Spock
My Enemy, My Ally
The Vulcan Academy Murders
Uhura’s Song
Ishmael
The Voyage Home
The Romulan Way
Strangers from the Sky
Time for Yesterday
Spock’s World
The Kobayashi Maru
Doctor’s Orders
Prime Directive
Sarek
The Eugenics Wars, Book One

TNG
Imzadi
Q-Squared
Federation
First Contact
Gods of Night
Mere Mortals
Lost Souls
The Persistence of Memory

DS9
A Stitch in Time
Avatar, Book One
Avatar, Book Two

VOY
Mosaic
Homecoming
Full Circle

PIC
The Last Best Hope
 
This would be an opportunity to print better looking versions of the novels. This seems to be a trend, so that they show well on BooktTube and BookTok.
 
Christopher said:
For that matter, Star Wars would never have existed if Star Trek hadn't proven there was a mainstream audience for space opera.
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Yes, I remember Lucas admitting that SW had missed that literary boat in "Starlog". Not long after, several notable Trek novel authors were suddenly penning SW novels.
 
Therin of Andor said:
Yes, I remember Lucas admitting that SW had missed that literary boat in "Starlog". Not long after, several notable Trek novel authors were suddenly penning SW novels.
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I'm going to guess that SW novels make the authors more money than Star Trek novels. I don't know that for certain, but the Star Wars novels are always much higher in the charts at Amazon even if they cost more.
 
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