Hey guys I'm new to Star Trek but have been interested in it for a long time. I wanted to start reading a few books on Trek and I was wondering where I should start??
New To Star Trek, Quick Question
- Thread starter MAMBAMAN24
- Start date
So, you're a Green Mambaman? 
The answer to your question is "start wherever you want"
, but if you want some recommendations:
The series Star Trek: Vanguard has just concluded, so now would be a great time to give it a try, if you feel like starting a multi-book saga. It's the story of a Starbase in a politically volatile area of space during the Original Series Kirk/Spock era, engaged in a top-secret scientific/military research project.
If you want some stand-alones to start on, I'd recommend any of the books from Star Trek: The Lost Era. Those are set (mostly) between Kirk's "death" in Generations and Picard's taking command of the Enterprise-D. Many feature older versions of Original Series characters interacting with younger versions of the later shows' characters.
The Star Trek Destiny trilogy is very popular and helps define many of the recent novels. It's the final Borg story, and features a range of characters from across the franchise.
The answer to your question is "start wherever you want"
, but if you want some recommendations:The series Star Trek: Vanguard has just concluded, so now would be a great time to give it a try, if you feel like starting a multi-book saga. It's the story of a Starbase in a politically volatile area of space during the Original Series Kirk/Spock era, engaged in a top-secret scientific/military research project.
If you want some stand-alones to start on, I'd recommend any of the books from Star Trek: The Lost Era. Those are set (mostly) between Kirk's "death" in Generations and Picard's taking command of the Enterprise-D. Many feature older versions of Original Series characters interacting with younger versions of the later shows' characters.
The Star Trek Destiny trilogy is very popular and helps define many of the recent novels. It's the final Borg story, and features a range of characters from across the franchise.
Have a look at this fantastic chart. It will give you some places to jump in.
However, to find most of these books, you'll need to buy them as eBooks.
http://8of5.blogspot.com/2012/01/thrawns-fantastic-trek-lit-reading.html
However, to find most of these books, you'll need to buy them as eBooks.
http://8of5.blogspot.com/2012/01/thrawns-fantastic-trek-lit-reading.html
I think if you're new to Star Trek as a whole, then spinoff things like Vanguard or Lost Era might not be the best places to start. Ideally it's best to start with the TV series themselves, all of which are available for streaming on Netflix. If you're looking for books about the series, then essentials would include (but not be limited to):
The Making of Star Trek by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry: Written during the production of the original series, it's a great behind-the-scenes look.
The Star Trek Compendium by Allan Asherman: A guide to the whole original series, with coverage of some of the movies and a cursory treatment of the animated series (depending on which edition you get).
Inside Star Trek by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman: A behind-the-scenes look at the original series by two of the most important people involved in its production
The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion by Larry Nemecek
The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion by Terry J. Erdmann with Paula M. Block: The best of the modern companion books, a great in-depth insider look at the production.
If you're curious about getting into Trek literature, you might want to start with Voyages of the Imagination by Jeff Ayers, a companion book covering all professionally published prose fiction up to the point of publication. It might help you figure out where you want to start with the literature.
The Making of Star Trek by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry: Written during the production of the original series, it's a great behind-the-scenes look.
The Star Trek Compendium by Allan Asherman: A guide to the whole original series, with coverage of some of the movies and a cursory treatment of the animated series (depending on which edition you get).
Inside Star Trek by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman: A behind-the-scenes look at the original series by two of the most important people involved in its production
The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion by Larry Nemecek
The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion by Terry J. Erdmann with Paula M. Block: The best of the modern companion books, a great in-depth insider look at the production.
If you're curious about getting into Trek literature, you might want to start with Voyages of the Imagination by Jeff Ayers, a companion book covering all professionally published prose fiction up to the point of publication. It might help you figure out where you want to start with the literature.
That's a point. MAMBAMAN, I was assuming a basic familiarity with the shows (or at least some of them), based on your established "interest" in Trek. But if you aren't familiar with the shows, then you should note that the books are tie-ins and won't be as enjoyable without knowledge of the Trek universe as shown on screen.
Alright cool thanks. One more quick question, sorry to bother, i want to start watching the T.V series and was wondering where I should start???
Haha thanks.
Well, ideally one should start at the beginning, with the original 1966 series. That's the foundation of everything else.
You should probably do some initial browsing on Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki. This page is their "portal" for their articles on all the various series and films, so you might want to start there for a basic overview, episode lists, etc.:
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Portal:TV_and_films
You should probably do some initial browsing on Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki. This page is their "portal" for their articles on all the various series and films, so you might want to start there for a basic overview, episode lists, etc.:
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Portal:TV_and_films
Depends on what initially sparked your interest.
For example, in December 1979, I discovered "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and remembered catching b/w (and then colour) episodes of "The Animated Series", plus a few random episodes of original "Star Trek", selected by the TV station when colour TV was introduced to Australia in 1975. It took me years to catch up on everything (including old novels) that I'd missed. My interest was a mixture of nostalgia, alien races, character camaraderie and exploration.
I became a fan of "The Next Generation" because I was deeply involved with fandom by then, and it was fun to watch it turn from rumour to actual series.
So, what made you interested in ST? What aspects do you like most: character interactions, alien races, exploration, galactic politics, starship battles? This would help us suggest episodes and novels.
I think the whole vision of Star Trek the next generation sparked my interest. So, as all of you have kindly suggested, Im currently watching that series on Netflix.
Sounds good. And hopefully there'll be enough throwbacks to TOS in those eps to make you curious about What Came Before.
Well, there are a few options:
1. If you want to start with the first production of Trek, then start with TOS and then go on to the Animated series, the Movies, TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise.
2. If you want to go by stardate (the internal chronology of the shows), then you should start with Enterprise and then go onto TOS and the rest of the shows/movies.
3. If you just want to see the stuff made since 1987, then start with TNG.
4. To "get your toes wet" start with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home; it's part 4 of a 4-part story started in TOS, but you really don't need to see the other three parts to enjoy this movie.
There were quite a few standalone books that were published while the series were still on the air. If you want to read some story based novels, I'd pretty much stick to those until you finish the shows. A lot of the books coming out now take place after the shows, and build off of the stories they told. Theoretically you could read them and understand the basic stories, but you'd lose a lot of the impact and context of the stories if you haven't seen what came before.
