I know the DS9 relaunch goes into the Mirror Universe, isn't the books on the MU collections of short stories in Glass Empires and Obsidian Alliances? I am about done with Mission Gamma 1 so I know at some point I will need to get the back stories of the MU that lead into Warpath. I see three books listed in the Flowchart though but isn't really just two books?
^ That's correct. And the last story in Obsidian Alliances serves as a bridge between "The Emperor's New Cloak," the last MU episode of the Deep Space Nine television series, and the beginning of the DS9-MU story arc initiated in "Fragments and Omens." None of the stories in "Shards and Shadows" relate to it, as I recall, but I've done my best to keep all the continuity consistent in my subsequent MU stories (Rise Like Lions and the upcoming Section 31 novel Disavowed).
I don't really understand your question, but I think what you're looking for is Saturn's Children in Obsidian Alliances. Saturn's Children is the interquel for "The Emperor's New Cloak" and Warpath/Fearful Symmetry/The Soul Key. Glass Empires doesn't involve Terok Nor. Meanwhile, Warpath continues on directly from The Dominion: Olympus Descending and continues the plot left hanging in Bajor: Fragments and Omens.
There are three full length novels in each of the first two MU books, Glass Empires and Obsidian Alliances. Glass Empires: Age of the Empress - An Ent. story following on from the end of In A Mirror Darkly The Sorrows of Empire - A TOS story focused on Spock and dealing with the fall of the Terran Empire and Rise of the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance The Worst of Both Worlds - A TNG story focused on Jean-Luc Picard, with appearances by some other TNG characters Obsidian Alliances: The Mirror Scaled Serpent - The first MU Voy story Cutting Ties - The first MU NF story Saturns Children - DS9 story filling in the gaps between the last DS9 MU episode and the DS9R arc The third book, Shards and Shadows is a short story collection featuring stories from each series, including the first Titan, Stargazer, Vanguard, and Klingon Empire stories. The only series that did not get a story is SCE. They had originally planned a companion novella, but the series was cancelled before it could be written. The next book was a novel length expansion of The Sorrows of Empire, and then after that was last book, Rise Like Lions.
I guess the MU is a little more complicated, I guess what MU do I really need to read because my understanding is that The Soul Key gets resolved in Rise Like Lions which is MU story.... Should I jump over to the MU before Warpath then jump back to the DS9r after those three MU books?
If you are only interested in the stuff that ties into the DS9R, then you'll probably be OK with just the DS9R books. I don't think there was really anything in The Soul Key that you would need to read RLL to see the end of. RLL does follow on from what happens in TSK, but it was more important to the other MU books than to anything specific to TSK.
It's been a while since I've done a lengthy list here, and so here is the Mirror Universe chronological reading order. This is specifically for stories that are consistent with the MU stories that we saw in the recent books with the MU banner, so stuff like Dark Mirror and Dark Passions, the Shatnerverse MU novels, and the various comic-book MU stories are not included (the only exception to the latter being Peter David's New Frontier comic for IDW). Stories that are part of larger books are indicated with the following abbreviations: GE=Glass Empires, OA=Obsidian Alliances, SS=Shards and Shadows, WD2=Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Volume 2, WD3=Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Volume 3. "In a Mirror, Darkly," Parts I & II (Enterprise episodes) Age of the Empress by Mike Sussman, Dayton Ward, & Kevin Dilmore (GE) "Nobunaga" by David Stern (SS) "Ill Winds" by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore (SS) "The Greater Good" by Margaret Wander Bonanno (SS) "Mirror, Mirror" (Star Trek episode) The Sorrows of Empire by David Mack "The Black Flag" by James Swallow Stargazer: Three by Michael Jan Friedman "The Traitor" by Michael Jan Friedman (SS) "Crossover (Deep Space Nine episode) "Through the Looking-Glass" (DS9 episode) The Worst of Both Worlds by Greg Cox (GE) "The Sacred Chalice" by Rudy Josephs (SS) The Mirror-Scaled Serpent by Keith R.A. DeCandido (OA) "Bitter Fruit" by Susan Wright (SS) "Shattered Mirror" (DS9 episode) "Family Matters" by Keith R.A. DeCandido (SS) "Resurrection" (DS9 episode) "The Emperor's New Cloak" (DS9 episode) Cutting Ties by Peter David (OA) Turnaround by Peter David & Stephen Thompson (IDW comic) Saturn's Children by "Sarah Shaw" {David Mack} (OA) "A Terrible Beauty" by Jim Johnson (SS) "Homecoming" by Peter David (SS) "For Want of a Nail" by David Mack (SS) Fragments and Omens by J. Noah Kym (WD2) Olympus Descending by David R. George III (WD3) Warpath by David Mack Fearful Symmetry by Olivia Woods The Soul Key by Olivia Woods Rise Like Lions by David Mack Section 31: Disavowed by David Mack (forthcoming)
I was just on Memory Beta looking up some of the MU stories that I haven't read, and it says that Sarah Shaw, the author of Saturn's Children from MU: Obsidian Alliances, is actually David Mack using a pen name. I'm curious as to why. Sorry if this has already been answered before Mr. Mack, but I was just wondering..
Yes, it has been answered before. Long story short: The two MU volumes had different editors. Each offered me a gig, not realizing the other had done so. I had accepted both before they realized their error. They were concerned that it would look shady to have me writing two MU tales when some other writers who had wanted in on the gig were shut out, and there also was concern the author lineup wouldn't look diverse enough to the readers. In order to keep both gigs, I agreed to write one under a pseudonym designed to mask my identity. Many years later, after both editors were no longer on staff at Pocket, it no longer seemed necessary to hide my authorship of the short novel, so I stepped forward.
Awesome list except that Spoiler: Turnaround is incompatible with Rise Like Lions Turnaround is completely incompatible with Rise Like Lions since it is set in 2379 with mirror Mac's crew still fighting the Alliance, Soleta is dead, no Mogai class Valdore-turned-Excalibur, and Mac's crew wants to steal the time ship Paradox and destroy the Alliance in the past. I guess the incongruities arise because Turnaround came out in 2008 before David's Memory Omega storyline came to fruition in Rise Like Lions in 2011.
The MU Ghemor becoming the Emissary in the mirror universe is the main connection between The Soul Key and Rise Like Lions I think.