Questions, questions, questions... (Trek noob)

[Lunarrius]

Hello everyone,

First of all, please forgive me for my English, as it is not my native language. I have a couple of questions regarding Trek Literature, particularly the novels published by Pocket Books:

1) I know these books are not canon, but is it right to assume that these novels exist in their own (paralel novel canon) continuity? What I want to say is, are these books, set in different series, such as TOS, TNG, Titan and others, carry plot elements from each other or they are completely unrelated, stand alone stories?

2) What does the term "series relaunch" means? Is it a continuation of the events after TV series which has ended or a series reboot? If it is a continuation, does "relaunch" novels ignore stories written before the end of a particular show (stories written during the events of TV series/movies)?

3) Can someone, who never watched Star Trek, get into Trek universe only by reading novels? Is there enough material provided in these books that you can follow the series independently. (Yes, I know it is a crazy question, just asking if it's possible).

That will be it for now. I hope these questions are not too complicated. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

 

[David cgc]

1) I know these books are not canon, but is it right to assume that these novels exist in their own (paralel novel canon) continuity? What I want to say is, are these books, set in different series, such as TOS, TNG, Titan and others, carry plot elements from each other or they are completely unrelated, stand alone stories?

There is a novel continuity that most of the current books fit into, with characters and events crossing over from one into the next. There are also crossover events like "Gateways," "Destiny," and "The Fall," among many others, where multiple series come together into one large adventure.

However, since the novels aren't canon, the novel continuity isn't mandatory, and books are occasionally released that don't fit into it, like the "Crucible" trilogy celebrating the 40th anniversary of TOS, which ignored the novel continuity to tell its own epic based exclusively on the on-screen canon.

2) What does the term "series relaunch" means? Is it a continuation of the events after TV series which has ended or a series reboot? If it is a continuation, does "relaunch" novels ignore stories written before the end of a particular show (stories written during the events of TV series/movies)?

"Relaunch" was used to describe the first Deep Space Nine novels released that continued the story after the end of the show, and became a catch-all term for the ongoing novel continuity that picked up as the various television series as they reached their end.

Like what I said about the novel continuity not being mandatory, the reverse is true about stories that were written before it began. They aren't necessarily out-of-continuity, but that's the general assumption. Many older novels have been referenced in the novel continuity, even if they don't fit in perfectly with what later books (or even on-screen canon) established.

3) Can someone, who never watched Star Trek, get into Trek universe only by reading novels? Is there enough material provided in these books that you can follow the series independently. (Yes, I know it is a crazy question, just asking if it's possible).

I don't see why not. Many authors have said that they write as if every book could be someone's first, and they usually include any backstory needed for the story. I think someone on the forum mentioned they first got into Trek through the novels, a while ago.

I first got into Babylon 5 by it's old number novels (this is a terrible idea), and it worked out for me.

 

[Christopher]

However, since the novels aren't canon, the novel continuity isn't mandatory, and books are occasionally released that don't fit into it, like the "Crucible" trilogy celebrating the 40th anniversary of TOS, which ignored the novel continuity to tell its own epic based exclusively on the on-screen canon.

Also, most TOS novels these days are approached as standalones with at best an ambiguous relationship to the larger continuity, and they sometimes contradict elements of that continuity. After all, there have been so many novels set in the 5-year mission over the years that they can't all have happened in the same continuity.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

And there was a period when Paramount (and, if memory serves correctly, Richard Arnold in particular) clamped down hard on any attempts to establish a novel continuity that referenced anything other than on-screen canon.

Just as, for Sherlock Holmes, "canon" consists of Conan Doyle's writings, and for Oz, it consists of Baum's writings, in Star Trek, it refers to what has appeared on-screen. Occasionally, elements originating in novels (e.g., Sulu's first name being "Hikaru") will be incorporated into scripts, and make it into final release prints, thereby becoming canon, but they are the exception, rather than the rule.

The reason for this is fairly clear: Star Trek is, in origin, a television series. With (eventually) six television series (TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, Voy, and Ent), (eventually) ten theatrical films in the "Prime" universe and two (soon to be three) more in the Abramsverse, it's tough enough maintaining some semblance of continuity within what makes it on screen, without having to further constrain the writers by also attempting to maintain continuity with hundreds of officially licensed novels, short stories, comic books, and technical works, along with hundreds more such works published in (or as) fanzines.

 

[Lunarrius]

Thank you for your replies. Is there a complete (preferably up to date) list with all the novels listed chronologically (in Novelverse continuity) that is easy to follow?

EDIT: Here, can I follow this list (continuity set by books only published by Pocket Books): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek_novels

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek_novels

 

[Defcon]

http://www.thetrekcollective.com/p/trek-lit-reading-order.html?m=1

 

[Lunarrius]

http://www.thetrekcollective.com/p/trek-lit-reading-order.html?m=1

Thanks. Is there a reason why the list does not count novelizations and numbered releases? Are the absent books still belong to Novelverse (as stand alone or spin-off stories, however still in book continuity) or not? Sorry for being too picky about that, it's just I really want to get into reading Trek novels and to finally answer my questions before I start doing that.

 

[Defcon]

The books in that list are those Books which are considered to be Part of the novel continuity, i.e. those published since there was a conscious effort to keep the books consistent. The numbered novels where published before that.

 

[ryan123450]

I think between that chart and my website (link in my signature) you should be covered. I hope you can glean enough info from my site to answer alot of your questions.

 

[JD]

Prior to 2000 the novels were mostly standalone, with the current continuity starting with the release of the DS9 comic N-Vector and the first SCE e-book novella in August of that year. A few books from before then have been folded in later, but the majority of them are stand alone.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

There's a book, Voyages of Imagination, that covers every licensed work of ST narrative fiction up to 2006. It's more than just a list, and it's quite thick. And not especially cheap.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

I think between that chart and my website (link in my signature) you should be covered. I hope you can glean enough info from my site to answer alot of your questions.

I highly recommend using that ^ chart. It's been an essential tool in my own catch-up reading of Treklit.

There's a book, Voyages of Imagination, that covers every licensed work of ST narrative fiction up to 2006. It's more than just a list, and it's quite thick. And not especially cheap.

But worth the price.

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of my copy. If you have specific interests in Star Trek (favorite characters, story-types, time periods, themes, etc.), this is the best resource to find books that would most appeal to you. Very comprehensive.

 

[Therin of Andor]

There's a book, Voyages of Imagination, that covers every licensed work of ST narrative fiction up to 2006. It's more than just a list, and it's quite thick. And not especially cheap.

Carolyn Winifred, a published "Strange New Worlds" entrant, once uploaded an updated online version of the above-mentioned hardcopy's timeline, which includes the numbered books, SNW short stories and the novelizations. It's no longer updated, but it is a way to see where the numbered novels fit in.

https://sites.google.com/site/stvotitimeline/

 

[JD]

But that list does include a lot of stuff that isn't in the current continuity, which I usually refer to as the Novelverse.

 

[Therin of Andor]

But that list does include a lot of stuff that isn't in the current continuity, which I usually refer to as the Novelverse.

Sure, so the OP will have to juggle between the two lists. Or ignore this timeline. They may wish to see placement of novelizations and "absent" numbered novels.

 

[Idran]

Well, a placement; it's worth noting that due to vague/contradictory time references in novels (both to other novels and, at times, even internal to a given novel), there can be no true timeline of even just the Novelverse, let alone all published Trek novels. Some of us had plenty of trouble just trying to come up with a self-consistent timeline for just the TOS-era stuff in another thread; I think every thread participant came away with a different timeline, and yet they all still worked as well as they could with the evidence at hand.

 

[ryan123450]

And alot of fun we had doing it.

 

[David cgc]

There's also the Charting the Novel-verse thread that groups older novels together with the later ones that referenced them and semi-incorporated them in to the novel continuity. It's organized by subject rather than chronology, but it gives you enough information to make an informed decision about how you want to attack the books.

 

[trampledamage]

3) Can someone, who never watched Star Trek, get into Trek universe only by reading novels? Is there enough material provided in these books that you can follow the series independently. (Yes, I know it is a crazy question, just asking if it's possible).

I would say yes to this - it'd be interesting to find someone out there who has no knowledge of Trek to test this on! I think the novels carry the universe of Trek within them. Certainly, I've read far more than I've ever watched and I have never had any trouble following the plots and the character relationships and arcs.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Regarding what is and isn't canon:

The situation in ST is what it is because of its inherently open-ended on-screen nature: at any given moment, Paramount could announce the development of a new series (and indeed, I seem to recall that they HAVE done so, with regard to a series that may very well be literally unwatchable [at least in first-run] without a broadband internet connection [a profoundly stupid move; Internet-only may be fine for niche programming like Sports Jeopardy and Mozart in the Jungle, but for Star Trek?]), that could be Prime or Abramsverse (or even Shatnerverse) continuity, or a continuity we've never seen before, and either Next Gen era, Kirk era, Pike era, Archer era, or even Braxton era. For many years, the books were coming 25 or more per year, and are now down to about 12. And nearly everything, canonical and not, is coming from freelance writers.

Contrast that with SW: eight theatrical films (classic trilogy, prequel trilogy, The Clone Wars, and The Force Awakens), and a relative handful of books, with Lucasfilm maintaining much tighter control over everything. And still, there's a distinction made between "Canon" and "Extended Universe." I'll note, though, that the Kenobi-Skywalker lightsaber duel in Revenge of the Sith is remarkably close in concept and detail to one described in a late-1970s magazine article (except that of course, in that version, it was between Skywalker and Vader).

And now contrast that with B5: the television series was closed-ended by design (really, a 110-episode miniseries), and as "arc" stories began to dominate in the last 3 seasons, JMS took increasingly direct control, to the point where only a single episode out of the last 61 lacks a JMS writing credit. Along with six made-for-TV features, two direct-to-DVD shorts, an aborted sequel series, and a mere 18 novels: I'm not entirely sure, but it's plausible (and would certainly be practical) that in the B5 franchise, everything outside of fanfic is considered canonical.