Reading order - any pitfalls to avoid

[BaloksPuppet]

Hi, I've been lurking here for a few weeks. One of my New Year's resolutions was to try to catch up on unread Star Trek novels. I was about ten years behind on everything but TOS. I've been doing pretty well (I've gone through around 50 books so far ) but I'm now about up to the relaunches and I'm wondering how important reading order is going to prove. I want to avoid spoilers and so far I've been trying to stick pretty close to publication date, but I'm tempted to read all the DS9 novels straight through, for example, so that the details will stick in my mind better. But if I do that will I be spoiling parts of the TNG or Voyager relaunches? Or if I read all the Voyager novels or New Frontier novels, will I spoil the other series?

I guess what I'm asking is if there are any significant plot elements that crossover among the newer novels (and by newer I mean anything written in the 21st century)? I know that there's more continuity among the newer novels than the old completely stand-alone philosophy, but does that continuity cross series boundaries? Since I want to avoid spoilers, should I just try to stick strictly to publication date for all the books or is it safe to read each series straight through?

I hope those questions make sense. I guess a related question is how many/which of the newer novels are completely standalone?

Just for reference, my next DS9 novel would be Avatar, for Voyager I'm up to Dark Matters (so I'm still a few away from the relaunch), and for TNG I'm up to Maximum Warp. I just finished Excalibur: Restoration in the New Frontier series. I'm really tempted to read NF straight on through since continuity has been so important so far and there are only a few books remaining, though I guess I need to work through all the Gateways series anyway which would force me to break it up a little. I haven't read any of the Titan, Gorkon, SCE, Stargazer, or Vanguard series yet. And I'm not sure I'm going to read any Enterprise. In addition to those, by my count I've got 22 TNG, 15 DS9, 11 Voyager, 5 New Frontier, and 26 other titles that are clearly crossover series. Yeah, I'll be busy for a while. :-)

Anyway, if somebody could give me a little guidance or help with a strategy I'd be very appreciative. Thanks!

 

[Trent Roman]

I wouldn't worry about being spoiled for other series. The series are very independant from each other, references to what's going on in another part of the Trek usually amounting to little more than a vague comment here and there. Even if the case of explicit crossovers (like the Gateways books), each series has its own adventure, and 'entangles' with other series only briefly, and without disclosing much information. This is helped by the fact that many of the 'relaunches' take place in different time periods, and aren't contemporary with one another (and of course, books set 'later' in the timeline avoid spoling things that happened in their relative 'past' which occurs/will occur in other series' books).

There will be something coming at the end of the year called Destiny which will tie together many elements of the Star Trek universe and give hints about the future direction of the various series, but of course, since it's not been released, we can't tell you to what extent it will spoil other series. The only person who could tell us that is David Mack, and so far he's resisted the waterboarding.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'm really tempted to read NF straight on through since continuity has been so important so far and there are only a few books remaining, though I guess I need to work through all the Gateways series anyway which would force me to break it up a little.

That would sound like a good strategy to me, esp. if you enjoy Peter David's work, and the "Gateways" saga will give you a taste of all the other series of the day. (Which was, I guess, one of the purposes of the hardcover final book gathering all the "What happened to the captain...?" stories into one culminating volume.)

Anyway, if somebody could give me a little guidance or help with a strategy I'd be very appreciative. Thanks!

I'd first try putting them all on a shelf in publication order (use the date behind the title page) but use the hardcover date for any MMPB reprints you might have of those. That's the order many readers - those who read everything as it comes out - have read them, and none of them are complaining about spoilers. See what gaps you have.

There are a few cases where reading all books in a series may result in some regrets much further down the track, although the authors and editors do a great job telling you what you need to know as you need to know it. The second "Titan" novel works as a sequel to the guest aliens' plight from a "Lost Years" novel, and the "Gateways" instalment for "Challenger" might be confusing if you haven't read the final book in the "New Earth" mini-series, but its first 50 pages or so are also intentionally confusing for another reason, ie. to do with the unfolding plot.

 

[ialfan]

If it was me I would read them in something close to chronological order using Memory Beta as a guide. For instance here is the order more or less for 2376 which is about what you're up to if you've not yet read Avatar:

http://startrek.wikia.com/wiki/2376

I really recommend you at least read 'The Good That Men Do', the first novel in the Enterprise relaunch. It helps to "fix" the series finale and starts setting up for the Romulan War. It's a great read and if you'd like any Enterprise book it'd probably be that one.

 

[BaloksPuppet]

So there are a few viable ways of attacking this. Right now I have them all on my shelf in pretty close to publication order (I've been buying them all along, getting around to reading them had been the problem) and I've just been reading one and grabbing the next one when I finished. But yeah, the New Frontier books especially are making me want to ditch that strategy. I read the New Earth series back when it came out so the Challenger entry in Gateways shouldn't pose that much of a, um, challenge.

I didn't realize Memory Beta had such a neat chronological list, so it's a strategy I hadn't considered but sounds like a good one. At a minimum I may employ that if I decide to read a series straight through. For example, Left Hand of Destiny deviates from publication order as does String Theory. So I could drive on through DS9 and Voyager but put those two in the right chronological sequence.

Thanks for the suggestions. I suppose I probably shouldn't worry about it too much, but I'm trying reap some benefit from my decade of procrastination by optimizing how I do this.

 

[Turtletrekker]

For the DS9-R, I would go with the originally intended publication order: Rising Son straight to Unity, rather than reading The Left Hand of Destiny inbetween them. The publication order was flipped when both S.D. Perry and Marco's wife both gave birth in a relativly short span of time, delaying Unity's completion. Of course, chronologically, TLHoD is set before Avatar, so if you go that route, this won't be an issue.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I didn't realize Memory Beta had such a neat chronological list,

Our own 8of5 has done most of the work on the MB chronology. And of course the MB chrono is largely based on the timeline found in Voyages of Imagination which was compiled by group of fans who call themselves "The Timeliners", some of whom which have been known to pop in here on occasion.

 

[Stevil2001]

If I remember right, wasn't The Left Hand of Destiny originally originally scheduled to come out in late 2001?

 

[captcalhoun]

you have to read everything else before you read Articles of the Federation.


SORRY! couldn't resist. you KNEW someone would do it, didn't you? be honest...

 

[foravalon]

Seriously? You can't go wrong with Publication order, that's how they came out, that's more or less the order in which they were created and edited and that's more or less the order in which they were intended to be read.

This is the MOST helpful way to read if you are interested in continuity nods between different series. Reading "chronologically" isn't really doing what you're intending and you're presenting your self with untimely Spoilers for certain things, imagine watching B5's "In the Beginning" before the rest of the series, or BSG's "Razor" sure, the bulk of their stories are "chronologically" at the beginning but that's not where they really reside thematically.

Ditto with the Star Wars films, if you were introducing eps 1-3 First to someone new to the series then your experience will be crap and all your revelations in eps 4-6 will be nullified. LAME. So do yourself a favor and read things the way they were meant to be read.

That being said, sometimes things just don't really matter The Left Hand of Destiny is pretty insular and you can read it any time ditto with Most of New Frontier. But,

DS9-R
Lost Era (minus "The Buried Age")
A Time to...
Vulcan's Forge Heart Soul
Post Nem TNG
SCE
Vanguard
Mirror Universe
& any of the short stories from the anthologies n stuff,

Yeah man! These are all pretty entwined and have been since around 2000 thanks to Mr Marco, KRAD, Mack and all those other lovely hooligans and hooliganettes.

You Can't Go Wrong with Publication Order!

 

[BaloksPuppet]

Thanks all for the advice. Publication order is what I'd been doing and I may just stick to that excepting Left Hand of Destiny and the rest of New Frontier. The opinions here suggest to me that it's not crucial to do it that way but that overall it may be the best way to go. I may just need to take notes or something to keep everything straight.

 

[captcalhoun]

uh...

Star Wars is intended to be watched in numerical order Episode I to Episode VI. That's why they're numbered...

 

[William Leisner]

uh...

Star Wars is intended to be watched in numerical order Episode I to Episode VI. That's why they're numbered...

FUCK!! Stupid me, I watched Episode IV when it came out in theaters in 1977!! Why the hell didn't someone tell me I was supposed to wait 20+ years??!

 

[Christopher]

uh...

Star Wars is intended to be watched in numerical order Episode I to Episode VI. That's why they're numbered...

It's easily evident that that is not true. The revelation of Darth Vader's identity in The Empire Strikes Back is supposed to be a surprise. So is the revelation that Yoda is the great Jedi master Luke was sent to find rather than just some crazy old coot. For that matter, so is the revelation that Ben Kenobi is a retired warrior rather than just some crazy old coot. So is the revelation that Luke and Leia are siblings. There are just so many things in the original trilogy that just don't work dramatically if you already know what happened in the prequels.

The reason why they're numbered is not because of some legalistic insistence on viewing order. It's because Lucas was paying homage to the weekly adventure serials of the '30s and '40s and thought it would be a cute conceit to stick "episode" headings into the opening crawls (although Star Wars didn't gain its "Episode IV: A New Hope" subtitle until its rerelease several years after it was made; originally, it was meant to be episode 1). And in point of fact, the original trilogy wasn't numbered, not really. The official titles used in all promotional material and documentation for the original trilogy were just Star Wars, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. The "episode" numbers were never used on any of the posters or book covers or merchandise, only in the opening crawls. It wasn't until the prequel trilogy that the "Episode #" business was formally incorporated into the titles.

EDIT: Also, what William said.

 

[captcalhoun]

i know that, but i watched them all in the numerical order (twice) and it didn't diminish my enjoyment.

 

[KRAD]

i know that, but i watched them all in the numerical order (twice) and it didn't diminish my enjoyment.

Perhaps, but that's not the same thing as saying they were intended to be viewed in that order. They really really really weren't, for the reasons Christopher gave. Also, the prequel trilogy was written in such a way that it assumed the viewer was familiar with the later three films.

 

[DorkBoy [TM]]

It is fun to watch them chronologically once you've seen them all. (If watching Hayden Christensen can ever be categorized as "fun.") But that's not the same at all as first time viewing.

I really think the best order to view the Star Wars movies in is:

IV, V, VI, I, II, III, IV, V, VI

(Just because viewing them the second time after the prequel trilogy paints things in a different light.)

Back to Star Trek: Publication order is definitely the way to go.

 

[Stevil2001]

Yes, but-- where do you watch the Ewok movies?

 

[trampledamage]

Yes, but-- where do you watch the Ewok movies?

In an insane asylum where you're being given shock therapy

 

[Mike Farley]

Yes, but-- where do you watch the Ewok movies?

The Ewok movies clearly take place post-Jedi as Wicket learns English in them.

You should also watch the Christmas Special in between Star Wars and Empire.

As for the Trek books, while continuity within the various series has been pretty tight there isn't tons of continuity between series. There might be an occasional Easter egg, but nothing truly spoilerish.

And some of the books, like the Crucible series, kinda go off and do their own thing without worrying about what anyone else is doing.