So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Jinn]

A few questions. First, now that I've begun the Prey series and almost 1/3rd of the way in, do I continue reading this series and finish it ?

I'd recommend finishing it.

Ultimately, I would like to begin reading in some kind of chronological order either TNG, DS9 or a combination of both. I've seen all the charts as I've been doing my research.
So, instead of directing me to one of the charts, which are absolutely awesome!!, I'd like some advice as to which titles to read to retrace my steps. I personally see myself finishing the Prey series first, just because I'm totally hooked, but afterwards, then what ??

So, I haven't read Prey and have only read up to The Fall #4 so I'll just suggest some random good books:

• Early DS9 relaunch
• A Time to...
• Voyager relaunch by Kirsten Beyer (technically not DS9 or TNG, but still great)

Frankly, I'm not sure what you are asking for. Do you basically want a "Essential Trek reading order"? Memory Beta has one on their Relaunch novel timeline page, the novels are in chronological order and the "not important" ones are marked with two stars, though most of them are definetely a worthwhile read, some even more than the "important" ones. If you are just looking for a good read I'd recomend the previously mentioned novel series.

 

[DS9_Klingon]

Thanks Jinn, this is much appreciated. I guess what I'd like to read in some kind of 'chronological' order, would be a 'mix' or 'crossover' of mainly DS9 and TNG, but I'm flexible with other series involvement as well. So then the question therein lies where do I begin this endeavor ? Articles of the Federation or The Fall series or somewhere within the confusing Typhon pact series ?

 

[Jinn]

Thanks Jinn, this is much appreciated. I guess what I'd like to read in some kind of 'chronological' order, would be a 'mix' or 'crossover' of mainly DS9 and TNG, but I'm flexible with other series involvement as well. So then the question therein lies where do I begin this endeavor ? Articles of the Federation or The Fall series or somewhere within the confusing Typhon pact series ?

In that case I'd recommend starting with the original DS9 relaunch as starting with anything else would require you to miss more than half of the DS9 books, and the IMO better ones. That's basically:

• A Stitch in Time
• Avatar, Books One & Two
• Section 31: Abyss
• Gateways: Demons of Air and Darkness
• Mission Gamma Books One-Four
• Rising Son
• Unity
• The Worlds of Deep Space Nine Vol. 1, 2 & 3
• Warpath
• The Soul Key

Here the DS9 relaunch jumped from 2377 to 2381 and skipped some quite important stuff. David R. George III chronicled some ofthe stuff that happened in Sacraments of Fire and Ascendants, however both are post-The Fall and will spoil previous stuff, so I'd recommend reading them later. It was decided to take the final chapters of all novels in the Gateways crossover and release them as a single hardcover book, so if you want to finish Demons of Air and Darkness you'll also have to pay for a hardcover book that you won't read most of. If you happen to speak German err.. read German I'd recommend buying Cross Cult's release of Demons of Air and Darkness (Dämonen der Luft und Finsternis), as they included the final chapters in the actual novel. You might also want to read the Mirror Universe novels before some of the later books on this list. They are not necesarry, but will probably enhance your reading experiance. The Mu will also return as a plot thingy in future novels, so getting catched up on the MU probably isn't the worst thing to do. The MU series consists oft three anthologies and two novels. The reading order goes something like this:

• Age of the Empress (printed in Glass Empires)
• Nobunga (printed in Shards and Shadows)
• Ill Winds (SaS)
  
• The Greater Good (SaS)
  
• The Black Flag (SaS)
  
• The Sorrows of Empire (printed in G. An extended version has been published as a standalone. I'd recommend skipping the version in GE and read the long version)
• The Traiter (SaS)
  
• The Mirror-Scaled Serpent (printed in Obsidian Alliances) [2371]
  
• The Worst of Both Worlds (GE) [2371]
  
• Cutting Ties (OA) [2372]
  
• Family Matters (SaS)
• Homecoming (SaS)
  
• Saturn's Child (OA)[375]
• A Terrible Beauty (SaS)
• Empathy (SaS)
• For Want of a Nail (SaS)
• Rise Like Lions

For Want of a Nail is set in either late 2376 or 2377 which is during the DS9 relaunch. Rise Like Lions is in 2380 and can be read pretty much anywhere directly after the previously mentioned novels. Back to the prime universe: If you want to read chronologically I'd recommend buying all the Worlds of DS9 volumes at once and slightly augment the reading order. Every vol contains two stories, the order is: Trill, Bajor(both from Vol 2), Andor (from Vol 1), Ferenginar (from Vol 3), Cardassia (from Vol 1), Dominion (from Vol 3)Next we have the TNG: A Time to... series

• A Time to be Born & A Time to Die
• A Time to Sow & A Time to Harvest
• A Time to Love & A Time to Hate
• A Time to Kill & A Time to Heal
• A Time for War, A Time for Peace
• Death in Winter

Practically this is set in 2378 and 2379 after the aforementioned DS9 novels and before Nemesis. The series consists of duologies (except A Time for War, A Time for Peace which was planned to be a duology but then compressed into one book) From what I've heard they are all rather good. Death in Winter is listed on Memory Beta and the timeline in Voyages of Imagination as pre-Nemesis, but I could have sworn that it was after it. Can anyone here confirm either option? The exact placement of Death in Winter is irrelevant, of course, unless you watch Nemesis in between novels which might be an interesting experiance. Anyways, after Nemesis Riker and Troi leave Enterprise and continue their adventures in Star Trek: Titan. After Nemesis we have the year 2380 (and a bit of 2379 and 2381)

• Titan: Taking Wing
• Titan: The Red King
• Titan: Orion's Hounds
• Resistance
• Q & A
• Before Dishonor
• Titan: Sword of Damocles
• Greater than the Sum
• Str Trek: Destiny

Okay, so what have got here? Taking Wing is the first Titan novel and one of the better ones, so I'd definetily recommend checking it out. The Red King is somewhat of a sequel to the Lost Era novel The Sundered, reading it before the Titan novel will probably be helpful. Also from what I've heard it is quite good. Orion's Hound is by far my favorite Titan novel, Christopher did a great job with all the cosmozoan alien species. I'd recommend skipping Resistance. At least personally I couldn't stand it, but I'm sure there are fans of it, who'd have something positive to say about the novel. Q % A isn't really important for the overall story, but it's wirtten by Keith R.A. DeCandido and therefore automatically a worthwhile read. Before Dishonor was fairly controversial. I didn't like for various reasons but the impact it had on especially the Voyager series can't be denied, so you might want to read it anyway. As with Resistance this book too has better parts and is far from being a completely failure, just not as good as the previous and next ones. Sword of Damocles, I found a bit... Hard to read and overly complicated, but it has at least a bit of impact on the series. Greater Than the Sum (also written by Christopher) is both good and important for the overall plot. You've already mentioned Articles of the Federation. It follows the newly elected Federation president Nan Bacco and is really interesting. Chronologically wise the problem with this one is that it covers the whole year, so you should probably read it after Greater Than the Sum. Then we've got Star Trek: Destiny. I can't really say much about it except that it is probably the most important to the overall plot and one of the best Trek series up until today. Immediately Post-Destiny we got:

• Voyager: Full Circle
• TNG: Losing the Peace
• A Singular Destiny
• Titan: Over A Torrent Sea

These are basically the post-Destiny clean-up books. Losing the Peace also sets up future story elemtents (though I don't want to take away which ones), Over A Torrent Sea sees Titan return to exploration and Losing the Peace is the most literal "cleaning up" books as it is connected to the Destiny's fallout most closely. I also included a Voyager books, because this is the first written by Kristen Beyer. I'd recommend picking it up and continuing with the series if you liked this one. Further down the timeline we have:

• Titan: Synthesis
• Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game
• Typhon Pact: Seize the Fire
• Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire
• Typhon Pact: Paths of Disharmony
• Titan: Fallen Gods
• Typhon Pact: The Struggle Within
• Indistinguishable from Magic
• Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night
• Typhon Pact: Raise the Dawn
• Typhon Pact: Brinkmanship

Synthesis is a good read, I've got not much more to add about it. Zero Sum Game is a first return to DS9, and it sets up some stuff for future David Mack books. Seize the Fire and Fallen Gods is a Typhon Pact duology. Frankly, it is not all that good, so if you skip anything on this list, skip this. Rough Beasts of Empire is the second DS9 (and a bit TOS) book after Destiny and chronicles what happened with the DS9 characters after Destiny up to this point. Paths of Disharmony is a must-read as it heavily influences everything that is to come, though I personally didn't like it all that much until the second half. The Struggle Withing is "only" an eNovella and while not important for the overall story it is a good novella. Indistinguishable from Magic is, from what I've heard, a bit of a mess as parts of it have been retconned out of continuity. I don't know wether it is good or not, because I haven't read it. Plagues of Night and Raise the Dawn is another important DS9 adventure that is controversial, but probably the most important part of the Typhon Pact series. Brinkmanship is a Una McCormack novel and therefore by definition great. Following the Typhon Pact novels we have the year 2384, which has three TNG novels and a novella in it:

• Cold Equations: The Persistance of Memory
• Cold Equations: Silent Weapons
• Cold Equations: The Body Electric
• The Stuff of Dreams

The CE trilogy is great and important for future TNG novels. While it was written by David Mack, don't expect a second Destiny. I, personally liked CE more, but the two trilogies are hardly comparable and both great in their own regards. No comment of The Stuff of Dreams, haven't read it.

• Star Trek: The Fall
• Titan: Absent Enemies
• TNG: The Light Fantastic
• DS9: The Missing
• TNG: Takedown
• DS9: Saraments of Fire
• DS9 Ascendance
• Star Trek: Prometheus
• TNG: Armageddon's Arrow
• Titan: Sight Unseen
• DS9: Force and Motion

Um, yeah I have only read the first four The Fall novels out of all these, so I can't really comment on that much, but from what I've heard generally: The Missing and Force and Motion don't continue the main DS9 storyline, but seeing who they were written by they are probably good. Prometheus is the first novel trilogy written in German and there is currently no public translation.

 

[JD]

LoL!--Speaking of the other Star verse, I am halfway done with James Luceno's Catalyst. A quick, in-depth and perfect appetizer for both Rogue One the movie and novelization. I have always enjoyed Luceno's writing style. Both him (Luceno) and JJM have a very unique, but addicting style of writing for the most part and I always seemed to get hooked

It seems the IDW novel's get, overall, a fairly high/very positive review from the masses. What are the premise of these title ? and why do they seem to be so popular ?

IDW publishes comics, not novels. I haven't started the ongoing Kelvinverse series, but I have read quite a few of their standalone miniseries, and I've enjoyed most of them. If you read comics, I could recommend a few worth reading.

I'd recommend finishing it.


So, I haven't read Prey and have only read up to The Fall #4 so I'll just suggest some random good books:

• Early DS9 relaunch
• A Time to...
• Voyager relaunch by Kirsten Beyer (technically not DS9 or TNG, but still great)

Frankly, I'm not sure what you are asking for. Do you basically want a "Essential Trek reading order"? Memory Beta has one on their Relaunch novel timeline page, the novels are in chronological order and the "not important" ones are marked with two stars, though most of them are definetely a worthwhile read, some even more than the "important" ones. If you are just looking for a good read I'd recomend the previously mentioned novel series.

Where did that Relaunch timeline come from? I spend quite a bit of time on MB but I've never come across that one before.

 

[Jinn]

IDW publishes comics, not novels. I haven't started the ongoing Kelvinverse series, but I have read quite a few of their standalone miniseries, and I've enjoyed most of them. If you read comics, I could recommend a few worth reading.

Where did that Relaunch timeline come from? I spend quite a bit of time on MB but I've never come across that one before.

There are only three links to it, one of them is a redirect from "Star Trek relaunch novel timeline" and one is on the talk page of Destiny, so there is only one page where you could have found it, "relaunch". The page itself has been around since mid-2011. I find it somewhat puzzeling that one of their most helpful pages is also one of the least accesible.

In completely different news, I'm trying to compile a 23rd century timeline, but lack knowledge about the novels The Children of Kings and Garth of Izar. MB claims that at least some parts of them are set in 2230 and 2251 respecively, while the main story is in 2251 and 2270. Can anyone confirm or deny that and specify which chapters and sections specifically are set in which years?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Gonna be reading the NCIS book Bolthole next. Gotta <3 the library.

EDIT: Why doesn't the heart symbol show up as a heart?

 

[Idran]

There are only three links to it, one of them is a redirect from "Star Trek relaunch novel timeline" and one is on the talk page of Destiny, so there is only one page where you could have found it, "relaunch". The page itself has been around since mid-2011. I find it somewhat puzzeling that one of their most helpful pages is also one of the least accesible.

In completely different news, I'm trying to compile a 23rd century timeline, but lack knowledge about the novels The Children of Kings and Garth of Izar. MB claims that at least some parts of them are set in 2230 and 2251 respecively, while the main story is in 2251 and 2270. Can anyone confirm or deny that and specify which chapters and sections specifically are set in which years?

I haven't read Children of Kings in a while so I can't confirm the specific dating (though that sounds right), but if you're looking to compile a Novelverse timeline, I'm not really sure it's compatible with it. It doesn't entirely fit with the other Pike novels, or even with "The Cage" itself honestly (the big one I remember offhand being that it includes Yeoman Colt years before "The Cage", for one, but I know there were other bits that felt off). The acknowledgements in the back gave me the impression it was intended as a Kelvinverse Pike novel at one point, which I assume was a major contributing reason for the discrepancies.

 

[Christopher]

The Children of Kings is sort of halfway in between Prime and Kelvin in a way -- the idea, basically, is that if there can be two alternate versions of Pike and his crew, why not a third? So it's really in a pocket reality of its own, not fully compatible with either Prime or Kelvin. It was written that way because it was done before much was known about the new movie timeline.

 

[Greg Cox]

Just got my contributors copy of PLANET OF THE APES: TALES FROM THE FORBIDDEN ZONE, due out next month. Looking forward to reading the other stories in the book.

 

[DS9_Klingon]

Wow Jinn--I am impressed. I truly appreciate the time and effort you took into your response to my last post. I guess I have some reading to do huh ??

Thanks Again!!

 

[DS9_Klingon]

In terms of Comics/Graphic novels, I am currently reading the Darth Vader Comic Lando. I'm not sure if I am enjoying it or not. Then again, I just started it. Probably too early to make a valid review.
The cover art to Boldly Go with the Borg currently on the latest title and the next title with Spock on the front, but looking like he's a Borg as well, are well done and due to this I am highly contemplating buy this series as well. Content wise, is this a decent series thus far ?

 

[Jinn]

I haven't read Children of Kings in a while so I can't confirm the specific dating (though that sounds right), but if you're looking to compile a Novelverse timeline, I'm not really sure it's compatible with it. It doesn't entirely fit with the other Pike novels, or even with "The Cage" itself honestly (the big one I remember offhand being that it includes Yeoman Colt years before "The Cage", for one, but I know there were other bits that felt off). The acknowledgements in the back gave me the impression it was intended as a Kelvinverse Pike novel at one point, which I assume was a major contributing reason for the discrepancies.

The Children of Kings is sort of halfway in between Prime and Kelvin in a way -- the idea, basically, is that if there can be two alternate versions of Pike and his crew, why not a third? So it's really in a pocket reality of its own, not fully compatible with either Prime or Kelvin. It was written that way because it was done before much was known about the new movie timeline.

Interesting. I'll add it to my Kelvin-verse reading list, even though it isn't fully compatible.

Wow Jinn--I am impressed. I truly appreciate the time and effort you took into your response to my last post. I guess I have some reading to do huh ??

Thanks Again!!

You're welcome This post was one of these "Yeah, I'll just give a couple of suggestings *some time later* crap this is longer than my last chemistry exam" posts. Also, be warned, I am not 100% sure on the MU timeline, as I only took the basic main years from MB, actual placement may differ a bit, but I doubt that it'll make a difference.

The cover art to Boldly Go with the Borg currently on the latest title and the next title with Spock on the front, but looking like he's a Borg as well, are well done and due to this I am highly contemplating buy this series as well. Content wise, is this a decent series thus far ?

I've read issues 2-3 today and liked them. The first was also good. Actually, to quote myself:

I started reading After Darkness and I also read Hive some time ago, both of which I didn't like at all, so I was... not overly excited or had any sort of high expectations. Well, turned out I really liked #1 of Boldly Go and now I regret not picking up the second issue right there. In my mind, mainly due his portrayl in the first two Kelvin movies (that I didn't watch in a long time), Kelvin Kirk was this irresponisble, immature, cadet promoted to captain, incpomtetent officer who just spends his time having sex with female aliens than the whole TOS cast combined.This was completely different. I was even close to enjoying the Uhura/spock couple thing!

Gonna be reading the NCIS book Bolthole next. Gotta <3 the library.

EDIT: Why doesn't the heart symbol show up as a heart?

I don't think that there even is a heart symbol here. We're Trekkies, we are all cold blooded logical, heartless beings who would never ever express any kind of emtion. Except hatred towards Trek fans who like something slightly different than us. Burn those people. Also personally i think the "<3" looks a lot cuter than an actual heart.

 

[JD]

There is one other book involving the MU you didn't mention, but since the MU elements might be a bit of a surprise, I'll put in a spoiler just in case.

Spoiler: The book

Section 31: Disavowed by David Mack

I haven't read it yet, so I'm not sure exactly what role the MU plays in the story, but I do know it picks up on elements from the end of Rise Like Lions.

I forgot to mention before that since my last update I've finished ST The Fall: Ceremony of Losses, and read Star Wars (current Marvel series) Vol 2: Showdown on the Smugglers' Moon, and Wonder Woman (New 52 series) Vol 3: Iron. I finished Iron yesterday and now I've started the next The Fall book, The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow.

 

[Starbreaker]

Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson. Probably going to start on Armageddon's Arrow next so I can get to the Prey trilogy.

 

[Jinn]

There is one other book involving the MU you didn't mention, but since the MU elements might be a bit of a surprise, I'll put in a spoiler just in case.

Spoiler: The book

Section 31: Disavowed by David Mack

I haven't read it yet, so I'm not sure exactly what role the MU plays in the story, but I do know it picks up on elements from the end of Rise Like Lions.

I alluded to it, but didn't want to take away the suprise:

The Mu will also return as a plot thingy in future novels

 

[JD]

Ah, I didn't realize that was what you were referring to.

 

[USS Firefly]

Star trek: Prey

 

[Jinn]

Ah, I didn't realize that was what you were referring to.

Yeah, I guess technically the plural novels was wrong, though we also don't know if it may appear in the following book.

 

[Starbreaker]

Getting caught up with Star Trek novels is an absolutely daunting task unless you are a speed reader or have been on top of things for the past decade. I really want sit down and read the entire DS9 relaunch and Titan, but I know that's going to be a year long task for me.

 

[Jinn]

Yeah, I've started in late 2012 and got just cought up with the end of The Fall. Though this is also one of these "the journey is the destination" things.