Some questions

[thirteenth]

Hi again, sorry for the new threads, I'm not trying to spam, I just had/have a lot of questions I guess, so I'm consolidating them into one thread..

1.) Is Star Trek: The Badlands--is it required to read book one before book two? As book two has DS9 characters in it...

2.) Is Dark Passions recommended for keeping up with the Mirror Universe, as it does have some DS9 characters in it, or should I ignore it and go for the Mirror Universe anthologies?

3.) Are the DS9 Young adult novels any good? I read the first one and it was good/okay; do they follow continuity in DS9?

4.) Does Star Trek Invasion need to be read in order, or can it be read standalone? i.e. just reading the DS9 version?

Thanks,
I may add more questions as I think of them here, so bear with me...

 

[RoB]

2.) Is Dark Passions recommended for keeping up with the Mirror Universe, as it does have some DS9 characters in it, or should I ignore it and go for the Mirror Universe anthologies?

It's not required to read Dark Passions to know what happens in the MU. The anthologies even contradict parts of Dark Passions, though I know no details because I didn't read them. I think you can just jump into the MU anthologies and be fine. I really liked the stories und look forward to Shards & Shadows.

 

[LightningStorm]

2.) Is Dark Passions recommended for keeping up with the Mirror Universe, as it does have some DS9 characters in it, or should I ignore it and go for the Mirror Universe anthologies?

Not at all. In fact Dark Passions (while good IMO) is very much contradicted by the later incarnations of the MU. If you want to read Dark Passions as well as the newer ones, just go in with the knowledge that it is a completely different place and doesn't fit the continuity.

4.) Does Star Trek Invasion need to be read in order, or can it be read standalone? i.e. just reading the DS9 version?

The Invasion books are all fairly standalone. There is a connection between the TNG and Voyager ones. There is also mention of past events in TNG which refer to the TOS one but nothing majorly important. The DS9 one however is pretty much the most standalone IMO, but is enhanced by at least the TNG and TOS ones.

 

[KRAD]

1.) Is Star Trek: The Badlands--is it required to read book one before book two? As book two has DS9 characters in it...

Er, well, nothing's "required." These are luxury items, not holy writ.

Anyhow, if you just want to read Book 2, you'll be fine.

2.) Is Dark Passions recommended for keeping up with the Mirror Universe, as it does have some DS9 characters in it, or should I ignore it and go for the Mirror Universe anthologies?

Up to you -- no reason you can't read both -- but the more recent MU material (Glass Empires, Obsidian Alliances, Shards and Shadows, Warpath, Fearful Symmetry) does not follow what was established in DP.

3.) Are the DS9 Young adult novels any good? I read the first one and it was good/okay; do they follow continuity in DS9?

I don't understand the second question at all. All novels follow continuity of the TV show as it was at the time it was written. That's the rule.

4.) Does Star Trek Invasion need to be read in order, or can it be read standalone? i.e. just reading the DS9 version?

In fact, the DS9 installment is the most standalone of the bunch, so you'd be fine.

 

[thirteenth]

Thanks everyone, okay, and one more question:
5.) Is Last Full Measure needed to understand the ENT relaunch? Or does it enhance it? I heard it has a 'framing story' for the relaunch, and it is by AM and MAM...

 

[JD]

I haven't read it, and I've understood the other two books perfectly fine. I belive all it does is just show a certain character in the TOS era.

 

[Christopher]

Thanks everyone, okay, and one more question:
5.) Is Last Full Measure needed to understand the ENT relaunch? Or does it enhance it? I heard it has a 'framing story' for the relaunch, and it is by AM and MAM...

It's more of a "teaser" for the relaunch than anything else. The main story is completely separate, a MACO story set early in the Xindi mission. It has an essentially unconnected frame story culminating in a surprise reveal of something that is subsequently explained and developed in the post-finale ENT novels. But its relationship to those novels is peripheral.

And as a rule, no book should ever be "needed" to understand another book, except where the installments of a duology or trilogy are concerned, and sometimes not even then. It's not like we're deliberately writing these things in an obscure and confusing way; that would be self-defeating. Each book is written so as to be comprehensible and satisfying on its own; any important plot point from previous books or episodes is recapped or explained so that you can follow along, in the same way that any important past event not previously depicted is explained. (In "The Cage," the crew is recovering from a stressful mission on Rigel VII, but the fact that we never saw the mission doesn't make it impossible to understand the story, because we're told everything we need to know.)

 

[thirteenth]

I see, thanks a lot; I've not read too many Trek books yet, but I am realising that they do keep the reader in mind unlike some non Trek books I've read...

 

[KRAD]

One of my cardinal rules, both as a writer and editor, has always been to remember that every story is someone's first.