Star Trek eBooks availability

[JWolf]

A friend asked me what Star Trek books are not available as eBooks. While I know some of them, I probably don't know all of the ones not available.

The ones I know are...
Probe
Some of the William Shatner books.

So if anyone knows others now available, please list. Thanks.

 

[JD]

Just to be precise The Ashes of Eden, The Return, and Avenger are not available as e-books, all the rest of the Shatnerverse books are.
I believe Enterprise: The First Adventure (A TOS novel for those unaware of it) still isn't, and Final Frontier are the last two Pocket releases not to get e-books. I wasn't aware of Probe.
The First Contact and Insurrection adult novelizations didn't have e-books until recently.

 

[bdub76]

I'd say the covers haven't been great on a lot of older Star Trek eBooks, so if they go the eBook route, don't expect older Trek books to have good covers. A lot of the older ones look like bad scans.

 

[tgiokdi]

I have a slightly out of date list here: https://www.startrekbookclub.com/all-books/?noebook I don't think I've quite figured out how to exclude books that were later in a digital compendium like the New Frontier series. the first four books havent' been ebooked, but they were combined into a single collection that was both print and digital.

Like you mentioned, a couple of the Shatner books are still not ebooks, Odyssey is the one that I'm personally waiting on, the DS9 YA series, the VOY YA series, the Prodigy series, the photonovel series, the 1996 Starfleet Academy series, and TNG YA series are all on my wishlist to eventually see digitally.

 

[Avro Arrow]

^ You’ve reminded me of something. I’ve always been a bit disappointed that we don’t have ebooks of the older, pre-S&S Star Trek books, like the the Bantam novels, or the Star Trek Logs series by Ballantine. I assume that’s because these publishers (or PRH, which these two were subsumed into) no longer have any Star Trek rights, and so can’t publish these old works in digital form. (If this assumption is incorrect, please let me know. I know that according to MA, the Logs books were reprinted in collected versions in 2006, well after S&S acquired the license, so they must have some reprint rights, but I’m assuming that doesn’t extend to digital.)

So if that assumption is correct… then what happens if S&S ever loses the Star Trek license? Do more modern licensing agreements allow the publisher to sell ebook versions of their licensed works in perpetuity? Or would S&S’s entire Star Trek library just become unavailable in ebook format?

 

[bdub76]

So if that assumption is correct… then what happens if S&S ever loses the Star Trek license? Do more modern licensing agreements allow the publisher to sell ebook versions of their licensed works in perpetuity? Or would S&S’s entire Star Trek library just become unavailable in ebook format?

They would become unavailable. This is why it's important to download your Star Trek novels and store them locally. Once they lose the license, they will disappear from wherever you bought them. This happened with the Eureka eBooks based on the TV series. While I still can technically download the first two that I purchased in eBook form, I can no longer buy the third as an eBook, which I had to grab as a mass market paperback. And mass market paperbacks are also going away this year. Eventually, I expect Amazon to remove the books as their license expires.

And since these books haven't been published that long ago, they end up in this weird space, where they're not available to buy in any form, but they're not old enough to be in public domain.

The good news is that most of the Star Trek novels I purchase are DRM free, and I have switched to KOBO since Amazon limited downloading.

 

[tgiokdi]

Something similar has happened with the comic books and Eaglemoss was somehow able to reprint every Trek comic that had been released by that point, I would imagine that something like that would be worked out. I would also have to imagine that part of the sale of S&S from paramount include a reversion clause for all that content.

 

[JD]

I'd say the covers haven't been great on a lot of older Star Trek eBooks, so if they go the eBook route, don't expect older Trek books to have good covers. A lot of the older ones look like bad scans.

Yeah, I noticed recently while looking through the Trek e-books and Amazon and Google. They look fine as fingernails, but as soon as you open up a bigger version they're very blurry.

I have a slightly out of date list here: https://www.startrekbookclub.com/all-books/?noebook I don't think I've quite figured out how to exclude books that were later in a digital compendium like the New Frontier series. the first four books havent' been ebooked, but they were combined into a single collection that was both print and digital.

I didn't realize that, I could have sworn I saw the individual books as e-books too.

Like you mentioned, a couple of the Shatner books are still not ebooks, Odyssey is the one that I'm personally waiting on, the DS9 YA series,

For some reason the first, Space Ghost, and #10, Space Camp, are available as e-books, but none of the others. For some reason, the final book #12, Trapped in Time, does not have a listing on Amazon at all.

the VOY YA series

There are no listing for these on Amazon either.

, the Prodigy series,

Really? How can books this new not have e-books?

the 1996 Starfleet Academy series,

Which series is this?

and TNG YA series are all on my wishlist to eventually see digitally.

The first book, Worf's First Adventure is available as an e-book.

 

[tgiokdi]

Which series is this?

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Star Trek: The Original Series – Starfleet Academy is a series of Pocket TOS novels written for young readers (9-12). They follow the adventures of the USS Enterprise crew during their cadet days at Starfleet Academy.

www.startrekbookclub.com

I didn't realize that, I could have sworn I saw the individual books as e-books too.

I had the same impression and even have an ASIN for #2 which would imply they were all up there at one point.

 

[JD]

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Star Trek: The Original Series – Starfleet Academy is a series of Pocket TOS novels written for young readers (9-12). They follow the adventures of the USS Enterprise crew during their cadet days at Starfleet Academy.

www.startrekbookclub.com

Oh, I thought since listed the TNG, and Voyager series just under the series title, that maybe this was something different. The TNG and Voyager books are Starfleet Academy series too.
I read them all and the DS9 YA series as a kid when they originally came out and I still have them sitting in a book next to my bookshelf. I loved them back then, and I think they'd probably still be just as enjoyable as an adult.

 

[JWolf]

I have a slightly out of date list here: https://www.startrekbookclub.com/all-books/?noebook I don't think I've quite figured out how to exclude books that were later in a digital compendium like the New Frontier series. the first four books havent' been ebooked, but they were combined into a single collection that was both print and digital.

Like you mentioned, a couple of the Shatner books are still not ebooks, Odyssey is the one that I'm personally waiting on, the DS9 YA series, the VOY YA series, the Prodigy series, the photonovel series, the 1996 Starfleet Academy series, and TNG YA series are all on my wishlist to eventually see digitally.

There are some books in your list that do have eBooks. I'll go through your list and take note of which you can remove from your list.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I'd say the covers haven't been great on a lot of older Star Trek eBooks, so if they go the eBook route, don't expect older Trek books to have good covers. A lot of the older ones look like bad scans.

Some of them have been re-released under 'modern' covers, like The Entropy Effect. It's almost a shame, because the original's "Punk Rocker Sulu" would have gotten MY attention.

 

[bdub76]

Some of them have been re-released under 'modern' covers, like The Entropy Effect. It's almost a shame, because the original's "Punk Rocker Sulu" would have gotten MY attention.

I am only aware of the covers because I often swap out covers on books I download from Project Gutenberg in Calibre. No idea why the images often looked blurred on some older Trek books. You'd think they would either replace the cover or do a better scan.

 

[Smiley]

I don't know for how long this has been available, but I see that Adventures in Time and Space is available in ebook form. Amazon lists a 2002 publication date for that version, but I feel like it has not been available continuously for the last 24 years. That was one of my favorites to look at when I was just getting into fandom and the books were a vast unknown.

 

[Corran Horn]

Just to be precise The Ashes of Eden, The Return, and Avenger are not available as e-books, all the rest of the Shatnerverse books are.
I believe Enterprise: The First Adventure (A TOS novel for those unaware of it) still isn't, and Final Frontier are the last two Pocket releases not to get e-books. I wasn't aware of Probe.
The First Contact and Insurrection adult novelizations didn't have e-books until recently.

The Diane Carey Final Frontier is definitely on kindle.

 

[JD]

Yeah, I forgot I did find Final Frontier after I wrote that.

 

[Corran Horn]

Yeah, I forgot I did find Final Frontier after I wrote that.

I'm waiting on Enterprise - The First Adventure for sure, though. Pretty sure my copy belonged to my Dad and is pretty rough.