Are there any good Star Trek books set in TOS movie era? Always felt like it was an untapped era that I’d love to see more stories in.
Trek Books Set in TOS Movie Era?
- Thread starter Happenstance
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There are a decent amount of solid stories set after TMP in the movie era and the "second 5-year-mission". Pocket books did publish some older standalone stories in that era, but some of my favorite, more recent novels include:
Shadow of the Machine (Post TMP)
Ex Machina (Post TMP)
DTI: Forgotten History
The Rihannsu series (a bit older and somewhat non-canon but a really good Romulan perspective)
The New Earth series (six novel standalone series)
Elusive Salvation (you need to ready HIstory's Shadow first)
Seasons of Light and Darkness (Post WoK)
The PREY series (begins post WoK)
That's as far as I've gone in my chronological journey through the Lit-Verse. You're right in that there are not as many novels in this era, but I've also skipped over a lot of the older Pocket novels, so there could be a few hidden gems in there.
Shadow of the Machine (Post TMP)
Ex Machina (Post TMP)
DTI: Forgotten History
The Rihannsu series (a bit older and somewhat non-canon but a really good Romulan perspective)
The New Earth series (six novel standalone series)
Elusive Salvation (you need to ready HIstory's Shadow first)
Seasons of Light and Darkness (Post WoK)
The PREY series (begins post WoK)
That's as far as I've gone in my chronological journey through the Lit-Verse. You're right in that there are not as many novels in this era, but I've also skipped over a lot of the older Pocket novels, so there could be a few hidden gems in there.
I don't know that it's as untapped as it might seem. One thing to keep in mind is that the book covers are inaccurate. My own experience just from reading through the old DC comic series makes it feel like an era that get a fair representation. I can't speak to the quality of some of the books I have on my reading list, but it would be difficult to persuade me not to read some of the following novels when I get to them:
Dwellers in the Crucible
The Pandora Principle
Deep Domain
Time for Yesterday
Spock's World
These are just the tip of the iceberg.
Dwellers in the Crucible
The Pandora Principle
Deep Domain
Time for Yesterday
Spock's World
These are just the tip of the iceberg.
Greg Cox wrote a couple of books set between The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country, the e-book novella, Miasma, and the full length novel Foul Deeds Will Rise. Dayton Ward's In the Name of Honor also takes place during the same era.
Shadows on the Sun by Micheal Jan Friedman and Sarek by A.C Crispin both take place after TUC. I'm not sure if it's before or after the Generations prolouge, but Cast No Shadow by James Swallow is also some time after TUC. There's also Excelsior: Forged in Fire by Micheal A. Martin and Andy Mangels, which covers the beginning of Sulu's command of the Excelsior.
If you consider after the Generations prologue movie era then there is also Vulcan's Forge and Vulcan's Heart by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz, and the Lost Era series. There are more movie era stories, but those are the ones I know for sure are movie era.
Shadows on the Sun by Micheal Jan Friedman and Sarek by A.C Crispin both take place after TUC. I'm not sure if it's before or after the Generations prolouge, but Cast No Shadow by James Swallow is also some time after TUC. There's also Excelsior: Forged in Fire by Micheal A. Martin and Andy Mangels, which covers the beginning of Sulu's command of the Excelsior.
If you consider after the Generations prologue movie era then there is also Vulcan's Forge and Vulcan's Heart by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz, and the Lost Era series. There are more movie era stories, but those are the ones I know for sure are movie era.
I think Captain's Daughter is set across the movie era, as well as before and after.
A bunch of LA Graf books are TMP era, I've been told; Shell Game, Ice Trap, Death Count. The Kobayashi Maru framing story is post-TMP.
The first half of Strangers From the Sky features the pre-TWoK set-up with Captain Spock and Admiral Kirk training cadets.
The Rules of Engagement.
Then there's the unpublished but made available by the author Music of the Spheres, and it's altered/tampered/published counterpart, Probe.
Timetrap is an Enterprise-A story.
One easy way to simplify the question would be to look in the TOS section of the Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Guide website; everything after Ex Machina (and a few of the books listed before, too) will be after TMP. I just looked and there are so many novels and comics set in the movie era.
A bunch of LA Graf books are TMP era, I've been told; Shell Game, Ice Trap, Death Count. The Kobayashi Maru framing story is post-TMP.
The first half of Strangers From the Sky features the pre-TWoK set-up with Captain Spock and Admiral Kirk training cadets.
The Rules of Engagement.
Then there's the unpublished but made available by the author Music of the Spheres, and it's altered/tampered/published counterpart, Probe.
Timetrap is an Enterprise-A story.
One easy way to simplify the question would be to look in the TOS section of the Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Guide website; everything after Ex Machina (and a few of the books listed before, too) will be after TMP. I just looked and there are so many novels and comics set in the movie era.
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Yup. The earliest flashback sequence is a few months after the end of the 5-year mission, and the main body of the story is a couple of months after Generations.
The Kobayashi Maru (a solo novel by L.A. Graf member Julia Ecklar) is the earliest one of those chronologically, set shortly after TMP. Ice Trap, Death Count, and Firestorm are set some time later -- Ice Trap is 8 years after Chekov joins the crew, which would put it in 2275, about two years after TMP. Shell Game is a solo novel by Melissa Crandall, who was only part of the L.A. Graf collective on Ice Trap, but it's set in roughly the same time frame as most of the Graf books.
I chased down a copy of Howard Weinstein's Covenant of the Crown, another movie-era novel, for the character that reappears in the L.A. Graf novels. I already have a copy of Kobayashi Maru and am keeping an eye out for those other books.
I remember when "Foul Deeds Will Rise" was announced how excited I was because it was a book that took place between TFF and TUC. There are very few novels that take place during those years (though I know a bunch of comics take place during that period--I'm just talking about novels). "Miasma" was a good e-book though I wish it were longer. "In the Name of Honor" is on my list of books to read soon, another one I'm looking forward to since it takes place during that period.
There were a number of novels between TMP and TWOK. The New Earth series is one I read about a year or so ago. It was an up and down series. It was a bit difficult to accept that the Enterprise stayed on as long as it did (I believe the series took place over the period of a year). Some books though were pretty good there. The period it takes place in was revised a bit from what is noted in the series originally (it was revised to take place later in the 2270s--I want to say 2278 from maybe 2272).
I always loved movie era books though. I'd love to see more books between TFF and TUC because that seems to be a great untapped period of Star Trek history to me. I know the 5 year mission period is what sells though. And those are always good reads too. But I look at books also to fill in gaps in Star Trek history. Things that happened during eras we have not seen on TV and will probably never see on TV. One of the reasons I also always liked The Lost Era books and sagas, and the continuing Enterprise novels that are filling in some of the years after Enterprise and before Discovery. Not every book of course, but it's nice to have a few books here and there that fill in some of that unseen history.
There were a number of novels between TMP and TWOK. The New Earth series is one I read about a year or so ago. It was an up and down series. It was a bit difficult to accept that the Enterprise stayed on as long as it did (I believe the series took place over the period of a year). Some books though were pretty good there. The period it takes place in was revised a bit from what is noted in the series originally (it was revised to take place later in the 2270s--I want to say 2278 from maybe 2272).
I always loved movie era books though. I'd love to see more books between TFF and TUC because that seems to be a great untapped period of Star Trek history to me. I know the 5 year mission period is what sells though. And those are always good reads too. But I look at books also to fill in gaps in Star Trek history. Things that happened during eras we have not seen on TV and will probably never see on TV. One of the reasons I also always liked The Lost Era books and sagas, and the continuing Enterprise novels that are filling in some of the years after Enterprise and before Discovery. Not every book of course, but it's nice to have a few books here and there that fill in some of that unseen history.
Me too and more Lost Era books
I'm not sure if "revised" is the right word. My recollection is that the historian's note at the front claimed it was "shortly after TMP" even though the rest of the text made it clear that it was closer to TWOK, with Kirk as an admiral, Spock as a captain, and Chekov leaving for Reliant. So the Timeliners' choice to put it in 2278 was basically just a matter of ignoring the historian's note that didn't make sense in the first place, rather than changing anything in the text proper.
Yeah, true. Memory Alpha has the revised, or corrected year on it which makes a lot more sense when I read the series. It feels closer to TWOK then it ever did to TMP.
I just started reading New Earth: Wagon Train to the Stars (book 1) this weekend, and I was curious about that. The story here looks set in 2272/73 but I agree with most that I feels more like 78/79.
I wonder what the author was thinking when they worked out the math on that.
Was it really the author, though? As I said, my impression is that the only thing that suggests a 2272 setting is the historian's note at the beginning, which seems to contradict the actual body of the novel. So I tend to assume that note was added by the editor or something. Is there anything in the actual text of the story, discounting the historian's note, that specifies the year?
The only thing I came across so far is in the middle of chapter 10 (page 173) where Kirk and Kilvennan are having an argument and it jumps back to right before the Belle Terre expedition started with a flashback listed as: "The Captain's Meeting / October 31, 2272".
It is a flashback mainly setting up the change in uniforms, but it is not some far off jump in time since Kirk is addressing the expedition staff and privateers. I'm only a few chapters deeper.
I've seen most timelines place it in 2278/79 which makes more sense to me, and I don't dispute it. I was just a little thrown off when I saw this flashback.
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for replying. I’m definitely building a list at the moment of all these books!
Yeah, it's a bit odd. I'm not sure why they tried to establish it as closer to TMP timeframe. Maybe if it came out 10 or 15 years earlier when the timeframe between TMP and TWOK was a bit more in question. But by the time those books came out it was pretty well established, at least in non-canon Trek, that there was more than a decade between TMP and TWOK and there narrative was much closer to TWOK timeframe then TMP (I actually think in canon too, since TMP stated I thought pretty clearly that it was 18 months of refit for the Enterprise and TWOK was 15 years after Space Seed that there was at least a 10 year gap in universe, but I digress).
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