Trek Litverse is Intimidating!

[CorporalClegg]

^
Everyone is promoting the Destiny series. I really want to dive in now. I stopped at the bookstore this afternoon and they didn't have any.

I think you overlooked the part where I said "personal opinions aside."

It has nothing to do with personal opinion. Matter 'o fact, I quite like Chuckles.

The issue is, the man was a criminal and border-line traitor. His good deeds may have earned him a pardon; they may have even earned him a full commission. But in no way does he deserve command of a ship--especially when there would otherwise be a Starfleet full of capable XOs who played things by the book and really deserved a command.

In Spock's case, you had one of the most decorated, well respected officers in SF. He's the kind of guy who'd be given the command of the flagship whether he was next in line or not.

And with Kira, she was the highest ranking Bajoran on a Bajoran station. In fact, one could make an argument that she was more fitting for the job than Sisko.

 

[ryan123450]

As far as the Chakotay thing goes, keep reading. You will love the last two books in the Voy-R. Chakotay's character becomes way better and more believable.

As far as jumping right into Destiny, DON'T DO IT. Judging from what you have said so far, you will enjoy Destiny far far more if you read through the list that Thrawn gave first. Destiny is the centerpiece of the Treklitverse. You want you're experience reading it to be the fullest it can be. You'll miss so many references it won't even be funny.

The only optional things that I would add to Thrawn's list are:
The Enterprise Relaunch- 3 books which actually prepare you for Destiny a tiny amount better
The first 6 A Time To... books- Not as bad as everyone complains. If you're anything like me, (and from what you've said, you are) it will be problematic to start a series 2/3 of the way in. But if you really don't want to, you won't really be missing anything absolutely critical.

Also two things to note:
If you want to rush through the DS9 Relaunch to get to the rest of this stuff the most critical are:
Avatar
Mission: Gamma
Rising Son
Unity
World's of DS9
Warpath (after this point you might end up wanting to read the Star Trek: Mirror Universe books to get the whole story of the mirror universe, but not at all neccessary)
Fearful Symmetry
The Soul Key
And as far as the TNG Relaunch goes, don't skip Before Dishonor or Greater Than the Sum. Before Dishonor is actually a critical piece of the Voyager Relaunch, and Greater Than the Sum leads directly into Destiny.

So continue with the DS9 relaunch since you've already started it. It also contains some events that will help you understand Destiny a bit better. Through in the next two VOY relaunch entries (the weakest of the 6) and the Enterprise relaunch (pure awesomeness) somewhere along the way. Then go through Thrawn's list. You'll not regret getting the whole picture.

Thanks for listening to my disorganized rant.

 

[ICW]

I'm just throwing this out there:

The Destiny trilogy makes references to characters from the I.K.S. Gorkon and New Frontier series. I'd suggest reading them as well (though it's not imperative).

The Gorkon/Klingon Empire series revolves around Klag, who made his Trek debut in the TNG episode A Matter of Honor. The series also features other Klingons that appeared in TNG and DS9. There's also some "made up" characters

I.K.S. Gorkon series:
TNG novel Diplomatic Implausibility
Gorkon novel: A Good Day to Die
Gorkon novel: Honor Bound
Gorkon nTovel: Enemy Territory
Gorkon novel: A Burning House

New Frontier, in my opinion, can be a lot of fun but a little outlandish at times. The series is constructed around a lot of "made up" characters but also features familar faces such as Commander Shelby, Dr. Selar, and Robin Lefler.

New Frontier series:
House of Cards
Into the Void
The Two-Front War
End Game
Martyr
Fire on High
The Captain's Table: Once Burned
Double Time (A comic)
Double Helix: Double or Nothing
The Quiet Place
Dark Allies
Excalibur: Requiem
Excalibur: Renaissance
Excalibur: Restoration
Gateways: Cold Wars
Gateways: Death after Life (story in the book What Lay Beyond
Being Human
Gods Above
Stone and Anvil
After the Fall
Missing in Action
Treason

The New Frontier series also features the huge anthology No Limits and a story in Tales of the Dominion War

 

[Thrawn]

^
Everyone is promoting the Destiny series. I really want to dive in now. I stopped at the bookstore this afternoon and they didn't have any.

You'll have to amazon.com it or ask the bookstore to order it for you; bookstores aren't restocking Trek nearly as much now as they have in the past.

 

[DevilEyes]

There's an unusual lack of good advice in this thread. So let me rectify that.

The DS9 relaunch so far all takes place in a 1 year period from April 2376 to early 2377. It's fantastic, but also getting a little out of print, and scheduling problems led to it losing some steam.

Well, the first 7 installments of DS9 relaunch aren't out of print or hard to find - they've been re-released in 2 omnibus books, which are available from Amazon (I got them last year):

"Twist of Faith" - Avatar books 1 & 2, Abyss, Demons of Air and Darkness, novella Horn and Ivory
(http://www.amazon.com/Twist-Faith-Star-Trek-Space/dp/1416534156
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Twist-Faith...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1278547517&sr=1-1)

"These Haunted Seas" - Mission Gamma 1: Twilight, Mission Gamma 2: This Gray Spirit
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Space-These-Haunted/dp/1416556397/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
http://www.amazon.co.uk/These-Haunted-Seas-Mission-Omnibus/dp/1416556397/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

The next 4 books (Mission Gamma 3: Cathedral, Mission Gamma 4: Lesser Evil, Rising Son, Unity) are out of print and more difficult to find (at least if you want to be legal ) so you may have to try used books...
Next up are the 3 The World of Deep Space Nine books
(I think they should be available on Amazon, but they often switch from 'in stock' to 'out of stock') then Warpath, Fearful Symmetry and The Soul Key which I believe are all still available. Basically it's just the middle part of the relaunch that's harder to get your hands on.

These books make up a sort of main continuity of the relaunch, but make sure to find A Stitch In Time by Andrew Robinson, which is a really fantastic novel. It's told from Garak's POV (through his letters to Bashir), takes place right after the finale of DS9 on the devastated Cardassia with flashbacks to Garak's previous life.

The Never-Ending Sacrifice is another great side-story about Cardassia, and although it was published the last, it doesn't matter when you read it, as it is not connected to the rest of the novels
storylines.

The Left Hand Of Destiny is a side-story about Martok and the Klingon Empire (conceived and co-written by J.G. Hertzler), and it has nothing at all to do with the other books. Keep in mind that it's not a typical Trek book - it's an epic, mythic story full of battles, melodrama and mysticism, directly inspired by the legend of King Lear (though it also has some nice character moments for Martok, Worf, and Alexander and Martok's wife Sirella get deeper portrayals than in the show).

Some books aren't directly a part of the relaunch, but are connected to it: Prophecy and Change is an anthology of stories taking place during the show (there are similar anthologies for TNG and VOY - I'm in the process of reading the VOY one, Distant Shores, and I'm enjoying it, the stories are filling some very nicely). But the last story is Andrew Robinson's sequel to A Stitch In Time, set a few years in the future after the DS9-R books, and it contains some big revelations about what happened on Cardassia.

Terok Nor is an awesome prequel trilogy about the Occupation of Bajor, it spans some 50 years and features many familiar characters. All 3 books should be still easy to find (Day of the Vipers, Night of the Wolves, Dawn of the Eagles).

 

[CorporalClegg]

You'll have to amazon.com it or ask the bookstore to order it for you; bookstores aren't restocking Trek nearly as much now as they have in the past.

Well, for my after dinner walk I just went up to the used book store by my house and they actually had one of the Destiny books, but I don't think it was the first one. Riker was on the cover--I think Ezri is on the first one, right? In any case, I didn't buy it.

But they also had one of Christopher's Titan books there. And this got me thinking about something I'd never considered before.

Do Christopher and David (and Greg too!) get paid an additional per-unit sold royalty? And if so does the new/used thing matter?

Normally I wouldn't care, but I would at least like to support my fellow TBBSers. So if it does make a difference to them (I don't care about NY/LA suits.), I will buy their books new.

 

[Thrawn]

The way it works is that when they get paid for writing the book, that's called an "advance", and the royalties on the book have to earn back all that money before the authors start getting royalty checks. And, unfortunately, few Trek books earn back their advance.

But if you buy new, you're increasing the odds that they someday will. I think if anything recent is going to earn back its advance, the Destiny trilogy is the one to hope for.

 

[captcalhoun]

"made up" characters

all the characters are 'made up'...

you mean 'literature original'...

 

[ICW]

Yes, I meant characters that never appeared on the shows/movies. I worded it wrong...

 

[tau136]

I've now almost convinced myself that I'd like to dive into most (if not all) of the Litverse. I read pretty fast and the books are short, but with several hundred of them, the thought that such an endeavor will likely take years is ... imposing.

Running at a book every day or every other day & assuming 300 of the papery devils (no I'm not doing the count for the sake of one post here) that would only be two years.

 

[Thrawn]

^ I made a list of about 350 that all were interesting, important, or relevant in some way. It's going to end up taking me almost 3 years to finish them all; I just passed the two-year mark.

But I'm fucking crazy, so don't use me as an example.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I found a list of Trek books (don't know how accurate it is), but by my count there was like 570 or so.

Though, like you, a good number of those I probably will never have any interest in. Even still, I can realistically expect to finish three a week (on average), four if I push it, and that's assuming I don't read anything else--which isn't very likely. Still, it's something to strive for.

I'm capable of reading 1200-1500 WMP if the conditions are right and I really push myself. So I could theoretically finish the average Trek book in about 45 minutes. It's just that a really don't like reading fiction that fast. It kind of takes the fun out of it and ruins the experience. This probably even more true with Trek since I have the actors' voices so well etched in my brain that I like to emulate them in my mind's ear when reading the dialog.

In the meantime, I was browsing ebay and Amazon sellers for a copy of A Stitch in Time and nearly had a coronary when I saw how much it was going for new. Even G-VG condition used ones were selling for ~$40.

It must be really popular. I've head really good things about it and that Andy really did write it himself (no ghostwriter).

 

[Nerys Myk]

You'll have to amazon.com it or ask the bookstore to order it for you; bookstores aren't restocking Trek nearly as much now as they have in the past.

Well, for my after dinner walk I just went up to the used book store by my house and they actually had one of the Destiny books, but I don't think it was the first one. Riker was on the cover--I think Ezri is on the first one, right? In any case, I didn't buy it.

But they also had one of Christopher's Titan books there. And this got me thinking about something I'd never considered before.

Do Christopher and David (and Greg too!) get paid an additional per-unit sold royalty? And if so does the new/used thing matter?

Normally I wouldn't care, but I would at least like to support my fellow TBBSers. So if it does make a difference to them (I don't care about NY/LA suits.), I will buy their books new.

Titan is a great series and I say this as someone who doesn't like Riker and who esteem for TNG has dropped considerably over the years. If used is the only way you can find it then buy it.

 

[JD]

I found a list of Trek books (don't know how accurate it is), but by my count there was like 570 or so.

Though, like you, a good number of those I probably will never have any interest in. Even still, I can realistically expect to finish three a week (on average), four if I push it, and that's assuming I don't read anything else--which isn't very likely. Still, it's something to strive for.

I'm capable of reading 1200-1500 WMP if the conditions are right and I really push myself. So I could theoretically finish the average Trek book in about 45 minutes. It's just that a really don't like reading fiction that fast. It kind of takes the fun out of it and ruins the experience. This probably even more true with Trek since I have the actors' voices so well etched in my brain that I like to emulate them in my mind's ear when reading the dialog.

In the meantime, I was browsing ebay and Amazon sellers for a copy of A Stitch in Time and nearly had a coronary when I saw how much it was going for new. Even G-VG condition used ones were selling for ~$40.

It must be really popular. I've head really good things about it and that Andy really did write it himself (no ghostwriter).

I'd say A Stitch in Time is in my top 5 Trek stories in any medium, ever. It is a true literary masterpeice and I would highly reccomend it to anyone, Trek fan or not.

 

[Thrawn]

My strategy to deal with the excessive used book prices for highly-sought-after old Trek books was to buy a Kindle. I highly recommend it; they're pretty much all available now.

 

[kkozoriz1]

How do you get an autographed copy of an e-book at Shore Leave?

 

[CorporalClegg]

My strategy to deal with the excessive used book prices for highly-sought-after old Trek books was to buy a Kindle. I highly recommend it; they're pretty much all available now.

Oh I've thought about it.

But I collect books and have an inherit need to keep adding to the collection.

 

[Thrawn]

^ I used to, too... I got over it. Shrug. A Stitch In Time, for the record, was the book that finally tipped the scale for me.

But I get the collector's impulse too. Just be aware, especially in DS9, there are some books that are really irritating to get ahold of.

 

[kkozoriz1]

One possibility for dealing with Trek overload is to ignore the connected books for the time being, read some of the stand alones and wait for the NuUniverse nooks. Not back story other than the movie. No wondering what book goes where since they're not connected.

 

[JD]

Except we have no idea if/when those are coming out. So if you decide to wait for them you could be waiting for a looooong time.